seth
It was any normal day. Their stomachs were satiated with the tasteless porridge and almost too ripe fruit. Though he had gotten used to the bland food and just as dull atmosphere, his angel hadn't. She asked for sugar in her oats and she received it, whether through Seth or a kind officer. She asked for more books and they turned a spare room into a mini library.
Everyone who was sane loved his sweet girl but no one loved her as much as he did.
Daisy's dainty little body was perched on his lap as she held the tarnished book in her hands with the next page already between her thin fingers. Her head lay lightly over his chest, directly where his heart was, and her mousy hair fanned over his torso with the odd strands being played with through his masculine fingers.
He watched her lips move around each word, somehow mesmerised by her voice yet not properly registering the story. Despite the incredibly loud room, he could hear her words clearly, each sounding like a small melodic whisper, as if only they were part of the secret. The room of people paid no attention to the two, knowing what would happen if they were caught staring. Although, he now felt like a hypocrite as he sat gawking at the beauty in front of him.
Her lips curled into an adorable smile as she read out loud, what he assumed to be a good part of the book. She would laugh when the characters laughed and cry when the characters cried, only to smile at him later and say how it was such a good book, despite the tears.
The sound of the bell and multiple guards shouting brought him out of his trance. He frowned at the pouty look on his angel's face as she closed the tattered book and hugged it close to her chest.
"What's wrong, my love?" He asked, pulling her to him.
She looked at him the innocent brown eyes he had come to love and whined, "we didn't get to find out who did it!" When he gave her a confused look, she let out a large defeated sigh and banged her head on his chest. "Did you not pay attention? This has been the best part!"
He smiled softly at her, something he never did to anyone else. "You're too distracting." He gently grazed her cheek with the back of his fingers, feeling the skin heat up as she realised the meaning of his words. "So beautiful." He murmured.
With her there in his arms and blushing profusely at the simple compliment, he marvelled at the fact she was here with him. Because in a room that held the most dangerous men, stood an angel.
~~~
"Hurry up inmate," ordered the officer as he painted the wall slowly. The smell was making him his migraine worse and the chattering around him was like torture. His fellow inmates were forced to stay silent whilst the prison officers spoke loudly as if they were doing it on purpose to annoy him.
"I'm not doing this any longer." Seth said in an annoyed huff, having enough of the manual labour.
Though he had control of most of the prison, they were careful to not make the forced favouritism official. If he wasn't doing a job once in a while, it would be too obvious to the authorities and much too noticeable to prison officers that he didn't control.
He had a good thing in Bluebird Prison and it would take weeks, if not months, to build what he already had if he were transferred to a different one. Not to mention, he'd rather kill every single person in the building than leave Daisy alone with a bunch of convicts, as hypocritical as that seemed.
His irritable mood only heightened because he was forced to leave his girl in their cell with a runny nose. Seth suspected she had a cold and all he wanted to do was nurse her back to health while smothering her in the kisses she asked him for before he left.
He threw his brush into the bucket of cream-white paint, splashing it onto a prisoner's legs that after seeing the petulant expression Seth had, grew less angry and more timid as he scurried away to paint his side of the wall.
"What do you think you're doing, inmate?!" Byron yelled, walking over with a much too arrogant face. This was a guard that made it his mission to make Seth's life difficult for no reason other than he could.
He was an insecure grown man that worked in a prison to assert the power he didn't have in his home life. With a cheating wife that paid more attention to the paper boy than to her husband and a child that wants nothing to do with his weak-willed alcoholic father, it was safe to say Byron had a lot of unresolved anger.
"Pick up the d*mn brush," he barked.
Seth had to resist spitting on the officer's worn down face like he visualised himself doing on repeat. Instead he glared at the man and said, "I'm feeling sick." He then gave a pathetic fake cough and smiled sarcastically.
"I don't know why the little sugar's with him." Frank chimed in with a pat on Byron's back as if they were old friends. They probably were considering they both hated Seth with every fibre of their beings.
The prison officer rubbed his salt and pepper beard thoughtfully. "I agree. I mean, she's so innocent and you're so... not," he said to Seth, clearly trying to get on his nerves.
Frank let out a sharp laugh, his rotting teeth visible through his grin and his eyes reflecting disturbing and vile thoughts. He was as ugly inside as he was outside. "Maybe not so innocent under all those clothes. Maybe Daisy just needs a real man t- "
Seth lunged at the twisted man but was stopped by a baton in the stomach, curtesy of Byron. Nevertheless, it didn't stop him from straightening back up and charging back at the man, yelling, "don't you f*cking dare let her name pass through your f*cking lips!"
"Back off inmate!" Byron ordered as he tried to prevent Seth from murdering the smug looking criminal.
However, he was just background noise in Seth's current fit of rage. His rational thoughts were clouded by the voice in his head ordering him to kill Frank for even thinking of his angel and as a warning to the crowd of prisoners watching like they were seeing animals in a cage.
Seth pushed Byron out of the way and punched Frank in the jaw, causing audible winces in the room. He growled out, "I'm f*cking warning you Frank."
The smug b*stard spat out the blood in his mouth and gave a toothy grin of blood coated teeth, though a glimmer of fear passed through his eyes while he took a cautious step back.
In return, Seth went to lunge at Frank again, only for the air to be knocked out of him once more due to the baton in the prison officer's hand. Other guards walked closer with their hands on their own batons, ready to assist their colleague if necessary. He was about to lunge for him again, only to be hit in the side.
It wasn't necessary though because Seth didn't fight back. After every fight he got into and every meeting that ended in bruises, he was met with a distraught girl in tears. He'd have to comfort Daisy as she sobbed in his arms. He'd have to reassure her that he wasn't going to die from a few scratches. But every time it happened, his biggest punishment was the guilt and disappointment in himself for causing the most innocent beauty all that pain.
He knew she deserved better. He just didn't want to prove it.
So Seth couldn't fight back in fear of getting into more trouble than he was already in. Isolation was inevitable but the amount of time would be much longer if he fought back as much as he wanted to.
No. He had to take the punishment if he wanted to get back to his Daisy.
Seth quickly became bruised and heavily battered as Byron brought the weapon down on him harshly and without any sort of hesitation or remorse. A few of the other prison officers, the ones that thought fondly of his girlfriend, looked a little sympathetic yet did nothing to stop the embarrassing torture. They just gave Byron worried glances as the guy beat a man who had already surrendered.
This is all for her. This is all for her.
She wanted you to stop fighting.
You can't protect her if you're in isolation.
"Oi, mate. I think the lad's has enough," someone said. No doubt a prison officer that finally found his morals. Seth couldn't tell who it was as his eyes were tightly shut from the agonising pain coursing through his body.
Byron's heavy breathing was magnified in the quiet room. Murmurs of judgement increased as people got over their shock, whether at Byron for his ruthlessness or at Seth for his weakness he didn't know.
"Two nights in isolation," he barked, wiping the blood off the baton. "Take him to the nurse," Seth heard him mutter, followed by angry steps out of the room.
~~~
Seth held back a wince when the nurse dabbed the alcohol soaked cotton bud on his wounded face. The girl leaned far closer than she needed to which caused him to inch himself away from her chest in slight disgust. She reeked of desperation along with a strong scented perfume that she obviously over sprayed in an attempt to seem more attractive than she was.
The moment he stepped in the room, the nurse adjusted her appearance, blushing bashfully as she took in his presence and was a little too eager to help him onto the table. She excused herself briefly and came back with an overpowering scent and pinker lips.
Immediately, he felt uncomfortable with her obvious crush on him but focused on Daisy waiting for him back in their cell with no idea what had happened and decided to just get the visit over and done with.
"I've not seen you in a while, Seth. Not gotten in fights?" She asked.
He hummed in response to her small talk but then cringed as she held his face closer to her.
"I erm missed you." She gave a nervous giggle that made him feel awkward. The hearts in her eyes were painful to look at.
"That's... weird."
The nurse didn't hear him or at least pretended she didn't. "I need you to take off your shirt please."
Seth rolled his eyes at her but did as she said in the most casual way possible as to not send any wrong messages. Clearly, it didn't work as she bit her lip and widened her eyes at his abs in a not so subtle way.
"I-I'm going to touch your side." She said and placed sweaty hands on his bruised side.
He only grunted in response before flinching as she checked him for broken bones.
"Daisy told me you share the same cell."
Mentioning his angel just reminded him of how jealous she got when the nurse gave her the wrong idea of their relationship. It made him smile a little but at the same time grew more annoyed at the woman in front of him. Seth glared coldly at her and snapped, "don't talk about her."
"Why? She's just a girl. I hope you're not too hard on her."
What is this woman talking about?
"I know you're not as bad as people think you are," she said, not noticing the weird look he was giving her. "I-I can see that y'know."
"F*cking psychopath," he muttered under his breath.
"We've known each other for so long and I feel like we understand each other more than anyone." Seth didn't know whether or not to tell her that he didn't know he name.
But he didn't have time to contemplate it as he suddenly felt her fingers graze his bare chest in a seductive manner, causing him to jump and smack her hand away from him with restrained force.
She looked shocked at his reaction and stuttered, "I-I know y-you care about me, Seth. You're nicer to me than you are to all the other officers." He mentally agreed that he tolerated her more than the others, only because he didn't hit women. Although, she was slowly testing his morals.
"You're delusional. I don't even know your name," he spat.
The woman frowned with a hurt look but shook her head. "No. You opened up to me when you felt depressed and lonely. We understand each other because I lost both of my parents too."
He remembered that time. That was at a particular low point of his life. It was the one year anniversary of his family's murder and the first year in prison was the hardest year of all. It was the one time he was high and just blurted out a few sentences about himself to no one in particular. It just so happened that it was the nurse.
Seth never talked to anyone about the murders to the extent he did with Daisy.
"I never flirted with you though!"
"Because you respected me and my job and I admire you for that so much. I know that if I meant nothing to you, you would've tried to sleep with me."
He was frustrated and felt a little guilty that the woman was so far from the truth. He pitied the fact that she took these small details and blew them up to something much bigger in her head. "Nurse," he said slowly, "you're delusional. I don't like you... at all actually. I have a girlfriend." I have a Daisy.
He moved back as she took a step forward and then suddenly placed her hand on his leg with a tight grip. "You don't need to lie to me. I know you're worried about people finding out about us but I'll risk it for you. I know they call you the Devil but to me you're nothing like it. You're not. I don't care that you've done bad things Seth because I like you." She smiled what she must've believed was a reassuring smile while looking slightly shy at her confession. "I know you like me too."
Seth gave her an incredulous look. He was so distracted by her stupidity that he didn't even see her hand lift up until it landed on his crotch.
"What the f*ck?!" He shouted and pushed her back harshly, causing her to hit the corner of her desk with a thud. Seth, however, wasn't concerned with the pained yet stunned expression the woman had because he was busy trying to process what had happened. He shivered as he recalled her touch and gave her a look of utter disgust. "What the f*ck do you think you're doing, you f*cking nutjob?!"
The nurse backed away as he stepped towards her threateningly with his hands clenched by his sides. He didn't want to hit her but he was so tempted to. He tried to breathe and calm himself so he wouldn't do anything he would regret but all he could think about was someone's hands on him that didn't belong to his angel's.
"Maria? Is everything ok?" A young prison officer said when he walked in, curiously looking around the room and then at Seth with narrowed eyes.
"Y-yes. Yes. Everything is fine."
He wondered if she said that to protect him from further punishment or because she knew he could report her for sexual assault. Although, it wasn't like anybody would believe him so he settled for the former.
"You can take him away now, Robby," the nurse, apparently named Maria, said with an unconvincing smile.
Luckily, the new prison officer didn't take any notice and only cuffed his hands to drag him away to isolation.
In two days, he would have to explain to Daisy not only why he was in isolation, but also the fact that another woman touched him in the place reserved only for her. He couldn't help but feel insecure and wonder if this was the last straw - the breaking point where she'd have enough of all the trouble that came with him.
He wondered if this would be the point she'd leave him.
And now he had two whole nights to think about it.
~~~
Thank you for reading!
It's been 7 whole months since my last update I'm so sorry. I'm going to be so thankful if just one person hasn't given up on this book.
I wouldn't get my hopes up on a weekly update but I'm hoping that now it'll be easier to right the next one. If not.. see you next year!
How long have you been waiting? Who was here 7 months ago? Just curious to see who new readers are :)
Chapter 16 is available on Inkitt! Click the link on my profile to join. x
WORD COUNT: 2902
Much love <3
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