After we’d been at the correctional facility for a week, I finally learned the schedule: get up, eat breakfast. Then classes about how to become ‘functioning members of society.’ When was I ever not a ‘functioning member of society’? Eat lunch, cell time, then exercise. After more cell time was dinner. Later, we were allowed one hour of supervised recreation in the battered rec room. Then, bedtime.

Three ten-minute showers per week were allowed, but you didn’t have to take them. I always did; I despise dirtiness. I loathed my cell, and my cellmate.

When I asked for her name, she told me to go away. When I reminded her that we were stuck together and I wouldn’t be physically capable of going away, she harrumphed, swore, and turned her face to the wall. Okay, then.

My roommate had curly platinum-blonde hair atop a swarthy face. Her body was one of opposites: broad shoulders on a thin, short frame. Green eyes were her only nice feature, as dull as they were. Most of her cell time was spent staring at the window. Not out, but at it, as if she could see the air particles streaming in and out, free.

The only time I saw the other Taylor was at meals. She had a different exercise and recreation schedule than I did, I supposed. I didn’t know what happened to her brothers, but I hoped they were okay.

So I sat and thought and picked at the peeling paint. After all, what else could I have done? I thought about my family, in my dimension, and wondered what they were thinking. I wondered how they felt - after all, their oldest child had disappeared off the face of the earth. No matter where they looked, who they questioned, they would never find out unless they remembered about the portals. I felt bad, but it was never really my fault. It’s not like I came here of my own accord.

I thought about the reason behind Taylor and I coming here. Sure, we were rebels, but for a good cause. Why couldn’t the government realize that the animals just wanted fair treatment?

They probably thought we were crazy. What must they think of there being 3 Taylors? And one reporting the other two? We couldn’t pass ourselves off as triplets - they could just look up the birth certificate, and see that only one of us had been born here. If they knew about the portals, they would surely investigate.

So my mind ran in circles, like a hamster on a wheel. I eventually concluded that for me to get back to my own dimension would be hard. I needed some way to communicate with Taylor. But what to do about the evil Taylor, the one who brought us into this mess, anyway? She didn’t deserve to be returned to her original dimension, but it was only fair that she came back. Carmen and her family didn’t deserve her not being there (not that she was a bundle of sunshine or anything). Plus, if she wasn’t, it would look bad:

‘Hey, what happened to that kid you were fostering?’

‘Yeah, about her? I dunno.’

She needed to go back for legal purposes. I did too, but mainly to have everything back to normal.

A plan. We needed a plan. The animals were on our side. Could we use that to our advantage? ‘Hey, can you guys help us out? We really need to get out of this place.’ What animals even were there, in this piece of concrete? Sure, critters lived in the surrounding landscape, but not many, and not big ones. Could we enlist a few birds as messengers, through the window?

Not a bad idea. I figuratively patted myself on the back, then took a closer look at the window. I had to stand on my tippy-toes to see through it. The sides were only around five inches long, and the wall was nearly six inches thick. Two wide bars and thick metal mesh blocked the opening, and a grate shut autonomously every night. I could barely fit my hand between the bars. A bird could perch on the ledge of concrete, but only during the day, and it would seem suspicious if a bird came to the building. At night, the grate would cover it up.

That plan needed some work, and I sat on my cot to think when the bell rang. Time for ‘successful citizen’ classes. Mostly I daydreamed through them, thinking of various escape plans that would never work.

A guard came to escort my cellmate and I to the classroom. The teacher, a pot bellied man, greeted us unenthused. Dark hair with a five-o’clock shadow. Very gruff, but patient. Taught orally, using occasional chalkboard drawings to explain with pictures. I liked him, but wondered how much he enjoyed his job. He called himself Mr. Link. I had nothing to learn from him; I considered myself a model citizen.

Today, Hugh Link seemed to be in a bad mood. He muttered to himself, he grumbled when he spoke. I wondered what was going on, but didn’t ask. I didn’t care that much. So I sat through the 45 minutes, followed the guard back to the cell, and thought more about the bird. That was about the time that I realized what the guard looked like.

Black hair. Brown eyes. A head taller than me. He reminded me of Torrin. There’s no way he could be Torrin, I told myself. How would he get hired so quickly? Would he really want to help us, after we lied to him?

I pondered this for half an hour or so, then lunchtime came. I shuffled out of my cell and hungrily walked to the cafeteria. The food, though unappetizing, filled me up, and that was better than nothing. I grabbed a tray and joined the line. Usually, I didn’t think about the cooks, but one caught my eye: a girl, blonde hair, pale eyes. She caught my eye, but gave no indication that she knew me. Finni? What was Finni doing here? Torrin and Finni were here?

I saw Taylor across the room. She made eye contact with me, and I mouthed, “Finni?”. She nodded quickly, gave me a little smile, and turned away. No one was allowed to talk to anyone else at meals, much less plan a breakout.

I ate quickly and lingered at the dirty-plate drop off, hoping to get another glance at Finni. She didn’t appear, and I reluctantly went back to my table, where I practically bored a hole in the wall with my eyes. We were dismissed and accompanied to our respective cells.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“So what are you in here for?” I asked my cellmate after everything had calmed down.

She seemed relaxed, and hopefully ready to talk. She grunted in reply and laid down on her cot. Alrighty, then. Two can play at this game. I grunted right back and laid down, too, where my full belly lulled me to sleep.

I dreamt that afternoon. I dreamt about my family; we were bowling. Hey, didn’t the up-to-no-good Taylor’s family die in a car crash on the way to go bowling? Anyway, we were bowling, and I got a strike. We cheered, and then I had to go to the bathroom, so I walked to it in the slippery bowling shoes. I didn’t want to use the dirty bathroom, but duty called, and I had no other choice. I stepped into the bathroom… and fell. Wind blew my hair around my face so I couldn’t see anything except the ground, far beneath me. It got closer and closer. I closed my eyes… and jerked myself awake. My heart pounded. It’s funny how you can get so worked up over something that’s not real, like a dream.

My heart pounded even faster when I saw my roommate standing above me. She wrung her hands, looking worried. She didn’t seem to notice that I woke up. “What are you doing?” I asked.

She jumped a little. “Nothing,” she sneered, then went to her side of the room. Had she been worried about me? Or, at the opposite end of the spectrum, was she going to hurt me in my sleep? Either way, she had been debating it. Maybe there was a nice person under all that rough exterior.

Just then, Torrin walked stiffly by. He didn’t so much as even glance at me, but he dropped something; a little folded-up piece of paper, within two feet of the cell. I knew it was no accident. After he turned the corner, I made sure there were no other guards coming and reached for the paper. My roommate noticed, but thankfully didn’t say anything. I returned to my cot and read it: Look for me at rec tonight - Doogan

P.S. Flush so no one sees.

Doogan? Torrin must have signed up as Doogan, to disguise his affiliation with Taylor. I immediately turned to flush the note - there was a toilet in our room, but my sullen cellmate stopped me. “Let me read the paper.”

“What paper?” I feigned innocence.

“I’m not stupid. I saw the guard drop a piece of paper, and you picked it up. Now give it to me.” So she was a bully as well as extremely reserved.

“No. It’s personal.”

“We have been together for two weeks and will be together for much, much longer than that. We’re as personal as can be. Let me read it.”

I thought about it. She didn’t know either Torrin or Doogan. We did have the same rec time, and she would surely notice me talking to him. There seemed little harm in letting her read it, but Torrin did say not to let anyone else read it.

She held out her hand again. “Let me read it or I’ll tell the dean that you’re planning to break out of here.”

My blood ran cold. How did she know? “Wha - what escape plan? I would never dream of escaping from here! It’s… it’s completely impossible.”

“Liar. You talk in your sleep. Who’s this Torrin, by the way?”

“He’s my… brother. My older brother.”

She saw right through what I said. “Took you a little long to remember that, huh? I don’t think he’s your brother. I think he’s your accomplice.” She spat out the word like she would a bone in her food. “And who’s the ‘evil Taylor’? You seem really mad at her.”

I crossed my arms. “I’m not telling you anything, because I don’t know anything about you.” I jabbed my finger toward her. “Not even your name. Talk about introverted.”

“You don’t want to know my name,” she sighed. “Nothing good ever comes to people who know anything about me. But now that I’ve warned you, I’ll tell it to you as long as you give me the note.”

I weighed it again. What did I have to lose? I trusted her to a degree. She seemed under the guard’s radar. How long had she been here? I gave her the note. She read it quickly, said, “Cassidy,” then flushed the note down the toilet.

I took this to mean that she was on my side. “You want out of here, too, don’t you?” I asked quietly.

She nodded. “Been here longer than anyone else.” No more information was given, and I didn’t ask. Everyone is entitled to their own privacy. I certainly had nothing else to do, so I spaced out and pondered this new development in our relationship until exercise time, which I liked. I didn’t like exercise; it was the fresh air that I enjoyed the most. Torrin stood guard, but I ignored him so that Cassidy wouldn’t know who he was.

For now, I needed to keep Torrin/Doogan anonymous to her. Maybe she wouldn’t realize who he was if I talked to a different guard. I mean, if I pretended to have a conversation with a different guard, she would think he was Doogan, and I could have a quick chat with Torrin while she was distracted.

I paced around the enclosed yard, lined with plasticky fake grass. A small tree, losing its leaves, stood at the edge. Most of the bark had been peeled off by bored inmates, but I deigned to join their slow murder of the tree. So I paced round and round, and glanced into the faces of the guards now and then. All were stone faced, not moving, barely blinking.

Us inmates were outnumbered about two to one. For some reason, they felt we were a huge threat, and that we would totally try to escape over the twelve-foot concrete walls during our half-hour exercise time with nothing but the jumpsuit on our backs. Yeah, I’m real positive when I’m stressed.

After “exercising”, Cassidy seemed to be in a better mood: she smiled when I made a small joke. So I popped the question: “What are you in for?”

Her good mood disappeared as suddenly as it came. “Nothing. Just some computer work that the government didn’t take too kindly to.”

“Oh. Like what?”

“Some portal stuff I got tangled up in. This dude made some portals to other dimensions, but the feds didn’t like it. There was a court case and everything. I felt bad for him, so I made their official computers crash every time they tried to access his files. And they didn’t know who it was until someone ratted me out. Still don’t know who it is, though. I got into a car accident a week later with the guy after him and his family went bowling. No one was hurt. Anyway, we met up and talked about ways to get the government off his back. What we did didn’t work, and I was arrested. Been here ever since.” She took a deep breath, as if telling me exhausted her. “Now you know, so you can stop asking me.”

“Wow.” I wanted to explain everything to her. So she’s the person in the other dimension that hit the evil Taylor’s family and caused their deaths? I wonder what would happen if Evil Taylor knew, in her vindictive state of mind.

I pushed the bad thoughts away and focused on The Plan. How in the world would we break out of here? Concrete walls, topped with barbed wire, planted deep in the ground? No way we would climb or dig our way out. The only way in and out was the front gate, and that was manned by at least a dozen guards all the time.

We did have Torrin and Finni here, and that helped. I didn’t know how they got hired so fast, but they were the only two people here that would help us; and that’s all that mattered.