In the darkness, I could use a little company.

Luminance Fugue

Will paced the tiny prison cell, hands shaking in rage as he thought of Mathis holding Sage captive. He slammed a fist into the stone wall, ignoring the burst of pain in his knuckles. He had to get out of here. He had to save her.

"Psst.... Hey." A voice of a man whispered from the barred window into the next-door cell. "Come to the window, we must talk. Stand on the toilet and you can reach the window."

Will whipped around, surprised at the new voice. He was curious so he complied. Will stood up on the toilet seat and was able to see into the next cell. There was an older man tied to a chair. He could barely see the other man.

"There you are! Well.... welcome to this shitshow." The other man greeted Will.

"Ok, so who are you?" Will demanded.

"Unfortunately, I run this place." The other man replied with a deep wariness.

"That doesn't seem to be working out too well for you." Will deadpanned.

"Yes, well normally I'm on the other side of the bars. Name's Franklin. I'm warden here at Blackrock."

"Name's Mackenzie. Franklin...what's going on here?"

"Mathis and his gang of thugs are trying to break someone out of solitary. We're still alive, for now, so they must need us for something. The power's been out for days and nobody's coming to help."

"Sounds about right. Mathis took someone I care about from me; do you know where he'd keep someone?" Will asked, his heart pounded as he thought of Sage's terrified face.

"Hmmm, maybe my old office, he's claimed it as his. I heard.... the commotion earlier, did he take.... a pet of some sort from you?"

"No! She's not a pet.... She's a child." Will hesitated before continuing, he remembered his promise to Sage about not telling others about her, but the damage had already been done. They needed allies. "Have you ever heard of borrowers? She's a child, about three inches tall, but she's no different from any other kid."

".... you know, I've had.... heard of them before. In old folk tales, it says they bring good luck or good fortune to those that show kindness to them. I hope you find her, but she'd most likely be kept in the warden's office."

"So...... Mathis, you know him?" Will asked, trying to gather more information and take his mind off his gut-wrenching worry over his tiny child.

"Oh yeah, we go way back. He was in for murder on the mainland about ten years ago. He did some time but got off on parole. He came back here for Donner."

"Donner?"

"His son. Mathis is bad, but he's old school bad, murder, larceny, and grand theft auto. But Donner....... he's all that but worse."

"So......not a good person."

"Well, he's looked up in BlackRock, isn't he?" Franklin paused then continued. "Donner is evil to the core. There's no redemption for guys like Donner. They should have been able to break him out by now. But something's wrong. Or someone.... Has been getting in the way."

Both men tense at the sounds of multiple footsteps echoing down the hall. Mackenzie scrambles down and stands in the middle of his cell. Just in time as Mathis and his men come into view. Mackenzie can only stand and watch as Mathis enters Franklin's cell.

Mackenzie flinches as he hears Mathis interrogate Franklin. Mathis grows angry, especially when Franklin mentions Donner. In his anger Mathis starts to beat Franklin. Once Mathis has finished beating up the old Warden, he turns to two of his lackeys and orders them to patch the man up. "Heller! Vachon! Take care of this mess."