T he front of the prison transport vehicle sank beneath the water almost instantly on impact with it, the cab filling with the dark and murky contents of the river as I cursed within the confines of my own head and stood up in my cage at the back of the bus.
I watched as the rest of the passengers all groaned, touching their fingers to injuries if their hands were free or crying out for help if they weren’t.
I was bleeding where I’d slammed into the cage door but the wound on my shoulder meant little to me in the face of the many things I’d suffered in the past. Besides, ever since my dark Rook had reappeared in my life, my focus had been entirely fixed on her.
Not that the time I’d spent mourning her escape from Eden Heights had been spent focused on a lot else, but now that the object of my obsession was within reach once more, I wasn’t keen to let her out of my sight.
The two guards in the front of the vehicle made no attempt to save any of us, dropping a window and swimming away to the surface without so much as a backwards glance. Not that that was much of a surprise. I guessed they weren’t inclined to risk their lives for the criminally insane psychopaths they’d been in charge of transporting. The problem was, with us all locked up and slowly sinking beneath the surface of the river, we were going to need help from someone or we’d all be drowning where we sat before long.
I gritted my teeth and rolled my shoulders back as I began to exert pressure on the cuffs which secured my hands behind my back, the metal cutting into my flesh as a growl of effort escaped me before they snapped suddenly, leaving the two cuffs dangling from my wrists and my hands free.
My eyes moved between the rest of the prisoners who were still chained to their seats, my position in my cage only offering me the small advantage being able to move freely, though it did me little good considering I was locked up.
There was one guard still here. Just one. He was fairly new to his role and mostly unknown to me, but I watched him all the same, taking stock of him as he blinked around in a daze, seeming to be unsure of what had even happened, let alone considering saving our lives. But I watched him all the same. He was our only hope after all.
He was bleeding. A cut on his head looking to have stunned him as he touched his fingers to the wound and unclipped his seatbelt, pushing to his feet while the water began to rise and the front of the bus sank further into the water. He staggered a little, not even seeming to notice the water rising up over his knees and I bit my tongue as I watched him, wondering if he might just drop down dead from that injury and curse us all to die with him.
“Mr Guard Man,” Brooklyn called from her position still chained to her seat, her bright blue eyes wild with fear as she stared at him. Her voice had that same, husky, alluring tenor which I’d once lived for the sound of. I used to sit with her a lot, listening to her stories and drinking in all I could get of her. “I’ve given this a lot of thought in the past, and I came to the conclusion a long time ago that drowning isn’t the one for me. I’m not about it. No siree. It’s not glamorous enough, no flamboyance to it, no flare. If I’m going out, I need it to be bloody and brutal and all kinds of villainous. Please don’t make this be my end all. Tied up like a burrito and trying to hold my breath before choking on dirty river water. I heard there’s people poop in the rivers. I don’t want the people poop to get in my mouth and give me the nasties.”
I looked between the object of my obsession and the guard as more of the prisoners began to yell demands at him for freedom too, but he only had eyes for her. This wild, beautiful girl who seemed so out of place amongst the hellions who dwelled among us. I’d always thought that. How she didn’t belong locked up with the rest of us, how she needed to be free like a bird being tossed to and fro in a storm. It was how I’d tried to force myself to come to terms with the loss of her after she’d escaped. But now that she was right before me once more, I was determined not to let her escape me again.
“I can’t,” the guard began, his gaze skipping around as he finally seemed to realise that time was of the essence here, his fingers trembling as he pressed them to the loop of keys on his belt. “I’m not supposed to unlock you until we reach the next facility.”
“You’re going to kill us?” Brooklyn gasped and he paled, his eyes widening as he shook his head and took a step towards her through the water which was now lapping over his knees.
“No. No, of course I’m not.”
My muscles coiled with the need to strike at something, to fight for my freedom from this cage. But I stayed there all the same. Waiting to see what magic she could conjure. To see if she could use whatever power she had used to ensnare me on this man too, to bend him to her will. Waiting to see if she could lure us free of this death. Or perhaps she was only looking to buy her own life. Either way I found myself watching, wanting to find out, willing to accept my end if the cost of it had been these few stolen minutes in her company again.
The guard scrambled for the ring of keys at his belt, tugging them loose and quickly slotting one into the chain which was securing her to the floor.
The transport vehicle groaned as it pitched further forwards, the rear of it where I was contained tipping up into the air as the whole thing began to sink and I was thrown forward so that my weight was pressed against the cage bars. Screams and laughter carried around the bus, desperation and mania thick in the air as the prisoners all saw their deaths coming for them and either feared or welcomed such, depending on their particular brand of insanity.
Brooklyn pushed herself to her feet, balancing on the chair in front of hers in the slowly sinking bus, breathing a thank you to the guard as he turned and started unlocking more of the prisoners from their restraints, though he left plenty of them in their straitjackets, making me wonder how he expected them to swim for safety.
Brooklyn looked around as she stumbled into the aisle between the seats, her electric blue eyes sparking with cunning thoughts as she hunted for a means of escape.
“Rook,” I growled, demanding her attention and earning it for myself as her head snapped around and her gaze fixed on me. My free flying bird who had already escaped without me once. But this time I had the hope that she might have wanted me to go with her.
She hurried towards me, scrambling over the backs of the chairs and using the heads of a couple of the restrained passengers to kick off of before pressing her cheek to the bars of my cage and looking in at me with something akin to fear in her eyes. But it was more vibrant than just that. A thrill along with her terror at the thought of us all drowning here in this place. I could tell she didn’t want to die here but the thought of it was exciting her more than terrifying her.
“I’ll get you out, Angry,” she said, giving me a serious look. “Birds of a feather gotta snack together, right? And I’m betting you’re real hungry, aren’t you, big man?”
“Rook,” I repeated, the simple word all I offered her, yet her brow pinched and she looked back to the guard like she understood fully. It had always been like that between us. No matter how little I gave her vocally, she still seemed to be on a level with me, understanding what I was struggling to communicate and making me feel seen in the anonymity of the facility where we’d been locked away to be forgotten by the rest of the world.