In the depths of a cave, a small child lies sobbing, abandoned from society. Quivering on the cold uneven stone floor. Covering himself in a ball, he pulls on the iron mask covering his face, but to no avail. In a small jail-cell, with nothing but a metal door, the boy, who was barely five years old, feared for his life in uncertainty. His mother was sliced dead before his very eyes and he himself, almost beaten to death, found himself in this very room after losing consciousness. His place was as unbelievable as his memory and he didn’t understand what was happening, nor the reason for it. All he felt was pain and he called to the one he loved the most:

“Maaa-maaa! H-h-h-elp meeeee! Pl-e-l-le-eease.”, sobbingly he yelled, but nobody answered.

Nobody is there to help him. And he lies there, alone, helpless and fragile, on the freezing floor. His stomach growling, his vision clouded by the mask, and his fear piercing his heart into pieces. He doesn’t understand and he doesn’t want to understand.

“Mam-m-ma. My Head! Pl-lease, I’m scaared! Mamaaa!”, he stutters quietly, but nobody is there to answer. And the only thing he hears is his echoing voice, bouncing back and forth.

He continues mumbling for help. But with no one there, he loses faith. With his mind in turmoil and his heart collapsing, he slowly turns himself into an empty shell.

There is no light, only darkness. There is no warmth, only cold. There is no hope, only fear.

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The child in the dark cave was seemingly forgotten. Once a day a guard brought food through the doorplate. The boy begged the guard for answers, but he never replied. He closed it immediately after pushing the items through and the boy continued to suffer in solitude, still crying out. But after a while the cries stopped and after a year the cave was completely silent, as if there was no prisoner. Nobody knew what was going through the mind of the boy and for four long years, he seemed to be forgotten. Four long years he went through this torture, believing he was dead already. Believing that life was pointless and that there was no good, at least any longer.

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He did not shout, he did not talk, he didn’t even mumble anything to himself. He had only his thoughts. Sometimes he sat between the corner, sometimes he lied down on the cobblestone floor. Since there was no bed, or anything for that matter, he could only sleep on the floor. Sleeping in a seating position would be warmer, but the weight of his metal mask wouldn’t allow it. He had to lie down on the cold, hard and uneven floor.

The food never changed, always rice, vegetables and some chicken, which he could reach through the mouth of the mask.  It was plain, but it was all he had. The food was barely enough, but the real torture lied in the boredom. The Solitude. There was nothing to do and the cold was unbearable.

Life seemed to pass by. With nothing happening, there was nothing to remember except his thoughts. Those were all he had, and they ran as wild as they could. He questioned everything he knew, asked questions he didn’t know the answers to, and it should have driven anyone insane. But the boy forgot. And since there was not much life in him, there was no way to go insane.

This prison slowly became all he knew. It became his whole world. The darkness, the loneliness, it became his home.

He lost track of everything. He couldn’t force himself to wait any longer. He gave up. After what seemed to be an infinite amount of time, he questioned what would happen if he tried to stop eating. If he could leave this place, then it would be worth to suffer one last time. So, he left the food on the floor next to the sliding metal piece. The guard would take the plate again and return it tomorrow.

Two days went by, and he felt pain in his stomach. But it was nothing new to him, so he continued to starve. The Guard continued to do what he always did, plate in and plate out, he didn’t mind at all. And, after a while, the pain stopped. After two weeks, it had gotten difficult to move and after three weeks, he just lied there on the floor.

He felt how his soul tried to resist, how it tried to force him to stay alive, but it didn’t matter to him anymore. He wanted to know what happens beyond death. Because everything that was in life, he had already felt, and it was nothing he liked. It was all bad and there was no love left for him.

Now there was nothing more to do but wait. Wait for his inevitable fate.