Page 8 of Babalon

Kace, Inmate Patton, is my current obsession. Sometimes his aloofness reminds me of Rey. Dammit, I miss him. But other than that, it took one run in with Kace for me to lock onto my target.

Now?

He’s mine.

Speaking of, I need to get back to him. I left him restrained in his cell earlier while his cellie was off doing god knows what. I’m sure he is plenty angry at me today.

The thought of him sitting there, handcuffed to his bed, fuming, made me smile. We have a pretty rocky thing going on, but it definitely passes the time.

Let me finish roping off this murder, pretty boy, I’m coming.

Chapter three

Kace

Present Day

“Hey there, Patton,” Nathan, the resident skinhead recruiter grinned at me. ‘Nate the Ape’ is what I prefer to call the snaggle-toothed fucker— he never stops, always pushing to get me to join their stupid ranks. What good would it do for me to join the Brotherhood? Daily pump sessions in the yard? A shitty swastika tattoo that may or may not give me hepatitis?

One would believe that Nate would give it a break, but no, not when you’re white with blond hair and blue eyes like me.

Wasn’t Hitler dark headed and dark eyed? Whatever.

Ignoring him, I glared down at the rest of my breakfast; I have better shit to do than listen to his spiel. My bunkmate came backafter Nadia left me secured to the bed. After he got his laughs out, he pulled apart the EXIT sign a few cell doors down and found enough wire to pick my cuffs free. Now we were here, eating— well, I’m trying to.

Quickly, I try to shovel the last few bites into my mouth, worried that my meal itself would be stolen, when Nate dropped down in the seat across from me, and what do you know… he slapped my tray away. The clattering of the metal echoing through the cafeteria, causing other inmates to look in our general direction.

Sighing, I grabbed my napkin and wiped my mouth before slapping it on the table and scowled at him. My blue eyes meeting his amber-colored ones. For someone who was so concerned with genetic appearances, he sure didn’t fit the theme with his tan skin and dark hair.

Hypocrite.

“What do you want, Nate?”

“Just dropping by to see if you’ve changed your mind yet. We have some new guys that need to be initiated, and you’re such a good sport when it comes to getting your ass beat.”

“Damn, as delightful as that sounds… Wait, don’t you rape your way into the ranks— either way I’m going to have to tell you to get bent.”

I stood to excuse myself from the table, but before I could wrap my mind around what was happening, Nate grabbed the neck of my jumper and yanked me back. I let out a pained grunt when my shoulder blades crashed into the top of the table. Holding my breath as I took Nate’s fist to the face, my arms lifting to shield myself from additional blows. I knew it was coming, but that didn’t make it any less jarring. It just made me second guess being such a smart ass sometimes.

The sound of other inmates hooting and hollering as Nate kept swinging, nailing me with his scarred and battered knuckles.It was painful, but I couldn’t help smirking. I always the one looking for entertainment before coming to prison, and now look at me, being made a fool of in front of the whole institute. How ironic is that?

“Worthless piece of shit!” Nate yelled.

Punch.

“I’m going beat your ass on the fucking daily for that!”

Punch.

“Thomas is going to love hearing you denied us again— little bitch.”

Punch.

“Split up!” A guard yelled from the distance. Officer who-the-fuck-ever sounded far away as more of Nate’s hits landed on the back of my forearms and my ribs. Tunnel vision began to settle in the longer I was pinned under him, only able to get a few elbow shots at him before he peppered me with more jabs.

This shit always hurts; usually took me a few days to get the ache to go away, but today, things feel more tender. Maybe he broke something this time and I could get a cast put on that I could use as a bludgeoning device. Give me a weapon, Doc, anything to fight back.

“SPLIT THE FUCK UP!” shouted a more feminine voice.

---