Worse Than Prison

Chapter Five

He Reminds Me of Someone

After showering came the clean laundry, the heavy scent of laundry detergent hovering from the pile of warm clothing. Jared picked out two pairs of pants and a couple shirts. Most of the clothing was large and would definitely hang on Silence, but it was better than standing there naked amongst a crowd of convicts.

He tossed Silence his clothes and put his own on, rolling a cotton white shirt over his head and a pair of gray sweatpants, jerking on the drawstring. He touseled his hair about with the towel, pausing to see that Silence had only put on the shirt and wasn't touching his pants. He glanced around to see some inmates ignoring the teenager. A couple were staring with predatory and hungry eyes.

It would seem the cold shoulder idea would have to wait until after the kid was dressed entirely.

"Put your pants on, Silence." Jared commanded. Silence jerked his head up from rubbing his face against the towel, glaring past his black hair. Yes, it really was a raven feather black and all clean, it seemed to shine in the lights above and so did those deep ocean blue eyes that were now narrowed at him.

Oh, so now he wants to talk! Well, two can play at that game. Silence decided and gave a dramatic huff, whipping around to give Jared his back. Jared twitched, but said nothing. Oh, he knew what Silence was doing. The kid was angry at him for not speaking to him or helping him bathe and decided to play cold shoulder as well.

"Put your pants on, Silence, or I will." Jared threatened. Silence glanced over his shoulder and did something that both surprised and pissed Jared off. A pink tongue poked past Silence's lips in mockery before the teenager turned back around. By now, a couple inmates were snickering.

"Having trouble babysitting?" An inmate called Tyler asked, flailing his towel around his head, so his blonde hair stuck up like wet chicken feathers. Jared muttered something obscene under his breath. Tyler chuckled, then shrugged as he tossed his towel into the laundry hamper.

"Well, if he wants to walk around and have these guys jump him, let him walk around without pants." He replied. Jared grimaced as he dropped his towel in the hamper as well.

"I rather not have him learn the hard way." He murmured under his breath. Tyler glanced at him curiously, but an obnoxious hoarse laughter made both him and Jared look away from the teen, who was sniffing his pants as if they were flowers. The laughter came from an inmate called Megik, a dark-haired man built almost like Jared and his eyes were mistmatched; brown in the left, green in the right. A deep scar ran from his upper shoulder to his abdomen.

"You starting to fall in love?" He joked, earning laughter from the other men. Jared rolled his eyes, then glanced over at Silence, who had taken a seat on the tiled floor of the locker room with his pants, merely sniffing and studying rather than putting them on.

"No, he's just a kid... It's just... He reminds me of someone." He said quietly. Tyler looked at him sympathetically, green eyes sad.

"Ah, you had one too, hm?" He asked. Jared frowned.

"Yea."

"I had three of them myself," Tyler said proudly, making Megik snort indigenously, "Oldest was Kaleb, then Joshua, and the littlest was Marcus... Damn good boys." He paused, seeming lost in a memory before he shook his head. Megik frowned.

"Never had no kids, no wife. Just a waste of time, specially in a world such as." He muttered. Jared glanced at him, cocking a brow rather casually.

"Aren't you optimistic?" He drawled sarcastically. Tyler grinned. Megik chuckled and shrugged as he pulled on a navy low-cut collar shirt, the sleeves only reaching his elbows.

"I take care of myself. How'd ya think I'm still livin'?" He asked. Tyler and Jared shared looks for a moment before Jared's eyes wandered back to find that Silence was gone. A parental hysteria built up in his chest as his head whipped around, searching the locker rooms for any sign of the raven-haired teenager.

"Oh god, where'd he go?" Jared demanded. Tyler jumped and his eyes flickered around, but he was more frightened of a virus-ridden monster than the kid being lost in a prison. He didn't want to say that out loud, though. Megik just scanned the room, frowning.

"He was right there a second ago..." He mused, then bent down to look under the benches before looking back up to see Jared's blood-drained face of worry.

"Shit, shit, shit," Jared cursed, snatching up a pair of socks and jerking them on, "I gotta find him! If anything happens to him- Fuck! Look, keep an eye on him and the guards. I'm gonna sneak out to the hall to find him." Tyler nodded stiffly. Megik just grunted, but he was already eyeing the guards, who were sharing a hot mug of coffee.

I smell it... It's somewhere here. It smells so good... So hungry, so thirsty. I smell blood. Blood, warm and red. So good... Where is it? Silence wondered as he made his way down the hallway in only his over-sized, clean shirt. His blue eyes scanned the dimly lit halls, his nose twitching at the heavy scent of blood. It was coming from somewhere nearby. Somewhere...

Silence heard the sound of a door banging shut down the hallway. He smacked himself up against the wall in a doorway, going cold as he listened to the sound of footsteps and a voice barking angrily only a few feet away.

"Fuck you! I want that little snotrag dead! Ya hear?! Dead!" Silence immediately recognized the nasty, heavy tone belonging to Skull, the bulky man from the showers. Silence slank further into the darkness of the room, but staying close enough to the doorway. He lowered himself to the ground onto his hands, his feet sliding back on his toes. He listened and sniffed.

The blood was coming from him, from the inmate, from Skull. Silence let his tongue flick over his lips hungrily.

Blood. So he's the one bleeding, still. From when I bit him... This is perfect. I'll kill him! Rip his throat out, devour that muscle and make him pay for mocking me. And for mocking Jared too. That last thought made Silence freeze, sinking onto his knees.

For Jared too...? Jared. He didn't attack me. He didn't touch me. He didn't hurt me. He was acting... Nice, compared to the others anyway. He got mad at me, but only because I was being stubborn. I didn't wanna talk. I didn't wanna stop attacking Skull. Skull is an ass! And I'm going to kill him! For Jared! I have to thank Jared after all...

He gave me freedom.