Chapter 15: Alone (1)
Elliot's POV
"While my hope was born from destruction, my destruction was not born from hope. It was born from revenge."
––Elliot Starfall
I lie on the brittle ground, my side pressed against the filth of my own piss. My flat palms serve as my only pillow. The stench of death and smeared excrement fills my nostrils. The night has passed. Perhaps longer, perhaps shorter, but it was the worst I have ever endured.
My brother was dragged upstairs. It should have been me.
Tears roll down my cheeks, and I make no effort to wipe them away. They mix with the urine pooling beneath me. My gaze is empty, fixed on the closed hatch that separates us from the surface. My eyes remain unblinking. I heard everything. My brother's screams. His pleas. But they only laughed. I don't know what they did to him, but the sound of bones breaking had become routine. His cries still echo in my ears. I wanted to sleep. I couldn't. I had to listen. I prayed it would end quickly. I wept as I prayed, but no one answered.
Heartbeats blurred into breaths, and those into my brother's screams. I counted them. Never blinked. Five hundred and eighty-one. That's how many times he was hurt before he fell silent. His last thirty-four cries grew steadily weaker. Perhaps he screamed for the same wound more than once.
My eyes are dry, bloodshot. Not a single blink, not a moment of rest. Only tears dampen my face. The others in my cell have already distanced themselves from me. Everyone is silent. I stare at the hatch. A slit. Likely from a knife. The blade remains lodged in it, casting a thin line of blue light. Not even a centimeter wide.
My body does not tremble. I am still. I am bitter. Angry. But I do not show it. I remain silent. Alone with myself. I am I. My own spirit.