King of the Cell (DNF)

Chapter 31: Middle of the night

Clay POV.

Quiet whimpers woke me up, and I was confused about where it came from for a couple seconds before realising that it was the brunette sleeping on the bunk above mine. I sat up on the bed, listening to him for a couple of seconds as I wondered what had caused him to get upset.

After a few moments I climbed out of the bed, heading halfway up the ladder which led to the brunette’s bunk and stood there, leaning slightly over him. A pitying expression appeared on my face as I saw him curled up asleep, whimpering something in his dreams. Whatever it was that was going on through his mind obviously wasn’t good though.

One of my hands moved to brush through his hair, as I called out the brunette’s name in a gentle voice to wake him up. After a couple times repeating his name it worked, and his eyes opened while he let out a quiet whine before his body immediately tensed up. After looking around with a panicked expression for a few seconds he pulled himself into a ball and began crying.

“George,” I spoke softly, my hand moving to cup his cheek. “Are you okay? Did you have a bad dream?” He took a couple of deep breaths before nodding.
“Yeah. I am sorry for waking you up.” He apologised. “I’ll try and be quiet next time I go to sleep.”

“No need to say sorry.” I told him, running my fingers through his hair. “If you need me for anything then I will be happy to help. Even if you just need someone to talk to, or someone to hold.”
“Can you stay, please?” The brunette asked, and I looked into his eyes with hesitance at the question. “I hate to ask this… but having you close to me makes me feel safer…”

With every word he said his voice got slightly quieter and he averted his gaze. I considered it for a second. There wasn’t much room on the bed for me to sleep on, however I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride at the fact that I made him feel safe.

“Fine,” I smiled. For a moment I climbed back down onto the ground and grabbed my pillow, along with my blanket. Then I pulled myself up onto the top bunk as George shuffled over to give me some more space, and once I’d made myself comfortable I attempted to do the same thing, moving as far to the side of the bed as I could.

The two blankets were warm, especially compared to the terrible blankets that we had the first time we had slept in the same bunk. At some point during the night after I’d climbed into his bed he drifted off and readjusted himself in his sleep. The brunette ended up with his back pressing against my side. To make it more comfortable for me I adjusted myself so my chest was pressing against his back.

A content sigh fell from my lips. George’s body was warm as it curled alongside mine, and I snuggled further into the warmth, trying to push away the feelings about what would happen when George woke up, noticed our position, and invariably got me to move away. For now I allowed myself to get comfortable with the small brunette pressed into me, and fall asleep.

Guard POV.

I settled in my chair as we flicked through the different cameras in the office. The multiple screens in front of myself and the other guard showed us multiple cells, with labels in the corner of each screen to show which part of the prison it showed. Most of them showed different cells where all of the prisoners were asleep, or the empty corridors running between rooms.

Over the hours the screens would regularly switch between showing all of the different prisoners, since that was what we focused on mainly. If anything did happen in the corridors then the guards on night duty would find out and handle it. There was only one cell who didn’t appear on cameras, but the other guard didn’t realise it.

“My back hurts from sitting here for so long,” I stated as I stood up with a stretch. “I’m going to go and walk around.” The other guard hummed at my words, seemingly half asleep. A lot of the guards working at Pandora’s Box took turns on the night shift, but no prisoner ever tried to escape, so it was just us standing around boredly for eight hours, from 10pm-6am.

I took a couple quick steps towards the door before glancing back at him. “Want me to bring you back something to eat from the vending machines in the staff room?”
“No thanks.” He responded. “I feel like taking a nap. There’s never much action going on, especially at this time of night. But don’t tell the bosses.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not a snitch.” I reassured as I stepped out of the security office and shut the door behind me. The corridors always had dim lighting at night, so that the guards could see where they were going when on patrol, but not bright enough to wake up prisoners in their cells.

As I walked I didn’t pass by many guards on duty, solely because I had planned out the time that I left the office perfectly based on the shifts. Nobody bothered me as I headed down to Cell Block B, which was where the person I was planning to see lived. I was alone up until I headed downstairs to the ground floor.

Two officers were standing at the bottom of the stairs and stopped me. “Why are you down here?” One of the pair asked. “Aren’t you meant to be up in the security office watching the cameras?”

“I am.” I nodded. “But one of the cameras was glitching so I wanted to check it to make sure that nothing was happening.” The guards gave a nod as I continued past them. “I’ll be back in about five minutes.” I promised.

They let me go after that and I headed off to Cell Block B. I hurried along, not worrying about any other person seeing me. Eventually I got to the cell I wanted to go to. The keycard in my pocket was able to unlock any of the cells, and it let out a small whizzing noise as the door unlocked and I opened it.

The prisoner inside was asleep on the top bunk. His clothes were thrown over the empty lower bunk and the sleeping prisoners snored loudly. I smiled at him while walking over, and because of my height my eyes were level with his as he lay motionless.

My hand moved to brush against the sleeping ravenette’s cheek which made him wake up as he opened them warily. When he noticed me his expression brightened. “Hey baby,” he greeted in a groggy morning voice (even though it was still the middle of the night). “It’s good to see you.”
“Good to see you too Sap.” I greeted before being pulled into a gentle kiss.

“I’ve missed you Karl.” He hummed. “It’s been so long since I’ve been able to spend time with you.”
“Soon,” I responded. “Just a couple more weeks and then we’ll be able to be together. I just wanted to come and say hi.”

“Hi then.” Sapnap spoke softly before kissing me again. “It’s nice to have someone in here with me after Dream’s moved cell.”
“Well now when I come to visit you, Dream won’t complain about me waking him up.” I laughed quietly.

After a couple of moments of silence he asked me a question in the most quiet and innocent tone available. “Can you join me in bed for a cuddle?” He asked, sounding like a toddler.
“I can’t.” I answered. “I just told the officers that I was checking a faulty camera. I don’t want anyone to come looking for me when I’ve been gone for too long.”

Sapnap grumbled something incoherently before rolling over, saying something about how it wasn’t fair. For a few minutes I tried to convince him to turn back around but he didn’t listen, pouting about how I couldn’t cuddle with him. Eventually I pressed a kiss on the back of his neck. “I have to go then. I’ll see you Sap.”

He didn’t respond though, and I smiled as I realised that he had fallen asleep. I muttered a quiet ‘I love you’ to him as I turned to leave, then made sure to shut the cell door behind me.

Just a few more weeks and he and I could be together again properly.
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1464 words