Although he was awake during the entire kidnapping he was dazed and his senses dulled.Taken from his home, Craig was transported from one cage to another until he reached his final destination.
As Craig was coming around he noticed that the walls of the cage are completely transparent. Through the strange wall, Craig noticed some strange structures he has never seen before. Browsing around he noticed another prisoner. "Hey, hey you. Where are we?"
The silence was the only response. His cellmate didn't even want to turn around to acknowledge his presence. To be ignored like that angered Craig more than it should have. Probably a late reaction to the entire situation. He walked fastly towards his silent cellmate and raised his voice quite a bit - "I said, hey you. Where are we?"
The small silent figure slowly turned around. He was quite older than Craig and had a disturbing grin on his old face "You want to know where we are? We are on a death row."
Craig was not frightened by his words as much as he was with his look. He was never the one to show his weakness, so Craig pushed the conversation further "What kind of a cage is this, and why have these creatures taken us?"
"You are gutsy, kid. I like you. It will be a shame to watch you die. Most of the newcomers that come here usually never open their mouths, that is, until they start to scream. "
"Lets quit the dark, cryptic sentences. I would really appreciate some answers, and considering you are the only here I guess you know something. I am Craig by the way."
"Forgive my manners, Craig. When facing certain death it is normal to lower your standards of conduct a bit. I am David and if you really want some answers I am going to give them to you. I arrived here, some time ago. I am not really sure when. All I can say for certain is that so far I have witnessed deaths of eleven of my cellmates. I have known names of just three of them. "
"So how did they die, and what is the deal with this cage, and who are those strange creatures?"
"You know Craig, I wasn't always afraid of the dark. But then I came here. Now I am scared senseless of the dark. You see, when darkness falls, they come. And when they come, killings occur. When night falls, dozens of those strange creatures gather here and watch us. You wonder why is the cage like this. Simple. They watch at us, mocking us, reminding us of our fate.Then they talk to each other, laugh and smile like they are not in the same room with someone who is about to die. At some point during the night, one of us will be taken from this cage and killed for their pleasure. You see Craig, they eat us."
Usually calm and composed, Craig was losing it. He knew that this small old geezer is telling the truth. He started pacing around, nervously in order to find the way out. "No, it can't be. That can't be my faith. We must get out of here David. I will not be eaten by some alien creature. There must be some way out. Help me out, David."
"I am sorry Craig. Look outside. The night is falling. It is all in vain. Soon they will come. I am sorry young friend. It is all over. One final piece of advice. Try to look as sick as possible, so far it has worked for me."
Craig took the advice. After a few moments, both of them were standing silently in the opposite corners of the prison cell with only dark thoughts going through their heads.
Giant alien creature approached the cage and lowered his enormous, ugly head to be in the same level as David and Craig. He tapped at the wall but there was no response from the prisoners. That really angered the Giant who turned away and yelled to another Giant -
"This is just great. They gave us another sick lobster. Noone is gonna buy either of those two. Boss is gonna kill or fire someone."
This is my entry for #constrainedwriting contest hosted by @svashta
Image sources:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tiger_Cage,Udaipur_City_Palace
https://www.pexels.com/photo/gray-metal-cage-188114/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lobsters_in_a_tank,_Standing_Sushi_Bar,Singapore-_20150310