King's eyes slowly fluttered open.
Only to be met by the familiar darkness from before.
As if it had always been there, his body immediately felt wrapped in a wet blanket of dread, drowsiness and depression.
"why..." He coarsely whispered to himself. 'why am I still alive?'
"Sorry kid but I cant just sit back and let you off yourself, After all I've got a job to carry out" responded a vaguely familiar low voice.
King raised his head half-heartedly in the direction of the voice to see a darkened figure sitting awkwardly in the corner of the moving room.
'Who are you?' King wanted to say but did not have the sufficient energy required to, instead he incoherently mumbled.
"Sorry? didn't catch that kid, say that again?" said the man before grunting as he realised King lacked the energy to speak.
"They really did a number on you huh? Where've you been living? In a magic scrapyard?"
"....."
"You know what, as a show of Good faith I'll let u have this" he clasped King's drooped hand, pushing into his weak grasp a small bottle. His appearance remained shrouded in darkness.
King starred aimlessly at the small clear bottle containing a sort of bluish liquid in his hand which the man had opened prior to handing to him.
"It'd do you some Good to drink that, it'll restore some of your energy. Not as good as a full meal but should suffice" grunted the man "You can drink right? Dont need my assistance or anything?"
Truth be told King had no desire to drink something that would restore his energy, he wanted nothing but to willow in this weak feeling of despair but an annoying fragment of him felt he owed it to this person to consume it, however he didnt trust him at all and felt this could be some sort of trap to get him to drink poison. Honestly at this point he would not be surprised but he then remembered how the man stopped him from killing himself and slowly raised the bottle to his lips.
Not that he cared whether or not it was poison.
As it trickled down his parched throat he noted its absolute lack of flavour as well as how easily it went down.
The bottle fell to the ground with a dull thump as silence enveloped the moving room which King presumed was a van or truck of some sort.
The silence was torture to King who with the lack of anything to keep himself occupied with began to return to a state of silent suffering as voices of betrayal and pain crowded his fragile mind and tears silently streaked down his dirty cheeks.
"Really? Crying again? You must've had it rough kid, for a Young child such as yourself to be in such a state. I mean your the same age as my son! To go so far as to attempt suicide. Reminds me how twisted the world is" the mysterious man voiced, despite apparently having a son he sounded no older than 20.
King briefly pondered how the man could see he was crying despite being on the other side of the room in this darkness. All thoughts however, dissipated from his mind when he suddenly felt a firm hand grasp his shoulder.
Actually, scrap that, panic struck him and he began flailing helplessly in the shockingly firm grip before the mans voice sounded from the opposite end of the room.
"woah woah, relax kid. Just me"
"wh- h-how?" Whispered King.
The mans voice clearly indicated he was at the opposite end of the room and yet he could feel a hand on his shoulder, come to think of it, the man never budged once from his position so how did he give him that drink earlier?
Speaking of which, whatever it was ,it worked, despite not having anywhere near his full energy restored, King could feel he had some of it back. Way more than he's had in a long, long time anyway.
"Relax, its just one of my abilities"
"....."
"don't tell me you dont even know about those"
"....."
"Either that or your just not the talkative type"
Seemingly the opposite of this man though, he seemed to enjoy speaking.
"Well regardless, its too long to explain and we dont have time for that anyway, we're going to arrive fairly soon."
Dread ceased King again as he asked something he urgently wanted to know.
"Whe-where...?" Thats all he could muster but the man understood.
"The eternal jungle. A place none but the strong willingly go and an infamous execution sight for criminals. It may not seem like it but consider yourself lucky Kid. For the crimes you're convicted of this is infinitely lighter than what you should've received, must because you're way below the age of acknowledgement otherwise... Personally I dont believe a scrub like you could've committed all those crimes but who am I to question orders. Tchh your only a Godamn five year Old. When will all this cease..."
The man seemed to momentarily lose himself in thought before a weak sniffling brought his attention back.
King was once again crying. He had no idea what this eternal jungle was but the way the man spoke of it was not promising. Only the strong do there? He probably wasn't even capable of mustering strength equal to that of a three year old. He had no hope.
Maybe he ought to be gratefull, this way he dies quicker and it all ends.
Yhhh..
That sounded like a plan, as soon as he's released into this 'eternal jungle' he'll find a way to kill himself.
A crazed and resigned smile appeared on his face as he planned his own suicide, this did not go unnoticed by the unknown man.
The man released a hefty sigh "look kid, I dont know what happened to you or why your the way you are but you need to keep your head up. Tough times only last as long as you let them."
A spark of anger rose in King as these words fell on his ears. This man, he knew nothing about him, who was he to advise him on what to do, if only he knew how much he had suffered.
The room began to slow down as they presumably reached their destination but the man insisted on continuing his speech
"The people who did this to you, remember their faces and show them they can't keep you down, Trust me I'm speaking from experience, you dont wanna let people like that keep winning..."
A door opened behind King and multiple hands seized him, dragging him out onto the the floor outside.
In front of him was a gate so large he could barely see its top from his position on the floor. It was bronze and boringly ordinary-looking despite its size. But what really caught King's attention was the see through bubble like barrier, reflecting light and emanating from the gate in a large bowl shape around a menacing looking jungle so large King could not even see its full length, not to mention the trees that towered impressively above the bronze gate.
His attention was snatched back from the jungle before him as beside him a man wearing a professional gold, red and black suit brandishing that accursed emblem ordered men wearing similar suits.
"A portion of the gate is already open, throw him in and let's leave quickly. Just being near this hell hole is causing chills to traverse my spine"
Following his orders, the men dragged King towards a small door cut out of the immense gate beyond which a path led into the jungle.
"Relax, I've been in this jungle a couple of times, stay on the outskirts and with enough effort you'll just barely hold on. Six years, survive that and your sentence is over, come back to this gate after that and they'll have no choice but to let you out." Despite no longer being anywhere nearby King could still vividly hear the man's voice.
The men pushed King onto the dilapidated path on the other side of the gate and closed it. He turned around in time to see the doors to a large floating van closing but not before catching a glimpse of a single glowing aqua blue eye before hearing the last words he would hear from another human being for a long time.
"Remember, tough times only last a as long as you let them"
And with that the van hovered off into the distance, leaving King alone and sprawled across the rocky path.