CHAPTER 48 - 3 YEARS LATER

"WAKE UP! RISE AND SHINE!" A prison guard shouted, dragging his baton along the grating of the cells in the protective custody section of the prison. Finn jumped up to his feet. He had been placed in the protective custody unit of the jail as he was supposedly a 'child-murderer' so would be the target of practically the whole prison. It had been exactly 3 years since Finn was locked up in prison - 1095 days since he had seen the outside world - but against all odds, Finn was finally finding a way to not be thoroughly depressed. And he knew today would be a good day because it was the first Saturday of the month: Visiting Day.

"Good morning, Caleb." Finn said, smiling at his cellmate. Caleb groaned and slowly woke up.

"You woke up happy for once." Caleb remarked.

"You're damn right I did. It's visiting day."

For his first few months in prison, Visiting Day was an extremely miserable day for him. Because inmates in the high security lockup only got 1 day of visitation a month, a lot of family and loved ones came out to visit. Finn, however, wanted nothing to do with his family and whenever Carole and Burt came, Finn refused to meet with them. There was one person he did meet with though: Santana.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

1 year ago (2 years into Finn's prison sentence)...

It was Visiting Day and Finn grumbled to himself as he got up. During all 24 of the past Visiting Days Finn had been in prison for, at least one member of his family had come and tried to see him, but to no avail. So this time, when Finn was told that he had a visitor, he assumed it was Carole, Burt or Kurt and he agreed to see them so he could tell them to fuck off and go away. However, when he went down to the visiting centre of the prison and he sat at a table, to his surprise, it was not a family member sitting in front of him. It was Santana!

"Um… Santana? Is everything okay?" Finn asked as he sat down.

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?"

"Um… because it's been a year since I last saw you."

"I'm sorry. I've been meaning to come earlier but I was totally swamped with everything. College, the move…"

"Yeah, I'm sure. I mean, moving from small-town Lima to Philly, that must have been a lot."

"Actually, Britt and I ended up moving back to Lima a month or so ago." Santana replied. Finn raised an eyebrow.

"You did. Why?"

"Well, college was just not for me. My parents told me to try it for a year and if I didn't like it, they said they'd let me drop out. Well, I tried it and I hated every minute of it."

"Wow, that's really… unexpected. But can I just say one thing?"

"Yeah, sure. What?"

"Whether you go to college or not, don't flush your life down the toilet. I'm gonna die in here, my life hadn't even started. Make up for that. Do what makes you happy. Enjoy every day."

Santana smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, I am. I have a job I love, and it's the job I'm going to be at for the rest of my working life."

Finn raised an eyebrow.

"Really? What are you doing?"

"Well, I am an officer for Lima PD, and hopefully in 5 months time, a detective."

Finn's face broke out into a faint smile. He hadn't smiled in 2 years.

"Wow, that's awesome, Santana! That's really, really great!"

"Yeah, I mean, putting criminals behind bars, it's absolutely amazing."

The two of them lapsed into an awkward silence for a moment before Santana spoke again.

"Finn, I know you didn't kill him." Santana stated. Finn nodded, not really believing it.

"Uh huh. Right." Finn murmured. Santana looked him right in the eye.

"Finn, look at me." She said. Finn's eyes reluctantly moved to meet hers. "I know you didn't do it."

"What makes you so sure?" Finn muttered. "If my own family believes I did it, how could you possibly feel any differently?"

"Because I'm the only person in the Glee club, hell, the only person you know, who truly understands revenge. I understand vengeance. Anger. Envy. I'm Auntie Snixx, remember? I'm the queen of fury. And one of the things that comes with that is that I can sense people's anger and emotion. I know you didn't do this, Finn. I know with every fiber of my being that you did not kill Jessie. And you need to know that with my new resources in the Lima PD, I am going to do everything I can to prove that to the D.A that you're innocent."

Finn nodded and smiled.

"Thanks, Santana."

That was the start of a very powerful friendship. Every month on Visiting Day, Santana would come see him for the single hour they were allowed. Finn heard about her Detective's exam, her first week as detective, the first criminal she put away, her four year anniversary with Britt. And she got to hear, first-hand, about the horrors of prison life, making her even more desperate to get Finn out.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

1 year later (The present)...

"Hey Santana." Finn smiled as he walked into the visiting room. Santana, who was sitting at one of the tables, beamed at him and gave him a big hug.

"Hey!" She exclaimed.

"Oh, man, four weeks is way too long between visits."

"I know. I'm so sorry. It's been so hard to get down here between work and spending every free minute on your case."

"Oh, yeah! So how's my case going? Have you found anything? I've been working on it in here. You know, when no one's watching. In my cell. At night. In the dark. I guess I've been mostly thinking about it."

"I've been doing all I can. You know, going back to the alley nearly every week, combing through all hit and run mugging cases in the area, searching traffic cams, CCTV footage from the shops across the street. He's done a great job covering himself from sight."

Finn sighed and nodded. He looked down, slightly disheartened. He knew that the chances of him getting out of prison were extremely narrow, and were getting more narrow each day. But he had to be patient. His friendship with Santana had given him new-found faith.

"I will find something, Finn. I swear. Don't give up hope, okay? How are they treating you? Are you safe?"

"Yeah. Well, I'm still in protective custody because everyone in gen pop hates child-murderers. I'm not really sure why. Something about ending innocent lives."

"So it sounds like you're isolated and haven't had any chance to make new friends." Santana smirked.

"Well, my cellmate, Caleb is okay."

"Just remember he's in prison. No matter how small the crime, people don't change and don't deserve second chances!" Santana spat, jealously. Finn chuckled.

"San, relax. I'm not gonna replace you." Finn laughed. "Trust me, all I've been thinking about is when you are gonna get down here. And now you are, and we can finally talk."

Almost as soon as the words came out of Finn's mouth, the prison alarm started blaring and the guards were instantly on alert.

"There's an incident in the yard! We're going into lockdown!" One of the guards announced. "Inmates, line up!"

"No. No, no, no, no, no. I have 50 more minutes. I need this!" Finn cried.

"Back to your cells right now!"

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"The alarm went off before we could even talk." Finn grumbled to Caleb, his cellmate, later that day as they sat in the canteen and ate the sloppy, unrecognisable, inedible mush that was classified as prison food.

"Aw, that's too bad, bud. But at least you have people that wanna come and visit you. My family hasn't been to see me since my trial. You eat nine people and all of a sudden, they 'don't know who you are anymore.'"

Finn's eyes widened.

"Wait… what? Did you say eat people? Are you a… are you a cannibal, Caleb?"

"Well, that's not how I would define myself. If we're going by what I'm most passionate about, I would say I'm a woodworker."

Finn groaned.

"Well, why did you think I was in protective custody?" Caleb asked when he saw Finn's facial expression.

"I don't know. I guess I hoped you were another innocent man wrongly convicted of a child-murder you didn't commit."

"Nope, I did all my stuff and more. There's tons they can't even trace to me. The secret is eating the evidence."

Finn raised a hand to stop Caleb talking and he closed his eyes.

"Okay, this is just great. I don't see anyone from the outside for another 4 weeks and my only friend here is a cannibal." Finn snapped.

"Woodworker." Caleb corrected. He then leaned in and spoke quietly. "Look, if you really wanna talk to people on the outside, just get a cell phone."

"Yeah, that'd be great, but it's illegal, right?" Finn asked. Caleb shrugged.

"There's this guy in gen pop - Romero. He can smuggle anything into this place: phones, drugs, big bag of hair."

Finn grimaced.

"Why would you want that? You know what? Don't tell me! The less I know about you, the better. Okay, let's find this Romero guy."

"Right now?" Caleb whined, looking at the slab of beef in front of him. "But I really wanna chomp down on this meat."

"Caleb!" Finn groaned. He put his head in his hands and thought. He was going to be in prison for the rest of his life. It's not like he could have his sentence extended if he was caught with a phone. What the hell? He was in.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

That afternoon, Finn and Caleb walked through the prison yard, a mere grated fence between them and gen pop. They could feel every eye in gen pop on them and it was not in a good way. As a cannibal and child-murderer, none of the prisoners would hesitate to kill them.

"This is scary." Caleb remarked as they walked over to the fence. "I don't like being so near gen pop."

"It's fine. It's not like they're all waiting for an opportunity to kill us." Finn replied. "I'm sure some of them are actually nice, like this gentle giant here. Hello, my good sir, what brings you to the fence today?" Finn asked a 6'10 man who was the size of a tank. The man had a shiv concealed in his hands and he scowled at them.

"Just here to stab you if you get too close." The inmate replied. Finn and Caleb grimaced.

"Neat. Caleb, remind me not to stand too close to the fence." Finn said to his friend.

"Will do." Caleb laughed. "Oh, here's Romero."

A 5'8, slightly skinny Asian man walked to the fence but somehow, he looked just as, if not more threatening than the 6'10 guy. You could tell from the look in his eye that he wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone who got in his way.

"So what's up?" Romero snapped. "You need another bag of hair, Caleb?"

"Yeah." Caleb replied.

"No!" Finn exclaimed, glaring at his cellmate.

"We'll talk later. Same order, though." Caleb whispered to Romero.

"I hear you're the man to talk to about getting a cell phone." Finn murmured.

"I am. But it'll cost you." Romero responded. "Phone's 100."

"100 bucks. That's no problem!"

Romero scoffed.

"I got no use for cash. I want 100 soups."

"Soups?" Finn asked, perplexed.

"Yeah, ramen. They're like a major currency in here." Caleb explained.

"Really? That's very surprising." Finn remarked.

"Yeah, well, you can't smoke anymore, so ramen has replaced cigarettes. NPR did a big thing on it."

"I thought they sold ramen at the prison commissary." Finn stated. Romero growled.

"I don't want commissary soups, you stupid little bitch boy." He spat. Finn gritted his teeth and forced himself to stay calm. "I want flavors you can only get on the outside - chili-lime shrimp, southwestern chicken. Street flavors."

"Ooh, Picante Beef is my favourite." Caleb remarked. Romero nodded and pointed at Caleb then looked at Finn.

"Get me picante beef, bitch boy." Romero snapped before walking away. Once he was gone, Finn turned to Caleb.

"Okay, so I just get some ramen and then I get a cell phone. Prison is easy!" He exclaimed. At that moment, the 6'10 inmate lunged at the fence, his shiv aloft. Finn and Caleb yelped and leapt back.

"You stood too close to the fence." Caleb remarked. Finn rolled his eyes and glared at him.

"Yeah, I know, Caleb!"