Harvey Kowalski kisses his wife goodnight and goes to work as he does every other night. He gets in his car and drives the five miles to Greenwood Correctional. As he stops at the last traffic light, he remembers that he's left the sandwich his wife packed for him.

"Damn it." he sighs. It was a lamb and mustard sandwich and it looked good. How could he forget? He never forgets. He always remembers to grab the brown paper bag before going in the car. By now it's become so routine that it's a reflex. How could he forget?

Kowalski contemplates turning around to go get it. But then the light turns green and he decides to shrug it off.

"Ah well, too late." he says.

The sandwich looked good, but it wasn't worth being an hour late to work. He drives up the road and soon Greenwood came into view. Depressingly grey as ever.

Kowalski parks the car in his usual spot and goes past the gates. Whistling as he walks.

"Hey Harv," greets the officer at the post, Jay, as he signs in for his shift.

"Hey Jay." replies Kowalski, "heard your kid's going to big boy school now."

"Yeah, first grade all of a sudden. Soon it'll be time for his Bar Mitzvah."

"Time flies, huh?"

"Sure does. Makes me miss the diapers a little."

Kowalski chuckles. With the small talk over with, he goes over to the locked security door. He reaches for his keys but they weren't there. Usually he hangs his keys on a carabiner fastened onto a belt loop. Did he drop them?

Impossible. That carabiner locks securely.

"Everything okay?" asks Jay, craning his neck to see what had stopped Kowalski from going through the door.

"Uh, I can't find my keys." said Kowalski, "can you open up the door for me?"

"Sorry Harv, no can do. You know the rules, no key no entry."

Kowalski sighs. Jay is known to be a stickler for the rules. A real goody-two-shoes. "Guess I'll check in the car."

He walks out the gates and retraces his steps back to his car. He searches the driver's seat, and there they were, the carabiner of keys, lying on the floor near the pedals.

He picks them up and examines the carabiner to see if it's loose. It wasn't, it still locks as securely as ever. Kowalski shrugs and fastens the keys onto his belt loop.

As he makes the walk back, something nags the back of his mind. The carabiner locks properly and his belt loop wasn't torn. There was no way for those keys to have fallen, so why did they?

"First the sandwich, now this." he mutters to himself. Suddenly he stops. Goosebumps ripple through his skin.

"First the sandwich...now this." he repeats. He looks up at the prison gates and swallows the lump in his throat. Was God sending him a sign? For what?

Kowalski quickly shakes off the thought. He felt silly. It's not a big deal, surely everyone drops their keys every now and then.

He goes through the gates, passes Jay with no small talk, unlocks the door and goes inside. He let the door slam shut behind him.

It's after lights out so the inmates are asleep and everything is dark. Outside lights streaming in from then windows are the only illumination. Kowalski is used to this, it's like this every night.

But not tonight. Something was different. The air feels thick and the darkness closes in all around him. Kowalski runs to the break room for some relief.

A bunch of COs were huddled over one of the tables, talking about something he couldn't hear. They didn't notice him come in. Kowalski sits down away from them and tries to collect himself.

"Just a bunch of keys, Harv." he mutters, breathing heavily, "you dropped your keys. Everybody drops their keys."

Someone taps him on the shoulder.

"Yo, you okay H?" asks TJ, one of the nightshift COs. Good natured to a fault, always with a smile on his face.

"Uh, oh yeah, yeah, fine." Kowalski replies nervously.

"You look like you seen some shit. Sure you're alright?"

"I'm feeling a little off, that's all."

"I know what'll get you right. Me and the boys finna bail and hit up that new 24-hour place. What's say you come with us?"

"Nah, I shouldn't."

"Come on, man. The girls are sleep, no one's gonna be making any trouble, come on." urged TJ, "they got all-you-can-eat mac n' cheese, I know you love you some of that, huh? Come on."

"No really, you guys go ahead."

"You sure? Last chance."

"I'm sure."

"Alright, man." shrugs TJ, "you take it easy." he says with one last tap on the shoulder. Then he walks off to join his boys. After talking for a few more minutes, they get up to leave.

"Don't you go telling nobody, H." says TJ as he passes by.

The break room is empty now. Kowalski grabs a flashlight and starts doing the rounds. This meant going up and down the dark corridor, but it was still better than sitting alone in the break room. No matter how brightly lit.

The Greenwood Correctional Facility is roughly the shape of a comb. It has one long corridor splitting into prongs of cell blocks from A to E. The cafeteria, visitation room, and exercise area are in a separate building, accessible through a door near cell block E.

Usually Kowalski would start from E, at the very end of the corridor, and work his way up to A, the block nearest to the break room. He decides to do nothing different tonight, it was already weird enough. With a deep breath, he starts the walk.

As he went past block C, he hears voices. Kowalski quickly shines his flashlight towards the source of the sound.

"Hey! Turn that off!" someone hisses. Kowalski knows the voice well, it was Branson. And if Branson's there, that means Dunbar is there too. Kowalski quickly shuts off the light. Not because Branson told him to, but rather because he knew what the two men were doing and didn't want to see it.

"It's just Kowalski." came Dunbar's voice.

"Oh, my man Kowalski!" said Branson, sounding delighted, "get over here, shithead."

Kowalski lets his eyes adjust to the darkness and bounds over to them. Just as he thought, they were inside an inmate's cell, beating the woman black and blue.

"New girl, just came in today. We're giving her a warm Greenwood welcome."

The girl whimpers, the sound muffled by swollen lips and a mouthful of blood. She was crying. They always cry.

"Come on, Kowalski, get a couple shiners on her. you know you want to. i know the missus been real hard on you lately."

Kowalski swallows hard. He wanted so badly to stop them. But the words never come out. He always swallows them.

"Be good to release all that pent up anger. Kick this little slut around, come on." barks Dunbar.

"M-maybe not tonight." Kowalski says nervously.

"Sheesh, you're boring." groans Dunbar.

"Ah well, she broke already anyway. it's no fun anymore." shrugs Branson.

He walks over the girl and locks up her cell. She lay there with tears still streaming down her eyes.

"I could use some coffee." says Branson, a cue for the other two to follow him to the break room. Once there, they all sat down with hot paper cups of coffee.

"She was feisty." says Dunbar.

"Yeah, she's okay." says Branson, "but you know what? I kinda miss that other bitch, the one with the weird grey hair. Wish i coulda broke her before she got released."

Dunbar made some noise to show that he agreed, then they burst into laughter like crazed hyenas. Kowalski kept his mouth shut.

The laughter was interrupted by two men entering the break room. Jay was one of them, but Kowalski had never seen the other guy, the one wearing a tuxedo.

"Hey, Harv, this guy wants to talk to you." says Jay.

"Me?" asks Kowalski.

"You're Harvey Kowalski, yes?" asks the man with the tuxedo, "my name is Otto, and I need you to come with me."

"Maybe you're getting recruited by the CIA." sneers Dunbar.

"Fuck, if this shithead can be CIA, anybody can." adds Branson. They promptly burst into laughter again. The man named Otto turns to them and smiles.

"You two gentlemen must be Branson and Dunbar." he says.

"Yeah, so what?" barks Branson. Otto doesn't answer and instead turns to Jay.

"That'll be all, Mr. Jay. Thank you for your help."

"Believe me, it's my pleasure." says Jay. He looks Branson dead in the eyes and scoffs. Then he leaves to return to his post.

Otto turns his attention back to Kowalski.

"Please follow me, Mr. Kowalski."