Chapter 2: Hatching a treacherous scheme

Now, where were we? Ah, yes, the dungeon.

So, after 250 years of solitary in a cell of about 5 foot square, I had the pleasure of both company and slightly roomier conditions. I was led through the room where many men stood or sat around, all were eyeing me; but they all had various expressions ranging from seeing me as a threat, to viewing me as fresh meat. At the far side of the room, we went through a doorway, and entered the chamber of tortures. To a small degree it reminded me of a certain section of Hell. But, not to worry, I didn't get nostalgic or homesick or any such mush. I was absolutely stoic.

In the room currently were a dozen men, both torturers are the tortured alike. I was unceremoniously manhandled over to a cold stone wall, stripped half naked and securely shackled to the wall by my wrists. I frowned at my two captors with distaste and eyed them warily. I became genuinely concerned when a servant entered the room and handed one of them a piece of silver and a bottle of holy water. He dismissed the servant, while pouring holy water on the piece of silver.

'By all the powers of Hell,' I thought, 'This is going to hurt.'

He handed the bottle of holy water to his comrade for safekeeping as he smiled darkly at me. As he stepped towards me brandishing the newly blessed silver, I glared angerly at him and bared my teeth, letting out a low, animalistic growl. Completely undeterred, and not viewing me as any sort of threat, he pressed on and in a show of power pressed the silver piece into my right shoulder.

An intense, sharp pain began in the place the silver touched. The growl reverberating from my chest got louder and more dangerous sounding as I tried to pull myself away (but there was literally only a few centimeters I could go). The two men laughed in an evil sounding way.

"Not so high-and-mighty now, are we demon?" he chuckled. Then he pressed the silver into my left pectoral, right above where my essence core was. (In case you don't know, demons don't have hearts; we have a core of our essence. Destroying our essence core with holy water is the fastest way to make us cease to exist.) As it burned, I acted out of instinct and self-preservation, and did a quick spatial calculation, before giving him a good, swift kick in the crotch. He dropped the silver and it clattered to the cold, hard stone floor.

"Ah!" he moaned as he dropped to the floor, holding himself.

'That's what you get for being stupid enough not to bind my legs to this wall.' I thought. I had a moment of satisfaction. But it only lasted a moment indeed, as the second man stepped around the crumpled form on the ground and quickly snatched up the silver piece. He backed away and called for the other jailers in the chamber to assist him. With their help, my legs were chained to the wall in the same fashion as my wrists, without any further incident.

That is when the trouble really began. It turned out the second man was a lot more devilish than the first and was Hell-bent on making me pay for my transgressions. In the end, most of the flesh on my arms, neck and the front of my torso, bore painful looking burns. I am not proud of the sounds that emanated from the torture chamber that day. I let out cries of pain, gnashed my teeth, writhed like a serpent, cursing and howling like- well, a demon. But I had no choice; not only was it painful, I had to make them satisfied with their work before they did something that was truly irreversible. Self-preservation was an item high on my list of late.

Evidently, they were satisfied for the time being as they left me chained to the wall and exited the room. Where they went and why, I didn't care. But I spent the next half an hour thinking about my situation and how I would consolidate the next two steps of my plan. The main choice I needed to make was about the level of power and violence to use on the other prisoners in this section of the jail. I already knew that the men in the regular section of the jail and the men in the adjacent room were two separate sets. It was the men who misbehaved themselves, or who had powerful enemies who ended up in this section. Being kept in this section was viewed as an obvious demotion.

What I needed, and what I intended to do, was to be the dark prince of this jail section. I needed to be the unquestioned king, so that the further steps of my escape plan would not be reported or questioned. 'Besides,' I thought, 'If my subjects are loyal to me, and aid me, I will allow them to escape with me.'

My thoughts were interrupted by the door banging against the wall, as it swung open. The two men had returned. They along with two other men, unshackled my legs from the wall and slapped a ball and chain to my left leg. They freed my wrists and while they stood one on either side of me, each with a secure grip on my arms, they lay down the law of the land. I was informed my hands would not be bound, but if I caused the guards any trouble, I would instantly have a repeat of what had just happened to me.

From there, the four men marched me back to the adjacent room full of men. I glanced at the exit and noticed the reason they had left for half an hour. The rough brass door handles were removed, and large, shiny solid silver ones installed.

'These humans are getting smarter.' I thought. In other circumstances, I would have applauded their cunning. I glanced around the room to assess the other men.

Suddenly, smelling holy water, I turned my head to the source of the smell. To my relief, it was only the door handle installer. He splashed holy water over the handles.

"You had best remember what we said." The man holding my left arm threatened. I made a small nod and stood absolutely still as they let go of me and left the compound.

I had no choice but to obey the guards (to some degree) as they possessed holy water dipped silver. But in this room of fellow prisoners, none of whom had anything lethal to me; I was a god.

I looked at them, sizing them up as they did the same to me. 'Let the games begin!' I thought.