Rebel Red Carnation {Kiribaku}

II

I can't help but find it ironic that they caught me stealing from their huge-ass basement but it's right back to the basement I go while they take their sweet ass time trying to decide my punishment. The whole time I'm being dragged back down there, into where the walls are no longer tiled or fancy but made of shiny, cold-ass concrete instead, I'm trying to decide if it's a good or a bad sign that they didn't execute me on the spot, or torture me before sending me away with wounds too great for a homeless piece of shit like me to be able to treat and end up dying in the end anyway.

The guards don't talk to me, only to each other. I miss half of what they say thanks to the hearing loss and the fact that they haven't done my eardrums any favors, but I can't find it within me to care. Because now, of all times, I'm slightly starting to panic. I promised to be back by Friday, and with it being Thursday morning and knowing the train ride—provided I can find a way to stow away on one easily enough—will take a good 6-8 hours, there's no way I'll make it now unless I somehow find a way to escape. And because the basement and the cell I'm shoved into after being uncuffed and searched is pure concrete, the door they slam (and leave me flinching from the noise) is the same way with only a small hole with bars running through it, an escape is impossible. Fuckfuckfuck.

"So you guys are clearly prepared for this kind of thing, huh?" I say as Shouta—or whatever the fuck Scraggly-Hair's name is—is locking me in and I'm taking in the tiny mat and blanket on the floor as well as the vaguely toilet-shaped bucket in the corner. "Since you have a legit jail cell?"

I'm ignored, of course, and like your typical prisoner I peek out of the tiny window in the door just as he's walking away. "We'll see you in the morning, Sero," he says from just down the hall. "Be sure to wake us up if anything happens."

"Roger that," says a voice I can't see the source of. There's another clang that echoes throughout the concrete hallway, and then everything falls silent. Still, I know I'm not alone—whoever this 'Sero' guy is can't be too far from this shitty cell door, because even with a fifteen centimeter metal door and what are probably even thicker concrete walls, no windows to speak of around me, they still need some shitty guard to make sure I don't "pull any more shenanigans." Whatever. They can all go suck a dick.

With a huff I turn around and cross my arms. Because there isn't a damned thing I can do at this point, I start pacing the length of the cell. It takes six whole steps to get across the width and four to get across the length. There's a hole in the far wall that disappears below the floor, letting a draft into the room. When I peek down into it, it's dark, but stretching an arm into it tells me it isn't very deep and it won't provide any sort of escape route. The only light I'm provided leaks in through the small barred opening of the door from the hallway. There's no way to tell what time it is. No telling how damn long I'll be in here. And the silence of this basement is making the already constant ringing in my ears more painful.

I don't expect to hear another word or noise until after the sun rises, but of course I'm never quite that lucky. The second I hear footsteps approaching from the direction of the elevator and where the guard is probably sitting on his ass, I peek back out the window. There's nothing to see, but I listen as hard as I can past the ringing.

"Dude! What are you doing down here?" someone hisses—probably the guard.

"Seein' what's going on, man," says another I think I recognize, but can't be sure.

"Nothing at all. The queen ordered for the thief to be locked up for the rest of the night so she can pass judgment in the morning. I thought she told you to go back to bed."

"She did, but you know me, Hanta. 'M too curious. So I snuck down."

There's a disgruntled sigh, and then, "Do you know how much trouble I'll be in if you're found down here by anybody else?"