Chapter 4

Surprisingly to me, we survived. I don't know how but I woke up in my bed and I knew that I must have blacked out from the panic, or the pain. I made my way to my mirror above a dresser and examined my beaten face and the blood on my suit. Then all the sudden, as if I were experiencing this all over again, it hit me. It was the Warden's blood that has stained my jacket. I tried looking at myself in my reflection to calm myself down but my hands began to shiver and I became lightheaded. I couldn't pass out now, I had to see if he was alive.

Panic once again sent me running down the halls and only slowing down when I reached his door. This time, unlike the other times, I didn't sneak in. I pushed the door open very quickly and worried myself when I saw that he wasn't in his bed. Nor was he in the bathroom. I ran again to the door that led to his office, panting and terrified.

My heart nearly stopped when I opened the door and there he was sitting at his desk, looking at me confused.

"Well…good morning." The Warden scowled. "You've missed two days of work by the way…I've blown our funds again." He laughed. "But look what I've built!" He motioned me to the window to look out.

"Sir is that a meat grinder?" I was still panting.

"A meat grinder with my face on it! Isn't it wonderful?"

There was a silence and it made me nervous. I couldn't help but see that his jacket had the faintest blood stain.

"Warden, what were you doing out there?" He only gazed at me behind his yellow glasses. "What were you thinking?" Then he sat down, taking a pen in hand. "Warden how is your side?"

"What are you talking about." He looked away from me. "My side is fine."

"You were stabbed!"

"Please more like cut…barely…" The Warden scoffed.

"There was a lot of blood on the ground and on me!" I began to get angry with him. "Why were you out there!?" I slammed my hands on his desk and I immediately regretted it.

The Warden stood very quickly and bent down, grabbing my blood stained tie. He forced me close to him.

"You want a reason?" The Warden raised his voice. "Maybe it's because I'm crazy Jared. Just like you know I am. Perhaps, I am trying to prove to YOU why being a psychopath, even just a little, is a good thing around here." He pushed me back into a chair. "Or perhaps I was only showing you that no one is innocent, that you could be just another inmate for Jailbot to rip apart only for our amusment, nothing more."

For more than enough times in my life, I felt pathetic.

"Please Jared. Do you really think that I would be stupid enough to instigate a riot, endangering myself, without a good reason of doing so!? Jailbot didn't fight because I told him not to. Of course I didn't know that I would be stabbed…but I still proved my point to you." He sat back down.

My voice was quiet. "And what point was that, sir?" The Warden sat in his chair.

He only smirked. "Well Jared…that's something you'll have to figure out for yourself in due time."