Born In The Dungeons

Chapter 2: Sunlight

"Put me down!" I punched the guard's back with as much force as I could muster. He carried me down dimly lit stone hallways of the dungeon and went up the stairs toward a large metal door. He put me down, holding my wrists firmly in one hand as he fumbled with his keys again.

"Bloody hell, why are there so many," he muttered as he looked for the right key again.

"Take me back to my mother! What is he doing to her?" I yelled at him. He ignored me.

"Let go of me! I need to get back to her!"

He grunted and continued to thrust each key into the metal lock. None of them fit so far. His grip on my wrists loosened slightly while he concentrated on the door, allowing me to wiggle one arm out of his hold.

I punched his arm to her his attention. He kept ignoring me. I punched it again. Same reaction.

"My Gods!" I groaned in frustration. "Just let me see if my mother is okay."

"P-please," I added through clenched teeth. I hated begging him. I hated him. He left my mother all alone with that guard.

He halted and turned to face me. "No." He caught my free arm and joined my wrists together in his giant hand, this time squeezing them tighter. I couldn't get out of it. Then he continued to try some more keys. My skin was getting heated from anger.

"How many of those do you even have? By Gods, we will be here forever! You might as well let me go see my mother while you try your luck here," I tried to reason with the imbecile that had hundreds of keys, which all looked the same. If he was the key keeper, he was not a very organized one.

He went back to ignoring me. I switched tactics. "You know, it would be much easier if you marked your keys."

"You don't think I know that?" he bit out. Finally, one of the keys went in. He tried to turn it, but it wouldn't budge. He tried to turn it the other way, still it didn't move.

"I don't think it's the right one."

The guard clenched his jaw and turned to me again. "You don't say?" He went for another key, grinding his teeth together in frustration when that one also didn't fit.

"Oh, that one didn't seem right either."

He exhaled forcefully through his nose. "You're an irritating one, aren't you?" 

I'm trying to irritate you, so you'd let me see my mother, you brute.

I kicked the keys out of his hand. They fell on the stone floor with a loud clank. He separated them as he went through each key, so he could keep track of the wrong ones. Now all of them got mixed up again. 

He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. When he exhaled, he opened them and shot me a glare, which would have scared me if I wasn't angry with him as well. I was definitely playing with fire, but I did not care. I had to make sure that my mother wasn't hurt by the other guard. Was he still there? Why did they only take me?

"Now will you take me to my mother?" I shot him a glare of my own. It would take him forever to sort through those keys again and he knew it.

He ground his molars in anger, as his eyes bore into mine. He tugged down on my wrists, bringing me down with him while he bent over to pick up the keys. Then he shot upwards and pushed me in front of him, maintaining his painful grip on me. "Walk."

I did as he told me, trying not to grin. It worked!

We made our way back to my cell. As we neared the familiar metal bars, I swallowed anxiously. She was all right. She had to be. Finally, I stood outside of the cell where my mother sat on the bed, crying into the palms of her hands.