Chapter 15

Aidan opened the gate again and leapt over Kipper and the other guards as she ran to the cell block known as North-Segregation. As she ran she had to keep the guards asleep behind her and project the blackout ahead of her Nadia was surprised that more guards hadn't come to see what was going on but Aidan had a probable explanation, "They're probably assembling some sort of task force to come down here. Power in numbers sort of thing." She returned to Sinclair's appearance and grabbed the keys off the guard at the door to north-segregation and didn't bother closing it behind her. She glanced around and took out the cameras one by one before assessing this new situation. The inmate had been right in his assessment of this block being the white collar death row inmates were held; it was obvious that rules here were much more slack than they had been at the last cell block. The atmosphere was quieter and the entire air of the place was lighter; as if as long as the other two blocks existed, they had nothing to worry about. Sinclair received a few curious looks as he walked down the block but most inmates quickly returned to their books and checkers games. Well, this isn't going to be any fun. It's like walking into a Florida retirement home.

"You new, boss?" a man who appeared to be in his sixties asked from his cell.

Aidan and Nadia had been expecting the same wild and harassing attitude that they had received in minute ago, "You could say that."

"Well, you got a good gig. We're pretty easy going here," he smirked.

She glanced around, "Yeah...I can see that."

He gave her an odd look, "You sound disappointed..."

She gave him an irritated look in return, "Forgive me; but this doesn't exactly go with the whole spirit of what I have to do." He just continued to look at her even more confused and she continued, "I chose this place because I figured it was full of a bunch of bloodthirsty Neanderthals. Now I get here and find out that my work is tripled because some genius split all of you into three categories in three different locations. Not only that; but all of you look more like you belong in some third-rate Florida retirement home--made prison. So forgive me if I'm not ecstatic about how the whole thing worked out."

"I don't understand," he said.

She sighed, "That's obvious. Now how am I going to get rid of all of you?"

He laughed uneasily, "Get rid of? Boss you make it sound like we're all going to the chamber..."

Aidan continued to look around her at the faces that were now being brought out by curiosity. Her eyes narrowed in thought, "It's more like a hospital bed..." she glanced at him and then away again, "but don't worry, you aren't going anywhere."

"That's a relief, boss."

She threw her head back and sighed, "Oh, I wish you would stop calling me that," she was about to drop the facade of Sinclair; but something made her keep it up. He was about to respond, but Aidan glared at him and he stepped back and kept quiet. She sighed, "What to do, what to do, what to do..."

"This is going on way too long," Nadia said. Her voice strained in alarm.

"I know," Aidan responded to herself. "Got any brilliant ideas?"

"What? This is why I let you out! This is your area of expertise."

This is my first time, remember? I may be more willing to do it; but that doesn't mean I can come through with something brilliant in the clutch...

Nadia gave a figurative huff. "Then what good are you?" They could go back and forth like this for hours; but she knew they had to move on, and fast. She surprised herself when she started thinking of possible answers to Aidan's, 'Got any brilliant ideas?' question; did she have any?

This whole prison thing seriously limits the possibilities.

"What a time to have performance anxiety..." Nadia fumed. "Fire."

The place is made of concrete. I hate to break it to you but that doesn't burn.

"No; but...but people do..." The fact that she had even seriously thought about that option made Nadia sick.

Aidan raised one brow, Huh, I never would have thought St. Nadia would come up with something so barbaric. Nadia ignored her and tucked herself back into that little closed off corner of her mind where she was near entirely oblivious to what Aidan was doing. As she walked back down the cell block to towards the exit, she took a deep breath and gathered all of her energy. She had never attempted the whole fire thing herself, so she wasn't entirely sure she could do it. She was, however, arrogant enough to think that because Nadia could, she must be able to also. She gathered all her energy and thrust her hands out towards both cells beside her; but nothing happened. She shook the failure off and tried again; but didn't get so much as a wisp of smoke. Anger was building as she started to realize she was growing jealous at the fact that she was unable to do something that came so naturally to someone like Nadia.

The anger and envy were creeping through Nadia's carefully made wall and interest and concern were stirring her awake. The taste of what Aidan was about to say was repugnant but she forced herself to speak, "A little help here."

Nadia reluctantly came out of hiding, "What is it?"

Aidan tried to brush the shortcoming off as nothing more than a nuisance, Apparently I can't do your little 'I have made fire,' instead of thinking the phrase, a clip of Tom Hanks in Castaway popped in front of Nadia's face , trick.

Nadia smirked and thought back to Aidan's earlier mocking words about that particular ability, "Anyone with a bic can do that..." "Not so much to say now, huh?"

Oh shut it, Aidan snapped back. You need to do this.

The humor Nadia had felt suddenly vanished, "No. No, I can't!"

I can't do it, so we either come up with some other idea or you get your butt out here and do this. I'm not all that excited about the whole thing either.

"I mean it, I can't do this."

Maybe there is some way to...transfer abilities?

"Maybe," Nadia was fiercely hopeful that this might be the case. "How?"

I don't know, Aidan looked down at Sinclair's watch, but we've been in here for 20 minutes. That's way too long.

Nadia sighed, I" know..." She tried to push that out of her mind and focus souly on pushing her fire ability out to her hands, "Do you feel anything?"

Aidan was confused, No, should I?

"That would be nice." She pushed harder, "How about now?"

No.

"Try throwing fire again," Nadia suggested.

Aidan tried to feel some sort of strength coming to the surface as she always did when she was using an ability; but she felt nothing. She thrusted her arms out to her sides again and a ball of fire slammed into the bars of the cells. She stared in amazement as the fire started to burn away at the mattresses in both cells; but soon the screaming pulled her out of her daze and back to reality. The cries for help were bothering her more than she'd have liked so she quickly moved on from cell to cell until the entire prison was filled with ear-piercing cries.

"Make them stop!" Nadia cried.

Tears were falling from Aidan's eyes instead and she spun back around to face the flames and suddenly it was silent. For awhile she wasn't sure if she had succeeded in quieting them herself; because she suddenly felt as if she were underwater. As if she were in a movie, she imagined the director selecting a shot of her face that quickly pulled away from her showing all the damage she had done. She even knew the perfect music for the scene; Mozart's Requiem Mass in D minor K. 626: 3. She shook those thoughts away and stared at the ground in shock; not at what she'd done but at how much it truly bothered her. Suddenly she realized the tears were no longer just Nadia's, they were her's too. "They don't feel a thing anymore," she said for Nadia's and her own benefit. She wiped away the tears and ran down the hall towards the final cell block, the Adjustment Center.

She could still hear the music in her head while she ran as fast as she could, trying to leave it in her wake. Her panic and desperation had already knocked the guard out when she was still back in the first cell block; but now it threw the gate open with a thunderous slam. There was no need for a slow dramatic entrance this time; the entire block knew she had arrived. She made no attempt at keeping Sinclair's appearance as she broke through the cell block's threshold; a marathon runner breaking through the finish line. The entire adjustment center was silent in shock and confusion as Aidan doubled over trying to catch her breath.

It wasn't long before the cat calls started. Aidan glanced at her watched, "Twenty five minutes," she said to herself as she glanced around.

Nadia flooded with panic, "The cameras! You look like you...I mean me...I mean. Ugh! You know what I mean."

Relax, Aidan thought, when I took out the door I took them out too.

Nadia metaphorically sighed in relief, "Good. This has to be fast; faster than any of the others..."

It's a shame too. These guys are the ones I would like to take my time with... Put each one of them through the same they put their victims through.

"Sounds like a vigilante to me."

Vigilantes stop the crime from happening. Think of me more like a...punisher.

"Whatever you want to call yourself, you're still softening."

Bite your tongue! Aidan was determined to prove her wrong so she walked straight to the first cell she saw. The occupant was cautious as she approached, so Aidan smiled in an effort to put him at ease. "Hello," she purred.

In a second, his libido wiped away his fears and he came forward, "Hi. I don't think you're supposed to be here...not that I'm complaining," he added.

She shrugged shyly, "I know." She stood inches from the cell bars, "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course," he smiled and his eyes glittered with intention as he slowly moved closer to her.

Aidan was conscious of his distractions as he tried to keep her from noticing the fact that he was inching closer; she stayed on edge, ready to jump out of reach if she had to. "What did you do to get yourself thrown in here?"

His eyes narrowed and after a few seconds he smirked, "Wrong place at the wrong time. Aren't we all?" Aidan detected further meaning in his words, a threat against her. She tipped her head and gave a knowing smirk before she used her abilities to extract the truth. "I killed 13 people," he responded in a detached, robotic voice. He blinked out of his trance, shaken by his own admission but quickly tried to recover, "Gutted them actually. I...used a hunting knife and cut them from here to here," he drew a line with his finger from the left side of his abdomen to the right, "watched their guts fall to ground like deer. It's not the quickest way to go; but that's sort of the point." A chill ran down her spine at his last remark and he smiled.

She moved closer, "Someone who does that must have a shive around somewhere," she drilled her eyes into his.

The blank, trance-like stare came back like before, "Yeah," he walked to the head of his head and squatted down. He stuck his index finger inside a small whole in the wall and pulled out a long pointed object, "The guards don't spend a whole lot of time searching all the nooks and crannies of a building that's falling apart."

She reached inside, "Can I see it?" He hesitated and looked from the weapon to her face where he was caught again in her gaze, and placed the piece of metal in her palm. "Thank you," she turned the shive over and over again in her hands before she glanced back up at him, "the abdomen you said, right?"

He nodded and every cell in his body was screaming questions at him; except those that counted, the ones that were completely immobilized by her. She sighed, "I really wish I had more time to really make you understand what they went through; but of course this has to be a rush job..." She quickly reached back through the cell bars and thrusted the homemade knife in his abdomen and pulled it as hard as she could across to the other side. As she watched his face react, the music came back; but this time was different. There was no longer the same feeling of shock and nausea, instead she felt liberated and truly just. These weren't the haunting words like before, these was more like K.626: 1; cautious, bold, and jubilant.

Now that Aidan felt released from that overwhelming unease with herself--at least for a moment--she walked down the cell block doing a repeat of North-Segregation. This time she relished in the screams of the worst of the worst before she slipped back into Sinclair's appearance and ran out of the prison; taking out all the cameras along the way before they could catch even a glimpse of her. Once outside, the alarm finally went off; apparently there was someone still conscious inside the prison walls. She quickly pretended like she was just another guard cautiously looking through the parking lot for whoever had caused the alarm to be sounded. Once she reached the van, she unlocked the back and quickly jumped inside. She closed the door behind her, grabbed a hoodie, Nadia's iPod, and threw her hair into a ponytail before she jumped back outside the van. She glanced around and changed into a bottle blonde in a sports bra and jogging shorts; but anyone who was within sight of the prison was too distracted with the alarm to notice her. She left the van doors open behind her and started jogging away while she pushed her headphones in her ears and turned the iPod up enough to drowned out the commotion around her. Once she was around the block, she released the real David Sinclair and focused on getting to her bike.