This is hell I thought. I lay staring at a blank ceiling in a molding itchy cot. "Dinner," said a rough and scratchy voice. I glanced over and through the iron bars, a man with a scraggly beard held a plastic plate and he slid it under the bars. The plate clanked against the floor as it entered my cell.

I sniffed and turned my head away from him showing him that I didn't care. He made a sound that sounded like a scoff and I heard his boots clanking together as he walked away. Once his footsteps became distant, I scrambled over to my plate. My throat was like dry sandpaper and was crying for liquid. My stomach whined for some food, even if it was just glops of mystery solid and stale bread.

First I grabbed at the canteen. I had learned from experience not to look what was in it… just be grateful for something. I forcefully swallowed the gritty water (or whatever it was) and stored the canteen under my dirty cot. I had now maybe 10 stored bottles, all empty and dry. I had learned that when it rained hard enough, a leak in the roof would allow some rain to drip through and that would save me an aching throat some days. But unfortunately for my throat, it was the dry season.

I moved on to the food, not even looking to what it was before pulling it apart and jamming it into my mouth. I regretted that almost immediately. I spat the dry dirt tasting food out and looked down at my plate.

Nutraloaf I thought suddenly horrified. I had only had the horrible meatloaf once before and that was when I got into a fight with a man in the cafeteria. "You got it too," A thick southern accented voice said nearby. I looked up, surprised. No one had ever spoken to me in my time in Newgates. I located the voice to a girl in a cell across from me. I bobbed my head "Did everyone get it or something?" I asked, my voice scratchy from the last time I had talked. She nodded, "Everyone in this area at least. Could hear em' spittin from a mile away," She said a white smile shining in the dark.

Her humor threw me off. How could she be smiling in a place like this? She dropped the smile, noticing me staring. "Sorry, I just got here a week ago, I guess I haven't seen the worst of it yet." She apologized. "It's fine," I said sighing. "I'm Dixie Johns," She said smiling standing up as if to shake my hand. "I'm Brook, Brook Lang." I responded looking away. I could almost feel her drop her smile and sit down discouraged. I felt bad, I just don't know how to respond to someone so… optimistic and happy in a place like this.

"So Brook, what did you get in here for?" She asked desperately trying to make conversations. I sighed, "Theft…" I said, half lying turning my head back to face hers. "How about you?" I asked before she could say anything. "Murder," she said plaining starting blankly at me.

"Murder..?" I said shocked staring back at her with wide amber eyes. "What's so surprin about that?" she asked obviously not getting it. "It's just you don't seem like the person who would murder someone," I explained stuttering. "Oh, I get that a lot…" she said trailing off.

We drifted into silence, neither one of us speaking for a while. "So um where are you from?" I asked, Wait why am I still talking to her, again? I thought to myself frowning. "Born and raised in Liberty City," Dixie said in her cute accent.

"Ah," I said, what else was there to say? "So I have this magical ability to tell when someone is lying…" Dixie said eyeing me accusingly. "Really?" I said teasing raising an eyebrow. "And I got a vibe when you said you were in here for theft." She explained, continuing to look at me. I opened my mouth but nothing made its way out. "So Brooke Lang, what's your real story," Dixie asked looking at me testingly.

"It's a long story…" I sighed and turned my back to her. "Well…" she started. "Looks like we have all the time in the world," She added, not a hint of sadness in her voice. I turned back around and she was sitting down on the dirty floor, eagerly waiting for the story. I sighed in defeat, and sat down placing my hands in my lap and started telling my story.

"It all started on my first heist…"

5 years ago

I crept silently down the smooth marble floors. My heart pounding and blood rushing, this was the life, the thrill of the heist. The large duffle bag bounced against my hip as I ran down the empty dark bank halls. I put a hand on it to steady it and stop it from rattling and making any noise.

I slunk around the corner, back pressed against the wall. I continued down the even darker hall and held my breath. The vault was close I could feel it. I crept around another corner and down a row of either empty or full vaults. 123B 124C 125A the numbers read. I glided my hands over the numbers as I passed. And then there it was vault 145B full to the brim with the Queens money.

I put my hand on the lock keypad and lightly put my finger on the number 1. I had no idea the code was, what was I thinking! The cops could be here any second and I will have gotten nothing.

Suddenly a loud clank echoed through the halls. I froze but a curious word floated down the halls not too long after the clank that made it almost impossible to stay tensed up.

"Fartblower!"

I held in my confusion and skittered over to a wide pot and balled up. I heard hurried footsteps headed in my direction. I sucked in a breath as I saw a shadow appear on the wall beside me. I watched curiously as the person's silhouette ran along a corner and stopped at the same vault I was just at.

He punched in a few numbers confidently and the keypad lit up green. I frowned as he opened the door and started into it. I stood up, this was my chance! I silently followed him into the vault.

"Ahem," I coughed. He whipped around in surprise. "Who… what-" He started. "Is this your first heist?" I asked interrupting. "Yeah," he said sounding confused. "Well it definitely shows," I started. "First of all why are you wearing Converse? You're lucky no one was on guard today or you would be in jail right now." I explained.

"Oh and don't forget. You need to hide your shadow better," I added. "And you're a pro apparently…?" he asked. "No. This is my first time out too, I'm just better," I smiled cockily. I could see his eyes roll in the dark, though I still couldn't make out the rest of his facial features.

"So what's in there?" I asked gesturing to the open vault. "Nothing," he sighed looking in. "Nothing?!" I exclaimed but then realized my mistake and clapped my hand over my mouth. "It's a trap," I realized with a start. "No you're just getting paranoid," he said smirking. "Shh," I told him placing a hand on his mouth.

We listened closely for a minute. "Sirens," I whispered once I detected the noise. "Please tell me you were wearing gloves," I prayed uncovering his mouth. He showed me his back gloved hands and I sighed with relief. Now we could leave without a trace. "Come on we have to get out of here," I said frantically, hearing the sirens getting closer. He closed the vault door and I lead him to the exit. "This way," I whispered creeping around a corner. He fell in front of me as we came around the corner. "Wait," I said and held my arm out before he ran out in front of the corner.

He stopped and looked at me thankfully when he saw the blue and red lights in front of the building. "Crap. We're trapped!" He exclaimed. "Not necessarily…" I said trailing off. "Come on," I said before he could say anything. "Come on!" I'm guessing a cop yelled and at least 5 other men stepped into the bank. We exchanged a panicked look and turned to run.

We ran down the halls, now not mattering if they heard us, they already knew we were here. I lead him around the bank until we found the back corner. A large tapestry loomed over us, "Now what?" he asked turning to me. "Watch," I said moving the tapestry to reveal a deep indent. "Uh…" he frowned. "Remember I'm a pro," I smirked.

"In here!" someone around the corner said. I looked at him terrified and waved him to climb in. He scrambled in as the footsteps came even closer. I climbed in the indent and got squished next to him. I leaned forward and covered the indent with the tapestry just as the police came around the corner.

"Where'd they go?" A deep voice grumbled. "Search the area!" The voice said again. I saw the beams search the room and I held my breath. One beam on the tapestry and they would see our shadows and we're dead. I closed my eyes in fear praying that we didn't get caught. "All clear sir," A different voice said. Silence. "Clear out, check the perimeter," The deep voice ordered and the loud clank of boots move away.

Once I was sure they were gone I let out the breath I was holding. "Omi god that was too close." I told the man. He nodded, running his hand through his brown hair. "Well, I'm Brooke Lang." I introduced. "Caleb Anderson. Glad to finally get a name," He smiled shyly and I nodded in agreement.

Present Day

"Caleb and I started going out and robbing banks and other places together. We got really close and we got an apartment together. He proposed to me and obviously I said yes. We were so happy. We planned to go on a heist for fun at a jewelry store. It was fine until like always Caleb accidently tripped the silent alarm and a nearby officer ran in."

"He pointed a gun at me and I stepped towards him to talk him out of it. He fired the gun when I got to close and Caleb ran out and took the bullet for me… The police ran, leaving Caleb bleeding out and dying not bothering to get help. More police arrived and ripped me away from Caleb. They arrested me and claimed I had murdered Caleb and on top of that an attempted theft…" I finished. I hadn't realized that tears were pouring down my face until I had stopped talking.

"Awe hun its ok," Dixie said and even her voice was like a soft hug. I sniffed and wiped my tears away. "Tell you what, were gonna make it out of here." Dixie said and I looked at her confused. "You mean breakout?" I asked. Dixie shrugged "Just we goin to make it out before we rot away."

Suddenly before I could respond the earth began to rumble and shake. And I don't mean earth quake 4.0 on the Richter Scale. I mean 7.0 or 8.0 on the scale. "What's going on?!" I yelled over the tremor. But if Dixie responded, I didn't couldn't hear her over the rumbling and havoc around me.

A large chunk of concrete clunked against the ground behind me. I whirled around to see a large uneven shallow slab in the once full wall. Small pebbles followed by a shower of dust fell down into my dirty blonde hair. I blinked the powder out of my eyes and brushed the pebbles out of my hair. "Brooke!" yelled a voice right outside my cell.

I whipped around to see Dixie standing right outside my bent cell bars. "How-" I started but trailed off when I saw her broken cell. "Come on! Now's our chance?" she waved and pointed to the large gap in the prison bars.

I slipped through easily and the rest was a blur. Many prisoners had escaped and we were all pouring towards the exit. The guards must have left their stations because they were nowhere in sight. There was nothing in the way of freedom.

Dixie glanced behind her to make sure I was still following and sped ahead of the group. I sighed and raced to catch up to her. "Dixie hold up!" I called watching her small figure disappear deeper into the crowd.

I started running faster and I took a deep breath of the fresh air once I had stepped outside. I kept going, following Dixie's shorter figure amongst the prisoners.

"Dixie!" I yelled. She looked back and smiled before stopping. "What do you say, hit the bar?" she asked, escapees running all around us. "I haven't tasted liquor in 4 years," I smiled. "How is that even a question?"

Dixie cracked a laugh and we took off down the chaotic roads, full of people running and cracks in the ground. I could help but wonder what was going on but I threw the thought away, what mater now was I was free.

I was no longer a caged bird.