psl.

[theycalledmeacurse]

...is only the beginning.

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[redcosmedic]

There was dried reddish mud still caked under his fingernails, but other than the occasional twinge when it itched, Nakao hadn't made any effort to maintain his appearance. There was little point to it; the open-air cell of the Cairo prison was barely more than heavy bars fencing in a cramped dirt hole in the wall. At one point there had been straw on the floor, but it had long since been trampled to dust by previous guests, or blown out with the gritty wind that swept through the old fort, scouring stone and skin alike.

Charges of trespassing, theft, possession of stolen goods and a host of smaller vagrancies... he'd been under no illusions as to exactly the kind of crowd he'd taken up with, but Nakao had (foolishly, he now knew) assumed they'd at least hold up their end of the bargain so long as it would benefit them. Instead they'd cut their losses, and their profits, at the expense of scapegoating him to the authorities closing in. Caught literally red-handed, no amount of smooth negotiation or offered bribes would have worked, not when the prison warden was already making bank by double dealing with the police and the crime syndicates.

The trial had been a farce and the sentencing, severe. That had been two weeks ago.

Now, with less than 12 hours to go before his sentence was carried out, Nakao drew a breath, held it, and let it out slowly with a grimace. His veins crawled, his head pounded, his eyes burned. Detoxing in a prison cell was an efficient, but rough way to go about it. Hydration would have gone a long way to helping, but the guards only brought two cups of water a day, and he had hours yet left before the next one.

Well, he thought wearily. It won't matter for much longer.

The thought didn't bother him as much as it probably should have.

Desperate for something to focus on other than his body trying to purge itself, Nakao reached for his training, starting with the major artery groups from the top and working down. "Aorta, common carotid, external carotid, internal carotid, subclavian, axillary, brachial, radial, ulnar..."