It was dark inside the cell, and the man could feel the cold touch of the shackles around his wrists and feet, attaching his body to the wall and ensuring that he could not escape. The only things he could think about were his wife and son who didn’t have a father to support them because of the mistake that he made. He was the one who broke the law, and yet his family was paying the price for it. The thought ate away at his insides as he sat, lonely and depressed in his dark cell. He could feel the dampness around him, the moss and mold growing eerily in the walls giving the room a foul smell. As he sat in his shame on the dirty, stone floor, the man began to pray in his heart to anyone or anything that could hear him. Rats, the moss, animals outside, he prayed earnestly to all of them for his release.
Just then, a creaking sound came from the strong steel door that sealed him in his cave of solitude. A small sliver of light stole into the room, making the darkness that made the dungeon its home cower in fear. The door continued to open, more and more light making its way into the cell, almost blinding the man where he sat. He brought his heavy head up from its slumped over position to peer into the opening with squinting eyes in an attempt to discover who had opened the door. He recognized the face of someone he had known for almost all his life, the tender hands of his partner. He saw his wife.
Once the woman laid eyes on her spouse she hastily began to unlock his shackles with the keys she had stored in her bag. The clanging of each shackle hitting the floor signified the man’s freedom. One clang. Two, three, four. The man was free. Neither of the two had spoken a word to one another, but the woman knew what her partner was thinking. “I found a man to take care of him. He’ll be safe. All we have to do is get back home, and I already have a plan for that.”
“Brilliant. My wife’s a genius.” the man said with a small grin, barely visible in the darkness.
“Come on,” the woman said, rolling her eyes so prominently it was almost audible. “We don’t have much time left.”
The pair rushed out hand in hand, the father trailing behind his wife’s lead. As they passed each cell, they could hear desperate grunts from the other inmates, pleading for release. Their pleas were ignored, however, as the pair reached a corner, stopping to scout ahead. The man looked to his wife in expectation, and she delivered with a signal to keep moving. They continued on down the main hallway, making sure to keep their footing quick and quiet, using the tips of their toes to minimize the sound. The pair snuck effortlessly through the castle, making the highly secure palace their playground. They made it to the front gates, which were guarded by two heavily armed soldiers. The woman, eyeing the two men, couldn’t help but grin, as she knew that they would rotate in the next three minutes, unknowingly giving them their opportunity to escape.
They stood there frozen, for three minutes, anxiously waiting for the guard rotation to happen, but it never did. She was wrong. Her heart sank as she realized her mistake. They were at the wrong door. All the work that she did to study the guard rotations was worthless, because she simply was at the wrong door. Her eyes darted back and forth at tremendous speeds as she frantically tried thinking up an answer. “Hey.”said the man.Her eyebrows raised in response.
“I have a suggestion. Why don't we use the stuff you brought and take the guards out?” he said, and in response to his wife's unspoken answer began to pull out every item they had that could potentially be used as a weapon. He eventually settled on two small, shiny daggers. Brand new.
Handing the other dagger to his wife, he made a small, convicting hand gesture, subtly making clear his plan. “I'll take the right one.” He said, as he began to move toward his target, his wife moving toward hers.
Taking their places behind the guards quickly and stealthily, the pair reluctantly slit the guards throats at the same time, slid the bodies away from the door, and walked out. Closing the door behind them, the two were engulfed in the city air, and they hid their faces to stand in with the crowd. They had escaped. The fresh air was extremely liberating for the man, as the only air he had breathed for over four years was dank, odorous, dungeon air. He kept moving at a quicker pace now, eager to see his son. He hoped that the caretaker had done a good job raising him, although he didn’t really have much of an idea who it was- his wife had never mentioned him by name. “Who was it that was supposed to take care of our son?”He said, voicing his confusion.
“He was a man I met in the forest, but he never told me his name. He said he’d send a representative to raise our child while I was training and you were...you know.”\
“Yeah. We should go and check on him as quickly as possible, considering that we don’t even know the name of the man who raised him.”
“Alright then, but if I could have found someone better I would have. It’s not like we had any friends before God decided to play a sick joke on us.” She retorted.
The man sighed. “We’d better get going then,” he said, looking out to the horizon ominously. “Before some crazy nameless bozo steals our son.”
“Shut up!” Said his wife, prompting a small smirk from her husband. “Let’s get going before it gets dark.”
The pair set off, pushing through the crowds of people crushing the street into submission, moving in and out of different winding paths as new holes opened up like a shifting maze. There were people on every side, each one with a story unique to them, but sadly will never be told. This story focuses on the couple slowly pushing their way through a nameless crowd, trying to find any possible way out of the winding streets of the city, on a futile quest to find their son.

                                                                    ***

As the small boy ran, his limbs began to tire, the adrenaline that had powered his earlier actions seeping away from him. He kept moving, however, his limbs burning with soreness and fatigue, his body making every sign that the creature should rest, but his mind refused. The boy tore up the field with his hands as he raced on all fours towards the forest, the only place he knew where he would not be found. Where he could be safe. At the edge of the forest his body finally collapsed, his face buried in the ground under the largest tree on the edge of the forest. There, the creature felt safe. As he lay under the tree, his eyelids began to get heavy, and with no strength left in him, the creature fell fast asleep.
Unbeknownst to the small boy, his parents were alive and searching for him where they thought he was- at their home. Now it was in ruins, a pile of bloodstained logs and hay that once held a loving family.

***

I think that this would be a good time to write a disclaimer- as the two separate parties are going to come together in just a few more pages. If you have any sort of an IQ then you can probably predict what is going to happen(spoiler alert, I guess?): The boy meets up with his parents, they all do a huge family hug, lament on the tragedies that have befallen them, the end. However, if you wish to believe this prediction, then you can finish this story yourself, as I’m afraid that is not what is written on the following pages. As much as I know we humans cherish happy endings, I regret to inform you that this is not a cherishable story. If you’d like, now is probably the time to begin reading a different story of your choosing.

As the two parties began the movement towards their reunion, a third party began to stir. Deep into the forest, the group under which the nameless man who was supposed to take care of the creature sitting at the edge of the forest was employed. Word had gotten to the head of the organization, who was of course, nameless. He heard that one of his most trusted henchman had been killed. He was not happy.

***

Obliviously sitting at the edge of the forest was the small creature that had somehow managed to be the center of the story. He was sleeping peacefully at the base of a shady tree, letting the world go by. Unfortunately, he was not alone at the edge of the forest. In the dark murk of the trees, a shadow began to move towards the creature, dipping out of its hiding place only to jump forward and capture the small boy, all while the boy was sleeping. The patch of grass he had been laying on was left slightly matted and deformed, left there as the only evidence that the creature had been taken.
The shadow kept moving, the small creature in tow inside a small bag, tied shut with rope. The small creature was being jostled around violently, and in any other case this amount of movement would be more than sufficient to startle him awake. However, this did not occur because of the sleeping agent that he had been exposed to only seconds earlier. The shadow trudged on, its bulky black fingers gripping the bag tightly behind him as he dragged it on the ground. The shadow’s pace quickened, indicating that they were close to their destination, at the heart of the forest. They reached their destination as the small boy regained consciousness, and he yelped as the bag was thrown at the ground. Quickly scurrying out of the bag, he stood up and saw a large throne, covered in black drapes. He could barely see what was around him because of how dark it was, but he could hear small movements. The rustle of leaves. The scraping of feet on the dirt. The boy was surrounded.
“What is this?” the chair said. The boy snapped his neck around to look at the one who had spoken, and the drapes on the chair began to move. A man covered in black stood up, revealing himself as the one who had spoken. “Who have you brought to me?” he spoke, tilting his concealed head towards the invisible men around him. His voice was quiet and raspy, as if he had his vocal cords ripped out and replaced with rope. “A small creature seen sleeping by a tree, sir.” The sound came from one of the men standing behind the boy. He ripped his head around in confusion, because there didn’t seem to be anyone behind him.
The boy began to get impatient, stamping his feet and bound hands on the ground in frustration. As soon as he moved, everyone standing around him revealed themselves, grabbing his small limbs and slamming them on the ground. Seeing that he couldn’t overpower the men, the boy fell limp on the ground, waiting for them to release him. They didn’t.
“Take this creature to the table.” The larger, darker man said. His followers instantly carried out his orders, lifting the small boy together and collectively, along with the leader, took the creature to a stone table behind the dark chair. The leader extended his arm out to signal someone behind him, opening his fingers in expectation. His hand was soon filled with the dark wood of a shining black dagger, its jagged edges showing its horrifying effectiveness at what it was forged to do. Swinging his arms around and simultaneously joining hands around the blade, the leader began to chant, the dagger seeming to float in the air as if no one was holding it.
The terrible words slithered out of the man’s mouth, and as if they caused it, the dagger slowly began to fall towards the creature, who at this point had almost exhausted himself from struggling. The terrible scene dragged on for what seemed like hours, the knife slowly falling as the atmosphere around the scene seemed to turn into jelly. The man’s arm was finally level with his shoulder, about a third of the way through the path it had to take to reach the creature’s frantically beating heart. The chanting never ceased, seeming to egg the force of gravity on into pulling the knife down toward the earth faster. This fatal scene was witnessed by many individuals, most of which knew exactly what was going on. Two, however, were figuratively and literally left in the dark.

The pair in question is also the pair from earlier in the story, and you might be wondering how they travelled this far so quickly. The pair had been moving incessantly since their escape in the direction of the forest, and, in all honesty, it is a marvel that they didn’t arrive sooner. However, nothing could be seen by them. They were completely unaware of the terrible ritual that was going on directly in front of them.
No sound escaped from the scene, despite the creature making quite a racket in his attempts to escape, nor did any light escape either. In that part of the world, light had no power. The terrible circumstance dragged on reluctantly, the passage of time and the force of gravity vigorously pulling on the knife, desperate for the whole thing to end. The man had not finished chanting in his ancient language, however, and unphased by the horrible slowness of all of it the words kept flowing outward. They rippled through the air like energetic dolphins, waving back and forth with a sinister fervor. The chanting began to speed up, as did the descent of the knife. The sharp, shining blade serving as a perfect damning instrument for the creature laid out before it.
The creature’s parents were eagerly searching outside, hopelessly reveling in the obvious futility of their actions. The two scoured the forest, both looking for any kind of sign that their child was alive. Then, suddenly, the man felt a sort of wall, but he couldn’t see it. His wife felt the same thing, and instantly they both knew what was happening. The man let out a cry, and despite the wall’s inherent ability to stop sound, the cry was able to penetrate it and enter the ritual place. The cry disrupted the focus of the leader with the knife, thus restoring time to its normal flow. The black cloaked man realized what was happened, and in a slight panic he quickly stabbed the boy and began to chant again. The wall faded away, and the tragic scene laid before the eyes of the parents.
In desperation, the pair rushed at them, the woman going for the leader and the man following close behind. Their pursuit was cut short, however, as they were swiftly captured by the other men in black cloaks. The leader stood in front of the two, both being held by the men, and pointed at the man. The woman was bound, gagged and locked in a small wooden cage, with a convenient window for viewing what was about to happen. The man was strapped to the same table that his son was just sacrificed at, the blood of the boy still fresh upon the stones. The woman, recognizing the terrible ritual that was about to happen, let out a series of terrible screams. They were all in vain, however, a waste of breath. Nothing could stop the inevitable tragedy that was about to fall on the woman.

***

At this point in the story, you might have a sudden urge to stop reading. I must confirm that that is the sensible part of you talking. The non-sensible part of you might be saying things like “Things will get better, there will probably be some sort of surprise at the end and everyone will end up ok.” Well, I can confirm that this is not how it really happened, but to satisfy the non-sensible part of your consciousness I may as well tweak the story a bit. So, here is the ending of the story as your mind would like it to be.

***

The woman was struggling to break free from the terrible chains that bound her to the bloodied table. Just then, her husband miraculously broke free of his cage and swiftly took care of the men that kept him in. By what power had he escaped from his prison I don’t know, but this time he didn’t need his wife to help him. He ran over to his wife, and scanning the table he began to pry at the chains, hoping beyond all hope that they would break, or at the very least loosen slightly to allow her arms and legs to slip through.
After much prying and struggling, the man’s hopes were proven to be grounded in reality. He slipped his wife off of the table and began to run, fast and hard, away from the terrible forest. He never left the forest for what seemed like years, for they were imprisoned so deep into the heart of the forest that it was nearly impossible to even see the sun. They kept running, running and running, the adrenaline from the earlier encounter still fueling their movements and they neared the edge of the forest. There was a small gap in the trees, but it was just large enough to allow some light to reach the eyes of the man and the woman. This told them that they were near to the forest, and with a sudden burst of movement the pair stepped out into the sunlight, the utter brightness of it all stopping them in their tracks. The brilliance of the sun shone upon their faces, and despite the tragedy that had befallen them both, a small smile graced the lips of the man and the woman.