Endurance

Chapter 4 - Ten Years

After confessing to a crime I didn't commit, the police were called over and took me out to their car.

I could hear Morgan's voice calling after me as the cops walked me outside. Him and the team followed me out.

"Reid why did you do that?" Morgan asked.

"Because if I hadn't you would've gone to jail." I tried to turn around to answer his question but the two police officers, one on each side of me, holding my arms, were preventing me from doing anything but walk to their car.

"Officers, stop! It wasn't him, I promise!" Morgan desperately called out to them as we approached the car.

One of the police officers went to the drivers seat to get the car started and the other took me to the back of the car. He faced me toward the trunk and slammed me against it and handcuffed me.

"Ah." I quietly groaned and tried to reach for my stomach that was just impelled, but couldn't because I was handcuffed.

"You're hurting him!" Morgan called out again.

The police officer ignored him and tossed me into the car and closed the door behind us. The other police officer drove off. I watched as we drove away from my team.

As we were driving to the county jail, I couldn't help but notice the driver was speeding.

"You're an officer you shouldn't be speeding." I said.

The officer looked in the mirror reflection at me and the other looked up from his newspaper. They both had the same expression: judgy and hatred.

"You know, for every 10 miles per hour you go over the speed limit is double the chances you'll get into a car crash?" I explained statistically. "Escaping through the car as a criminal is really hard to do, but when there's a car crash it would be really easy to. You wouldn't want me to escape, now would you?" I kept talking. I didn't really care that he was going over the speed limit, I just wanted to fill the awkward silence, and what better way to fill it than with me taunting them? They already hated me enough and I really wanted to see what they would do about it.

"Shut up." The officer next to me said and looked back down at his newspaper.

The driver squinted at me and slowed down a little bit. I smiled knowing he was following my advice. I looked over at the newspaper the other police officer was reading. The thought of someone actually reading a paper hard cover amused me.

"What's so funny?" He asked with no emotion. He said it in a deep tone that stayed the same.

I realized I was laughing out loud. "Eighty percent of the U.S. population gets the news from a form of social media, TV, or radio. The remaining twenty percent actually read the printed out newspaper, the majority of that amount being people seventy and above. I guess you're catching on to elderly habits quite soon." I held in my laugh by licking my lips.

He looked at me like he wanted to beat me up. He put down his newspaper and looked at me dead in the eyes.

"Listen here, smart@$$, I don't know who you are or what you did to get in this position, but I have dealt with my fair share of criminals and I know how they start out. They start out with all jokes and laughs, and then a year or two in their smile starts to rarely show, and then after about five years being in that sh*t hole, they start to only smile and joke every once in a full moon. And what are you going to be in jail for? Ten years, I think it was?" He leaned in a little closer so our eye level was the exact same and our faces were so close that you could barely see a gap in between them. "Well after ten years you'll be so scared that you'll never smile. You'll never remember what that feeling felt like. To smile and have amusement. The only thing you'll remember is the boredom, fear, and pain from ten excruciating years in prison." Now he was the one smiling, my smile was long gone. Our eye contact was still locked until he looked down at my handcuffs. "My favorite part of this job is seeing people like you locked away and not being able to do anything about it." His eyes scanned all through me. He examined every part of my restrainment. The sight of it made him smirk. I gulped and looked at him with fear in my eyes. He was so close to me, I could almost feel and hear him breathing. I tried to back away from him but the seat stopped me from doing that. After taking another glance of the situation, he slumped back down into his seat.

After taking my eyes off of him I looked over in the mirror and saw the driver's reflection. He let out a mischievous smile and then looked back on the road.

I wanted to say something back at him- anything. Come one think. I have to say something. What should I say?? Ughhh I don't know.

After what he said, I already felt like I wasn't able to smile anymore. All I could feel right now is fear. I was scared. I'm scared to go to prison. I thought that taking the blame for a murder would be the right thing to do. I did it so I could save Morgan's @$$. And at the time I felt like I was doing him a solid, because that's what best friends do for each other. But now, I don't know if I even should've done it. Morgan is a big, tough, and strong guy. He could handle it. But me? I'm a 6'1 scrawny genius. I can't go to prison. Sure I've been in there before to question criminals for information but I've never actually been in there for real.

I felt like my heart stopped and skipped a minute of beating as we approached the prison. I looked up at the electrical fence and the old grey and dark building. I've seen prisons before, but this time it looked different.

I took a deep breath at the fresh air as the driver police opened my door. For this would be the last breath of freedom I'll have in a long time.