[Shh]: 58.Contest Entries.Caught.

   Caught. He’d been caught again.

   Unable to move and yet far from being unnerved, he glanced around the open-air temple. Tall orange pillars rising up to the starry sky, incense floating in the air, enormous statue towering above him: same old stupidity.

   They were all about him, stumbling about in drunken ecstasy, celebrating the sacrifice they were about to make. He chuckled to himself. They still hadn’t given up.

   They’d tied him down to a large slab of rock again, but this time with metal shackles by the feel of it. He could feel the metal biting into his flesh around his ankles, his thighs, his chest, his arms.

   He grinned in dark humour. They’d gone to great lengths to make sure he wouldn’t be able to escape, but it still wasn’t good enough. Would they never learn?

   He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and focused all his attention deep within himself. He touched the never-dying anger within, the fire constantly raging in his soul, and he gave in to it, fully, madly. Instantly, he felt his skin burning up. The metal shackles melted around him, slipping off him like water, and he was free.

   He stood, flashing another grin, this time at the statue of their god. Ruby eyes glared down at him. The cultists nearest him gaped, frozen in place. He shook his dark hair free, not bothered in the least by the raging flames flickering over his skin, warming him, completely in tune with the emotions of his soul. As though he’d rushed at them with murderous intent, the cultists screamed in absolute terror and scattered like a flock of startled birds, rushing down the hill as fast as they could in their inebriated state.

   He threw back his head and laughed in sheer delight.