My feet stung as I walked through the ice-cold water. We were forced to press our bodies against the cold stone wall.
Captain laughed, like he was enjoying the show, the sick fucker. “Give ‘em the hose!”
The hose—?
My thoughts were cut off as a powerful jet of water slammed into my back. I opened my mouth to scream, but the wind was knocked out of me and I was pinned to the wall by the stream of water. The jet was so powerful that it was similar to my skin being cut away from my muscles. This was a fire hose, if anything. I received a moment of reprieve as the guards swept the hose the other way, but my friends’ pained screams followed. The jet hit me again, but it was aimed lower this time, and I was knocked off my feet. My feet flipped over my head as I tumbled across the room. My skull cracked against the floor, and the guards’ heavy laughter filled the room.
I turned inward, because it was the only way to ignore the pain. But that wasn’t much better, because all I could think about was what the Warden might do to Ava. We’d found torture devices in the Infernal Underground, and I had no doubt he had a collection of them here. He’d do whatever he had to in order to carve her demigod powers out of her, and when he was done, he’d come for the rest of us. The least I could do was pray she’d be alive by the end of it.
The thought of Ava in pain was worse than any physical torture I could ever bear, so I let myself take on the stinging jet of water. It made me forget for just for a moment that Ava and I were separated.
The guards continued spraying us until it felt like the water had removed layers of skin.
“They should be all cleaned up now,” Captain said, sounding amused. “On your feet!”
We were ushered into another room. The floor was dry here, but the air made me shiver. Guards shoved clothes into our hands and forced us to dress. Whatever they gave us was some kind of rough material.
“You boys look cute in orange,” Captain said with a laugh.
We put on our jumpsuits, which were really itchy and didn’t fit quite right. We were provided a pair of shoes each, but they had a putrid scent that was both a mix of sweat— from a previous inmate, I was sure— and rat urine.
We looked like real criminals now in our orange jumpsuits. Everyone called the Darke Institute a prison because we were confined within a fence, but the real prison was down here in Cellblock 9.
The guards escorted us down the hall, until we came to a long row of cells. The hall was narrow, and the ceiling couldn’t be more than a few feet above my head. I nearly gagged at the smell of sewage.
As we walked, I could feel the heat coming off lightbulbs, but they were few and far between. Marcus wasn’t lying when he said there wasn’t much light down here. Good thing I didn’t need it.
Inmates shouted and reached through the bars of their cells to grab us as we passed. I yanked my arm out of several sweaty grasps. The guards yelled as they banged on the cells, threatening the inmates to keep their hands inside.
Something warm touched my leg as I passed by a cell, and I realized in disgust it was a stream of piss. Someone had justpissed on me.
We kept walking. As we passed one of the cells, an inmate whooped loudly and shook their cell bars like a mad man. “The Bandit’s come to play!”
I couldn’t place the voice. There were too many of them, and I figured most of these people had been down here longer than I’d been at the Institute. My best guess was Cellblock 9 housed at least a hundred criminals.
Ivy gagged from behind me, like they couldn’t stand the smell.
“Hold your breath,” Marcus whispered.
“I can’t hold it forever,” Ivy told him. “I’m only half-vamp.”
“Against the wall,” Captain barked.
At first, I thought he was talking to us, until someone in a nearby cell groaned. “I’ve been on my best behavior.”
“I don’t give a shit. You’re done with your cushy one-man cell. Meet your new roommates,” Captain said, before grabbing me by the back of the collar and shoving me inside the cell.
I tripped and caught myself on a cold metal object. It smelled fucking awful, and as I felt around, my hands landed in cold water. I realized it was a toilet— filled to the brim and obviously clogged. I gagged and scrambled away from the stench.
I continued feeling around the cell, and I suddenly felt claustrophobic when I realized how small it was. The cell couldn’t be more than four feet wide and seven feet long, if I was being generous. Unlike the door that was made of bars, the walls were solid metal, blocking us from the neighboring cells. There were two slabs of metal bolted to the wall that were supposed to be our bunks, but there weren’t any mattresses on them. The “bunks” and toilet were the only things in the cell. We weren’t even granted the courtesy of a barred window.
Chancey toppled into me as he was thrown into the cell. The cell door slammed shut, before the guards moved on to the adjacent cell and shoved Marcus and Ivy inside.
“Listen here,” Captain demanded as he paced in front of our cells. “This ain’t nothing like the Institute you attended before. There, you were students. Here, you’re prisoners.”
Chancey approached the bars. “When do we get to leave?” he asked sarcastically.
A baton clanged against the bars, and Chancey cursed.
