Entity

The time has come. Exactly one year has passed, and I will be awakened once more. The silence will finally end. I have been counting the days through the sliver in the wall where the outside world awaits. I am resting my mind in preparation.

Sounds from the Hunters’ camp on top of this dilapidated room filter down through the ceiling. I always wonder if the structure will someday collapse under their weight.

I open my eye and look at the others that were recently brought here. Their presence in this room has not yet affected them. They look exactly like me. In fact, I cannot tell them apart. Bandages cover their faces, with only a small gap to see through. The bandages cannot come off; I have tried. Their naked bodies dangle lifelessly from the chains crudely wrapped around their necks, suspending them several feet above the ground.

They cannot move. I cannot move.

At least not yet.

-

There is a sizzling sound—the signal that the pain is about to return. Electricity passing through me follows that the sound. After feeling numb for such a long time, I have come to appreciate and anticipate it. A current snakes through the chains hugging my neck, and my legs begin to twitch. My arm and claw begin to move but they are completely out of control—for now.

I am no longer just a piece of dead meat staring at a wall; I am alive again. I feel the pain of the thick metal chains digging into my skin. Someone begins wrenching on them, the motion violent and relentless, and after some time I start to feel blood actively flowing through my body again. My chest shivers and stutters in response to the increasing frequency of my returning heartbeat.

“Number one is ready,” a raspy voice calls out.

The sizzling sound returns in front of me where another entity hangs to the left. Its body begins to shudder. Slowly, it moves its arm in front on its own. Its chains are wrenched, and it looks even worse when done on something else. I can see the skin on its back tense up from behind. Its heart is beating now.

I do not know what it is, and I do not know what I am. I only know that this is my life.

“Number two is ready,” the same voice calls out. Cheers follow the announcement.

A third entity hangs in front to my left, and the same thing happens again; the sizzling starts, it begins to move, the wrenching shakes it around, and then its heartbeat returns—I see it pulsating under its naked body.

Only this time a soft whisper comes from its direction. I cannot make sounds like that—I cannot talk, I do not have a mouth like the Hunters. Maybe it is not exactly like me after all, but it is not like the Hunters either. They are far bigger than us. They can scream so loud that I lose all sense and my head starts to hurt. I cannot hurt them back much, but I try to use the silence to my advantage.

“Number three is ready as well,” the voice yells, once again accompanied by cheering.

-

A Hunter yells out that stream of sounds I have never been able to decipher, and we are released from our chains. We all drop at the same time. My foot smashes into the ground with a resounding crack. The other two entities turn towards me.

This has never happened before. I am confused and in pain. The entity to my left slowly approaches and reaches for me. I do not know how to respond so I let it come close. Almost skillfully, it twists my foot back into its usual position. After a few seconds, the pain passes and my foot is back to normal.

I have been injured many times before. It either heals itself or I work around the injury if something breaks like earlier. Nothing ever hurts for long. I feel like this is not normal even though it has always been that way for me. Maybe I compare myself too much to the Hunters. When they are hurt, they stay hurt for very long. One was still limping from an injury even years after it happened.

I feel appreciation but do not know how to show it. I give it no further thought.

The entities face the gate and wait as if they know exactly what is to come. Have they done this before? I wonder. How else would they know that the gate will open soon?

We can still barely move until the room fills with black mist. It obstructs my vision. I can feel and smell it. My skin absorbs it, or at least that is what I always imagined the tingling sensation to be. I start feeling stronger; my focus sharpens and I can now run rather than merely walk. The other entities start running as well.

It is impossible for us to keep still. We bound around the room and slam our bony bodies into each other, but the impacts are not enough to stop our momentum. We are like flies in a closed box.

A loud yell numbs our movement and hurts my head. We all stop moving. It must be some sort of battle cry and the terror it instills is paralysing. A moment passes, and the gate starts to rise. The sunlight makes its way from my feet to my torso and arm, and then to the bandages covering my face.

Finally. I have waited for this for too long.

My eye closes.

-

Like every year to this time, I am interrupted by the sound of an explosion. I used to try to identify where it came from but my curiosity has since died out. It is our cue to run, and the other entities get a small head start on me. I gather my thoughts and manage to catch up quickly. The Hunters can’t match our speed and I am determined to get away this time.

I dismiss that thought and correct myself: they will catch me in the end. They always do.

Do the other entities think and wonder as I do? Do they have the same desire for this to stop? If they do not yet, they will.