Heroes

Chapter 5. He left the cell?!

I watched as Morgan went over to Nate. She stood outside the door, looking absolutely terrified he might smite her or something. I don't even know why she suddenly froze, or why she went over there, but it was messing with my head. No one else seemed especially concerned, but they were also nervously casting glances back to Morgan, worried about her. She was there for a good 5 minutes, but finally, she made her way back over and joined us at the table again, with a vacant expression on her face.
"Morgan?" I said, waving a hand in front of her face. She didn't acknowledge me, nor did she move when Steph poked her in the shoulder. She just kept staring at the table. I was worried that something had permanently happened to Morgan. Standing up, I stormed over to Nate and banged my fist on the cell door.
"Mark! Stop!" I heard Jack shout behind me, but it was too late.
"What have you done to her?!" I demanded to Nate through the door. I still couldn't see anything, but I didn't get a response so I said it again.
"Answer me! What did you do to Morgan?!"
"I didn't do anything to her!" Came Nate's voice from inside.
"Then why is she like that? Why won't she answer any of us?!"
"How am I supposed to know?!" I could hear that Nate was becoming angry, but he wasn't as angry as me.
"Tell me what you did to her or I'll get you out of there and have a proper fight with you!"
"Oh yeah? And how are you gonna get me out?!"
He was being too cocky. I think he underestimated me. Narrowing my eyes, I took a step backwards, away from the door. I clenched my fist on my right hand and brought it smashing into the door. The door shuddered and cracks spread up it, but it didn't break. I raised my fist, ready to go again.
"Ok, ok, fine!" I heard from Nate. Lowering my fist, I looked back into the cell, waiting for him to tell me all.
"Mark, I'll be honest with you: all I did was talk to Morgan. I didn't use anything on her, I didn't do anything to her. I promise."
He sounded sincere. I couldn't see him though to check that he wasn't lying.
"Come where I can see you," I said. I didn't see him until he was right in front of the door, looking back out at me.
"I promise." I looked into his eyes, and saw that he was telling the truth.
"Fine. But if she's not herself by tonight, I'll be back to rip you out of there."
And I turned and went back to Morgan.

Night. Morgan had progressively become herself again, until she was now just the same as she was yesterday. She didn't really remember what had happened to her, except that she'd been to see Nate. We didn't tell her; best she didn't know, so she didn't worry about it. We were all now in our cells, sleeping. Well, I was trying to sleep, but I wasn't really succeeding. I had just managed to doze off, when I heard a creaking sound, like a door opening or closing. I sat up in bed and strained my ears, listening as hard as I could. It sounded like there were footsteps going around the main room, whether they were guards or inmates it was unclear. Moving as quietly as possible, I crept over to the door and peeked out through the crack between the half open door and the wall. Walking around was someone I'd never seen before. I just made out the back of them: black hair, tanned skin, grey outfit, before they disappeared into Nate's cell and closed the door. Only one thought was going through my head: was that Nate?

The next morning, I woke up and immediately left my cell and went over to Nate's. I inspected the padlock carefully and noticed something. The padlock didn't actually lock. It just looked like it was locked. The more I looked at it, the more I realised how true that was. The time when the guys had told me that he never leaves his cell, when I first noticed the padlock, when Jack told me about the guards locking the cells. It all made sense. He was doing this on purpose: making it seem like the door was locked so no-one would bother him, everyone would leave him alone. It worked for him for 3 years, because no one heard him at night. If they had, why would he still be doing this? I realised that all these thoughts were getting jumbled up in my brain, so I let go of the padlock and returned to my own cell, collapsing onto the bed and thinking things over. I couldn't just tell him that I'd seen him. That would be stupid. I couldn't tell anyone else because he'd probably kill me. I had to try and work it into a conversation with him somehow, so first I needed something to talk over. That would be more difficult to come up with. I actually didn't know how he was getting that padlock to appear locked from inside, but I decided to figure that out at a later date. The most important thing for me right now was letting him know that I'd seen him, but that I wouldn't tell the others, and seeing what his reaction would be. Later in the day, I'd confront him. Hopefully by then, I'd have thought of a conversation topic.