Despite being nude, I raised my arms in the air and stretched my entire body. I felt the blood return to my veins, eradicating the numbness.

I cast the man who freed me a grateful look, offering him an appreciative smile of my own. Who would’ve thought that he’d turn out to be such a nice guy? Certainly not me. You really couldn’t judge a book by its cover. However, there was still that bothersome question that bugged and gnawed at me presenting itself every time I glanced at the intruder ever since he’d untied me. 

“You have something on your mind.”

“I do, actually.” And then I just impulsively asked, “Why’d you save me?”

“You looked like you could use some serious help. Am I correct in assuming this is your first day in this hellhole?”

I nodded. Even though he sounded honest enough, it contradicted with his earlier behavior, his other personality, the one that turned Gerard into a terrified, cowardly mouse sitting in a corner of the inspection room. He just didn’t look like the sort of guy that offered services and favors without having something to gain in return.

He chuckled deeply. “Who knows, I might need you to return the favor one day. Mark my words, boy, in this place, you’re gonna need all the friends you can get.”

I skimmed the inspection room in search of my clothes and found them in a heap on a steel counter. Hurriedly, I dressed, putting on article after article of clothing, aware of the intruder’s assessing gaze all the while.

“What’s your name?” I asked when I had zipped up my uniform.

“Cade.” he replied softly, sounding nothing like the angry beast from before. It really was like he changed personalities.

“The guards’ room is down the hallway and to the left,” he told me before resuming his hold on Gerard’s nape. He nodded a farewell my way and then proceeded to drag Gerard out of the room.

In the doorframe, he paused, looked over his shoulder and said before disappearing out the door, “Oh, and welcome to The Prison from Hell.”

Could prisoners really move about freely like that?

I stepped out into the waiting area to find everyone gone, even the guards. I followed Cade’s instructions and went down a barely-lit hallway. There were no doors on either side, only paint-chipped walls. At the end of the hallway, I turned left till I reached a large metal door with a very complicated, very hi-tech lock.

Do I knock?

Just when I reached out a hand to do exactly that, the door swung open to reveal a very furious-looking guard.

“Where the hell have you been? We’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

Once I finished telling the guards everything that happened to me, they exchanged looks that I could not quite identify, then one of them stood up and said, “Very well. We’ll look into it. Gerard Shocka is known for his mischievousness. Maybe next time don’t give him a reason to behave mischievously towards you.”

That was it? They referred to Gerard molesting me against my will and attempting to rape me an act of mischievousness, then blamed me for it?

I gawked with a gaping mouth, dumbfounded and bristling with uncontained fury at the guard who’d spoken. There had to be a loose screw in his head!

“What do you mean by that? Are you insane? The bastard nearly raped me and you call it mischievousness?!” I snarled.

“How dare you speak to me like that?!”

“I come to you to report a crime and this is your response?”

One of the sitting guards chuckled, a man about my age by the looks of it. My eyes narrowed on him, taking in his dull blue eyes, shaggy brown hair, hard jaw and crooked nose. He sprawled languidly on the metal chair, sporting a day’s growth of stubble.

I instantly disliked him. He just didn’t possess that air a law enforcer you could lay your trust in naturally had.

“What’s so funny?” I demanded, infuriated.

“You, because you think you’re entitled to rights here. Newsflash, newbie, this is prison! You have no rights in The Prison from Hell whatsoever, and if we choose to not do shit about you being molested, then there’s nothing you can do about it.”

The Prison from Hell. That was what Cade had called this prison.

“That’s impossible. You’re lying, aren’t you?”

This seemed to ruffle his feathers as his once indifferent gaze turned into a full-fledged glare bearing so much hatred and fury I almost flinched, but I would not be intimidated and ridiculed any longer.

“I’d watch my tongue if I were you. You don’t want to piss me off, or I’ll rape your virgin ass myself. I bet you enjoyed Gerard fingering you like the little bottom whore you are,” he said maliciously.

The barrier of sheer willpower and restraint I had been struggling to keep erect collapsed. I pounced on the bastard with a feral cry that echoed in the enclosed room, knocking him to the ground. I threw my fist back only to slam it into his already-crooked nose. The sound of his nose cracking echoed, music to my ears.

I felt hands trying to pull me off him as they snaked underneath my arms and lifted me.

“Let me go, you fuckers!”

What felt like barbs stabbed into my back. I was tasered. My muscles contracted painfully and turned rigid. As soon as the current ceased, my left cheek collided with the hard, cold floor. My muscles wouldn’t stop vibrating, the sensation extremely agonizing.

Black dots appeared in my vision. Alarmingly fast, they began growing and spreading, two dots morphing into a large stain, then that stain swallowing more and more dots till my vision was completely engulfed by blackness. Before, my consciousness slipped away, I heard someone say, “Josh, wait! We can’t kill him! I have an idea. Throw him in the king’s cell. He’ll get rid of him for us.”