Caged
By Comrade Wolf
You rehearse what to do a hundred times. Grab a bat, herd the kids out the back door, and call the cops from a neighbor's. It was such a simple plan and I managed to fuck it up. How? How could I be so fucking stupid? The son of a bitch just burst through the door and I froze. My son screamed, the man slapped him, and I was just rooted to the stop. The huge man in black sun glasses shuffled to me, and I couldn't even scream. He picked me up in his massive hands, choking the air from my lungs, breaking the bones in my throat. I must have passed out in the huge man's grip. God he was strong.
I woke up hours later. Sharp razor wire bound my hands to the heavy wooden chair I was in. Blood dripped down to the floor in a cruel rhythm, each drop signaling my ever shortening life. But that's not why I cried, no. I cried because when my eyes adjusted to the low light of the room, I saw the tiny bodies that were at my feet. My babies. My children. Their tiny bodies were limp on the ground, their sad soulless eyes staring at me even though the lie on their stomachs. Their necks had been broken with ease by the massive man, their tiny throats red from the snap. I cried as I pulled at the wire that bound my hand until the flesh on my arms was bloody and raw, but still I didn't stop. I tried to scream and curse and pray, but all that could come from my mouth was a muffled noise barely louder than a whisper.
That's when I see him. The man who did this to me, to my babies: his huge form a silhouette in the dim light. I pull against that razor for a new reason now, I want to tear this fucker's heart out with my bare hands. I wanted to make him pay for what he did to my children. Why can't my bindings just brake?
The huge man walks to me and I stare at him with pure burning hate in my eyes. "Why?" he asks. His voice was said through clenched teeth and strained, as if speaking hurt him. "Why do I feel so bad?" He falls to his knees and begins to sob into my children's corpses. I pull at the razor wire until it penetrates to my bone, and still I didn't stop. Blood beats down onto the floor faster than my heartbeat. "Why do I feel like this?" he growls at me. "I want to be the best. I want to be better than that clown freak."
"And you can be, Mr. Cage." I don't know when the new man arrived. I don't care. My mind is focused on the huge man with sunglasses. I'd do anything, give anything just to be free of the wire. "My name is Calypso," the scarred man says. "And I believe I can help you. I'd like you to be part of my contest. If you win, I can give, or take away, anything you like."
"My brain," the huge man says. "I want you to fix my brain. I don't want to feel so bad every time I take a human life."
"A simple request," Calypso says. "It can be easily accomplished, if you win my little contest." I don't know were the scarred man disappears to. I don't care. My eyes are locked on the man responsible for taking away everything I had.
"I'll be free," the huge man says through clenched teeth. Every blow breaks something. The pain is incredible, the beating goes on forever. "I'll be the best," he says. His fingers close around my throat.
I don't have the strength to resist.