“There’s nothing here sir”, one of the guards echoed from the edge of the room, “we’ve searched the entire room”.
The officer in charge looked right back at Officer Hector in doubt, “Hector I need to see you in my office immediately”, the officer in charge said in a stern voice.
“Yes sergeant Ramsey”, Hector replied as he turned to walk away.
“Take these men back to their cells and lock them up till we understand exactly what’s going on here”, Ramsey ordered the other guards.
Two hefty guards picked us both up and ruggedly jumbled us back to our cells, locking the gates as they threw us in. The room was beginning to thin out as the guards left the room locking the doors behind them.
“We work well together”, little man said, as he began to smile again. “I didn’t quite catch your name”, he said as he leaned against the glass wall of his cell.
“You first”, I replied while trying to maintain a neutral demeanour.
“I’m Vince but you can call me V”, he replied with a suggestive look on his face.
“I think I’ll stick with Vince”, I replied sharply.
“Suit yourself my friend”, Vince said, turning away.
“I’m sorry about Bo”, I added quickly trying to keep the conversation going, I had to get him to tell me what was going on.
“Ha-ha, Bo was a good man but he was an illiterate, no harm done”, Vince replied while turning back to face me. His endless smile creeped me out.
“I watched you die Vince, how exactly are you still alive?” I pushed on trying to seem as calm and blank as possible.
“Dead men don’t walk my friend maybe you were dreaming”, he replied immediately.
“But I saw the woman and she ripped your heart out of your chest, literally!” I added literally as it seemed that he was joking with the entire matter.
“Like I said my friend, you were most likely dreaming”, he replied calmly while maintaining his smile.
“What about the guard, what did you do to him?” I asked while unsuccessfully trying to mask my desperation.
“What guard…”
The door opened again cutting Vince short of his sentence, Hector walked in cautiously. He left the door ajar behind him wedging it with his hat on the floor. He made his way to the front of our cells and stood there looking at us. His gaze shifted between Vince and me on intervals of about three seconds. He was afraid and he knew it, he also knew that we knew it and didn’t bother trying to hide it. Vince and I both stared back at him from our cells in silence which lasted about a minute before he turned to look at the spot where the guard had been. He walked up to the spot and got on his knees, rubbing the floor with his hands, his brain was struggling to process the fact that we were able to make an entire man disappear in a matter of minutes. He looked back at us from the ground and stood up, making his way to the front of our cells again.
Vince began to smile again as he got closer to the front of his cell.
“Hey!” Vince yelled from his cell, Hector jumped in fear and pressed hard against the wall behind him, looking directly at Vince.
“Get yourself together man”, Vince said.
“You probably just had too much to drink and you were seeing things”, Vince continued.
“How about getting us something to eat huh? I’m starving”.
”Right away”, Hector mumbled as he walked swiftly out of the room picking up his hat and locking the door.
“Why pick a job as a guard if you don’t have the stomach for it?” Vince asked, turning to me. I remained silent, trying to understand how little man, the scared baby looking person I watched die had become Vince, the alive and breathing, confident fellow that stood before me. Something definitely wasn’t right somewhere.
“You’re not much of a talker, are you?” he asked rhetorically.
Hector came running back a few moments later, accompanied by two very beautiful looking women carrying plates of what I guessed was something edible. One of the women couldn’t take her eyes off me, I couldn’t help but stare at her too. Hector directed them to place the plates of food in the small openings on our cell gates. After instructing them, Hector made his way swiftly out of the room before anyone could say anything,
“I’ll be right outside ladies”, he said as he closed the door behind him.
I turned to Vince to see what he thought about the whole thing and realized he’d been looking at me the entire time.
“You done lusting over the kitchen girl?” he said in a not so friendly tone. I took it as a joke and replied.
“Can’t blame me, she is beautiful after all”. Vince’s expression changed, he looked even more angry now as he began to place his hands behind his head. I was about to ask what was wrong when the lights shut off again.
“What’s going on?” the words flew out of my lips without thought, propelled by a certain sense of fear. The two ladies started to scream and it sounded like they were headed towards the door. I couldn’t be sure because I couldn’t see anything. I squinted as hard as I could to try and see something but I couldn’t. The ladies had gotten to the door, I was sure of that because I could hear them trying to open it. I could also hear Hector from the other side of the door.
“What’s happening in there? I’ll get help!” the door seemed locked. Hector had locked it from outside and the girls couldn’t get out. They had stopped screaming now and were just jiggling the door handle to try and open it.
“Why did you drag me into this Trish? I told you it was a bad idea”, one of the girls said with a jittery voice.
“How could I have known this would happen?” the other girl replied.
There was no noise all of a sudden, I turned towards Vince’s cell and shouted his name but there was no reply, I shouted again and still no sound came from the room, and then I heard the same sound I had heard before, it sounded like a pack of wolves feasting. I could only imagine what I would see when the lights came back on.
The room fell silent again and sure enough, shortly afterwards the lights came on. I looked to the door and both girls were there, one of them was on the floor, she looked like she was still breathing but she had passed out for sure. The other girl just stood there staring at me from the door, almost the same way Vince had been staring at me the last time this happened. My thoughts were immediately directed at Vince, I turned away from the girl and the door to face Vince but he was no longer in his cell, I kept staring at the cell like he was supposed to pop out of thin air and say “surprise!!!”. Where could he have gone, how could he have gotten out? The cell gate was still locked tighter than a bank vault, yet he seemed to have vanished into thin air.
My thoughts were interrupted as I saw someone standing in front of my cell from the side of my left eye, I turned to see the girl who was just at the door, standing right in front of my cell, and she had a very satisfied look on her face. She looked like she had just eaten her favourite meal and couldn’t move anymore, or like she had been pressed for a long time and just had the privilege of using the toilet.
“How did you…” I was interrupted by the four guards that bashed through the door. Sergeant Ramsey walked into the room like an angry rhinoceros followed by Hector who seemed like he was about to piss his heart out into his pants.
“What in God’s name happened in here?” Hector opened his mouth to reply when the girl in front of my cell cut in.
“The lights went off Sir, and we heard a noise and we started screaming, then Sharon got scared and fainted”.
“Where did the patient in that cell go?” Ramsey was getting impatient and turned his attention to me. “Clear everyone out of this room immediately, I want to have a chat with our patient over here”. He said as the other guards got hold of the two girls and took them out of the room, shutting the door behind them.
