Summerguard

CHAPTER 24: The Stray

~PAXTON~

Have you ever been to a correctional facility? I have. And it is not pleasant. Concrete coffins stuffed with bodies. If everything isn't dull gray, it is lathered in foreign substances which I refuse to identify. With the spaces being overcrowded and unmaintained, it makes one gag at the things that assassinate all five senses. The sounds of clanging skin to metal, obscene language, and angry bodies pacing about in all directions. The smell of blood and sweat is ripe and it is no surprise that the shared dilapidated bathrooms don't do any of these people justice. None of this is justice. This is a dumping ground. The sights of wretched souls with their offenses staring straight at your neck make one cower making you silently pray that when you blink, you will be able to wake up again. There is no help for you, no medicine, no companionship, and definitely no humanity.

It has always been conditioned in me at a young age to fear the law. Fear the cops. Fear the streets. Because once you get locked up here, you either will rot in the facility or you'll be thrown out without a second glance as beasts look to prey on you. Use you. And ruin you.  

Why am I here? Why am I at one of the places that I have always been told to avoid? Why am I voluntarily visiting the man that has made my girlfriend's life hell?

It's not really about the why's. It's about the what. What am I gaining from this? I pray that I gain a lot. Answers, information, locations, identities, closure. Maybe revenge. It's risky, but I've gotta do this. For the city, for all of the victims, and for Chrysos.

~~~~

"Names," the correctional officer at the desk requests.

"Paxton Iustus." "Asher Ming."

"May I see proof of identification albeit a driver's license, passport, or valid Employment ID with photo and most recent paycheck/stub?" he lists out and both of us show him our driver's licenses.

"Now please wait in the holding area till you are called by the escort. Have a fantastic visit here at Riker's Island. NEXT!" he says robotically before shuffling us off.

Asher and I walk into a separate room where visitors are being held to wait until the visitation period is called. I clutch and unclutch my wrists and watch as the colors turn pale and back to maroon. Pale, maroon, pale, maroon. I'm not scared, I am terrorized about today. Sure, I have been planning for three days just for today, but Riker's Island is notorious for its history of holding the nation's most violent villains. One of them being John Morris. He might not be a murderer, but whose private planes were used to illegally smuggle military equipment overseas? Who's money was found to have been funding the King? Who's warehouses were stockpiled with tons of drugs? Yeah, you guessed it.

Asher pats me lightly on the back of my hand and gives me a reassuring smile. I turn to meet his hazel eyes and lift my lips weakly. He insisted on coming with me even though he didn't have to. He took a day off his internship for me and I am grateful I won't have to face Mr. Morris alone.

"Visitors and guests. With me! Keep your heads down. If approached by inmates, do not converse with them. In case of emergency, you will follow me and only me. When I tell you to get up and face the wall, your backs will not turn around and will not leave the sights of that wall under any circumstances. Understood?" the warden said and we all mustered small acknowledgments.

"Good. Single file line and follow the person in front of you. I repeat, do not engage with any inmates," he says before opening a door and we all file behind him in a neat line. As we pass through a strip of the hallway, there are inmates scattered around either working or just loitering.

"Expletive. Expletive." an unruly inmate shouts as he picks at the crumbling concrete. His eyes. They are forced wide open and it looks so unnatural. His hands are grimy and look like they have been regularly beaten bloody. I snap my head forward, but in my periphery, I see a gang of inmates mopping the floor, staring at me and others in the line.