“You can take a break this time.”

Taking a hold of your hand, Jackson halted your steps to the interrogation room. It was a spur of the moment decision, but he couldn’t bear to watch you lose yourself anymore.

‘The Maw’ was a fitting name for a prison which never had a single successful prison break in its long history. A gullet from the surface lined with guards, traps, and motion sensors, was the only entrance into the compound, located deep within the belly of an island. Once inside, inmates would never see the light of day again. They slept in five by five meter cells, and adhered to a strict schedule under bright artificial lights dictating day and night.

Jackson had been a prisoner with you once.

As the notorious phantom thief duo, he lived off stolen goods with you, in the lap of luxury. However, just as all good things had an end, you were both captured and shipped off to ‘The Maw’.

From there, moldy secondhand food became the norm, and the bruises that littered your bodies became too numerous to count. Any information of a prisoner’s crimes had long been dug up and recorded, so weekly ‘interrogations’ in a large glass room was only a pretense for the guards to take their stress out on the inmates.

Even in these conditions, you plotted to escape with Jackson, seducing a pair of female officers, and gaining two sets of male guard uniforms. Disguised, you both waited for the day new inmates and supplies would arrive, eager to hijack a plane off the island.

The day came and went, and with it, so did your hopes to leave.

You both learned the guards were just as much prisoners on the island as the inmates were. Planes to the island never made direct contact with the ground. Instead, they dropped off new inmates and crates of supplies using flimsy parachutes, immediately flying back once everything was unloaded. What ensued was a large battle royale as guards fought off new inmates and each other to secure supplies for themselves. When everything was finally divided, the half-dead bodies of new inmates would be dragged through the corridor leading down into the compound before being tossed into their cells.

With no hope of escape, you and Jackson could only keep up your acts as guards. While you were still trapped, at least you were treated better.

You whipped your head around, fixing Jackson with a glare. He flinched, pulling the rim of his hat down further but his grip on your hand did not loosen.

“The interrogation. I’ll do it today.”

He didn’t know if you had taken over the interrogation duties in the beginning as a way to save him from performing them, but he’s witnessed how it’s affected you. You’ve become prone to staring off into the distance, laughing manically at empty air before breaking down into tears. And each morning, you’d wake in their shared bedroom, eyebags darker than the day before and gaze foggy.

You seemed almost eager to ‘interrogate’ others now, and Jackson has a sinking feeling that you would become unrecognizable if he didn’t stop you.