by Aella Black
“Saul,” she said, coughing. “He can make smoke.”
I finally got a good look at the girl who slid from my arms. Tall, with deep blue eyes and platinum blonde hair pulled back in a single, long braid, she looked to be about my age.
She seemed nice enough, but where was Rocky? Despite our rough start at Leavenworth, we had become close just before everything went down the toilet. I didn’t want another cellmate.
As if someone here cared what I wanted.
“I’m Lucy,” the girl said, eyeing me.
“Phoebe.” I scanned the room. Two small cots. A tiny toilet and sink. Same digs as before, except the bed sheets looked a hundred years old. They were yellowed and stained.
Shuddering, I slid down the wall and sat on the floor, tucking my knees against my chest. My throat still burned from the smoke I’d inhaled.
“You’re from the other prison?” Lucy asked.
I nodded.
“What’s your power?” She sat cross-legged on the ground in front of me.
I started to answer but thought better of it. For all I knew, Lucy would kill me on the spot just to see if it worked. It had been a long day, and not that there was ever a good time to die, but now was definitely not it.
“I’d rather not say,” I hedged.
Her mouth turned down at the corners. “We’ll find out eventually, won’t we?”
My stomach twisted. The moment my secret was out, I’d have to watch my back. Then I realized how ridiculous that thought was, considering I was in a prison. I always needed to watch my back.
When I didn’t respond, Lucy asked, “Wanna see my power?”
I shrugged. I didn’t really care one way or the other, but it might be helpful to know what I was dealing with. I couldn’t take any more surprises right now.
Lucy grinned. I noticed several gouges on her neck, like something had bitten her. Before I could ask what happened, the cell disappeared.
I stumbled to my feet. Grass bent beneath my shoes. An endless field of wildflowers stretched in front of me under a cloudless blue sky. Blinking rapidly, I spun, trying to find Lucy. “What’s going on?” I demanded. Had she just… transported me? Was I really outside?
I reached down and felt the grass under my fingers. It tickled. A laugh burst from my lips. I was free!
The view shifted, and suddenly cement walls surrounded me again. My stomach plummeted, along with the little hope I had. Lucy’s grin faded. “Sorry. I probably came on too strong.”
My mind worked, trying to figure out what had just happened. “Did you… was I outside the prison?”
“If I had the power to transport, don’t you think I’d be out of here already?” Good point. But what— “It was a hallucination.”
Oh.
It had felt so real. I surveyed my cellmate, suddenly distrustful. “That’s your superpower?”
“Well, I don’t know how super it is,” Lucy said, but she flushed with pride. “And I can only keep it going for a short time. A minute and twelve seconds is my best. Then I have to create something new.”
That was a relief, at least. If she wanted to mess with me, it’d only be for a few minutes. Still, I wasn’t sure how comfortable I felt sharing space with someone who could trick my mind into believing something with so much clarity.
Because it wasn’t just my eyes that were fooled. I could still feel the prick of grass on my fingertips. How was that possible?
My gaze fell to the floor and stayed there. The hallucination had reminded me how badly I wanted my freedom. To run through a field of wildflowers. Breathe in clean, fresh air. Even the simple pleasure of not being surrounded by impenetrable walls.
Walls in which my mother resided, tending to prisoners instead of her own daughter.
I swallowed hard.
“Okay, I showed you mine. Your turn.” Lucy jumped onto her cot and leaned forward, her chin cupped in her hands like we were at a sleepover. I didn’t move from my spot on the floor.
“Like you said, you’ll find out eventually,” I said dully.
Lucy pouted. “That’s hardly fair.” She dropped her hands from her face and sighed. “But you’re right. I’ll know sooner or later. Probably at the next spar.”
I looked up. “Spar?”
“Yeah. We fight each other. I got destroyed by Venom yesterday.” I winced. Lucy made getting “destroyed” by someone named Venom sound like it was a common occurrence. She lifted her chin, pointing to the marks on her neck I noticed earlier. “They just released me from the infirmary a few hours ago.”
“He… bit you?”
“Yup. And not just any bite. The boy is small, but he’s part snake. I swore I was going to die. You ever been close to dying?”
“You have no idea,” I muttered, avoiding her gaze.
This kept getting worse by the minute. I couldn’t defend myself against these supercharged teenagers. Maybe once my mother realized how powerless I was, she wouldn’t force me to fight. Maybe she’d make an exception for me. Maybe.
Truth was, I didn’t know the first thing about my mother. She left when I eleven, but even before that she was distant. I sometimes made up memories of us, baking together, playing at the park, making tie-dye t-shirts… but none of that ever happened. As much as I’d like to think my mom loved me, a cold fear that she didn’t always nestled a little too close to my heart.
And after today’s reunion, that cold fear had basically been confirmed.
Why did she leave? Was it because of me? My leukemia had just gone into remission. Did she hate how weak I was?
The questions collided inside me until I found it difficult to breathe. I jumped to my feet and began to pace, my heart racing.
“You okay?” Lucy asked.
“I just… I want to get out of here.”
“True that. You’ll get to leave eventually.”
I stopped in my tracks. “I will?”
“Yeah. In a casket.”
I shuddered. “You don’t really believe that.”
She shrugged. “The moment we turn eighteen, we’re out of here. What do you think they do with us? Some are recruited as guards. Guys like Saul and Nash and Heath and… Warrick.” She said the last name quietly, as if afraid she’d summon him.
This couldn’t be good. “Who’s Warrick?”
She looked toward the door nervously. “He’s the one you want to watch out for,” she whispered. “His power is kinda like mine… but worse.”
“Worse in what way?”
“He can make you feel pain. So much pain.” She lapsed into silence, wrapping her arms around herself.
Great. Ruthless guards, powerful inmates, sanctioned fighting… what else would we have to endure here at Lansing?
I sank onto my cot. “Thanks for the warning,” I said sincerely. “Anybody who isn’t pure evil in this place?”
Lucy brightened. “Heath. He’s another guard, but real nice. I think he gets in trouble for it. When things escalate, he’s there to calm everyone down. Heath’s an apath, which is like an empath, except opposite. He can turn off people’s emotions.”
My thoughts instantly went to Oscar. Minus the superpower, she could have been talking about him.
Oscar tried to help us. And now he was dead.
My throat closed up, and I suddenly couldn’t breathe again. A pressure crushed my chest.
Lucy was watching me so I tried to recover. “That’s handy.”
“Yup. And lucky for him. If he wasn’t so useful, he’d be gone, just like the others who aged out of the prison.”
A cold chill crept up my spine, adding to the waves of grief that cascaded over me. Rocky and I had theorized once before that eighteen-year-olds were… disposed of. But it was too terrible to believe. Apparently, we weren’t wrong.
“Oh, and he’s not a guard, but you’ll like Dane,” Lucy said. The lilt in her voice told me Lucy was fond of him. “He can manipulate his body mass. Either he’ll be so thick and solid you can’t
cut him with a knife, or he’ll get so wispy you can stick your arm right through his chest. It’s weird, but honestly, he makes this place bearable.”
Good, there were friendlies I could count on. A burning question crept up my throat. I didn’t want to ask, but I needed to know.
“And… the warden?” I asked softly. “What’s she like?”
Lucy’s expression soured. “The Witch? Oh, she’s horrible. No one likes her. I swear, she enjoys hurting us. The sparring matches were all her idea, and she won’t end a match until a kid is within an inch of death. Seriously, lay low when she’s around. Whatever power you have, she’ll find a way to make you suffer for it.”
Nausea settled in my stomach. My mother was a monster.
The lights switched off, plunging the room in darkness. Normally this didn’t bother me, but my thoughts were all over the place right now. And I’d never felt more alone.
Between my mother leaving and my father disappearing about a year ago, I was used to being on my own. But my friends at Leavenworth made me feel like part of a team, and Xander wasn’t just a leader but a friend who’d become so much more.
I reminded myself that even if I couldn’t see them right now, that didn’t mean they weren’t here. We’d all be together tomorrow.
“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you.” Lucy’s voice was a welcome sound in the silence. Her next words, however, caused the tears hovering just below the surface to finally fall. “I don’t know how it was at your old prison, but we have an A/B schedule. Cellmates go together, and I’m B so you are too. We eat breakfast at eight o’clock.”
On top of everything, there was a fifty-fifty chance I wouldn’t be in the same rotation as my friends.
Would I see them at all?
3
Xander
I woke with a start, covering my ears as the lights flipped on. What the—?
The obnoxious bell silenced. My ears still rang. Venom leapt out of bed and beelined it for the bathroom. “Is that how they normally wake us up?” I asked, irritated.
“You get used to it,” he called.
I didn’t want to get used to it. There was exactly zero reason for Lansing to use an earsplitting alarm to wake everyone up. Not that I’d been sleeping well anyway.
For a guy who reminded me a lot of a lizard, Venom sounded more like a bear once the lights went out. Snoring aside, it had been difficult to quiet my mind. My thoughts constantly wandered to Phoebe and the others. It had only been one night, but I couldn’t wait to see them again.
Five minutes later, we joined the stream of prisoners heading to the cafeteria, which I discovered was much larger than the one back at Leavenworth. The ceiling soared high overhead and voices echoed off the limestone walls. The room looked like it hadn’t been remodeled in a hundred years or more, and I hoped it wouldn’t crumble to pieces while we ate.
Forcing my eyes from the dilapidated walls, I scanned the faces surrounding me for a familiar one. Tiny arms wrapped around my waist from behind. I spun around. “Birdie!”
Her eyes were rimmed with red. It didn’t look like she’d slept much either. “I’m so glad you’re here!” she cried.
“Of course I am. Have you seen anyone else?”
She shook her head. The kid looked terrified. Tossing an arm around her thin shoulders, I maneuvered her toward the breakfast line. “We’ll keep an eye out for them,” I assured her. “I’m sure they’re here somewhere.”
As we inched our way through the line, I took stock of the room. There were so many of us, and despite the fact that we were all inmates, battle lines had clearly been drawn.
Leavenworth kids in gray uniforms, Lansing kids in blue. No mixing between the two.
I was reminded of photos of Civil War soldiers wearing the same colors, faces just as tired and demoralized as the ones in this room. I had always been fascinated by that particular war, so much so that my football buddies often gave me a hard time about it. I’d read more than a few books on the subject, and not because my teachers required it.
The inmates here seemed just as wary of one another as those soldiers. And even if this wasn’t a war, any animosity would be a huge problem if there was any hope of us leaving this prison.
“Look!” Birdie pointed to a table in the far corner of the cafeteria. Relief filled me when I spotted Tex waving at us. With him were Cal and Rocky.
But no Cathy. And no Phoebe.
Where are they?
We picked up our food—burnt pancakes and juice—and took our seats at the table with our friends.
“This is crazy,” Cal said as soon as we were settled. “We’re all gonna die here.”
“Don’t say that.” My gaze flicked over to Birdie.
He leveled me with the most serious stare I’d ever witnessed from the carefree Californian. “You’ve heard about the sparring matches, right? I know you’re set, but how is not getting drunk going to help me in the fighting ring?”
I could practically see Birdie caving in on herself. “Sparring matches?” she asked quietly.
She didn’t know. Birdie’s cellmate probably took one look at her and decided to keep her distance. Venom’s words from last night echoed in my mind.
Don’t get attached to anyone or anything.
I hated to have to break it to her. As if she needed to add this to her list of fears.
Thankfully, Tex took over. “Nothing to worry about, Sparrow. Sometimes they do little contests to see who is more powerful. My guess, they make the matches even,” he said. “Maybe you and Cal will get paired up.” He winked at Birdie.
His joke didn’t land well with Birdie… or Cal. “Dude, this is no joke—”
“Has anyone seen Phoebe?” I asked, looking around. “Or Cathy?”
“They’re probably in the other rotation,” Rocky grumbled.
My gaze snapped in her direction. “What other rotation?”
“We’re A, which means we eat first even if it is at the buttcrack of dawn,” she said. I couldn’t care less when we ate. What I cared about was that we weren’t all able to eat together. “B group goes after us. I don’t think we’ll see them much.”
“Are you kidding me?” I was more than a little ticked off Venom didn’t share this knowledge with me last night.
Then again, he probably thought nothing of it. It wasn’t like he had any way of knowing how things worked at Leavenworth.
“What do you expect?” Rocky gestured to the room in general. “This place royally sucks.”
“Nothing royal about it,” I muttered, pushing the rubbery pancakes around the plate with my fork.
“Some of the Wolf Pack are here with us,” Tex said, nodding toward a table halfway across the cafeteria. Ghost and Zapper sat huddled together, glaring at anyone who dared look their way. Woody was with them.
My hands curled into fists. That little weasel.
No sign of Wolf, thankfully.
Wait. If Wolf wasn’t in our rotation, that meant he was with Phoebe.
My appetite disintegrated. Wolf had a serious vendetta against Phoebe, and I couldn’t keep her safe if I wasn’t with her. She’d proven she could hold her own during our escape attempt, but still…
Wolf could already be forming another gang, one with far deadlier members. And worse, he knew Phoebe could die and come back to life. If any of the kids here were anything like Wolf, they would be eager to test that out.
We needed a strategy. Politicians like my parents were all about networking, and it seemed to work for them. As difficult as it might be, it was worth a try to form alliances.
Glancing around the cafeteria, I tried to pick out some friendly faces. Venom sat with a bunch of girls in blue uniforms, all huddled together and gossiping. As weird as he was, he could make a good addition to our team.
“What are you cellmates like?” I asked the others.
“Quiet,” Tex said. “The guy’s bigger than me, if you can believe. Doesn’t talk much.”
“I wonder i
f he’s the twin brother of my cellmate,” Cal mused. “The dude is huge. Name’s Titus.”
“Twins? That’s new.” What were the odds of two siblings having supernatural powers? “Were there any siblings at Leavenworth?”
Everyone at the table shook their head. “Not that I’m aware of,” Rocky said. And she’d been there for a while, so she would know.
“I bet your cellmate is petrified of you,” Tex teased her.
She scowled. “I don’t trust her. She’s got shifty eyes.”
Earning Rocky’s trust took time and effort, so I wasn’t going to consider the shifty-eyed girl an enemy just yet. “Seems there are lots of inmates who’d rather keep to themselves.” I turned to Birdie. “What about yours… friend or foe?”
“She told me not to get in her way,” Birdie said, “so I’m not really sure. She doesn’t seem very nice. I miss Cathy.”
“Do you know what power she has?”
Birdie shook her head.
“Sounds like we all got a downgrade from our previous cellmates,” Tex replied.
I snorted. “I’d take Venom over Woody any day and twice on Sunday.”
Rocky’s face contorted in fury. “That back-stabbing Benedict Arnold will wish he were never born. I’m going to—”
“Venom?” Cal interrupted what no doubt would have been a lengthy diatribe about our former “friend.” “Cool name, but not one I’d want to know how he got.”
Before I could answer, an eruption of laughter sounded at the table next to us. “Jellify? Is that even a real power?” a male voice mocked.
I twisted in my seat to see what was going on. A kid I recognized from Leavenworth sat on the periphery of a bunch of girls and boys in blue uniforms whose noses were scrunched up like there was a bad smell in the room.
“That’s Jelly,” Birdie said, putting a name to the familiar face.
“Maybe I’ll turn you into jelly and see how you like it,” the young boy shot back.
Except Jelly couldn’t do that. Hardly anyone at Leavenworth could really do much damage. That was why we were there instead of here.