Getting to the SRC had been easy enough yet Akiza knew the real trick lay in trying to find her quarry. Instead of heading straight for the utility tunnels beneath the facilities, she decided to seek out anyone else who might have seen Obake. And – since Din hadn't been in his lab – there was only one other place he could have been.
What noise there had been in the dining hall practically died away as Akiza entered. Nobody wanted to meet her gaze. That should have been her first indication that something was wrong but she had assumed it was just nerves over the recent trial. Spotting her friendly group of social outcasts at a far table, she walked over and wasted no time on idle banter. "I need to talk to Obake." A few squirrely gazes stopped looking the other way. This had clearly not been the line of questioning they had expected. "Does anyone know where I can find him?"
"Who?" Grateful ignorance – two emotions he rarely expressed – crossed Din's face at the same time. He wasn't the only one.
"Tall guy, pale, wears a suit." Describing just about every vampire through fiction failed to make any progress. "Eats at the table with you?" No bells were being rung. "Wears a blindfold, pissed off Masayoshi?" There was a surprising amount of people who had pissed of the now-fired Masayoshi. Word was that his divorce was both gruelling and expensive. Nobody was sad, many were celebrating. "Dodged paying for the bar?" Recognition finally dawned.
"Ah, that" What Din said next was in a different language to avoid the severe repercussions of what it meant. It was a coping mechanism Obake himself had recommended. "I was worried you were here about the other thing." Stirring the pot was his favourite hobby. Dragging Akiza off her game was the next best thing. Doing both at once was just fun.
"No, I... What 'other thing'?" Everybody but the Japanese-illiterate Vlado became instantly shifty. A few glanced towards the most guilty party.
"Heh." Tom rubbed his perfectly clean jaw and tried to find somewhere to look that was safe from Akiza's glare. "You see, I may have started a small pool on if Yusei would get convicted or not." Bodies started edging away from the imminent explosion zone. "Some people told some other people and basically everyone ended up betting one way or the other."
"If it helps," Slowest with having to clamber into her exo-suit, Koharu tried to lessen the awkwardness. "Most of us bet Yusei would get off." Scientists love challenging other scientist's work. As soon as the first person had started to calculate the odds, thirty others had started working on their variations. Literally the same minute. Everyone had been invested in trying to help their friend, in their own weird ways.
"Most?" It had started with an attempt to lower the odds of their punishment and ended up basically sabotaging their collective futures. Koharu was glad to be able to slide down the length of the table and escape the brutal standoff. "Tom? How many bet against him?"
"Like, six? Seven?" A peculiar flame bloomed in one eye and forced Tom to make the number a lot more accurate. "Maybe eight?" Twin fires burnt in Akiza's gaze to finish the evasion. "Ninety-three. And since the pool had gotten some much interest, we might have started a second pool to bet on how long a sentence it might be."
"We?" The rest of her friends chose that moment to try and leave the table for good this time.
"Yeah, the others had to join in to keep up with the influx of customers." Any escape attempts stopped under the power of Akiza's sheer presence. "It got out of control when we got down to the third bet though." Time well spent in his incarceration had taught Tom he could only get into so much trouble before anything extra became superfluous. This lesson had not spread to the rest of the group who would have throttled him given half a chance. "I mean, a lot of people kinda guessed you and Yusei were a thing but we had no inside track for that IA2 thing. Some people guessed you would be fired, some bet Yusei would be fired, a lot of people guessed one of you would quit to save the other. Nobody bet that you would be allowed to stay. It's kinda screwed everything up." There was any number of people in the building with advanced understandings of mathematics. Nobody could quite understand the full scope of Tom's complicated interconnected gambling network. "We've put the money in a trust for now. It's going to take a while to sort it all out."
"Just how much is it?" There were enough people in the SRC to make even a small bet end up with a huge pool at the end.
"Enough to fix Chris' bar, burn it down and then build it again." It was a slight exaggeration but not by much.
"I'll make sure to tell Yusei." Nobody was particularly worried about the fallout. Yusei was usually fairly forgiving as long as nothing was illegal and nobody was hurt. "Now, can you tell me where to find Obake or not?" Akiza could guess he was in the tunnels but her last attempt to navigate them had ended up on her mercy. She was really hoping that he was above ground.
Except that nobody had seen him since he had managed to slip out of his share of the bill. People tended to notice those who owed them money more than those who didn't. Realising that she would have to go into the tunnels again was only the fourth-worst event of the day. And actually going in would be the third.
It became (somewhat ironically) easier to see what Phantom had meant when she told Akiza 'Ariadne' and given her a ball of string when the lights cut off and she was left in complete darkness. Greek mythology told of the Minotaur's Labyrinth that was such a complex maze that nobody could escape it once they set foot inside. Ariadne had granted Prince Theseus a ball of twine to navigate his way through the maze. A passing thought tried not to compare the deadly creature hidden in the underground maze with the Minotaur from Greek mythology. It failed to not make the connection.
Especially when something lurked out at her, caused her to scream in instinctive panic and drop her torch to leave her stranded in darkness. Again. Her only 'consolation' – the word came out snidely in her mind – was that the looming spectre had appeared to exactly what she had been looking for. Which was a bit of a disappointment. She had been so sure she was right.
"Obake?" Heart pounding a bit faster now that she had dropped her torch, Akiza stared vainly into the dark.
"What do you want?" Something scraped by her feet as he retrieved the downed tool.
"I... We hadn't heard from you since the boat. We wanted to make sure you were okay." Mocking laughter filled the tunnel, all the more chilling for the lack of actual emotion in it.
"Really? 'We' forgot to tell 'us' about what how 'our' last meeting?" No anger, no hate, no rage. Just empty, echoing void inside the voice. "You managed to pop this thing from it's socket just enough to break the connection." It was simple enough to fix when visible but fumbling about in the dark would have taken her several minutes. She was also frustrated enough that she would have simply abandoned it and used the string to find her way back. "Here," Something was thrust into her hand and Akiza could feel the switch beneath one finger. "Take a look at how 'okay' my last encounter with your group went." Akiza hesitantly turned on the torch, keeping it partially shielded behind her hand to avoid blinding them both.
Obake was standing a few feet away. Hair was tousled, jacket absent. He was wearing a pair of jogging bottoms, just about the only thing he could put on unaided. It was possible to see many of the scars on his chest and stomach without a shirt covering them. Wrapped around his neck and dangled across his chest was a faded sling that was keeping the tension from his right arm, partially hidden beneath a white lab coat he had stolen from an SRC stockroom. Blood had already crusted over the right shoulder. Just to really round off the mismatched ensemble, he was still wearing the novelty sunglasses.
"What happened to you?" Akiza moved one step closer, Obake took two steps back. It was possible to take her on in a fight but the odds were not in his favour. She was also a doctor and knew all the parts of him that would hurt the most.
"Didn't you know? I was running an errand when I bumped into that lunatic friend of yours." Sadly, 'Lunatic friend' could apply to several people Akiza knew. That Obake had an arm in a sling limited it to Din, Jack, Musume and Crow. "Judging from how our conversation went, nobody mentioned the exact relationship I have with Yliaster." Reaching up his hand, he was able to peel back the stained fabric. "Crazy bitch shot me when I pointed out that not even the Signers are up to facing Yliaster in a direct fight."
Two thoughts went through her head when Akiza saw the wound. First, that it was definitely Musume who had attacked Obake. Second (and it was a shameful moment that Akiza admitted it was definitely the second thought) was the sheer extent of damage that had been inflicted. Pale skin turned a dangerous shade of strained red as swelling forced it into uncomfortable lumps and splotches. Puckered lines edged outwards from the hole that had been sewn shut from several sides and simply stapled on the back. "Let me look at that." One step forward, two steps back, taking away one of the least treated injuries she had ever seen. "It's a bad colour and looks to be getting worse. You'll be lucky to get away without further damage if we can get it help right away."
"It's clear that you're not really interested in helping others." Reaching around let him pull the coat back into position but sent shards of pain shooting through the wounded arm. "If things take a turn for the worse, at least I'll only be dead. Yliaster has people that know how to keep a body going for hours before it finally gives out."
"You might only have a few days if you don't come with me now." Two steps forward, five steps back until Obake was nearly at a junction he could slip away down. "Yliaster can only make the job quicker if they find you first." An innocuous thought sent Obake's uncaring mind down an interesting new avenue of ideas.
"Maybe so. But that's not up to you." Then he stepped to one side, literally skipped two steps and slipped away down a tiny gap before Akiza could stop him.
After the gruesome evidence which had seemingly disproved her theory, Akiza was lucky enough to come home to a relatively normal scene. "Hey." Looking up from where she was learning how to do proper maintenance on the Dilucesco, Musume scowled. Her goodwill and guilt only extended so far and actually have to take care of the machine was pushing them both to dangerous levels. Crouched a few feet away, Phantom was watching with patient eyes and giving advice when the unique machine presented any difficulties.
"How'd it go?" Careful to avoid actually saying any triggering names, Yusei was curious to know the answer. He'd been watching the pair from afar and thinking over Akiza's theory while she investigated it. By the time she walked back in through the door, he was half-sure that she was right.
"I'm going to be having a talk with Musume later." Suddenly very interested in learning how to care for her gift, Musume mysteriously didn't hear the ultimatum. There was unlikely to be any slack cut when the other party wasn't trying to claim responsibility. "But it looks like I was wrong."
"We're just checking out Musume's Duel Runner." Although it had been put in the garage, nobody had actually ridden it. There was etiquette to follow and it hadn't been used since America. "It's an amazing machine. I'd really like to see it in action." A lot of the parts seemed to have been custom-made for the vehicle. Most looked slimmer than regular but gave the impression that they could hold up just as well as any out there.
"Nice." Taking a look through the exposed panel, Akiza was impressed by what she saw inside. "How about we try it out some time? I've wanted a rematch since our last Duel." Even though she would have technically won eight years ago, that damn truck would have certainly have killed her first.
"I'd like that." When she woke up that morning, Musume had been sure that any happy times in her life would have to be followed by unpleasant ones. In this case, she was right. At her side, Phantom straightened up.
Turning to face the wall, she frowned at something nobody else could perceive. The policeman? Confused by her words, it wasn't until they heard the slow rumble of an engine pulling up outside a minute later that they realised what she meant.
"How did you know they were coming?" Leaving the tools and parts where they lay, Musume shrugged a jacket back into place as she rose to her own feet.
I heard them. Whatever strange meaning she was putting on the word would have to wait for later.
"We should probably hide Phantom." Dressed in that bright boiler suit, she already looked the perfect part ofthe guilty prisoner and Yusei knew how quickly opinion could overrule facts.
"Way ahead of you." Helping her maintain balance as she peeled off the visible outfit, Musume was already starting to think of ways to get Phantom out without being seen. Unseeable armour or no, it was a lot easier to notice her outline during the light of day.
"I'll stall as long as I can." Hurrying up the ramp as quickly as he could, one hand pulled the right door open just enough to be visible while stopping any view of the inside proper. Standing with one hand raised to knock was exactly the person Phantom had declared would be there: 'the policeman'. "Officer Trudge." Smiling politely at the problem they were facing, Yusei made sure to put a good face on the situation. "What can I help you with today?" A pair of uniformed cops were standing just behind his friend. Having an audience gave him the perfect gambit for buying time. "For the record, I had no idea Jack was going to do what he did."
"That's not why I'm..." Unable to help herself, he lurched straight into the trap. "Why? What did he do?"
"Or is this about the thing Crow erm...?" Trying to give his friends as much time as he could meant throwing some shade on his brothers. It was no real difficulty, they both had their share of misdeeds already. "Is there a police code that means 'rubbed genitals against'? It's ironic but he's the only one of us who would probably know."
"Rubbed against..." Realising that he was being stalled, Trudge took control of the situation. "We're here in connection with the intruder down at the docks the other night." He made to step inside only for Yusei to block the entry.
"Do you have a warrant to come inside?" After the affairs of the past few weeks, he was clearly not overly eager to accommodate the whims of the legal system.
"Not if we have probable cause." Moving to step through the doorway once more, Trudge was met by the blocking arm directly across the doorway. "The intruder was last seen fleeing in the company of one of your associates." A fight was brewing between them for the first time ever. Not just a mere difference of circumstances or opinion. A real fight. It was obvious to the pair of officers standing behind him.
"Really? How exactly did two people manage to get past the police cordon without anyone seeing them?" Now there was a tricky point to explain. Claiming that the dark outfit of the intruder had let it slip away would have been easy enough. Explaining that it leapt through the skylight two stories high with a pursuer being carried on wings of ethereal origins would have consigned him to mandated therapy.
"Are you going to invite us in or do I have to come back later with a warrant and backup?" Drawing up against each other drew the dangerous conflict steadily closer.
"If that's what it's going to take," A quiet cough came from the main garage where Musume was trying to look as innocent as she could with large sunglasses obscuring her eyes. Whatever tricks they had been arranging were in place. "Then who am I to waste the city's resources?" Stepping out of the way, he held an arm out for Trudge to enter past. "Coffee?" It was said in a 'take the offer if you dare' sort of tone.
"Trudge." Trying to put the deadly air to rest, Akiza reached out a gentle hand to shake her eldest friend's. "It's good to see you again."
"Sorry about this." Nodding to Yusei's partner, he glared instructions at his subordinates. "Take a look around. Anywhere that a person can hide. You," Beneath the tinted helmet, it was possible to see the slightly refined features of a female face. "Make sure there's no funny business with Dr Izinski's belongings."
"Musume." Stepping off to one side, Yusei made sure that Trudge was occupied with keeping basic privacy intact before asking the important question. "Where is she?"
"Do us all a favour." Keeping her back turned, she was more focused on suppressing the protective instinct to look at the second most deadly person in the room. Having already won once, Musume knew that she was the better fighter. Obviously. "Don't look up."
Casually pulling out his phone, he surreptitiously used the blank reflection to check the ceiling above their heads. Poppo Time was an older approach to architecture. Simple, easy to fix, wooden beams for support. They had been slightly damaged during the abnormal course of events which had taken place over the course of recent history. Just enough to wedge in some fingers in a couple of places. In theory, it was possible to – with some difficulty – to suspend a light object between them.
"Don't ask how." Had Yusei not been blocking view from the door, it might have been possible to see a shadow suddenly slip from the floor into the air. "At least she knows how to think on her toes."
Leaning down the staircase from the upper floors, an unidentified helmet delivered a brief update. "Nobody in the bedrooms." Searching each of them had taken only a few seconds each. Besides under the beds or inside the narrow wardrobes, there were few places for a person to hide. A middle drawer had even been carefully removed to see if there was anyone hiding inside the desks. Less nimble criminals had tried more complicated bends. "We'll be checking in the attic next. Anything up there you want to tidy up first?" This last was directed more at the group of suspects than the supervising officer.
"You have free reign." Staring at his friend, Yusei was making it abundantly clear that he was cooperating as fully as was possible under the circumstances. "Watch out for the spiders." After a few seconds, there was the sound of a creaky hatch being pried open and slamming closed again.
"Off the record," With his underlings searching the dusty space under the roof, Trudge dropped the role of policeman in favour of trying to understand what was really going on. "What was all that about the other night?"
"We're not sure." Everything that had happened since that night at the docks had been slightly surreal. "She goes by 'Phantom'. Seems to be on our side." Talking about somebody literally hanging over your head is a strange experience. "Managed to break Luna and Musume out of a Shadow Duel before she attacked the docks."
"Tetsu, she was having a traumatic psychological episode." Akiza had been there a few times herself. Caused even more damage than Phantom had and ended up a hero of the city. "Whatever happened was not her fault. All that she knew was that people were attacking her." It was a tricky path for him to follow now. All of the legal decisions would have to be done afresh with this new information.
"What sort of episode? What was the trigger? Can you confirm a diagnosis?" Most police services had already been through the wringer once too often for people to plea temporary insanity to lighten the sentences. "I believe you. But how do you expect me to convince the department?" A fair point. Nobody would believe that a gibbering mess hidden inside a shadow had the ability to taken on scores of trained police officers. "I'll have to take her in for now, just until we can get everything sorted out."
"Trudge, you know what will happen if you do this." Neither man was exactly ignorant of the fact Yliaster could easily access any public organisation in the world. Even the SRC probably had a few leaks in it.
"I'll try to keep a grip on things but she injured fifty police officers." Each knew the arguments the other would present while recognising the futility on both sides. "Like it or not, your new friend is going to have to come with me."
"And have you thought," It would not do for the others to hear what could easily be misconstrued as a threat so Yusei lowered his voice until it was barely audible. "About what will happen if she doesn't want to?" Images of the ruined warehouse flashed through their minds. That damage had been done by a Phantom driven partly mad by her transformation. Now she had regained some amount of control over her mind. A mind that was starting to recall the actions of the night before.
Dropping from the ceiling with that uncanny silence, the sudden appearance of his quarry landing in front Trudge gave him no little start. He may have said a stream of alarmed curses so heinous that all parties leaned backwards slightly in shock. At least three of them also grinned at the array. Trudge finally managed to calm down when he realised that he wasn't being bodily thrown like the night before. Which was good since he doubted there was another forklift on hand.
"Phantom, you don't have to," Yusei gave up as Trudge's gentle rumble overrode his advice. It was in his cop voice. Little could stop Officer Trudge.
"We'll be taking you to the Detention Centre for now." No station in the city would want to take Phantom after her disturbing first appearance. It would be straight to the Facility for her. "Official charges will be filed in the next few days and you'll get time with a judge to argue your case." Carefully holding out her hands, she watched as the silver loops were tightened about her wrists. They could be taken off in a matter of seconds but that would just endanger the good people around her again. That wouldn't do. "Is there anything that you need before we go?" Like the Signers, Trudge had also been under the scope of Phantom's silent observations. Although she hated the majority of police on principal, he was respectable in her eyes. When she didn't reply, he took it as confirmation that she was ready and summoned his searching officers with a sharp whistle.
"Rookie mistake." Regularly casting some doubt on the minds of his staff left them with plenty of room to grow. "You failed to sweep the first room. Your suspect could be hiding anywhere – even behind some ratty old couch." Four pairs of eyes turned to where the sofa by the stairs was pressed tightly against the wall. Not enough room to easily hide behind.
"Hey, Trudge." Although he was just a normal human being, the next few seconds of the future suddenly became intensely clear.
"Hold these." Carefully levering out his regulation Shock Baton, non-regulation baton, unregulated knuckledusters and dented yet shiny bade, Trudge stocked his personal equipment in the arms of the nearest police officer. "I'm going off-duty for a minute."
"Good call." Enough restraint went into the blow that it wasn't fatal but Trudge felt two teeth loosen as he smashed into the ground from a single blow. "Because it would be embarrassing for the entire police force to lose another fight again so soon." She might not have been the nicest person but she believed in taking care of her mistakes and Phantom was definitely one of the bigger ones.
Musume. Looking directly at her, those blue circles flickered slightly. Just that one word of warning was enough to remind her that her actions could have unintended consequences.
"look, I'm sorry but this is the way it's got to be." Testing the rocking teeth with his tongue, Trudge couldn't taste any blood. There would still be a lengthy dentist session over the weekend though. "Can you at least give me a description of what they look like under there?" It was a tense moment. Even their lengthy history together could only garner so much trust against the weight of reality. Bigger oddities – like a city falling from the sky – where generally easier to accept than the strange new weirdness in their midst.
"A big blob of blue light." At least Musume had no qualms against showing off weirdness. With a shiny new magic sword tucked away in one boot and Trudge's blood still crusting on her fist, she was also in no mood to play games. "Because somebody cut her soul from her body. Oh, wait. That's my bad."
"There is no way you're not related to Crow." Nobody who knew the pair that could miss that same streak of angry sarcasm in them both. "You have my word, I'll personally deliver her to the Facility. Nobody gets in there without getting caught on at least three cameras." It was cute how prisons liked to brag how secure they were but always downplayed the escapes.
As the pair of cars drove off, Akiza turned to try and calm Musume down. This was difficult on two counts; Musume didn't 'calm' easily and there was a distracting absence of her anywhere in the city.
True to his word, Trudge had delivered his prisoner to the facility. During the entire trip – and despite his best attempts – she hadn't said a single word to him. Even when she was signed over to a fully kitted squad of twenty. But as soon as the group was inside the Facility, he lost all control over events. And events started to spiral when one of the guards broke protocol by speaking.
"Five of my friends are in the hospital because of you." It didn't take a genius to hear the hate in the man's voice. Phantom did everything she could to tune it out and listen to something, anything else. "One of them is being investigated for substance abuse because the doctors caught something in his bloodwork. So a guy's got to take a little something extra to do his job but that man has a new baby dammit!"
Lucky him. There are two factors to speaking the truth. Using the right words and waiting for the right moment. Although the sentiment was definitely there, those were not the right words for that moment.
"One more word," Waiting until one dark leg was clearly moving forward, he kicked behind the knee of the other so that Phantom stumbled to the ground in her manacles. "And I'll personally lock you in solitary and throw away the key."
No violence. Fear resonated in her ethereal voice. Being an ignorant male, the guard thought it was directed at him.
"I will hit you as much as I want." Rapping the butt of his baton against the base of her helmet, vindictive satisfaction flooded through the insignificant man. "You think you're so tough with that armour. Just wait until our guys peel it off you."
Unlikely. Talking to people was really not her forte. The small group came to an empty cell somewhere on the third floor from the bottom. Phantom liked that. Three was her favourite number. There were even randomly overlapping bars on the door to make escape more difficult! She liked that too.
As Musume had noticed from the very start, Phantom was not exactly normal.
"This is your stop." Holding the door open for Phantom to walk through, her misogynistic guide slammed it shut behind almost before she was fully in the cell. He had also neglected to remove her bindings.
Keys? A pair of gaps at elbow height was just large enough to squeeze either hand through.
"Yeah, we have the keys." Sarcasm was something else that Phantom did not instantly get. It was that momentary pause of confusion that allowed her jailer to uncouple the sturdy chains from around her right wrist, loop them through the bars and then clasp it back into place.
That is not right. Duplicity and deceit were more quickly understood. Especially when the guards started drawing their batons.
"We heard through a few old friends on the force that you were comfortably nestled up with that upstart, Fudo." Keywords were being picked up through the cruel haze the group was projecting. 'Force' instead of 'service'. 'Upstart Fudo'. Either through accident or by cruel design, Phantom had ended up in the hands of a group of very angry men who liked nothing about her.
Bad idea. There was little room to move with her hands chained between the bars. The handcuffs were tightly anchored about the metal struts.
"You sound scared." Something about testosterone makes men at once very aggressive and very stupid. "Don't worry." Stabbing a baton through a hole in the grill, the head guard smashed Phantom in the midriff. "We'll take good care of you." Another guard was quick to join in. Then it was an all-out scrum to see who could do the most damage. Somebody had the odd idea of crouching down to get the ankles and quickly knocked away her legs until Phantom was just dangling from her chained arm.
What they should have noticed – had the guards been slightly more competent at their jobs – was that Phantom wasn't even trying to fight back. They had no way of knowing that the armour was physically empty and the blows were doing little more than a fly buzzing fluttering acorss the in the city was. Or that Phantom was actually willing to accept the beating because she had hurt their friends in her earlier confusion.
"That's enough." After a few minutes, the worst guard among them finally grew weary and took the opportunity to mock as time for breathing. "Look at me." Phantom continued to hang her head. She was not proud but weary of the violence in their actions. "Hey," Even the tiniest of actions can have the largest of consequences. "Look at me!" Musume had noticed the slight line running down the front of the helmet to allow a nose to scrape inside. It was as the rounded tip the weapon grazed past it that Phantom went utterly still.
She was aware that something had changed. Maybe she was less human that day as the ones before. Losing her body might have cursed her in unexplainable ways but it had unexpected benefits as well. Something had definitely changed in her but Phantom was still the same person beneath it all and still bore the same invisible scars. Grasping out between the bars, she grabbed the lapels of the guard as both feet found purchase on the dirty floor of her cell.
"Let go!" It was a pathetic creature in her grip. So deeply angry at women, thinking them above their place in life. Such pride but with nothing to be proud of. So violent without reason. "I said," Phantom dragged him into the irregular bars of the door so fast that blood exploded from his nose as several teeth and a cheekbone were shattered. Another impact dislodged the jaw and sliced a chunk from the tip of the gagging tongue. It was the third impact that knocked the defenceless man into a stupor as he dangled in her grasp. Then she hurled him back so fast that the railing behind bent slightly as his pudgy backside hit it, sending the guard tumbling over and over to the vast floor below where a sickening crack marked the impact.
A wild screaming and cacophony of voices began as the other prisoners caught wind of what was going on. Word spread like lightning through the complex and everyone knew some form of the tale before medics were even on the scene. She could hear the trembling beat of his heart behind broken ribs three floors done but knew he stood a chance of recovery. Reaching around to her right wrist, she tore the metal restraint off without any sign of effort and pulled her arms into the cell.
Flocks of guards swarmed outside the stone cube as they screamed instructions and tried to sound authoritative without daring to actually enter the cell. Phantom just sat on her concrete slab with hands dangling between knees as she played with the links of chain still attached to one wrist. Understanding that she was different, that she had issues and triggers that had to be dealt with on a daily basis, did nothing to stop them from controlling her life. As the shouting and the blustering continued on the other side of the bars that were protecting them from the dangerous prisoner, she sat there and let herself sink into an examination of the metal coils to block out the world outside.
Just to say, shit's about to get weird. Abandon sanity all who enter here. (But if you've made it this far, you're probably a bit mad anyway. Mad enough to leave a review?)