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My First Year in Prison - Chapter 18
🕑 Added 2022-07-26 09:00:05 +0000 UTCMy First Year in Prison
[Warning before you start reading: Just like chapter 18 of My First Year in College, this chapter 18 of My First Year in Prison is plot driven (no sex) and touches on very heavy subjects, such as mass shootings, violence in prison, and drugs. Chapter 19 will of course deal with the consequences of the events described here, but with the usual mix of eroticism and drama. That being said, enjoy.]
Chapter 18: …Until death do us apart
“Where did you get that fucking stash, son?”
Ray was fuming, yelling at Trevor but also asking the entire cafeteria. He was showing off a plastic bag with white powder in it. He had just taken the drugs from Trevor’s pants. The teenager was dead silent and looking at his feet, just like a kid caught eating some chocolate in his bedroom.
But this was no chocolate and Trevor was not a kid anymore.
That day, Falcon and Foster were overseeing the cafeteria during lunch-time. Foster seemed like he wanted to intervene but Falcon just shrugged his shoulders.
Since the bald prick chose to ignore this, that could only mean that Romano or someone from his crew was responsible for getting the drugs to Trevor. Falcon would always cover for them. I looked at Will, nervous. I knew things could get messy.
Xander was showing off his golden wedding ring when this whole thing started. He looked concerned now. He told Ralph, Pope and I:
“Ray should shut the hell up; He has basically admitted that his son was transporting the dope now. Trevor will be the one getting in troubles. He’s digging a hole for the two of them; we need to stop him.”
“I don’t think he even cares or thinks about that. Ray is super worried that Trevor would consume anything and get hooked.” I replied, remembering my fight with him.
“WHO GAVE THAT SHIT TO MY SON?” Ray was now standing up on a chair and shouting at the crowd.
He specifically looked at the table where Romano, Bianchi, Kim, Glenn, and Will were sitting.
“YOU DID THAT, DIDN’T YOU? ASSHOLES! YOU GAVE DOPE TO AN 18 YEARS OLD KID? SHAME ON YOU!”
Ralph and Xander stood up:
“Come on, Ray, let’s discuss this outside.” Xander said calmly, trying to get him to step down from the chair.
“Why? I want to solve that now!” Ray pushed Xander away, slapping him in the process.
“Eh! The guy just got married like 10 minutes ago, chill.” Ralph held Ray’s arm but he was not ready to calm down.
It was like the time that he had come at me in the laundry room, only ten times worse. Ray was legitimately scary.
“Why should I fucking care about a stupid wedding? Someone wants to mess with my son here! Fuck all of you!”
Kurtis who had just walked in the cafeteria intervened as well:
“Come on, Ray. Trevor will throw away the bag and we will solve this between ourselves. There’s no point in what you’re doing now.”
Ray was not listening.
“I KNOW IT’S THEM!” He pointed at Romano’s table. He stepped down from the chair: “Torres, you gave that to him? Own up to this! How many teenagers did you turn into crackheads?”
Will was looking at his empty plate, clearly uncomfortable, but Romano flipped his middle finger at Ray with a smile. Next to them, Kim was looking very tense. Could not the guards do something, anything?
“Ray, there is no way you will prove anything like this. Let it go.” I said, trying to appeal to his senses. “Nobody will admit to getting drugs in here.”
I should not have tried. I only made Ray more furious, if it was even possible. He pushed away Xander and Kurtis on each side of him and jumped towards me.
“Of course, you’re defending him! You still take Torres’ dick up your ass, aren’t you? Fucking fag!”
At this point, everyone in the cafeteria was looking at us. I felt myself getting red, I wanted to disappear from the Earth. Kurtis, Xander and Ralph looked at me weirdly. The three of them instantly knew Ray was telling the truth about me getting fucked by Will. Shit. I was screwed.
“I…”
I started talking but Will had stood up from his chair as well, ready to fight Ray:
“What the hell is wrong with you, man?”
I wished he had not. I wished he had just kept on staring at his plate.
In a split second, Ray had made his decision, he started to run towards him like an unstoppable bull.
“Ray!” Xander shouted.
“Dad!” Finally, a reaction from Trevor, but it was way too little, too late.
Ray had jumped onto Will, slamming him against the table and pushing everyone who was in his way. The table collapsed; shattered glasses were being sprayed everywhere. The next thing I saw was Will being trampled by Ray’s huge muscular body, disappearing underneath. But Will was not so easy to take down, he roared and flipped back on Ray, punching him on the face.
“INMATES!” Falcon shouted, finally doing something!
But things had already spined out of control.
Glenn and Kim moved aside but Bianchi and Romano had joined Will, and the three of them were beating Ray up. I really thought that he was going to die, there were destroying him. Trevor was now running at his father’s rescue, jumping on Romano from behind and grabbing his neck.
Things only got worse as Bianchi caught Trevor and pushed him against guard Falcon who was walking towards them in a failed attempt to stop them. As Bianchi attacked Trevor, Kurtis, Ralph and Xander joined the fight to defend him and from this point on, it became pure chaos.
Not knowing how they got there, I turned around and saw that Big Pepe was fighting with someone else from Romano’s crew behind me. It was no longer an isolated fight; it was a brawl involving dozens of inmates.
I just stood there, like a scared animal, not really comprehending how things got to escalate that quickly.
As the Latinos were getting involved, it was harder to understand who was beating up who and a flying plate passed a few inches away from my head. I managed to avoid it. I needed to do something, but what? I had lost track of the main fight at Romano’s table as inmates were either running away from the cafeteria or initiating new fights.
A few feet away from me, I saw that Kurtis was seriously bleeding from his shoulder. Instinctively, I ran towards him. It was just when the alarm started ringing. I had heard it a lot since I got locked up but this time, it was different, I was directly involved in the fight. I was part of the reason it was ringing.
Normally, everyone would lie down immediately but it was not an ordinary altercation. It felt more like a riot. Some of the guys surrounding me did lie down but others kept on fighting. I remembered what Xander had told me once, about the importance of remaining face down against the floor when the alarm was blasting off. Otherwise, we could get shot.
But in the middle of the cafeteria, I was unable to move, too overwhelmed by what was going on around me.
I locked eyes with Kim, he was still standing up, he looked confused. Someone pushed me aside and then, out of nowhere, Xander appeared behind me.
“Stay down!” He screamed at me although he was only inches from my face.
Xander pulled me down with him. I felt some shattered glass on my wrist when I hit the floor. Minor cuts.
He put his hand on my shoulder, damn, Xander’s beautiful wedding ring was already stained with blood. That was messed up.
We looked at each other’s eyes and we heard two distinct gun shots. To this day and as I am writing those words, each of these sounds still resonates deep within my core. There would be plenty more gun shots afterwards but that first bang, I would never forget it. Can you believe that I had never heard a gun shot before in my entire life?
I looked around, some of the inmates had finally stopped fighting, shocked by the shots.
It was Foster who had jumped on a table and was holding his gun towards the ceiling. He was also calling for reinforcement on his walkie-talkie. Behind the table where he stood, Falcon was lying down, unconscious, his bald head bleeding. Was he dead? He could not be!
Fuck. That meant it was only guard Foster now and he was clearly overwhelmed by the situation.
I was afraid, not only for myself but for the people I was now considering as friends. But I had to think about my own survival, I had to get out of here. Who was the one to hit Falcon? This guy would probably never leave prison.
I turned my face to Xander, he seemed very grave.
“Xan, we need to get out.” I spoke.
He just nodded yes but he did not move. Some people were still going at each other. Ralph, Ray, Trevor, Romano, Bianchi, Will… They were still fighting with chair, plates… and knives. Not the ones we used to eat with, but sharp knives, dangerous ones. Bianchi was holding a knife so close to Trevor’s neck, I thought there was no way he would make it out alive.
Someone was sobbing a few feet away from me. The alarm was still blasting off but it was like those convicts were ready to fight until the death. And for what? Could not they see how ridiculous it was, to lose their own lives over this?
I had lost track of Kurtis, it worried me.
“NOW, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU BETTER LIE DOWN OR I FUCKING SHOOT!” Foster yelled.
The absurd image of Foster, having fun and stripping with the same inmates the night before went through my mind like a flash. How did this handsome young man end up on this table, threatening people with a gun? His job was killing him as much as being locked up in this prison was killing us.
Foster shot a third time in the air, making a lamp explode above him. He was heavily trembling, that was no good.
Most of the guys still fighting were bleeding or were hurt in some capacity. Ray was unrecognizable, blood was covering his entire face. They were trying to catch up their breathe.
Xander stood-up, maintaining his hands high in the air:
“Guys, Stop! Ralph, please! You’re gonna get killed, all of you!” He cried out.
Ralph, coming back to reality, looked at Xander and put his hands up in the air as well. The bodybuilder took a few steps back and knelt down. Romano did the same. I was relieved. Finally, Bianchi, Will and Trevor followed through but Ray was still looking crazy. He had snapped, completely, and was wandering among the others, barely making sense in his rumblings.
“Dad, please…” Trevor said. He was full on crying at this point.
After another long minute, finally, the alarm stopped blasting and suddenly, there was silence. Xander approached Ray like a wounded animal. I am not sure of what he told him but he got him to lie down on the floor as well. Thanks God.
Maybe it was over.
“Are you ok?” Someone whispered on my left.
I looked and Kurtis was there, lying down beside me. He had big stains of blood on his white tank top and over his shoulders. Even in this context, his blue-greyish eyes were comforting.
“Kurtis… We need to get you help…”
“Shhh…” He said, putting his finger on my mouth.
He was right to shut me up, it was dead silent and everyone was on edge. I needed to get Kurtis to the infirmary fast. I also wanted to give him an explanation about Will. To tell him this was nothing. To tell him I was sorry.
What happened next, I am not so sure. As I was starting to breath normally again, I heard a huge bang. Something stupid occurred, it was almost ridiculous, the dilapidated table on which Foster was standing suddenly collapsed under his weight. The guard fell down on the floor.
Of course, his gun fell down with him. I saw it, only a few feet away from me. The gun. Maybe I could have done something.
It took a few seconds before I saw a hand picking it up. That hand did not look threatening. I looked above me; it was Kim, now carrying the gun.
I thought it was ok, at least, it was not Romano or even Ray holding it. But then, I crossed his eyes and I knew this would end badly.
Kim did not look lost anymore. He did not look like himself.
I will never forget his face. Sometimes, the way he stared at me right at that moment comes back to haunt my nightmares and my husband has to call me down. Kim had an expression of pure rage on his face, but a cold one, a controlled anger. Basically, he had the face of a man ready to kill.
Which he did.
“Kim… Gimme that back.” Foster asked, his voice shaking.
Kim ignored the guard and walked towards his Master.
“Good boy.” Romano said on the other side of the room.
He had his devilish smile when he stood up while Ralph, Trevor, Ray and Will were still lying down right next to him. Romano was ready to take that gun and shot at everyone. It was like I was watching the scene in slow-motion.
Everyone thought Kim was about to hand the gun to Romano but I knew better. As I had looked into his eyes, I understood that he would never give away that firearm.
The prison’s fight turned into a tragedy in just a matter of seconds. Kim did not flinch. He pointed the gun towards his Master, and shot. Just once. Right in his chest. People screamed of horror as Romano collapsed on the floor, dead.
Hundreds of flashes of Kim went through my mind. I had seen him on the verge of breaking down so many times. I had seen him servicing a man he clearly hated. I had seen him renounce to his sexuality to abide by Romano’s. And I had not done anything.
No one had intervened. We had let him sink until he did not have anything to lose.
From this point on, I can only write about what I have learned afterwards as everything in my memory is a blur. I know for sure that Xander ran towards Kim and try to resonate with him. Most of the other inmates just ran away and someone walked on my right calf, smashing it as he ran over me. It hurt like hell.
I felt someone holding me, it was Kurtis, but I could not stand up right. Was my leg broken? It was not, but I would have trouble walking for more than a month after that. He was pulling me away from the chaos, as we were being pushed on all sides.
I bumped into Frenchy, he looked messed up, not only by what was going on, but his pupils were dilated. He was high pretty much 24/7 those past few days. Will had found a way to get the drugs back in.
Where was he, Will? In the panic, several more shots were heard. I realized that I was relying on Kurtis’ shoulder while he was still bleeding very much.
“Kurtis… You’re hurting yourself, let me.”
I pushed him away, ashamed of not being able to take care of myself, this was stupid, we both almost fell. But someone else caught me, Pope was there.
Another shot. BANG. Right behind me.
People were screaming now.
Pope, Kurtis, or maybe someone else, I could not say, throw me into the kitchen. Some of the guys used the immense fridge as a way to block the door. We were trapping ourselves; I could not say if it was a good idea or not. I was just glad that some people had some agency on what to do. All of my friends were still out-there.
Friends, what a strange word to name those guys. But fuck, they were my friends. I had just been the best man of one of them. Xander had gotten married less than an hour before this nightmare. How could that be? It felt like it was in another dimension.
Kurtis fell down next to me.
“What is happening?” I mumbled.
Pope answered:
“Kim has lost it.” He just said.
There were two other shots. Each time, I would jump.
“Shit, he’s shooting everyone.” Who said that? I am not too sure. But that sentence still very much resonates in my mind. He was shooting everyone, indeed.
When I looked at my right, I realized that Kurtis was in an even worse shape than I thought.
“God, Kurt… You’re bleeding a lot!”
“Not a gunshot…” He whispered but he clearly was out of there.
I knelt down next to him and painfully took his tank top off. That was rough to look at. Dozens, maybe more, of very thin pieces of glasses were cutting through his skin, and a larger piece of glass was buried deep on his right shoulder.
“Damn…” I said, wiping out the tears which were uncontrollably falling from my eyes. “We cannot take all of those out, you will just bleed out even more.”
Pope came next to me.
“What can we do?”
“I’m not sure… I…” I took off my own undershirt and apply a tourniquet around his shoulder to try to stop the bleeding where it was the worst. Pope helped me but neither of us had done that before.
“Thanks guys.” Kurtis mumbled.
He was struggling not to faint. I needed him.
“Kurt, stay with us. Please. Stay with me. I’m so sorry… So, so sorry…”
He opened his eyes and looked straight at me.
“None of it is your fault, Ty.”
Some of it was my fault… I thought. But I just tightened up the tourniquet.
“This is just fucking mad!” ¨Pope said. “Kim just fucking shot Romano. Romano is dead! Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
Pope started to laugh uncontrollably.
“I’m sorry too.” Someone stated. I had not noticed yet, Glenn was hiding with us in the kitchen. He was shaking heavily.
How stupid it was for me to get all worked up about Glenn giving a blowjob to Kurtis in that exact same place. Why did that matter? How could I use so much of my energy being mad at that? All that time wasted and now, everything was crumbling down.
“Stay with me, Kurtis.” I repeated.
I tried to get up to look for some water but I was soon remembered that my leg was hurting. Glenn brought some and he poured more water over Kurtis’ injuries.
Even after the inquiries and trials, it was never really determined how much time we spent hidden in that kitchen. Some said it lasted 40 minutes, other mentioned more than three hours. It seemed like an eternity for me.
Once the shouting and screaming had stopped outside, we just waited there. For what? I was not too sure. Were we expecting someone to come and save us? But who would come to save inmates? We were the bad guys, we deserved what was happening.
Maybe ten minutes after things had calmed down, we took a vote to know if we wanted to try to get outside. Pope wanted it to be a collegial decision. As I could barely walk and Kurtis was severely hurt, I was torn, getting out of there quickly could help Kurtis but it could also kill us all. In the end, most of the guys chose to stay hidden.
Pope explained:
“There is nothing we can do at this point and I, for one, want to see my family again. Not that I’m afraid of dying but if they find us hiding here, they’ll have to know we’re the victims, that we were not fighting with the crazy ones. Otherwise, we’re bound to spend 20 years more years in this shithole!”
Was I the victim or had I played a big part in this fight? I honestly wondered.
Having to check on Kurtis gave me something to do and I think this was the only thing that preventing me from going insane. I just could not break down; I had to take care of him. If his state would get any worse, I would get out with him, no matter what Pope would say.
I was also thinking that maybe it was not over. I had thought it was over when Ray had backed down but then, Foster had fallen from the freaking table and hell had only really begun. I had no idea if Kim was still shooting people in the facility. I figured that some of the people on the other side must have died. I thought maybe I would too.
“Guys, if for some reason we got out of here and you made it alive and I don’t.” I started.
“Braxton, this is sufficiently hard as it is…” Pope scolded me.
“No, really. Please. Just say to my parents and to my brother and my nephews that I love them. Tell my big brother I am sorry if I ever hurt him. Well, I know I have. Tell him that I love him and I’m sorry.”
I thought about Austin too, a lot, but I did not find the words to formulate what I wanted to tell him. I did not say anything.
“You’ll be fine.” Kurtis whispered.
He was now lying his head on my thighs and I was caressing his hair.
If you want to assess how serious and dreadful the situation was, just note that no one in the room made a single joke about the two of us being gay.
“You’ll be fine too, Kurt. We’ll get out of here, soon.”
“I cannot die.” He stated.
“You won’t. I promise you, you won’t.”
He was now crying.
“I want to see Alicia again but I cannot do that to my parents. They would never recover from that. I cannot die. They cannot lose another child.”
I understood that Alicia was the name of his little sister, killed by a drunk driver. He was not afraid to die, he just did not want to hurt his parents even more. I thought this was both the saddest and most beautiful reason to wish to stay alive.
“Nobody is gonna die.” I spoke.
The minutes passed by and then it turned into hours. How many hours? Again, I do not know. We were all silent when we heard the biggest noise so far, there were flashes of lights too. A literal explosion.
Without any warning, the main door was slammed open, pushing the huge fridge towards us, I had to move Kurtis to avoid the impact. My ears were barely working, for a few minutes, I was deaf.
A SWAT team was behind the door, wearing full masks and gears. They pointed their guns at us and we all held our arms in the air.
“SHOW YOUR HANDS!” The first guy coming in shouted.
“He’s hurt!” I said, pointing to Kurtis, still on my laps. “You have to take him; he’s been bleeding a lot.”
Someone came up to me and removed their mask. She was a woman. She talked to her team in a microphone.
“Another injured one in the back kitchen.”
“Keep your hands up in the air, all of you!” A deep manly voice yelled under another mask.
Most members of the SWAT team were still pointing their guns at us. A few minutes later, two guys looking like soldiers came in with a hand barrow and finally took care of Kurtis.
“Ty…” He whispered.
“That’s ok Kurt, let them take you. You need help.”
Afterwards, the evacuation of the other inmates, including myself, began.
“One by one, you stand up, hands always in the air and you follow me. Nobody makes a funny move or we shoot.”
One after the other, the few convicts who had found refuge in the kitchen stood-up, when my turn came, the SWAT member threatened me.
“I said, stand up!”
“I… I can’t… I’m hurt… My leg…”
“Could not you say anything before? Irma, we have another one we need to take care of here.”
“That’s ok, I think I can try to…” I spoke.
“You don’t move!” He replied holding his gun very close to my face.
As the others were being evacuated, I remained alone in the kitchen, guarded by two SWAT members.
“How many people died?” I asked.
I am not sure why I said it like that. From what I knew then, only Romano was dead. But I had heard so many shots.
One of the men sighed.
“Seven casualties. So far.”
Seven. I thought about the Magic Seven. And just like Pope before me, I started to laugh hysterically. In just a few seconds though, my laughter turned into heavy sobbing. How many of the “Magic Seven” from the previous night were among the casualties?
That morning, I had woken up with a gut feeling. I should have listened to it and never gotten out of my bed.
A guy came in, younger than the others. He had the SWAT sign on his bulletproof vest but was not wearing a mask.
“I’ll just take him. We don’t have any more materials.” He spoke.
“Ok, go ahead. We’ll follow you.”
The guy was hot, like Hollywood actor playing a SWAT member hot.
“Can you hold on to me?” He asked, being more considerate than his colleagues.
“I think so.” I replied and I managed to stand up while relying heavily on his broad shoulders.
The first person I saw when I got out of the kitchen was the warden Deen. He had lost his usual smug manners. He was deeply marked and was talking to several guys wearing suits. They were standing in the middle of the cafeteria. Surrounding them, there were multiple bodies.
I saw five, maybe six corpses on the floor.
“Don’t look” the guy holding me whispered.
Someone was taking pictures. A drape had been put over the bodies. It was worse than anything else. This drape could only mean death.
And suddenly, my heart sank in my chest. It broke in a way that I knew it would never fully recover.
Although his body was mostly hidden, his lower arm and his hand were still visible, coming out of the drape. His limbs were already an odd shade of grey. On his ring finger, there was the beautiful golden ring, shining but stained with blood, with a tiny M and a tiny X inscribed in silver letters.
Xander was dead.
A part of me was too.
Comments
mustafar89
The way i gasped and cried at the end. I forgot i was reading erotic stories.
memo2dt
I figured it would be Xander and/or Ralph who would not make it out of that prison. Even though falcon is a prick, I fear he isn't going to make it either
amalmae
Thank you for taking me on this journey
