welcome to the game // joshler [✓]

ready or not

through a lot of sneaking around and a whole lot of jon not letting me see the second half of the 'dreaded' basement, we still made it to where we needed to be.

the prisoner ward.

it looked just like it sounded, it was a concrete corridor that had multiple cells sheltering either side. jon had made sure he had closed the door in which we came in from before we started a slow and quiet trip through this rather elongated hallway of imprisonment.

jon stood in front of me, setting the pace for how we should travel. whenever we passed a cell, i made sure to pay close attention as to who it was captivating, since the lights were fairly dim in this place, and jon only had one flashlight to help navigate us.

"so wait," jon softly spoke up as we kept waking, "what does your friend look like?" he asked me in the same tone, i then spoke up, my voice barely audible, "she has blonde hair and blue eyes, i don't think you can miss her."

he didn't reply, but i knew he heard me as he began to inspect the cells a little slower now. after a few more minutes of anxiously walking down this hell hole, i almost suspected that jenna wasn't even down here, most of the cells were either empty or the prisoners were insane with straitjackets on to hold them down.

until jon stopped in place, motioning for me to look at a particular cell on the left side of the hallway. he shined his flashlight over, illuminating what i hoped to have been a sleeping jenna, her fragile body leaning against the grey bricked wall, solely for support as she 'slept'.

i quickly tried getting her attention, tapping the decaying, metal bars of the cell, but to no avail. i then loudly whispered, "psst, jen? jenna?!" she didn' even react when i did that.

that's when jon took the matters into his own hands, hitting the wall closest to her cell as hard as he could, making a loud *thud* noise that finally awoken jenna, her big blue eyes were practically screaming weakness and exhaustion, but they soon brightened at the sight of me.

she smiled weakly, "j-josh?" she managed to get herself up, dragging her weakened body over to the cell bars, "w-what're you doing here?!" she was in a frenzy of worry and excitement.

her question was about to get an answer, until she turned her attention over to jon, suddenly her demeanor changed, she got a lot more defensive, "who's this?" she wondered, still looking up at jon.

"oh, he's a friend, his names jon," i introduced, "he's the one who got me down here." i further explained, though she didn't seem to loosen up her now tense nature.

"uh, b-by the way, jon?" i look at him and we make eye contact, "can you open her cell?" he looked hesitant at first, but i gave him my best 'you can trust me' puppy dog look, in which he then gave in, quickly unlocking jenna's cell.

immediately once it was open, jenna threw herself onto me, hugging me. jon watched this unfold, a smile appearing on his face before speaking, "i'll let you two be, when you're ready to head out, i'll be down the hall."

i nodded, the hug still wasn't broken. it lasted for a few more seconds until jon was now out of sight in the darkness of the hallway. jenna looked up at me again as she spoke, "oh god, josh-- there's so much going on--"

"can you tell me what's going on?"

she looked down both ends of the hallway in a panic before rapidly speaking, "i just-- i wish-- okay look, tomorrow night, something big is going down, and i can't stop it alone. they plan on using me for some mind control experiment--"

"jen, slow down," i tried calming her, "what is gonna happen tomorrow night?" i asked her in desperate plea for an answer, she bit her lip and turned her head either side to check both ends of the hallway again. she then took a deep breath before looking at me with fear flooding her ocean-blue eyes,

"tyler's being used for the monkey house."