The morning call had always taken place at five o'clock. No clock could give us the exact time, only the words of the pawns could guide us. If they were for the most part particularly silent, others knew how to be talkative. They often change. Every month, the guard towers changed hours, outings ; for the baths, lunches and everything that could have allowed a fine knowledge of the prison evolved. Nothing remained fixed.

This month was rough. Bedtime was imposed at ten p.m. and wake-up at five o'clock. Breakfast began at six and ended at eight. We counted between five and six o'clock the call that continued after Break, Ivan and I; and between six and eight, that everyone could leave the prisons, go to the refectory and eat. It took an hour for some who were the most remote, compared to about thirty minutes for the three of us. We were not the best off, but not the worst.

For example, we were already closer to the showers than to the refectory, but unlucky, it was only one shower per month. The time that everyone gets their turns and that it comes back to us.

"Prisoner Br-11332."

Break meant his presence with a hand sign while the warder was already calling Ivan.

"Prisoner Iv-99193."

In less than two hours, therefore, we would be in front of our good food, but the awakening was rough. Ivan replied with a throat noise, barely awake.

"Prisoner Da-3304."

I wouldn't have raised my head if it had been another voice, but it wasn't just any. The warder did not mingle with us and no one came to complain about it, but it happened that it was a little different for him. I was still in the fortnight when I met him. I straightened up, yet still in the vapes, but no sleep would have prevented me from...

"Hi sweetheart," I whispered.

To tease him. I got out of my bed and advanced towards the bars. I put my hands there and played with my look to get his attention. He barely raised his head from his electronic tablet.

"Dani, you are already so energetic, so early."

"Always when I see your beautiful face."

He smiled and looked at me. I heard Ivan's giggle while I knew that a fine smile was forming on Break's lips. Undoubtedly, this discussion was confusing, and I just had to look at the new kid's face to realize it. In a teasing mood, I pushed the misunderstanding even further. I passed my hands through the bars and placed them on that of the warder. He could have crushed them for me if he had wanted to.

"And how is your new cellmate?"

I glanced bored at Frani. I shrugged my shoulders.

"The little one who was with you before and... hum, beaten to death. I hope you'll have more luck little."

"Hey," I called him with a finger on his cheek. "It's on me that you have to focus Jill."

Jill had been a guard here for years. Like Break and Ivan, I had grown up with him, but in a different way. He had never hidden from watching over me and I knew how to play it. I was luckier than any dogs in this prison and I knew how to take advantage of it.

"I've seen a lot of agitation since yesterday, more than usual. The end of the month is always a little in a hurry, but this is something. Is there a problem? Those who go out don't want to?"

I joked, of course. Who wouldn't want to get out of this cursed doghouse? Time only made sense to the one that the warder gave us. An hour, a month, a year, ten years, it was finally hard to see the difference. The days were too similar to make a difference.

"Come on, answer him," Ivan intervened. "It's his birthday!"

Jill's smile disappeared and her skin, already pale, became cadaveric. He looked at Ivan, lowered the digital tablet against his body.

"Repeat?"

Ivan glanced at me, seeming to look for the reason for this dark tone, but I didn't know it myself. I mean... Jill had always been weird. He was a warder, an alpha like all the other guards, and he mingled with our discussions. It wasn't the weirdness he was missing, but there... What was the problem? It seems that he had just confessed to a murder, and not just a simple view all the horrors he had already had to wait for.

"Well... it's his birthday."

Silence.

"It's his majority what…"

Silence again.

"Dani is twenty years old," added Ivan as the silence became heavy.

Jill stepped back and without a look for us, went away. The call did not exceed my name for our cell line. We were all stunned by his behavior. Frani tried to question us, but I didn't know. I wasn't stupid. Something had happened in his mind and I wasn't sure I liked it.

The day passed, mortally identical to the others. Breakfast was delayed by several minutes because of Jill's absence of a call, but the rest was normal. The audible alert sounds for the beginning and end of breakfast. We returned to our cells at the end. At eleven o'clock, the unpleasant "beep" sounded again for the meal and at one o'clock, it sounded the end. We joined our cells. At three p.m. the alarm announced the time of the walk and at four o'clock, its end. We went back to our cells. At six p.m., the siren signified the time of the meal and at eight o'clock, its end. In a few minutes, we would be back in our cells and at twenty hours and fifty minutes, the signal would be given for the upcoming extinguishing of the fires and ten minutes later, we would no longer have any light source.

It was ten alerts like that every day, every month, every year, for twenty years for me.

That is: seven thousand three hundred days, two hundred and forty months, twenty years and seventy-three thousand fucking damn alarms.

Finally, I was at seventy-two thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight alerts for the moment.

I sighed loudly as I cashed in this catastrophic balance sheet. I looked up at the skylight. Night had fallen. The star raised.

A hand grabbed my arm and pulled me after it. I was ready to violently pierce another pulpit, to tear his throat, however I changed my mind when I saw the wide back of a warder, Jill. I calmed my ardor and followed him under the disapproval of Ivan and Break who tried to hold me back, but they were retained by other guards. Taking me apart in front of everyone else didn't look like Jill. In fact, he had never even done it.

My docility strengthened and I moved at his own pace. He took us to one of the insulation rooms and brutally closed the door behind us. His perfectly fitted black uniform molded his strong shoulders and black eyes, without distinction of the pupil, made me shudder. He too was taking pheromone suppressors, but even with that, I could feel the strength of his emotion. It was overflowing, so strong, so wildly that I stepped back.

"You have to listen to me carefully Dante."

His voice was low, but eager. Did I perceive fear? I sat on the small metal table in the center of the room while he hurried to remove something from his pocket. I recognized the little blue pill, the one given to us every two days to avoid the overflow of our pheromones. It made it possible to control everyone's cycles. It made us... less well bestial, less slaves of our secondary sex.

"Swallow that."

"Ah," I breathed lasciviously. "I thought you would have said that for something else…"

Jill never responded to my "advances". Certainly because they knew that their values were particularly wobbly, but he had never seemed outraged, indignant or dark about it. There... his serious air made me frown. I pushed back his hand and the pill.

"Hey, I already took one yesterday. If I swallow this one, it could distract my entire cycle. I will have one tomorrow, like everyone else."

"Tomorrow, you won't be there anymore. In fact, you don't have much time left here."

"What do you…"

My words died when he grabbed my cheeks. The pill between his index and middle finger, he put them into my mouth. He grimaced when his fingers scratched on my teeth and I instinctively opened my lips more so as not to hurt him more. Jill was different from the others. He had always been kind and in a way, the two of us had grown up together. He was the son of one of the warder and I was born in this prison. We had crossed paths, often, and he had become a warder in turn. We exchanged a few words, then we talked and we... became friends? Nah, not as strong.

He was an alpha. Not these ridiculous dogs that we see everywhere. No. He was protecting and he was kind, so seeing him give me this little blue capsule...

I reluctantly swallowed the pill pushed into my throat. By reflex, I pushed him away to cough under this sudden invasion. He too seemed out of breath. Something was really wrong.

"Listen, you have reached your majority today. Then you will be released."

So that was it?

"You didn't commit a crime. Your actions here are pardoned because you had to grow up here. But up there, things are different. Dante, listen carefully."

He looked serious, almost unhappy.

"You will have to be appreciated, as you knew how to do here. Up there, you will have to do everything in your power to attract attention, so that they love you. The first month, they will help you since you are new."

"They? Who?"

"I'm on call here for next month, so I wouldn't be there to help you. You will have to survive the next month, but for the second, you will be alone, but I have friends up there. Go see them."

He handed me a small card. On it was a symbol. A kind of... rabbit?

"Look for this symbol. Tell them that you come from me, tell them your name and they will know who you are. You will no longer have a suppressor up there, so you will have to find one quickly. The best is to find the symbol, otherwise, there will be sellers, but they will always try to scam you."

I was listening, I was holding back, but I didn't understand anything.

"Dante, it will be different up there. Don't trust anyone. Use them. This is the best way to survive."

And then, he was silent. He stopped his frantic walk in the room and I left the table to move towards him. I took a deep breath to try to calm him down.

"They're going to free me and bring me back to the surface, right? And up there, I should understand things by myself. I should survive a month and the second, you'll be there. I shouldn't trust anyone."

He nodded. Her beautiful blond hair was in a brothel not possible that made me smile. He was usually so perfect in appearance and behavior. Also, I was surprised when his hands were on my neck. There had never been such proximity between us, not on his part. My blood froze when I heard a very characteristic "click". I pushed him back violently and quickly raised my fingers on my throat.

"Fuck what are you…"

A fucking necklace, seriously? I intended to snatch from him a piece or two of skin to make him understand my discontent.

"It will protect you. The code is your birthday."

I was hesitating. He looked on the high of my neck.

"Jill…?" I was inquiring.

He shook his head and with one step, filled the space between him and me. A sharp pain pierced me just above the collarbone. I was taken with awful vertigo and I lost the balance. I collapsed on Jill. He caught up with me and while a black veil obscured my sight, he murmured:

"Sorry, I had no choice. You have to survive Dante. For him."