It took two days from the cart to reach the fields were the prisoners would be working at. It was definitely not the most beautiful place; the fields were all muddy, the building where they were supposed to live was near to its collapsing. In fact, it looked like no one had been there for years.
A police officer came over to the bunch of prisoners, a harsh look on his face. It was quite easy to see that he wasn't very happy about working here either. The man who had been driving the cart got down from his seat, helping the police to get the prisoners down form the cart in order and to get them into a line.
The police then counted the men. He didn't ask for names, he didn't ask for crimes or where they had come from. To him, all that mattered that there were exactly the twenty men that his boss had told there was going to be. Names were needless for scum like them, they were not worth a single thing.
Still chained up like animals, the men were led to the small storage where they would get the equipments from. There were no horses for them to pull the plows, there were no clothes for them to change or put over their regular clothes so they wouldn't get stained.
Working with only the strength of their own arms helping them, the men worked until the sun set and it became too dark for anyone to see what they were doing. Completely out of breath, his clothes in an even worse condition than before, Francis followed the other prisoners inside the barn like building where they were going to be spending their next ten years. Only when they were all inside, the chains were opened. It was obvious that the men were not trusted, though; the door of the barn was locked as soon as the police officer stepped out.
Even though Francis knew he should not be judging anyone there just because they looked like a man who could actually hurt someone on purpose, he had to admit to himself that he was not really looking forward to talking to these people. Sure, he wanted to be in good terms with all of them; he didn't really want to get into any fights, but being friends with them? Well, maybe not.
He took the bed in the corner for himself. All of the beds were bunk beds, and like any other human being, he picked the top bunk since he had the choice. There was not much he could do as he climbed on the bed, sitting there with his legs crossed. None of them had been allowed to take anything with them, besides the clothes they had been wearing when they had been declared guilty. Most of the men were alredy talking with each other, bragging with the things they had done.
"And then I twisted his neck! You should have heard the sound when it cracked, and the scream-"
Francis shook his head quietly, not wanting to listen to that anymore. Sure, he was a strong man and would be capable of hurtin someone if he wanted, but to him, violence was not a way to solve anything. And bragging with hurting someone, it was just sick. If he only could, he decided, he would avoid talking about pretty much anything with these men.
He must have been lost in the thoughts swirling inside his head as he had not noticed two men standing below him, staring at him. Only when the bed dipped in the weight of the two climbing on his bunk, he jumped, turning to look at them.
"Mon dieu... You scared me...", he muttered under his breath, observing the two men for a moment. The other was a lot paler than anyone he had ever seen, and his eyes were crimson red. 'An albino...', Francis thought. When he had been a child, there had been all these horror stories about albinos, how they were demons and ate children's souls. Of course he didn't believe those stories; albinos were just like any other people. He was not one to judge.
The other man was like the complete opposite of the first one. He was tanned, his hair was dark and his eyes a deep brown. The paler man had a piercing look in his eyes, the sparkle in them making it seem like he was somewhat amused, and his lips were twisted into a rather crooked smile. The other man, he seemed to be a very relaxed person, the smile on his lips almost lazy.
He hated to be judging people by their looks, but the former man looked much more like a criminal than the latter one.
"You don't seem like you ever commited a crime", the paler man said all suddenly, and Francis' raised his eyebrows, as if urging the other to continue. "You have that kind of look in your eyes... You know, all... What is it called, Toni?"
When addressed, the tanned man gave a lazy grin, looking at the Frenchman. "Innocent", he said, and the pale man nodded.
"Oh, well...", Francis muttered, awkwardly running a hand through his hair, trying to smooth down it at least a little bit. "I guess what I did was agaisnt the law, but I don't really think it was a crime."
The two men looked at each other, the silver-haired one snickering a bit. "Yeah, that's what everyone says. I'm Gilbert, I'm in here for shooting a man", the pale man said, the words of his past actions falling from his lips as regularly as any other word would. At least he wasn't bragging about it, Francis thought.
"And I'm Antonio. I'm here for stealing a child." Francis was honestly taken aback by that. Stealing a child, now who would ever do that? He must have looked even scared, since Gilbert placed his hand on Francis' shoulder, the touch actually shoothign him down. "Relax, we are not bad people. I shot that man because he was beating up my little brother. I didn't even kill him or anything; I just shot him in the knee to make sure he would not hurt Ludwig anymore. I really hope he learned his lesson, there's no one to look after Ludwig when I'm not there", the German male said, looking down. Even though he tried to hide the feelings messing inside his head, it was clear that he was worried for his bother, and scared that something might happen to him.
Francis slowly placed his hand on Gilbert's back, rubbing it comfortingly. Even though the two of them had just met each other, the German didn't seem to mind his action, instead he relaxed a little bit.
"And if you think that I stole that child for some perverted reasons, you are wrong. I would not ever hurt him, and I only did it to save him", Antonio said, and now as he spoke more, Francis was able to notice the Spanish accent of his. "You see, Lovino was never really treated well at his home. His mother yelled at him all the time and his father kept beating him up. He was always left in the shadow of his brother. I wanted to offer him a better life, I wanted to take care of him", Toni continued.
"I would have been a great father for him, I really would...", he said, his voice wavering slightly and Gilber hugged him gently. "It's alright, Toni, it's alright... You did what you could for him."
Francis honestly didn't know what to say. He had been misled when he had been taught that every single prisoner is bad. These two hadn't meant to do anything bad, they had only tried to help the people that were dear to them.
"So? What about you?" Gilber then asked, his piecring red eyes staring straight into Francis' eyes. The normally so talkative Frenchman was quiet for a while, hesitating before he would answer.
"I... I was caught with a man from upper class. I was then accused of raping him, and that's pretty much why I'm here", Francis said, a bit nervous about how the two of them would react to this. Homosexual weren't really treated well, and he was quite sure that criminals weren't too fond on them either.
"Be glad you told that to us and no one else. They would have kicked your ass for being a fag", the German said, looking around, as if trying to make sure that no one had heard what Francis had just told them.
"Be quiet about it, okay? It's not like me and Toni are screaming to the world about our sexualities", he then said, giving a small smile, showing the Frenchman that he most certainly did not mean to offend him.
"Lights out!" the police officer yelled from outside the barn, and so the prisoners put out the fire of the candles, the whole barn turning dark. Antonio and Gilber headed over to their own beds, and the bunk underneath Francis' top one stayed emtpy.
He was glad he had talked to Antonio and Gilbert, at least he would not be alone if there was to be a fight or something. But as soon as he was laying there in the darkness, surrounded by silence, his thoughts wandered to Arthur. The pain in his heart was horrible, he had never thought he would miss someone so much.