Chapter Seven

The Warden's guards had made mistakes in the past, but none of them unforgivably betrayed him. He had them meet him in the briefing room later. Charlie had just arrived for his shift and was surprised that such a meeting was happening, and he only assumed it was about Daphne. He sat in the back row, wanting to get on with his shift and see how Daphne was.

"Gentlemen, I'm happy you're all here," the Warden said calmly. "I've received a piece of interesting news about one of you, but I don't know which one, so here is the news.

Congratulations are in order because one of you is going to be a father,"

Charlie and the Guards looked at the Warden, confused. The Warden liked their confusion because he couldn't wait to reveal the answer.

"Would you like to know how I know one of you is going to be a father?" he asked. "It has to do with the mother of this child, and would any of you like to guess who the mother is?"

Confusion was still in the air for the Guards, but it wasn't for Charlie. He suspected who the Warden was talking about and just wanted to escape.

"You still don't know?" the Warden asked. "Well, the mother of this child is none other than my favorite bitch, Daphne Blake,"

Charlie did his best to stay calm, but the rest of the Guards felt the blood drain out of their faces as they knew what was coming next.

"Daphne Blake is pregnant," the Warden said, starting to lose his temper. "That can only mean that one of you has been fucking her when you all know that wasn't meant to happen! You were ordered never to touch her! She's mine and mine alone! Now which one of you was dumb enough to think fucking with me was a good idea!"

The Guards began to look at each other to see if any one of them could have been capable of having sex with Daphne, but none of them could figure it out. Charlie played the same game, and the Warden watched him closely. As far as he was concerned, he was the only suspect because he noticed they were getting close recently, but the Warden never suspected that Charlie would be crazy enough to cross him.

"I'm going to find out which one of you did it, and it's not going to be in nine months from now," the Warden said slowly. "Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," a Guard at the front said.

"Good," the Warden said. "Now, you can either confess now, or I'll find out later. Either way, you're in more trouble than you bargained for. Dismissed,"

Charlie and the Guards stood up and walked out as fast as they could. As the Warden watched them leave, he was so ashamed of his Guards because he had never seen such a group of cowards.

XXXXX

As he just scared the ever-living shit out of his Guards, the Warden knew the next phase of his plan was to go to the Media Center. Derek was getting ready to go home when the Warden entered. He felt all the air being sucked out of his lungs, and he could barely breathe. The Warden smiled.

"I take it by the expression on my face that you know why I'm here?" the Warden asked.

"I might," Derek replied without thinking.

"Then let me enlighten you," the Warden said as he walked closer to Derek and stood over him. "Daphne's pregnant, and I want to know who the father is,"

"It's Charlie," he replied immediately.

The Warden was shocked that Derek gave Charlie up so quickly. He was expecting Derek to pretend not to know anything. Derek could see how thrown the Warden was and decided to use that to his advantage.

"Charlie has been fucking Daphne during his night shit," Derek explained. "I've been getting paid to delete the footage so you wouldn't find out,"

The look of shock in the Warden's eyes turned into uncontrollable anger.

"Don't I pay you well enough?" the Warden shouted.

"Yes, you do, but the person that's been paying me is someone that's special to me, and I didn't want to betray her,"

The Warden grabbed Derek's throat and began to choke him.

"Who has been paying you?" he asked Derek slowly.

"It was your sister," Derek said breathlessly. "I'm in love with her, but I've been pretending with her that I'm not,"

The Warden let go of Derek's throat, and Derek gasped for air.

"And you thought betraying me would win her heart?" he asked cynically.

"No, sir," Derek replied hoarsely.

"Well, if you want to date my sister, you're going to have to wait," the Warden said. "She's going to be busy for a while, and if you try to warn Mallory that I'm coming, you're going to be in more trouble than you're already in,"

"Yes, sir," Derek replied.

As the Warden walked out, Derek sat there shaking and wondered how much trouble he was in concerned to Mallory.

XXXXX

The Warden didn't want to use his radios when recruiting Guards for the next phase as he didn't want to tip off his sister of what was coming. So, he approached three Guards he knew he could trust because none of them was the father of Daphne's baby. Once he recruited them, the four walked down to the solitary confinement cells where Mallory was sitting outside and reading a magazine. Once she saw the Warden approaching, she put the magazine down quickly and stood to attention.

"Hello, sir," she said. "What can I do for you?"

"Could you open the first cell?" the Warden asked.

Mallory found that confusing as she couldn't understand what he would need with a solitary confinement cell, considering he didn't have a prisoner.

"May I ask why?" she asked cautiously.

"Just do it!" the Warden shouted.

That caused Mallory to jump a little, and she turned around. It took her less than ten seconds to open the door to the cell.

"What do you need a solitary confinement cell for?" she asked.

Without warning, the Warden pushed Mallory into the cell, and she fell on her hands and knees. Then, the Warden closed the door behind her.

"Jesus!" Mallory said, scared to be in complete darkness.

"I KNOW YOU HELPED CHARLIE TO FUCK DAPHNE!" the Warden yelled. "YOU'LL GET SUPPLIES LATER! BUT IN THE MEANTIME, YOU BETTER THINK ABOUT WHAT A HUGE MISTAKE IT WAS TO FUCK WITH ME!"

As Mallory heard the Warden and the Guards walk away, she wondered if Derek would be in solitary confinement like she was or worse.

XXXXX

Charlie didn't hear anything on his radio, which instinctively told him they weren't on his side and they were onto him. He quickly walked to Daphne's cell to see if she was there. He looked around to ensure he wasn't being followed but didn't see anyone. So, he knocked on her door cautiously.

"Daphne, are you in there?" Charlie asked quietly.

There was no response, which told him everything he needed to know.

"You fucking idiot!" he said to himself. "Get out of there!"

Charlie walked quickly outside to the parking lot. He hoped he would have enough to get in his car and drive out of Coolsville, but that wasn't the case. Ten Guards showed themselves with shotguns, and they pointed them right at Charlie. He raised his hands slowly as he knew he had no other choice. Then, the Warden approached him from behind. None knew that Daphne was watching this unfold from her infirmary window. Tears ran down her cheeks as she knew what was going to happen to him.

"Oh, my God!" she cried helplessly. "Please, God, no!"

Feeling overwhelmed by the situation, Daphne passed out and fell on the floor. Then, the nurse noticed there was a lot of blood below Daphne's waist. Back in the parking lot, the Warden was about and beyond furious.

"I used to have a lot of faith in you," the Warden said. "But you just had to fuck with me by fucking Daphne!"

The Warden punched Charlie in the face before he could say anything, and Charlie fell to the ground. He walked away, and two Guards picked him up. One Guard walked up behind him as he was walking away.

"We'll murder him in the usual way and bury him deep in the woods like we've done in the past," the Guard said. "Now, is there anything else you need, sir?"

The Warden turned around and faced the Guard.

"No, there's nothing else," the Warden said to the Guard before he looked towards the infirmary. "I have another murder to arrange,"