"It’s not your fault,” I murmured, loosening up my stiff body due to the foreign contact. I huffed before just . . . sitting there. At least, that’s all I could do as I was lacking when it came to the will to sleep. This is pitiful and degrading.
Time elapsed, all whilst I thought up of formidable plans for potential scenarios. What was to happen to us?
--------------
I laid in the dank cell, a retched smell wafting into my senses as I reached cognition from my temporary immobile state of sleep. Everything was a dark sable hue, blocking out any shapes or movements. It took time of sitting stiffly straight up on the cold, concrete ground to differentiate my surroundings.
Shapes came across my lacking vision, mostly squashed in corners or walls. I couldn't recognized a single one and I was beginning to assume they weren't my friends or any of the inmates that resided in Superjail if it weren't for the Warden’s obnoxious, very vocal snoring. A twinge of a smile slid onto my features, masking my previous annoyance to the retched sound.
"We’ll escape, I promise. Though, for now, you're an inmate like the rest of us,” I murmured just above an audible tone. He stirred but he seems to do that regardless.
I sat straighter, cross legged, pondering the events that lead up to this moment. I thought about what I felt when I robbed that bank, what I smelled when I met Jailbot and Stingray in the bar, and what I heard when Alice ran across the corridor, bawling. I pondered every moment, every thought, every sense, and every feeling. How ungrateful I was for being graced with this opportunity but how unlucky I am for being where I am now. Perhaps it'll unravel itself in the end? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
Shuffling across the dirt-ridden ground, the palms of my hands searching for a suitable path as my knees drug me across the small room. I closed my eyes, finding the darkness in my mind more soothing than the creatures that tormented me when I opened my two fearful orbs. Still, the thin veil of skin could not do much to waver the tears that fell from within. I didn't mind but I found the feeling of despair repulsive.
"Fucking hell,” I muttered as lowly as I could to relieve my agitation when my knee slid over a jagged point. I sighed, rubbing the area tenderly before beginning to shuffle again. Though, the journey was short-lived as I bumped into a body, presumably from how soft the impact was on my hands.
I wanted to press down on the figure with a subtle nudge, to query who it was and talk about the plan in mind, as ill-witted as that idea was. Albeit, I sucked in a gulp of oxygen as I got a better look at the person, or so should I say, woman.
I guess that's what she goes by.
"What the hell,” the figure whispered with a deep, gruff voice. My breath hitched as I recognized her, of all people.
"Alice?” I blurted out, before quickly shutting my mouth and hoping she didn't hear. I shuffled back a little, slowly then hurriedly until I felt the immense grip of Alice on my ankle.
I stayed still, my heart palpitating against my chest. I closed my eyes furthermore, squeezing until my brain throbbed. Why her? Of all people I could run into?
"(Y/n)?”
Shit.
More shuffling resounded across the room, a bomb compared to the unnatural silence that occurred. I couldn't fathom how quiet it actually was until she spoke. Living in Superjail made me so used to the noise I couldn't bear without it and now my breathing grew ragged at the stress of it all.
"(Y/n), please, you haven't talked to me at all. Please speak to me, girl,” Alice pleaded, her grip tightening. I couldn't breath.
"Of all the things, you defend some shithead crimey? I thought-,” Alice continue but I interrupted her with a hiss.
"Of course you'd say that, Alice. Maybe you should stop caring about yourself for once and think for just a moment,” I retorted, my brows furrowed and a snarl plastered on my lips. I was easily susceptible to my anger and didn't think what I was implying but I was disheartened a little to know it was somewhat true.
Alice paused, taken aback from my statement and rashness of it all.
"Ugh! Please, bitch, you're so stubborn you can't realize how much of an ungrateful brat you are! You're only here because you're a chick and a whore!”
I shuddered at the thoughts that raced through my head as I saw her fuming only a foot away from me. Attack, attack, attack. I wanted to lunge at her for saying that, especially calling me a whore. It irked me when people spread word of which they didn't know of, especially what spewed from the greasy doctor’s maw.
It also irked me how she killed without remorse. No one deserved an unfair death without proper reason. She could've killed Ash and Ash was as innocent as an inmate can be!
She rambled on and I rambled back, a whisper at first before gradually growing louder and louder. I was too busy fuming I didn't heed the other’s presence and their growing intolerance to us both.
"Will you two shut it already?!” a voice exclaimed, probably Nicky, and I stiffened as I heard the rustling all around me. I lowered my head and flushed a light hue of red. I was glad no one could see me.
"Just settle your fucking argument. Fuck.”
I sighed, my stubbornness not budging in the slightest. I wanted to tell her, I really did, but my voice just got caught in my throat like a fly to a impermeable, gossamer spider’s web. I was about ready to burst when suddenly a blaring light enveloped the room and I was forced to keel over, avoiding the newfound obnoxious colors that surrounded me. My eyes burned from the prolonged darkness and I wished for it to come back.
I didn't have time to adjust but my ears could and I picked up the voice of the Mistress in the entrance. I so wanted to bombard my way through her weak wall of limited freedom but I knew that'd be to no avail. Nova probably was tight on her heel so all I could do was listen and wait for my cranium to stop throbbing.
"(Y/n), I ask of you to follow me but don't get any hopeful ideas,” the Mistress ordered, her voice coercing my mind to yield. “I hope you do comply. It'd make this a lot easier.”
I looked around me, curious and perplexed, my orbs spotting my friends, all a ragged mess from the looks of it. Didn't doubt I was any better but even so, my thought was on what their faces implied. Some seemed annoyed, a couple concerned, and the rest neutral. I didn't care.
My footsteps scraped along the dirtied ground with slight apathy, my eyes beginning to dull. “Sure,” I agreed and followed her out of the cell where more colors blinded my vision.
I probably should've said something, a sort of “last statement” to tug at the heart strings. I couldn't muster it, it wasn't something I could do then. I just left them alone, disappointed, every time.
I traipsed along the corridor with the Mistress swiftly ahead of me, Nova practically pressed upon my backside. I didn't appreciate the quiet, awkward walk, but it did give me time to understand what was about to occur. I wanted to ask, though it was inevitable she wouldn't answer. If she knows, that's good enough for her. Might as well reap other’s minds with unanswered questions. That's quite a misery.
The heels of shoes echoed across the corridor and I was curious why the entire area was devoid of rambunctious vocals. Then I spotted a sign stating that it was the dining area and it was usually closed off at this presumed hour. Wait, so what time was it, anyways? That poked my brain and I wanted to know, just to have the satisfaction of knowing.
"Come, sit,” she droned and I was confused until Nova transformed into a hovering seating arrangement for two across from another. I hesitantly obliged and sat, unnerved when we lurched forward and sped across a wider corridor, this time with windows and, to be perfectly candid, I appreciated no windows from what I saw.
My insides plummeted into a deep abyss down, down, down into my body. My mind grew blank at the sight, my eyes filled with fear. A dark vacuum greeted me, speckled with light, an array of closer planets and a binary star greeting me, too. The massive semi-spheres terrified me from the point of view on this quaint, small ship of sorts. Just imagining what was out there, the unfathomable expanse of space, forced me to squeeze my eyes shut as tight as they'd allow.
"Scared of a little space? Ha! I'd expect you to want to see this over that cramped area not even deserving the title of a cell. Too bad you're friends aren't going to rot in there,” the Mistress mocked, her shoulders bobbing in humor only she could understand. My frown deapened.
"Oh, come on, hun, you haven't even seen the worst of it,” she warned with another concise chortle. I didn't see the appeal. “Soon enough we’ll arrive to Ultraprison and execute those filthy men of their lives.”
"I feel like you're trying to spite me. It's working.”
She giggled and stood up despite Nova traveling at a fast rate, her body towering over me. I scoffed, not really affected at her attempt to intimidate me, her pathetic riding crop at her side.
"Oh, yes, I've heard you're quite hot-headed,” the Mistress began. “I've also heard you've been fooling around with the other inmates so we can't have them tainting your impure self any further.”
I groaned and got up, now nose-to-nose with her before spitting, “For the hundredth fucking time, I. Did. Not. Sleep. With. Any. INMATES!”
"Whatever, Coprolalia,” she teased which only pissed me off more. I raised both hands, twitching, before angrily letting them fall to my side, sitting back down with a pout.
"You also shouldn't joke about serious conditions,” I murmured, looking elsewhere.
"I can do or say as I please.”
With that, we stopped, me looking up expectantly and curiously. The surroundings looked like any other corridor, except it was lined with cell after cell full of inmates. It made me pity them, how they grabbed at us as we passed, Mistress in front, Nova in back.
"Where’re we going?” I inquired reluctantly. She smirked.
"To Ultraprison, my dear, and you're getting a first row seat to an event of a lifetime.”