"I don't know anything about this place Chaka, I'm serious, just tell me how to get out of here." Chaka paused himself. His hands stopped fidgeting and he looks at me. At the word 'get out' he stops smiling. He looks at the ground like a cow before a slaughter. He looks back at me. And looks at the ground. I see the indecisiveness in his eyes. He wants, that smiles told me all I need to know, but he knows the hopelessness of it too.
"I was left here. We all were left here. These idiots up there think that we should be down here, to protect ourselves and others in their great name. The only way out of those doors is to break them down and I don't know where the doors even are." Chaka says. We both sit in silence after that. The walls of the building loom over us.
"I don't know about that revenge. I don't if it's possible. What could I even do? Fight? Kill one of them? And just die in the end? No, better to stay here and live at least." I can't help but turn my teeth upside down, and frown. It's so wrong to lose hope
A building made out of pillows lies in the middle of a prison and two prisoners lie inside.
"So you have no idea how to get out of here? At all? All of these years you never thought to try? You don't even want to?"
"No, never I mean it's impossible I'm fairly certain." At that, I laugh. You know what I haven't been myself recently. I've been so passive, I let that old man step all over me. Is it even worth it to be like this? Before I was strong, so strong, not just strong in strength, but strong in character. I cusp my hands into a fist. I release it.
The Man in my mind shifts awake. His eyes gaze out in front of him. The Monster notices as well, though it's noticing is only a simple persistent whisper in the back of my mind.
"What the hell are you doing. What are all of us doing here? Come on stop being so sorry for yourself you wanted revenge before. I see it in your eyes and yet you look at me passively like a small dog looks at a piece of meat. Hoist yourself up, grab the door and swing it open and destroy. Eliminate, get rid of this whole madness." I get up and punch the wall. Nothing happens. The next part of the wall over I punch and nothing happens. And over and over and over again I punch and nothing happens.
All that Chaka can do is stare at me. I watch him in the back of my eyes just looking. Gears in his mind turn and whirl but they cannot think. I punch and I punch and I punch and still none of the walls give way. Not one seems to give up.
Sweat goes down my back and minutes pass. Even though I know it's day I feel tired. More punches, more walls, I feel the muscles swell and spasm and irk with pain. The clock ticks on though, and I feel myself grow wearier and wearier. I fall onto the ground, onto the fluffy white Earth in utter dejected terrible weakness.
Chaka has not moved an inch though throughout. I watch him once more from the ground and see how his body sits. He hasn't even fidgeted. Can punches grasp the soul?
"The horrible people who made this. Who's done this to you. And me. Not just revenge, just try to help people for once. I saw the poverty in this city doesn't even motivate you to try. To try and" I don't have a word, there's nothing in my head. I can't think of any way to respond. All of this revenge garbage and all of this motivational speaking, and guerilla warfare. I tried.
"Chaka, do you know anything. Like even just a remote detail, a thought, maybe a spare god dang little brain you have in your head?
"Ok, fine. Have it your way. I'm sorry. The door to the room is activated by a very concentrated stream of energy located…" He pauses for a second and points to an unadorned part of the room.
"There. I've never been outside though." I look at the spot that he's talking about. It's just like any other section of wall in the room except, in my mind's eye, a storm rages as I look at it. It draws me into it. If only I had looked into the room I would've seen this.
"Do you want revenge? Want things to be better?" I say. At that Chaka looks at the ceiling.
"I don't know, I'm just bored, bored out of my god damn mind and I can't deal with this room anymore." I nod. It's a good sentiment. One that didn't come easily for him. A child. It's easy to forget that someone is a child when talking to them in a prison.
I walk towards the wall. Each step seems heavier, each time a little longer between them. But I reach it. I feel the cushions, I try to find any switch, or metal input device or something but no luck.
Chaka just waits. He knows I have 'energy' or whatever that is. I focus and will myself to go into the walls. To force them open and release me onto the world. I focus, my arms start to shake, my body becomes a wobbly mess, but my hand rests on that wall. For two minutes I lie there. Until, in the dark recesses of my bones I feel a stirring of lightning storms long past, and I focus on that stirring and I think and think. And it moves into the wall.
At that, the wall unfurls into a long narrow hallway and me and Chaka stare up ahead. I walk forward but Chaka stays back. He lingers in his room. He looks at the knife on the floor and looks at the walls.
"It's hard I know, to be young and also alone. But you're doing what has to be done." He looks back at me. No tears go down his face. And he walks forward to join me.
The hallway goes on forever. We walk for what seems like an hour and see no end in sight. Our legs trudge and we remain in silence. Longer and longer our legs move along the ground. The pillow ground gives way for the earth. I feel it.
Not sand nor grass. But dirt, and every single distinctive thing about it. The air is filled with the smell of a fresh farm field. I see a light at the end of a tunnel. A cacophony of sounds follows the lights entrance, the sounds of eating, and a strange sound of laughter fills the air.
We don't stop and we reach the light.
Outward we step onto it. I'm blind from the suddenness of all this light. I open my eyes to see. A giant cavern made out of stone, men, and women, and strange creatures lie on tables eating.
I see a woman stab another woman for a fork, with a fork. I see a man pulled apart by giant dog-like beast. I see a man below us, he's tall and spindly and his eyes glow red. As he meets my eyes, he shakes. He takes three steps back before bumping into a man with a coin tattooed on his chest. He stops and opens his mouth and shouts.
"The Wall of Freedom, look." At that, the room falls silent and a thousand eyes maneuver their way to me.
"They've gotten out. I didn't even know there was something beyond it. Everything is true. Oh, Christina will totally not believe this." The man with the red eyes says and runs off.
The sounds of his footsteps decorate the silence in the room.