*The roaring crowd cheered as the gates opened and a lion came out. The lion slowly walked out, basking in glory as the crowd roared on. I watched in horror; I couldn’t believe the madness in front of my eyes. In the center of the arena was a young skinny fragile looking boy, he was chained to a cub on his left foot. He had a thin stick that was poorly sharpened on one end. It had bite marks all over; it looked like it was sharpened by his teeth. *

It was a dark, cold night except for the tiny fire that my captors lit. The four of them all sat merrily as they devoured human flesh. I sat forced to watch them in despair as the foul bastards tied my hands and legs sitting position.

What had the world come to? Since the second coming of the Gods a decade ago, religion had died. With all good people taken to heaven, the earth was left to rot. Lawlessness was rampant; technology began to regress, the earth was slowly lapsing into the dark ages with its barbaric lifestyle.

One of the foul beings threw the blood-stained Rosary of my partner on my face. The bloody cross fell on my lips, and I could taste his blood on my lips. I screamed in horror as they laughed and continued to divide his body. Being a missionary made you subject to a new form of racial stigma.

SCENE ONE: THE MAD PREIST.

I spat out the Rosary when I suddenly felt a tingling chill run through my spine. The thoughts of darkness started coming to me from all angles. Feeling crushed by the darkness, I grabbed the Rosary counted the beads and I slowly whispered my prayers. Slowly, calmness began to flood in; I was momentarily in a happy place.

One of my captors who noticed my sudden comfort and silence spoke, “Are we going to eat this one too?”

One of my other captors looked at me in disgust and said, “No, this one damaged. He sick. We sell for good money, together with the asset.”

Despite his bad English, one word got my attention. “ASSET.” What asset? Was I their only captive?

“But boss,” he continued to speak, “He looks fine to me. Hmmm so soft, so warm, so tasty-”

“Enough!” (the oldest looking cannibal spoke). “He talks to the dead. He roams with both the world of the living and the dead. You see how the Rosary does not burn him or have any effect? He’s neither witch nor demon. He will fetch us good money.”

As they continued to discuss my origins and value, I felt my cargo pants for some sort of make-shift weapon. I wasn’t going to die today. The best accessory I could pull out was a toothbrush. I broke it on its tail end. It wasn’t the best stabbing tool, but it would have to do for now.

The next part was the harder part. I slowly began to squeeze my thumb by its joint till I heard it pop. It hurt more than I anticipated. I bit my lip hard to fight the urge to scream. One of my captors seemed to notice my fidgeting movements and approached me. It was the hungry cannibal. He turned around to talk to the others.

“Boss, I know we have set a price, but can I have a piece of him? Just a little taste, I will give up my share on the asset.”

RULE NUMBER ONE, NEVER GIVE YOUR ENEMY YOUR BACK.

In one quick motion, I jumped in the air and sunk my toothbrush into the side of his neck. There was immediate silence as I hurriedly untangled the chains around my legs. It seemed the other cannibals were uninterested in my act of war as one of them kept eating like nothing happened, knowing very well that the other guy was capable of handling me on his own.

The wounded cannibal turned around in anger, and before I knew it, his hand went through my body as I could feel his hand slowly squeezing my insides making his way to my spine. He held me in midair like a broken human-sized doll. Darkness slowly surrounded me as I felt myself fade…

*The lion slowly approached sick- looking fragile child. The child trembling in fear slowly aimed his pointed stick at the young cub, giving the lion a warning sign. The lion stopped for a second and gave a deafening roar that got the whole arena to a standstill. Never have I heard such a roar louder than a cheering crowd. Its roar was so loud the terrified boy dropped his feeble weapon.

The lion changed to charge at full as the arena exploded with sudden excitement and applauded. This was definitely going to be a quick death. Such foul humans, this world could not be saved. They all deserved to burn.

The poor young child had collapsed before the lion reached. There was a mixture of confusion and disappointment everywhere as everyone wondered if he had died before his time. Even the lion seemed confused as it stood over his lifeless body. The crowd began to jeer in disenchantment as they wanted to see blood spill, flesh tear and cries to the deaf ears of the risen God as they died a slow excoriating deaf.

RULE NUMBER ONE, NEVER GIVE YOUR ENEMY YOUR BACK.

In one quick motion, the young boy below the lion grabbed his stick and thrust it upwards piercing the mighty lion in the center of its neck. There was deafening silence as the lion fell in agony, the young boy stood up undisturbed and walked towards the young cub and crushed its neck with his foot right in front of the wounded lion. He then began to untie the chain around his leg with his back facing the lion unware the wounded beast was slowly approaching. The boy then proceeded to walk to the exit gate looking uninterested as if this was a normal day in the office.

He reached the gate, and it was locked. He knocked, but still, there was no answer. The boy shook his head in frustration and uninterestedly was towards the struggling beast with his face just inches away from its face. The beast tried to give a mighty roar but instead gave the most unfrightening sound I have ever heard. The boy cut the beast short in mid-roar by pulling out the stick and blood frantically shot out as the beast fell heavy to his death.

The boy now covered in blood walked towards the gate as the stunned crowd gave a confusing cheer. The cheer grew with each uninterested step the child took as he walked towards the gate. This time the gate was unlocked, and the crowd went wild as the boy disappeared into the tunnel. *

The cannibal laughed as he held my lifeless body, I felt myself drowning in a pool of darkness. I was slowly losing control and giving into the darkness. His laughter slowly faded and was replaced with whispers of darkness, whispers of EVIL…

I opened my eyes (now completely black with black veins bulging). The stunned cannibal looked at me in horror my stomach began to heal rapidly crushing his hand in the process. I gently held him by his elbow before effortlessly snapping it like a twig. As he began to scream, I jabbed my right hand in his mouth and ripped his lower jaw down to the ground. Well, that’s the end of that guy I thought to myself as I impassively walked past his slowly falling body and towards the muscular cannibal now charging at me with a club.

I stood still patiently waiting for him as he aggressively came charging spoiling bits of earth on the ground with his bare feet in the process. I must have lost my patience idly waiting for him as I too charged towards him. He seemed surprised and unaware of how I was already at him in a fraction of a second. I put him back midair and ripped out his heart from his chest before uninterestedly walking away as his body was falling still in midair.

Next target, the eldest looking one. This time I wasn’t going to wait for him to attack, I charged at him and threw a jab at his chest. But somehow I missed, I found myself stabbing his shadow before the shadow quickly followed its master. I fell to my knees in confusion, (what kind of creature travels faster than its shadow?). As I fell to my knees, I heard the muscular cannibal’s body hit the ground. (About time I thought) when suddenly a wound exploded as blood began to shoot out.

(He must have countered and hit me as I tried to kill him. I must be quicker in my next attack)

I charged again this time faster, but once again, he was gone. I ended up hitting a tree that exploded into millions of pieces and another wound shooting out of my body. He hit me again.

(I have to attack and change my direction of movement in the final millisecond. Maybe then I will have a chance.)

As I was about to foolishly charge again, I felt a small hand touch my body and feeling the glowing Rosary on my neck. I instantly recognized him; he was the boy from the arena. He looked at me with no fear in my black stained eyes. I saw immediate fear in the other two cannibals’ eyes and as they whisper “The asset was woken.”

The boy innocently asked, “What is this?” as held the Rosary.

Before I could answer, I felt a loud thud at the back of my head as I fell to the ground.

The boy was gently taken by the hand by one of the cannibals as they walked to what looked like an empty white fridge with a desk and chair in its middle. The fridge was chained around on all corners to large trees. The boy obediently sat in as the cannibal closed the fridge and locked the chains.

AN ASSET AND A POSSESSED PRIEST…. THIS COULD MAKE AN INTERESTING STORY I THOUGHT TO MYSELF, AND I PASSED OFF TO LALA LAND.