A step back into freedom.

The prisoner, sitting in the darkest corner on the farthest side of the small ray of light piercing the darkness through a tiny hole in the ceiling of the pitch-black room, looked skeletal, his eyes half-shut and swollen with bruises, his long hair covering his face in a disheveled mess. He sat under a torn and rotten blanket, staring blankly into the darkness.

Teyat sighed deeply.

"Ah, come on, I didn't die today either. Someone's waiting for me... damn it."

He uttered these words hopelessly in a faint, tired, and cold voice, then set his decaying woolen pillow on the ground to lie down. He covered himself again with the same rotting blanket.

He was invisible in the darkness. It was as if the darkness had swallowed him whole. He was like a shadow—or perhaps something more?

Just as he was about to fall asleep, suddenly, someone banged harshly on the steel door.

"Huh? You haven't died today either, have you? Don't die. It's God's justice, see? You'll suffer in this world, and in the next too! Don't even think about dying!"

Teyat's faint, cold voice replied indifferently.

"Shut up."

The guard suddenly exploded with rage.

"Shut up, huh? No food for you, you filthy murderer! Die of hunger, scum!"

The guard had a furious outburst in response to the indifferent retort.

Teyat replied in a mocking tone.

"Shut up and give me my food."

Once again, these words came out with the same indifference.

The guard had been ordered by his superior to keep the killer alive with the bare minimum, so despite his anger, he had no choice but to comply. Swearing under his breath, he threw a food tray under the steel door.

Teyat, still sane despite everything, mockingly said,

"Good job, now go."

The guard cursed, banged on the door, and left.

Teyat suddenly got up and walked unsteadily towards the food tray.

He picked up the tray with his skeletal hands and walked back to his usual dark corner, stumbling as he went.

Sitting cross-legged on the ground, he placed the dirty pillow on his lap.

He set the tray on the pillow and, without thinking twice, bit into the nearly moldy piece of bread with a careless attitude.

The mold didn't bother him—after all, he'd swallowed thousands of such pieces.

On the tray was a piece of raw meat. He was a little surprised, as he usually ate leftovers. But eating raw meat wasn't a big deal to him. In the past, when he'd gone days without food, he'd catch a rabbit or a bird in the forest, slice it up, and eat parts of it raw.

He took a big bite of the raw meat.

Raw meat was raw meat; nothing different about it.

After finishing everything on his tray, he thanked God and threw the remains toward the cell door.

He rested his head against the wall, invisible in the dark. And suddenly, a faint smile appeared on his face.

A pitiful chuckle followed the smile. A quiet, faint laugh escaped him.

Yet, within that quiet laugh, another emotion emerged. Sadness.

The reason he laughed was because he was crying.

He didn't know why he was crying, nor why he was laughing.

He was laughing while crying.

Even he didn't understand why he was crying or laughing at that moment.

Today, as always, Teyat finished his meal laughing and crying.

•

"This is really so tedious."

It had been exactly two years since Teyat was imprisoned in this cell.

Teyat's hair had grown long, and he had tied it up with a piece of cloth, torn from his blanket with his teeth.

His eyes had adjusted to the darkness. Occasionally, he would glance at the small ray of light coming through the tiny window.

For these two years, Teyat had managed to keep his sanity intact. He hadn't gone mad, but his mental state was shattered. Even the things he wrote on the walls with his own blood out of sheer boredom were proof of that.

Teyat's face had turned ghostly pale. The brown color in his eyes had faded. His gaze was cold and nearly closed, squinting at the darkness.

Suddenly, the door opened, and six muscular men entered.

Teyat laughed.

"It's been a long time since I got beaten up."

These were VIP prisoners.

He flashed a sincere smile.

"Welcome, Mr. Beating—"

His words were cut off by a quick punch to his face.

All six men attacked Teyat at once. It was time for the monthly "beating festival" reserved for the prisoners, and it was the killer's turn. Teyat screamed in pain as they pummeled him, and laughed.

After a long and brutal beating, the men left.

Teyat lay on the ground, curled up, clutching his stomach, groaning in pain.

Blood continued to drip from his face, slowly pooling on the floor. A grin still remained on his face.

"Damn it, how many times do I have to say it—beat me to death already. I'm tired of this ridiculous torture. Damn it."

He propped himself up against the wall.

And Teyat continued to laugh while crying.

•

After sleeping for a while in a pool of his own blood, Teyat was suddenly woken by the sound of an emergency alarm in the prison.

Before he could understand what was happening, he rushed to the door to figure it out.

Of course, all he could see through the small metal bars was a straight white wall in front of him.

The bars were small and thick, so he couldn't see anything else.

At that moment, he heard doors swinging open and people shouting from his left.

Agonized screams, gunshots, and the hurried footsteps of a large crowd reached his ears.

Suddenly, he saw prisoners dressed in the same clothes as him, rushing to the right.

Teyat panicked before he even understood what was happening.

Then, all of a sudden, he heard the doors nearby being opened.

Teyat stepped away from the door, unsure of what was going on.

Suddenly, someone opened Teyat's cell door.

It was a fellow prisoner with dark skin, dressed just like him.

"Hey man, hello. I'm offering you freedom, come on, let's get out of here together."

The dark-skinned man smiled warmly and extended his hand toward the confused Teyat in the name of freedom. Teyat didn't understand what was going on.

'Huh?'

An hour ago, he had been brutally beaten, then he'd experienced a whirlwind of emotions, fallen asleep, and now a dark-skinned man was offering him freedom.

'Life is truly a fast-moving beast.'

Seeing Teyat's confusion, the man suddenly grabbed him by the arm.

"Now's not the time to get lost in thought, man; we're finally getting our freedom!"

Teyat saw the other prisoners, dressed like him, running ahead in the corridor.

Teyat's confused expression suddenly shifted to a broad grin.

"Freedom... Finally. Thank you."

The dark-skinned man looked at Teyat and smiled warmly.

"You're welcome, man."

Then, suddenly, gunshots rang out from ahead.

When Teyat looked towards the source of the gunfire, he saw prisoners dropping one by one.

'Huh?'

All the prisoners were being shot down one by one.

The shooter was the guard who had been overseeing him for two years, subjecting him to all sorts of torture.

The guard's face was covered in blood, and he was frantically shooting down the prisoners without mercy.