Venomously Yours,

5.Yours Troublesome Inmate

Two days had gone past. She didn't see Phoenix since their last encounter.

Valora had a distinct feeling he was avoiding her and she knew why. She made him uncomfortable. It could only be logical.

Could it?

Yet all this didn't matter, when she met with Naomi after she had come out of the warden's office.

Walking into a secluded area under the bleachers, Valora saw Naomi and her little friend, Cathy. They both were sitting on the sparse spread of grassroots, plucking at it. At her approach, Naomi squinted her eyes.

"You took your time."

"I was busy." Like hell, she would disclose the fact that the warden wanted to see her privately.

"Hm..sit."

As per usual, that kind of sass never worked on Valora. On the contrary, she simply stood by the stands of the bleachers. "Whatever you got to say, say it."

Naomi exchanged looks with Cathy. "What's your time penalty here?"

"I've been given 10."

"Isn't that pretty short for assassin with a long history such as yourself?"

"They got proof of the only one."

"Ever thought to escape?" The question was simple. That was the problem.

It was something that lingers behind the mind in every locked up convict. The surge to act on it. Plan it. Even say it out loud was precarious enough.

"Who hasn't?"

"We are thinking about it. Escaping."

After a moment of contemplated silence, Valora squatted down on her knees. "You are being serious."

They stared back her. Eyes as the black night, they bore into her own with dead seriousness.

"Why did you pick me?"

"You took on the guard the first day when we got here. You handled that beating well after that. Not to mention, every inmate is scared to talk to you and there are pretty bad ones here."

"That still doesn't give me a reason."

"You eat alone. You live in solitary. You tensed protectively when I asked you about that clan of yours. You are telling me you don't want to escape?"

"What's the plan?"

"Uh-uh. It doesn't work that way. We need your loyalty." This time, Cathy spoke.

She continued. "We need to know you aren't going to bail on us."

"How do you know I'm not gonna do that right after this conversation?"

Naomi chimed in. "We'd know. Like I said in the morning, your body will be found in those burial grounds you passed by earlier."

"Think that's going to scare me?"

They remain silent. All three of them gaped at each other. Before they could speak, a sharp whistle was resonated across the field.

The sun was setting. The orange core glimmered at the far east side. They all got up, dusting themselves off and walked away.

When she returned back to her cell, after the evening roll call. Valora began to muse.

Even if they managed to escape the prison, how were they going to get off the island? That was the heavy dilemma.

Inmates escaped but escaping the island is the real challenge. The actual victory to conquer freedom.

Recalling all the Hollywood movies made on prison escape, it wasn't as easy as it looked on screen. Shawshank Redemption had a guy tunneling his way through the sewers. Escape from Alcatraz had three dudes swim across the damn Pacific to reach San Francisco.