Alex woke up in a cage, he felt a strange feeling in every inch of his body when he stood up. He tried to look beyond the cage, but outside the cage is nothing but blinding light.
"What the..." Alex thought. "Where am I."
Alex tried to rub his eyes, but when he raised his hand to rub his eyes, he felt a weird but pleasant pressure on his eyes. As he looks at his arms, he realises that he doesn't have arms anymore, it was replaced with a pair of wings.
"Tweet...TWEET!"
Alex tried to yell, but all he could do is tweet gently, he flapped around his wings as he doesn't know what is going on.
"What the hell is going on?!" Alex thought. "Why am I a bird?"
Suddenly, the cage began to shake, Alex quickly used his pair of wings to cover his bird head out of fright. While the cage is shaking, Alex could hear a faint chiming sound in the distance.
The chiming sound got louder as the cage shook harder. Alex flapped around his wings frantically as he doesn't know what he's going to do. Without warning, the cage fell off of something and Alex began to fall. The sound of a chiming clock roared in Alex's ears and he feels like he's going to die.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Alex yelled as he wakes ups from a nightmare. Alex catches his breath as he felt like he couldn't breathe from his frightening nightmare. He slowly breathes as he looks around his surroundings. He was in a prison cell, the grey stones wall in the cell had mould and moss on it as it had been here for years. Instead of a wide window in the cell, there was a barred opening with thick metal bars and no glass. Alex squeezed his nose as he couldn't bear the stench in the prison. When he touched his neck, he felt something weird. Something that feels rusty and hard. He looked down to see a metal choker, with a weird gemstone in the middle of it, attached to Alex. Suddenly, someone kicked the metals bars in Alex's cells, Alex flinched out of fright and looked at the person that stood outside of his cell.
"OI! You goddamn urchin! If you scream one more time I'm going to rip out your fucking throat!"
"Commander Edwin it's fine. Just ignore him."
"Shut up Travis! Mind your own goddamn business" Edwin uttered as he kicked the bars of the cell furiously. "Tsk. Damn brat."
Alex continued to look around as he doesn't know why he's here, he doesn't know why a guard is yelling at him, he doesn't know anything. He realised that there is no mattress in the cell, no cushioning and only one thin blanket. He also realised that there is a guard outside his cell keeping him in. After a while, he gathers all his courage and decides to ask the guard for information.
"Why...Why am I here?"
The guard ignored him, seemingly pretend that Alex doesn't even exist. Alex walked closer to him to get a better look, he realises that the guard is ignoring him out of fear, which is unusual.
"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG! LET ME GO!"
The cry and scream of a prisoner roar through the corridor, Alex glanced outside of his cell. Outside of his cell, is a wide corridor that leads to a chamber that is filled with weird devices, chairs with spikes on them, a metal box with spikes all over it and even an abnormally-sized rack. All these strange devices gave Alex a strange chill. Alex could see everything happening inside the chamber because his cell is directly next to it.
"NO! I DIDN'T DO IT! I AM NOT GUILTY!"
Alex stared in confusion as the guards dragged a blindfolded prisoner into a solid iron cabinet with a hinged front and spike-covered interior. The iron cabinet is also tall enough to put a human inside it.
"What are they doing?" Alex thought, he tightens his grip on the metal bars as he got tenser. "Why are they dragging that man to that, 'thing'?"
The tied up prisoner tried to struggle out of the guard's grip. No matter how hard the guard tried, the prisoner just wouldn't go into that iron cabinet. Suddenly, the guards grabbed a pike and pressed it into the prisoner's back. He could feel the sharpness of the pike and stop struggling, fearing that he would accidentally impale himself by struggling harder.
"Go in."
The prisoner had no choice but to get inside the iron cabinet, he carefully steps into it while quivering in fear. He could also smell the metallic stench of dried out blood while being inside.
"NO! PLEASE I BEG YOU." The prisoner begged. "DON'T DO IT, I'M INNOCENT!"
"You're innocent?" Edwin said as he picked up a pike and started pressing it against the prisoner's chest. The prisoner shrieked in pain as Alex stared in horror at the events that are unfolding upon him. Alex also recognised the guard that is torturing the prisoner, it was Edwin, the guard that harassed him earlier.
"Why don't you take those damn words and SHOVE IT IN YOUR ASS," Edwin yelled. "You traitors know nothing but to lie!"
"NO PLEASE! I WASN'T PART OF THE CULT! I-"
"Why don't you just go to hell and tell satan those words? Damn traitors" Edwin mocked. "I just happened to have a ticket for you to go there, it's called the iron maiden. See if he believes your bullshit!"
"SOMEONE HELP-"
As the prisoner shrieked out his final words, Edwin pulled the lever and the door of the iron maiden crushed him. Every spike within the Iron maiden was impaled deep into him. Rivers of blood flowed through the gaps of the iron maiden and splashed onto the ground. Alex screamed with horrors as he fell to the ground out of fright. Suddenly, Edwin walked up to Alex cell, opened the door and stared him down. Alex tried to crawl away from him, his breathing got heavier as the smell of blood got stronger and stronger. He doesn't know what he would do to him, nor does he want to know.
Edwin forcefully grabbed Alex by his arm, he tried to resist out of his grip, but it's futile as his grip is way too strong for him.
"L-LET ME GO! DON'T TOUCH ME!"
Edwin just ignored him and proceed to drag him into the chamber, Alex resisted even more, even to the point of biting his arm. At that moment, Edwin threw Alex to the ground and kicked him against the wall.
"DID I SAY YOU COULD BITE ME?" Edwin yelled. "YOU LITTLE SHIT!"
Alex grunted loudly in pain as he got knocked against the wall, he tried to get back up but couldn't. Edwin grabbed him and put his finger into a strange device. The devices have two leather straps that can be fastened to trap someone's finger in them. As Edwin placed Alex's nails between the clip of a pincer, he began asking him a lot of questions.
"What are you doing here? Are you a spy?"
"Huh? What?" Alex asked as he has no idea what Edwin is talking about.
"Don't act dumb, everyone knows you're a Psycian."
"Psycian exist?"
"ANSWER THE GODDAMN QUESTION!"
As Edwin got irritated, he used the pincer and ripped out one of Alex's nails. Alex screamed in pain and tried to twitch away from Edwin. He could feel the burning-stinging pain on his finger.
"Every time you try to act dumb, I will rip out one of your nails." Edwin threatened as he raised Alex's bloody ripped out nails to let him have look. "GOT IT?!"
"I-I really don't know what you're talking about."
Edwin used the pincer and ripped out another one of Alex's nails, this time Alex screamed even louder as the pincer dug deep into the flesh of his fingers. The other nearby guards seemed concerned and uneased hearing Alex's scream, but they just stood there and watched.
"Please...stop." Alex pleaded, he's starting to lose his voice from yelling too hard. "I really don't know anything."
"Don't know anything? Hehe." Edwin chuckled. "Don't lie to me you damned Psycians."
"Why are you doing this to me?! What have I done to deserve this?!"
Again, Edwin ripped out another one of Alex's nails, this time Alex didn't yell as hard as he did before, he was too tired as his throat is getting sore.
"That's not an excuse, we know that you're just disguising yourself as a child, all because of that accursed mental magic!"
"Mental magic?" Alex thought. "Magic really exist? But why aren't I excited about it?"
Normally, Alex would get really excited when someone mentions magic, but now, he could barely listen to it. As of now, he knows that being a Psycian is what got him into this situation in the first place. He had so many questions, that just didn't add up, he doesn't understand. Why would his own father lie to his son about his race, why is being Psycian such a big deal in Rosia? Why?
Suddenly, a guard came up to Edwin and whispered something to him, he nods in responses and casts a disappointed glare. He took off Alex's straps and grabbed him by his hair. He pointed at the iron maiden and looked at Alex with a wild grin.
"We're done for today, but if you don't cooperate next time," Edwin said as he kicked the door of the iron maiden, causing the door to open and the corpse of the prisoner slid out of the iron maiden. Alex stared at the horrifying sight of the corpse with cavernous holes all over it. Edwin pointed at the corpse and said to Alex. "You're next."
Alex began crying out of fear, fearing that one day his body will look like this, Edwin dragged Alex back to his cell and threw him into it as he shuts the door. Tears dripped down Alex's cheeks as he began to cry his life out. He'd done nothing wrong, yet he's being treated like this. As the sound of rain slowly drowns out Alex's crying, he slowly passes out to the sounds of the rain.