Eichen House –
"Up and at 'em boys." Shouted one of the guards, banging his baton against the white metal bars that imprisoned the worst of the worst. Some days it felt less like an inescapable hold and more like an underachieving mental institute. Half the staff were orderlies who enjoyed the idea of mentally scaring prisoners so much so that Eichen had some of the highest suicide rates.
If it wasn't the orderlies, it was the prison guards, lead by Brunski. They were always making vulgar comments, tasering people every chance they got and while admittedly these prisoners were dangerous, Brunski was the worst.
Scott had been up for several hours before the klaxon had rung for morning. Occupying his time with push-ups, pull-ups and any other exercise routine he could think of. He was sweating profoundly, and it could see in the eyes of guards passing by that they could smell it. But hey, it's not like he had anything else to do.
But he was interrupted with the loud bang of a foot kicking his door, a trick the guards thought was funny for some with super hearing. Scott's eyes flicked up towards the door from his push-up but otherwise maintained his rhythm, a kick at the pantry door wasn't exactly cause for concern.
"McCall, brought you breakfast." Called the voice, presumably the one who owned the foot that struck his door. Scott's eyes turned back to the ground, choosing to ignore the humans that were giggling amongst themselves. But it was followed by another kick at the door. "McCall."
"I'm not hungry." Scott growled back, feeling his sweat drip from down his back and onto the concrete, his brow furrowed as he tried to concentrate on something else.
"Really, because I recall that you haven't eaten anything in the past 3 days." The guard laughed, pausing as he watched Scott come to a stop. The wolf hoping up to his feet and walking over to the door, watching the guard twitch slightly.
"Are you going to throw a lettuce through the hatch?" Scott asked, and after a few seconds the guard threw a plate of lettuce through the hatch and then smirked at him.
"You don't like our vegetarian options?" The guard laughed, a few of his colleagues wandering off, clearly thinking the joke was more than sufficient.
"I can go weeks without food and still be able to rip you throat out with my teeth." Scott said, kicking the door back as he backed up into the cell.
"Are you threatening a staff member?" Then guard pestered, staring intently through the open hatch.
"Come in here and it won't just be threat." Scott growled, his eyes glowing a fiery red as he bared his canines. The guard almost hesitant to open the door, but alas he called a few others and they restrained him. A quick strike with an electrified baton that were a high enough voltage to kill a normal human. Scott's limbs tensed up, shaking uncontrollably as the guards chuckled, practically skipping from the room as they slammed the door shut.
Further down the hallway was a large steel enclosed room, one that had another steel room in the middle, and another not too unlike a Russian doll. This was where Lydia spent her days, locked behind several walls of thick reinforced walls in the hopes they'd drown out her screams.
After passing several doors, a guard finally reached the bars of the own cage, where she sat staring at the ground, tracing her finger along the floor as though the was writing something.
"Bullying the wolf again?" her voice echoed off the wall as her eyes gazed up at the guard who stood a foot away from the bars.
"It doesn't involve you Banshee." He hissed, passing a plate of sludge through the bars, catching Lydia's gaze, her eyes like a deep well of sorrow; white wisps swirled in the pool of her iris, silently wailing wisps staring back at him. He was entranced, unable to shake his gaze, Lydia creeping closer. In a split second, everything went black, guards rushed into the dark room, emergency lights flickering on to reveal the twitching body of the guard, blood pooling from his ears. Echoes of a voice still reverberating off the metal walls as she dragged the body away.
Three other cells were still to been checked in on, two more on this first level. A metallic container that had a warning label reading 'Caution: Hot' plastered to it. A guard braced himself and dumped the food through the tray slot, backing away just as quickly.
The container turned red, heat radiating from the metal before dying down, the plate crashing back out the door onto the floor, a clump of ash following suit.
The other cell being one not too unlike Scott's cell, in fact they were opposite each other. Both surrounded and built from mountain ash, except unlike Scott's cell, this one had a line of mistletoe that the guards were never able to remove.
"What happened this time?" Called the voice of the mistletoe cage, inside perhaps the weakest looking of all the prisoners. Nothing more than a boy, a pale and sickly boy at that. Parts of his arms and neck were covered in Lichtenberg Figures, some fainter than others.
"Keep quiet." A guard snarled at the boy, a boy who was only sitting mindless in the middle of his cell. He almost appeared to be meditating as the guard approached, sludge on a plate that he slid through the hatch.
"I can feel everything." He muttered, his eyes opening to reveal a strange glow in his eyes. A silver, metallic sheen over his iris that faded in and out. "I can feel the pain."
"Look, can you all stop talking and just eat. I'd rather you all be alive when the boss shows up." The guard said, peering through the hatch into the eyes that seemed to be peering into his soul.
"I wouldn't talk to him if I were you." Scott shouted, almost laughing as his voice resonated out of his cell, distracting the guard for only a mere second. His eyes only flicking back when the sludge fell back out of the hatch. As the plate landed the light flickered, dimming and sparking before the few surrounding the cell exploded, plunging the corridor and cell into darkness.
"I can only live where there is light, but I die if the light shines on me. What am I?" Whispered a voice close to his ear, looking through the open hatch into the pitch black cell to catch a glimpse of gleaming light reflections just centimetres from his face. The guard slammed the hatch shut as he fled the scene, the corridor lights flicking themselves back on as he left.
The basement was the only cell left, again lined with mountain ash and an array of climbing frames lined the walls, a man-made jungle. One that hid the kanima from human eyes. The guards having learned from their early mistake, used an extendable arm to drop the sludge just within the ash border. They waited, watching for the kanima to come crawling down from above, waiting to see that whipping tail.
They were disappointed when Jackson came out from a hole, a cave that he'd dug up himself as a place to sleep. Dressed like any other prisoner, maintaining that human appearance he much preferred to scales.
"What, no tail today?" Moaned a guard, a few sulking away as Jackson picked up the plate of sludge.
"Just because you look human, doesn't mean we'll treat you like one." Said another guard, all of them leaving, Jackson listening to their footstep against the concrete stairs. His tail creeping out from under his shirt as it wrapped the plate and swung it over the ash border, crawling back to his cave.
Brunski was keeping a close eye on the cells from his security room, having watched each reject the food and lash out in their own ways. While they'd been here for weeks, months some of them. They still had some much energy that was beyond human, especially considering several of them are running on fumes.
He turned around to see Ms, Morrell stood in the doorway, glancing over at the screens and the animals on them, each having calmed down. Her gaze flicked up to Brunski, who shakily stood awaiting her words.
"I'm here to collect."