Cycles ∞ (#3)

A very short story (5 parts) with a plot twist you will not expect.
Inspired by true events, unfortunately. But I hope I can change the way you think about them.

(pixabay)

Part Three

I have been chained for a long time. It feels like weeks, but honestly I’ve already lost count.

Every day I get a bowl of soup and a piece of bread (though it feels more like a damn rock.)
Each time they come to give me food, my heart pumps so fast I wonder if it tries to escape out of my chest.

I find myself completely paralyzed next to these humans.

But there are some exceptions.

I was not paralyzed when they came to cut my hair.

I did not stay still when they came with a frozen branding iron, as another man took my arm and stabilized it tighter by the chains.

And not also, when I felt it. The most freezing pain I have ever came to know.

A scream of pain escaped my throat when every part of me was shattered to pieces. And for one single moment, I wished it will shatter me even more, so much more, until nothing will be left of me to feel it. That was the worst part; they broke me that much.

They left me after a few minutes, but anyway time had lost all meaning when my misery is another name for infinity.

I looked down at my arm, and the burning numbers that are now my name blurred my vision.

My name; 269.

Steps of heavy boots echo outside the room. A creak of the metal door on the gray floor. My eyes keep their focus on the floor though; I don't want to see what is next for me.

Until, until he pulls my legs toward him so fast that I shrink in surprise, not ready for the painful blow.

But he just goes down on his knees.

And then above me.

My breath stops and the oxygen gets stuck in my lungs, as if there is no longer any more oxygen for me to breath. As if my body knows it’s going to be my last breath.

My hands are pulled backward; the chains don't let me reach him... push him!

I try to focus on the pain in my wrists, on the warm blood that flows down along my arms... to focus on anything but the other pain. Anything but him.

NO! Please stop.

Does anyone care enough to help me? Will someone save me?

When the door closes after him, and I sit in my own small pool of blood all alone, I find it almost impossible to believe.