by Alexis Angel
I look up from the paper toward Spider. “You know it’ll never work trying to escape this place from the prison yard, right?” I ask. Grinder’s a fool for even trying to consider it. “The sharpshooters on the towers will take out anyone who makes it past the fences.”
Spider shrugs. He doesn't say anything.
“Why would Grinder waste an opportunity like this to try such a stupid escape plan?” I ask Spider. “If I’m going to be the one doing this, I need to fucking know.”
And it’s a fair question. If I’m going to be taking my girlfriend hostage after I cost her a job, I need to know how this is all going to play out in the end. It’s still my job to protect her. Even if I am going to be her fucking captor in doing it.
Spider looks at me for a long minute. He can see that I’m serious in my question and finally he relents.
“No one is going to be escaping from the prison yard, amigo,” Spider says at last. “All you’re doing is creating a distraction for Grinder and me…and a few of his boys to go out a separate way.”
So that’s it. While I’m distracting the entire prison on one side, he plans to be going out through another route that not that many people will be watching for. Creating a distraction that’s big enough here, so no one sees what’s happening over there.
“The Warden would hunt you guys down like fucking roaches,” I hiss.
“Not if the Deputy Warden sends everyone on the wrong track, boss,” Spider replies back with a forceful whisper. “And by the time he corrects his mistakes, we’re long gone underground.”
Fuck. That makes sense now how much Grinder is always able to get away with certain things. The Deputy Warden is dirty. That’s exactly how Grinder knew what I did to protect Kerri. And that’s how he’s going to escape.
Normally, an escape from prison is a long shot at best.
But with a corrupt Deputy Warden, it could just work.
“What’s in it for me?” I ask. This could be my ticket out. I have to explore it. If I could get out, I could live outside these walls. I could apologize to Kerri. I could be a real father.
“Nothing,” Spider says, not breaking his stare into my eyes. “Maybe getting to keep your girl safe, if that matters to you, but other than that, you’re not coming with us. You’re probably not doing anything more than starting a riot.”
I look at him wondering what kind of fucking negotiating tactic this is. It’s like he doesn’t even have the decency to fucking lie to me. That’s how fucking little he cares about this.
“So, I get nothing from doing this, then I don’t think I’ll even fucking go see that bitch,” I tell Spider, drawling out my words and taking a scoop of the chicken breast that’s on my tray. “I don’t really need to see her when she comes calling.”
“Grinder’s guys are gonna rape the living shit out of her and then leave her to die if you don’t, boss,” Spider says, his eyes flashing in fear. “You asked what was in it for you and I said nothing, right? That’s because you missed your chance. You took the hand that Grinder gave you in friendship and you just pulled your cock out and pissed on it. We could have all transferred over to St. Simons and then got Grinder to help us get out with his connections. But you took a shit on that. Now, he’s figuring his own way out. And ain’t no seats left on this bus.”
Spider looks like he didn't have to put it in those words. But those are the cards I’m being dealt.
I need a chance to think this through. What if something goes wrong? What if I end up putting Kerri in more danger than she already is? This jail is a violent fucking jungle. Do I really want to bring a pregnant woman into the crossfires of a sniper?
“I need to fucking think about it, man,” I tell Spider, leaning back. “It’s a lot to do.”
Spider shrugs. “That’s fine,” he answers. “But think fast. Because she’s already on her way here.”
“Stone,” a guard calls out from the front of the canteen. “You got a fucking visitor in Room C.”
Fuck. So much for thinking through this.
I get up from my chair, giving one last look to Spider as I head out of the canteen. Whatever happens for the rest of my life is going to come down to this afternoon apparently.
Kerri
“You’ll be okay as long as you do everything I tell you to do,” the Deputy Warden told me as he sat next to me in the car, holding a gun pointed in my direction.
This was maybe an hour after he had knocked me unconscious in my own house. At first when I had woken up, I thought he had come and saved me somehow. Like someone from work had come to my rented house and saved me from the intruder that had attacked me.
Once the fuzzy feeling in my head had cleared up and I began to understand what was happening, I began to piece together what was going on. That Deputy Warden Marshall wasn’t here rescuing me. He was actually the one who had attacked me.
He hadn’t said much, only to do what he told me to do. He made some phone calls.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked him when he hustled me off to my car.
“Drive,” he said. “You’re going back to work.”
He held the gun at me as I climbed into the front seat, backed out of the driveway, and tried to stay calm as I entered traffic heading toward Achillees County Maximum Security Correctional Facility.
“Why are we going back?” I asked.
There came no reply.
“What do you want me to do?”
Again no response.
I started to slow the car. I was on the right side of the freeway. I was thinking of pulling off onto the shoulder to be able to talk to him.
Suddenly, Warden Marshall’s fist rose and he brought it towards my face.
His hit didn’t sting, as much as startle.
“I said keep driving!” Warden Marshall hissed. “Or both you and your boyfriend Lucien are as good as dead.”
Lucien Stone?
What was he involved in all this for? Had Lucien sent Warden Marshall to bring me back? Was I arrested?
No, neither of those could be it. It didn’t make any sense.
But I knew one thing.
“So you’re a corrupt correctional officer, aren’t you, Deputy Marshall?” I asked as I drove, my eyes on the road as I spoke. “What’s going on?”
“Shut up and drive, I swear to fucking God,” he replied, and said nothing else for the entirety of the trip.
I’m sitting in the visiting area where inmates meet their friends and loved ones. It’s a cold, depressing room, designed to hit home the fact that many of these men on the other side of this wall will never be able to hold their family in their arms again. It's a cruel place. One filled with hopelessness, hate, and despair. And, it’s where I sit now, awaiting Lucien.
The room by itself is antiseptic. There is a table, divided by glass. A guard sits in a small cubicle with a door that leads to my side of the room and one that leads to the side of the room Lucien will sit in. The glass is thick—at least three inches. It’s unbreakable. A closed circuit camera is affixed on the ceiling on either side of the room, watching our movements. Recording our emotions.
I notice all this but stop as I see the door open toward the prison.
A familiar face walks in and I gasp to myself. Even despite the fact that some time has passed, I can’t help but be mesmerized by this man. Even despite the fact that he betrayed me, that he destroyed everything I had done to build myself back up bit by bit, I can’t help but repress a shudder of excitement. And even though he shattered my trust, the reptilian part of my brain thinks back to how that long, thick cock had felt in my hands as I had rubbed it, caressed it, licked it, and sucked it. I can’t help but feel a little tingle down between my legs despite the circumstances.
Lucien’s eyes seem to look me up and down as he scans the room. He stares for a few seconds at the guard and I join him to see what he finds so interesting.
But just as suddenly, Lucien’s standing in front of me, with only inches o
f glass separating us. I pick up the phone and place it to my ear as Lucien sits down.
“Kerri…” Lucien starts.
But I haven’t forgotten the reason I’m here. Don’t worry. Left on my own, I would never be here. Or at least that’s what I’m telling you right now. But who knows? Because now that I'm here, I wonder why I didn’t come before. If only to gaze at the man I love. At the father of the baby I’m carrying.
If I do nothing else today, I should tell him that he’s going to be a father. Because despite the danger that I’m in, and the hurt that he’s caused me, I somehow still love this man.
“Lucien, I need to tell you something…” I begin, but this time he interrupts me.
“I need to tell you something first,” he says and this time he doesn’t stop or give me a chance to say anything. “I know why you’re here. Are you okay?”
That takes me by surprise. Was he a part of this? No, it can’t be.
“The Deputy Marshall,” Lucien says, leaning closer to me, as if whispering, while actually talking into the phone. “He’s dirty, right?”
I nod. I don’t know if they’re recording this. Lucien glances at the guard to see if he’s gotten any reaction. But the guard simply sits there, watching us. Of course they have the power to tap our conversation, but apparently they aren’t giving any credence to what Lucien is saying. Deputy Marshall must have realized that when he brought me here. He just didn't care.
“Are you okay?” Lucien asks.
I nod again. I wonder if Lucien is part of this.
“Those fuckers,” Lucien growls to himself and I start to think that he had no control over me sitting here. “If I ever get a chance to I’ll kill them myself.”
That’s when I start to believe that most likely Lucien had no intention of bringing me back to this place.
“I need to tell you something…” I try again, but again he interrupts me.
Remind me if I ever get out of this place to tell Lucien how much I hate it when he interrupts me. It’s almost as if I wasn’t—
“I love you so much, Kerri Curtis,” Lucien says, looking at me. His fingers touch the wall that separates us. “I fucking love you so fucking much.”
Well, that stops me short.
I remain silent. Thinking of all the feelings of betrayal. The anger. The Ben & Jerry’s.
“Baby,” I say slowly, not looking at his face. I pause and take a deep breath. Here goes fucking nothing, as Lucien would put it. “I’m pregnant.”
I look up at him to see his reaction. Will it be anger? Joy? Despair at being behind bars?
“We’re pregnant,” I say again to him as his face registers no surprise. “You and I. It’s your baby.”
There’s nothing from Lucien. I start to worry. I mean, most men would have some reaction, right?
Finally, Lucien speaks.
“I know,” he says simply.
I’m silent for a moment.
Okay, that was not really what I was expecting. Not one bit. I mean, am I getting fat already?
“I saw the ultrasound the other day when we were together,” he says simply, his eyes looking into mine. “And when you didn't listen to me about getting out of here, I had to do the only thing I could to make sure I was protecting you. Protecting both of you.”
If he had reached over and walked through the glass I couldn’t have been more surprised.
Lucien…knew?
That’s why he came forward and confessed our relationship and got me fired?
To protect me?
A mix of emotions goes through my head. Rage at not telling me. Embarrassment for ever doubting his love for me. Regret at not telling him sooner.
But overpowering all of that to the point of obsolescence is one single overriding feeling.
Love. For Lucien Stone.
Even as a prisoner with a fraction of the freedoms that I enjoy, Lucien found a way to protect me. And I know in that moment that despite the danger that I’m in, with the Deputy Warden up to something, that Lucien will protect me.
I’m beginning to seriously doubt that he had anything at all to do with the Deputy Warden bringing me here.
“Kerri,” Lucien says and I lean forward, bringing the phone closer as my fingers touch the glass where his are. “I need to tell you something.”
I nod to him. I’m all ears.
“I need you to forgive me,” he says simply.
Forgive him? Did he have a hand in bringing me here?
“Forgive you for what?” I ask.
“This,” he says and before I can figure out what’s happening, Lucien’s already out of his chair and dropped the phone.
I watch in shock as he moves with the speed of lightning, his muscles straining and pulls at the phone receiver. It takes a moment but snaps from where it’s tethered to the wall.
“Hey, what the fuck!” the guard in the cubicle yells, opening the door from his cubbyhole toward Lucien’s side of the room.
But by then, Lucien has already turned around and taken aim and thrown the phone receiver.
It sails through the air with deadly accuracy toward the closed circuit camera that’s recording his side of the room.
The phone receiver makes contact with the camera and shatters it, knocking it off its place and causing it to tumble to the floor.
“You’re in some serious fucking trouble, brother,” the guard says as he approaches Lucien with his baton, his mouth open at the display of raw athletic skill in front of him.
Those are the last words for a while from the guard as Lucien takes the chair with one hand and lifts it in a swing, swirling it around him and making contact with his head. I hear a thud as the guard falls to the floor. Before even his body hits the ground, Lucien has grabbed a pair of keys, his baton, and his gun and rushes over to my side, where he kicks open the door.
I run to him, but Lucien rushes past me and takes the phone receiver that I was just using.
He snaps it off, aims at the camera, closes one eye, brings his hand back, and throws.
It meets the same fate as its counterpart had moments earlier.
I stare at the clock on the wall. The whole episode took less than 3 minutes.
And that’s when the alarms start going off. Sensing loss of contact with the Visitation Room, the prison starts to go into alert.
We have minutes, if that. I go back toward Lucien and reach for him.
He grabs me and looks at me.
“You’re not safe out there, Marshall is going to come for you again!” Lucien says, his eyes scanning the entrances for guards approaching as he cocks the gun.
I nod. “What do we do?”
That’s right. I’m with him. No matter what.
He doesn’t think. Rather, he operates on pure instinct.
“Come with me,” he says and grabs my hand.
I try to keep up with him as we run toward the door. Going into the prison, I try not to think about how we may be going in the wrong way, deeper into captivity. But somehow, as long as I’m with him, I don’t mind following.
But one thing is absolutely clear.
I am very sure now that he had no involvement in sending Deputy Warden Marshall to knock me out and bring me here.
Lucien
The note had been pretty clear. Take out the guard. Kill him if possible. Then take his gun and take Kerri hostage. After that, talk into the cameras and tell her I had her hostage. Then, start making my way out through the Visitor’s Entrance that ran next to the prison yard. Do whatever I had to to make sure that all attention was focused on the side toward the Visitor's Entrance and the prison yard. And whatever I do, do not destroy the cameras.
But here I am, fucking running into the prison with a pregnant woman after having destroyed both the cameras.
The prison is going into full alert and I already know what’s happening.
The sharpshooters are gearing up and scanning the prison yard for anyone who's making a run for it. Local police a
re being alerted and are setting up road barricades on all major roads that lead from the prison. Helicopters are being launched that are scanning the complex from above.
Everyone is looking for people who are trying to leave the prison.
And Kerri and I are running headlong further inside of it.
See, I may have never gone to fucking school as much as I should have, but that doesn’t mean I don't know how to think. And ever since Spider handed me the note, I’ve been trying to wonder what Grinder’s angle has been. I thought about it quite a lot, and I think I finally figured it out.
But it's too soon to tell you what I figured out because right now we’re running past the cells and I swear it’s like all Hell has been unleashed. The prison’s going into lockdown but because the guards are all heading toward the Visitor’s Reception area, there’s a power vacuum in D Block.
Ancient beef between two inmates? They’re sorting it out now. Someone owe someone else money? It’s time to collect. Someone having a bad day? Time to last out. A collective wail of frustration at being locked up, despair at the circumstances that put them behind bars, and anger toward the world is being unleashed.
Tables are being overturned in common areas and chairs thrown against the walls. Most of the cameras have been destroyed, torn from the cages that protect them on the ceilings.
A few times I take Kerri and we hide in nooks, shadows, or behind doors as roving bands of prisoners walk by. Some people pass us by but they’re not paying us any mind. But I’m no fool. These men have been trapped here, some for years. All that testosterone and nowhere to put it too. And Kerri is fucking gorgeous. The last thing I need is for us to get delayed because I’m shooting some people who’re trying to get too close to us.
For her part, Kerri is keeping up with me. She realizes the danger of the situation. But believe it or not, we’re safer here than had we gone the other way—toward the Visitor’s Entrance. Eventually the guards are gonna start coming this way, when they figure out that I came inside. But right now they don’t think I could be that stupid. What’s the point in trying to escape from jail if you’re gonna head into it more?
