In the Darkest Corners (Vi x Reader)

Chapter 2: Unlocked

Olive froze. Whoever was in that cell, it certainly wasn't her mother; but by the look and sound of this inmate, she wasn't sure if she should be all that relieved. But she knew what she needed to do. Taking a deep breath, she spoke.

"I'm Olive. Are you inmate 516?" She asked with as steady a voice as she could muster.

"Depends who's asking," the figure responded gruffly. The voice sounded dark and vaguely female, but Olive wasn't sure. All she could see was a muscular figure pacing back and forth.

"I was told you might have some information I'm looking for," Olive continued, trying not to let the inmate intimidate her.

"And you broke into this shithole to get it? Must be important then." They chuckled darkly.

"It was all Achlan-" Olive was cut off.

"Achlan? Don't tell me you work for that bastard." The figure suddenly stopped and turned towards her. She seemed to be a woman with cropped hair and sharp features, but apart from her aggressive stance, Olive couldn't make out any more details.

"No, I don't. But that's not the point." Olive took a breath, mustering up her courage to step over the red line marked on the floor and get close to the cell bars. "I've spent the last year searching for my mother, Eleanor Whitlock. I've heard whispers of her working with industrialists in the Undercity, but nothing more than that. You're my only lead."

Inmate 516 sighed and resumed her(?) pacing. "Sorry, I've never heard of any 'Eleanor Whitlock'. By the sound of it though, my guess is she was some rich topsider that got too close with undercity business and reaped the consequences. Not uncommon."

"No!" Olive exclaimed. Her voice came out louder than intended, and she silently kicked herself. "My mother wouldn't have done anything like that. I know her. I've heard whispers of her working with the industrialist, Silco, but-" The inmate suddenly rushed forward and grabbed Olive by the front of her shirt, pulling her close to the bars — and her suddenly illuminated face.

"She worked with Silco?" She growled, glaring so hard that Olive thought her eyes might burst into flames. Olive was stunned, not only by the fact that she was currently being held so tightly she was lifted onto her toes, but also by the appearance of perhaps the most attractive person she had ever seen.

The inmate's face was angular and littered with scars, her nose clearly having been broken more than a few times and a roman numeral tattoo marked under her left eye. Olive could tell that she was strong as hell, not only by the fact that she was lifted off the ground, but also by the sight of her stocky, muscular build that was accentuated by large tattoos. She had to force herself to pull her eyes away from the inmate and focus on the task at hand.

"No," she gasped out, "I-I'm not sure, I've only heard his name mentioned once or twice. I thought he was just doing normal business." Olive's chest rose and fell heavily as she struggled to keep her breathing even.

The muscled inmate dropped her. "You topsiders really don't know shit, huh? The undercity's going to eat you alive."

"Not if I can help it." Olive replied. "And you're going to help me. I need information, now."

"Oh I can get you information," 516 smirked, leaning on the bars with her hands dangling lazily around them. "Just not from in here."

Olive held up the keys that had been digging into her palm and sighed. "I just know I'm going to regret this."

Shit. She quickly realized that the many keys on the ring were NOT labeled, and she had no way of knowing which one would unlock 516's cell. She began jumbling with the keys, fitting each one into the lock and growing more and more anxious as she started running out of keys.

"Would you hurry the fuck up?" The inmate hissed, earning her a glare from an already stressed Olive.

"Sorry, I'm not exactly a prison break-in pro, as you can probably tell," She hissed back. Finally, a key slid into the lock easily and clicked. Right as the lock opened, however, voices echoed towards the two of them from down the hall.

"Somebody had to have taken my keys," a low, scratchy voice growled. Olive could see glimpses of what seemed like two large figures — guards, she realized as her heart dropped — who were flashing torches into each cell, clearly looking for whoever had stolen the keys. Looking for her.

The prisoner acted fast, unlike Olive, who was frozen in fear. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, she had forced open the door and yanked Olive inside, pushing her up against a dark niche in her cell with her hand covering Olive's mouth. Wordlessly, 516 held Olive in a firm grip and kept her eyes and ears trained on the now closed cell door.

Meanwhile, Olive's heart felt like it was about to beat out of her chest. Here she was, hiding from a guard during a prison break-in, and all she could think about was how she was being held against the wall by a very attractive person who had nearly half a foot on her in height. Shit, she needed to focus. The guards' steps were drawing closer.

"Who's down here again, 516? Yeah, that one's trouble alright." Another gruff voice, clearly belonging to another guard, grunted out with a rough chuckle. Olive watched as 516 clenched her jaw and gently let her go, holding up her finger to signal to Olive to stay silent as she waltzed towards the center of her cell — where she would be most visible. Olive held her breath.

One of the guards ran his thick baton along the bars of the cell as both guards walked into view. With a sinister smile on his face, the same guard with a baton looked 516 up and down with another gruff chuckle.

"Cause any trouble lately, 516? Seems my friend here is missing his keys." The other guard grunted.

"I'm flattered that you would think of me, Flock, but I unfortunately have no idea where Flick's precious keys have run off to," She said smoothly, pulling off the boldfaced lie brilliantly.

"Shame. We haven't had a...talk in a while," Flock responded, resting his baton on the floor and letting a vicious expression take over his face.

"I know, so sad." 516 replied sarcastically with gritted teeth. "Maybe next time?"

Flock's smile widened, showing rows of sharp teeth. "Oh, there's always a next time."

Once the guards had sauntered away and there was silence for a few moments, Olive let out a long-held breath and let herself slump against the wall.

"I'm never doing anything like this ever again," she sighed quietly.

"I hate to break it to you, but we're about to do a lot more of this," 516 replied with a playful, yet still grim air to her. "Now all we have to do is get out of here."

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Hello again! This chapter was a shorter one, but I hope I made up for it in tension ;) If you have enjoyed the story thus far, please don't forget to vote and comment! Chapter 3 will be released soon (hopefully by the end of the night)!