by Logan Byrne
“Yeah, sure,” she muttered, before going back to her food.
I looked down at mine, poking it with my spoon. I was sure it squirmed a little on the tray. There wasn’t much. A brownish gruel was the main course, with crumbling bread that was pretty much powder and some rice that looked like it lost its luster last century. As I looked at it in disgust, my stomach rumbled, and I knew I couldn’t let this go to waste. I needed to eat, and as much as I would hate it, this food would keep me alive.
“I saw you come in yesterday,” the girl said, her head still down.
“Oh, yeah, I’m new here. Are you?” I asked.
“I’ve been here three months,” she replied.
“When do you get out?” I asked.
She looked up at me, her eyebrows furled, before shaking her head. “Never,” she said, as if I should’ve known.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said.
“By the sounds of it, you won’t be, either. That was a big play, trying to assassinate the president. People here have been talking,” she said.
“I was framed, I didn’t do it. I would never. I’m actually—”
“A cop, I know. We all know. That’s what makes it even more bizarre,” she said.
“My name is Lexa,” I said, trying to change the subject.
“Rosie,” she said, nodding. “We’re actually neighbors.”
“I didn’t even notice, I’m sorry,” I said.
“It’s okay, I didn’t expect you to. Most people here don’t notice me anyway. I heard you crying last night. The first week is always the hardest, but it does get better. Well, it doesn’t get better, I guess, but it gets easier. You just have to make the best of it,” she said.
“And how do you do that?” I asked.
“Survive,” she said frankly.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what did you do, and how old are you? You seem, well, young,” I said.
“I’m sixteen, seventeen next month, but I know I’m smaller and look younger than I am. I’m here because I was caught hacking government agencies and trying to delete and alter files,” she said.
“I have a friend who you’d like, then,” I said, smiling and thinking of Faus. “Why were you doing that?”
“I was trying to help my family. We’re poor, really poor, and I figured if I could maybe change the bank’s information and give them more money, it would help. I also tried altering their records to wipe away small crimes so they could get jobs easier. I know it was stupid, but the system wasn’t exactly working for us,” she said.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was weird, thinking about this girl, and the fact that she could’ve been brought through the precinct. She wasn’t doing anything malicious, even if it was illegal. She was just trying to keep her family alive. We were told to try to look the other way with heavily impoverished people like her, that it was their fault they were poor. We were told they were lazy, drunks, and the only reason they were in our world was because they were of magical blood.
It wasn’t true, though, and I always knew it. They were real people, just like us, and maybe we were cops and they weren’t because we had better opportunities. Hell, I only got this job because the resistance snuck me in. I wouldn’t have gotten it on my own, especially with my background.
“I hope they do better, and that they’re okay,” I said.
“They’ll be punished, I know it. I really messed up. I wish I could just get out of here and help them somehow,” she said, picking apart her bread.
“You never know what could happen,” I said, taking my first bitter taste of the gruel. I winced, chewing quickly, before swallowing and getting it down.
“That gets easier as time goes on, too,” she said, smiling.
“Looks like we got ourselves a little piggy,” I heard from behind, as I felt hot, humid breath coming down the back of my neck.
I turned around, seeing a large man, maybe of ogre or giant descent, in a black jumpsuit with his arms crossed. He had two men with him, one lanky and pimply, the other short and fat
“Can I help you?” I asked.
“Oh, the little lady has some spunk. Yeah, you can help me, sweetheart. You see, I run things around here in this block, and when I heard that a M.A.G.I.C. officer was roaming through making a residence for herself, I became a bit worried about my fellow inmates,” he said.
“Listen, I’m here to serve my time just like everybody else. I’m not a cop anymore, my badge was taken. I don’t plan on having problems with anybody. I keep to myself,” I said.
“Gee, Zark, I think the girl is giving you grief,” the lanky one said to the boss. He looked down at me, smiling, before sucking up a wad of spit and shooting it down into my gruel.
“Have a lovely day, officer,” he said, before walking away. I looked around, seeing some of the audience grinning and laughing, while others looked away like they’d been dealing with this guy’s crap for a long time. I turned around and watched Rosie pushing food around her plate. She pushed her tray towards me.
“You need to eat. Your strength is important these first few days,” she said.
“I can’t eat your food, it’s not right,” I said, looking at the bubbling wad of spit in my food.
“Take some of it, please, just do it. It’s okay, I’m a lot smaller than you, I don’t need as much,” she insisted, so I took some of her gruel. I worked around the spit and tried not to think about it being there as I ate quickly and felt a fire rage inside me.
I didn’t like bullies, especially in a place like this where people were just trying to survive, but men like him couldn’t let things be. All I wanted to do was whip out my powers, turn him into a roach and stomp on him, but I had to keep myself calm and make sure my hands never turned blue in here, at least not in front of anybody. That was imperative.
“We have free time in a few minutes, so make sure you eat whatever you can fit in your stomach. They don’t let you take food into your cell or out of here,” Rosie said, as the long hand on the clock approached eight in the morning.
Free time in the yard wasn’t like free time in the other prisons I’d seen or been to. At lower-security prisons, there was an actual yard, an outside space where you could breathe fresh air and run around, doing whatever you wanted. It was the only real exercise you could get. Here, however, they didn’t have fresh air or open spaces to run about. We were outside, technically, but we were in a frost-covered dome with a thick cement floor.
I walked out for the first time, seeing the mountain peaks towering around us, though the foggy frosted glass made it hard to see clearly. The temperature dropped in here, likely to make us aware of the fact that we were in an inhospitable part of the world that wasn’t convenient for escapes, and it worked.
I shivered a little, goose bumps forming on my skin, as I heard barbells clink together when some of the prisoners began to lift weights. “What do you do here during this time?” I asked, looking at Rosie.
“I like to just walk around the perimeter and get my legs moving and blood pumping. I’m not one for weights, if you couldn’t tell,” she said, laughing a little.
“Mind if I join you?” I asked.
“Not at all,” she replied, smiling.
“So what’s the deal with that Zark guy, anyway?” I asked, looking at him from a distance. He’d totally forgotten about me.
“He’s a bully, plain and simple. Nobody really challenges him because of his size, and he’s been here for at least five years. I guess he just took it upon himself to be the leader, in his mind at least, and nobody challenges that. I guess they’re too afraid,” Rosie said.
“Why are they afraid?” I asked.
“Maybe because of his strength, but also because of what the guards would do. If they caught you in a fight, you’d get thrown in solitary for who knows how long. One time I saw a guy get tossed in there for two weeks straight without ever coming out. That was my third day here, and I’ve never forgotten it si
nce. It’s better to put up with Zark’s crap than get thrown in solitary,” she said.
“It’s just horrible that those are the only two options. There has to be a way to get rid of him without getting in trouble,” I said, staring at him.
“You’d be a god to these people, to most of them anyway, if you pulled that off, but I wouldn’t get too excited. I don’t see how you could do that,” she said.
“Yeah, maybe not,” I said, as I continued glaring at him.
“And don’t even get me started on what they do to escape attempts,” she said.
“Escapes?” I asked, my ears perking up, my attention drawn away from Zark.
“I’m pretty sure they execute those who try to escape, but I’m not sure and I definitely can’t prove that, so take it with a grain of salt,” she said.
“Why do you think that then?” I asked.
“One guy tried to escape two months ago. It was a brazen attempt, and he was almost successful, I think, but he was sedated before he could get outside. He was never seen again, by anybody, even those who’ve passed through solitary. I think they got rid of him, so that he couldn’t tell people how he almost did it or inspire another attempt,” she said.
“Do you know how he did it?” I asked.
“All I remember is him getting up high. I think you have a decent shot if you get up towards small openings in the roof, but it’s many stories up. Besides, what would you do when you got out there?” she asked, pointing outside, as we stopped and reveled in the majesty of the harsh winter outside.
“I think it’s possible,” I said.
“Maybe if you were a shifter with some heavy blubber and fur, but not you, definitely not you, and I wouldn’t even stand a chance, given I’m not a witch like you. I think it’s a great dream to have, like winning the lottery, but it’s never going to actually happen. You can think about what you’d do all you want, how you’d want to do it, but it’s all just a dream, a fantasy. It’s better to put your time and thought into things you can actually control, like keeping yourself alive,” she said.
Rosie had a spunk and realness that I admired. She was trying to make the best out of being here, even though she was going to grow old and die in prison. The designers and guards of this prison did their job well, quashing even the smallest ideas of escape and making the prisoners feel like it was hopeless.
I disagreed. I knew the resistance would come for me, and maybe I would even take Rosie with me. I knew her skills would be well regarded with the resistance, and besides, she didn’t deserve to be here. I just wished I could tell her we would be rescued soon.
4
Four days. I’d lain in this cell for four days without so much as a letter from the outside world. Well, I wasn’t sure I was even allowed letters, since they never mentioned anything, but I’d hoped Blake or Charlie would’ve sent me something.
I did have two bouts of light insanity during the night, lying in bed staring at the bunk above me and wondering if they thought about me. I knew they did—they had to—but my mind couldn’t help but play tricks as I rotted away in the system. Did they even care that I was gone, or were they partying? Were they happy to get rid of me? Did Charlie get a new partner, and were they amazing? These thoughts plagued me, and I couldn’t help but wonder if there was any truth to them.
I’d been getting by okay, eating the same slop every day with Rosie and keeping tight to her. The people here didn’t seem to mind me too much anymore; an influx of three new prisoners was keeping their minds occupied, just like they’d been when I walked in the door. I was sort of grateful for the new people, mainly to save my own skin and to not have to deal with any more harassment from the welcoming committee.
Passing time was difficult when we were in our cells, which was most of the day except for meals and going out into the yard for physical recreation. I was starting to go mad without my magic, though I guess I could’ve used some through my mark if I really needed it.
I wondered about that—if I wanted to break out of here, could I do it? Presumably I was the only person here with the mark. I wasn’t sure how many others, if any, bore it, and maybe it would have enough power to take out the guards. I was sure if I conjured enough raw power I could blow through the wall, but then what?
Rosie had told me one reason breakouts didn’t happen was because of a dampening field around the prison for a few miles. They hid it within the core of the mountain, emanating some kind of magic barrier that made it impossible to teleport or for most shifters to shift. I guessed only the really strong shifters could manage it, though nobody ever did, aside from those trying to escape. I supposed the guards and warden didn’t take kindly to people trying those sorts of things and would take it as an act of violence and aggression.
I kept these thoughts in the back of my head at all times, just in case Mirian and the others didn’t come for me, or couldn’t, because he did promise that they would. I knew they’d at least try, but a try wasn’t worth squat if it didn’t result in me sitting back in that resistance camp. I’d give it a month, maybe two, and then I’d try to break my way out of here. It would expose me for what I was, but I didn’t care at this point, and I damn sure knew I wouldn’t care then. I’d be free, and that was all that mattered. From there I would just try to gain as much ground as I could to get out of range of that dampener, which couldn’t have been more than five miles, ten tops. I guess that would be more than enough distance in the snowy Alps, however.
Suddenly sirens rang and guards ran into the block. Everybody rushed to their cell doors, looking out, before a guard pulled out a megaphone. “All prisoners remain calm. There has been an escape attempt in block four, and we are locking down all blocks for the day. Your meals will be delivered to your cells, and recreation time has been canceled,” the man announced, before walking away.
There was a universal boo, some yelling obscenities. I turned around and walked back towards my bed, picking up a piece of gravel from the floor and rolling it around in my fingers, when I heard a voice.
“Lexa,” I heard someone call softly. I looked around, trying to figure out who was calling my name, before I heard it again. “Lexa, down here, in the corner.”
It was Rosie. I walked to the corner, sitting down and seeing a crack in the wall, enough for a thin piece of paper to pass through, before I saw Rosie’s iris on the either side. “Look at this, a hole,” she said enthusiastically.
“At least I’ll have some entertainment for the day,” I whispered, trying to make sure the guards wouldn’t hear or see me.
“Yeah, this happens every so often. They bring us our meals, though, and you won’t have to worry about somebody spitting in or messing with your food, so that’s a positive,” she said.
“You sure do have a lot of positive outlooks on this place and the things that happen,” I said, rolling the pointed rock between my thumb and forefinger.
“You have to always stay positive. That’s what my mom told me, anyway. Life is going to throw a lot of bad moments at you, but staying positive about them can get you through even the darkest times,” she said.
“I guess so. I just hate thinking about staying in here, you know? I want to escape,” I said.
“Yeah, right, look what’s happening now. That poor person who probably sounded just like you do now is going to disappear like the rest of them. Is that what you want for yourself?” she asked.
“Surely even death would be better than this place,” I said, tossing the rock aside.
“At least here you have a chance at a life, even if it isn’t the one you want. Besides, where would you go? They’d find you, ya know,” she said.
“I have my resources,” I said.
“The resistance?” she asked.
I froze, my heart racing and stomach sinking, before I looked over at the crack again, seeing her looking back at me. How did she know about the resistance? That was a stupid question, I guess—a lot of people knew they existed, but why woul
d she bring it up to me like this? Surely she didn’t know I was allied with them, did she?
“Why do you bring them up?” I asked.
“My brother helped them once. They were kind to us, they gave us some rations and bedding. I wish I could fight with them,” she said. “But I don’t think I can do much from here.”
“Then let’s leave and find them,” I said.
“Lexa, have you not been listening at all? That’s not going to happen, and you know it,” she said.
“I’m not saying we do it now or anything. We would need to plan, and we would need more people. I think I could get us out of here unscathed, and if we could break away from the magic dampeners, or shut them down, we would be able to teleport out of here,” I said.
“I don’t know, I’d have to think about it,” she said.
“What’s there to think about? Don’t you want to see your family again?” I asked. I was trying to appeal to her emotional side, one that would agree with me and go along with my plan. The fact was that breaking out of here alone wasn’t going to be easy, even with the mark on my side. I would need others, other people to run logistics and take out guards, if I were going to make this work. Hopefully bringing up her family would make her emotional enough to want to say yes, just to see them again. I knew I could get all of them into the camp.
“Of course I do, you know that, but I also don’t really feel like dying, especially at sixteen years old. I’ll think about it, I promise. I really promise,” she said.
“Okay, take your time, but I’m doing it with or without you,” I said, before getting up from the floor, dusting off my butt, and lying down on my bed.
It would be a bold move, getting out of here, but I had to have a contingency plan in case Blake and the others couldn’t get me out. I started to run through the other prisoners here, weighing them in my head, trying to figure out who else would actually help this crazy plan. I thought I knew of two who might give it a go, though only one of them would be any physical help. If only I could get a hold of a wand, maybe from the prison lockup, I knew I could get us out. I wondered if anybody here had that hookup.