From the confines of his undersized prison, the naked man now known only as Object X awakened with a start. He'd been dreaming--hallucinating, more likely--and was slow to remember where he was. The only light in the room was cast by dozens of candles, most of them either already extinguished or burnt down to nearly nothing.
The cage that held him was a vivid reminder of his whereabouts. He was stooped over, his large frame forced into a most unnatural position. His legs were numb from lack of use, and the nerve endings tingled as he attempted to move. He was dizzy and hungry and his head was pounding. And then it came to him:
Object X, he thought to himself. The phrase made no sense, and at the same time it told him everything he needed to know. Object... X...
He was nothing, he told himself. Less than human, yet still somehow alive. Cursed with enough consciousness to realize he was no longer free, was no longer anything he'd once been, but unable to do a thing about it.
And he was hard as a rock. The stench inside his cage, along with the traces of dried cum on his flesh and on the floor (where it gathered in small pools with sundry other bodily discharges), told him that he must have jerked himself off several times already, and he began to do it again.
This is all that's left, he thought as he brought his hand to his cock once more. The walls of the cage limited his movement, of course, but they did not prevent him from doing the one thing he had on his mind.
He looked up for a moment and noticed a second cage bearing another naked man who was still sleeping soundly. Object Y, he thought. I remember now... Seeing how pathetic his cellmate appeared only drove home the full horror of Object X's situation.
i am nothing i am nothing i am nothing i am nothing i am nothing, he repeated to himself as he stroked his shaft, until at last a fresh blast of jism erupted. Producing it made him feel even worse.
There was a loud crash just outside the door. It sounded like a man falling. Object X heard a series of labored grunts and groans, then watched in the candlelight as the doorknob slowly turned.