"What happens when the urge to live is gone?
You become nothing more than a lump of flesh... filled with emptiness."
I couldn't take it anymore.
Even death — they wouldn't grant me that mercy.
I begged.
I cried.
I wept before they dragged me there — that place I had only heard of in whispers and rumors within the temple.
They said that's where the rebellious are sent — those foolish enough to fight back against the cruelty and injustice. I used to think their courage was something holy... until I saw what became of them.
They fought with everything they had.
And when they thought they'd won... they lost.
They were taken to that place — a place no one truly knows, only imagines with dread.
Before their condemnation, their eyes burned with defiance and light.
They were still human — alive.
But when they returned...
They were empty.
Their eyes, glassy and hollow, no longer reflected life. Their bodies looked whole — perfectly healed — but bore the invisible marks of being torn apart, again and again and again.
And their families?
Gone.
Swallowed by silence.
I don't want to speak of what happened to the women among them...
I would rather not.
Now, I understand.
Now, I feel it.
The chain lashes bite into me again and again — sharp iron thongs cutting deep into my skin.
I lie wide open on the cold slab, my body trembling.
My blood pools beneath me — a dark mirror.
And in that reflection…
I see something that should be dead —
but isn't.