by Aella Black
My mother marched along the line of inmates, her face stern. “Your behavior is unacceptable,” she said, her words cutting like knives. “As punishment, there will be no dinner. You will spend the time in your cells. And to teach all of you a lesson…” She turned toward one of the guards—a guy who really needed a haircut and some dental work—and nodded for him to follow.
As my mother’s eyes scanned each inmate, her eyes skipped right over me. I clenched my teeth. Why wouldn’t she acknowledge me?
I mean, it wasn’t like I wanted everyone—scratch that, anyone—to know I was her daughter. But could she not even stand to look at me?
Halting right in front of Zapper, she pointed at him and then the girl who’d been bullying him. “You two, step forward.”
So she had been watching when all this went down. Why hadn’t she stopped it?
The girl’s face paled. She was shaking visibly as she inched away from the rest of the line.
The command came in one word. “Warrick.” I’d definitely heard that name before.
I shivered when he grinned like he’d just won a prize. Then the girl screamed and fell to the floor. She writhed, clearly in excruciating pain.
Flashbacks of Dr. Venn’s pain tolerance tests flashed through my mind, making it difficult to breathe.
Stop, I silently begged my mother. Please stop this.
But she didn’t. Even more disturbingly, she just stood there, hands clasped behind her back, watching as intently as a cat eyeing an injured mouse. Not an ounce of remorse on her face.
I wanted to scream. Instead, I stepped forward, but Dane grabbed my hand and wrenched me back. “Nothing we can do,” he said under his breath. “It’s almost over.”
Tears pricked my eyes. This wasn’t uncommon here. How did they live like this? How was I going to?
But he was right. Seconds later, Warrick let up and the girl lay shuddering on the grass, sobbing.
My mother stepped right over her like a used tissue. Then she got in Zapper’s face. “You’re new here,” she said. Zapper’s eyes were wide, his mouth open in shock. “Let your punishment be a lesson to all those who’ve just arrived. Disobedience will not be tolerated.” Zapper turned white as fallen snow. “Warrick.”
In the blink of an eye, Zapper was on the ground, screaming and clutching his stomach, face, any part of his body he could reach.
Enough.
Ripping my hand from Dane’s, I yelled, “Stop! He’s just a kid!”
My mother held up a finger, and Warrick’s head whipped in my direction. Zapper inhaled deeply and buried his face in the ground.
I felt the eyes of every inmate on me. Warrick looked downright gleeful. “Your turn, eh?”
But nothing happened. Evidently, he was awaiting my mother’s signal. Her eyes, however, were locked on mine.
Would she really torture her own daughter? I was about to find out.
“No. I have something else in store for those who are insubordinate,” she said crisply. “Warrick, your services are no longer needed.”
His shoulders slumped and he glared at me. “But she—”
“You are dismissed, Warrick,” Mom snarled. Then she snapped at me. “Come here.”
I shuffled forward, feeling more like a badly behaved dog than a daughter recently reunited with her mother. I was only feet away from her now. Her cold blue eyes bored into my mine. “Follow me,” she said, then turned and barked, “Everyone, back to your cells!”
Reluctantly, I followed her through the rec room and out into a narrow hall. “You shouldn’t have done that, Phoebe,” she said, walking briskly. “Just because we share blood, it doesn’t mean—”
I stopped suddenly. “Excuse me?” My voice came out as little more than a whisper. I shouldn’t have been surprised by her words, but really? “Shared blood? It’s not like we’re distant cousins. You’re my mother.”
She whirled on me. “Hold your tongue, young lady. You’re lucky I didn’t let Warrick have his way with you.”
My eyebrows rose. Did she know just how terrible that sounded?
Turning back around, she marched toward a steel door and pushed it open. “In here.”
I didn’t move. “Why?”
“I want to have a little chat.” She flashed me a smile, but there was no warmth in it.
I hesitated only a moment more before walking inside the small space, occupied only by a table and two chairs. It looked like an interrogation room.
“Take a seat,” she said, closing the door behind us.
I did so, the cold from the aluminum chair seeping through my jumpsuit. My mother sat across from me and laced her fingers together.
“I understand it may have come as a shock for you to see me here. But—and I cannot stress this enough—you will get no special treatment. This serves as your first and only warning, Phoebe. Next time you’re faced with a punishment, you will take it like everyone else.”
I had no doubt that every word she’d just said was true. Therefore, I completely ignored it. “Why did you leave us?” I demanded.
She straightened. “I had important work to do. I couldn’t be distracted.”
“Oh, so torturing minors is your idea of ‘important work’?” The air quotes were a bit much, but I was so angry right now I could hardly see straight.
Her face darkened. “You know nothing about what’s going on here. One day maybe you’ll understand.”
“Why not today? Why don’t you enlighten me, mother?”
“Grow up, Phoebe. You’re acting like a petulant teenager.”
“Well, maybe if I wasn’t left to raise myself, I’d act better,” I said, the bitterness leaking into every word. When she didn’t respond, I kept going. “Did you think of us at all?” I couldn’t hide the hurt in my voice.
Mom stood. “I believe our conversation is over.”
“Dad’s missing,” I pressed, not moving from my chair. “Did you even know that?”
She blinked quickly, and something told me it wasn’t because she was surprised.
“Do you know where he is?
“No, why would I?” she said quickly. A little too quickly. Unlocking the steel door, she pointed to the guard standing a short distance away. “Nash will escort you to your cell.”
I eyed him. “Do the guards know who I am?” Not that I was anything to her, apparently. But that didn’t mean being her biological daughter wouldn’t come with a hefty price.
“Not many,” she said. “And I suggest, for your safety, you keep it that way.” She flashed a smile in Nash’s direction. “Please escort Phoebe to her cell.”
Tears of frustration stung my eyes. “You never cared about us. You still don’t. I hate you for that.”
Mom blinked a few times, but otherwise displayed no reaction to my words. I marched out of the room. Nash grabbed my arm, but I shook him away. He didn’t try grabbing me again. I swiped tears from my eyes while we walked back to my cell. As soon as I was locked away again, I curled up on my bed and let the tears flow.
The one parent I knew was alive, and she might as well not be.
“That bad, huh?” Lucy whispered from her bunk. I knew she was imagining the worst. Though what could be worse than whatever torture Warrick inflicted, I didn’t know.
I had no right to feel this way, but somehow I felt wounded even though no one lay a hand on me.
7
Xander
Heath unlocked my cell door. “Xander? It’s time for your medical examination.”
I groaned. I’d slept horribly last night, thinking of all the ways I could have handled the meeting with my parents better. Whether my father had picked up on my warning. Whether the warden had.
To my knowledge, none of my friends had been tortured by Warrick, but that didn’t mean the sadistic warden wouldn’t purposely make me sweat it out, wondering if and when it might happen.
If that was her game, she’d already won.
“Gotta go, man,” Heath said wit
h a surprising amount of patience. “They don’t like to be kept waiting.”
“I was already checked out at Leavenworth. Don’t you have the file?”
“Docs here like to do things their own way. Come on, hurry up. Haven’t got all day.”
I felt a slight something, and without questioning him further, I rose from the bed. Wait, did Heath just make me comply with him?
Rumor around the prison yard was that he was an apath. Apparently, the warden used him to de-escalate volatile situations. But this wasn’t a prison riot. I was simply asking a question.
I followed Heath out of the cell, leaving Venom to practice his spitting. I didn’t trust him. He didn’t trust me. Besides, I was a “superfreak.” It was laughable considering he was the one who had the weird power.
Outside of our cell, Venom didn’t want anything to do with me. I didn’t care. I had my friends from Leavenworth.
But with the powerful abilities these Lansing inmates possessed, I really wished we could acquire some allies. Too bad they seemed determined we were grime under their feet. Getting out of here seemed more of an impossibility with each passing day.
Heath led me to what I assumed was the medical wing and opened a large wooden door. “Wait in here until they call you.”
I stepped inside the room, which was much nicer than any other part of the prison I’d seen so far. It even had tile floors and antique furniture. Sitting on a worn loveseat was—
“Xander?” Phoebe stood as I approached.
Glancing at the guards in the room, I kept my arms firmly planted by my sides. I was beginning to think the warden had eyes everywhere, and after her threat yesterday, I had no intention of making Phoebe a bigger target than she already was.
I’d even started distancing myself from Birdie a bit. I explained why, of course, and she understood. But it was still hard not to reach out to her when she was down.
“What are you doing here?” Phoebe asked.
“Same as you, I expect.” We sat on the loveseat together. My fingers itched to touch her hand. “Medical exam.”
Relief flooded her face. “That’s what this is?”
“They didn’t tell you?”
She shook her head. “I was scared they were going to do more tests. This is about when they started at Leavenworth.”
Why would they not have told her what they’re doing? Heath told me, so obviously it wasn’t some big secret. I hated that she’d been sitting here stressing about the possibility of being strapped down and killed while defenseless.
I could no longer resist. I set my hand over hers, tucking them both into the crevice between the couch cushions. Fortunately, she didn’t pull away. “You’re going to be okay,” I told her. “No tests today.”
She released a breath, her shoulders hunching forward. Then she looked at me with eyes I could get lost in for days. “How have you been? How are the others?”
Speaking softly so the two guards would have a hard time hearing, I filled Phoebe in as best as I could. I told her about my cellmate, Venom. That Birdie, Rocky, and the others were okay, but Birdie was understandably upset and scared of the sparring matches.
Phoebe’s brows creased in concern. “I’ve been worried about her. Do you think they’ll make her fight?”
I shrugged, but my stomach twisted. If they did force her to fight, the little girl would be defenseless. I didn’t want to think about it. Not right now. I had Phoebe right here in front of me. I could worry about Birdie later.
“What about you?” I gave her hand a light squeeze. “How do you feel about the matches?”
“Honestly, I’m freaking out,” she said. “All I have are Rocky’s lessons, and you and I both know that won’t help against one of them.”
“It’s something, at least.” I glanced at the guards and, leaning as close to her as I dare, lowered my voice further. “Have you talked to your mom?”
Phoebe’s entire demeanor changed. “Yeah, yesterday. But I’m pretty sure she doesn’t consider herself anyone’s ‘mom,’ let alone mine.” The bitterness in her voice was unmistakable.
Tensing, I asked, “What happened?”
“Oh, she just made it clear I wouldn’t be getting any special treatment. Even Warrick won’t be off-limits.” She shivered slightly, and I fought every instinct in my body not to wrap her in my arms and hold on tight.
I was so busy fighting the impulse, I didn’t pay attention to what my mouth was saying. “Steer clear of him, Phoebe. What he does… it feels like you’re burning alive from the inside out.”
Her gaze locked on mine and wouldn’t let go. “He hurt you?” A look of understanding crossed her delicate features. Followed immediately by anger. “You were the one tortured in the cafeteria.”
I shouldn’t have said anything. She hardly needed another reason to despise her mother. Not because the woman didn’t deserve it, but if Phoebe was like every other teenager in existence, she would rebel. And this was not the place to test your boundaries.
“What do you know, I’m famous,” I said, forcing a laugh. It didn’t sound even remotely authentic. I cleared my throat. “Oh, and speaking of neglectful parents, I saw mine yesterday.”
I could have kicked myself at the hopeful look on Phoebe’s face. “What? How?” she asked.
Shaking my head, I said, “I couldn’t tell them anything.” I really didn’t want to tell her why that was, but that ship had sailed. Now that it had, she needed to know why I didn’t jump at the opportunity to get us all out of here.
“You mother threatened Birdie.” Phoebe looked justifiably horrified. “And you.”
“Me? Why me? We barely see one another.”
I shrugged. I didn’t want to admit that her mom probably saw the way I looked at her and put two and two together. “She also threatened the lives of my parents.”
An expression I didn’t like filled Phoebe’s face. “Xander, I’m so sorry.”
I squeezed her hand again. “You have nothing to feel guilty about. If anyone’s at fault, it’s me. I tried to send my Dad a coded message before they left, but I couldn’t risk saying anything outright.”
Phoebe didn’t speak right away. I worried she thought I could have done more. I certainly did.
Her words put me out of my misery. “I don’t think it would have helped even if you had told them. You said before they knew you were going to Leavenworth, right?”
I nodded. Not only did they know I was going there, they made sure I didn’t come here.
“Well, if they know about the prisons, then they probably know about everything else, don’t you think?”
Normally, I’d be the first person to point the finger at my parents, but in this case, I thought she was slightly off-base.
“They found out I was moved here and apparently insisted on making sure I was okay. So yeah, they must know it’s not great here, but I don’t think they get just how not great it is.”
Phoebe appeared to think for a moment. “Do you wonder… why your parents and my mother are in on this?”
I have thought about it. Something was going on that we’d obviously been kept in the dark about. “I do wonder,” I said slowly. “But other than the fact they’re all terrible parents, I haven’t come up with much.”
She smiled a little, and my chest tightened. Our dreams of escape, of being free wherever that might lead us, had been snatched away. Now I couldn’t even touch Phoebe without being paranoid she’d be hurt because of it.
Thoughts of touching her made my mind wander once again to Dane. What did she think of him? I almost didn’t want to know, but it had been eating me up inside since seeing them together. “So, how do you like your new friends?” I asked, testing the waters.
“They’re okay. Lucy’s pretty cool, and Dane’s a good guy.”
My insides deflated. “Oh yeah?”
“I mean, he annoyed me at first. But yesterday, he stood up for us ‘superfreaks.’” I could tell Phoebe liked that name about as
much as I did. “Told off a girl who tried to drown me.”
“What? Are you okay?”
She rolled her eyes playfully. “Even if I had died, I’d still be sitting here with you.”
True. But I knew how terrifying it was for her, even knowing she would come back after dying. “I just want to make sure you weren’t hurt.”
“I’m fine.” Phoebe tried to smile, but I saw the effort it took her.
I wished I’d been able to give her hope that my parents would storm the prison and get us all released. The one chance I had—the only chance any of us were going to have—and I blew it. Big time.
Some white knight I turned out to be.
If Dane stepped in to help her and the other Leavenworth inmates out, then more power to him. I should be grateful. And, as usual, I needed to stop overthinking everything.
I mentally chastised myself. We were all just trying to survive.
“There’s a sparring match today,” Phoebe said.
“I heard. But they’ll rotate us. I’m sure you won’t fight today.”
“What about you?”
I released her hand when a guard looked our way. “Don’t worry about me. I can handle myself.” Her hair looked so soft right now. I wanted to touch it. To push it back from her sad face.
But I held back. I didn’t want her hurt because of me.
The door to an examination room opened. “Phoebe Atkinson, please,” a short, somewhat kind-looking woman called.
A far cry from the doctor who tortured her at Leavenworth. Still, Phoebe stood reluctantly.
“Good luck,” I said, giving her the best smile I could manage. “You’ll be fine.”
She nodded. “You too.”
Shortly after she left, my name was called. I followed a different nurse into another room, and a routine medical exam ensued.
“Healthy as a horse,” the old woman pronounced when she was done. “Out you go.”
I didn’t hesitate. But when I re-entered the waiting area, Phoebe wasn’t there. I hoped she was okay.
As I moved to exit, a guard stepped forward. “Alexander Aldrich?”
