"And the Prisoners Were Listening to Them, Edi"

Drip.

Drip.

Drip - Edi arose from his bed, wiping away the water in his face. He had tried having a nap, but he had gotten close to no sleep, and estimated that he would not get used to the water torture that was a part of trying to rest in this cell.

"Guard? Mister 'moustache man'? When is lunch?", he asked impatiently, pressing his face up against one of the holes in his door.

He heard slow steps through the hallway, probably a guard coming to check on him. "Excuse me, sir, but could I possibly have another cell? It's wet, the bed is bolted to the floor, and I can't move the pillow or the mattress away from the hole above my head in the roof."

He was talking to the guard, even though he still could not see him. "The pillow is attached to the mattress in some weird way, and the mattress is, like, I don't know... Glued to the bed frame or something? Gua...", he stopped, now realizing an unfamiliar guard was coming to see him. "Oh, sorry, I thought you were the other guard - you know, the one with the mind-bendingly amazing moustache", he apologized, and stepped back.

This person was wearing a similar uniform to the other guard, but it was hooded - and the guard would not remove it, though Edi could spot lips painted and a long braid coming down over one shoulder. Edi could also get a whiff of something other than cigar smoke - perfume. A wonderful one. Understated, but making its presence known.

The guard opened his cell, without saying a word, signalled for him to get out, and followed him down the entire corridor, an excruciatingly long one at that. Edi tried getting glimpses of the other cells, but all of them were empty.

"Where are the other inmates?", he asked, though he had remembered what the other guard had said about what would happen at noon - Edi supposed it was that time without having consulted any clock or being able to interpret the sun's position. He just wanted the supposedly female guard to say... Well - anything, really.

She kept quiet, and they kept walking. They entered some sort of recreational space, a room resembling more of a spa area, as opposed to what Edi had expected: A tired space, maybe an uninteresting cafeteria for meals and other gatherings.

Instead, all the walls were white as snow, there was a shelf of lit aroma candles, a slowly running ceramic fountain emerging from a wall, wind chimes in every corner, a corner had fluffy chairs and barstools along a wall-mounted table facing gigantic windows, that were so long they covered the whole distance from the floor to the ceiling all around the room. Except into the part of the "prison" where all the holding cells were, the place they had just come from.

The one side overlooked the garden space Edi had almost gotten a glimpse of from his own window - there were boxes and boxes of growing plants, some fruit-bearing ones, many of them were for growing flowers. There was also what seemed to be a botanic garden further back, all this shut in by hedges as tall as two NBA players, if they were to stand on top of each other. At least four meters tall, and a guy was trimming a spot on this hedge. He was wearing the same thing as Edi, a plain white pair of pants and a loose-fitting, plain white T-shirt. Seemingly with no logo on it, no print or any other signs of rank or status.

"Miss Guard, what is this place? Is this a communal space or garden? A spa? An... Addiction treatment centre?", he asked her, taking in everything he had just laid his eyes on - and breathing in the mixture of aroma candle scents, the smell of this paradise-like garden, and her subtle, but intriguing perfume.

The man trimming the hedge wiped some droplets of sweat from his brow with the sleeve on his shirt, and rested his arms on his hips for a bit, hedge trimming scissors in one hand. He did a swift pirouette on one heel, turning his whole figure towards Edi and his company, and walked towards them in a calm, though decided manner.

He entered the building, and subsequently spotted Edi, followed by a sincere smile. "Hiya, mister", he chirped, strolling right past Edi towards a drinking fountain. He had a quick slurp of water and set his sights back on the spot of the hedge he had been working on.

"Hello there", Edi finally let out, a bit perplexed by meeting an inmate of such an appetite for life, or so it seemed. The guard just stood still right by his side, with her hands behind her back, still not uttering a peep. The other guy went out, back to his work. Edi took a hesitant step, following him out there, with one eye on the woman by his side. She did not move or even bat an eyelid, which he took as permission to roam around and inspect his new sphere of reality.

Edi walked out to the flower cases, each of the patches of flowers marked by name - some Latin names. A gorgeous kind of flower stole his attention right away - "Hydrangea macrophylla". It looked like a small bunch of sky blue butterflies had gathered, and sat on the same twig together. Around them were roses and tulips and orchids all abound. Just around the corner, others were crouching down to trim bonsai trees.

There were regular-sized trees too, covered in pink flowers. "Cherry trees", the guy said, his back towards Edi, while trimming the hedge. "The sour kind. We'll be picking the fruits soon enough". Edi shaded his eyes from the sunlight and was confused all over again.

"There is sunlight here... But... We're in a cave? Aren't we?", he stuttered out.

The guy stopped working and turned to him. "We are, dude. Chill out, get some rest. Clear your mind", he said, did a shaka sign, and picked his tools back up again. 'No help there', Edi thought. He walked out into the botanical garden to see if he could find anyone to fill in the blanks in his mind, and maybe he would get to see plants or other things.

In the middle of the garden, there was a gigantic open area resembling a clay tennis court - chalked lines on every side, circles and lines all over the field. A cloud of dust settled, and a singular character emerged right at the centre. He stood straight, with his eyes closed, and his palms flat, pressed against each other. 'Is he meditating?', Edi thought.

He, then, took a combative stance - fists clenched and ready to guard against incoming attacks, a slight bend in the knees and feet apart. A loud thud sounded like someone hit a bass drum as hard as they could, and an object the size of a basketball suddenly shot at him from a long distance. He opened his eyes and blocked it with his arm. The next object shot out before the first one had reached him, and he blocked it with the underside of his foot as in a sidekick. He spun around and did a jumping kick to block the third one.

Edi just stood and watched this show for a couple of minutes - while picking his brain for an answer to any question he had about where he was, about why he was there, about whether he could leave if he wanted, and about where he would go if he decided to leave.

The martial artist was done after a magnificent showing and tightened the knot on his belt while walking off the field. He had a breather and looked over at Edi. "Are you here for the meditation session?", he shouted across the field, walking right towards him. Edi was nothing short of starstruck, and could not summon a sentence, only white noise.

"I have not seen you before, mister. Are you new in this programme?", he wondered, now in a dominant stance, just in front of Edi - who was questioning whether he had enrolled himself in some supernatural dojo while on illegal substances.

"No, I mean... Yes. This is all new to me", he muttered. "What place is this? Is this a prison or a... What place is this?", Edi asked, as sincerely as he could, now hoping for a final answer.

The sensei wiped some dust mixed with perspiration from his face and beat off more dust from his dusty gi. "Well... It can be a lot of things. Do you know why you are here if you really think hard about it?", he suggested.

Edi laughed a bit. "If I just had to think hard, I would have come up with an answer during my first hour here. No offence, sir", he answered, as he plucked an eyelash from the corner of his eye.

He noticed a building behind the clay court. "What is in that building? Your dojo, I presume?", Edi proposed, grinning.

"No, mister, that is a sauna in half of the building, and an open space to remain in silence", the fighter informed. "We should have a stint in the sauna once", he suggested. He walked off in a decided manner, back to the main building with the cells. "Oh, and be ready for tomorrow, mister. I hear rumours that we will be going out for some live fighting", he turned to Edi to say.

"Fight? Fight what, sensei?", he asked nervously.

"Beasts!", he said and turned back to pluck a cherry blossom. He smelled it and disappeared into the main building.