Killing Chris

Season finale

I sat on my stool facing the thick glass as I waited for my visitor. I shrugged the unexpected visit off to a simple visit from my parents. But when the visitor sat down on the other side of the glass phone in hand I knew the course of my life would be changed that day. It started like any other day in here...I woke up and sat in my cell for hours on top of hours doing absolutely nothing. I soon cherished the days when I got to do laundry, or even step outside the facility.

A knock on my door immediately stood me up ready for whatever was on the other side. The door swung open and a guard stood looking at me.

"You have a visitor," He said 

I stood there for a moment looking back at him "I do?" 

"Let's go" He called out to me in an impatient tone.

I wasted no time walking to the visitor section, I was craving social interaction. I can't remember the last time I had a normal conversation with a real human being. The atmosphere of prison changes the psyche of the mind permanently. As I sat eager to meet my parents after a while without them I bounced my foot up and down and eavesdropped on the conversation next to me. 

Mainly, I was wondering why I was waiting for a visitor who arrived at the prison before I even knew of the visit. The metal door swung open squeaking but the person didn't sit down across from me. Then again, and finally, a person took a seat across from me. When the visitor was seated my head was faced down looking at the hangnail I was trying to remove.

"Hey Brother" I heard distantly through the phone.

My head immediately snapped to him in awe. I felt as if I was deep in the ocean and I ran out of the air, swimming my fastest to the surface while each second getting closer to death. I didn't even know how to react. Obviously, no one believed he was actually a killer so I couldn't ask for help. I couldn't just leave because the curiosity of his presence would eat me alive. Despite my gut feeling, I grabbed the phone holding it up to my ear gritting my teeth in anger.

"Why the FUCK are you here...Haven't you ruined my life enough?" I whispered sternly 

"No...I don't think I have...Because you still have your life" He said to me in an emotionless tone.

"That's actually why I'm here..." He added

The killer readjusted his body closer to the glass and leaned in staring me in the face, I did the same. 

"It was never my plan to get you sent to prison...With your permission, of course, I will get you out. So we can finish this." He said quietly

I chuckled "this is a joke... Even if you wanted to you couldn't get me out"

"Thanks to your actions...I was raised by a lawyer, he's already agreed to help me...Killing two birds with one stone. My dad wins a pro-bono case that gets a wrongly accused teenager out of prison and I get to...well... yanno" He responded sharply

"No... I think ill stay." I said nodding my head

"Awe, you thought I was giving you a choice" He responded standing up.

"The next time I see you...I'll be in a different outfit" He added winking.

He hung the phone up and walked out of the visitors center. Phone in hand I sat there stunned. Contrary to how the conversation went I was terrified. Terrified to be in here but no less terrified to be out on the streets, prey once more. That's when you know you've really lost everything, huh? When the taste of freedom is only as bittersweet as the cage you're released from.

I slammed the phone against the glass once, then again as the phone broke in my hand cutting me. I screamed in anger unable to express my overwhelming emotions more healthily. I continued to slam the phone into the glass until the guards managed to pry my hand from the phone and pull me away. I spent the next three days in solitary. 

Solitary confinement is so much worse than the movies and t.v. shows depict, it's so much worse than you can even imagine. There's just nothing...Your ears get so used to silence that simple sounds cause you discomfort. Your eyes get so used to staring at the same things that when you move them the dryness of your eyelids burns your eyes. The only thing you're left with is your mind, and as I've discussed already mine was unstable.

The escape from hell occurred on my third day in solitary when the door slowly budged open and the warden of the prison stepped in. The warden was a woman with blond hair and dark watery eyes. Her hair was pulled back into a bun and she had an all-blue suit on with heels. She knelt next to me and put her hand on my back. I looked at her with my swollen eyes and I tried to cry but I couldn't. I guess crying my emotions out was a luxury I could no longer afford, I had run out of tears.

"Chris, honey, I have some news," she said.

"What" I squeaked out with the little dwindling energy I had left.

"There has been an alteration in your case...The footage in the meat plant was just classified as doctored under new evidence brought to light by a lawyer who picked up your case pro-bono. Though the court is unsure how doctored the footage is... It's enough to enlist reasonable doubt. You're going to be released today." She said to me smiling 

I didn't say anything I just stared at her waiting for the inevitable shoe to come crashing done right on my head. 

"Can I help you to your cell?" She asked politely, almost as if she owed me something.

I tried to stand up but my legs had been still for so long I couldn't even feel them. She reached her hand out to me and I grabbed it. She pulled me to my feet and helped my unstable body back to my cell to gather my things. The only thing I brought in that I wanted to take out was a photo. A photo of all the people who housed pieces of me throughout my life. Remember how I talked about how when you got close enough to someone you give a little piece of yourself to them.

This is what reminded me that no matter how many pieces break inside me there will always be pieces of me in other people that go unchanged by all this. Pieces that will be infinitely remembered by the people I've lost...Wherever they are now. The picture displayed Derek and I dancing at homecoming, with Margo and Lake dancing in the background together. Lake was saluting the camera and we were all just laughing. 

In the dark tundra that was my heart, the picture melted away at the ice for only a second when I first looked at it. Memories that I made with my friends are the only thing that's keeping me sa...alive. Just goes to show how powerful good memories really are, they stand the test of time as the forgetfulness chips away at the adjacent memories but leaves the really good ones intact.

There was a lot of time at the prison that is unwritten about...This isn't a ploy to leave information out to force you into thinking one way. It's my way of coping with the horrors of the prison, may they be the memories that get chipped away one day.

As the events on the roof of the bank draw dangerously close Id like to formally end part two of this story as we transition into part three. Which I will label "Finale". Kind of like a season finale. Unfortunately, I don't make it to the end of the Finale so hopefully, the story will get finished by a trusted source without you even realizing the switch in narration has already occurred. Maybe the switch has already happened and you were just trusting the fact that it was still me?

Chris? Logged Off