Helpless: Day 8

Word Count: 48,003

Summary of Events:

To his surprise, Mikolaj was taken before the Wojewoda the next day, where the knights added even more embellishments to their tale of what he'd done as they reported it to the Wojewoda and Mikolaj was sentenced to be jailed until the Wódz Książę was inclined to see him. That afternoon Mikolaj was served his first food since his incarceration, which was a cold, cloudy white liquid with strange little grey tube shapes floating in it, which, even though massively hungry, Mikolaj didn't have the appetite to even taste, but was relentlessly ordered to by the warden . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

His stomach churning with disgust, but sure he wouldn’t be given any peace until he at least took a taste, Mikolaj picked up the bowl in his hands and took a bit of a sip of the unapppetising fluid it contained.

Revulsion contorted Mikolaj’s face and it was all he could do to swallow the cold liquid whose taste he couldn’t even begin to describe.

His stomach rebelled at the offering and sent it back whence it’d come, causing Mikolaj to spit the liquid — along with some additional substances from his stomach — into the bowl, which he also inadvertently tipped, spilling some of the abhorrent fluid onto the floor.

“Don’t you dare!” the warden shouted.

Mikolaj wished he could just have a drink of water to get the nauseating taste out of his mouth, but when he heard the sound of his door being unlocked, he had his doubts that was what he would be receiving, and his doubts were well-founded.

The warden entered the cell and kicked at the bowl which was still in Mikolaj’s hands, flinging it and its disgusting contents into Mikolaj’s face.

Spitting the fluid away from his lips and swiping it away from the rest of his facial features, Mikolaj also cautiously edged back from the warden, who picked up the now-empty bowl and seized Mikolaj’s shoulder in a painful grip that made Mikolaj writhe in an effort to get free of it, which only made it worse.

Using the bowl in his other hand, the warden beat Mikolaj, particularly using the edge of the bowl to strike at Mikolaj’s head and face, which Mikolaj strove to protect with his hands and arms as much as he could.

Every time the warden missed Mikolaj with a blow, the bowl became more and more dented, which led to it inflicting cuts onto Mikolaj when it did meet its mark.

Nonetheless, it eventually became too dented for the warden to believe it very useful anymore, so he cast it aside and seized Mikolaj with both hands, kicking Mikolaj in the stomach several times before he threw Mikolaj to the floor and Mikolaj managed to scramble beneath his cot as the warden stalked out of the cell, slamming the door shut with particular force behind him before locking it and storming away.

Trembling uncontrollably as he cowered beneath his cot, Mikolaj tried vainly to blink away the tears that flooded his eyes. His whole body was in pain, with some of the cuts from the damaged bowl stinging severely.

He didn’t know why the warden had wanted him to eat whatever that had even been, as he wouldn’t have thought the warden would care whether he ate or starved, nor did he know why an accidental spill of the liquid had necessitated such a savage beating, but Mikolaj wanted more than ever to find a way either to get home, or to die.