Dead End

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Dead End; short story
Topic Started: Aug 23 2009, 01:44 AM (367 Views)
lani	Aug 23 2009, 01:44 AM Post #1
I'm New Posts: 3 Group: Members Member #5,521 Joined: August 22, 2009	This is a short story I submitted to a writing contest. Winners will be announced in October. What do you think? Do I stand a chance? If there is a way of adding an attachment so as not to put the entire text here, please let me know. And now... the story: Word Count: 3,968 Dead End It keeps the light out… most of it, anyways. It’s completely dark now, but my eyes will adjust sooner or later to the tiny bit of light coming in from the nickel-sized holes in the door. The door keeps most of the sound out, too. There isn’t much noise being made out there anyways, since this hallway dead-ends about a foot or two past my door. Nobody comes down this far unless they’re coming to my cell. Someone will come soon enough to bring food. That’s how you count the days here… by how many times they’ve brought you food. I have to do three days. We eat three times a day. That means they’ll bring me food nine times… maybe eight if I missed evening chow while they were bringing me down here. If I did miss evening chow, it’s going to be one long night because I’m already feeling a bit hungry. I guess beating the crap out of someone takes up quite a bit of energy, doesn’t it? That’s why I was sent to “the hole” - for fighting back against a sore loser at a game of cards. The fact that I was only defending myself got me three days instead of a week. Thanks for nothing. Sure… seven days sucks more than three days, but three days in the hole is still pretty stiff for someone who was only protecting himself against an attacker. I guess we’re all guilty in here just for being convicts. I heard of a guy once who was knocked out from behind. He didn’t throw a single punch; never even saw it coming… woke up to find himself in the hole for thirty-six hours. What a way to wake up! He didn’t even know what he was in for until after he got out. So here I sit… with nothing to do but replay the events in my head. Was there some other way I could’ve handled the situation so I wouldn’t have ended up in the hole? Not really. Not in here. In here, you defend yourself… you defend what’s yours. You defend yourself or they take it all. Your victory at cards, your lunch, your dignity… even your manhood. They take it all from you if you don’t fight back. You don’t even have to win; you just have to fight back. It’s much easier to take something from someone who will back down and let you take it than to have to fight for it every time, even if you win. That’s how it is in here… that’s how it works. I guess I did what I had to do. I have no idea how much time has passed. The world seems to come to a halt when you’re in the hole. I know it doesn’t really stop… time is still flowing like usual… but you lose all sense of it in the hole. I’m pretty sure I missed tonight’s chow, so I might as well get some sleep. I’m feeling pretty tired from the fight, after all, and in this quiet darkness it’s not hard to drift off and fall asleep. My last thoughts are of breakfast. Specifically, the fact that once I get it I will have seven more meals to go before I get out of here and go back to general population. Not that general population is all that great… but it sure beats the hole! Man… I wish I had never got myself in trouble in the first place. I sure wish I was back home now… playing basketball at the park… or dancing with my honey... I sure miss her! She said she’d wait for me… I have to believe she meant it. I have to think she… ---------------------------------------- How long have I been asleep? They haven’t brought breakfast yet, so it couldn’t have been more than five or six hours. I guess I wasn’t that tired after all. I do feel a bit hungry, though. I can’t wait until they bring me some food. Sure, it tastes like cardboard… sure, it’s just a pathetic excuse for a sandwich and it sucks even worse than the food they serve in the chow hall… but I don’t really care about that right now. All I care about is putting some food in my belly and counting off number one of eight… my countdown to freedom! Freedom is a relative term. What to do in the meantime? I know… I’ll try to guess what kind of sandwich it will be today. The most common sandwiches are peanut butter and jelly, bologna and cheese, and the thick ham ones - they usually don’t have any cheese, though sometimes you get lucky. I’m going with peanut butter and jelly. It’s by far the most common, which leads me to believe it’s the cheapest… and why would they give a “trouble-maker” like me anything but the cheapest thing possible? I’m trying to remember what kind of sandwiches I’ve eaten other times I’ve been in the hole but I’m not doing a very good job of it. Maybe being in the hole sucks so much that meaningless information like what kind of sandwich you ate is blocked out by the more significant memory of how much it sucked being in there? Who knows? My money is on the peanut butter. It’s a sure bet - especially since there’s no one here to collect if I’m wrong! Ha Ha Ha!!! I can’t lose!!! ---------------------------------------- Whoa… was I asleep again? It’s so hard to tell in here. I can see the shape of the door so that means my eyes must be adjusted to the low-lighting. I forget… do your eyes have to readjust every time you wake up? Or do they stay adjusted to the level of light they were in when you fell asleep? Damn, this place is weird. Plays tricks on your mind if you let it. Everything will make sense once I get my food. Time doesn’t make much sense in here, but when you get your food it sort of reassures you that time is still running at the same speed as always, you know? Those little notches in time let you know everything will be okay soon enough… My stomach is rumbling… breakfast has to be coming soon. Even if I missed evening chow - which by now I’m pretty much 100% sure I did - it can’t be more than sixteen hours in between meals… any longer and you’re going into the day shift. Day shift brings you lunch… night shift brings you dinner… the graveyard shift brings you breakfast. I never ate breakfast so early back in the “world,” but in here breakfast is at 5am. We were playing cards to kill time before dinner… all that processing and traveling to take you from the yard to the hole takes time… it HAS to be time for breakfast by now! I’m tempted to bang on the door and get the guard’s attention and ask him what the hell’s going on. Wait a minute… I know this trick! They get you to make noise and “cause a disturbance” by holding your food too long. Then they tell you that your punishment for being rowdy is no breakfast… or was it half breakfast? I hope it was half breakfast because I’m too hungry for no breakfast at all. If I just keep quiet and wait I won’t have to deal with any breakfast reduction. I’ll show them. They’ll have to give me my food before their shift is over… or at least come make me sign the write-up for causing trouble. In either case, it will give me some sort of measure as to how much time has passed. Damn that asshole! If he had never thrown his cards at me and tried to punch me I would never have been in this mess! If he had just taken his loss like a man we’d both be doing a whole lot better right now. I wonder if they’re holding his breakfast, too. He started it, so if they’re being extra mean to anyone it has to be him. Maybe that’s why they haven’t brought me my food yet? Maybe they’re over there fucking with him… giving him a hard time for starting fights in the rec yard? Fuck! They should’ve brought me my food first! After all, HE’S the one they wanted to fuck with, not me! Man, that peanut butter sandwich sure sounds good right about now! ---------------------------------------- Was I asleep?! I don’t even fucking know! Sure, there’s a bit of light in here… sure, I can see my hand in front of my face… but that doesn’t really go too far, you know? That doesn’t really help me gauge the time. For one thing, the light is artificial. If you were to turn off all the lights in this building it would be absolute darkness in here. I’m in the hole… which means I’m in the most secure place this prison has to offer. That means I’m in the bowels of the prison… so deep that even the rats can’t find me. If they could find me they would probably steal my food when I wasn’t looking - and seeing as to how there isn’t that much light in here, they could snag it at any time. Wait a minute… did they bring my food while I was asleep? Maybe they did. Maybe that’s why I feel like it’s been way too long since I’ve eaten…! Maybe my food is in this very cell! My tired ass was too far into deep sleep that I didn’t hear them open the little gate through which they slide in our trays. Better look around the cell. Better feel around the floor just in case. I don’t feel anything; not yet, anyways. Better keep feeling… I’m so hungry, I don’t really give a damn what kind of sandwich it is! I don’t care if I lose the bet; I just want to eat! Who did I bet with again? Was it the guard? Was it the guy in the next cell? Is there anyone in the next cell? Maybe they know why we haven’t been fed… Better knock on the wall to be sure. <Knock Knock> Is there anyone there?! Have you eaten yet?! What the fuck time is it?! I missed evening chow… is it time for breakfast yet?! Hello…?! Answer me!!! Fuck!!! No answer! What the fuck is going on!!!??? Fuck this shit! I’m going to contact a lawyer when I get out of this shit and tell them that they skipped me for two whole meals while I was in the hole. Or has it been three? I don’t even fucking know! I haven’t shitted yet, so it can’t have been that long since I last ate. Man these fuckers are pushing their luck!!! I will fucking sue their asses if they leave me here much longer without food!!! Maybe they think I started it? Maybe they’re teaching me a lesson for starting trouble in the rec yard? “I didn’t start it!!!” “I didn’t pick a fight, he did!!!” “Just let me explain and you’ll see it wasn’t my fault!!! I have less than a year left, why would I start shit? Why would I create problems? It doesn’t make sense!!!” “Hellooooo!!!!!!!” “Fuck… why won’t you feed me!?” This place is so confusing. How much time as actually passed? Did I just give them what they wanted to hear so they could punish me for being too rowdy? Fuck! I did, didn’t I? I’m so fucking stupid! I fell right into their trap!!! I thought I was so smart… I thought I was wise to their tricks… I just fell victim to the oldest trick of all, didn’t I? I just made enough noise for them to say I was causing a disturbance. Fuck! Might as well play it off… maybe they didn’t notice…? Maybe I can still get my full breakfast…? Nobody has come with a write-up for me to sign, so maybe I’m still okay…? I’d better take it easy… chill out and try to relax. They can’t legally withhold my food too long without getting into trouble, so I will eat soon enough… Breathe in… breathe out… Relax… Everything will make sense soon enough… ---------------------------------------- An attractive, yet nice guy is telling her everything will be okay. He holds her while she cries. She cries into his chest and looks at him with eyes that say “take me away from all this pain!” He looks at her and brings her towards him. He slowly brings his mouth to hers. He kisses her. She kisses back. No! That’s not my baby duck!!! That’s not my lover-girl!!! I’m going crazy in here! Only a crazy person would think that my girl would ever cheat on me!!! She told me she would wait! I was the best thing she ever knew… she told me so. I treated her like my best friend, because I loved her like no other! She has never known a love like mine, nor will she ever know it again! I’ve never known a love like hers before either… and I’ve tried the best I could to make sure I loved her in the way she deserves to be loved. I’m sorry I got put in prison. That fucker was trying to kill my brother… what was I supposed to do??!! If the judicial system wasn’t so fucked up, I’d be at home right now, having executed my constitutional right to bear arms and defend life and property. Whatever! Three days in the hole… and seven months to freedom! Fuck parole! I’m going home free as a bird! Time served, mother fuckers!!! You got no hold on me!!! Just as soon as I get out… ---------------------------------------- Hello…? I just woke up. I think. At any rate, I just came back to consciousness. Where’s my food? That’s right… they brought it in while I was sleeping. It has to be near the small door. Where is it? Am I facing the right direction? Where is the faint light coming from??? There it is… I can see the small holes in the door… The little trap door through which they bring food should be towards the bottom… There it is! I feel it!!! My food must be nearby! I’m feeling for it, but I’m not finding much. What the fuck!!! It has to be here!!! Where the fuck is it!!!! How long has it been??!! My first impulse is to bang on the door as hard as I can until someone comes over, even if it’s just to shut me up. I reconsider. Don’t freak out… don’t give them what they want… don’t let them make a fool out of you… I slowly slide my hands across the door to the left. The door ends and I continue to feel across the wall, still moving left. There’s a corner. Keep going left on the new wall. I slowly follow the wall around the cell until I stop against something. I can feel it on my leg. It’s hard and won’t budge when I try to push it out of the way. I feel down the wall, coming in for closer look. A closer look, that’s funny… more like a closer feel. It’s cold. It seems to be made of steel. Of course! It’s the toilet! I’ve been so busy worrying about my food I didn’t even notice how thirsty I am. The toilets have sinks on the back of them. I can drink water from there. I sure hope it works… Yes!!! Water! Wonderful, life-giving… disgusting water… blah! It tastes like old sewer pipes! Beggars can’t be choosers. I take a few sips and wait a while before taking a few more. It’s no mountain spring, but at least I won’t die of thirst waiting on these assholes to bring me my food. At least the toilet isn’t stopped up and full of shit. Two bits of good news in all this madness - I have water and a clean, working toilet. It does work, doesn’t it…? <flush> Yes, it works. Good. I put my back against the wall and slide down to the floor. I stretch my legs out in front of me. I try to remember the words to a song I like - any song will do. I just need something to pass the time. I quietly mumble bits and pieces of songs to myself as I drift in and out of what I can only guess must be sleep. ---------------------------------------- I’m cold. Did they turn down the a/c? Why the hell would they do that? I stand up and feel for the wall behind me. I feel dizzy. Can you be dizzy in the dark? I guess so, because I just felt the room spin a bit. I’m okay now… sort of. There’s still no sign of my fucking food. I stay there, leaning against the wall… staring at the door as if by sheer force of will I can open it and make my food appear on the other side. I stare and stare and stare… ---------------------------------------- What was that? Did somebody say something? I thought I heard something. Hello? Is someone out there? I listen. I run and put my ear to the door, listening through the holes for a sound… any sound… There it is again! Is that laughter? Is someone laughing out there? Are they bringing me my food? Should I call out? Should I say something? I want to make noise, but I don’t want to get in trouble for it. I run to the toilet and flush it. The toilets are pretty loud when they flush. They flush so hard they can rip the hairs off your ass. I flush it three times to be sure they hear it. I run back to the door and listen. Nothing. No laughter... no footsteps… nothing. Where’d they go? No, you can’t leave me here like this! Not again! Hello!!! I bang on the door. Fuck the rules. I don’t care if I get in trouble! Hello!!! Come back here you fucking assholes!!! I keep banging on the door as hard as I can. They’ll have to come shut me up eventually. Hello!!! Fuck you, you pieces of shit!!! Fuck you!!! I bang and bang until my arm gets tired. I catch my breath and bang again. Fuck you! You all suck donkey dicks!!! Damn you all to hell! I fall to my knees and keep banging away. When one arm gets tired, I bang with the other one. When that one gets tired, I go back to the first arm. I’m on my side now, curled up against the door, still banging on it, though not as hard as before. I’m just too tired to bang any louder. Tired and hungry… and thirsty. There’s water back there, in the sink above the toilet. Instead of drinking I continue to bang on the door. I can’t bring myself to stop. I have to keep banging on the door until someone comes over. I have to. ---------------------------------------- I wake up in a cold sweat. My hands are shaking. My arm jerks and slams against the door. Man, that hurts! I hold my hands up to the holes and see that they are bruised and bloody. How long was I banging on the door? Nobody came! Nobody fucking came! Nobody’s ever going to come. I turn my back to the door so my arm won’t slam into it if it spasms again. I curl up in a ball and think about drinking some water, but it’s just too far away, and I’m too cold to move. I lay there and remember the first roller coaster I ever went on. It had such a high drop. I didn’t really want to ride it, but everyone was so excited. My brother was there… my girlfriend was there… I remember wondering if they were just acting cool to hide their nervousness, like I was. I’m sure they were. The ride was over almost as soon as it began, but those few seconds sure were action-packed! ---------------------------------------- I’m leaning into the sink, drinking water. How did I get here? I don’t remember walking over here. Who cares, just drink the water. You don’t have any food, so you might as well fill up on water. Maybe that will make the rumbling stop. Maybe that will make the painful emptiness go away. ---------------------------------------- Did someone just walk by? Who was that? I thought I saw a shadow go by? Or was that just my eyes blinking? ---------------------------------------- The taste of my hands reminds me of a steak. A nice, juicy medium-rare steak… I stick my fork in and cut it in half with my knife. The center is moist and reddish. I throw down my utensils and pick up one of the halves. This is going to be so good! I bite into it and feel the juices flowing out of the corner of my mouth. I feel… pain? Why does it hurt? Why is there pain in my hand? Oh fuck, I just bit my fucking finger! Man that hurts! I must have chomped down on it pretty hard. That’s right… I’m still in this fucking hole. I have to keep it together. I have to keep my head straight. I find the toilet and sit on it. I’m too tired to piss standing up, so I slide my pants to my knees and let’er rip. It stings a little… feels like hot vinegar or something. Weird. ---------------------------------------- My eyes hurt. My throat is sore from dry heaving and puking up all that bile earlier. There wasn’t much to puke out… just stomach acid, I guess. I’m on the floor holding my knees against my chest. I get up on all fours and my head starts to throb. I wait a moment before rising to my feet. Halfway up my legs become noodles and I stumble forward until I find the wall. The wall is cold. The floor is cold. Everything is cold in here. I look for the door. It hurts my eyes to strain them. I finally find it. I take a step towards it. I don’t know what I’m going to do when I get to it. I don’t know what difference it makes to stand here or there, but I’m going to go to the door anyways. I take another step and let go of the wall. I fall flat on my face. I can see the door; it’s right there. I can touch it if I reach out. I can almost… ---------------------------------------- I’m picking at a tiny hole in the wall. Was there a nail there? What would it have held? Never mind that, just keep picking. Maybe you can come through on the other side. What’s on the other side? Who cares. It has to be better than nothing. That’s what I have in here - nothing. ---------------------------------------- Wake up! I’m awake. Who’s there? Where’s there? What’s there? It’s everywhere! What is? Ha ha ha… I try to laugh but my throat hurts too much. I lay there… on my back I think… staring at nothing. It’s right in front of me. I can feel it resting on my chest. It hurts a little. ---------------------------------------- Brightness everywhere. I can’t see a thing. I think I see a shadow. There are more of them. They reach for me. Pain! It hurts when they touch me. Are they demons? Are they men? I hope they’re angels. I’m weightless… I’m floating in the brightness…


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