A Prison Break and a lot of Expositions...

Warning: Expositions :)

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Rakul slowly opened her eyes.

"Why are... you doing this.." she mumbled weakly unable to put the words together, probably because of starving for days. Her hands were chained to the ceiling while the legs are tied together, leaving her hanging above the ground.

"Oh, you are awake, my dear," the master greeted his prisoner.

Rakul looked around her surrounding for the nth time. It was a rusted old building, maybe a castle. Rakul was a top scorer in the 'advanced geography' course, which covers the entire landscape of Seventh Gate in the syllabus. So, she knows every house built on Seventh Gate and updates herself every year. Hence, she clearly knew that this place she was held as a captive is not part of it.

"I've been asking..." the growl of her starving stomach stopped her. But still, she pulled through to complete the sentence, "I've been asking this for days... Where am I?"

Hearing her stomach growl, the Master took a packet of bread, looking at Rakul with a grin. He fed her tiny bread pieces one by one, slowly to make her crave for more. He thought he was taming her.

"Are you done with your fetish? Now, answer me!" Rakul made her point clear. The grin, the master had vanished, but he admired her strength.

"Well, the thing is... You are part of the defense force... an officer, to be exact. From the information, I've heard, you were on a secret mission... so, you may have a bug on your—"

"Strip me!", Rakul yelled at him. Master blinked twice in confusion.

Back in Seventh Gate, Priest slowly opened his eyes from a long sleep. The vision was blurry and his back hurt like hell.

"Okay, I remember my ass kicked and the most probable place I am in should be a hospital, but still can anyone care to tell me where I am?"

As his eyes blinked more, the vision got clearer and he recognized the lady standing in front of him.

"Who... are— Mehreen!" Priest shouted in surprise mixed heavily with shock.

"Good morning... Appa(Dad)," Mehreen was standing in front of Priest. Maguire was standing behind her with a casket of fruits and a bag of medicines.

"I'm not heavily injured, am I?" Priest asked Maguire as he looked around himself to see the injuries.

"No, you had just gone into hibernation—"

"Whaat?" Priest yelled in anguish. His usually careless attitude suddenly turned serious. He looked like he was about to smash the entire ward. He clenched his teeth and hands, struggling to hold back his anger.

"What the hell, have I done?" Priest muttered as he got up from the bed and in demonic anger flipped the bed over and growled. Maguire quickly signaled Mehreen to leave.

Mehreen stepped out worried about her 'dad'.

Maguire slowly got closer to Priest.

"She left" he whispered in his ears. Priest turned back and looked around to see no one.

"Good god gracious! uff..." Priest broke out of the act he just displayed. He panted really hard, probably because of the stress from performing the act suddenly.

"You were good...No, great! I can't even control my legs from shaking" Maguire complimented him, as he fanned himself with the file in his hand.

"She would have killed us for not attending the anniversary party... good thing that I have somewhat recognized my post-hibernation state—"

"Just drink the water. You need tons of water," Maguire offered him, a bottle of water and sat on the bed, as he opened the file.

"So, the thing is..." Maguire explained to him the whole facade.

The Master had crystallized ash fixed into his tooth, which requires 'winter liquid' (a liquid used to freeze anything but requires some saliva) to keep it in the crystallized state. After days, his arrest, and the coma, the ash finally returned to its natural state and bonded with the Master.

"All these shit happened off-screen... Wow!" Priest exclaimed munching a bite of shawarma.

"He even got control of the 'Ashes of the damned' and consumed it entirely."

"Oh, that makes sense. So, that's why the guy was a lot stronger than me. I literally got thrown like that green monster in some superhero movie... smashing a character, I don't know the movie name, though—"

"He massacred our entire team sent to monitor him" Maguire tried to put a sense of seriousness in Priest. Priest paused the munching and nodded his head.

"Whatever he is part of... They have some of our officers on their payroll. So, he somehow knew where Rakul is, and where I will be..."

"Gangsters, drug dealers, and now even from psychopath killers... That's an impressive feat by our officers—"

"I said 'serious'!"

"I am. Now go and get your department vehicle, we are going to see the two accomplices" Priest instructed him and looked around to get his clothes, but found none.

"And your 'daughter' got you some clothes... and it's in black", Maguire took out the clothes from the bag

"Yahoo!"

Maguire texted his assistant to arrange a vehicle and Priest changed from his hospital clothes to his favorite black two-piece suit with a white dress shirt.

"Don't you get bored by this... thing?" Maguire asked about his attire.

"Not at all, Maggie... Not at all."

Priest finished the remaining Shawarma and ordered another one to be delivered near 'Rotten Casket'.

But unknown to both, the worst possible situation was happening in the 'Rotten Casket'.

"Control room!... Control Room! we have a situation here... Is anybody there?" the warden of the third cell cried on the walkie-talkie.

"What the hell is happening here?" the staff from the control room muttered on seeing the monitor.

Priest and Maguire reached the 'Rotten Casket' prison.

"I requested an entry but it seems it will take time... the chief will send the permission letter soon" Maguire informed Priest, as he switched off the Car, while Priest was busy looking at the phone for his delivery.

"Hey..."

"Yeah... Yeah, it better be soon... We don't have much time either," Priest put the phone back into his pocket.

Maguire nodded his head, but he was not patient for some reason. His lips twitched like he wanted to ask something. But he was not sure, whether to ask it or not. Priest noticed it and broke the ice.

"It is because of the prison."

"What?"

"You still don't know about the city completely right? All your knowledge comes from the 'History Lesson'... that too, the pages beyond the 'Portals' section got burned", Priest muttered.

"The night duty!... Taking charge of the city at night. It's because the day the curfew was announced and the rules in Rotten Casket written, I knew the Cult is not interested in the city's good in any way... They wanted this city to be an example of a failed system which offered free will and equality to the people."

"A failed system?"Maguire interrupted.

"Yup!... You know what... in the initial years, when I rescued the people ejected from the other gates and helped them to relocate to this city, I just thought, all I had to do is to stay around and help them for a while. After rebuilding the city, I thought... I can go peacefully to my grave, but no!" Priest slammed the window in frustration, cracking it.

"Oh! sorry about that crack... where was I?... yeah! To the grave.

"Within a few years, the monkeys again...", Priest paused and took a breath," Again started to play the 'I am higher-you are lower' game. A favorite game of their kind. Discriminating others.

"The Cult used it to their advantage... Divided the people with their 'social chart', gave special services to specific people calling them 'perfects', and discriminated the others calling 'defected'... It encouraged violence... and here I am strolling in the streets looking for people in need of my help, stopping crime and I think I did a pretty decent job until the ritual murders began...

"I can't do anything... I'm always a monster in people's eyes but few people believed me. Now, they also... you know the drill. These psychopaths knew when I will be weaker, when I am stronger, when I—Oh, wait... the shawarma came" Priest rushed to the road, to receive the package from the delivery man.

Maguire was left hanging at the crucial point.

"Haa... I really want to know the rest, come back man!" he muttered but quickly regretted feeling that way, "Look at me... all excited to know the myth. Fuck!"

"Ok, have you received the letter?" Priest asked him from outside the car.

"Yeah, I received the mail... You wanna go now?"

"Yes!"

"Oh!... okay, sure"

"Don't worry. I will tell you the rest of it, once we are done," Priest chuckled.

"Shut up! I'll investigate it on my own."

"Of course, you will... Also, I hate to reveal everything by a stupid Exposition," Priest mumbled to himself.

Both of them walked to the entrance of the Rotten Casket. Priest showed the letter to the gatekeeper.

"Let us pass through the 'direct stairs' not the usual 'level by level' passage," Priest instructed the gatekeeper.

"Sir—"

"You don't have to come," The Priest relieved the gatekeeper from his distress, "Now open it." Both Priest and Maguire walked down the stairs which heads to the underground of the prison, where the staff people actually work since the prison is open landed ground. The Priest instructed Maguire to head to the control room and entered a hallway. He saw the 'teleporter' - the only elevator in the prison

The elevator in the prison can move sideways and can drop one in any of the levels of the prison thus called 'the teleporter'

The elevator door opened. The Priest entered the silent fourth level.

"What the hell are you talking about? An attempt of Prison break?" Maguire yelled at the prison officers and support staffs who found their shelter in the control room.

"The third level prisoners snapped one of the prisoner's neck during the lunch and it broke into all..." the guard's voice stammered.

Maguire moved to look at the monitor and gasped at the monstrosity.

The entire prison was cleansed by a bloodbath. Torn off heads, bodies looking like they were chewed off by a tiger, and prisoners beaten to death, were lying all over. All the prisoners were dead while only six of them were standing at last.

Six of them were laughing. With blood flowing from their mouth and chewing flesh of the dead in their mouth, they smiled at the camera.

"It cannot be possible," Maguire muttered standing there frozen.

"It' the ashes of the damned, sir" the guard confirmed Maguire's doubts.

"How the hell, they got that?"

The Prisoners then marched forward to the nearby door.

"Where are they heading to?" nobody answered Maguire's question.

"I asked... Where the fuck are they heading to?"

The cook who was hiding in the corner lifted his hands. The others tried to shut him off.

"Shut up! we are not supposed to say it—" Maguire punched him on the nose, stopping him.

The cook was shivering and stammered to answer.

"To the Fourth Level."

Maguire covered his face, worrying. "This cannot be happening, God!"

"We are not supposed to help the Devil!" the guard yelled.

"They know..." the cook was not finished yet.

"What?"

"They know it," the cook muttered. Maguire came closer and grabbed the cook by his shirt.

"Know what?"

The cook smiled and clapped his hands exploding into muffled laughter. But he calmed himself down immediately and answered Maguire with an evil grin.

"His secret, officer... The Devil's secret!"