• Dripping water. Flickering light. Stagnant air. Cold, hard ground. Scratchy pants. Torn shirt. Moldy bread. Echoes. Pain, suffering, loneliness, and insanity. My name is Matthew. Welcome to my room.

    I am being imprisoned by "his lordship" Trey for crimes against the clan, the governor, the country, and the king. I stole a horse, assaulted a guard, and tried to assassinate Trey. This is the story fabricated around me. The truth is, I'm a boy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. My mother died when I was born, and my father is a useless drunk and won't notice I'm missing until he needs more money for ale. At first he will be angry I "left". Then his friends will show him the bright side - one less thing in life to worry about. I have no-one to save me.

    These stone walls that are my prison will soon be my coffin. The dangers here are more than those of the desert. The stone does nothing to hold in heat or keep out cold. My rations are given to me by an angry guard who has no restraints when it comes to violence. The air is thick with mildew and the smell of human excretions. The disease-infested rats are more hungry then I am, and have no qualms about whether their meal is still living or not; I've been bitten twice since I started this, my first entry in my journal.

    Speaking of the journal, it is not mine. At least it wasn't. I found it stuffed in between two stones in the corner of my cell, along with a piece of coal to write with. How they were smuggled in, I do not know. The last entry from the previous owner is smeared with blood and dirt for the most part, but what I gathered from the few legible words was something about an escape attempt. The last sentence is clear though. "Good luck." Strange though. Was he wishing himself good luck or someone else? If someone else, how? Is there some hole to pass the book through to others? Or was it left for whoever next found the book - me? I will have to read more when the guards replace the torches again. It is too dark now.
    ~Signed, Matthew.