Euphoric | Colby Brock

10| Disorienting by design.

Chapter 10.
"Disorienting by design."

Aurora's POV:

"We claim her," Corey and Jake said together.

Sam nodded his head, nearly comically, in understanding. Colby sighed, but accepted it.

"Let her die and I'll kill you." Colby said, pointing at the boys on either side of me. They both scoffed, "oh please, if she dies we're way past dead." Jake said.

"Yeah, we'd be a lost cause without her." Corey nodded.

Colby met my eyes, small sparks swirling together in the blue. He smiled softly, butterflies fluttering in my stomach.

"We all ready?" Sam asked, his eyes lingering on Colby, who nodded.

"Yes ma'am," Jake smiled.

"I'm never gonna be ready for anything with you guys." Corey mumbled.

I laughed, nodding. "We're ready."

Sam and I both took a backpack full of the basics, we'd save any of the actual ghost investigating for later, now we just wanted to explore.

"Okay so, I vote the prison first." I said, looking from the camera in Sam's hands to the boys walking next to me, Colby placing himself a bit ahead of me as we walked towards the doors. "It's the closest to where we are and it doesn't seem too difficult to get in."

"Prison? Oh dear lord," Corey mumbled, clinging onto my arm. Jake wrapped his arms around his Shrek, "can't wait!"

Sam smiled, holding open one of the old, creaky doors for us.

The prison was just behind the housing, so it was a short, fifteen ish minute walk. Colby and Sam made sure to stay a bit ahead, the former of the two keeping his hand in mine, making sure I didn't trip on any branches or fallen trees.

Jake on the other hand, was a complete mess. He fell at least twenty times, somehow always managing to keep his stuffed animal in the air.

"Priorities, Rory. Priorities," he kept saying.

Corey ended up stumbling a couple times as well, but he was way too afraid of spiders to let any part of him touch the ground. Colby ended up putting one on his shoulder once, resulting in Corey screaming and continuously refusing to talk to him after that. "Come on, care bear, he didn't mean it." I smiled softly, trying not to laugh.

"Then why'd he do it?" He huffed, pouting. I laid my hand on his shoulder, "it's okay, Cor, you don't have to talk to him if you don't want to."

He sighed, "thank you. At least someone loves me—"

"Whats on your shoulder?" Jake asked.

"Huh—WHAT THE FUCK!"

He quickly jumped up, furiously flicking his arm, trying to brush off the caterpillar I just set on him.

"How could you?" He gasped, looking at me. I shrugged, grinning. "I love you."

Sam chuckled, zooming in on Corey's face with the camera. He glared, still running his hands along his shoulders.

Colby's face brightened when he looked at me, his eyes sparking. "Have I ever told you I love you?"

I tilted my head, "maybe once or twice."

His lips turned up at the sides, as he quickly pressed his lips against my forehead. "I love you, princess."

"I love you too, dumbo."

≻───── ⋆✩⋆ ─────≺

"Holy fuck knuckles," I said, looking at the building in front of me. It was huge, three floors, all lined with jail cells. The front doors were more like gates, rusted shut with a small gap to sneak in.

I felt Jake and Coreys grip on my hands both tighen, each of them moving closer to me.

Colby and Sam looked at each other, silently asking who wanted to go first. "I got it," Colby mumbled, taking off his backpack and tossing it through the gap first. He moved his body sideways, slipping in.

Sam went after him, keeping his bag in his hands, but pulling it through after he got in. Jake and Corey walked with me up to the gate, neither wanting to let me go. I laughed, lightly pulling my hands out of theirs as I walked inside.

Colby's eyes stayed on me the entire time, making sure I didn't accidentally cut myself on the metal pieces.

Sam was already wandering a bit, his eyes unable to focus on any one thing. I couldn't even blame him, I had never seen anything that looked like this.

We were currently in a big, open room. The further inside you went, a wide hallway led you to what I assume to be the cafeteria. Tables were placed about seven feet away from each other, the entire room lined by jail cells. From the middle, you could look up through a cit out in the next foor and see even more rows of cells. The next floor, however, was completely blocked off.

I walked over to one of the cells, glancing at Colby, Sam, Corey, and Jake to make sure no one got lost.

The cell was a hollow cube of concrete, one way in, no windows. In there you could have no idea how much time had passed or even if it was night or day. It was totally disorientating by design, I couldn't even imagine how many people had once lived inside. Given enough time, I guarantee a person could forget their own name in here.

The walls were metal rods laid in a criss cross pattern, the stench of sewage ever-present. Judging off space, I imagine the inmates were crammed in so tight they were constantly touching one another. Based off my research, this wasn't so much of a tool of a justice system, as it was just a place to put inconveniently rebellious people and watch their minds mentally deteriorate. At least, if something else didn't kill them first. As a law enforcing spectacle it worked for generations, the worse the prisoners suffered the better, in opinion of the staff and creators.

This place was essentially hell for these people. And I had a sneaking feeling it was going to be the same for us.