Degeneracy♡

chapter 3: COERCED

All day I've been doing paperwork for Vera. All bloody day. Don't think I haven't forgotten about Luca's order. Hard to forget when he basically threatened to kill my family. It's now 9 pm and I've been in this prison for 12 hours. Surely they can't keep me here for this long?

"Miss Shelby, you are free to leave in 15 minutes." Vera begins to tell me. "However, you must go and check on all the prisoners on floor 4 with Mr Harbor. Listen, I'm chucking you in the deep end earlier on because we can't have you panicking if there is a crisis here, which there will more than likely be. Checking on a few dangerous prisoners is the least of your worries when there's a risk of prison riots, staff assaults and prisoner confrontations." She chuckles, is that supposed to make me feel better?

Mr Harbor is the stern-faced man from earlier who talking to is like trying to get blood out of stone. He looks like he would rather be anywhere than here.

"Alright, Vera? Sorry, Miss Peterson." A young man chirps as he comes in through the office. It's the same man from this morning. The one who first mentioned Luca and his bad attitude.

"Miss Shelby, this is Mr Broughton." Vera groans. "Mr Broughton will you please go and check on floor 4 with Miss Shelby- I was going to send Mr Harbor but he isn't good company at the best of times, let alone when it is your first night working in a high-security prison."

I smile at Mr Broughton, he seems a lot nicer than that stingy old man from before.

"Yes, Miss Peterson, I do it every night anyway. Forget Harbor, leave it to the professionals."He puts on a camp voice, making me chuckle.

"Don't seem too happy Mr Broughton, you'll be doing a strip search check on our new floor three prisoner when he arrives." Vera puts on the most sarcastic smile, grabs her keys and leaves the office.

"Sounds like fun." I raise my eyebrows. "I'm Izzy, by the way, Miss Shelby seems entirely too formal."

"I'm Tom." He smiles. "Right, let's get this over with, then you can go home." He winks.

We leave the office, back into the weary corridors. I thought this place was sinister and intimidating this morning, it's absolutely terrifying at night.

Tom unlocks the door on floor 4. One thought keeps reoccurring through my mind: how am I going to talk to Luca privately? Will he hurt Tom in order to do this? Will he create a diversion?

Tom takes a torch out of his back pocket.

"Lights out is at 9 o'clock. Only reading lights are allowed on past then." Tom informs me.

He looks into the first few cells; he gets a few grunts and insults thrown at him.

"I know fellas, just doing my job." He reassures.

As we keep making our way down the cells, the horrible feeling in my stomach worsens. We are near the end, where Luca resides.

"Pssst, Izzy. Look at this for a second." Tom whispers.

He points into a cell where a man is crumpled over on his left side. The position he is in doesn't look comfortable indicating that there is something wrong.

"Hey, mate. Give us a nod, let us that you're alright." Tom asks, but there is no answer. "I'm going to have to go in there, keep your wits about you, it could be a bluff."

Tom unlocks the cell slowly and tiptoes in, his baton at the ready. I look to see if any of the other prisoners are awake. I see a look of panic on Tom's face.

"Izzy?! Come in here, I need your help." He whispers/shouts.

I quickly go into the cell to see the man oozing blood from his head and his fingers are bent back.

"Oh my God!" I breathe. "What do I do?!"

"Go and get the stretcher, it's propped against the wall behind the door."

I jog out and grab the surprisingly heavy stretcher. Tom is still bent over the man, applying pressure to the wound.

"Who could have done this?" I ask.

"We'll find out later. I've just called for Harbor to help with the stretcher. Can you check on the other prisoners? I know it's scary but if you have any problems literally just call for us on your walkie-talkie. Okay?" He panics. I take a deep breath before nodding. Shit.

Harbor runs through the door.

"We've called for Vera to come in on emergency to find out who did this, but at such short notice she'll be another half an hour." He pants.

She left ten minutes ago? How can this be? The two boys grab onto the stretcher and run out of the room. They'll be gone a while seeing as the lift is out of order and the medical room is on the basement floor. Best get this done quickly.

"Lost again are we, Isobel Shelby?" A dark voice echoes from the cell at the bottom. Not again.

"Do you know who did this?" I ask sheepishly.

"I had to have some way of getting you on your own." He smirks.

My heart pumps fast. Yes whacking someone over the head is pretty violent and wrong, but bending their fingers back like that is just plain sadistic.

"H-h-ow did you g-get out?" I stutter, tears well in my eyes.

"I've been able to do it for months. I stole a key. I also know how to turn off the security cameras. No one will know it was me. These lot won't say a thing because they know what will happen." He boasts.

"What if I say something," I say without thinking. His eyes go dark. They were a golden brown, now they are as black as night. He slowly unlocks his cell. The veins in his hands and head are popping out with rage. His hand grabs my wrist roughly and he pulls me into his cell and slams me onto his bed by my hair.

"I won't say anything I promise!" I cry, tears spilling down my face.

"How do I know you won't?" He growls. "I need some sort of deal from you."

"I'll do anything! Please don't- hurt me- or my family." I plead.

"I believe you, Isobel. Listen to this because we don't have much time. In one month's time, I am to be released from here. I have very important business with some very important people. Unfortunately, this business cannot wait, it has to be sorted within the next 3-4 weeks. Starting now. This is where you come in. My friend, Sebastian will visit you every morning before you come here. He will give you information that you must give to me. Because you are only here for two weeks, after you have finished placement here, you will visit me every day and deliver me messages in code."

"This is too much." I shudder, I'm in too deep now.

"You know the consequences if you don't do this. Look what happened to poor Adam." He smirks.

"You're so sick." I gasp, "Fine, but only for my safety and my family's. If anything happens to them, the deal is off."

"Yeah, we'll see about that. Go now, before that Tom guy comes back." He takes my hand to help me up and guides me out of his cell. My head is scrambled.