Lily always took good care of her girls, even if she did come across as an ice queen sometimes.
I tugged on a pair of Egara’s shorts and tucked the shirt into them. I completed my disastrous appearance with a cap.
I checked myself in the mirror. This just might work.
There was a loud boom from somewhere in the prison and I spun toward the door.
That flimsy door was all that was keeping me from harm right now.
That damn door.
It wouldn’t open until seven in the morning.
I moved to the wall beside the door and pressed my back to it. I had nothing to do now but wait.
The shouts and screams turned frantic outside. I clasped my hands over my ears to prevent the worst of it. Along with the rising and falling klaxon it had all the hallmarks of anarchy.
It was while my mind was moving along those tracks that the cell door opened, making the yelling louder than ever, and a figure stepped into the room.
I screamed.
The door slid shut and the figure turned to me. So much for pretending to be a battle-hardened prisoner, I thought. If anyone heard my girlish scream, they would see through my disguise immediately.
Egara lowered his hood and leaned his bed-pole against the wall and crook of the bedframe. I couldn’t help but notice it was now smothered in blood.
“W-What’s going on?” I said.
“It’s a riot,” Egara said. “It’s a riot and the entire prison has gone to hell.”
Egara
The moment I heard that klaxon go off, my immediate thought was, “It’s finally happened.”
A riot.
I heard the rushed elevated and excited tone of the inmates who never made that noise unless it was a special occasion—often when they were being served their favorite meal.
I had to climb off the delicious morsel I had lying naked under me and go check if my suspicions were correct. It was hard to leave such a beauty but I couldn’t miss out on this opportunity if it was what I thought it was.
A damn riot!
And if it was…
I would only get one shot to exploit it.
I edged into the long hallway. The prisoners ran to and fro like ants after their nest had been upended. They scurried for somewhere safe where they wouldn’t get squashed or destroyed.
And they would get squashed or destroyed. Either by fellow inmates or the guards that would come barreling through.
What surprised me was they didn’t have a look of fear on their faces. They were excited and looking forward to causing havoc and mayhem.
One inmate shit on the floor and used it to paint his masterpiece on the wall.
Another prisoner danced a funky jig in the center of the crossroad that filtered into adjacent halls. I wasn’t sure what the purpose of it was, though it seemed to please him no end.
I came across the first unconscious and battered body on the floor and peeled down the hallway leading right, back toward the canteen.
Another pair of prisoners confronted a lone inmate, who had either crossed them in the past or belonged to the wrong gang. Or both. I could have believed either reason.
When I heard the shock rifle blasts, I knew for certain this wasn’t a regular Tuesday afternoon affair caused by a lack of toilet paper.
This was a full-scale riot.
This was serious and it was deep.
And I couldn’t have been more excited.
The guards would come down on the offenders like a ton of bricks. A good thing I had no intention of being anywhere near them when it happened.
A shiver of excitement danced along my spine.
The time had come…
Finally!
I turned around to head back down the hallway to my cell and came face to face with a pair of miscreants called the Afzit twins.
Some criminals were locked away in here because of poor circumstances or bad luck. Not so with the Afzit twins.
They enjoyed what they did and you could bet your bottom credit if you were their intended target it wasn’t going to be something you would walk away from. Not with all your limbs in their correct place anyway.
The elder Afzit picked the pocket of the first fallen prisoner I came across earlier and plucked something from his pocket. The younger Afzit looked over at me as if I might grass on them to the guards.
I had a nasty habit of never backing down and it had occasionally—okay, often—gotten me in trouble over the years. I would never usually back down in front of scum like the Afzit twins but I was in a rush and, with any luck, after today, I wouldn’t have to set my eye on their grotesque appearance again.
I raised my hands and was about to say, “I didn’t see anything,” but the twins were known for picking up on meanings that had never been there in the first place. So, I said nothing, lowered my eyes, and edged around them to head back to my cell.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Afzit the younger said.
“Yeah, where do you think you’re going?” Afzit the elder said, wiping an arm under his snotty nose.
To think a beauty the likes of Agatha could have ended up in the possession of disgusting assholes like this… It boggled the mind.
A good thing they weren’t allowed to fight in pairs in the pit. That was the only time they were truly dangerous.
Like now.
“Nowhere,” I said.
I raised my eyes to peer between them. That was where the danger existed. The small spaces where their blades could flash from at a moment’s notice.
“You look like you’re heading off to tell the guards about what you saw,” Afzit the younger said. “Don’t he, Afzit?”
“Yeah. He does a bit.”
They were half my size but what they lacked in stature and strength they made up for in speed, cruelty, and pure viciousness.
Afzit the younger made to sneak behind me but I blocked him. The elder took the opportunity to do the same on my other side.
I raised my metal pole.
“I wouldn’t if I were you,”
