Chapter 8: Prison
The moment I see it though, he's on top of me. Kife stretched out, almost at my neck. He thrusts it forward, I move my head out of the way by an inch. Again he thrusts down, and again he misses.
I scramble out of his hold and pull myself up. Our lungs rhythmically pulse, both of us are tired. His hands are on his knees and he's barely supporting himself. The knife he's carrying lies close to them, on the edge of touching them. With one slice it looks like he could cut off his own knees.
"Why, why, why. Does everyone keep trying to kill me." I say. I step back from him. I watch him, as a man watches a fighting dog. He's still looking down at the ground. I see nothing in the room. It's the kind of prison made for dogs. The kind that emphasizes only one kind of fighting, that between fist and fist, or knife and fist in this case.
"You're competition man and I'm sorry to say this but I am not dying." He takes a step towards me. His knife raised above his head, ready to come down. I stop backing up.
"Really? What did I even do to you? I just got here." He pauses.
"Well yeah that's true but like you could decide to kill me. I've seen worse, like just the other day, well you don't need to know that. There's only a limited amount of food in this place, and it's going to me." He says and he advances once again. Oh the idiocy of youth, it's funny when you think about it.
"But you have no actual reason to kill me or even try?" He thinks for a second. He pauses like he's about to say something but the words don't fall out.
"No I don't really. I don't know that's just what happens here. When I came here first, maybe ten or twelve years ago. There was a man with a knife here to greet me. Well he's dead now but you see that's just the way it is." He says it like a man very reassured of himself. But underneath those eyes doubt lingers and lurks within him. Words are just words to him
"You never thought there was anything more to it. Never tried to be better?" At that he's silent. He folds his arms into themselves and looks at Che. He tosses the knife away. It thumps against the floor but doesn't pierce the cushion.
"I guess I, uh, never thought of it that way. It like the way that you never like wonder why the sand is the sand. It just is. It just flows, it's yellow, and bright." I nod, and his eyes sink down to the ground at that. He fidgets, his arms shake, his legs shift, even his toes which are out strikingly in the open move and worm like little twin snakes.
"You can't leave this room? For all these years you can't leave this room." He shift's again in his seat.
"I should introduce myself, I mean it's impolite and I've already tried to kill you so I think the world's a little done with impoliteness for today, so here you go. My name is Chaka Ra Sienam, hi, hello, how's your day. Weather is great down here. Thank you very much." The way that Chaka's name went off the tongue, is odd. Like a man who's used to shouting his own name, yet now reduced to a whisper.
"Why haven't you left here?" He squirms again, his eyes look at the one of the walls. We sit there in silence for a while. Time doesn't seem to pass here and he doesn't make any effort for it to try.
I wait for him to talk but I know he won't. He just lies there looking at that spot on the wall. The ball of ideas that whirs within me has come to a stop. There it lies and I see the thunders of thoughts go within.
The Man watches the ball, watches it spin within me. I focus, my thoughts, myself into the image of my body and I appear. Me, Che, I lie in the center of the abyss. The Man and the Monster around me. Up close they only appear as fuzzy images rather than full blooded things.
I take the ball of ideas and thrust it outside of my body. First, my skin resists it, however it pushes through and releases into the outside world.
At once an explosion occurs in the room. Bright light fills the eyes of me and Chaka steps back but I can only watch. The ideas swarm around the room. Big and small I see them touch the walls and try and break free. The walls hold steady as if they had been prepared for that exact reasoning. Chaka eyes are wide and they stare at me. I stare back. The ideas bounce at the walls over, and over, and over again. Yet nothing happens.
They disappear into the walls. All the while Chaka stares at me.
"Thoughts have a lot of power, I used to doubt that, I've seen a lot though." Chaka says. I look down at my hands. That came from, me? My mind is empty now. Not a bubble of ideas in sight.
"I have something in my mind and it has tremendous power. That little man and that monster. What are they? What is all this energy?" I ask Chaka, he looks at me like a man looks at a cat they are about to put down. He looks sad. I get up. I've been in so many prisons in my life. I've seen them all. I know what they look like from inside out and this man is no prisoner if not a prisoner of his own creation.
"You're older than me right? And just finding out about this. I pity you." He lets out a laugh, acting like an older man would.
"This stuff, whatever it is, it brings nothing but harm to people." At that moment he had completely stopped fidgeting. Whatever seriousness he had for the world was here. At that we were both silent. For some reason I trust him. I trust that magic brings harm to people. That it probably destroys their lives.
But sometimes poor is necessary and poor is necessary here.
"How long have you actually been here." He exhales out whatever oxygen is inside of him, hidden away from outside viewing.
"My whole life, that's how long I've been here with these fuckers. With these absolute assholes." At that I really understood where I was in the world. All of these crazy things doesn't stop people from being people. And people are horrible to each other. People destroy each other for no reason. For money, or for power. I will solve it.
"Horrible. That's horrible, I'm sorry. I know what it feels like to be a prisoner, I've been one many times, probably longer than you have. We need revenge." At the word revenge, he looks at me. He's smiling now. A great big smile. I see what is in his eyes and I smile for I know it will be great.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone