Friends Behind Bars

Dixey's POV

Everyone who works in the office today came at about 8:30. They called the upper hand to see what had happened overnight, so we were waiting. I decided that I should catch up with everyone in the jail cells.

"How has everyone been doing?" I asked.

"Pretty good, we fought yesterday, but nothing that the guards couldn't handle," said a man who was in here because he went on a robbing spree. It took them 2-3 years to catch him and he was partially blind, so we called him Ghost Eyes.

"What were the fights about this time?" I said annoyed.

"I-it was nothing Dixey, honest," said Susan.

"If it was nothing then why were you fighting over it?" I told them, looking them in the eyes.

No one spoke. I looked at everyone one at a time, them not looking at me.

I sighed, "Alright, everyone lay down. You will all do 25 sit-ups with a 5-second break in between every 25 sets. This will continue until someone tells me why."

There were groans and complaints, but they did as they were told. After everyone did four sets of 25, someone gave in.

"I'll tell you! I'll tell you! Just make this stop!" Josh screamed.

I thought about it for a moment before chuckling to myself, "Stop."

Everyone stopped and started to complain louder. I walked over to Josh and helped him stand up, we went to a private room and sat in the chairs that were there.

"So Josh, what happened?" I ask in a calm voice like nothing was happening outside the door. The upper hands have finally shown up and we're going to look for me, so this needed to be quick.

"We were saying how you would never come back to see us again, and I told them that you would be back for us. The argument started and a few shoves back and forth. Then it turned into a fight with biting, punching, kicking, the list can go on and on. Eventually, the guards came and broke the fight up and we went our separate ways," he informed me. He seemed distant though like he wasn't sharing everything with me.

"What are you hiding Josh? Remember, nothing leaves this room," I told him.

"Well....," he began, "I... we... we helped... we watched," He was stuttering. I grabbed his chin and lifted it to make him look me in the eye.

"Tell me, Josh," My voice was stern, and I heard voices from outside of the door. Our end was coming soon.

"We saw who killed Callanan," He whispered. Then we were interrupted.

"Miss Dixey, please co-," The officer started.

"Come with us, we have a few questions to ask you. This isn't my first round Sheriff," I said sarcastically. He stared in awe as I turned back to Josh. "Thank you for answering me Josh, you helped a lot more than you think."

I walked out to go to the room where I would be questioned again. It turned out that I was in the same room as before.

"Can we get this over with, the criminals are waiting for me to join them again, and they're not patient," I informed the two upper hands men.

"This won't take long, little girl, can you please just tell us why you're here?" Asked the sheriff.

I tightened my jaw at his word choice.

Why does everyone half to use those words?

I'm not sure, but quiet down.

"Don't call me that," I told him, after a few breaths.

"What did I say?" He asked. He had on a smile that I wasn't happy with.

"'Little Girl'," I said between my teeth.

"Well if you-," He began.

"Answer our questions we wouldn't? I'll answer them, but use those words again and I won't," I told them, I now had a smile on my face. The sheriff dropped his smile.

"Well you just know everything don't you," he stated, standing up from his chair.

"Johnson, control yourself," said the other officer, standing up to hold the other back.

"But she's being so mean," complained Johnson. He was complaining like a child and was starting to throw a fit.

"Don't let a little girl get under your skin," he responded to Johnson.

"Wow, really? I thought you would at least ask me a few questions before saying that again," I smiled at them, the look of an 'oh no' moment was plastered on their faces. The color was drained from their faces, and it made me laugh.

"Alright, since you guys look like you're going to lose your jobs, you get one more chance. If you mess that up, I won't answer any more questions and I get to slap you."

"That's fine, just please answer our questions," pleaded the officer next to Johnson.

"Alright, deal?" I extended my hand for one of them to shake it.

"Deal," Johnson said and shook my hand. My hand started to burn as we sealed the deal and the sheriff pulled away to look at his burned hand.

I snapped my fingers.

"So, shall we continue with the questions?" the officer with no name asked.

"Great idea, Samson," Johnson replied. So that's what his name was, Samson.

"So, ask away," I said to them happily, knowing that they didn't remember what just happened with the deal.

"Well first off, why are you here?" Samson asked.

"Well, I'm here because of something I did. Some people would probably frown upon what I did," I told them.

"What would that be?" filled in Johnson.

"Well, I hurt three kids. You see though, they were about to kill my friends in the park. You understand why I couldn't let them do that," I said calmly.

"You hurt them?" asked Johnson. He was back to his normal stern self now, so was Samson.

"Yes sir, I did," I said.

"Well, can you tell me anything about Callanan?" Samson changed the subject.

"He was a nice guy. A great family and even greater worker here. He was good at his job, maybe even too good," I said.

"Too good?" Samson said confused.

"Rumor has it that he had a big breakthrough in the killings of the 7 girls," I informed them.

The conversation went on for a while after that and then they moved on.

I'm surprised at how well you're doing with the mind eraser.

What can I say, I'm a natural.

Let's move! We have a lot to talk about with our friends.

I moved to the jail cells again and pushed the door. The time was 12:00 on the dot, so this was their free time to be let out to go to the other cells. Once I entered they all ran to me. "Dixey!" they shouted.

"Ok, ok, calm down guys. Now, Josh had told me that some people thought that I was never coming back?" I asked them.

"Well, most of us thought you were," said Ghost eyes, the others nodded.

"So who were the ones who didn't?" I asked looking around.

About 10 prisoners raised their hands, one of them being Susan.

"Tisk, tisk, tisk. Every one of you, come with me," I told the ten.

We entered the room which was all gray. About 15 chairs were in the room spread out to form a circle. "Please sit," I ordered.

They did so and I sat with them. "So," I began, "Why did you think I was never coming back?"

"Because you promised to come the next day and it was 3 o'clock! We all knew you had other friends but we thought that you would at least call to tell us that you wouldn't show up," said Wheels. He was in here because he ran a speed race in town, hence the name.

I gave a sigh and got up from my seat, I circled my friends and they slouched down. "Do you really think that I would leave you guys? You guys are the best people, other than my outside friends, I could have," I informed them. I stopped just behind Susan.

"We're sorry Dixey, we just thought that you forgot about us again," Susan said.

Don't do it!

It was too late, I started to remember. All those times I spent here ever since I was 5, the memories that I lost were now returning.

Dixey snap out of it!

More memories came back with every passing second. I could hear Wheels and Susan screaming my name to see if I was ok, I ignored them. The memory of when I first meet them came, the time we pepper-sprayed the guard on April Fools Day, the time when I said goodbye to them not knowing that I wouldn't see them again for another 5 years.

"Dixey! Please snap out of it girl, come on. You scaring us man, get up," this time, I listened to Susans pleads.

"Help," I whispered. I fell to the floor and curled into a ball.

Wheels and Susan ran to me, Wheals picking me up and walking out of the room with me. We got to the jail cells and everyone ran to us.

I started to shudder from another memory that was coming in. It was when I got called in for questioning after the fight with my old friends, and I had just gotten into the interrogation room. After the memory played for a while, it turned into the worst part in which I wished to forget.

The officer had been calling me 'little girl' over and over again, even after I asked him to stop. I was only 10 years old at the time, and I didn't know how to deal with my anger yet. I punched the man right square in the nose. Blood covered my knuckles as the man's nose was gushing out the same red liquid.

When the memory faded away I found myself in one of the beds the jail provided in the cells. Everyone was sitting around me, heads down. I sat up and everyone's heads went up at the same time. All at once, they were asking if I was ok and if I needed anything.

"Everyone please, I'm fine. Some personal memories started to come back, that's all," I informed them.

"Which ones?" asked Wheels.

"Yours. When I first met all of you, when we pranked some of the guards, even..." I couldn't finish, but that was enough for them since they didn't pressure me to go on.

We all sat for a moment longer without saying another word, then I broke it. "So, what do you guys want to do?"

"We want you to get some rest, Dixey. At least an hour, then we can do something else," Susan answered.

"What?! I don't need sleep, I want to help you guys get through your sentences without killing each other," as I said this, I started to get up from the bed. Josh and Susan went straight to my side and held me down to the bed.

"You're not going anywhere, Dixey. You need rest, so do so. I promise, as soon as you wake up, we will have a share meeting OK?" Josh told me. I tried to get away from their hold, but there was no use.

I sighed and relaxed on the bed. They loosened their grip and stepped back. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep.

Dixey's Mind

Bailey and I were on the couch looking at great memories of our outside friends and jail friends. We had just finished the 2nd scrapbook with one left to go, and both of us were too lazy to reach it.

"Why do you think we lost our memories?" Bailey asked.

I sat up from the back of the couch and looked her in the eye, "You mean you don't remember?"

She shrugged, "Guess not,"

"The whole reason why we're helping our friends with the cases in the first place? How could you forget?" I was starting to panic. I was starting to lose my memories more and more now, and there was only one way to stop it, and Bailey couldn't remember it.

"Look Dixey, I'm sorry but I thought we were doing this out of the kindness of our heart," snapped Bailey.

I never recognized this part of Bailey before, and I wasn't happy with it. I got up from the couch and walked to our bedroom. Neither of us rarely sleep at the same time as each other here, so we never got separate bedrooms.

I went in and locked the door behind me before Bailey could get a chance to see me through the doorway.

"Dixey come on, what are you doing?" I heard her say through the door.

I turned away from the door and went to my mirror. "Dixey," I said in a whisper. The mirror started to swirl with smoke and went to a view of our body laying on the cell bed with the prisoners playing games and talking.

This was a very special mirror that had the ability to see whoever we wanted to see. This was how Bailey saw what I did and how I saw what she did when we weren't busy. I heard Bailey try to open the door and find that it was locked.

"Don't make me put a fire in the room to get you out of there," Bailey threatened. We had the opportunity to do whatever we wanted to do in our mindscape. You could do whatever you wanted to do here.

I got up and went to the door, but didn't open it. "What do you want?"

"I just want to see if you're OK."

"No, no I'm not. You're scaring me, Bailey. You didn't know why we were helping our friends with the murders."

I saw the lock on the door glow red and unlock. I took a couple of steps back while the doorknob slowly turned and the door opened. "Can I come in?" She asked. She entered before I could answer.

She sat on the bed and I joined her. "I just want to know that you're not gonna forget me and that you won't forget how you normally act," I told her.

She reached out and hugged me, "I apologize for my actions Dixey, but I don't remember any of that."

"What?!"

She let me go, "I don't remember anything like that. I just remember that we were looking through the books and then you getting up and walking out."

"Do you remember why we're helping them?"

"Of course, but we're running out of time if I can't remember what just happened. When will we continue with the last bodies?"

"Hopefully Catherine will be done tomorrow and Rachel and Samantha the next if not the same day. We're so close to finding out Bailey, I just hope we're not too late."

"We're always right on time, Dixey."

She laid down on the bed and I did the same. Soon her breaths became even, and I woke up.

Back to Reality

I woke up and everyone greeted me again. We got started with the share meeting and it went well. Everyone shared the worst time they had in here since the last time we meet and everyone agreed to try and make everyone feel good about this place. We ended with the same saying we end with every time the meeting was done,

"We may be trapped, but they can't trap how we feel in here."

I said my goodbyes to everyone and left the room. Once I got out, the upper hand had left and the only person here was the Chief. I said good night to her and started for home.

Amanda's POV

"What the fudge did we just see today?" I asked my friends.

"Not sure, but something is going on with Dixey and we need to question her," Andrew said.

"Question her? But she's our friend," Shyla said.

"I think now's the time we get some answers from her, don't you think?" I asked.

Andrew nodded quickly while Shyla seemed hesitant. We went our separate ways to go home. After all, it was a school night.