My scream got lost in a paper cup

I think there's a heaven where some screams have gone

I got 25 bucks and a cracker do you think it's enough

To get us there?

Well I love the way we communicate

You eyes focus on my funny lip shape

Let's here what you think of me now but baby don't look up--The sky is falling

Your mother shows up in a nasty dress

And it's your turn to stand where I stand

Everybody looking at you, here take hold of my hand.

-Tori Amos

Jenni stood in front of the desk, trying desperately not to bite her nails, chew on her hair or any other such childish habit that would attract negative attention towards herself. She was consciously aware of the guard's rather scornful eyes upon her at all times.

Jenni had never been in a prison before, and therefore knew nothing of how this one compared. But she hated it none the less. She thought back to the horrible moment when the bus first pulled up in front of the insufferable building less that a half hour ago.

Something akin to a chill spread through her body as she laid her eyes on it for the first time. Like an icy hand had gripped her heart and twisted it around in her chest.

It was a cold looking building with it's walls made out of large stone chunks. It gave the feeling of a building that had seen much cruelty, and was harder for it. Any unspeakable horror could lie behind those treacherous looking stones. Immediately the image of a room, cold and white with a chair in the center of it, with straps and wires attatched to it filled Jenni's head.

Eager to be rid of these thoughts, she jumped off the bus, trying leave her negative attitude behind. It didn't work. The moment she saw the big letters that adorned the otherwise empty building she gasped in horror. In bold black letters the word DOOM stood before her. She whipped around just as the bus began to pull away.

Slowly, fearfully, she turned back around and looked at the letters once more. By this time, Jenni had a bit of reign on her overly active imagination, and all she saw when the words came into focus was "Doonsfield Prison" above the door. Jenni knew in her head that they had never, and never would say "doom", but she couldn't shake this feeling of apprehension that filled her.

She stopped for a moment and just looked at it. The building was immense. There were windows on what appeared to be every floor, indicated that there were six levels to the building. And just like in all of the stories, there were iron bars that blocked the windows. It stirred a deep contempt to see this.

The sky was grey and it looked rather like it was going to rain. "Just perfect," she thought to herself bitterly. "Pathetic fallacy. One more thing that should only exist in fiction."

The grass- if it could be called that- that surrounded the place was dead and dry. It crunched under Jenni's feet as she stepped on it. There were no trees and no flowers. It seemed that everything inside of those gigantic barbed wire fences was a vacuum- entirely devoid of life.

Wishing to avoid looking at those horrible black letters any longer- she felt instinctively that if she checked again, they would once more say "doom" in that formidable fashion- Jenni forced her feet to move as quickly as possible without outright running.

Only the glass door stood as her barrier now. Jenni swallowed a nonexistent lump in her throat, gathered her wits and she pushed at the door handle.

The door slid open with an unexpected ease. She composed her face into a mask of confidence and sophistication- but she knew that it could not last. Then, with her back straight, eyes hard, she approached the desk in front of her and coughed surreptitiously.

The man sitting behind the table looked up at her in an almost saucy manner from beneath those huge, dark, bushy eyebrows, questioningly.

"I would like to see one of the inmates, please," said Jenni, trying her best to sound like she actually knew what she was doing. The man straightened up in his seat and peered at her in a curious fashion for a moment or two, and then said, "I've never seen you around here before. I would know. I *always* remember a face." Jenni didn't know how to reply to something like that, but apparently, she wasn't required to, for after a very short pause the man continued.

"Well, are you here to see a lifer or a temporary?" he asked nonchalantly. "A-a what?" asked Jenni, bewildered. The man sniffed scornfully. "Are you here to see some poor bugger who will never see past these walls-a lifer-or a temporary with a time sentence?" he asked, obviously condescending.

"N-neither," she stammered, trying desperately to collect herself. "What I mean is, I want to see a man being kept here who has just been arrested. He hasn't even been to court yet. His name is Dune de Fanel." The massive eyebrows shifted to the center of the wide forehead.

"Indeed?" he said. "Well, you'll have to wait here then. I'll arrange it." He disappeared around the corner before she even had a chance to thank him. And that brought her to where she stood now, waiting anxiously for the man's return.

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The hallways and rooms of the prison had been a complete blur to Jenni, despite her best attempts to take note of her surroundings. Everything just faded into this nasty grey that never ended. They had probably designed it to be confusing.

They had showed her to a booth, a small cramped one- completely made of metal. There was one wall that the metal stopped half way up, and there was a little ledge to rest your arms on or something. Above that was a barrier of plexi glass and dead center, right about nose height was a small, circular mouth peace to talk through. There was a chair on either side of the wall, and the man motioned for Jenni to sit down. "Wait here," he said in a gruff voice and closed the door behind him.

Impatiently, Jenni's fingers tapped on the ledge. She was nervous- her pulse was racing. Her palms were beginning to sweat. Self-consciously she wiped them on her skirt.

Half of her screamed that she *needed* to see Dune, and the other half feared to.

They were friends. Ever since he had begun to work with Jan at AD, he had come into the diner twice, maybe three times a week. They had begun to talk after a while. Usually over a cup of that coffee that Dune couldn't get enough of.

At first, she had found Dune to be quite dull, and vice versa. They were at total different ends of the personality spectrum. He was serious, brooding and had a highly scientific mind. Jenni on the other hand, could barely stomach anything that had to do with equations, loved to have fun and was always looking for a laugh. And above all, she could never find enough outlets for her creativity. One would think that they would have hated each other at first sight. But there was some little part of her conscience that told her to hold off on making judgment on him. She was *sure* that there had to be more to him that the stoic exterior.

And she was right. Eventually they were able to find common ground, little things that they had in common, and she was even beginning to find the things that he liked interesting, just through talking with him. He had incredible passion whenever he spoke, and it captured her. Everything was perfect in their friendship until one evening a couple of weeks back, just after he left the diner, a revelation hit her and it completely rocked her world.

She realized that she was *attracted* to Dune. Of course, she knew to hide it. She had been in enough bad relationships to know to stay well away from anything that even hinted at romance. Nevertheless...she could not shake herself of these feelings. Everyday she grew only more attached to him. Dependant on his company almost. And now...he was in jail, soon to be on trial for manslaughter.

She didn't know whether she was more upset and scared that he might be found guilty or horrified and enraged at his crime. She was ashamed that she could even doubt his innocence, but she did. But she needed to see him. And so...she waited.

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