The Tenth Dragon: Death Of A Youngling

Chapter 3: Monster From The Deep

The next time Jesse woke up, he was inside a large stone jail cell.  He was wearing a black denim prison outfit with random numbers running down his left shin.  His hands had large heavy chain shackles on them.  The shackles were attached to anything, they just held his arms together.  As he struggled to his feet, he realized his shoes were gone as well.  Leaning against the walls, he looked around, only able to see light coming from a small candle on the opposite side of his one bared walls, the other walls were made from cement bricks.  He walked over to the bars and leaned against them.  It didn’t look like there was a door anywhere in the cell.  How had they gotten him in there?  He jerked at the bars, only to find that they didn’t move at all.  There was no give, no jingle, nothing at all.  This was going to be his new home for a while.

Over the next three years, that place was his home.  He never left that cage or even had the ability too.  No one ever came around either.  There were no guards, no other inmates, not even Azrael came by to gloat.  It was just him, there, with that single candle.  Every time he would fall asleep, he would wake up to a plate of food sitting next to the bars, with a single cup of water sitting next to it.  At first he had eaten the food quickly and swallowed the glass of water.  It was a terrible mistake as he didn’t receive food again until what felt like days passed.  The next time he got food, he ate small bits and took sips of his water.

One time he finally was able to fake sleep long enough to see them deliver his food.  Light filled the room and and Jesse leapt up.  He caught a man in a strange suit descending from a skylight.  The man screamed and tried to pull himself back up, but Jesse caught him.  He pulled the man down but before he could do anything else, the rope retracted and pulled them both up to the roof.  A strange blade came out of nowhere and sliced part of the suit off.  Jesse quickly caught the edges of the skylight.  Only to have his fingers stomped on.  He fell to the ground hard, but quickly jumped back to his feet.

“COME BACK HERE YOU BASTERDS!” he yelled at the now closed skylight.

He ran to the walls and tried to climb them, but all he did was peel back his nails and cut up his hands.  However, due to his strange healing, he just grew them back and kept trying.  After a few hours, he had worn himself out, and passed out on the ground.

The next person he saw after the three years passed was Azrael.  The smug bastard had sauntered to the front of his cell and sat by the bars.  Jesse lunged at him like a crazed animal and hurled insults and curses at him.  He clawed in his direction but was just shy of being able to reach him.  Azrael had laughed and walked away with out saying a word.  For several weeks afterward, Azrael repeated this routine.  It drove Jesse insane every time.  The last time he did it, Jesse rammed the bars repeatedly.  Bloodying himself and causing his bones to break and fix themselves.  Even after Azrael walked away, Jesse continued his assault.

Baby, please calm down.

Jesse stopped and looked around.  That was Rydar’s voice, but it didn’t sound like she was in the room.  It was like she was speaking directly into his head.  He shook his head and rammed the cage again.

Stop!

This time Jesse was brought to a halt mid charge.

Take a few deep breaths and calm down.  This is what he wants love.  You can’t give in to him.  Please stay strong, for me.

Some part of him wanted to keep attacking, but he couldn’t.  Instead he crawled over to the dark part of the cage, leaned against the wall, and took a few deep breaths.  His anger subsided and he was able to think about things.  He looked down at his body and saw that it had shrunk soo much from what it once was.  His muscular build was gone, replaced by a withered form.  If he was going to get out of here, he would need to be in top shape.