The Thoughts Of Magellan: Smile

The Thoughts Of Magellan: Smile

Turn Back The Clock

Prisoner 10013 is five years old.

Warden Magellan made his way down the cell blocks on Level One. In their cells, prisoners shirked away and covered their faces with their arms to hide him from their sight. As if looking at him would be their doom.

His footsteps echoed in the silence his presence created. He knew the entirety of the prison by heart. He knew the route he was taking now even better then that.

Soon, he arrived at his destination. The prisoner inside was sitting on the bench inside and kicking their feet lazily. As he came into view the prisoner looked up excited. Magellan saw that the prisoner had recently lost a tooth.

"Mornin' Warden!" Prisoner 10013 called out.

"Good morning Prisoner 10013." Magellan greeted back.

10013 groaned, "How come you always say my full name? Can't you call me something else. Like Ten-Oh or Thirteen?"

Prisoner 10013. The largest source of stress and doubt in Magellan's life. He was there when the child was born, and watched as he struggled and was beaten down by the Hell that is Impel Down. The child didn't even have a real name. The World Government had denied him that, instead he had a designation. Even 'indentured servants' had names. What truly amazed Magellan was the child's ability to smile.

Even when other prisoners attacked him, when he got sick, when he was injured and had to be literally stitched back together by the Impel Down doctors, when he was insulted and gated by others, he still had the ability to smile. He would laugh and joke.

It hurt. It hurt Magellan to see 10013 try so hard to act like a normal child when the world around him wanted to grind him to dust. Not a single person cared about him beside himself, and there was nothing he could do to truly help him. His position in the prison garunteed that.

"Prisoner 10013, what are you so happy about?" Magellan asked, completely ignoring the kid's complaint.

10013 puffed his cheeks out in annoyment. "Bah. Being upset about everything won't make anything better at all. Sure, life sucks, but complaining won't make anything better. It might actually make things worse. I can't change anything except myself. If I act happy, at least things seem a little better. Everyone else is so grim all the time." Suddenly he gave a cheeky grin. "Be Warden, why don't you smile a bit. You seem so serious all the time. Maybe smiling, even if it isn't real, will calm you down."

Magellan looked into the cell. 10013 looked back with a hopeful expression.

He couldn't bring himself to do it. There was nothing to be happy about.

"No." The Warden of Impel Down simply stated. He couldn't stand to spend anymore time around 10013. It made his stomach hurt.

He turned around and walked away. As he did, he missed 10013's reaction.

The smirk the child held slowly fell until his face had a neutral expression. His lips twitched. He swung his legs so they didn't dangle off the side of the bench he was sitting on and now they were on the bench entirely. He wrapped his arms around his legs and slowly began to curl up into a ball. It was cold, and he shivered.

When Magellan's footsteps faded away into the distance and he was sure he was alone, he pushed his face into his chest. Tears began to streak down his face as he sobbed alone. He wasn't quiet about it, he couldn't be. It was just too much for him to take.

The prisoners in the nearby cells heard him crying and began to call out insults and heckled him for his weakness.

"I-I guess there's no real point in pretending to be happy." He said to himself.

A prisoner with exceptionally sharp hearing heard him and laughed. He then shouted cruelly, "That's right boy! Life sucks and then you die. That's the way it's always been, and that's they way it will always be!"

"Take what you can while you can, before life takes everything from you!" Another prisoner called out.

"Nothing matters! Really! Just do what you want when you feel like it!"

They went on and on about greater acts of depravity and 10013 covered his ears to block it out.

They didn't stop, and eventually he fell asleep. His lullaby was the shouting and screaming of demons in Hell.