Page 1 of Maddening Fixation

Chapter 1

ROMEO

Istepped through the groaning iron gates of Ravencliff like a man clawing his way out of his own grave.

The massive steel doors rumbled shut behind me with a deafening metallic crash that echoed across the prison grounds.

For a moment, the sound seemed to vibrate through my bones.

Ten years.

Ten brutal years entombed inside Florida’s most feared state prison.

Ten years of blood, violence, and survival.

Ravencliff wasn’t a prison.

It was a graveyard where men kept breathing long after their souls died.

The walls had ears. The shadows had knives.

And hope was the first thing they beat out of you.

The wind cut across the open yard, cold enough to sting exposed skin. I welcomed it.

After a decade of stale air, sweat-soaked concrete, and the constant scent of violence, the sharp chill felt almost foreign.

Almost beautiful.

Around me, prison guards stood in stiff silence.

The same men who had once treated me like an animal.

The same men who had watched inmates try to carve me apart and done nothing.

The same bastards who had laughed when they tossed me into solitary after I’d nearly died defending myself.

Now they stood at attention.

A guard thumped his fist against his chest.

Another lowered his head.

“Safe travels, Mr. Flynn.”

The respect sounded forced.

The fear didn’t.

I said nothing.

Words were wasted on men like them.

Instead, I tilted my face toward the pale Florida sky, watching wisps of cloud drift lazily overhead.

For the first time in ten years, there wasn’t a ceiling above me.

No bars. No cameras. No concrete.