Chapter Thirteen

Plans

A new inmate arrives during Richard's third year of being stuck in the hell known as Seablite. He's a very young boy, twelve at least, scrawny as well. The boy doesn't say much the first day he arrives, only his name, Trevor. He lives in cell two along with Henry and Matt. They fill him in on the grizzly details of what really goes on in a place like this. How they force the inmates to pan for black pearls and in return they get Dark Gifts and tested on like lab animals. Of course he asks what Dark Gifts are and everyone at the table can answer. Richard impresses the young boy with his tattoo display. Peter explains how he can hypnotize people. Eli explains his power to turn off the lights with a simply touch of his fingers. Henry says he's becoming strong like a shark and can even swim better and faster because of it. Matt says he can hold his breath for longer periods. He can hold his breath for twenty minutes now and isn't even affected by the water pressure. All of them have the scars to prove it.

"Wh-what about that other one you mentioned?" the terrified little boy asks. "I think you say his name was Ace."

"Right now he's in transition of getting one," Eli says.

"Eli means that Ace is puking up his guts in the cell right now," Richard says. "We don't know what he has but he was perfectly healthy when he first arrived. All of the sudden this came up so we're pretty sure it's a Dark Gift."

"Does it hurt when you get a Dark Gift?" Trevor asks.

Richard shakes his head. "The only part that hurts is when they cut you open," he says bitterly. "Don't worry, kid. We'll look after you."

After dinner, Henry and Matt escort their new cellmate up to cell number two. The others walk back to their own cell and to check up on the piercing clad boy. Ace is still hunched over the toilet, throwing up what little still remains in his stomach.

"Feeling any better, Ace?" Eli asks and climbs up to his bed.

All they receive is a groan and more coughing.

"There's a new boy in cell two," Richard says. "His name is Trevor. Scrawny little boy he is."

After a few more minutes of listening to poor Ace, Richard steps in to see how he is doing. "Maybe you should go see Doc," he whispers quietly.

Ace wipes off his mouth with the back of his hand. He pushes back his sweaty, black hair. "I don't want to go," he says quietly and stands up to wash his mouth out with the use of the sink tap. "I don't want him to stick me in some CT scanner. I don't want it to be a Dark Gift."

"Ace, I think you have to face the facts that it probably is a Dark Gift. It's not as scary as you think."

"I'm not scared," he says suddenly. "I'm just-"

"Confused?"

"Yeah. I don't want to have a Dark Gift but I know it's impossible to avoid."

"I know," Richard says quietly. "But in a few years we'll all be out. Once we're twenty-one they can't hold us anymore."

"Yeah, that's still another four years away, Richard," Ace says bitterly. "I don't think I'll last that long." He looks towards the entrance of the bathroom and moves to whisper something into Richard's ear. "I think we need to escape."

Richard widens his eyes in shock. Did Ace seriously just suggest that they break free of Seablite? The thing is unthinkable. There is no way out of Seablite. Even if they managed to get into the water, where would they go? Richard has no idea of where he is. He can get lost in the big, blue ocean.

He presses a finger to his lips. "Wait til everybody's asleep," he whispers back. "We'll talk about this later."

Later is when Richard has completed his workout for the night and when he's sure that everyone has turned in for the night. The night guards usually spend their time playing cards down in the cafeteria. They rarely make their rounds past the cells anymore. They know that the inmates are too tired to try and disturb the relative peace of the prison. So the guards won't be a problem for when Ace and Richard speak to one another.

The time when they do meet is probably near three or four in the morning. With Richard's inability to sleep at night, it no longer bothers him when he works. He's been here for three years now. He's perfectly fine with getting little to no sleep and then panning all day the night morning. Ace hasn't been panning for a few days now, considering that his condition renders him incapable and staying out in the water for long.

Richard sits down on the cold bathroom floor across from Ace. Ace resumes his normal position of sitting beside the toilet just in case of another round of vomiting decided to occur while they spoke.

"So you want to escape," Richard says.

Ace nods. "It's the only way out of here. I won't be able to last another four years in here. I just can't."

"Okay, I see why but how do you expect us to escape?" he asks. "Do you think that the Warden will just let us walk on out of here just like that?"

"I've thought about that," Ace says. "I have a plan. We've always thought that are Gifts were curses. They are the reasons why we are here in the first place. I say we use them against the guards, against the Warden, against everyone! That is how we escape."

"I still don't understand what you're trying to say to me."

"We can use our Gifts to our advantage instead of theirs. Eli can turn off the lights, Peter can hypnotize guards, and you can blend into your surroundings. It's perfect. We have all the skills we need to perform this escape."

"I don't, Ace. What if it goes wrong? What if we get caught?"

"Richard, we have time to plan. Because of my illness, I can stay behind in the cell and watch the guards that stay behind. I can time them, see when their rotations are, and where they keep the keys to the cells and so on."

"What am I supposed to do?"

"Because you don't sleep at night, you can figure out their nightly routine. I'm thinking we can escape at night since that's when the guards care less and everyone is in their cells at that time. Once we plan everything through, we can use one of the subs here to escape."

"This sounds great, Ace, but none of us know how to pilot a sub," Richard says. "How are we supposed to get out of here if we can't even pilot one."

"Never fear, my friend, it shouldn't be too hard to pilot one. I bet they have some automatic steering device that will take us back to wherever we sailed away from. Richard, don't you see? This is going to work, I'm sure-" Ace pauses and turns to the toilet where he starts to throw up again. When he pulls away, Richard sees that the boy's lips are coated in a black, oily-looking substance. Ace wipes his mouth on the back of his hand and sees that the substance has stained the back of his hand black. "What the-"

"I think it's your Gift," Richard says.

"Well then what is it?"

"Can you cough more up?" he asks.

Ace gives him a strange look and then spits into the toilet bowl. The spittle is the same colour as the substance that coats the back of his hand. The substance has a slick feel to it and gives off an oily sheen. "Have you ever seen an octopus float by your sifter before?" Ace asks.

"Once," he answers. "It didn't really like me when I tried to reach out and touch it."

"Did it spray any ink at you?"

"Yes, I couldn't see few a few minutes afterwards and Eli couldn't stop laughing at me."

Ace nods and looks down at the mysterious substance. "Well, I think I know what my Gift is." Richard looks at him expectantly. "Apparently I have ink in my body."

"I wonder how that happened."

"Oh, I think I'll find out in the next few days. As you said before, Richard, Doc always finds out about the gifts." Ace flushes the toilet and rises to head off to bed. "We start planning tomorrow," he says as he walks past him.

And so the plans for the daring escape are starting to be formed.