by Jagger Cole
A week is nothing. After three, you begin to feel the insanity clawing at your insides. After a month, you start to talk to shadows. At two months, you become one of those shadows.
I’ve done four months before. It isn’t something I wish to repeat. I know I’m in here for life. And I know bars and the constant background hum of danger and attack isn’t a very pleasant life. But it’s better than insanity.
“Vremya idti,” the guard snaps. “Time to go, motherfucker.”
He whistles down the dark hallway. I hear the marching boots, and then see the seven men in full riot gear, with masks, shields, stun batons, and drawn guns. I sit up on the edge of the stone, blanket-less ledge that serves as a bed in here. I smirk at them.
“Are we having a party?”
There’s a barked command. The door swings open, and suddenly they come pouring in. I hiss as all seven of them hit me at once. They slam me back, yanking my arms around to cuff them behind my back. A stun baton jabs into me, and I roar in pain. Another hits, and then another, until I’m writhing on the ground.
They haul me up and shackle my ankles. Another guard comes in pushing a dolly—the kind delivery drivers use to cart around boxes. I know the drill, but they shove and hit me into place anyways. When I’m standing on the wheeled thing, they shackle me to it and strap a leather bit over my mouth.
They wheel me down the hall, and the outside. I blink, blinded by the first sunlight I’ve seen in a week. The cold air slams into me too, sucking the breath from my very lungs. I may be Russian, but Siberia is still fucking freezing.
I look up at the light cresting over the rim of the pit. Yes, the reason they call this place a pit is because it literally is. Formerly a cobalt mining operation, it now has a prison at the bottom of it. So if you somehow manage to break free of the bars, chains, guards with guns, and razor wire, you only need to climb five-hundred feet up sheer rock to freedom.
Inside the main prison wing, they wheel me down to my cell. The block is silent when they do it. No catcalls. No insults. Like I said, in this hell, I’m the devil.
Back in my cell, the same seven men unchain me and force me to kneel. They take away the rest of the shackles. I feel the gun at the back of my neck as they back away and then slam the door shut.
When they’re gone, I hear one lingering chuckle. I turn, and it’s a face I don’t recognize, a new guard.
“Nice ink,” he snickers. I’ve been without a shirt my entire stay in solitary. I follow his eyes and realize he’s laughing at the blue and green butterfly on my shoulder.
“You get that for your boyfriend?” He grins.
“Nyet,” I smile. “For your mother.”
His grin fades. “Watch yourself.”
I just glare at him.
“That’s a tattoo for a girl,” he grunts. “Why do you have it.”
I ignore him and start to turn.
“Are you a girl? Is that it? You have a pussy between your legs?”
“You want to come in here and get a close look to see?” I snap.
He chuckles. “How about this, motherfucker.” He pulls a switchblade out of his flack jacket. “How about I cut your balls off and give you a pussy, yes?”
I roll my eyes and turn away again. He’s young, and cocky. He’s trying to prove something by starting shit with the toughest guy in this place. I’m sure he read something somewhere about being the “alpha dog” or some bullshit. But to me, he’s just a nipping pup. He’s no threat. He doesn’t worry me.
In here, I am the alpha dog. Unquestionably.
“You get that pussy tattoo for a girl?”
I stiffen. He chuckles.
“Da, yes? You get a pussy tattoo to try and get some pussy?”
I’m still ignoring him, but I can feel my pulse thudding a little harder, a little hotter. The guard chuckles as he clanks his knife against the bars.
“This girl… is she a whore?”
My jaw grinds. He’s wandering dangerously close to a line. I’m still turned away from him when I open my mouth.
“Maybe we should ask your sister if she knows her.”
The clanking of the knife on the bars stops, and I hear him hiss.
“You want me to fuck you up?”
I turn, smiling thinly at him. “I am only saying I’m happy for your sister. It’s good that she found a job doing what she does best.”
His lips curl into a sneer. “Maybe I find this whore of yours, yes? Maybe when I go on leave next month, I make it my job to find this girl, and fuck her in every single hole—”
He barely has time to blink before I’m at the bars. He shrieks, but it’s too late. My arm has already shot between them and grabbed him by the throat. I yank him hard against the bars, breaking his nose and splitting his lips. He screams again. But then I grab the knife out of his hand, flip it, and sink it deep into his neck artery. The screams turn to horrified gurgles as he claws at my hand.
“You will never touch her,” I hiss into his ear. “And when I see you in hell, plan on me doing this to you again, and again, and again…”
I twist the knife as the life fades from his eyes. Guards come rushing down the hall, screaming at me, guns out. I drop the sack of shit to the ground, watching him bleed out as I step away. There are a dozen guns aimed at me as they open my cell door and pour in.
The beating goes on, and on, and on. I’m limp and barely conscious when they drag me back to solitary. And this time, I know it will be much longer than four months. But it doesn’t really matter. I close my eyes, I think of my little guardian angel, and I fade out.
Present:
Light filters in softly through the windows of the office. The whole place is windows, actually—less about aesthetics and more about the foreman being able to see all of the workers on the machines down below. But this place has been abandoned for decades.
The room within the warehouse feels strange at times. In darkness, it’s almost like being back in prison. Only substantially more comfortable. And a whole lot less cold than Siberia. During daylight hours, the transparent clock-face at the far end of the warehouse filters light right into the office that functions as my apartment. And in the morning, the whole place is bathed in a soft haze of light.
I turn, and I smile. It still feels odd to do it. I was never much of a smile type in my life before. But doing so in prison could get you killed. Even if everyone else calls you The Beast.
But suddenly, it hits me: I’m alone in the bed. I bolt up, panic and fury rising. But I hear the creak of a metal door. My eyes snap up to the far wall, and the light suddenly pouring in from the maintenance hatch in the ceiling that leads to the roof.
A long, lithe bare leg eases down from the open hatch. Bare toes find the first rung of the wall-mounted ladder. I let my breath out as Nina gently climbs back down into the office apartment.
“You cannot go out there,” I growl.
She gasps, turning on the ladder to see me. But then she grins. “You’re awake.”
She hops the rest of the way down and turns to smile at me. She’s just wearing my huge, oversized t-shirt again. It may be like a dress on her, but it’s still high enough that I can almost catch a peak of her tight little ass. I can still see her nipples poking through the front of it.
“You can’t go out there, Nina,” I grunt.
She arches a brow, stopping in front of me. “Yes, I can.”
I glare at her, and she grins. “I’m not your prisoner, Kostya.”
“I could tie you to the bed and change that.”
She blushes. Her teeth drag across her lips. I step towards her and slide my hands over her hips.
“It’s dangerous out there.”
“It’s beautiful, actually.” She glances back up at the open hatch. “Come on.”
I frown, hesitating. Nina grins.
“Have you ever even been up there?”
“Not really.”
She sighs. “Well, let’s change that. Come on.”
Before I can argue or threaten to tie her up again, she spins and skips over the ladder. She starts to climb. Any further arguments I have about why we shouldn’t be going up there in broad daylight vanish when her shirt rides up, though. I growl as my eyes soak in the sight of her bare ass and tantalizing pussy.
But then she’s out the hatch, gone from sight. I yank on a pair of jeans and quickly climb after her. Outside, I blink as I step into…
“It’s heaven, isn’t it?”
She’s not wrong. I stare, my jaw open, as I drink in the sea of color surrounding us. The warehouse is in the middle of nowhere, in an abandoned section of an industrial zone. But the entire roof is filled with bright, gorgeous wildflowers.
“What the fuck…”
“Birds,” she grins as I step out of the hatch.
I turn slowly, taking in the wonder around us.
“I think we can thank bird shit for this—carrying the seeds from elsewhere and dropping them here on their way through Chicago.”
I don’t have any words. I just stare in wonder. I’ve never really seen so much color in one place before, and it’s almost overwhelming.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
I nod.
“I can’t believe you’ve never been up here!”
I just stare in wonder at the sea of color. Nina turns and slides into me, wrapping her arms around my waist. I look down into her eyes, and I smile. I lean down, and I kiss her slowly and softly.
All of this feels surreal—the colors, the freedom, the girl. Part of me even wonders if maybe I’m dead—that I died in that pit of Siberian Hell, and all of this is just my purgatory. But she’s so real under my fingers and against my lips.
She pulls back, and I turn to gaze out at the flowers again.
“Like butterflies,” I murmur.
Nina blushes and sinks into my arms again. But suddenly, I hear a gurgle from her. She giggles.
“I’m actually starving.”
I chuckle. “I have food in the refrigerator downstairs. Come.”
I let Nina go down the hatch first, then I follow. I leave the door open though, letting the air and sunshine in. At the far end of the office, I have a small fridge, a toaster, and an electric stovetop. Nina stares at them with a wrinkled brow.
“How do you power all of this?”
“There’s a generator downstairs.” I open the fridge and peer in. “Do you want toast or something?”
I feel her slide behind me, peering over my shoulder. “Well, how hungry are you?”
I shrug. “I can go a while without—”
“Kostya.”
“Yes?”
“This isn’t prison. You don’t have to tough it out between meals.”
I grin.
“What do you want?” She pulls back from the fridge and glances at the small shelf on the wall laden with bags of flour, rice, and other dried goods.
“I…” I shrug. “I don’t know.”
“Then sit. I’ll cook.”
“You cook?”
She grins. “How is it you’ve been stalking me this long and don’t know that?”
“Because I have literally never seen you cook.”
She giggles. “Okay, I don’t cook often. But I do know how. Sit, relax.”
I chuckle as I take a seat at the small table. Nina spins and starts plucking things out of the refrigerator and down from shelves. I just sit back and watch, letting my eyes soak her in—especially when that shirt rides up and gives me a peek of her ass or her little pussy.
By the time I realize she’s putting a mug of coffee in front of me, I’m rock-hard. I reach for her to pull her into my lap. But she grins teasingly and shakes her head. She saunters back to the stovetop. But I swear, she lets that shirt ride even higher as she finishes what she’s doing.
When she turns, she’s beaming as she slinks back to the table with a plate stacked with… something. She sits across from me, serves some of them onto my plate, and sits back with her own coffee.
“Oh, wait. I can’t believe you have this.”
She jumps up and darts to the shelf. She plucks down a jar of something I got thinking was sugar. It turned out to be some syrupy thing, so I haven’t touched it.
“Here.” She pours some of the amber-brown stuff onto the flat cake looking things on my plate. Then she grins. “Well, dig in!”
I take a bite with my fork. Instantly, I groan.
“Fuck, that’s delicious.”
“Like them?”
“Fuck yes,” I growl, shoving more and more into my mouth. “What are these?”
Nina stares at me. “Wait, what?”
“These cakes. What are they called?”
She grins. “Kostya, they’re pancakes.”
I groan again as I shove another bite down my throat. “These are pancakes? They’re amazing.”
She giggles. “Hold on, have you seriously never had pancakes before?”
I shake my head.
“Not ever?!”
I shrug, grinning as I shovel in more pancakes.
“Did I just take your pancake virginity?”
I roar with laughter, swallowing the rest of my bite. “Apparently.”
“I hope I was gentle enough.”
I smirk at her. “And if I don’t want gentle?”
Her face turns pink as she bites her lip. “Then I think we’ll be okay, because I don’t either.”
We stare at each other across the table for a full second before then tension explodes. I almost topple the table lurching out of my chair for her. She meets me halfway, moaning as she crashes into me. I groan into her mouth, kissing her deeply as I scoop her up and move across the floor.
Her back slams into the wall. She gasps, yanking her own shirt off as her legs curl around my waist. I shove my jeans down, and my swollen cock springs free to throb against her slippery pussy. She whimpers and reaches between us.
Her soft little fingers curl around my shaft. I groan into her mouth as she drags my head up and centers it between her dripping wet lips. With a grunt, I sink into her. I slide deep, taking her breath away as I bury every fat inch of my big dick in her hot little cunt.
She moans in ecstasy. Her arms wrap tight around my neck, and she kisses me deeply as I fuck her into the wall. I’m relentless, pounding her like a savage as her pussy drips and leaks all over me.
I piston in and out of her, filling the room with our lewd, wet sounds. She cries out, begging me for more—begging for it harder. I snarl as I fuck her like a madman. My muscles bulge and clench. My cock surges so fucking hard inside of her. I feel her tense and cry out. And suddenly, she’s coming for me.
With a roar, I kiss her deeply and bury my cock to the hilt in her clenching, rippling heat. My dick surges, and I groan as I start to spill my hot cum deep in her pussy. We hold each other, grinding against each other as we come together.
Without missing a beat, I spin us and march us to the door of the office. I kick it open and stride down a gangway over the machines below. At the far end, a door leads to the old employee locker room and showers. I’ve hooked them back up for my own use. But today, they’re for both of us.
I keep her in my arms, my cock still inside of her. I kick on the water, then press her to the tiled wall as it grows hot. As the steam rises around us, I slowly slip free of her. I kiss her hungrily before I turn her, pressing her against the wall.
Nina moans as I drop to my knees behind her. My big hands grab her ass, spreading her open for me. My mouth presses between her legs, and she whimpers as I start to tongue her clit. I groan into her, pushing her legs wide for me. I drag my tongue over her swollen pussy until she’s shaking for me.
When she’s about to come for me, I stand, center my cock, and drive in hard. Nina comes almost instantly. She screams and claws at the wall. Her toes curl on the floor. Her pussy ripples around my thickness as she orgasms.
She turns her head as I lean in to kiss her. I groan, tak
ing her hands and holding them to the wall. I thrust into her, pinning her to the tiles as the water streams over us. I claim her mouth with my tongue while I claim her little cunt with my hard cock. I grind into her deep. I pound her sweet pussy until her cream is dripping from my balls.
Nina comes again, and then again. I growl into her mouth, both hands dropping to her hips. I fuck her hard, plunging into her over and over. When she comes yet again and shudders against me though, I can’t hold back. I thrust deep, and my cum pours into her as her orgasm rattles her to the core.
After that, we slow. I wash her gently, cradling her in my arms. We barely make it back to the office before we’re all over each other again. But this time, we go slow. I take her gently and deeply in the bed this time. We bring each other to the edge about a dozen times before we finally explode.
That’s basically how we spend the rest of the day—in bed, her in my arms. It’s exactly as it should be.
Nina makes us dinner later, which we devour. Hours later, after another shower, we’re in bed together. This time, I’ve left the hatch open, letting the evening air drift over us.
This world isn’t all hard and cold. There’s goodness. There’s softness and beauty. It’s just that they’re all new things for me, after a life of desperation and pain. I turn and kiss her hair as I feel her start to fall asleep. Then, I close my eyes and follow her there.
It’s hours later when something rattles me from sleep. It’s pitch dark in the room. But my senses twitch. Something’s wrong. Someone…
I whirl to reach for the gun on the bedside table. But the gun barrel jabs into my neck before I can get there. I freeze as I hear a low, deep chuckle in the darkness.
“You were always bigger, Kostya.”
My heart stops.
“But I was always faster.”
It can’t be. It’s not possible. But suddenly, the lights turn on, and I’m looking up into the face of a ghost. A dead man. An impossibility.
“You’re…”
Dimitri grins darkly down at me through a scared, grim face. “Hello, brother.”
Nina wakes and starts to scream as Dimitri brings his gun up and then slams it down on the side of my head. It all blinks to darkness.
