Dangerous Territory

Five

"At least this time I can understand why they're searching us," Cameron said, turning out his pockets and giving the guards a twirl so they could pat him down.

Over the last two days, he'd long lost the irrational fear that he'd be imprisoned for talking to Mala above a whisper and was having fun making his own commentary on the facility.

Under any other circumstances Mala would be joining in with him, laughing at his jokes and sarcastic observances, but in a notion that was becoming more and more familiar to her, she was having somewhat of an internal crisis.

Really, the internal crisis hadn't stopped since she'd set sight on her mate.

All she could do was nod at his words and give an uncomfortable sigh, unable to even crack a smile as she thought about the stupid decision she was about to make.

She listened attentively as the rules and guidelines were set out, nodding whenever she was asked if she understood.

She understood perfectly.

They were about to choose which prisoner to talk to.

It all sounded pretty coffee-shop casual but Mala knew that it was just the opposite. A lot went into making sure that the inmates had little contact with the outside world and now, all of a sudden, there were two barely adult officers coming to interrupt the routine.

She knew that the whole ordeal had the propensity to make the inmates excited and that could yield unprecedented results.

Even in the human prisons, or in prisons filled with people serving a small amount of time for minor crimes, they worked hard to eradicate the possibility of change.

Of surprise.

If the regularity of their routine was disturbed, they would have prisoners acting out for attention, a 'pick me' mentality, anything so that they could be part of the excitement and have something to break up the banality.

In this case, they weren't dealing with wannabe thugs, they were dealing with murderous shifters who would be spending the rest of their natural lives behind bars.

They'd probably leech all the excitement they could get.

It was a surprise to be escorted into the visitation room, the area much larger than Mala had expected, especially since she knew the space wasn't in use.

It was pretty standard to other visiting areas, tables and chairs spread across the floor, some with mesh dividers in between, some without. The furniture was bolted to the floor, likely in an effort to eliminate the possibility of them being thrown around in a fit of anger. Mala briefly wondered if the bolts were shifter proof.

At the right corner of the room, there was a glass booth, little holes in the middle of the glass for sound to travel through. She guessed that would be the place where they would be conversing with the inmates. It definitely looked like the safest and it kept the degree of separation that the prison definitely needed.

"We don't want to overwhelm the inmates so we're going to have the rest of you standing on the other side of that, where there's a one-way mirror. You'll be able to see what's going on but you won't be able to hear, so you'll just have to use your imagination. I'll be on the other side of the mirror too but these two guards will stay in the room with you, standing just behind this table over here."

Cameron and Mala voiced their understanding.

"Okay. You'll have ten minutes to talk and then we'll take them back to their cell. Is that understood?"