Red Horns

Baby the two of us are dying

-

After walking away from the doctor's office, my head cooled down while taking a deep breath. I continued my way back to my cell, passing by the hall where the prisoners no longer were standing, only an agonizing silence filled the gap.

The dim light on the ceiling made it hard to stay alert and precautious, though my eyes had adjusted well to the darkness these past years.

Once I set foot on my cell, the air had gotten colder and much more humid. White eyes laid comfortably now on the top bunk, his breathing strong signalizing his asleep condition. Slowly I walked to the bottom bunk and sat there with my eyes closed trying to find some calmness. White Eyes seemed like a good dude, though I mustn't keep my guard down. I needed to find a way out of this place, and make my family pay for sentencing and betraying me. Somehow I also wanted to see Eli's face again, and hear her voice at least one last minute.

As I opened my eyes I heard the unpleasant sound of keys jingling against each other, it reminded me of the sound a principal or teacher would make as she walked through the silent halls during class. The guard passed through every cell jamming his baton against the metal bars.

"Time to sleep then." I muttered and laid in my new bed hopeless to find some sleep.

***

As Mathias slept, his brother Collem spent the night planning a way to help him escape, his sister at his side suggested they needed more time, but Collem desisted and convinced his sister to help Mathias. Kenia had not been working with the cops, she'd only wanted to avenge his brother though the police followed her to get to Mathias, the government was convinced he was the main head of the oncoming revolution. Once Collem andKenia found out about this, they agreed to help each other and try to rescue Mathias.

In the meantime, Dante along with the girl that he claimed to love, were staying at a closeby hotel named 'Tetris'in an island far from New York; benefiting from the hotel's desolation; the hotel lost most of its clients for it's known bad reviews that fell even disturbing. There were rumours that the owner of the hotel kept his guests comfortable and full, to later use their organs to create statues that he would then present in a very prestigious museum. These rumours remain unconfirmed but are quite efficacious to scare people away.

Dante planned to somehow contact this owner and be part of his plan, clearly dismissing all his sanity and childishness, and naively doing what Diana, his mother, wanted him to do; to start the revolution.

***

The next day, the lighting from the small window, too small for even a dog to crawl in, hit my face forcing me to open my eyes.

I stood up and stretched while staring down at the window; there was at least a 20 metre gap from the ground.

"Good morning." A soothing voice greeted me from behind. I turned around and waved at White Eyes who seemed to have gotten a good sleep.

"Morning." He smiled and offered me to have breakfast with him so he'd introduce me to his other people.

While we made our way to the dining hall, chatter filled the room. I grabbed my trail and a tall guy served the food, splashing some leftover on the ground. His angry gesture didn't bother me, more so it comforted me that I wasn't the only one upset in this place.

"Hey are you the new inmate here? Mathias, I heard."

I nodded and smiled purposely exposing my pointy fangs to earn myself a tough look. White eyes then grabbed my shoulder and pulled me to his side.

"Now, now, let's go sit and talk, the Red Horns are watching".

I wondered what he meant by Red Horns though I kept the question for later and sat with White Eyes and 6 other people I didn't know.

"This is Mathias. He's on our side, very good humour and a strong character. What you guys think?"

Two of the ones in front of me shook their heads in disappointment.

"If you think he has good humour we are fucked." The one on the left laughed. His voice made me realize he was older than me, probably in the 30s. The other dude agreed with him but didn't seem to mind my presence as he continued eating.

"Welcome to the family man. We're gonna beat those bastards over there, so tired of them." On the other side a blonde boy smiled and offered to shake my hand, which I did. "By the way, name's Jake. That one with the teasing smile in front of you on the left is Lucas, while the one eating is Sam. The other 3 on the corner don't talk much, the tall dark dude is Peter, the short guy that has drawings all over his clothes is Diego, and the one with the glasses is Tate. You'll get used to them, only White Eyes has a close relationship with them, but they're cool, y'know?"

"Yeah I'm sure. So who are the Red Horns then?" I asked curiously.

"Oh, I forgot to mention who they were." White eyes commented; his mouth opened to talk again but he felt Jake's eagerness to tell me so he continued eating while the other two watched.

"The Red Horns, worst guys on here, they think they run the prison and act like kings. We've had some fights but they still put their mouths on our shit, we tried building boundaries but of course that isn't enough for them. They killed one of us, Tom, good dude I tell you. They steal, vandalize, but lately they've been focused on trafficking drugs, we've seen Robert, the leader's right hand selling some coke to the other inmates. Their leader, Kyle, doesn't do anything, just gives orders."

"Mmm, so their leader is useless?" Seems off that they follow this dude, I thought.

"He's not, don't let him fool you." White eyes responded firmly.

"...Alright." I vacillated, not sure if I was even supposed to trust anyone in this prison.

"Scared already?" Lucas teased.

I shrugged and stared at my food, I didn't have any appetite so I didn't eat anything and kept my hands in my pockets. Jake seemed to understand my decision, though my gaze was focused on someone else. The short guy that Jake had mentioned, Diego, with all those drawings and cuts on his clothes, somehow his appearance caught my attention.