Chapter 3
He continued to cough profusely, as he pounded the rock against the wall. The Shadow was sitting with his legs crossed, watching him. Then he popped up suddenly and waved his arms at Aslan.
“What is it, Shadow?”
Shadow brought a hand up to where his ear would’ve been. And then pointed at the door.
Aslan stopped the pounding and listened intently. Faint footsteps were approaching.
“Shit!”
He didn’t think he could do anything about the growing crack on the wall, but he decided to try to hide the rock in the shadows in the corner of the dungeon.
The footsteps grew louder, clearly heading towards him. He laid back down where he had been sleeping an hour before.
The footsteps stopped, replaced by the guard knocking loudly at Aslan’s steel door.
“Hey! Quite down in there! I am trying to nap!!”
Aslan didn’t move.
“No more coughing, for Rooctah’s sake!”
Aslan started to cough loudly.
“Just die already!!”
He kept coughing. Shadow got up and put his hand to his would-be ear again. The footsteps started to fade away. He heard the grumbling of the guard. “How did I ever get assigned to guard duty down here? - It smells worse than 7th street, and that’s saying something.”
“You would know all about 7th street, wouldn’t you, Bart?” A voice from behind one of the dungeon doors called out.
“Shut your hole, Rex! Besides, someone has to support those women. They’re people to, you know?”
“I’ve heard that you don’t always pay though, do you, Bart? Sometimes you leave those whores bruised and crying, without even paying them. You belong down here more than—
—Do you want me to beat the shit out of you again, Rex?! Or maybe you want less food??”
“I want you here, beaten and unconscious, as I piss on your face.”
“That was your sister, wasn’t it? That stupid whore. She wasn’t worth anything if you ask me. And I think I left her looking better than before.” He laughed loudly.
“. . . I am going to kill you.” A shiver ran down Aslan’s spine as he heard these words. And he had a feeling the same thing happened to the guard, Bart. It was more than a sentence, it was an Oath. And how cold it was spoken, Aslan was sure that one day this man would fulfill his Oath, and kill Bart.
“People have been trying to kill me for years, Pal. None of them have ever had big enough balls to do it. You have no balls, Rex. Rooctah knows you’ll die alone down here.”
“I am going to kill you.” The man, Rex, sounded like a snake as he spoke these words. It was somehow even more intimidating than the Oath he just made.
Bart laughed anyway. “I think I’ll go back to 7th street tonight. See your sister again.”
Aslan heard the footsteps fade away. And then the door to the dungeon area closed. He knew that Bart, or whomever was on guard duty, sat at a desk outside of the locked metal door, usually drinking ale.
“In the name of Rooctah and all that he holds holy, I swear I’ll kill that man.”
“Hey, Mister, how’re you going to do that if you’re locked up in here?”
“Who’s there? Who dares question my Oath?!”
“It’s just me, your neighbor.”
“You find this funny?”
“No, not funny, I find it amusing. It’s been pretty boring down here for the last year.”
“You’ve been locked down here for a year?”
“We think so.”
“We??”
“My shadow and I.”
“I see, you’re a crazy man.”
“Probably. So what did you do to get locked up? Wait! Let me guess, you tried to kill a man who beat on your little sister?”
“‘Beat' isn’t the right word to describe what he did to her. She’s lucky to be alive . . .”
“You must’ve tried to kill someone pretty important if they locked you up? Maybe a priest? Or a prince?”
“. . . it was The King. .
“The King?! The balls on you, man. Respect. Or, maybe the balls you used to have? They probably really did snip those when they caught you, didn’t they?”
“Hey, crazy man, how about you stop talking for awhile?”
“Wow. I have a cock-less shadow and a ball-less neighbor . . .”
“And what did you do to end up with us? Did your shadow murder someone?”
“What did I do? . . . Well, I trusted the wrong person. And . . . I fell in love.”
“How does that get you locked up?”
“That’s what I need to find out.”
“You’re going to try to escape? That’s why you’re coughing while you hammer against a stone wall?”
“Something like that.”
“You really are crazy.”
The door to the dungeon swung open violently. “SHUT UP!! JUST SHUT UP! I’ll SMASH YOUR FACE INTO THE WALL IF YOU TWO KEEP TALKING!!” The door slammed shut.
Aslan whispered. “And how do you plan to escape from here? It won’t be easy to get your revenge if you’re locked away. I can tell you’re planning something too.”
“Of course I am,” he whispered back. “I just haven’t figured out the details yet.”
“I’ll come back and let you out when I am free.”
“You— . . . why would you do that?”
“Because my shadow wants me to.”
“Your shadow?”
“Yes, Shadow is nodding in agreement right now.”
“You’re a strange one—. . . What was your name again?”
“Aslan Reetrant.”
“You’re Aslan Reetrant?? Oh, sweet Rooctah! The whole kingdom hates you!”
“Still? Don’t they have anything better to do?”
“Your trial is famous! . . . I didn’t get a trial.”
“Trying to kill the king doesn’t need a trial, friend. How’d you try to do it, anyway?”
“Poisoned his ale. He even drank it . . . but he survived somehow.”
“THAT WAS YOU??”
“Shh, don’t bring that man back here!”
“Sorry, but your crime is also famous! The whole kingdom hates you too!”
“Yeah, well, that’s because they don’t know the whole story.”
“They never do, do they? But they love throwing stones anyway.”
“That they do . . . that they do. I’ll start coughing too.”
“What?”
“Your breakout. I’ll help. But you had better promise me that you really will come back and free me.”
“Deal.”
“Will you make me an Oath?”
“Sorry, Rex, I stopped making those a long time ago.”
CH 4/11/24
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