Yes.
Yuppers.
Yes, ma’am.
Cute trick, sexy. That was Vontessa…
We hear ya.
Kane was tuned in from the men’s side, too. Perfect. It was just about time to get this real show on the road.
Lysa was the only one who has seen outside the prison, but she gave me a layout from her memories so we knew what we were working with, where the doors were located, and that there were vehicles parked out front. I also heard them come and go at all hours of the day on my side, but from the sound of it, they parked them at night.
This plan was coming together perfectly.
***
We waited until 4 a.m. and that was when I gave the signal for the women to slip out of their cells and move forward with our plan. We tiptoed down the narrow hallway in between the cells, careful not to wake any of the other inmates.
Then, Vixxie cracked the lock on the door and we stepped out into the hallway. Funny enough, no alarms sounded. I guessed that they didn’t have that feature enabled, possibly since we all stayed locked in our cells almost 24/7 anyway.
Once we stepped into the hallways, I pointed the way to the men’s side. That way. Vontessa and Lysa prepared to run down that hall, with Vixxie fast on their heels. Feylinn would come with me, at first, to serve as a distraction.
“Hey! You there! Stop.” The big guard called out as soon as he saw us, jumping up from his seat.
“How the hell did they get out?” The other guard said to his partner, scrambling to get up and knocking his chair over in the process.
I didn’t know any of the night guard’s names. They never spent any time with us, so we had no idea. But the looks on their faces proved they were completely shocked by what was happening.
As they ran after us, Feylinn and I ran as fast as our feet could carry us, down the left hallway. This hall took us past the other women’s cell blocks. Blocks B and A, where I had mopped that one day for a chore. I knew this hallway would come to a dead end, but that was also part of the plan.
The others took off to the right, which would lead them to a corridor that connected to the men’s side. It would likely be locked, but between the three of them, and with their magical abilities back, those locks shouldn’t pose a problem.
Kane, they’re coming for you guys.
We are ready, he replied. Knowing that he was also former Guard and that he and his boys were wolves made me feel confident that breaking them out, too, was a good plan.
“Stop!” The guards continued to chase us, and I could hear one of them calling to someone else on his radio.
When they get close, you go. I said to Feylinn in my head. As a fairy, she could POOF herself small-sized again, and she also had the ability to go invisible. She was going to get away and meet up with the others on the other side. I was going to get capture and be a distraction.
Those too meatheads were barreling at us at full speed now. I could also hear some of the women in the other cell blocks waking up. Guards who were posted at each cell block were in on the chase and we had six on our heels right now, with the dead end coming up fast.
Someone shot something at us, but we dodged it.
What was that? Feylinn asked, scared.
Bullet. But it’s not lethal. I answered, as another went whizzing in between us, narrowing missing my ear. Seems to be rubber bullets of some sort.
“There’s nowhere to go!” one of the guards yelled from behind us, and I knew he was right. We were coming up on the dead end any minute now.
Phase 2 was a go!
Chapter Nine
The guards chased us down, sounding the alarms that blared so loudly in my ears that I thought my ear drums might burst. That would interfere with my telepathy. I had to concentrate with all my might to keep the signals from getting crossed.
By now, the whole prison was awake. Behind the sounds of the blaring alarms, I could hear women screaming and cheering and banging things against the bars of their cells.
Go! Go! Go! I said to the others in my head, knowing that I was about to be captured, even if only momentarily. I needed to form a distraction until they could get Kane and his boys out of their cells.
Vixxie ran with them, ready to bust the locks on the men’s side, and Kallisto and Vontessa went to fight the guards who would most certainly be watching the men’s cells, too.
Feylinn stayed right by my side as long as she could and ask the first two guards were closing in on us, we heard one of them shout, “Don’t shoot them! Remember, we’re not supposed to kill them.”
The dead end was directly in front of us now. We stood face to face with a cement wall and there was no way out, left or right. They knew they had us cornered. They just didn’t know we had a few tricks up our sleeve.
The agent put away his gun and grabbed his nightstick instead. Just feet away now, one of them reached out to grab Feylinn, and the other swing his stick at me, which I dodged.
Now!
As I gave her the signal in my head, she POOFED herself small, sprinkled some fairy dust of protection right over me, and then went invisible right in front of them. The guards froze in place momentarily from shock.
“What the hell just happened?”
“Where did she go?” The other one asked.
Two guards from A Block ran up on them next. “Fairy magic you dummies!” He yelled as he tackled me to the ground. My right side slammed into the ground and I winced but held steady. I needed them to think they had the upper hand here.
They wrapped me in chains, binding my wrists and arms, and my legs and feet. I didn’t struggle to get free or fight back at all. I needed them to think they had me. This was all part of the plan. Besides, now that I had my powers back, I knew that I could get out of here as soon as I was ready to. It was important that I didn’t let that cat out of the bag too soon.
They beat me and kicked me, and the one guard hit me with this nightstick, but Feylinn’s fairy magic prevented me from feeling any pain. At least, it stopped me from feeling pain right now. I would most certainly feel it later, so I hoped they didn’t break anything. But for now, I took it.
Everyone was over on the men’s side now, including Feylinn. I could hear all that was happening with them in my head. I just needed to give them a few more minutes now.
The guards left me chained up on the floor as they called for backup. A couple of them started running over to the other part of the prison, undoubtably, trying to catch my friends. At this point, they didn’t know how many of us were out, or how we had gotten out, and their panicked faces revealed how scared they actually were of us.
The women in the cells near us were yelling and making noise, the guards were calling for backup on their radios and struggling to figure out just how all of this had happened in the first place. It looked like there were about ten guards on our side, and eight or ten on the men’s side as well. The ones who had been out on break were back now, but it was still nothing we couldn’t handle with our abilities back. I was just biding my time until my new friends got the next steps done.
When I knew they were free, I jumped up and yelled at the guards, “Hey dumbasses!”
On cue, they all turned to me, then I jumped up and with all the power I could summon from my magic, I burst free of the shackles. The chains still hung from each of my wrists, but I was free to move as I wanted.
And then I ran. I also threw energy orbs at the cell block doors, bursting the locks on them. I couldn’t get into the cells to help the women individually, but I hoped we might be able to circle back around. I ran, throwing energy orbs at anything that moved toward me. These were a strong form of Elven magic that acted as stun bombs to anything they touched, or that came within a close radius of them.
As I threw the energy orbs at the guards, they feel, stunned, and temporarily unable to move. First two guards, and then three, and then a fourth… they all fell to the ground, dropping their weapons, unable to speak or move. It a
ctually didn’t cause any serious harm, not that I would have felt bad for these guys if it did, but again, Elven magic didn’t work that way. Like the nymphs, we were a peaceful race and our magics reflected that.
My magic was meant to subdue, to protect, to preserve, but not to kill or maim – at least, not intentionally. I also had incredible strength and speed. I caught up to the rest of my gang as they were exiting the men’s cell block with Kane and his two boys. There were guards close on my heels, but I know they were confused by how I had run so fast, and also by how I had gotten out of their shackles in the first place.
“They’re using magic!” I heard a guard yell from behind us, but we were already three steps ahead.
I rounded a bend and ran smack into a guard coming from the other direction. He fell to his feet and looked up at me as I stood over him.
Jones.
He put both arms up in the air, defending himself. “I don’t want any trouble,” he said in a quivering tone.
“Don’t follow me,” I said, leaving him there on the floor. He was a mouse, harmless, and I had bigger things to tend to. Just ahead of me was my escape group. By our estimations, we had about four or five minutes left to free the other prisoners and run for it.
I saw Vixxie using her doctored gun on them. As she scanned their arms, the magic blockers were removed, and they came back into their full abilities. All was going according to plan.
This place was lit up like the 4th of July. Lights were blinking and flashing everywhere, and everyone was yelling, and all of the guards were shooting at us now. I threw my arms at their weapons, knocking the guns out of their hands.
“Open the cell doors,” I called out.
“On it!” Vontessa replied, running up and down the halls past the guard stations hitting the switches that opened all of the cells. We were breaking everybody out of here tonight!
“The women are still locked in, but the guards are stunned.”
“On it!” Vixxie said, running back to the women’s cell blocks to free open the gates the same as she had done for ours.
From my peripheral vision, I saw Kane shifting to his true form. His “boys” followed suit. They were big and strong, but Kane was the biggest of all. He must have stood over 6 feet tall on his back legs and his fur was solid black; black as night.
“Run!” he shouted, holding off bullets like an actual armored tank from the guards who were still shooting.
And that was exactly what we did!
As quick and as fast as our legs could carry us, we ran. The sound of the sirens was deafening, but I didn’t dare stop or look back. We had worked so hard to get to this point and they would never give us another shot at it. Backup was coming, and I also heard sirens from vehicles coming in the distance.
We had opened the cells, giving all the prisoners a chance to escape, or at least to try. The guards busied themselves with taking them down, one by one. With those implants still in their arms, and weakened from the poor treatment in here, most of them couldn’t fight back like they would have.
Vixxie and Vontessa circled back around and caught up to me, as they ran beside me, I just hoped they could both keep up. I also hoped I was right and that we were not on an island. Otherwise, it was going to make getting out of here even more difficult. We’d cross that bridge when we got there – figuratively and literally.
Feylinn was flying to my left. Smoke filled the air around us and light from the explosions reflected off her shiny blue wings. She blew more fairy dust on all of us, for protection, as we moved quickly ahead, leaving Oblivion Penitentiary behind us.
Kane?
We’re okay. We’re right behind you, he answered in my head. Good news.
And then, more good news!
Just up ahead we spotted some Humvees. These were some of the vehicles I had heard outside my window and while in the rec yard. Perfect!
“I got it!” Lysa said, starting the engines of two of them with her magic. We all loaded into the vehicles and took off up the road. Unsure of where we were, we knew it didn’t matter. We were going to get as far away from that prison as these wheels could take us, and as quickly as possible.
Off to the left, was the ocean. I could see the moon glittering off the water. It felt like it had been ages since I’d seen the moon in the sky like that.
We drove to the right, inland, not sure where it was taking us, passing several vehicles with police lights and sirens on them along the way. None of them seemed to even notice us in their rush to get to the prison.
Kane and his boys caught up to our vehicles on foot. They had held off the guards until we were safely out and then ran for it themselves. Werewolves were exceptionally strong, and also surprisingly fast when in shifted form. There was a wolf back at the Guard who kept up with me, and that was saying something.
We were probably a couple of miles down the road when they ran right up beside our vehicles and hopped inside, shifting back to human form. Out of breath, a bit beaten up, but otherwise safe, we were all more than happy to put that awful place behind us.
We had done it!
***
We made it out, all of us, alive. But this wasn’t the end. Freedom was on the other side of those walls, but there were others left behind; others who didn’t belong there, either. We had to help them, too. By the time the dust had settled, a couple dozen had escaped that night. But they were refilling the prison with new inmates every day.
And not just that…
The shrill sound of the siren still echoed in my mind, and I knew they would be coming for us. They would hunt us down, one by one, just like they had the first time. Only this time, if they got us again, they were not likely to be as merciful.
Our faces were flashed on every television screen, computer, and newspaper around. We were wanted criminals, our crimes: made up. It didn’t matter that there was some fictional story about each of us. The humans were scared and there would be hell to pay.
They had declared war on us, right in our own hometowns, on our own property, and in even in our homes. They believed we were something to be eradicated, put away, locked up, or shut down. They wanted to end magic forever, and that meant ridding the world of the magic users.
They would stop at nothing until we were all gone from the face of the earth. This meant our breakout was really just the beginning. We would need to work together to beat this evil, covertly, lest we get caught again.
***
Surviving the first night would be the hardest. This is something we all knew. We drove to a secluded place, ditched the Humvees, and camped overnight. None of us could go back to our homes. That would be the first place they looked for us. In the days that followed, we made new arrangements. Some of us took turns going with one another to pick up supplies, clothes, or other essentials that were needed from our previous homes. We used magic and cloaking spells to get in and out undetected.
Lysa needed to go by her house for her Book of Shadows (a witchy spellbook of some sort), some potions, and other items. Kallisto returned for runes and to see if any of her family was there. They had moved on for safety, but they left her a clue of where to find them.
News stations from near and far were running stories that painted us as the bad guys. “Dangerous paranormal beings”, they had said.
Headlines flashed the words “Prison break” and “dangerous paranormal prisoners escaped” on every network.
It was all the hype from the Great War all over again, and this time they had all the anger of a public who believed our kind had murdered innocent little girls behind them. The mobs were ready for us, with pitchforks and torches.
We split for a while, believing that separating would make it harder for them to find us. But news reports showed more paranormals being locked up every single day. Their businesses broken into, looted, and destroyed, their homes burned to the ground, their children abused and beaten… we were back to the times before the Great War. The prejudice had never really gon
e away. It had just been lying dormant, waiting for something to trigger it back to the surface again.
They had nearly filled Oblivion to capacity and were talking about building a second paranormal prison to house them all. The military was working with top scientists to create new weapons to disable us and our abilities.
This didn’t look good for any of us.
If we wanted to put these bad guys down and shut down their bogus paranormal prison, we were going to have to work together. We couldn’t just walk away like none of this had ever happened. That’s why I decided to call everyone back together. We couldn’t run forever.
Chapter Ten
We met up at a little diner in a small town that you wouldn’t even find on a map. I knew this place well, as I’d spent some time here with Athena when she was on a job.
Those were the days… long nights together, waking naked and tangled in the sheets and one another, how cute her sleepy face was to me, although I had seen it thousands of times. I would never tire of waking up to that beautiful smile. I could never tired of her…
Maybe I did choose this place based on the nostalgia, but mostly I chose it because I knew the odds were slim to none that we would ever be found out here. No on ever came here, and the locals never talked about anything outside of town. That made this the perfect place to meet and discuss our plan.
Since we’d been on the outside, things had gotten crazy. It was all-out war on supernatural times in the real world these days. The humans wanted someone to blame for the murders of those sweet little girls and they were willing to blame ALL of us, just to get some justice.
The thing is, I didn’t think it was a supernatural being who had done it at all. Once I got wind of the facts of the case, it sounded highly suspicious. And our new President had a long and sordid history of racism against our type. He wanted a “pure” country, and to him, that meant no paranormals.
He had been opposed the treaty and civil liberties for our kind since before the Great War, and he had been very vocal about it. I would never understand how he ended up President in the first place. He claimed to have turned over a new leaf, changed his views on the paranormal races and all that, but most people still didn’t trust him. The paranormals definitely didn’t trust him.
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