He didn't sleep. Not really. Not anything that Felix would call a restful sleep.
His eyes might have been closed, and his mind might have wandered, but he was never really asleep. If a soldier went to sleep, that meant he wasn't aware of his surroundings. And that meant that the enemy could sneak up on him, and take him prisoner, or worse. He'd only ever sleep if he knew someone was watching his back.
But who can I trust in here?
A familiar – and yet spine chilling – tap on his bars brought his attention to Olaf, "Wake up Felix"
Felix sat up in bed and stared the old guard down, "I was already awake. What do you want? It's Friday, sports day doesn't start till noon. Besides, I don't really feel like chasing a ball around today"
Olaf scoffed, "The Warden wants to see you. On your feet, young punk!"
Felix sighed, and stood up to put on his prison coat. As much as he wanted to, a summons to The Warden's Office was not something that could be ignored by any prisoner.
They walked slowly through the strangely quiet halls. Most of the other prisoners were already out to the yards for the weekly sports day, which was meant to be competitive team building diversion, but in reality was merely an excuse for the guards to empty the prison for a few hours to both clean up and give themselves some peace and quiet. The men would be divided into two teams, Soldiers and Not-Soldiers, for which ever game the guards felt like letting them play. In the summer it would be football, and in the winter either hockey or sled races.
Felix wasn't much of an athlete – the foot being one of several reasons why – and never really cared for competition that wasn't fighting. But he saw the value of letting the young men stay in shape.
They might be called into war again, years from now
Slowly, Olaf and Felix made the trip up the long wooden stairs to The Warden's Office. Felix could have made it there faster of course, but Olaf had to stop and rest his old bones on each of the three landings. On the third, Felix smirked at him, "I could carry you up if you want, Old Man"
Olaf huffed and puffed, and then pushed Felix along with the tip of his truncheon. Felix laughed and simply continued up the final steps until they entered the Warden's Office.
The Office may as well have been the Royal Palace compared to the rest of the Prison. The floor was carpeted, the seats were made of leather, and the desk was crafted of fine wood that likely came from a very expensive Carpenter's shop on Kristall Street, which could be seen clearly through the Warden's large window, facing away from the damp and dirty prison he managed.
The Warden turned and looked at Felix. It always came as a surprise how young he was to be a Warden. The man wasn't much older than Phoenix, and he had those eyes that had seen real fighting before. He shaved his head, likely by hand, and wore the prison Uniform of a black shirt and matching trousers as though he took the time to press it himself every single morning. The Warden wore glasses, a rimless set with gold frames, but otherwise had no visible sign of weakness.
A weak man couldn't run this place anyway
"Thank you Olaf, you can wait outside" said the Warden as he sat down behind his desk.
After he left, The Warden sighed as he made a showing of reading Felix's file, "Well, well, well. What am I going to do with you, Sargent?"
"Olaf gave me the details of your..." he said, trailing for a moment, "Incident, with the CH Auto-Memories Doll in the yard yesterday. You do understand that in most cases, my response is set in stone? We'd be adding time to your sentence, you'd be spending the weekend in solitary, and whatever other consequences that may or may not occur"
"Other consequences, sir?" asked Felix, daring to goad the Warden.
The look on his face was one of annoyance as he answered, "I'm no fool, Sargent Schlager. Olaf does his duty, considering that he's too old to care otherwise. Men like Schroeder however tend to go outside their scope of work. It's not something I can endorse, but on occasion I do find a use for it"
Felix said nothing, but made a point to crack his neck. He wouldn't make Schroeder's job any easier than he had to.
The Warden turned a page in the file, "Of course, you are a slightly special case. There's no point in adding time to the sentence of a man awaiting execution. Somehow, I feel as though being thrown in solitary wouldn't do much good either. And most importantly, an Auto-Memories Doll is a rather expensive commodity"
He closed the file, stood up, and sat at the edge of his desk while crossing his arms, "So. What would you do, in my position?"
Felix shrugged, "Do you want an honest answer to that? Or is it a rhetorical question?"
The Warden broke out into a smile, something Felix didn't expect, "Well, I see that my coin was not entirely wasted if you learned a word like that. We'll return to that question a moment. The second reason I brought you up here was to give you some information in person, some information that I would hope explains to you that I respect your service to this country, if nothing else"
"The Crown Magistrate is an old classmate of mine, from the Officer's Academy. He occasionally gives me updates to his pending cases. Where that concerns you is regarding your upcoming hearing. It's been moved to this coming Monday, so the courts can clear it out of the way in time for the Princess's Birthday on Friday" said the Warden.
"So, this will be my last weekend here?" Felix asked, not rhetorically.
"I'm afraid not" the Warden replied, with a sigh, "There's some politics behind it, but he led me to understand that the trial board will be ruling in favour of execution. And to ensure that such sad business doesn't dampen the Princess's Birthday Celebration, you'll be hanged on Wednesday. That's the final decision. No more appeals, no more hearings"
Felix didn't know what to say. In the back of his mind, he'd always suspected the noose was final stopping place on the road of life, but the last week with Violet had put a small thought into his head that things might be different. She had taught him words, made him sandwiches and coffee, and most importantly, she'd listened to his story, something no one else had ever done.
Was it worth it, if this is how it ends?
"That brings us back the original question. What should I do with you?" asked The Warden.
Felix, honestly, didn't know what to answer. Part of him was thinking;
Why wait, let's get this over with. Take your pistol out and finish it now.
Another part said;
No, I don't want to die! There has to be something I can do!
But one part was winning, and it was that part that spoke next, "I'd like to make two requests, if I could. After that, you can do whatever you want with me"
"Go ahead" replied the Warden.
Felix sighed deeply, "I don't want to be hanged, sir. And I'm not saying that to avoid the sentence. I'll die anyway, but I want to die like a soldier. Can I have a firing squad?"
"It's not something I'd ordinarily agree to, but I'll make the arrangements. What is the second request?" asked the Warden.
"It's Friday. That gives me five more days. I want to finish my story with Violet" Felix said.
"Finish your story, eh. No last meals, or a beautiful woman brought to your cell? A trip to the opera perhaps?" The Warden asked, half rhetorically and half challenging.
"I don't care about those things. They're just temporary. They'll be gone once they go away. But if I finish my story, that might stay around for a while longer. And, Violet's my only friend now. I'd like to see my friend one last time" said Felix, sounding sadder than he thought he would.
The Warden took a long time to think before he answered. After a few minutes he said, "You should have been a Gambler instead of a Soldier, Sargent. Luck seems to favour you. As a matter of fact, she arrived earlier this morning, and is waiting for you in the yard even as we speak, with a picnic basket no less."
He stood, and sharpened his tone, "I will allow you to finish your work. But if there are any more incidents like yesterday, consider the story finished. You'll be locked up in Solitary until Wednesday, and you'll be hanged that morning. Is that understood?"
Felix snapped in place, and saluted the Warden, just as he saluted the fat, old Colonel so long ago. But this time, he took it seriously, "Understood, Sir!"
The Warden surprised him for a second time and returned his salute. He then waved at the door, and Felix found Olaf nearly drifting off in the waiting chair outside the office, "Wake up, Old Man. I've got work to do"
Olaf gruffed, and slowly stood up to stretch, "I hope she brought more of those salami sandwiches. The Wife hates buying deli meat. She says it's barbaric"
"She obviously never bought from my shop. She'd buy meat by the log if she had. I'll see what Violet brought us when we get to the yard. But we have to stop at my cell first" Felix said, starting down the stairs.
"What in the hell for? I'm hungry!" Olaf protested.
Felix laughed, "I need the picture. We're on the last few chapters now, and she needs to know what my boys looked like. I've only got five days to finish, I don't want to leave anything out now".
