by Adria Eustis
CHAPTER EIGHT
JANINA
October, Year of the Pearl Acacia
She'd never seen a portal with her own eyes before, those were things that only happened in the movies. And there one stood ahead of her against the tall stone wall, in the yard of what used to be Nanta police station, before the police were replaced with The Army. Shaped like a tear-drop, around seven feet high, it was as though someone was projecting a recorded image of far-away scenery onto the wall. It's edges flickered like flames with tiny particles of every colour in existence, the entire thing rippled like water. In the center was what she could only guess as Dedite's Isle. Though she'd never watched the show, The Amphitheatre, she knew it was on Channel Ten, as that channel she skipped through at lightning speed on the remote. So she was seeing the Island for the first time, through the portal that would take her right there.
A hand shoved her forwards, with her hands still cuffed behind her back she nearly lost her balance.
“Get in there.” The soldier said. It was a different man now, or maybe it was the same one, she didn't really care. Either way he was a towering monster like all the others. She shook her head and looked around for an escape. But the hand pushed her harder this time. The air felt hot around the portal, reluctantly, she stepped through it, one foot at a time. Her foot appeared to be going straight through the brick wall, but in fact it was, somehow, miles away now, across the sea. She could feel the softness of grass on the other side. With a big suck of air it pulled her through before she could bring the one foot back out. A second later, gasping for breath, she appeared on the other side. Nanta was gone, she was on the island. Of course she was, there was only one prison on the whole continent of Ainin that she could have been sent to. All the others were only used to keep the young sinners until they were old enough to come here, and the elderly ones who were too weak to fight on the battlefield. At least that's what the people were told. Apparently the slaughter of children and ancient people don't appease the Goddess of War.
Sea breeze whipped through her hair as she took in the new sights. She was standing in front of a metal fence consisting of vertical bars with only a hands gap between each one, it reached as high as her eyes could see, and had the faint blue glow of a lightning aura, that sparked and glowed against the looming darkness of the sky. She looked out behind the fence, over the furious waves that crashed relentlessly into the sheer cliffs that she stood atop. Perhaps that was her house that she could see in the distance - it was but the size of a needle head.
“Name.” A women's voice roared.
As the woman approached her, a large set of keys jingled against her tight brown trousers.
“Janina Ambrose,” she muttered.
The woman fiddled with her leather belt, there was a hand gun on one side, a baton and a small tablet computer on the other and now in her hand she held a syringe with green liquid within. Nina grimaced in pain as it was swiftly stabbed into her upper arm.
“What the hell?” Nina said.
“A minute of truth serum.”Her voice was toneless and overly loud. In the distance she could hear the mingle of hundreds of voices, and the gigantic walls of the penitentiary. Broad round towers dwarfed green stone walls with hundreds of tiny barred windows. Atop the towers were guards with guns, behind barbed wire. There was a colossal metal gate the shade of doom itself.
“Truth serum?”
“Name?”
“Janina Ambrose.”
“Janina Ambrose Ma'am!” The woman jerked her head to yell right down her ear-hole.
“J-J-J-Janina Ambrose Ma'am.”
“Age, Address of next of kin?”
“S-s-s-sixteen, Ma'am, um, 17 Delicana Street, Nanta, Ma'am.”
Legs spread wide, the woman tapped upon the screen of her tablet computer with short fat fingers.
“Talk faster worm! Magic proficiency level worm!?”
“Zero, Ma'am.”
“Crime?”
“Theft, Ma'am.” Her voice cracked. I shouldn't be here. This is not me. Not here, this is too much. Too cruel.
“Define theft.”
“I erm, stole some pills, Ma'am, just a few, my sister-”
“Shut your mouth worm!”
“S-s-sorry.”
“Rank One. Move it.”
The woman grabbed the back of Nina's neck and marched her forward up a dirt path through the dying grass. The gates slowly croaked open, with one last great shove, the woman launched her forwards, her arms locked behind her back, Nina landed on her side on the cold hard floor.
“Stand scum.”
An even meaner looking woman's face appeared looking down on her. She wore the same brown uniform but three times the size needed. Nina struggled to her feet. Just get through this, and we'll figure something out, I always figure something out.
“Yes Ma'am.” She blew her fallen hair from her eyes.
Her handcuffs were taken off and she was given a uniform from a bald man in a window in the wall.
“You're G Wing - to the right.”
Nina clutched the folded up clothes, balancing a pair of black pumps on the top, and followed the direction of the woman's finger. The narrow corridor was dimly lit, she passed through at least five gates each one locked behind her. At a snails pace she went, the voices of the other inmates getting louder. She reached a gate with a big G slapped on it in white paint, the woman opened it and let her through. It slammed shut behind her and the guard's heavy boots thudded away. Sandwiched between the G door and another with a small window, at first she thought it was her cell, but then the door automatically opened with a creak and she moved out aimlessly.
Her low heels clicked on the on hard tiled floor as she wandered farther in to the big open space. Bars lined the walls at either sides, behind them sat girls in black clothing, each tiny room crammed full, some of them watched her like hawks, others didn't seem to notice her. There were metal steps ahead leading up to another level of cells, and above that another level, it went on as far as her eyes could see. Her knees threatened to lock and give way and she blinked back tears and held her eyes open wide to lessen the chance of them forming.
“Psst.”
Nina craned her neck to look up the levels where the sharp sound came from.
“Up here.”
The white haired girl's grin stood out against faces of glum. Her thin hand beckoned, Nina followed.
“You look totally lost,” the girl said.
Nina just stared, what a stupid thing to say.
“I'm Astra.” Her ponytail swung side to side as she leaned over the rails to gather a hanging black tunic. There were hanging clothes everywhere, all black, like the ones she held on to.
“Nina.”
She followed Astra into a cell, and reeled at the stench of sewage.
“Oh right, you haven't got used to the stink yet – don't worry you will do.”
A dark skinned girl lay on the top bunk seemingly asleep, on the bottom bunk a freckled girl scribbled enthusiastically on a paper notepad.
“This is Bridget, and that up there is Mol but she don't say much.”
“Nina.” She repeated her name, and offered a wave at Bridget who looked up for a second before writing some more.
“Fraid we're full in here, but I'll find you somewhere tomorrow – can have the floor tonight if you want.” Opposite the bunk beds was a single bed so tiny a person would have to sleep on their side. Cold breeze came in from the barred window - no glass. Water dripped from the dinky tin sink and the toilet next to it was rusting away. It was the most disgusting place she'd ever been in.
“Don't they assign me a room?”
Astra scoffed, “Nope. They don't come through the gate, not unless someone's being evicted.”
“Evicted?”
“Yeah, you'll see what I mean soon enough.”
The sun was gone, the day was over. Maybe if she went to sleep, she'd wake up and find out it was all just a dream.
&n
bsp; “Can I just sleep out there?” Nina nodded towards the open space on the ground floor, it would smell less there.
“Sure, go ahead – but being outside of a cell during lock-down equals instant eviction.” Astra twirled her ponytail around her finger, there was a smug look on her face, and a whiff of strawberry gum came from her mouth.
“Well then, can I just go to sleep now, um, here?”
“There's a bit of room next to me, long as you ain't a lesbo.” Bridget patted the bed, not even taking her eye from her notepad.
“Its okay, the floor will do.”
“I can show you around, got ten minutes or so before the lights go out and the doors go down,” Astra said.
“No, it's okay, I just wanna close my eyes.”
Astra glared humiliatingly as Nina slipped on the black tunic and black leggings, folded her dress into a pillow, and lay down on the cold hard floor with her grey jacket for a blanket.
“Welcome to Dedite's, Nina,” Astra said, stepping over her and wandering off. She tucked her face into her jacket, curled up into a ball. And lay, as though asleep as the all new sounds of the prison played out.
~
Voices quietened when the cell doors closed. The scent of home rose up from her old clothes, she wiped her stray tears on to them. Rohn and Eri and Aunt Maire's scents were with her, but she was so alone. There was a whispered chorus of 'good-nights' throughout the cell, as Astra and Bridget rolled over to sleep. But Nina stayed silent, and thought of Eri, and Rohn, and what they were thinking of her. It had to be bad, they'd be ashamed, disappointed. No - sleep, sleep and it'll all be gone in the morning, you'll be at home in your bed. This is not real. It can't be real.
CHAPTER NINE
JANINA
October, Year of the Pearl Acacia
Nina didn't know what was worse, the agonizing wails of broken souls throughout the night, in their cages. Or the piercing screams of dying people, far outside the walls, on the south of the island. Was it better to be locked away like a meaningless piece of excrement, or be out there – ending the torture? There were all kinds of strange sounds that had woken her up every time she eventually got to sleep. From loud electrical buzzers, to cells being opened and closed, names being called out at random for who knows what. Creaking and cracking of pipes that sounded like they were going to go bang and bring the roof down on her head.
Every muscle and bone in her body was aching and stiff when she had woken on the cell floor. Now that it was light, the squalor was even more apparent. But the fact that it wasn't just a dream after all hit her worse than the overflowing toilet that her cell-mates were trying in desperation to stem the flow off. Vile water flowed towards her, gathering around her shoes as she stood, trying to come to terms with it all.
“Nina your dress, pass it over,” Astra called.
Down went her pretty yellow dress, and her warm grey jacket, down into the toilet bowl. The last remnants of home, gone. Flushed in the shitter with the rest of her life. Her face pressed up against the bars, she peered across the way at the girls opposite her. One of them had cried, and thrown-up repeatedly through the night.
“How was your first night in Ye Olde Dedite Inn?” Astra asked, throwing an arm around Nina's shoulder. How could the girl sound so happy all the time, in a place like this?
“I want to go home.”
“Don't they all.”
“Don't you?”
“With me it's not a case of want, see I'm going home Just waiting for the right time to leave thas all.” Astra's breath was warm against her cheek. She wanted to cringe and push her away, but making enemies was probably a bad idea.
“How?” Nina asked.
“I'm gonna fight my way out. Easy.”
Bridget scribbled away on her notepad near the window. Sucking in breathes of clean fresh air every time she looked up. The other girl was dead to the world in her bunk once more.
“You're going on the battlefield?”
“Technically it's called the Amphitheatre, or the Theatre of War. Don't you watch the show?” Astra said, sitting back down on her itchy looking blanket.
“Why would any one ever watch that show?” Nina cringed.
“Its the only channel they play in here. You'll end up watching it eventually – for something to do. And yes, I'm going out there.”
“You're mad,” Nina said resting her forehead in between the steel rods. Her eyes widened, she was sure a young girl was swinging from a sheet around her neck in a cell far down the way.
“I'd be mad not to try.”
“Oh my gods, I think that girl is dying.”
Astra rushed over, then broke into a sigh.
“Don't get me excited. That one's been like that for days. Just another Swinging Nelly. Don't worry.” She threw up her hand and blew a bubble in her pink gum.
“She's dead?”
“They all give up eventually, I got a bet on Mol here, swinging from the bars by the end of the week. You hear that Mol, you got three days to earn me some candies. Gonna throw a Swinging Nelly, Mol, you up for it?”
“Not me,” said Bridget. “I'm not going anywhere.”
“Hers in love,” Astra added.
“Why is no-one taking that girl down?” Her hand covered her mouth and vomit threatened to rise.
“No one wants to be accused of bumping her off thas why.”
“So they'll just leave her there like that? That's horrible.”
“The chaperones will come get her eventually, soon as they have a good enough reason to enter.”
“Isn't a dead body a good enough reason?”
“Oh sweet little Nina, you have a lot to learn. Tell you what, soon as the bars go up, I'll treat you to a guided tour of Hotel Dedite.”
~
An ear-splitting buzz rung out and the bars to her cage went up, Nina, Bridget and Astra walked out like pigs leaving their sty. Glaring back at Mol she asked, “You coming?” The girl rolled over in silence to face the wall.
“So these are the sumptuous bed chambers,” Astra said, as she skipped along, “and down to the end there we have the jacuzzi and sauna room.”
Nina recoiled as she turned the corner. A row of rusted shower heads dangled loosely over mildew ridden tiles. Astra prodded her fingers into a tall heap of unfolded towels, white around the edges, yellowing in the centers.
“Grose,” Nina said.
“You have to pretend there's a jacuzzi,” Bridget said, pushing her thick rimmed glasses up her nose.
“Let's continue the tour shall we,” Astra said. “here is the leisure lounge.”
Nina and the girls, pushed past some older girls into a long room. White paint chipped away revealing the grey walls underneath. At the end of the room was an out of date television on a rickety old table. Turned off, luckily. A group of skeletal girls perched on a torn up leather settee. Others, just as gaunt, played a card game, sat on the floor. Nina's feet squelched in the dampness of the carpet.
“Most people stay in their cells or go outside,” Bridget added.
“Ah yes, the tennis courts and the golf course I was getting to that,” Astra said.
Nina followed them through long darkened corridors lined with cells, there were even more than she had originally thought. There had to be over a thousand girls in her wing alone - everywhere they went was cramped. Eventually they came to a set of double doors, with the mixed chattering of people behind it. A warm breeze caressed her face, at least it was a nice day. Eri could maybe sit in the garden on a day like this. Inmates filled almost every gap in the concrete yard. Some wandered, ghost-like, aimlessly, alone. A long set of bleacher-style, wooden benches were covered in girls napping under blankets. Others gathered in circles to converse. Everyone looked the same, in their black leggings and tunics and hair tied into ponytails. She could tell the newbies from the amount of meat on their arms and fear on their faces. The skinny ones looked to be over the fear now, and in a state of acceptance. The yard was sectioned
off on all sides. To the west was a yard of older woman.
“Why are they separate from us?” Nina asked.
“There's around twenty different wings, each one gets their own separate living spaces and their own separate yards. We're G wing, those older gals are F wing, they like to keep us in age groups.”
“Why?”
“Who knows. They only pit you against your age-group out there too,” Astra said, pointing out over the island.
Standing in front of the chain-mail fence that separated the yard from the south of the island, Nina looked out onto the lands below – the Theatre of War. The prison and prison yards stood on high ground with an incredibly steep drop to the dark blue waters of a huge lake below. Across the lake were grassy hills and multicoloured, overgrown fields, with small buildings scattered about them. A tall clump of tree covered hills, with what looked like the ruins of a castle tower atop, cut off the view of the rest of the island. It looked more like the countryside than a battlefield. An enormous metal fence with a luminous thundering aura ran along the entire border of the island. And the same barricade ran through the length of the terrain, splitting it down the middle, into two arenas. Nina did not know much about Dedite's Amphitheatre, because she purposely had made sure of that, but she did know there were two arenas. East and West. One for the adults and one for the teens.
“Just how young are some of the people out there?” Nina asked.
“Twelve is the youngest you can be to redeem yourself in front of Ciorr,” Astra said.
“Redeem yourself? Hah, you believe in that?” Nina asked.
“Not me,” Bridget said.
“Thas cause you two ain't been blessed with powers like me.”
“Your a Diviner?” Nina asked.
“Course, I'd show ya, but this here utopia got one o' them anti-magic shields all round it.”
“What'd you do by the way Nina?” Bridget asked.
She shuffled on the spot, “Um, not much.”