Prologue
He put his pen down on the side of the desk, just as he had always done after writing a letter. Endless scratches that formed letters were more viable than a five minute phone conversation. Letters held more depth anyway, and he had no time limit in writing it. He signed his name left handedly on the paper, closing with a love and a comma before it. Folding it into thirds, he stuck it in the envelope, pressing it closed with a stamp in the corner. It'd reach its destination within two or so days.
He rested his chin in a curled palm, tapping his fingers on the desk as he stared out the window. The sun was starting to go down as the current outside troupe was returning inside. Not long from now, everyone would be turned back into their rooms for the night and the corridor doors would be locked from the outside. He'd been in this routine for a good one hundred years, a thousand was his total years he was required to spend in confinement. Collecting souls had finally made him pay, but he couldn't say his efforts were worthless.
His cause was fulfilled, believing in mere myths had helped him cure the one he loved most deeply, and that was all he cared about. Though, in every letter he'd asked how the other was doing, as if forgetting his disease had been cured, and he would always reply back that he was just fine, just missing him. He'd go on about that for a few paragraphs before moving onto something else, usually telling him how everybody was doing and the past goings on.
The bell had rung. He needed to get back. Dropping off the letter in the box on his way out, he shoved his hands in his pockets and proceeded down the hallway. Other reapers in confinement had poured out from where they were, all being directed to their floors and into their rooms.
Fifth floor, room 24B. Identification number: 127, E. Slingby etched into a plaque on the side of the door, along with his cellmate ID number: 223, T. Vastrine. Tev was already in the room, laying on his stomach and reading a recent book he'd acquired to keep himself busy from the small library they were allowed. This place actually wasn't too bad, it was just degrading to be put in. There was a three hour session of codename Participation Humiliation. Where commanders were allowed to spit in your face and slam you to the ground with no questions asked. Call it military boot camp, but since reapers couldn't die, humiliation and punishment was taken to whole new levels for those three hours. They had two hours a day to wander about in the walled-in yard, or around the buildings that included a library, a billiard room, and they were offered a tea room as well, though it was rarely used. The other hours of the day they were sentenced to their housings to do as they pleased there, which wasn't much.
Eric passed through the door, and it closed behind him with a loud latching from the other side of it to secure him and Tev inside. Tonight was the night. He'd planned his escape since five years after he'd gotten here, taking extreme caution in his planning, and investigating proper hours that guards weren't turned in his direction. When the lawn doors would open, everything. Everything down to the little last detail.
When night fell, it was showtime. He hadn't bothered changing, knowing precisely at the time he was to slip down the side of the building that the guards would have their lights turned to the 3A building. Landing feet on the ground, Tev threw down the rest of the rope that Eric had managed to muggle out of the storage room, bidding him a final farewell. Tev had no intentions on leaving, saying he would have nothing to go back to if he had escaped with him, no matter how many times Eric offered. Though, Tev had offered to help him get out. Loyal to his word, he had.
Booking it to the west wall, he began climbing the bricks he'd managed to tug out of place ever so slightly during his yard time outside, creating an inconspicuous ladder of brick, just high enough to hoist himself over the edge of the wall and jump to the other side. Easy. And he hadn't even been caught. His plan had come together perfectly for now.
His legs carried him away from the compound, and he froze as he looked around. But where to go...? Only one place came to mind, and though he protested in his mind, his legs had other plans.
It was the only place he could go: home.