Also known as: the slavery themed prequel that absolutely no one asked for.
Basically I saw the Prince of Egypt over the weekend and then stumbled over the prompt of someone manually working all day in New Year Zodiac Writing Challenge in Hogwarts.
Word Count: 666 (intentionally)
Waking up long before the sun rose was not unusual for Basile at all.
It wasn't like he had any choice in that matter—or any other. Either he arrived on time, did what his Masters told him, or he would suffer the consequences.
He didn't like that, but today was an especially bad day to be late. Prince Regent Ramses would be there and Basile shuddered at the mere suggestion of thinking about daring to imagine the consequences of failure on that day.
Painful as it may be, he liked living, thank you very much.
He winced as he felt the pain of the wounds he had received yesterday—he had tripped, so he had gotten ten whippings.
No one had ever said that live as a slave was easy or just or anything even remotely like that. And in the off chance that he was wrong, Basile would personally ensure that the person in question would never say that again.
...unless they were some of his Masters, which was highly likely once he thought about it. So, er no, better not.
He still wanted to.
This day—just like any other day that Basile could recall—was filled to the brim with hard work.
That was simply the way life was for a Hebrew in Egypt.
Nothing but work all day, from the minute you could walk to the moment you dropped dead on the sand. Enduring pain, hunger, and thirst until your Masters decided that you had suffered enough for that day.
Sometimes, Basile wished he had just been born couple of years later. Then he would have been killed alongside the rest.
His little brother being taken away was the very first thing Basile remembered. He thought it set a nice tone for the rest of his life.
Basile fell over during work.
He was too exhausted—and, of course, in too much pain, because pain was one of the few constants in his life. Pain, work, and hunger—to get up on his own.
A Egyptian Basile never wanted to remember the name of quickly noticed him lying on the ground and moved over towards him.
The Hebrew tried to get up, but to no avail.
He felt the strikes of the whips on his back—three, five, seven, ten.
He felt his blood leaving his body through the wounds.
He felt-
And suddenly, Basile was somewhere else.
It was unlike anything he had ever seen before. Vast, empty space.
There didn't seem to be any limits, it just continued on and on, without ever stopping,
A weird figure dressed completely in white asked him whether he wanted revenge of forgave his Masters for the pain they had caused.
"Why are you even asking that? I've dreamed of letting them feel my pain for years."
He hadn't meant to say the latter part out loud, but once he had started speaking, he was unable to stop before he had finished his thought.
A dark abyss opened under him.
He fell.
So, apparently his life—and the answer he had given in limbo or whatever else that weird place was supposed to be—had been terrible enough to land him in Hell.
Oops.
It wasn't like he could do anything to change it now, though. It was too late for that, unfortunately.
That meant he had to make the best out of what he was brought onto himself.
And that meant, getting off the racks—because torture was not something he particularly fancied.
The only way to stop the torture, however, was to join the torturers. After a bit of thought, he decided it was worth it.
Once everything done and over it—he was now a demon, hooray—he heard of the return of Prince Moses—who was, apparently a Hebrew, who'd have expected that?—and that he had managed to free their people—only they weren't really his people anymore, were they?—with the help of God.
And all Basile could think of the news was: You couldn't have done that a year earlier?!
Please tell me what you think!
~Marvelgeek42
