Frost & Flames | Soulmate AU 2 |

Three

buckle up, this is where it goes even more downhill. 1 potentially triggering section, non-explicit.

I don't get much sleep. I turn from side to side a bunch of times before finally settling on my back, staring at the bunk above me where Collin is snoring along none the wiser. I haze in and out of semi-consciousness, not quite awake but definitely not really asleep, for the rest of the night.

The food tray slot bangs up sometime in the morning. Collin hops off of the top bunch to retrieve one of the offered trays, and I get to exhaustion-wobbly feed to get my own. Breakfast is a meal of mildly soggy French toast sticks, maple syrup, questionable scrambled eggs, and apple juice. The taste is a pleasant surprise.

Collin spends some time writing in a journal of his after a guard comes around to retrieve our empty trays. I go back to the book I was reading yesterday. It's quitter than I thought prison would be, but I suppose there isn't much to talk about when you spend a majority of your time in a cell with only one other person.

There's a loud honking beep a little later on into the morning that startles me, thoughts of a prison fight or a rescue team sent for me racing through my head. The cell door rolls open a moment later, though, and Collin doesn't seem phased even in the slightest, which calms my brain down. It must be rec time.

I follow him out to the courtyard within the stream of fellow prisoners all sticking on the right side of the painted red "do not cross" line on the floor. The courtyard definitely isn't what I expected. It's a decent sized square adorned with a basketball court, an honest to god metal jungle gym dome, and some benches. The sun is nearly directly overhead due to the time of the day, and its warm on my skin. It's not the dull and bleak idea of a decrepit prison yard I had in my head, and I am beginning to think that that is by design. Having hundreds of prisoners who have literally been labeled as "too dangerous for a general civilian prison" definitely has the potential to get dicey quickly. Keeping a bunch of violent criminals satisfied with the basic of life like food, leisure activities, and some time outside in a place that isn't incredibly depressing must help with keeping everything under control.

Collin makes an immediate beeline for the metal jungle gym dome, and I am hit with an incredibly unsettling feeling at the connection between the dome and the fact that this is the man who apparently blew up an elementary school.

I take a seat on one of the metal park benches that is still entirely empty. I've only been sitting there for a few minutes when someone comes by and sits down beside me.

"Yo," the man says from my right. He swipes his blond hair out of his face before speaking. "You're that Ford kid, yeah?"

I stare back, unable to keep the bewildered look off of my face.

"Yeah, why?" I reply. "How'd you know that?"

He chuckles a bit.

"There's a giant system of communication in this place, kid, everybody who wants to know already knows," he explains, an amused tilt to his lips.

"Oh yeah? What's so special about me, then?" I say, knowing full well why some of these people might be interested in me.

"You're Blackwell's son," he replies, leaning forward a bit. "You're the one who sent her here. That's gonna be interesting, kid."

"What do you mean by that?" I say, shifting uncomfortably. I start scanning the people strewn about the courtyard, a wave of paranoia so strong I nearly choke crashing over me.

The guy shrugs, standing and walking away without any kind of explanation. I sit on the bench for the remainder of the hour, aware of the not so subtle stares I get the entire time. The guards start herding everyone out of the courtyard and back into the building for lunch. I follow along in the stream, forcing myself to look straight ahead instead of turning back to make sure no one is coming after me.