Fallen

“Walk faster,” says the man with a pointy helmet, pressing his cold steel-clad hand against my bare back and forcing me to carry on despite the many cuts and bruises covering my scrawny frame.

I trudge my way along the dark corridor whilst trying not to stumble on my treacherous feet. On the wall dances shadows fed by the light emitted by the guard’s lantern, and as the light reaches the cells, the prisoners inside cover their eyes and whimper. Well, I don’t blame them… It must have been days, perhaps weeks, since they last saw the light, and light reminds them of their mortality; it reminds them of who they once were.

I feel my legs cave in as the guard shoves me, barely managing to stay upright. It baffles me how weak I’ve become. I from before was strong of mind and muscular, once I would not have stood for this humiliation. A mess is what I have become…

I look inside one of the cells we pass, therein is a man on his knees, smiling and begging for a piece of bread… a mess I’ve become indeed, but there are more layers to hell, and perhaps I will get to explore them too, one day.

My self-loathing is interrupted by the booming voice of the guard.

“We’re here; get inside.”

He pushes me through the cell door with great force, and I fall onto the cold stone floor. The guard turns to leave, but he rotates his head to spit at me beforehand.

“And you are supposed to be the great swordsman of the east; you are nothing but a filthy skeleton,” he smirks and locks the door before leaving me to drown in memories of the past.

One mistake was all it took for the world to turn upside down, or perhaps it started even before all that; well, I have no way of knowing now. Oh, how far I have fallen…