Page 88 of Caged In

“You left the laundry room early. Made quite the scene,” Sinn'ous tilts his head, scanning Izz’s body.

Izz’s brows furrow. Unease settling over him. How does Sinn'ous know?

Is he spying on me? Had he watched the entire scene unfold?

“You heard about that?”or did you watch it?Izz keeps the last bit to himself, he doesn’t want to accuse Sinn'ous of anything. He can’t risk pushing away the only person in here who genuinely cares about him—who takes care of him.

With his anger subsiding, he feels stupid and embarrassed about how he acted. Like a tantrum-throwing child, not a fully-grown man capable of regulating his emotions. In the laundry room, he had not been thinking rationally, instead he allowed his emotions to run rampant.

“Your storm-out is the talk of the prison. You showed a guard my mark to get out of work.”

Izz sighs, relief washing over him at the realisation Sinn'ous isn’t annoyed with him. The male is amused, Izz can hear it in his voice. Izz’s beginning to see the little cracks in the cold demeanour he portrays to the rest of the prison. Izz’s sure it’s an act, to prevent people from getting too close to him.

“I suppose I did. I hadn’t thought about it at the time. I just didn’t want the guard in my business. I was pissed,” Izz shrugs, rocking nervously.

An understatement. He’d been seething, ripe-shitfurious. Guess he knows how much he can handle before he snaps. And he had snapped, a rubber band let loose, uncaring what it hit, or took out, in the process. It was everyone else’s issue to get out of the way in time.

Sinn'ous raises a brow in question. Reluctantly, he fills Sinn'ous in—on all the bets being taken to do with his lifespan and a recap on everything else said about him. There is a lot, and the recap is threatening to spoil his refreshed mood.

Sinn'ous opens his mouth to say something, but Izz cuts him off, remembering the talk about two inmates going down for the guard’s murder. The murder Izz had committed. And isn’t that a happy memory—Not. This morning is turning sour realfast.

“You framed those guys for the guard’s . . . murder?” Izz squeaks softly, in a voice barely loud enough to carry to Sinn'ous’s ears. Hoping no other inmates on the periphery will catch what he said—not that they’re standing close by, he could scream and they wouldn’t hear him with how much distance they’re keeping between themselves and Sinn'ous.

“A guard’s death is always investigated thoroughly. Best not to leave them an open case,” is the only explanation Sinn'ous gives.

Not much else to say on the matter. It was Izz’s fault. Those inmates are dead to cover up a death Izz caused. He may aswell have done the deed himself.

Trailing Sinn'ous down the stairs, he can’t help but think about thedeed. Had it really been a suicide . . . He doesn’t want to know . . . At the same time, he needs to know, “did you only frame them? or did you . . .”

Do you truly want him to answer . . . ?

It sucks either way. And the outcome is the same. The inmates are both dead. Knowing or not knowing isn’t going to change anything.

Wouldn’t it be better to not know? To assume . . . Yet not truly know . . .

The brief moment of eye contact between them tells Izz what he needs to know. Sinn'ous doesn’t need to answer. He can already see it. His gut telling him Sinn'ous killed those two creeps.

He can’t say he’s upset about it. He is sure they were going to have another go at him one of these days. Now they will never have the opportunity.

Izz can’t control where his thoughts drift. All the inmates who had threatened him or hurt him in any way are dead. Killed, or dying under strange circumstances. Including those bald gangmembers who had attacked him. Who had died in The Hole and in Med-Wing.

Is Sinn'ous responsible for killing all of them?

That many people dying can’t be a coincidence.

You need to tread carefully, you have a serial killer obsessing over you.Izz’s inner voice warns.

Sinn'ous will never kill him. Will he? How far does this possessive behaviour go? Will it turn into anif-I-can’t-have-you-NO-ONE-CAN.

Please, God, don’t let it turn into that. I don’t want to die because of a killer who won’t take a break-up well.

What’s going to happen when the time comes for Izz to leave prison? Will Sinn'ous kill him to prevent him from leaving—

He knows you killed that guard, he could turn you in for it, have you locked up in here with him forever—

No, Izz dismisses. That’s ridiculous. Besides, he doesn’t even know how long Sinn'ous has left in this cage. He could stressover it . . . Or he can—

“How long do you have left on your sentence?”

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