Wow, it's been a while since I updated. Well, whatever block I had, I'm off now. At least, for the time being. For whatever reason, Inari just cannot get out of prison! Oh, by the way, I think I forgot to mention why I dubbed Johnny 13 "Johnathan Cade" : I named him after Johnathan Cade, aka "Ponyboy" from the Outsiders. He seems to fit the profile for the time period as well as personality.

Chapter 10 What the Cameras Caught

Sitting back in his official office chair, Walker observed the many cameras placed in his prison with his hands folded under his chin. He liked to think of himself as a reasonable man. He ran his jail like a tight ship, kept his prisoners in line, and snuffed out most rebellions before they even started. He kept order within his cold steel walls and ruled with an iron fist. But recently, he had been noticing a little... hiccup in his usual order.

His latest prisoner, a human girl, had been a problem. She was smarter than the average criminal, already quickly learning that she could move through ghost jail walls because of her human physiology, and knew when to sneak out of her cell when the security was at its weakest. Yet despite all this, she always returned to her cell and somehow remained ignorant of his many security cameras. This had left him intrigued.

Normally, the prison would have been on high alert of an escaped criminal, Walker nearly sent someone to recapture the girl the first time she had snuck out, but she had returned to her cell as quickly as she had left it, so he felt no need to send for alarm. The next night, she had tried again, venturing a little further than the last escapade before she returned back to the cell. These weren't botched escape attempts. She was studying them. No, this girl clearly had a mission in coming here, but what it was, he couldn't figure out.

His subordinate Bullet entered the security room, the second-in-command being the only other officer who knew of Walker's plans. While Walker didn't trust a whole lot of folks, he trusted Bullet with his life, and that trust was proven countless amount of times with the many scars and injuries Bullet had sustained over the years and now wore proudly like they were his trophies.

"How's Jane Doe nightly walk?" Bullet asked the warden, dubbing the human as Jane Doe since he nor Walker couldn't put an identification on her. It was extremely unlikely that a human could end up in the Ghost Zone by accident, not mention unusual for them be trapped here since most natural portals would just as quickly open up for the human to escape. Most people who ended up here came from the portal in Bermuda, though it was extremely finicky even for a natural portal and would end up transporting people into different timelines entirely.

"A bit boring, actually. She just passed the new cell district. Speaking of which, how's the progress on the suspended animation chamber?" Walker inquired, Bullet scratching under his bandana with an exhausted sigh.

"With the work that's being put in, it should be officially installed in three days," Bullet replied, Walker's furrowed brow turning into a slight grin. Well, there was some good news at least... until he heard him finished with, "As far as being boring, sir, you might want to take a look at Camera Two." He pointed to a maneuvering Inari, who had snuck into one of the higher security prison blocks.

"What the-! How did she get into Sector 3?!" Walker exclaimed, slammed his palms onto the metal desk.

"I believe most of the guards were on break, sir," was Bullet's reply. Walker felt his teeth grind together as he pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a slow build to an oncoming headache.

We'll have to change that, he thought darkly to himself. Delicate documents and evidence was held in that storage house, not to mention one of the most highly guarded maximum security inmates that only Walker and Bullet had clearance to enter. The fact that there was a lax in security was poor judgement and staff management on his part. He hated that, but that was a thing he was hoping to change very soon. Until then, he would have to put his investigation on hold and beef up her security, especially since the Box Ghost now began wrecking through the storage room, discovering he could use the human like a suit of armor to escape the prison.

"Eat cardboard!" the Box Ghost-Inari shouted as she floated in the air and flung dozens of boxes at the prison guards.

"Tell the staff there's going to be some guard reassignment," Walker said as he whistled for Wulf to follow him outside of his office. "Looks like we'll have to keep a tighter leash on Miss Jane Doe." Even in the presence of entropy, he was still in control. Whatever this girl's mission was, he would find out eventually, and when he did, he'd lock her up, and this time, he'd make sure she'd stay put.

Penelope Spectra had always been a clever person. Even in life, she was a master manipulator. She knew how people worked. When she was human, she had worked as a psychologist and a guidance counselor for a local school before a certain chain of events led to the decay of her life and eventual demise.

Drinking in all of the human girl's emotions had left her absolutely drunk on misery. She knew how the girl worked. An introverted girl with over crippling shyness leads her to living a life filled with loneliness; it was how a lot of cat ladies were made. She had seen it all before, but never quite at this scale. She had dealt with troubled teens with problems ranging from drug addicts to teenage pregnancy, but there was something about this girl in particular that felt different. Something darker, more primal and ancient. The thought only made her want to play with her food more, poking it around and around to see what its insides were like. If only she had Nocturne's powers.

His ability to see the inner thoughts and desires of others through dreams was one thing she felt envious about. She could only guess and speculate on what a person was thinking, but he could actually see dreams, thoughts, and memories of others. His power was the definition of "a picture's worth a thousand words," and she knew she wouldn't be able to nearly come up with enough words to determine what others were thinking like he could. She almost hated him for it, but she couldn't let petty jealousy get in the way.

Right now, she needed to focus on the matter at hand. She needed to get out of this hellhole. Pretty women don't do well inside jail, especially her in particular. If she didn't feed regularly, her youth would start to fade again, along with her strength. Soon, she would be a husk of what she once was, and she would rather die again than have to let anyone see her like that.

She currently was working on her community service with the Lunch Lady, handing out food towards the prisoners wearing those god-awful hairnets. As she began preparing for the morning breakfast rush, she popped open thermos and began pouring a heavy mixture of beans and meat from it. It was virtually identical to the Fenton thermos, which made it almost too easy to switch it out and sneak the replacement into the human girl's bag when the latter had passed out from stress. She wasn't even going to go into detail on how excruciating it was to sneak it past the guards when they were searched, but it had made it all almost worthwhile. Originally, she had switched it out in order for herself to have a means of escape and capturing Walker, but the fact that the human was incarcerated because of it made the chase all the more sweeter.

"Chili, anyone?" she smiled cheerfully as she began scooping out the soup with her ladle. Her plan with Nocturne was slowly coming together, and nothing would stand in her way.