“What do you think this is? A Girl Scout training camp?” Captain roared. “You ain’t ever leaving here, and you best get used to it.”
I hated Captain, but he was right. The only way out of here was if Marcus painted us a door so Kallie could portal us through it, but we’d been separated, so that plan was out the window.
“On the ground now!” Captain ordered.
“For what?” Chancey balked.
“Strike one, asking stupid questions. Strike two, questioning my authority. Want to go for strike three?” Captain came so close to the bars that spittle flew into our cell and sprayed our faces.
Chancey’s voice was resentful. “No, sir.” Reluctantly, Chancey lowered himself to the ground. There was barely enough room for one man to stretch out, and his elbow hit my leg as he was forced to do push-ups in the confined space.
Captain continued pacing. “These cages will be your home for the next infinity. You get one hour a day outside your cells for showers and recreation. Step out of line, and you will be severely punished. Behave yourself, and you’ll be granted access to your magic.”
Granted access— as if the guards owned our magic now. Hell, they did. They ownedus. Magic was all these inmates had left, which made it the only thing the guards could control them with.
Captain patted something on his hip. “These tranquilizer guns ain’t like the ones you’ve seen before. They aren’t diluted to slow you down. The noxite in these guns will drop you on the spot.”
He chuckled in amusement, and something clicked in his hand. “And the bullets intheseguns will kill ya. Believe me, my guards don’t miss.”
With that, Captain turned on his heel. Chancey breathed a sigh of relief and started to get up, but a heavy clang reverberated off our bars.
“DID I SAY YOU WERE DONE!?” Captain bellowed. “You’re not done until I say you’re done. Back on the ground!”
“Y— yes, sir.” Chancey scrambled to the ground again, doing push-ups faster than before.
Captain laughed as he marched back down the hall, followed by the guards. Nobody spoke until Captain was long gone.
Our cellmate was the first to break the silence. “You’ll learn pretty quickly not to mess with Captain.”
“Believe me, that man has a personal vendetta,” Chancey said as he did another push-up. “He’s still bitter that we dipped out of fight club.”
“Ouch,” our cellmate said. “Best thing to do is lie low. A place like this will really fuck with you.”
“You’ve been down here what? Three months, Jeffrey?” Chancey asked.
I realized then who our cellmate was.Jeffrey Johnson. He’d disappeared after he insulted Esther when she arrived on campus. The Warden didn’t take kindly tothat. This kid was harmless.
I went to sit on the bottom bunk, but Jeffrey shoved me. I landed against the wallhard. “The bottom bunk’smine,” he sneered. “You and Chancey can share the top bunk. I’ve earned my place here.”
“What are you going to do? Fight me?” I demanded.
“Charlie’s got a mean right-hook!” Marcus called from the cell beside us. His voice sounded strange, like he was right next to me instead of separated by a wall.
“Chance hasn’t lost his last two fights,” Ivy added.
“Thanks for that,” Chancey grumbled from the floor. Yeah, it sure made him seemtough.
“I can take ‘em,” Jeffrey spat. “What you can do to me isn’t worse than what they’ve already done here.”
Cellblock 9 had really toughened this guy up. It wasn’t worth fighting him, not when we had to conserve energy to figure out how to get the hell out of this place.
“Whatever,” I said. “We’ll take top bunk.”
“You’re lucky Charlie isn’t fighting you,” Marcus trash-talked, though he wasn’t very good at it. “He’ll fuck you up.”
“Relax. I’m not fighting Jeffrey,” I stated. “We’re buddies, aren’t we?”
Jeffrey hesitated, then clasped my outstretched hand. “Yeah. Buddies.”
