“Solitary Confinement”

Author’s Note: This is a Take Ten to Write story and has not been proofread for errors. If I feel inspired or if there’s interest in the story, I’ll post a revised, edited, and extended version at a later date. Happy reading!

“Move along.”

“Move along.”

I hiss as the guard shoves my back, effectively forcing me deeper into the dark, narrow tunnel in front of me. He gives me one nice big, final push to make sure that I’m wedged in real tight before slamming the grate behind me.

“Trrrapped… Can’t essscape…”

The guard’s footsteps recede and I let out a sigh. I’d avoided solitary confinement until now, and I’m glad that I did. This place is awful. I don’t have room to even wiggle my tentacles in the slightest. I’m assuming this place was built as such to prevent my species from escaping. A smart move, to be honest, but still unpleasant.

“Unpleasssant… Verrry unpleasssant…”

I rest my forehead against the cold stone and let out a deep sigh. Maybe solitary won’t be so bad. Jerry, my usual cellmate, has been in solitary a number of times. He said that he loved it here, and that the only downside was the voices that began whispering in his mind. Apparently they really creep him out.

“Crrreep him out…? No… Neverrr…”

So far, no voices. I’m happy about that at least. I guess that means that I’m not going crazy yet.

“Not yet… Not yet…”

Then again, I’ve only been here for about five seconds. Maybe I’ll start hearing these voices before I leave in a week’s time.

“One week… Just usss… One week…”

Man, a week. A whole, entire week. That’s a lot of time to be stuffed into this little hole in the wall.

“Little hole in the wall… Our little hole in the wall…”

Honestly, I didn’t think that what I did was so bad to warrant an entire week in solitary. I mean, I only killed four guards. That’s one less than Jerry did last month, and he was in solitary for a week too!

“Only one week… One week…”

Maybe Jerry knows something that I don’t about the guards and this prison system. Maybe he’s playing the system and isn’t letting me in on it.

“Trrraitorrr… Liarrr… Cheaterrr…”

I’m going to have to have a chat with Jerry when I get out of solitary.

“Yesss… Yesss… Have a chat with Jerrrry…”

Final Comments: I actually liked writing this one. Then again, I wouldn’t say that it’s one of my favourites and I’m not sure that the voices really came across.

Overall Rating: 😐