The child woke up from his sleep. He slept wide awake. He couldn't go to sleep on his own. They made him forget how to. The only way he could rest was if his mind itself shut down. It was a self preservation by the body itself.
The men in charge had been denying him sleep when he was just a few weeks old. He was an abomination. At the age of 7 days, he was already capable of asking for food without crying. He was also able to lift his head and turn over. They were scared. Terrified of what he could grow into.
So they sent him here. At first it was simply starvation. He cried and kept asking to eat. A 7 day old infant. A premature one at that. A few days later they were even more horrified.
He wasn't dying. An infant wouldn't last that long. Not to mention he hadn't had any water either for more than five days. An adult could only last three. At most a week if he were trained in certain water conservating techniques.
So they took away his rightful sleep. They would blast noise into his ears each time his eyes fell closed. And then he would wake up. When he got used to the noise and tried to sleep again, they would use a higher frequency. He would writhe in pain each time.
A grown adult man could last forty eight hours without sleep. From the fiftieth to the seventy second that man would be extremely cranky and aggressive. The seventy third to the ninety sixth hours would be when he starts to see things and feel exhaustion and dizziness. Beyond those hours would be fatal. He would without doubt die unless he had medical attention before he crossed his limit.
The noise was capable of hurting not just the eardrums, but also the mind itself. It was a piercing pain that stabbed and sliced your head apart. When he stopped reacting anymore and would just stare blankly into space, they would resort to electrocution. Thus, it kept on continuing. For years. He hadn't a proper sleep for seven years already. No wonder he forgot how to.
Once a week he would receive a tiny bit of glucose by IV drip. No more than a cup's worth. That was just one fifth of a bottle. That was because the authorities decided that he would be useful to them. They wanted to break him even before he formed anything. Erase that immense potential and intelligence he had even as a newly born infant.
He didn't understand. A tiny child who just looked for a little warmth was subjected to this inhumanity. He didn't know of the circimunstances behind his birth. Nor did he know that he was being humiliated in the worst of ways. The little child felt that that's how it was always supposed to be.
He went mad. His motor skills never improved. They even deteriorated. He was incapable of even opening and closing his own hands. And that was something any infant could do even in their sleep. If a person put their finger on an infant's open palm, the infant would curl its frail and tiny fingers over the adult's finger. The little child was extremely unfortunate.
His only solace was the rythymic sounds of dripping water from the corner of the cell he lived in and the occasional mental shutdowns. Sometimes he would rock himself to a rythym. He felt a sense of security in the periodic sensations. Biting and licking his knuckles till they were completely maimed was also comforting. It was like a pacifier. It calmed him down.
The smell and taste of his own blood was like breastmilk. Any suckling infant would be pacified once they were given their Mother's milk. If they didn't receive it, then they'd either cry or suck on their thumbs.
That was exactly what he was doing. He was pacifying himself. Comforting himself. Alleviating his pain and relieving himself. He was lulling himself to sleep.