Rival (Breddy)

10

Brett sat silently in his room. The iron bars were getting familiar by now. He knew every dent, every scratch on them. He slowly climbed out of bed and walked up to the bars.

How long had it been? Weeks? Months? Years? He had no perception of time anymore, that's for sure.

A guard walked down to his cell and opened the gate.
"20 minutes yard break." He said, just like every guard did everyday at this time.

He walked out on the yard, finding some other inmates, but he never spoke to anyone, he was way too scared of trouble.

Speaking of trouble, the alarm sounded once again. It did that every few weeks. The alarm meant all the inmates had to return to their cells despite current activity.

The reason why all the recent alarms were unknown. Brett supposed certain inmates struggled to behave and started fights or escape attempts every now and then.

Brett calmly returned to his room, a bit bummed that his yard time was reduced from 20 minutes to 7.

He let the rest of the minutes of the day pass. Attending the canteen twice as scheduled but poking around in the food rather than eating it.

Then he went back to bed, not knowing time, date, month or year. The only thing he did know was that tomorrow, he'd wake of staring at the same dents and scratches at the bars.

—

Brett woke up with a jolt and froze.

A certain sound had caused the paralysis. The faint sound of a violin carefully played by slender fingers he knew all too well. He immediately flew up in the bed and stood on it as he pressed his ear against the brick wall.

Eddy.

Tears filled Brett's eyes as he sank down by the wall. The sound was so faint it might as well have been miles away, but that was the fault of the thick brick wall, cause for Brett the fact was indisputable.

Eddy was there.

Eddy. His Eddy.

Then the memories filled Brett. The memories of their last encounter. How Brett had turned into some kind of monster. He despised and cursed himself everyday for that.

Eddy deserved better. He deserved so much better.

And that was the reason of Brett's tears. Because despite all that, Eddy was still there. Just behind this wall, playing just for him.

Brett sat limply and let the music fill him. He sat as long as Eddy would let him. As long as he would play.

Guards came and informed him of yard time, lunchtime, but Brett stayed still. The moment felt so fragile, as if it would break it he moved too suddenly.

Brett dreaded the moment the violin would stop. The moment Eddy would leave. But the moment never came. Instead, Brett was lulled to sleep by the beautiful music when evening came around.

This continued for days. Brett would wake up to the beautiful music and fall asleep to it, refusing to waste a second of it. The guards had to bring him food to avoid a dying inmate that would put them in struggles with the government.

For 12 days straight, until one day, the music disappeared.

Brett woke up to his greatest dread coming to life. The loss of Eddy's music. Or what if it was even worse?

He found the task of going out of bed impossible. There was simply no reason to. Even the tears didn't make an effort anymore.

"Brett Yang?"
Brett didn't respond. He laid still, frozen in time, a body ready for mummification.
"Mr. Yang you have a visitor."
Still no response.

"An... Eddy Chen," the guard read.
Brett's look darted to the man. But he reminded himself to keep his hopes low. But it didn't hurt to check.

Brett crawled out of bed and followed the guard. Endless corridors. Dark halls. Depressing brick. He was led to the last corridor of the prison. The guard still held his chained hands painfully firm.

The door in front of him opened. And there he was.

Eddy Chen.