Prologue I

Crunch! Crunch!

A young man wearing ragged and dirty pieces of clothing walked barefoot on the stone-filled ground. He was dragging a heavy metallic hammer with his blister-filled hand.

The white thread of dawn was just appearing, setting the start of another day in the young man's life.

Droplets of water drained from his hair as the weather wasn't in his favor. The metallic hammer in his hand had already started to rush from years of abuse.

He looked at the corner of his enclosure. A pile of boulders was there awaiting him as usual.

"The amount is a bit less than usual. I have work for you later." A man standing on the wall said.

He looked to be in his late forties with a wrinkled face. Wearing a white coat and holding a massive wooden cane in his hand.

"I understand, should I get done as quickly as I can?" The young man asked.

"No, work at your normal pace. I need you to have some energy." The man replied as he turned around and left.

The young man lifted his hammer and started smacking it down. One by one, he crushed all the stones into smaller pieces. BANG! BANG!

CRACK! With the last stone broken, he wiped the sweat from his forehead with his hand. He could barely see around him as it has already gotten dark.

He slowly walked inside with his knees shaking, an empty feeling filled him inside as he hadn't eaten the whole day.

He opened the steel door ahead of him and entered. DING! DING! He shook the small cage filled with steel rods there. Just as he did that, the door behind him got locked from the outside.

As he walked deeper into the dark hallway, he found a piece of old bread and a bucket of water awaiting him.

He gently grabbed the piece of bread and put it away in the corner.

SPLASH! He poured half the bucked over his head to wash the sweat off and kept the other half for drinking.

As he took the piece of bread and approached another steel door. "Meow!" A cat was awaiting him inside.

He happily opened the door and the cat leaped at him scratching his legs and back climbing to his neck. "I came back early, are you hungry?" The young man said with a big smile.

Gently, he put the cat down and spitted the bread in half. Ate one and gave it the other half.

"I have water if you wanted a drink as well." He took a handful of water from the buck and slurped it down.

Meow! The cat glared at him and then continued eating the bread.

BANG! BANG! He heard a loud knocking on the door. "Come over, it's the time!" It was the old man from before.

As the young man opened the door, he found him standing there. That was the first time he got so close to him.

"What…" He was confused.

"Hurry, this is the first time I came here and I already want to head back. This place stinks!" The man closed his nose and pointed with his hand toward the outside door.

The young man simply followed orders walking toward the door. Meow! The cat stood up.

"I will be back soon!" The young man said as he exited the place.

The man looked back inside the cell, the cat stared at him hissing.

"Now you turn." The man pulled some thick leather gloves from his pocket and wore them.

ZIIII! He slowly closed the cell door and kept an eye on the cat. The moment it was cornered, he leaped and caught it.

MEOW! MEOW! MEOW!

"Calm down! Calm down! He can't hear you from here." Tightening his grip he took the cat away and exited through another door in the hallway.

…

The young man found himself in a room that he has never been to before. The room was empty and only had a wooden table with some metallic rings and chains on it.

Some white glowing sticks were dotted at the corner which seemed impressive to him.

Thud! Thud!

"What are those?" The young man asked as he heard food step behind the door.

"Take those two big rings and strap them to your hands and feet." The old man replied.

The young man unknowingly took the cuffs and put them on. But he did so the chains linked his right hand with his left foot and tied his left hand with his right foot.

"Come out, what is taking you so long?" The man asked from behind the door.

"I don't know how to walk with those things." The young man replied.

"For the…I'm coming." The man opened the door to find the young man tied down.

He took the key out of his pocket and re-fixed the cuffs for him. The man's face was red and veins looked as if they were to pop in his head but he swallowed it all.

"Let's move, we don't have time to waste." He walked outside and the young man followed him.

Next, the young man found himself standing in a weird room.

The room was large and had two grounds. He didn't know what to call such a thing but it looked strange. On the lower ground, something was drawn. A bunch of red lines turned around in what resembled an eye. With those glowing white sticks dotted around.

The walls also had a bunch of rags dangling and dripping with blood.

"What are those things?" The young man pointed at the glowing sticks.

"Candles, we use them to bring light." The old man replied as he walked to the high ground and looked at the bunch of red lines.

"Go sit there, I will start as soon as you do." He said.

The young man obeyed and sat in the circle. The old man nodded and brought a big bowl and put it on the high ground.

Taking his wooden staff, he happed the ground five times. With a faint flash of light, something seemed to surround the young man. Upon closer inspection, it was almost invisible. Emitting from the red line drawn in the ground, a wall circling around him and locking him in.

The young man tried to touch it but it zapped his finger. "AWA!" He cried, the pain resembled the day he hit his finger with the hammer.

"I told you to sit, I never said you can touch anything. See what happens when you don't listen?"

The man stared at the young man with a sinister smile.