Falling From Escape

Meet the kings

He soon arrived off of the bus and into the concrete building with a fence surrounding its entirety guard towers on every corner. A guard escorted him to the front and took the cuffs off when they got inside. There was no one in the hall except for four: a blonde giant, a woman who appeared like a rat, the guard, and Daniel.
"Well, we weren't expecting fresh meat today" spit the man who as he got closer appeared three times the size of Daniel. "Save the insults for heart-stopper. she'll want to kick his ass so watch yours!" Giggled a small lanky woman with scraggly black hair.
"Who is heart-stopper?" Questioned Daniel, he really didn't care, he just wanted to entertain the loonies so he could get away.
"Well let's take you to them if you're so interested." Said the man while dragging poor Dan down the hall. Annoyingly enough (to him) the guard didn't care and let the giant drag him down the hall and around the corner.
They stopped in front of two large doors, when they opened inside was a room with shelves lining the walls and six chairs on each side all filled with people tables along the middle only two had maybe a couple people and at the very end was a single chair with a person with fire red hair and a white mask covering their face, they were reading a book only to put it down when the door slammed against the wall. Dan guessed this was heart-stopper, they seemed familiar to him. The three continued, the small lady running past the Giant and Dan, shouting at the red-haired paramour.
"AJ we got a newbie, we grabbed him from Jamie before he could get to his room!" She shouted the giant raised Daniel quickly, shaking him like a ragdoll, causing Dan to lose his glasses. Then the giant dropped Daniel to the ground
"He ain't very nice AJ I say you let me break his jaw." The giant said with a thick German accent making his words almost unintelligible. "No Gunter." They spoke with annoyance as well as raising a hand as to say stop.
"Where is your coat, Dr.?" AJ walked over with slow wandering steps, grabbed his glasses, and handed them to Daniel. "I don't believe you remember me, do you?" They questioned, circling around Daniel almost making her words sound like a trap. Dan sat for a few minutes and looked at the floor back to AJ.
"No, All I know about you is that your nickname is heart-stopper and your real name is AJ." He spoke as he got up.
"Good." They spoke flatley as they turned around to back in their seat on the red chair as Daniel exited the doors, and walked down the halls.
In the hall outside, he noticed all the signs "So many rules." He said in his head. "Fewer things to do I suppose that means."
He soon came to a stop in front of a door with a sign in big letters saying "Psychs and guides." "What a strange name-" Dan began to think,"-why include Psychs in the same rooms as guides?" He shook his head and knocked on the door. A lady in a white button-down dress opened it.
"Hello, I'm Daniel Freeman. I'm trying to find my room. I was never told what it was." He greeted the lady who smiled in front of him.
"Right Mr. Freeman it seems that you'll be in the same room as Aj Whitlam-" The nurse apologized "-The cell is 345, right now it is recreational time so for the next 15 minutes you are allowed to do anything as long as it's not against the rules."
"Thank you. I'll get out of your hair now." He mumbled walking out the door.
What was he supposed to do with 15 minutes in one of the most strict places he has ever been? He could go to the library, he should try to get on the better side of the three idiots. On the other hand, he could just read. Maybe they allow people to take the books back to their rooms but considering that this is an insane asylum it's doubtful.
"Dr. Freeman! Do you mean that, that was the freeman killer?" He overheard the small lady in the library before chirp
"Yes, Harlem. That's Dr. Hardinson, the freeman killer." Sighed heart-stopper.
"Who was the freeman killer?" Chimed the giant.
"A murderer that is evil from the core, he based his murders on people like the Zodiac and Dahmer. Killing thirty-three men in the span of eight months. He would leave the same note with the words. "The end is something you can never find, that is who I am." He would torture his victims in terrible ways." Giggled the scrawny lady as though she was telling a story around a campfire.
"Dismemberment."
"Ling chi."
"He especially loved letting his victims go then immediately finding them before they could contact the police" Harlem and AJ chimed
"Okay, okay, I get it he wasn't creative and apparently liked his history," the giant interrupted. Good thing his list of ways of a murder could go on for only thirty-three bodies but still high enough.
"Couldn't help but overhear you three chatting about my murders-" Daniel said as he walked closer to them "-Quite loudly if I might add."
"What do you want, dick!" Shouted Harlem.
"Nothing really, just to know a bit about you three, especially you Mr.Heart-stopper." He spoke, eyes wandering the shelves while he approached the three.
"Mx. and these are Harlem and Gunter but we call him gun, and of course, you know me. I'm heart-stopper but you can call me AJ," they said they seemed bored with their encounter, keeping her eyes on the floor.
"You're a woman?" Laughed Dan "-You don't seem like it."
"Alright freeman that's your last chance hold still so I can beat ya!'" Gun yelled standing up to start hitting him, while AJ chuckled a bit
"Do you always resort to violence-" Dan tried to say before getting cut off by the coms
"Recreations are over return to your cell blocks to be accounted for" the coms boomed before saying the same phrase in different languages
"Great alright see you later gun come on Harlem time to wish we were dead" laughed AJ while standing to leave, they were taller than Daniel believed they would be. Standing at an incredible 6'8 they stared down at him like some sort of god. He was intrigued by the genetic side of things. Parents, grandparents, who the hell gave them the genes that made themselves a giantess, granted he was only five feet tall so everyone was tall, but them, he barely reached their collarbone, It was insanity. "What are you staring at?" They giggled while walking out of the library. He quickly followed suit.
"Why are you following them as well?" Harlem asked skipping out of the library
"I was put in the same cell as them as it just had to be the last open one."
Soon the three were in a hall lined with cells blocked by cement doors and the cliche three-bar windows.
"Perhaps movies were right on this one." Dan thought while he was tailing behind Harlem, who was skipping which was most peculiar considering there was almost no room behind or beside to even move, so how was she prancing about ?
"Everyone on the wall" shouted the guard through his cupped hands "we're doing a head count!" Soon everyone was against the wall and a guard was checking off people on a board.
"Hey, there cutie." Drawled a scraggly old woman with skin almost off her bones, it made Daniels' skin crawl.
"He's with me Beatrice, lay an eye on him and I'll rip your heart out of your chest" hissed AJ who was leaning over him staring her down, not blinking.
"Not even a little bite?" The scraggly old woman giggled, then made a biting motion at Dan, the sudden movement made him stumble a bit toward Harlem. who barely caught him dropping the poor fool.
"Oh zip it bee you wouldn't touch him, not when you're on your way out of this hell hole. You won't mess that up, you orange vampire!" Snapped Harlem
Why were they protecting him? He thought that they hated him. They shook, teased, and threatened him, but somehow they were being kind and snapping at the woman for him. It felt like a trick; get his guard down then- "BAM!"- they'd kill him. He noticed the guard coming their way and immediately scrambled to his feet
"Alright, you four quit it." The guard warned, marking their names on the board.
"Sorry Mr. Jamie," giggled Harlem. She sounded like she was melting almost. Not surprisingly the guard was tall with clear golden skin; he had a perfect jawline, perfect face in general, no scarring, birthmarks, acne, nothing besides a five o'clock shadow. His hair was messy and up in a small ponytail in the back
A few people down Jamie finally finished marking everyone down, "Alright everyone In their cells until supper!" He shouted. Everyone left to their cells, with Dan following behind AJ, when Dan gets into the cell he asks " why does Harlem act like that around the guard?"
"Cause he's cute, duh, dumbass-" AJ stated matter-of-factly "I'm gonna take a nap I'm bottom bunk, top ones yours, obviously."
"Why are there so many rules? " He asked as if it wasn't obvious."It's like they stripped away any right we have."
"We're in prison." AJ sighed "Sure they can call it a mental health asylum, but it's still a correctional facility for criminals. Also our 'rights' they don't apply to us here you mess up you get beat. Of course, you can thank me for some of the rules library-wise at least, you can't take a book in your cell. Punishable by solitary confinement."
"That's ridiculous, and they just enforce these?" Dan gaped "-That's human cruelty! Isn't it?"
"This is Prison life, not mansion life. Dumbass." AJ rolled over in bed covering her head.
"What did you do to get here?"
"Shut up." AJ ended the conversation
An hour went by which seemed like forever. Staring into the void that is the ceiling with nothing but your thoughts or listening to people in other cells' arguments.
"Dinner time, everyone to the cafeteria." The person came on the coms then the same phrase in other languages. Soon people were pouring into the hall.
"AJ. AJ it's time for supper, get up." Dan tried to shake AJ awake.
"I'm not eating, leave." AJ mumbled, still half asleep.
"AJ." Harlem sang. "Time for dinner!"
"They're not hungry, come on." Dan said, walking out of the cell.
The cafeteria was filled with people, there were groups huddled in corners, people trying to hide from the larger groups, and loners galore. The lines wrapped the edges of the wall. Dan got in line or at least as much of him as he could. The lines were connecting, they were so long. Luckily, Dan's small stature is both a blessing and a curse.
"Ha, there you are tiny!" Gun loud and large as ever grinning ear to ear.
"One, do not call me tiny. Two, why are you smiling?" Dan questioned
"I'mma get to see Ally today!" Gunter answered happily
"Who's that?" Dan wondered, was this family, friend, or partner? They moved closer toward the front.
"She's one of the solitaires here. She had a mental freak so they shoved her in the padded room and a hug jacket." Gun said sniffing the room. "It's fish day, come on let's sit, the fish is old and rotten." Said dragging Dan to a table "So where's AJ and Harlem?" Gun asked, rocking back and forth in his seat.
"AJ didn't want to eat and Harlem stayed with them-" Dan replied, eyes wandering the cafeteria "- and you didn't answer the question maybe I should be specific, who is she to you?"
"My friend," Gunter mumbled
"I feel that that's a lie." Dani inquired
"How 'bout you stop prying before I pry you apart!" Gunter shouted grabbing Dan's shirt
"My apologies, I didn't mean any harm." Dan apologizes hands up face away from gunters
Gunter stepped back putting Daniel down some guards were staring him down
"I'm sorry sometimes I can't control myself, people-" he began apologizing curling down onto the chair "-people think they can pry into my life and I don't want to tell them, but they insist and I, I just don't wanna, and it's not like they can't hear me" Gunter stammered over the words with his thick German accent making him almost incoherent. Suddenly the cafeteria grows quiet, the line opens up, and AJ and Harlem walk through the hole in the crowd.
"Gun, when's Ally gonna be back, any visit days? Or any news on her as a matter of fact?" AJ says arms out walking towards them spinning as to show some dominance of some sort.
"Heard that you're still trying to be near her, don't you remember what she did?" She said sitting next to gun while Harlem cut in front of someone in the line
"She didn't take her meds, she thought I was somebody else, that's all." Gun pouted
"You really think that freak cares about you after what you did? You make me sad, Gun." AJ shook her head in disappointment
"If I might, who is 'Ally'?" Daniel tried with AJ
"A lunatic, a danger to society, a loose cannon if you will. Honestly, I don't understand how your pal, Gun, here, hasn't told you about her attacking him a few months before you got here. Especially considering that she is his daughter. She had ripped a chunk of skin out and sent herself to a padded room, and him to the hospital wing" AJ brutally laughed, Gunter looked down grabbing his bandaged arm that Daniel never noticed. AJ had already forgotten Gunter's emotions about the situation.
"You're quite the insensitive prick aren't you? I thought you and Gunter were friends, I mean that's how he sees it!" Dan shouted, slamming his hands on the table while standing out of his chair quickly. People manipulating and using emotions always seemed to get under his skin quicker than in any other situation.
"Why yes, I am.-" AJ growled through their teeth, whilst rising slowly from their seat. "And If you haven't noticed I am his friend I mean, I keep him out of trouble don't I?" AJ laughed.
"A friend would care about their friends, not bully them for loving their fucking child!" Dan shouted at AJ with a finger on their chest. AJ and Dan were nose to nose staring thinking their next words only for a split second the hush
" I suggest you keep yourself out of my face dr.-" AJ growled, "-Don't want anything bad to happen to ya." They finished pushing Dan away he fell back onto the ground he sat and stared frustration built within him. The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife
"The three of you better finish arguing later. I want to eat." Harlem hissed standing beside AJ with some sort of sandwich with white slop in the middle. AJ sits across from Harlem who's sitting to the left of Gunther while Dan is sitting to his right. It was silent, no one spoke a word.
"You're in my spot" growls a voice from above Daniel
"Leave him alone hedge, he's with me so unless you want to be graves, I suggest you get outta here." AJ sighed head in hand staring at the guy. They stay staring in silence for a few moments before he rolls his eyes and walks off. Harlem is snickering over her sandwich. They were the kings of the hellfired building
"Hedge. Hedge what a stupid name oh you should, you should tell glasses here about how he got the name." Harlem laughed out, with her mouth full of her 'sandwich'. Waving her hands to point at dan.
" It wasn't anything great he used to get on my nerves and so I used to beat him up and throw his unconscious body in the hedges and so people kept finding him, giving him the nickname, Hedge." AJ said rubbing the back of their neck they had a faint southern accent
"Is she really your daughter?" Dan laughed. He was perplexed by the gun's little insight into his life before jail.
"She is, yes." Gunter mumbled head down. He looked sorrowful.
"I made her who she is. I failed her as a father and for what?" Gunter shouted "To hide some bodies quickly? I should've never listened to the voices from the void. They always end up somewhere bad or predicting the worse. I mean they told me that if I killed Jamie I'd be allowed to leave!" He laughed, staring at Daniel. Eyes wide, smile from ear to ear.
"'RING' SUPPER IS OVER! Head to your cells to be told what's next." The overhead coms finally shout. Everyone is grumbling and attempting to leave at once, people shoving others into walls. Some just sit on the floor in annoyance, because they were being shoved. Some only sit to cry, no sounds just simple tears of anguish, and boredom. Dan, AJ and the other fools stay where they are at, not wanting to be trampled over by the wanderers or simply just because they didn't want to be shoved around they each have the simple answers. "Are you really not done with that slop they call a sandwich harlem?" AJ chuckled, staring at Harlem who has their mouth full still holding a sizable amount of the sandwich.
"Shut up and let me finish eating asshole. I'll meet you in the showers." Harlem spits. AJ catches that Dan is just staring into the small window on the far side of the cafeteria. There's a tree blocking the view to the world outside.
"Don't worry, the showers are separated." AJ quips at Dan but he caught none of it; he's too focused on something, thinking about everything. They all get up and leave, Dan slightly jogging to catch up to AJ, so AJ stops so he can walk with them. They walk to the cells in silence until AJ asks "What's on your mind, glasses you're quieter than you normally are?"
Silence. For a while he says nothing just stares at them thinking. How would he put the words together for an idiot, how quiet does need to be to not raise attention from the guards around them finally he speaks.
"What would the easiest way out be? What is the area with the least guards? I want to leave and it won't be that hard. And if you help by answering my questions I can help you escape." They stop and stare at each other for a moment
"Library and hall three has only one guard. If we can find someone who can rewire the electrical, I can get rid of the guards. But do know if we get caught the price is high." AJ answered and they continued walking while AJ proceeded to tell him the easiest ways to hide, how he might do it, things such as that. "Why do you want to leave so quickly? It's better for criminals here than out there, especially murderers?" AJ asked out of the blue
"My spouse. I want to find them again. They went to their friends home for the night and a night turned to day then days weeks months and you get it. I want to know that they aren't dead." Dan answered, stopping and looking at AJ.
Soon they reach their cell hall, guards are at the end telling people to move to the showers they went to the showers and then to their cells for bed.