Prisoner

                                                                                                                 

By Randy Ai
(December 21, 2012)

 For many centuries Erik remained prisoner in his small room. There were no windows and the room was completely dark.  The only way that Erik knew he was in an enclosed space was by tracing his hands along the walls, until he discovered all four corners. Erik could not remember whether this exercise had taken several minutes or several years to complete. On rare occasions Erik remembered seeing light, although he was unsure how this was possible.  The light never illuminated anything inside the room, and gave Erik no knowledge as to the colour of the walls, or the size of the enclosure. As Erik had no access to the outside world, he soon surrendered to the company of his own thoughts. In the beginning Erik had thoughts of escaping, but soon these thoughts faded. Afterwards, any desires to eat or drink faded as well, as did his desire to move.  Before long, Erik remained motionless in one place, unsure of whether he was standing, sitting, or reclining. At times Erik wondered how long he had remained inside the room, or where he was, but such questions were impossible to answer as the room gave no indication of time or place. In the rarest of occasions Erik would suddenly be struck by a thought (and always the same thought) that somehow he was not alone. Inside the walls, he knew – although he did not know how he knew – but he knew that there lived a spider. The spider could not see Erik, and perhaps did not even know of Erik’s existence. However, as if receiving a whisper through the wall, Erik could hear the spider’s thoughts. In this way, Erik knew that the spider was also a prisoner, stuck inside a large metal apparatus, an armour-like enclosure that wrapped itself around the spider’s body, entrapping its limbs. The loneliness of imprisonment was at times too much for the spider to bear, and its body would convulse as if dancing to a shrill and cacophonous symphony.  This would be accompanied by a sharp and unbearable pain, which Erik could sense in its most vivid and unmitigated form. Afterwards, there would be silence and all communications from the spider would cease. Whenever this happened Erik would attempt to search for the spider, but such efforts were always futile. Erik would retreat back to the emptiness of his room, his memory of the spider would fade, and any pain he felt would slowly be washed away by the tiny waves of time.