Folks, it's time. The pivotal chapter that finally starts the rest of the plot. It took us fifteen chapters to get here, but we're here. Let's do this.

Chapter 15 – The Execution of Matt Engarde

There was unease in the prison once Matt went back to his normal self. Kristoph kept expecting him to suddenly attack him at any moment. During shower time the other inmates kept their distance from Kristoph but they also made sure Engarde did as well.

Things came to a head three days after the incident. It was during activity time while the prisoners were allowed to roam free (with exceptions) and do whatever they wanted for a while. Kristoph had curled up on a couch and was reading through the files Klavier and Wright had brought him so they could work on suing the prison. He was thinking about asking the others for witness statements regarding what happened, but first he wanted to make sure they had all their other evidence. He thought that the way he was curled up on himself let others know that he didn't want to be bothered.

Apparently it didn't come through to Matt though. He sauntered up to Kristoph and sat down next to him, a wide grin on his stupid face. He didn't notice him until the ex-star threw an arm around his shoulders and he startled.

"Hey handsome," Engarde greeted, "What are you up to?"

Kristoph quickly got up and scrambled away from him without a word, searching for another quiet corner where he could work. It wasn't long before Engarde found him again, though.

"Why'd you run away, good looking?" Matt asked, but before he could finish the question, Kristoph was up and walking away.

Why is he following me? Kristoph thought angrily, Why is he trying to act like nothing happened? He suddenly felt someone grab his wrist and he spun around. Matt had seized his arm and was staring at him.

"Are you hiding from me?" he asked, "Did I do something wrong?"

Kristoph's eyes widened in anger and he snatched his arm away. "Are you fucking kidding me?" he snarled, "Have you completely forgotten what you did to me? It's not something to make light of, you know!"

Matt gave him a slightly confused look. "What? Oh, you mean when I wanted to make love to you a few days ago?" He shrugged. "It's not like it was a big deal or anything."

Fury blazed in Kristoph's eyes at his words. "Of course it was a big deal!" he shouted, "You tried to rape me!"

"I wouldn't use the word rape," the other man muttered.

"If you tried to force sex on me without my consent then it's rape!" Kristoph pointed out angrily. A crowd of inmates had started to gather to see what the shouting was about, but Kristoph ignored them. "Why haven't you gotten the picture yet that I hate you? That you annoy me to no end?" Matt scoffed and tossed his hair.

"What do you want from me, babe?" he asked, "I think you would have enjoyed it if you had given it a chance."

Kristoph would have given anything to be able to shoot lasers from his eyes at that moment. But all he could do was glare at Engarde. "The least you could do is say you're sorry for what you did!" he hissed.

Matt rolled his eyes. "Sorry," he said, obviously not the least bit so, "But didn't you know? I was drugged that night. I might not have been in control of my actions."

"Do you at all regret what you did?" Kristoph asked him, still glaring. Matt grinned at him.

"Not at all, darling," he replied.

The tension in the air was thick as Kristoph glared at the smirking Engarde. Then Kristoph sucked in a breath.

"The world would be better off if you were dead," he proclaimed. Then he turned and stalked off, leaving Matt staring after him. He was about to go after him, but a strong hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"I think you should probably leave him alone, Touché," Gant told Engarde, "It wouldn't be wise to further upset him, don't you think? Come on. If you don't have anything better to do, come join White-o, Atoms, Waiting, and me for a game of poker."

Matt stared at him for a moment, looked back to where Kristoph had retreated, then made a decision and followed Gant.

Meanwhile, Kristoph had made his way to a dark corner of the room and curled up on another couch, pulling his knees up to his chin and wrapping his arms around them. He tried to calm himself, but his rapidly beating heart and harsh breathing was making it difficult. Kristoph was no stranger to panic attacks. But he hadn't had one in years and he definitely didn't want to have one where all of these prisoners could see him.

He hadn't noticed Richard Wellington walking over to him until he was sitting next to him. Kristoph expected him to start talking to him, to start consoling him, or drenching him with unwanted sympathies. But instead he simply opened a book and started reading. He waited for Richard to do something else, but he didn't.

For some reason, Kristoph found that having Richard next to him not doing anything was slowly calming him down. His heartbeat slowed and his breathing leveled out. How did he do that? Finally, Kristoph sighed.

"I can't believe Engarde," he muttered, "How can he expect to do something like that and just get away with it? Did he really think assaulting me would make me like him more or something?"

"I don't know what was going through his mind when he did that," Richard answered quietly, "I heard he was drugged, but he had to have some semblance of control. And to hear him say that he doesn't regret it is truly disturbing."

He closed his book and looked at Kristoph. "The problem with people like Engarde is that they're used to always getting their way," he said, "I suppose a lot of us are like that, really, but with big name stars it's especially bad. I imagine you're one of the first people he's ever hit on who's rejected him."

Kristoph was silent for a moment, absorbing this information. In a sense, he was like Engarde. After all, he had been used to getting everything he wanted until Gramarye fired him and replaced him with Wright. He had resorted to forgery and murder to get revenge and it had all backfired. Could he honestly say that he and Engarde were very different?

"There's one major difference between Engarde and myself," he murmured out loud.

"What's that?" Wellington asked.

"I've come to regret my actions. I know what I did was wrong. If I could do it over, I would do everything in my power to prevent my previous mistakes and stop myself from hurting the ones I love," Kristoph explained, "I have a feeling Engarde doesn't regret anything except the one thing that landed him in jail."

Richard nodded in understanding. "Engarde does feel like the kind of guy who does whatever he wants with little regard to how it affects others," he agreed, "That's one of the main reasons he ended up here in the first place. If he didn't use people so much and toss them aside he wouldn't be here."

Kristoph scoffed. "Well, he's not going to be around to bother me for long," he growled, "Not if my brother and I have anything to say about it."

Richard raised his eyebrow in question but didn't say anything.

Kristoph couldn't stop himself from ranting in his journal about Matt. He wrote about everything he did and even drew out an elaborate murder plan of how he would kill the man using only the tools available to him in the cell. He and Matt had been moved to the next cell over due to Frank's escape attempt so now they were across from von Karma and Atmey.

He made sure to write that he would never actually commit this murder, as he vowed he would never kill again. Plus, it would be pretty obvious it was him if Engarde was killed in the cell with him. He sighed and put his journal away. Ranting about his hatred for Matt helped him calm down a little, but he still had to share a cell with him. Hopefully Klavier and Wright would be able to get the lawsuit sorted out soon and Matt would be gone.

At that moment, though, the cells opened and the prisoners were escorted to dinner. Kristoph kept ahead of Matt, making sure he didn't come anywhere near him. When they got to the cafeteria, he found a corner table and sat along the wall where less people could sit with him. Luckily, Godot sat next to him and von Karma sat across from him. In fact, the others made sure that Engarde was sitting at the opposite end of the table away from Kristoph.

Kristoph had taken some food, but he really didn't feel like eating. Not after his confrontation with Matt. It made him sick just thinking about it.

Godot looked at him and gave him a gentle nudge. "Not hungry?" he asked.

"Not really," Kristoph muttered, "I haven't felt this anxious since someone broke into my house and tried to blackmail me."

"Vat? Why would they do that?" von Karma wondered, "Who vas this blackmailer?"

Kristoph shrugged. "I don't know," he confessed, "But apparently he knew me. And he had somehow found out about my forging evidence before being fired by Gramarye. If it hadn't been for Wright clonking him on the head who knows what he would have done to me."

Godot hummed in thought before taking a sip of coffee. He made a face (prison coffee wasn't the greatest,) but he swallowed anyway. "You know, it's quite a dangerous gamble to blackmail someone," he pointed out, "Sure, you might get away with it. Or you could end up dead because the person you're blackmailing decides it's too much for them."

"Indeed," Atmey agreed, "'Twas the situation in my case. Though I am guilty of blackmailing myself, it was beneficial to him in the long run. Sort of. But then that barbaric bastard Bullard had to try to extort me in more ways than one and I had to silence him."

"You know, you should be thankful you were sent to prison when you were, White-o!" Gant exclaimed heartily, slapping White on the back so hard he nearly choked on his food, "One of the many, many people you were blackmailing may have gotten fed up with you and decided to off you!"

White stared at him for a moment before reflecting on the countless of people he had exploited before being exposed. He gulped. "You know what? Maybe being in prison isn't the worst thing," he decided.

"Mmm… I don't know, White," Godot said with a nasty grin (while also reaching a hand under the table,) "I can think of at least one person in this prison who wants to kill you."

"Yeah? Who would that be… oh yeah, you," Redd's voice was loud then got softer when he remembered Godot's grudge against him.

"Counselor," Luke suddenly addressed the man (Godot) sitting next to him, "Why are you rubbing my leg under the table?"

Godot looked at him and Kristoph was pretty sure he was raising an eyebrow under the mask. He didn't answer, though, in fact all conversation at the table came to a halt when Andy Howe walked over to them, standing right behind Kristoph.

"Evening, gentlemen," he greeted, "Enjoying your meals?"

"Oh yeah," Daryan grumbled, an elbow resting on the table and keeping his head up, "Really eating up this tasty whatever-this-is."

"I like the way it looks soupy but tastes crunchy!" Gant unhelpfully put in.

Charming, Kristoph thought. He tried not flinch when Howe leaned over him, putting a hand on the table in front of him.

"Not eating, Gavin?" Howe asked in a low voice in Kristoph's ear. Gavin shivered.

"I'm not feeling well," Kristoph muttered. Howe tsked.

"That won't do," he scolded, "You really should try to eat something. Wouldn't want you to deteriorate and keel over. What if you're attacked again?"

Kristoph glared at him for a moment before finally picking up his spoon and tasting the whatever-this-is. Prison food really was the worst ever.

He felt Howe's breath on his neck as he gave a silent huff of approval before the man straightened and walked to the other end of the table. Kristoph watched as he leaned over Matt and spoke to him briefly, but he couldn't hear what he was saying. What was with the guy and getting into people's personal spaces?

"What's with that guy?" Richard wondered, "He never interacts with the prisoners. He usually acts like we'll give him the plague or something."

"I wonder what he's up to," Misty muttered, "A man like Andy Howe doesn't just go around casually talking to prisoners for no reason."

Kristoph might have voice his own opinion on this, but he found he was slowly growing tired. He hoped that dinner would end soon so he could go back to his cell and go to sleep.

Thankfully, only a few minutes later they were allowed to leave and Kristoph found that his legs felt a lot heavier than usual. He really was tired. As soon as he got back to the cell he took off his glasses and fell onto his cot. A moment later, Matt also came into the cell looking unusually sluggish. His feet dragged on the floor as he shuffled over to his own cot. He laid down with a huff.

Around them there was chatter from the other inmates, but their cell was quiet. Suddenly, Matt sighed.

"Um, Kristoph?" he said. Kristoph grunted in response. "I… I'm really sorry about what I said earlier. I shouldn't have been so rude and insensitive towards you. I'm sorry."

Kristoph was silent for a moment. "Is this coming from you or did Gant tell you what to say?" he asked bitterly.

"No, this is all me," Matt assured him, "I thought about it and I realized that my selfish behavior and constantly screwing people over with no care in the world was what landed me here in the first place. I really hurt you and I'm sorry."

They both fell silent. Kristoph couldn't really bring himself to forgive Engarde yet, but he appreciated the sincere apology. With a small sigh, he closed his eyes and tried to sleep.

There was blood everywhere. Kristoph was drowning in a river of red. He couldn't breathe as his head went under and his lungs filled with the putrid, sticky liquid. He struggled to surface but couldn't. His world was dark red and smelled of iron. He felt like he was going to be sick. He fell deeper and deeper…

Kristoph woke, gasping, and struggled to sit up but immediately fell back against his cot. He could still taste the blood in his mouth, smell the iron in his nose. He felt so dizzy and light-headed for some reason. That nightmare must have upset his stomach, because he felt like it was going to turn over.

Groaning, he rolled over and faced the rest of the cell. Damn! Where did this horrible headache come from? Why did he feel so terrible all of a sudden? He didn't know if he could make it over to the toilet to vomit into it. Breathing hard, he fell off the bed and onto the floor. He struggled to get to his feet, but his legs felt weak. He dragged himself over to the toilet and released his stomach contents into it, which was mostly bile as he had not eaten a lot. And now his throat was sore. Panting, he looked over to his cellmate.

Matt was unusually still. Not an inch of his body was moving. Confused, Kristoph got unsteadily to his feet and did his best not to fall over as he walked over to check on him.

"Engarde?" Kristoph whispered, "Are you all right?"

That's when he noticed the blanket wrapped tightly around Matt's neck and tied to the bars of the cell in a much similar way to the drawing he had made in his journal. There was also a strong odor coming from Matt. He wasn't breathing. Kristoph stumbled away in fear.

Matt Engarde was dead.

BUM BUM BUUUUM! Who saw that coming besides everyone? What's going to happen next? The suspense is killing me! Why was Godot rubbing Luke's leg under the table? Because my sister now ships them after we got to "The Stolen Turnabout" and saw all the weird implications of Godot's dialogue with Luke Atmey, and she wanted me to put her new OTP in my story, that's why! Anyway, leave a comment and look forward to the next thrilling chapter!