Avoiding Past And Future

13

It had been a few days since Miss Waller's last visit. It wasn't abnormal for her to stay away for a prolonged time when new inmates arrived. Security was also more on edge in case the newbies caused any issues. That didn't mean Danny liked it.

Due to the increase in security protocol, Danny hadn't seen his favorite guard in a while either. The man wasn't anything special, but he was the only guard that didn't treat him like a piece of trash. He was extremely good at his job and had a good eye for detail. When he did his rounds, he would hang out at his cell door for a while. Sometimes it was just a meaningless chat, other times he got some updates on what the outside world looked like. He hadn't tried to be obvious about it, but the guard, Officer Wilcox, always gave him some form of update on what Gotham's Dynamic Duo had been doing. Any other guards would think he was just fanboying over the heros, or rubbing in for those who got put there by them.

Danny knew better.

He was a good man and had never asked why Danny had been interested.

Now with the new inmates, and some new hires, officer Wilcox has been put on training and gen pop monitoring. Much to Danny's dismay, the guards that replaced him showed a lot less kindness. If anything, he was lucky if he didn't get some backhanded insult thrown at him. It was somewhat known amongst the guards that the warden had a soft spot for him. They absolutely disagreed with that. To them, he was worse than the standard inmate. Danny couldn't blame them too much though.

He had been in solidary since day 1. His file was extremely classified. And of course he had appeared without a notice. They knew something shady had to have happened for a child to be put in here. But they also feared him. He knew they did. Any logical thinking person would. He was the only one in the entire prison to have more than one collar, let alone 5. Lots of rumors were spread about him. Some more funny than others. A handful were about how he got there. The most entertaining one so far was that he was somehow a failed human experiment that had gone rogue and killed his researchers. Interestingly enough, one had recently popped up about him being the clone of the big 3. But very few actually believed it. Others were about how powerful he might be. Somehow it got spread around that he could create people's worst nightmares and consumed that fear to get stronger.

It was around lunch time when he heard the angry stomping of a guard coming his way. Much to his dismay, Officer Riker was making a beeline for him. Riker was one of those guards that barely treated him as human. Sure, he was only half human but they didn't know that.

Riker slammed a fist against the bars as he spat at Danny. "Your damn mutt was in the kitchen again! I swear I will get that thing banned from here! Forget about going to the Mess later, you're staying right here. And don't think that you'll get any delivery either. Waller won't keep protecting you forever." Throwing some more verbal abuse his way, the man seemed to enjoy taking whatever anger he had out on Danny. He had already learned that Riker is one of those that shows off his dominance. As long as you are quiet during his hissy fit he'll leave you alone afterwards. At least others were fun to taunt a little. Not Riker though. He might see it as an invitation to enter his cell and escalate it. Danny only made that mistake once.

Danny sighed as he leaned back against the wall once he was sure Riker was gone. He wondered how many meals he would be denied this time. If only Miss Waller would have the time to make a visit. She couldn't outright go against protocol and have food made special for him, but sometimes she would bring some homemade food for him. She had been told during his absence to the Far Frozen that he had been losing weight too much. Every now and then he would start getting some extra meals brought to him by Wilcox. The man had a great deal of respect for Miss Waller and never questioned the food, or the visits. Another reason why Danny liked him. Sometimes he would even bring his own and they would have lunch together. Wilcox was great at languages so he was quite a help to Danny.

Growing up in a traveling circus made him pick up a lot of languages. As he got older and barely got to use most of them, he started to unlearn them. He also had some issues with reading but he didn't really know why. He could read a word multiple times and each time it looked different. Wilcox never made fun of him though. He even asked Danny to teach him some words. Cujo had also taken a liking to the man, so being able to convey orders to the pup came in handy. Especially when it was about having to hide.

It came with its own struggles though. Danny had trained Cujo like he was his own, with his own signals and commands. Though he did trust Wilcox, he preferred to keep some stuff just between him and Cujo. So he had taught him some basic Esperanto instead. Before Danny had arrived at Belle Rêve, the pair had run into Wulf. The wolf ghost had no problem communicating with Cujo, though the pup only barked. Quite an easy way to find out Cujo did in fact understand Esperanto. It wasn't just come lucky coincidence the ghost dog understood him.

Wilcox had only learned a few things, by his own request. He didn't really treat Cujo as a dog, but more as a friend to talk to. Many of the commands he had learned were more geared to keeping the pup out of harm's way than to order him around.

Danny had vowed to himself that he would do whatever he could to keep the man safe. He couldn't do much, but at least he could do that.

The ghost boy had sat quietly in his cell for a few hours now. He didn't really want to read or do anything else. He already tried to do some stretching earlier but had felt more than enough stiffness from his starving muscles for the day. He had closed his eyes, hoping to sleep away the hunger pangs for now. His eyes shot open again as he felt an all too familiar chill run through his body.

Cujo popped up out of the wall as he pranced over to the bed with some precious cargo. Danny cackled a little as Cujo struggled to jump up without ruining hos bounty. He picked up the ghost dog as he put him in his lap. "What you got there, boy? Did you get yourself into some trouble again?" Cujo looked up at him. In his mouth was a pretty sad looking piece of meat. He nodded his head towards the halfa, meat flapping around as he did. Danny took it from him with a bit of a laugh and tore it in half. Though he appreciated the gesture, he didn't feel like eating ghost drool. He gave that part back to Cujo as he ate the other half. Cold and bland, but better than nothing.

He really hoped that whoever Cujo took this from wasn't too upset about it.