Two for Joy - Louise Collins Page 0,32
chattering to each other.
They hadn’t accepted Romeo’s magpie as one of them.
They knew it had changed, couldn’t understand it, and without understanding came fear, and fear led to frustration, then anger, before finally violence. It died in the same hands that once saved it.
Abandoned by Romeo, then rejected by its own species.
Romeo woke covered in sweat. His hip ached from the position he’d been lying in, and he quickly sat up, leaning against the wall. His breathing came in pants, but he couldn’t get enough, his chest felt tight with the need to breathe.
Both him and Chad weren’t coping with their new lives post-countdown, and there was only one solution.
He needed to get out of there.
He needed to reunite the monster with the magpie.
Chapter Ten
Romeo left the concrete coffin and was marched back to his cell. There were bruises on his ribs from the beating Fred had given him. He’d barely noticed the pain in solitary, blamed his aching on the cold, and concrete, but in the light, he saw the angry marks on his flesh.
His TV had been taken, and he was told his visits had been suspended for two weeks. Two weeks without seeing Chad. He thought solitary had been bad…
Will tried talking to him, but Romeo wasn’t interested. He lay on the bed and tried to work out how to escape a prison where he was always handcuffed and followed everywhere by two guards. Then there were the locks, the gates, the walls with razor wire, the electrified fences. The more he thought about it, the more desperate he felt, and when he closed his eyes the desperation was still there when he slept.
He dreamed about the magpie. It didn’t matter if the bird died when the slate landed on it, or when it was attacked by the other magpies. The message was still the same, the magpie still died.
Romeo hated the nightmares.
He remembered Chad had nightmares in the farmhouse.
Romeo had enjoyed picking apart Chad’s messed up dreams, trying to understand them, to see them through Chad’s big bright eyes instead of his own dark ones.
Chad hadn’t loved his mother, and he didn’t love his fiancé. Both were okay, understandable, even justified, but in Chad’s mind, that absent love made him heartless, it made him wrong.
Chad loved the companionship he had with his dog, Toby. Toby meant more to him than his mother, or any other person for that matter, and in Chad’s mind, that love wasn’t normal, wasn’t accepted, it made him … wrong.
Chad had a functioning mind, full of emotions, and morals, and goodness, but permanently felt wrong. Romeo had few emotions, no morals, and no goodness, and he felt wrong, too.
Two wrongs definitely made a right.
Romeo walked up to his bars and hung his arms through. “Will, you there?”
“Can’t be anywhere else, can I? What’s on your mind?”
“I need to get out of here.”
Will laughed. “Everyone needs to get out of here.”
He pressed his face into the bars. “But there’s got to be a way.”
“You could try to jump Paul and Fred again.”
“That didn’t end well last time.”
“You should’ve asked Justin for tips.”
“Justin who despises me? And even if I could knock them out, I wouldn’t get through the doors.”
“You could try tunneling through the wall. I saw that in a movie once.”
“Exactly, you saw it in a movie…”
“Well it must have come from somewhere. I don’t hear you coming up with ideas.”
“If I had an idea, a solid one, I wouldn’t be stupid enough to share it with you.”
“Why not?”
“Can’t have you messing it up.”
“You wouldn’t take me with you?”
“Hell, no.”
“Fuck you, Romeo.”
“Has anyone got out of here?”
“Yeah, loads of people.”
Romeo frowned. “How?”
“They died.”
“That’s a great help, thanks.”
“All you’ve got to do to escape for good, is die.”
“You’re in a cheerful mood.”
“Well… I’ve not had my fix from Naughty Nicki.”
Romeo grimaced. “Look, I’m sorry, they’ve banned my mail. That’ll make the next letter even more satisfying.”
“You could’ve at least broke Paul’s nose, got him sent home sick for a week or so.”
Romeo rolled his eyes. “It’s not easy headbutting someone when you’re off balance.”
Will huffed.
“Look, if I get a second chance at headbutting him, I won’t miss, how’s that sound?”
“Good, but it still doesn’t get me a letter from Naughty Nicki.”
Romeo pushed off from the bars. “Night, Will…”
****
The lights outside the cell suddenly turned on. Romeo blinked to adjust. Will cursed, and groaned, and Romeo heard the murmur of all the other prisoners along the corridor.
“What the hell is that about?” Will mumbled.
Romeo