The Box Opens

Pandora. A fitting name, thought Felicia, as she was walking through its hallways.

A box where the world can lock away its greastest evils, to never see the light of day. Murders and madmen, all of them.

Her power, while not good in a fight, was useful to the authorities, the ability to make anyone tell her the thruth, but on days like these it felt like a curse, when she had to talk to the most dangerous prisoners.

She was deeper down the pit of Pandora then she had ever been, the parts built for the madmen with the power and desire to bring down the authorities, bring down order.

So here she was, walking in hallways lined with doors that were shut, a single small glass window in each so the prisoners can be counted with ease during an escape attempt.

Down here, it truly felt like hell on earth, all sin gathered in one place, in one vessel.

She knew who she was talking to today. The black king. Erlking. A monster that was there to witness the rise of powers, where he fought at every turn against order. Against the world itself. With over a century to gather power he was a monster of nightmares, of thousands of limbs made if shadows, the only reason he was caught was that he got overconfident.

He was brought in dead, they said. His arms all crushed, his spine twisted, legs crooked and head all but gone, he was pronounced dead. Then his limbs fixed themself, head returned, but oh so many things missing, and his spine returned its former state. The scars remained, and they said he was weaker than ever, and he would never return to the peak of his power.

He almost escaped there, almost.

The authorities never found his real name, do they merely gave him the name John Doe. He laughed at that through the pain he feels due to his injuries, through it all, he just laughed.

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Felicia, and the guards arrived outside cell 4241, the cell of the black king, and after confirming their identify the door swung open for 10 seconds, as is policy.

There was a wirring and beeping of machines, felicia thought to herself, that must drive one mad.

Guns lined the walls, following the madman's every movement.

Then she looked upon him, and the bulletproof glass seperating them, that so many times before had made her feel so safe, felt far too thin. Like it wouldnt even hinder the monster, the word felt insufficent, should it ever decided to move, and perhaps it wouldnt. Perhaps it would simply crack and fall away. The fact that this was him when he was crippled scared her on so many levels, in so many ways.

He was scarred, was her second thought. Lines of scar tissue drew across his face, one right over his eyes, or where they would have been. His nose and ears were gone and several drew down his neck aswell. He had a tube in his throat and an oxygen mask over his face, but his hair was untouched, and oh so black, far too black, a stark contrast beetween that and his ruined face.

Her third thought was that he was large, sitting chained in a chair far larger than those on the other side if the glass.

A silence ensued as the guards lined up along the walls of her side of the room, not that would be able to do anything once he was out of his chair and past the glass, but it was still something. It was a lie they told themselves to feel safe. To feel in control, even when they were free falling.

A chuckle broke through the silence and a raspy voice, half strangled, greeted them.

"I would stand up but I am afraid that option isnt on the table."

Ecstatic and mocking were the emotions in its words, and as she stayed silent and sat down he followed her with his head, and the turrets lining the walls followed him, like he was watching her even though it was evident that he didnt need to turn his head to watch everyone in the room. To watch everyone with eyes not there, eyes that if they had anything to say in it, would never return.

Felicia broke the silence first.

"I would not expect you to be happy, with being in constant pain."

"Well, this is a good day, is it not? New friends down in this pit, and I get a person to hold a conversation to for the first time in 4 months now!"

His tone was pleasant except when spike the word pit, and it was filled with such venom that Felicia flinched, although she tried to hide it , she knew that he knew. They werent meant to know about the new inmates.

He continued on in the same mocking and ecstating voice, far more then half mad.

"See, I may have lied a tiny bit about how my power works, or well the activation of it. I always hid that secret, and quite well might I add."

Felicia was sweating at this point, and as she tried to step out if the chair her body refused to respond, the guards collapsed, and the automatic guns meant to fire as soon as he even thought if using his power were ripped from their places on the wall. She noticed that his eyes were yellow. Eyes he wasnt meant to have.

"You see, I dont need to see it happen, I dont even need to see them. I merely need to be close, once and then its mine! And with you all being so kind with placing chronos next to me, well, I just couldnt resist!"

And with that exclamtion the glass started cracking, the straightjacket holding him in place snapped open, and Felicia felt control over her body return. She did what she thought any sane person would do, and ran.

She didnt make it far.

"And, well, there is a thing I need to do now. Cant sit idle anymore, Im afraid!" Said the madman to his victim, one of many in the coming days. Some were more guilty then others. They all died the same.

Erlking left with a trail of freed prisoners and dead guards behind himself, and when the authorities were finally able to acess the facility again, days later, not a single survivor was left.

From the point of the black king naming it Pandora was just asking for someone to open it, although they probably didnt think the facility meant to hold him, built for that purpose would be cracked by him.