incarcerated

22.

running away was the first thing that crossed brett's mind, but he was frozen. mouth half open in shock, he just stared at the man in front of him. his lips were moving, but brett couldn't understand a word he was saying. the beating of his heart was too loud.

"hello?" the other inmate's voice finally came through. knuckles white as he clutched his book in his shaking hands, brett cleared his throat.

"s-sorry, what?" he stammered, cheeks reddening with both embarrassment and fear.
the man in front of him stepped closer and brett moved back on his bed, pushing himself against the wall.

"i'm not going to hurt you," he said. the other inmates in the block were trying to hide that they were watching this exchange, but it wasn't very effective. brett shook his head.

"get away from me," he said through clenched teeth, eyes burning with tears as painful memories flooded his head.

"i just wanted to say—"

"get away from me," brett repeated, chest heaving. he avoided staring at the man's face and stared at his torso instead, reading his name tag. his last name was young.

"leave him alone, dude," someone chimed in from a few bunks over, but young didn't listen. he stepped closer.

"go away!" brett said loudly, pulling his knees to his chest. young sighed frustratedly and took another step forward, extending his arm toward brett's shoulder.

"i'm not—"

"don't fucking touch me!" brett screamed, smacking his hand away and burying his face in his knees. his shouts had caught the co's attention and they were on their way over as young's hand landed on his shoulder again.

"stop it! stop it! go away!" all eyes were on him as his shouts filled the room. the officers ordered young out of the block and scolded the other prisoners for watching.

young may have left the room, but the damage was done. brett rocked back and forth on his bed and tried to figure out why the hell that devilish man had been let out of solitary confinement. flashbacks from the nights in the closet played over and over in his pounding head, his hands tugging at his hair.

the officers tried to talk to him. they repeated his name and asked if he was okay over and over, but their words never reached his brain. it was too busy being overloaded with painful images and memories of sensations he'd never forget. hyperventilation took over his breathing and his red skin began to turn to a sickly shade of pale yellow.

it wasn't long before he fainted, his small body going limp on his bed.

—

oblivious to what was going on in brett's block, eddy was in his office halfway across the prison. he was trying to look at information for some new inmates coming in the following day, but he just couldn't focus. brett's transfer was stuck on his mind and he was angry at the lack of information he had about it. he was unaware that he was about to be angry at something else.

the knock on his office door was hesitant, but quite loud. he flinched and sighed annoyedly.

"what is it?" he asked without looking away from his computer. the door opened and he could see an officer standing there out of the corner of his eye.

"sir, i'm not sure if you still want updates about brett yang, but—"

"what's happened?" eddy interrupted, turning in his chair to face the other man.

"one of the guys who helped with the, uh.. closet incident.. tried to talk to him in his bunk. yang was so afraid that he fainted. he's alright physically, but we sent him to medical just to make sure. i think he's still pretty upset, though."