Deck of Cards

Day 50- Ava

Five of hearts- isolation for 4hrs

Ava's POV

It was the day.

The day I would finally confront all my fears, face my demons blatantly in the face and conquer them. The police car coughed it's way up the hill as we climbed the ascent to the prison, I watched the world go slowly by from the window. It was hard to take my mind off the task I was going to do, the thing I would sit through despite the agonising feelings that would swarm around my body. I was going to see him again.

The policeman in the front made polite conversation and I answered with monosyllabic words; I wasn't really listening to him at all, instead I was running through the speech I would say. How I would make him feel the pain for his actions, how I would make him pay. The other girls had all sent me questions they wanted the answer to, there were so many I doubted that I would have enough time to ask them all. As much as I cared about the other's problems, I wanted to solve the mysteries that haunted me.

I could see its walls as we approached, surrounded by barbed wire- it was menacing. The walls of the building were grey and tall, I shuddered at the thought of murders and rapists being behind those walls. He was behind those walls. It was secluded, isolated from any form of life; the nearest town was almost 6 miles away. I suppose it was for if someone escaped, at least they wouldn't harm anyone else because there was no one to harm.

Gravel crackled beneath us as we approached the gates, they were made of iron and reached up to around 5 feet. Gulping I got out of the car and followed behind the nice police officer who was already walking away from the car and into the institution. Showing a card to the man at the gate we were let through, the man's dog growled at me and showed his gnashing teeth. It reminded me of the hounds, I felt a lump in my throat which I immediately got rid of. I needed to be strong.

The place was a buzz of life, the minute we walked through the front door I could hear the shouts from the wardens. Vaguely I could make out that they were scheduling some things but I tuned out when I realised that all was fine; I suppose I linked shouting with danger when in fact they were only shouting to be heard over the background noise. Blocking out everything I focused on my feet, hoping that the churning in my stomach would leave before I saw him. I wanted to be strong.

"Ok, you have an hour," the warden said who had led us to the room; I nodded before turning the handle and entering the room. It was like you see it in movies, he was behind a glass screen which separated me from him. His faced was etched into a smile but I didn't smile back, I could see the evil that it held. I could see the demon harboured inside him.

"Hello Darling," he rolled the 'r' and gave me another sickening smile which made my stomach churn even more. I felt more awkward than afraid, far from the strong and confident persona that I hoped I would portray.

"I want answers," I murmured and he laughed loudly, it was a mad man's laugh.

"Doesn't everyone? Some many things are unknown in this world..." He trailed off his philosophical thinking and looked into the distance as searching for an answer to a question he had.

"Yes but this isn't unknown to everyone, you know the answers. I want them," he looked me straight in the face as he snarled, his lip curling up and contorting his face into one of menace.

"Your own father is sat right here and the first thing you do is question him. After all I have done for you Ava," I could see what he was doing, trying to avoid the subject as well as making me feel bad.

"You are not my father, maybe biologically but you are no father," I spat the harsh words at him and he recoiled as if I had jabbed him with hot iron rods.

"What are you questions?" He mumbled, hurt from my previous statement. I didn't feel guilty, he deserved the pain.

"Why?"

"To discipline girls,"

"No really. Why?" I had heard his explanation so many times, I had ate up his words. I wasn't going to take it as an answer.

"I was disturbed young man, I suppose the more you do something the more numb you become to it. I am a numb," I was glad he told the truth, maybe not the whole back story but enough for me to not press it.

"Jen wants to know whether her mother contacted you first or the other way around," he mulled over the question as if he couldn't remember.

"She came to me first, curious that was. Jen was never on my list, never hit my radar. Yes that was strange but you don't question stuff like that, you just go with it,"

"Ok, Sally wants to know why her?"

"Beautiful creature she is. Simple really, her family is so absorbed in her father that I thought they simply wouldn't care. Stupid really to think that but I did," his brain worked in strange ways, I saw the way his eyes flickered as if he was remembering a happy time.

"Scarlett wants to know whether you knew about her having the button,"

"Of course I did! I'm not an idiot," he scoffed at the very idea which left me puzzled. If he knew, why didn't he stop us before we escaped.

"Why didn't you take it?" I asked bewildered.

"A little bit of action, cocky as it may sound- I believed we could catch you. Easy I thought. I never expected you to manage to get out of our clasp, that wasn't part of my plan," his fists clenched as he spoke. It obviously annoyed him.

"Hannah wants to know why you used a deck of cards,"

"I always loved cards, it was our favourite thing to do Ava- wasn't it?" He gave me a goofy smile and I was forced to remember the time where we used to plan cards till it was too dark to see whether you had a club or spade, "I suppose it came to me one night. There was no brainstorming or anything like that."

"Now for my question- why me?" I could feel the lump in my throat rising, it had confused me all the way through.

"You look exactly like your mother Ava," he held his hand out as if to caress my face through the glass, "You remind me so much of her. I wanted to see her the way she was, I wanted to relive the time I had with her which was sadly in the game."

I felt almost sad for him, not enough to feel sorry for him. He had used me as a way to remember my mother in the most sick way possible. Nodding I stood up deciding that I couldn't take it anymore and I turned away without saying goodbye. The door closed behind me and I took a deep breath, my lungs grateful for the oxygen. I had almost held my breath throughout the whole conversation, only taking small breathes when I needed them. I had been on edge the whole time.

I had closure. Well mostly, I had millions of questions but I knew that I didn't want the answer to some. I knew that the answer to them would throw me over the edge. He was a sick man. A sick, disturbed man.