Another day

Ten hours went by. From the first cool rays of the rising sun indicating dawn to the fading ones designating the end of the day, his eyes had seen it all. For ten hours straight he had watched the day goes by through the thin but long rectangular hole serving as window at the far top of the plain grey wall.

It had been a long time since his first day there. He had time to see people turn for the worse. After being separated from families and cut from society, they'd go all day long complain and going full pity-party on themselves. They'd lament, beg to go out and act like souls burning in hell as depicted in mythologies and fairy tales.

Sasuke had no gods or religions but he did agree that place wasn't the most pleasant place to be. After all, they were in a prison in the middle of the damp boring hole called Ame no Kuni.

The small town was run by corrupted and merciless authorities that abused the defenseless and miserable population and closed their eyes on the frightening increase of criminality fueled by poverty, hunger, and the proliferation of criminal groups. He had seen men being beaten because they couldn't pay taxes after the same authorities took everything of them. He had seen them handle women obscenely before husbands and families. He had seen them snatch people food and goods, and spit on them.

If that wasn't bad enough the sky that was hundred percent of time grey in daytime and half that time threw buckets of water on the gloom place. The time was always glooming and dark and the weird landscape constituted of weird long towers made of iron cylinders where no one could live. There were too many wires and antennas everywhere along other iron-cladded oddities. Houses had more iron than wood and cement (which was still overused here too) as most houses in the whole country. Buildings were vertiginously high, and sometime two buildings would be connected with one block which included flats suspended in the air. To add more to the curiosity there was the biggest towers of all the weird ones and on each side of it where gigantic faces making grimaces with open mouths with rings and earrings on lips, noses, ears and brows. The four faces had hands turned up with bracelets on them, one of them holding a pipe. Again on them could be seen their weird fantasy about big iron cylinders: on their tongues to attach it to their mouths and on both sides and under the faces to attach them to the tower. The big faces' big eyes made of four circles watched over everyone.

At night crows wouldn't shut up.

What could one then expect their prisons? The one he was in was just block of old grey walls full of crooks and fissures, and ready to fall over their heads. The fence was of course made of electrified wires of course, where many a rotten corpse had been found. That was aside from the endless lamentations, suicide, tears and criminals from harmless downtown making reign their 'authority'.

Being in the pit of a well wasn't different from there.

Despite all the bore and pity that place inspired, Sasuke didn't care. It had been like day for quite a long moment. He didn't care about anything and no one for that matter.

Sasuke would get up feeling empty, feeling the meaningless day arise like rain slide over the skin once being already drenched. Nothing had taste; nothing had color. He had seen too much of this world to be surprised or to care. The first time he had that feeling of nothing after sometimes upon his arrival had feel so empowering. The fact that he felt nothing had made him feel so powerful, and had him tasting one rare source of ecstasy.

It was as invigorant as breathing the purest air in the middle of a forest. He had no word for that back then…

Then it all went away with the wind. Like a balloon being punctured. He was flat and void of interest. At last his body and soul had totally disconnected with the world that had always been overrated to him to begin with.

He was fine like that. He was fine being by him and freed from all those shallow emotions that made people stupid and weak like the annoying and boisterous prisoners there. Unlike them, he was lucid and didn't mingle with other business. All those things were useless.

The world would have been such a better place if people knew to shut up and let the others be. That was what he thought, even if that notion didn't bring the same energy as before.

Sasuke just wanted to be left alone in the confinement of his room to stare at the light filtering the cell.

"Hey Sas'key. I've got some sake!"

Sasuke breathed slowly to calm his nerves.

"Do you want to know where I've got it?"

Silence filled the room. But the roommate already knew that character of the broody dark haired prisoner.

"Hey, I'm not like I used to be in the beginning. I have relations now, buddy" the blue haired man said, bumping his chest and showing off "I know people here and there and I'm pretty close to the 'king' of this place, ha ha. So we were playing Mah Jong and guards tagged along. Man, those men are soooo boot-lickers. Like they really want to enter the group. But the reality is they wanna enter the group if you see what I mean. So, they came along and brought sake and-"

The man kept going on and on, while Sasuke blocked him again and again. It wasn't hard to reduce the blabbering into a plain background noise… until he talked higher. He was definitely more annoying than usual.

"Hey! I'm talking to you" he angrily said then jabbed Sasuke's shoulder

There was a long moment of silence that stretched longer and deeper than ever. Slowly, Sasuke turned his dark eyes toward his cell-mate. He didn't make any move, or even frown. His eyes all said it with a cool stare that could freeze hell. Of course the other man felt it. Sasuke's dark and scary aura enveloped the man into a cold embrace that made his body betray his feelings. In the span of those few seconds, the man had one scary episode.

His eyes bulged; he moved backward and then tensed up.

Sasuke sat up.

"We're nothing to one another. I don't care what you do of your life. I don't even care what your name is. All I want from you is not to talk to me"

Sasuke went back to lying.

The man then recovered.

"Well my NAME is Suigetsu. And everyone knows it except you. Who do you think you are? You think you are better than us? That you need no one? You are in the same misery as us! The society wants none of us and that includes you. Not because you've got a pretty face that you're worth more than us. It means nothing and you'll regret-"

It was too quick for Suigetsu. One moment he was talking, the other one he was against the wall his back aching from the impact. The pressure from Sasuke's forearm at his neck made it hard to breathe. Instincts taking over, Suigetsu fought to remove the arm, his hands gripping it as hard as he could. The fight only proved to make the pressure more unbearable with the seconds.

It was more than fighting, more than what the eyes first met. The small encounter turned into the fight for dominance. Would he push Sasuke back with all the fighting or would Sasuke tame him until he begged? At that hour of the day, all the prisoners were still outside taking as much outside air in the yard as they could before entering their ill-smelling boxes.

There were just the two of them. Soon enough the stronger took over without much of an effort.

"This is the last time you ever trouble me when I'm resting. A weakling as you should cleverly choose his battles. Because none of your pathetic contacts will save you when I'd want to get rid of the annoyance you proved to be"

"You… wi-will… r-regret… a-acting… Li-like… ugh!"

Sasuke let Suigetsu slid onto the floor and do his best to act manly and cool but getting out again of the cell. Their exchange did nothing to Sasuke, just basically annoying the hell out of him. That reaction though resisted few seconds before getting washed away and out of his system.

Like that little episode didn't exist, like nothing happened, he went back to his bed. He lied again on his back, with his hand along his sides.

It was the night again. Of course they didn't care about the prisoners -just them escaping. Only halls, exits and the only office were lighted by the white fluorescent lights. A pale halo reached to their side but subtlety enough to keep them in semi dark. There was time when that light grated on his nerves enough that he wanted to be released as soon as possible.

Tonight though he was too tired for that, drowning into an energy-sucking slumber… but one last thought crossed his mind that night, the same that crossed it since the first hour that day.

He was going to do anything to get out of that damp hole as soon as possible. No matter what it would take…