by C. R. Jane
"Me too," she murmured. "Part of me stupidly wants you to take me away now, so we don't have to ever return to where I will never see the sun again. To be locked up forever." She frowned and turned her head to the side, staring out into the distance at the water, lost in the reality of how fucked up her situation truly was. That the short moments of reprieve I just gave her aren’t enough to deal with a lifetime in prison.
My breathing picked up, and it cut me deeply to see her that low. But her plea for help wasn't missed. I slipped a hand under her neck and lifted her head to face me. She blinked, her sweet mouth parting to say something, but her words were stolen by me.
"I’ll make you a promise, Selena. I will find a way to get you out of the Nightmare Penitentiary. I’ll fuck up everything in our path to make it happen. Okay?"
She nodded, not speaking, but the glistening in her gaze showed me the desperation she clung to for an escape. In front of me was a woman staring at me like I just offered her the answer to all her problems. I slowly swept my mouth over hers, running my tongue over her sweet lips, intending to make her forget her worries at least one more time before we returned.
Chapter 3
Selena
I didn't realize how much it would suck to come back to Nightmare Penitentiary. I mean obviously, I realized it wouldn't be fun to get a taste of freedom, and then find myself back in hell. But the dread I was experiencing at the moment went far beyond anything I could have comprehended.
I knew what was waiting for me now. The dim hallways, the cacophony of screams that never ended…the fights any time you stepped outside your cell. I shivered as I walked beside Keon, wishing he was allowed to touch me. Already I missed him. The short time we shared outside the prison, at his home, meant the world to me. They were memories locked in my mind to keep me going for as long as possible in this rotten place.
But he couldn't, not in here in front of everyone. The other guards were watching us closely. I had to pretend he was no one to me once again.
"It'll be okay," Keon whispered to me under his breath as we passed through the same gates I'd entered months before.
"Yeah," I murmured, as the doors slid open. I could already hear the screams, I wanted to run as far away as I could.
Why hadn't I taken up Keon's offer to run away?
Right. Because I was an idiot.
We'd only made it a little way down one of the hallways when another guard approached us. Keon stiffened as he got closer. I knew he was trying to withhold the urge to tell the guy to fuck off. Or maybe even kill him. I'm sure he was itching for violence after not being able to do anything to Julian.
"The Warden's expecting you," the guard announced with a smug smirk. Keon's grip tightened on my arm.
"We just got back from her mother's funeral. Surely, the Warden isn't expecting her now?" Keon growled.
The guard's smirk grew. "He wants her now, and you know that it will be worse for her if he has to wait."
Keon opened his mouth, then closed it, as if he didn't know what to say. And what could he say? He knew that there was nothing we could do. In this place, the Warden was king, and there was nothing we could do to change that.
Dread curdled in my gut. How was it possible that no matter where I was, I always felt powerless? That didn't change whether I was inside or outside these walls.
"I'll take her," Keon announced, but the guard was already shaking his head before Keon had finished speaking.
"There's a fight brewing in the northern quadrant. The Warden heard rumors of it from one of his informants, and he wants extra guards over there. That includes you."
Keon was trembling again, and frankly, I didn't have the energy to deal with the fallout that would occur if something happened with the guard.
"Sounds good," I chirped to the guard, walking away from Keon before he could do anything.
Keon's anger trailed after me as I hurried past the guard in the direction that I thought the Warden's office was. The halls were always changing in this place. It was impossible to keep track of where it was even though I'd been called there often enough that you would think I'd have it figured out by now.
I shot a look over my shoulder as I walked, hoping that Keon could read the apology in my eyes. Distress was written all over his features, and I wondered how long this could go on before Keon messed up, and we were found out. I needed to do my best to make sure that didn't happen. I couldn't take messing up anyone else's life. My mother losing hers because of me had been enough.
The walk to the Warden's office took forever, but the guard was blissfully quiet. I hadn't seen that creepy guard again, and I kind of wondered if he hadn't been "dealt with" by either Keon or Alaric. A smile slid across my face. I'm sure it looked demented. This place was really changing me.
I took a deep breath when we finally got there, steeling myself for whatever fresh torture the Warden had in store for me. I wished I knew why he seemed to have it out for me. I hadn't gotten the feeling that he and Julian were besties, but there didn't seem to be another reason for the delight he got in putting me through the wringer.
The Warden was sitting behind his giant desk writing something when I walked into the room. I hovered near a chair, waiting for him to acknowledge me. My gaze couldn't help but flick to the orb on the bookshelf filled with my power. Every cell in my body yearned to be reunited with it.
It felt like a piece of me was existing away from my body. I could picture in my mind how it had felt to have it reunited with me… how it had felt to be whole.
I heard a snort and looked over to see the Warden shaking his head at the piece of paper on his desk. With a sigh, he set his pen down and finally gave me his attention, though obviously, he'd known I'd been waiting in front of him this whole time.
"Enjoy your field trip?" he asked cheerily as if I'd been on a jaunt to the zoo instead of my mother's fucking funeral.
I said nothing, knowing that he was just goading me. I bit the inside of my cheek so hard to keep from saying something that I tasted blood.
The Warden grinned like a cat who'd just caught the canary. Seriously, what the hell was wrong with this guy? I really hoped that someone gave him a piece of his own medicine someday. Even better if that person was me.
"I just got a call from your Master," he said flippantly.
More blood gushed into my mouth at that announcement…and of the Warden's use of the word "master."
"Seems like the asshole has missed you. You must have made quite the impression on him at the funeral. He's coming in the next few weeks to take you back home."
"No!" The word burst out of my mouth before I could stop it. I hadn't really expected Julian to follow through with his threat, and especially not this quickly. I thought for sure I'd hurt his pride too much for him to want me out of here.
I was not going back to him, that was for sure. I would rather die.
"You'd rather stay here?" the Warden asked with a grin. "I wasn't aware that I was running such hospitable accommodations. I'll have to check in with the staff. They seem to be slacking in their jobs if that's how my guests feel."
"With all due respect, I'm all for getting released, sir. But I will not be going back home."
"And what makes you think that you would be released for any reason other than Julian deciding to give you leniency, little girl?" he purred dangerously.
"Because I'm innocent," I spit out, not sure where this courage was coming from, and not sure if this was actually courage or me being an idiot.
I was inclined to think it was the latter.
The Warden leaned forward over his desk, his hands clasped together in front of him like we were talking about vacation plans or something like that. "What would your innocence have to do with anything?" he asked with an evil grin.
Rage coursed through me. "You know I'm fucking innocent, you monster," I screeched. Red flashed in my vision, and I lost control over myself. I picked up a paperweight on his desk and threw it blindl
y at one of his bookshelves filled with his precious heirlooms. I was so sick of this motherfucker.
The paperweight smashed through the fragile glass shelves of the bookcase, destroying everything in its path. I watched in horror as everything fell to the floor, shattering on impact with a deafening roar as glass, and gemstones, and who knows what else went flying through the air.
As the rage left my body, horror settled in.
The silence after everything stopped moving was deafening. The Warden stared at me in shock before his gaze turned to the carnage I'd just created in his office.
I was shaking as I watched his reaction. What the hell had I just done? The Warden started to flicker in and out, his form disappearing into the black mists that I'd sworn I'd seen in the past. Rage filled the air, so thick I could almost taste it. The mist began to stretch and expand until it was hard to see my hand in front of my face. The temperature dropped so low in the room that I was shaking not only from fear but from the cold itself.
"I-." I tried to apologize, but the words died in my throat. There was nothing I could say to make what I'd just done go away. He was probably going to take me to Julian right now just to get rid of me and make sure I was punished thoroughly.
The mists swirled around the room, and it was easy to believe that the rumors about him were true at this moment. How he embodied a nightmare.
The mists continued to stretch until the room was now black as night. Hopelessness seeped into my skin, and it felt like my life would be over at any moment.
Just before I'd lost all hope, the mists snapped back into the Warden, as sudden as if they were a rubber band.
As terrifying as the mists had been, the Warden was somehow even more terrifying in his regular form. He stared at me with a withering look of utter contempt, like he was imagining me dying in a thousand gruesome ways.
"You will be released to Julian," he said in a cold, cruel voice. "If you manage to survive..."
"If I manage to survive?" I asked in a choked voice.
"I've placed a bounty on your head. As we speak, it's being announced to every one of the psycho scum that resides in these hallowed halls. You won't manage a moment of peace during the rest of your time here. You won't sleep, you won't be able to eat, you will never be safe." He gave me a smile that was all teeth, and I swore I could see the devil in his gaze as his stare bore down on me. "I hope your temper tantrum was worth it."
A burst of wind followed his deadly statement, and I was pushed out of his office and flung against one of the stone walls, my head snapping back and hitting the stone so hard I almost blacked out. I was left feeling woozy and out of sorts.
I fell forward on my knees and began to dry heave from the concussion he'd just given me. I would rather die than fall into Julian's hands again.
But this hadn’t been what I was thinking.
A pair of guard's boots stepped into my vision, and I looked up at the sneering guard standing above me knowingly.
I was so fucked.
Chapter 4
Selena
I'd been called back to the mess hall to work the next day. Apparently, they had been understaffed, and somehow that was my fault because now I had to pull double shifts. But after my encounter with the Warden, I wanted to lock myself up in my cell. Every person I saw terrified me.
I hated this place and nearly everyone in it. The only thing that kept me sane were the four men in my life, but could they really keep me safe? As complicated and dangerous as they were, they belonged to me. All night, I held onto Keon's promise that he'd find a way to get me out permanently. I couldn't even fathom how that was possible, but I clung to that thread of hope like my life depended on it…it definitely did.
A new guard stood outside the mess hall, staring at me, waiting for me to hurry up with getting the meal cart prepared so we could begin our shift. He looked at me like I was a speck of dirt, and even from across the room, I hated him. I could only imagine that the Warden had put him on my delivery schedule to make my life hell.
Maybe it was my mother's death, the encounter with Julian, or the threat from the Warden, but I'd lost my patience somewhere over the last couple of days.
I dumped the last two trays of meals on my cart and started pushing it across the mess hall. The morning run was always uneventful as most locked inmates remained asleep.
The guard with beady eyes grunted at me, and I loathed him even more if that was possible. Then we were off, and I was rushing to keep up because apparently, he didn't care that I had shorter legs than him or that I was pushing a packed cart with meals jiggling about that took some maneuvering.
It wasn't long before we reached the far end of the next floor down... the place where they kept some of the semi-dangerous inmates. It wasn't complete isolation down here, not like the pits down below and across the bridge of what can only be called Hell. This was what I liked to call the seedy part.
Inmates wandered past us, eyeing me up and down, staring at the cart as one of the wheels kept squeaking.
We turned the corner to a long corridor so long I couldn't see the end from here. Though, it could be the number of people blocking my view. The last guard and I usually moved quickly through this section.
"Off you go," the guard ordered.
I glanced up at him, perplexed. "Aren't you supposed to accompany all my deliveries?"
He yawned, then leaned a shoulder against the wall. "I can see you from here." He stuck his hand into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone before tapping it.
Right. So, he was too lazy to walk down the massive corridor. Asshole. Yet my legs wouldn’t move, not when the Warden’s warning blared in my mind. "If someone attacks me for the meals, it's your fault."
He barked a laugh. "As if anyone would want to steal that slop."
My shoulders pinched backward at his insult, seeing as the meals are the same ones I was enjoying for breakfast too.
His eyebrows shot up, staring at me. "Tick-tock, the meals won't deliver themselves. Now, get going."
If my gaze could skewer someone to the wall, he'd be a shish kebab already.
Settling on not letting his assholeness get to me and praying to whoever was looking over me to keep me safe, I lifted my chin, spun on my heels, and pushed the cart down the long passage.
Of course, each time I glanced back over my shoulder, he wasn't watching me. I could be kidnapped and taken into someone's cell, and he'd be none the wiser. I preferred the old guard.
Except, I shouldn't expect anything else in this shithole.
The squealing wheel grabbed peoples' attention, but luckily for me, most were still half asleep to really be bothered to do anything about me being in their block.
The first locked door I came on, I knocked twice. "Mealtime," I called out, then grabbed a food tray and slipped it through the food slot. Like I said, these weren't the most dangerous, so these tiny hatches weren't locked up. I could just imagine it helped with other inmates passing them all kinds of contraband. The guy behind the door grunted, and the next thing I knew, the tray was tugged from my hands. The metal flap flopped back down. Okay, someone was hungry. I kept going on my delivery route.
In all honesty, I didn't know how I managed to survive in the penitentiary so long, but I was definitely a different girl from the one thrown in here months ago. But now, I kept frantically staring at anyone I passed, anyone that might suddenly attack me unprovoked to do the Warden’s bidding.
Toward the end of the hallway, I reached the final door, and when I glanced back the way I'd come, I could barely make out the guard. But it was clear even from here, he still had his face shoved in that damn phone. A shiver zipped up my spine from how vulnerable I felt.
I looked back at him still tapping his phone, and I gritted my teeth. He was probably ordering himself a blow-up doll because it was the only kind of woman who'd be interested in him. I sniggered to myself and turned to collect the next food tray when a whimpering sound came from the shadows
of the hallway.
Before I got a chance to make sense of what I was seeing, a woman recoiled backward in my direction, her wrists tied behind her back, her short, blond hair messy. Her orange overalls had one arm completely torn off, the thing hanging by a few threads from her wrist.
My mind spun on what I was looking at, and what she was doing. Was this some sexual roleplay thing I'd stumbled onto?
But when she twisted her head toward me, reality punched me. Tape covered her mouth, and her tearful, terrified eyes clashed with mine. Trepidation paled her face. My heart hit the back of my throat because she was in danger, and that idiot guard was nowhere close for me to call out to him.
She moaned at me, her green eyes massive, and I stilled at first, unsure where to turn next to help her. Movement caught my eye from a cell behind her.
A man, at least six-five, stepped out of the shadows, black hair, tangled with what looked like dark feathers. He wore no shirt and wasn't exactly bulky, but the look in his eyes terrified me.
I read somewhere once that when you looked into a predator’s eyes, you knew right away you were in danger. And right then, I felt like I'd just walked into a wolf’s den, and the beast was starved.
I lost my breath, while the poor girl whimpered, stumbling toward me. The few inmates that had been around us scrambled out of there because they knew a monster lived down there.
He sucked in a breath, making a slurpy wet sound, and I hated that my first thought flew to Hannibal Lecter from The Silence Of The Lambs.
"Fuck!" the word fell from my lips.
"Oh, my sparrow, you have found me another girl. One who has angered the Warden too…so another set of eyes for me it is. How exciting." His gaze widened, studying my face when the glint of something drew my attention to the small, hooked blade in his hand.
