Begin (COMPLETED)

Chapter 27- Compass

She tries to approach them, the cold bars biting her hands like rabid dogs.

"How did you find the money for..." She begins, pulling her hands back from the cell door.

"For your bail?" Poppy finishes for her. "Well, it's mostly because of Sidney."

"Only he didn't have enough for all of it, did he?" She assumes.

"Yeah, he's not that rich, unfortunately."

"So where did you find the rest of it? I mean, how much were they even asking for my release?"

"A lot." Alex says bluntly, not willing or not able to sugarcoat it. "Just about cleared out my savings from the past few years."

"Yeah, I'm broke now too," Alwin mutters. "So you better appreciate it. Took out a loan for you."

"I didn't have anything to give," Riley murmurs, hoping that only Jordan can hear her. "But if I had something to give, I would've given it up without hesitation."

"Where did you learn a big word like that?" Alwin says, humoring her by pretending to be impressed.

"I'm ten. Almost eleven. Don't treat me like I'm five."

"I can treat you how I please."

Noah steps up once again, groaning, "Let's not get into a fight in the middle of a jail. We can always work out how we managed to get Jordan free later. Let's just... move on and get out of here."

"I second that," Poppy chimes in. "This place gives me the creeps."

They all start to leave, momentarily forgetting that Jordan was still behind bars.

"Guys, guys! I'm still here!" She yells after them.

"Oh, yeah." A flustered Sidney mutters, tapping buttons on a keypad. When the door still doesn't open, he yells to no one, "Hey, can you open this door? I paid bail! Let her out!"

"You don't have to be so demanding about it," The speaker replies as the door creaks open.

They all gather around her and Noah hugs her tight. Then Poppy joins in on the hug and drags Alex along.

"Oh, good god. We're not going to do a group hug in prison, are we?" Alwin says, backing away. "I'm not a huge hugger." He glances up at the security cameras pointed at them, watching this scene unfold. "Not with you guys anyway."

"Get in here," Sidney says to Alwin as Riley makes him join in.

"If I'm stuck doing this," Alex yells from the inner ring off the hug, "You're stuck doing it too."

"Guys, a little space?" Jordan groans, barely able to breathe underneath their hug. She shrugs them off. "That was nice and all... but..."

"Let's not." Alex finishes for her, clearly uncomfortable.

They walk towards the exit of the jail. They pass a myriad of cells. People bang against the bars and yell curses. Some even try to lure Riley within their reach, saying things like "I won't hurt you" and "I'm just a little lonely. Will you be my friend?"

"Stay by my side." Noah says, putting a protective arm around Riley.

"I can handle myself." She mutters, but she doesn't try to get away from him.

None of the guards look up as they pass by, too busy listening to the voices coming from the small speakers in their ears. The lights flicker and the halls become progressively brighter as they get closer to the exit. And yet, the people who are in these cells are the unhappiest. They wail and scream about the horrors that they didn't do, the crimes they didn't commit, that they don't belong here. Freedom is just a few feet away and no matter how hard they try, they never get any closer to it. The light burns their eyes as the exit swings open and sunlight floods into the hall.

"I'm sorry," Jordan murmurs, the voice in the back of her head saying, "What makes me so different? I could've ended up just like them. Maybe I still will become one of them. What makes our fates so different? Why do I get to leave while they are forced to stay? Are our crimes really that different? We all make mistakes, and yet they are punished more severely for theirs. I'm offered an escape, and I don't plan on wasting it."

"Where do we go now?" Sidney says as they continue walking, the prison fading from view already.

"Let's go to your place. I think we should talk." Alwin remarks.

"About what?" Riley wonders, her mind wandering like a stray compass needle.

"This," Jordan gestures to the world around them, the bruises on her body like confetti, the dead looks in their eyes, and their slumped postures. "All of it."

Everyone remains silent, a question still on Riley's lips. Eventually, she decides not to ask it. No one wants to talk about what's wrong, what's really going on in their heads, to someone who doesn't understand.

They continue walking, their hearts pointing every which way. Alex longs to go to his shop, Poppy and Noah wishing they could help. Sidney worries if he has enough money to make it through the month and Alwin keeps his concerns to himself, trying his best to appear fine and like he has nothing on his mind even though that couldn't be less true. Riley tries to ignore the questions whirling around in her mind, knowing that she's missing something. What, she has no clue. And Jordan, she just wishes she could walk without having to know where, to just go for the sake of leaving.

"Is there really anything keeping me here? What's stopping me from leaving? What's stopping me from changing everything?"

They pass through the main square of the city, people mulling about in no real sense of order.

"God, it'd be nice to not have to think for once, to just... do. I don't want to think about the consequences of my actions. I don't want to think about what I've lost, what I can't remember. I don't want to think about any of it. Hell, I don't want to think at all. I wish someone would make these choices for me. I wish someone else would take the wheel. I certainly don't know what I'm doing, but everyone else seems to have it under control. Maybe one of them could help me.

"I don't want to go home to the trailer. I don't even know why I call it a home. I definitely don't feel at home there. I just want to leave this place behind, find myself a fresh start, one where I'm not constantly reminded of what I don't have. One where I'm not going to jail for something I can't help. One where everything is better. One where I don't have to be alone at night, when everyone else closes their eyes. And yet, mine are still open. What I wouldn't give to have my eyes closed like the rest."

No one hears her quiet thoughts, and they all keep walking in silence. Jordan looks back, only to find that there is no one behind her. Instead, everyone else is by her side, a few paces ahead or right in step with her without even thinking about it. For the first time in a long time, she doesn't have to lead the way. For the first time, she's no longer walking alone.

They keep going towards Sidney's house, and only now does Jordan really notice the city around her. Every street is in a perfect straight line. Every building is the perfect height. All the government buildings have perfect faces, looking down at you from above. In fact, the city is organized in a perfect manner, everything exactly where it's meant to be, nothing out of place.

"You know," Jordan says to herself, "for such a perfect place, it isn't everything it seems to be. It looks like everything is going as it should, but is it really? This perfect would really is full of imperfections and I'm one of them. How do I know? I don't know, but I just... I just know."

Alwin turns around, his eyes full of fire.

"What do you think you're doing, talking like that? This is a perfect world, and if you can't see that, you're blind! Your problem... your problem is that you're not appreciating it enough. You don't deserve this world and this world doesn't deserve you."