Prologue:

"Looks like he's done it again." I peer out of the barred window of my cell, focusing on two of the wardens who were dealing with the regular occurrence.

"Succeeded?" My cell mate asks me.

"Well he wouldn't be screaming if he had." I turn around briefly to pull a face at him. "It's a cry for help I'm telling yer."

"Nah, they just find him before he can tie the negligee tight enough." He shrugs, as if it was a perfectly ordinary situation, which in fact it was in this prison. People wanted to get out, people wanted to be anywhere but here and if that meant death, for some it was a better option.

"That's the problem with being put under strict conditions." I move away from the door and climb the ladder, falling onto the hard mattress of my bunk bed. "That's why I keep quiet."

"If you didn't, you wouldn't have a chance of getting out." He lowers his voice and I scan the ceiling with my eyes.

"That's why you have to think these things through." I inform him in a gruff tone. "I've waited a year, I'm finally ready to put this in place."

"I'll miss you, you know?" He says and I pull a face, ducking over the side of the bunk bed to face him.

"Ah, you big softy." I tease. "Wouldn't have thought you shot your brother for a dare would yer?"

"Well they didn't at first." He shrugs. "Seriously though Rob, I wish you luck and I hope whatever you're planning works out for you."

"Thank you." I whisper before hauling myself back onto the bed, my eyes returning to the crack in the ceiling, which they focus on every night before lights out. "So do I."