by Logan Byrne
We had a locker room-type setting, with rough stained towels that scratched my skin. It felt like small pieces of glass were taped to the ends. Wrapped in my towel, I walked over, seeing her getting into hers.
I glanced around, but nobody was paying much attention to the naked women in the lockers, some of whom were going into the shower stalls, so I pounced. “Lisa, isn’t it?” I asked, stopping her in her tracks.
“Yes,” she said, with a puzzled look and possibly annoyed tone.
“Hi, I’m Lexa, I thought I would introduce myself,” I said.
“I know who you are. Everybody does,” she said. “You’re the cop.”
“Well, former cop, actually,” I said.
“My uncle was a cop. He was a good man,” she said.
“Oh, that’s awesome!” I said, perking up. For a minute I thought she was going to hate me. Maybe this was my in.
“I need to shower,” she said, pointing at the stalls.
“Before you do, would you mind if I asked you something?” I asked.
“I’m not into girls,” she said curtly.
“Wait, what? No, sorry! That’s not it at all,” I said, flustered and feeling myself start to blush out of pure embarrassment.
“Then what is it?” she asked.
“This needs to be kept a secret, but some of us are wanting to get out of here, if you know what I mean. I heard you have some skills that would make that a bit more plausible,” I said.
“You know that’s impossible, right? Nobody has gotten out of here, at least not in recent memory. I also don’t know if I feel like dying,” she said.
“Well, if you stay here, you’re going to die frozen like a popsicle. Do you want that to happen?” I asked.
“I’ve got to say, you’ve got a point there. Still, you must have one hell of a plan to hatch a scheme like this,” she said. “Who else is in?”
“Well, me, hopefully you, Rosie, and Raul. I’m thinking one or two more for good measure,” I said.
“Those are good choices if you’re going to go through with this, but the plan has to be good. I’m not doing some half-baked scheme where we fail before we even get going. I’ll give a tentative yes and agree, but only if you wow me with your plan and get some other good people to join the fight,” she said.
“So yes, that’s great. I know you won’t regret this,” I said.
“I said tentative, not guaranteed. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to wipe the icy film off my body,” she said, before walking away.
“Did it go well?” Rosie asked, walking over as she held tightly onto the top of her towel, as if somebody was going to try to pull it down or something.
“It went well, but it’s still not in the bag. We need a good plan before she’ll say yes for certain, but I think she’s on board. We really need someone with her skill set if we’re going to be successful. You never really know what these guards are going to try to pull, Rosie,” I said.
“I really hope you come up with something good. Without a wand, you aren’t going to be able to do much,” she said, before walking off to find an open stall.
I wanted to tell her about the mark and what I was truly capable of, but I couldn’t. I wanted the world to know—aside from Kiren, that is. Maybe after this war was over I could go public with it and sway the world for the better. I could be a beacon of light in a sea of darkness, like a lighthouse that those people could swim to when the waves came crashing down just a little too hard. I could be the driving force to make this realm a better place, and maybe that sort of behavior would even find its way into the mortal realm.
There were so many things I wanted to do to make this world better, and the biggest step of all was to make Kiren taste the sour taste of defeat before I left him to rot in this prison, in a cell far away from everybody and specially crafted for him. He’d get that special treatment through his demise.
A million thoughts rolled through my head as the lukewarm water cascaded down my body. It was a bold move to attempt this, and I knew that the history books would look back on this attempt and call it the most brazen move ever to come out of this prison. Hopefully it would inspire others out there, those cast aside by the system and made out to be martyrs for standing up for what was right.
Hopefully.
7
Over the past three days I’d noticed that there was a guard who walked around the perimeter of the cafeteria every single day. She wasn’t too aware of her surroundings, or at least I didn’t think she was, and she never seemed to make sure she was covered at all times. She was my target.
I knew Raul had the ability to get her key card, though I wasn’t sure how he would do it, exactly. It would be hard, after all, and there were too many inmates and other guards for him to just snatch it in broad daylight, so to speak. We needed a plan.
We couldn’t execute the plan until the day we wanted to leave. I’d begun to work on a plan involving a prison riot that would take place during our time in the recreation yard. I figured we were all out and kind of free to roam around then, so we would have the best chance of success if we were to break out. That meant taking the card during lunch, just before we would go out to the yard.
If she knew her key card was missing, panic would definitely ensue. We needed her not to notice it and to go about her business as usual while we had it. I knew she would report it missing as soon as she noticed and they would change the electronic signature in the locks, meaning the card wouldn’t work and we would be right back at the beginning, but worse. They’d catch us, because we obviously wouldn’t be able to get out, and who knows what would happen next. A failed attempt also wouldn’t bode well in case Mirian and my lawyer were able to come through and get me out early, though I wasn’t quite optimistic about that happening.
I still wasn’t positive whether we should just break out or try to get a vehicle. I’d felt so sure before, and I was still fielding opinions and concerns from my group, but the prison seemed big. I didn’t really know where I needed to go, and the distance we would have to cover in such a short time might be damn close to impossible. We would also have to fight our way out, as the number of guards on high alert during a riot would be too large for us to just slip past, and all that together brewed a perfect storm of failure.
Was my power strong enough, though? Was I going to be able to conjure enough magic to blow through the walls? Even then, we would need to run without stopping, trudging through at least a foot of thick snow. This escape wasn’t going to be easy, but it was definitely going to be worth it.
I raised my eyebrow at Raul, who was sitting at a different table from us during lunch that day. “What’s up?” he asked, after walking over and sitting across from me. Nobody around seemed to notice him switching tables.
“I think I have an idea, and it involves you getting your hands a bit sticky,” I said, smiling, as I leaned in.
“I’m liking it so far,” he said.
“When the time comes, not now, you need to take her key card,” I said, nodding at the female guard walking around the room.
“Oh, that sounds like fun,” he said, licking his lips.
“But remember, you have to wait until the day we’re actually getting out. You’ll need to do it at lunch, before we go out into the yard. I have a way to take us out after that,” I said.
“How?” he asked.
“Just trust me on this one. I’ll make sure to tell you when I need you to take it, and you just worry about getting the card without her knowing. The card is going to be our backup plan, in case mine doesn’t work,” I said.
“Did you think of anybody else to take with us?” he asked.
“I’ve thought about it, and I don’t think we need anybody else. We have four people, and that should be more than enough. I think more will follow us afterwards anyway, but just us four are working together and know about what’s about to happen,” I said.
“I sure hope you’re right, Lexa. I still have my faith in y
ou,” he said, before getting up and walking back to his tray of gruel.
“What’s your way?” Rosie asked, after keeping quiet through my entire conversation with Raul.
“I’m going to blast us out of here with my magic,” I said, still staying coy.
“Without a wand?” she asked.
“Don’t worry, I’ll have one,” I said, before taking a bite of my muffin. Maybe I’d said too much, but I considered Rosie to be a good friend. She was there for me, even when I might not have been there for myself, and I wanted her to know she was safe and could trust me.
“You,” a guard said, approaching me.
“Y-yes?” I asked, taken off-guard.
“Come with me,” he said, motioning for me to get up.
“Did I do something wrong?” I asked.
“You too,” he said, pointing to another guy sitting near me. “You guys are on laundry duty.”
Confused, and never having heard anything about working in the prison, I was cuffed and walked out of the cafeteria with the guard and the other inmate. We looked at each other with a stunned gaze of disbelief. Even though I was shocked, I took this as a learning opportunity, and boy did I learn.
He took us down somewhere I’d never been before, a wide hallway with laundry carts on either side. Jumpsuits and worker uniforms from all over the prison were piled high on top of every cart in the hall. “Here,” he said, pointing at the room.
I looked ahead, seeing a few lights blinking, as I walked slowly in. I thought it was a control center of some kind, or somewhere to monitor us, but it looked different from the one above our block. “Get in,” the guard said, before shoving me inside.
“How come we’re here?” the other guy asked.
“The Warden usually reserves laundry duty for other blocks on lighter security, but for some reason he wanted the two of you in here today to do some work. Consider yourself lucky for getting out of your block. I will be posted outside in case you two try any funny business. The work in here is simple. You put the suits into the right washing machine, put in the soap, and wash them. They don’t take long, and then you toss them in the dryer. Each machine is labeled for which color needs to go inside. You’d have to be an idiot to screw it up,” the guard said, before walking to the door. He slammed it shut, locking us both inside, before I took a look around the room.
It was big, with maybe about twenty washing machines and twenty dryers, with walls painted white, bright, and very sterile-looking. “Guess we should get to work,” I said, grabbing a cart with purple jumpsuits in it, just like mine.
I wasn’t sure why the Warden picked me for this job. Maybe Mirian got a hold of him somehow, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to be in here in the first place. What was I going to achieve by being here? At least in my cell I could hang out, or go into the yard and talk to Rosie while planning our escape attempt. In here I was stuck with a guy I didn’t know, and one who quite frankly I didn’t want to know given how much his armpits smelled, while touching disgusting laundry with weird stains and smells emanating from it.
“So I’ve heard you tried to kill someone,” he said, obviously trying to make small talk.
“No, I didn’t. It was a misunderstanding. What are you in for?” I asked.
“I murdered someone,” he said, shrugging.
“Oh,” I said, under my breath, while making sure I kept an eye on him. Great, just great, not only was I touching disgusting laundry, but I was doing it with a murderer. How very awesome.
Just like the guard said, the laundry duty wasn’t hard, but it was never-ending. Each cycle took about ten minutes, and when one went in, another would be done. The piles of laundry seemed as high as the Alps that surrounded the prison, and after about two hours the smell from the bleach and commercial detergent started to burn my eyes a little.
I grabbed a cart piled with officer clothes, a blank look on my face as I started to grab the pants for sorting. Then I felt something—something long, hard, and skinny. I looked at my partner, seeing him on the other side of the room sorting green suits, before I rummaged around and my eyes grew as big as my head.
It was a wand.
Right there, in my hand, was a cherry wood wand still in its sheath. Somebody must have left it behind, or a mistake was made, but the wand was right here and I had full access to it. My heart rate picked up, my pulse throbbing the vein in my neck, as I quickly tried to think of where I could put it so it wouldn’t be found.
“Ten more minutes of detail,” the guard said, opening the door and alerting us.
“Yes, sir,” I said, nodding with a softened smile. He closed the door and I picked up the wand, leaning over like I was reaching for clothes. I unbuttoned my jumpsuit a little, sliding the wand down my shirt and between my skin and the band of my bra. It was a little stiff, the hard wood pushing into my sternum, which had lost some of its fat during my time here, but the pain was worth it. If I could just hide this wand long enough, we would have our way out of here, and I wouldn’t have to expose my mark to anybody.
I picked up the clothes, tossing them into the wash, and keeping a low profile until the guard came back ten minutes later, right on the dot, and told us to get out before two more inmates came in and took our place. Walking steadily to make sure the wand wouldn’t somehow slip and fall out the leg of my pants, I took short, shallow breaths. I probably looked as suspicious as a person possibly could.
“Inside,” the guard said, when we reached my cell.
“Yes, sir,” I said, before walking inside. He took off my cuffs and I walked to my bed, lying down with my feet facing the cell door, waiting for the coast to clear. I slipped the wand up and out of my jumpsuit, lying on my side and acting like I was asleep, before gently shoving it inside my mattress through a rip close to the wall.
I smiled from ear to ear, grinning like a greedy spoiled kid on Christmas, before pushing down gently on the top of the stained mattress and feeling the long, skinny lump underneath. Did Mirian leave this for me somehow, or was there a member of the resistance undercover in the prison? There was no way I could just happen on something like this by chance, without a wand-less witch or wizard coming back instantly after realizing their wand was gone. I couldn’t be that lucky, could I?
I didn’t question it much longer, figuring Mirian and I would have a discussion about it once I got out of here, not if I got out of here. It was on.
8
I felt for the wand in my mattress about every hour since I found it yesterday. It felt almost like a dream, that I would be able to get my hands on one, and I dreaded the thought of random inspections coming through to check for contraband. Getting caught with a wand, a weapon, would be the end of me. Any momentum Mirian and my lawyer were getting would be long gone, and my chances of escaping with Rosie, Lisa, and Raul would be dead on arrival.
The wand was always there, never leaving its location tucked deep within the frayed cushioning of my mattress, and I made sure nobody saw me constantly feeling around for it. I still didn’t trust many people in here, and I knew that they would love an opportunity to get in the Warden’s good graces by turning in a piece of information like that. They had nothing to lose, and everything to gain.
Things felt fine when I went into lunch. I felt at ease and confident, until a guard took control of the room and announced something that would make me want to vomit.
“Now that you all are out of your cells, I am up here to inform you that during your yard time today we will be conducting random inspections of some of your cells while you are out of them and unable to hide anything,” he said.
I froze. Some of the other inmates looked suspiciously guilty, while others voiced their displeasure with the random searches. “Is everybody being searched?” one asked.
“No, they will be picked at random, but yours will be first,” the guard snapped back. The inmate looked displeased, possibly hiding something and hoping it wouldn’t be found. Sometimes it was better just to keep your m
outh shut.
We were soon taken out to the yard, where I couldn’t help but keep a hawk’s focus on my cell door as Rosie and I walked our usual route along the edge of the yard. “What’s eating you?” she asked.
“Huh?” I replied, refusing to look at her.
“Why are you so crazy right now? They do these random searches sometimes, it’s no big deal. It’s not like you can exactly get contraband in here, anyway,” she said.
“I have some,” I said quietly.
“Wait, what? How? What is it?” she asked, panicked.
“You know how I was taken out of my cell yesterday?” I asked.
“Yeah, what was that about? I forgot to ask you last night,” she said.
“I was put on laundry duty, and while I was in there I found something that I hid in my cell,” I said.
“What?” she asked. “They won’t do anything if it’s food or something small like that.”
“A wand,” I whispered, close to her ear.
Her eyes went wide as I saw her gulp. “A what?” she asked.
“I know, I saw it in there, attached to some pants, and I had to take the chance. It’s our ticket out of here,” I said.
“If they catch you…” she said, shaking her head a little.
“They won’t. They haven’t even gone into my cell, so I know I’m safe,” I said.
“Look again,” she said, nudging me towards the cells.
I almost snapped my neck from turning it so quickly, seeing a guard go into my cell. I wanted to cry. I had to remain confident, though. I hid that wand well, and it wasn’t exactly out in the open or even very noticeable inside the mattress. It was between bedding foam and springs, so unless they pressed hard in the right place, they wouldn’t feel it in there. Nothing else in my cell was contraband, so maybe I was safe. I had to be.
“Where did you put it?” she asked.
“It doesn’t matter, they won’t find it. I’m sure of it,” I said.
