My demons (book 1)

Prison

Suddenly, she felt a sharp stab of a needle on her neck, making her feel weak and dizzy.

She started laughing as she heard Jay approaching. He nodded towards Caleb while avoiding to look at her. They wrapped some rope around her body -not like she would be able to move after whatever they had injected her with- but better safe than sorry, she supposed. She continued laughing as they put her in the back of Caleb's truck and drive away. She laughed until there was nothing left but the gaping nothingness.

The prison cell was barely six feet by four. The walls were the same thick grey stone as the dwellings of the region, but instead of a wide window with a flower box there was a mean barred opening with thick metal bars and no glass. It was no brighter inside than the gathering gloom of dusk, even at midday. The bed was a plank of wood on legs, there was no mattress, no cushioning and only one thin blanket and even that had been littered with holes as this prison had been abandoned for over a decade now. Surrounded by four white walls, there was nothing else to do but stare at them. To look at the paint that had started to chip off as time passed, or gouged by other prisoners - anything to pass time, slowly going mad, theorizing absurd meanings from the wall's blank stare.

They will have to let her out sooner or later, right? She sighed, slumping down to the cold hard ground. She knew the building all too well. It was located next to an abandoned factory down by the docks. It wasn't a proper prison, it mostly just served as a transitioning one for the very few criminals of the town. After trial, they were all relocated to state prisons that were bigger and better equipped. After it had been closed off, it became nearly a playground for her. As a kid, she had had a fascination with abandoned buildings, she loved trudging through the empty halls and exploring the places humans had left behind to move on to bigger, better places. She eerily related to them.

As days went by, she started working on her escape plan. She knew the cells mostly bore weak spots, and she found one in her own cell. There was a gaping hole underneath her bed, just begging to be enlarged. She had to be careful, though. 

Alina, Jay and Caleb would each stop by to check on her every day and she knew there was no way she'd escape if any of them caught her mid-work. Jay would come right after school, leaving her wondering when he turned into a picture perfect student and even attending lectures. An hour after he left with nothing, as she didn't even dignify him with a look in his direction, Alina had showed up. She would spend some time filling her in on both, school work and school gossip. While Aisha knew that it was all a tactic to bring her back, the stories were entertaining enough and she was somewhat grateful for them nonetheless. Caleb would usually show up after work but he wore his guilt on his sleeve and she felt near pity for him. His visits were mostly spent in silence, the only sound being his foot against the stone, a painfully loud indicator of his fried nerves and guilty conscience.

She had spent another week or so enlarging the hole before she finally felt like it would be big enough for her to slip through it. Waiting for the last of her guests to leave, she carefully moved over the bed that was hiding her escape route the second his footsteps faded into the background. After that, she slipped through the hole, leaving her cell behind.

She was not prepared for the long fall that awaited her. A sharp pain ran through her body and she stayed on all fours, groaning in pain and annoyance for another few moments before she started inspecting the damage. There was a stinging pain in her leg and she could feel blood running down her face from where she had hit the ground. She also noticed some bleeding from scratches on her arms and felt a familiar ache in her ribs that will turn into bluish bruises in a couple of hours. None of it fazed her, she had escaped. A surge of adrenaline ran through her body as she looked around, recognising the tunnel.

She used to hide here from her dad whenever he got drunk and became aggressive. They ran underneath the entire city and the only question was which way led to the rich part of the city and which way led home. Luckily, she knew where to go.

Soon enough she could see the last rays of sun making their way through the hole in the ceiling of the tunnel. She dragged herself up and the glow of a setting sun that hit her face felt better than ever before. She was free. She felt the cold breeze on her face and laughed happily as she basked in her newfound freedom. Without even bothering to properly examine her wounds, she practically ran away from the prison to the nearest forest.