Only You Can Make Yourself Suffer
“Inmates, you will be let out of the cages one by one and escorted into the Big House. I already see a few familiar faces.” The prisoners growled in their minds, about to let it out. This policeman was a tough guy who could cause massive amounts of pain, eternal pain. They held their feelings inside of themselves.
Steven knew all about this, but he faced a new realization, too. The sun would never shine again for this group of men. They’d committed the ultimate sins. And guys get locked up for that here in the Nine Rings.
“Alright, inmates, we will begin with Mr. Steven first.” Steven quickly left the unlocked cage and was chained with one of the bio-chains that could bite a person with a sedating venue that gave a person nightmares from Hell.
The other men jumped off: Tony, Raz, McMad, Jeff. Their eyes still shone anger. Soon they would realize how defeated they would be, shells with haunted souls.
“I don’t take no lip!” McMad yelled, launching at the officer. The officer smiled and hit him with a strong electrical charge, a web around his shaking body. McMad’s hair became disheveled, and he screamed. He beat his head on the hard, concrete floor. Blood flowed through his eyes.
The other prisoners obeyed, already losing the light in their eyes. Time took them all.
“Now inmates here is your cell. You are in circle 5, not that I need to tell you that. You will never leave this area for any reason. You are going to eat, sleep, and then die here.”
Tony surveyed the cell. The walls were bright white. The bars were black and imposing on his mind. He’d grown up on the streets of New City. During his time there, he’d certainly became a man. He had a kill count of fifty. He enjoyed licking his victims’ eyes, letting them feel the warmth they would never have again. That bitch caught him. He’d find her.
No you won’t, a voice told him.
“Alright, criminal MINES, not like you have minds, you will each be issued a pistol with one bullet. Use it wisely. Remember the slogan of Nine Rings: Only You Can Make Yourself Suffer. If you want out, you can shoot yourself. If you want another who’s causing you to suffer, blow his brains out. Suffering is always a choice.”
Steven lay on the mat on the floor. He stretched his long, scrawny legs out, covered in blonde hair. It reminded him of his father, the man he loved, the only person he loved who was killed by a police officer for jaywalking.
Of course, the police state had the ultimate rule of the land. Any tiny infraction could cause a place to lose discipline. The order had to be maintained.
Yeah, Steven said in his head. They sure had to keep us controlled. There’d never been a time without control. Most of society accepted it. They didn’t care to think deeply about reality. Their lazy apathy justified obedience.
McMad shook his head a few times. The mess of red made him look like a beast. Toned muscles bulged from his shirt now useless. He liked to be a strong man in life, ready for the ultimate fight. His dad told him that, yeah, and pops was right. A man had to be strong and ready to take on the world if he had to. Already, however, a feeling of helpless panic tickled his nerves.
Tony, a skinny little black man, stared at the white ceiling. The impression reminded him of an office, much like the one he used to work in. Now he’d be here for an eternity, a life. He tried to fight the state, tired of them oppressing him, leaving him out of the party. In a way, his optimistic attitude still lingered. He smiled. The others all looked at him, so he made his expression blank.
Raz, a short plump man accepted his fate. Perhaps with all he’d been through, a final resting place didn’t seem so terrible. He could make peace and sleep safely. The cops took all his money and food away. He tried to enter into a different embassy but was too slow.
“So, what shall we do in Nine Rings?” Steven asked.
“What can we do?” Raz asked back.
“A bunch of nothing,” Tony said. “We’re here forever. That is, unless you believe in an afterlife.”
“Stupid fairytales,” McMad said. Something hit his pride.
“Don’t get mad, McMad,” Raz soothed in. “We have enough time to suffer. Let’s not make it any worse.”
“Do you think we could escape?” McMad asked.
“Do you think pigs will fly?” Steven said. “The more we wish, the more it is going to drive us insane.”
“Insane, bitch, I’ve been a nut all my life,” McMad said.
“Don’t call me bitch,” Steven said hostilely.
McMad jumped up and pointed this pistol at Steven.
“Are you really going to waste that bullet on me? You have such a big head. It could use a little deflating.”
“Hey!” Raz said. “We have years to die. Let’s not start out like this, come on, guys.” The men sat back down in their chairs, hard and uncomfortable.
Steven signed. Jeff went to the bars. He placed his fingers around them and pulled. No man could open the bars.
“Man, I don’t think Jesus could get out of here,” Jeff said.
“Jesus, man, he wouldn’t come here. He’s too busy with the good folk who are going to heaven,” Raz said. “We’re going into the dark. I guess that ends all life. You don’t have to think when the dark comes over you. You go into the ground and you rot.”
Tony chirped in, “I think there is an afterlife.”
“Yeah?” said Steven. “So why don’t you go now? It’s going to be better than in this place.”
Tony turned his head to the outside of the bars, the grey wall blocked everything else. The place had no windows. He looked down at the pistol.
“Yo, yo, yo” said Steven. “You don’t want to go before your time. Calm down, man.”
Tony took the gun and put it into his mouth.
“Come on, Tony. We want you around. This is too fast. I’m sorry, man. I didn’t mean it that way.”
Tony’s brains bounced on the wall and sprayed the ceiling. Steven backed off. His face covered in speckled blood.
The other guys paced the place for a while, not wanting to say a word. They blamed Steven. What a bastard, they thought. The blood smelled like death.
Meals came down from the ceiling minus Tony’s. Apparently, the man in the sky knew he was dead already.
Raz turned over a piece resembling meat. He took a bite, and it was sour. He spit it out.
“Holy Hell, what is this?” He asked.
The other spit theirs up as well.
“It’s starver’s food,” McMad replied. “It’s the stuff that you can only eat when dying.”
“I ain’t dying, so this shit can get away.”
A few days passed.
Raz started to shake.
“Steven, I can’t take this much longer.”
“You gotta.”
Raz pointed the pistol at himself.
“No, drop it,” Jeff said and ran toward Raz.
Bang.
Raz shot Jeff, grabbed Jeff’s gun, and shot himself.
Now there were only two inmates left. Steven and McMad.
The cell’s blood rotted with each pressing day.
Weeks passed. The smell lingered, massaging the air.
“I think it’s time we left,” Steven said, unable to take any more of the agony, the smell, the desperation.
“I believe it is.”
“Ready to abandon humanity as it has us?”
“I believe so. It’s a stupid race. I don’t want to be apart of it anymore.”
Two shots fired.
The office smiled at them from behind the station.
“Only you can make yourself suffer! There’s no need to ever been unhappy.” He jogged outside and smelled the fresh spring air.
