Wendigoon

Fingers wrapped around metal with force to match the tension in the air and in our minds.

This couldn't happen.

This wouldn't happen.

My lawyer would walk in and tell me he'd gotten the judge's unfair addition of an extra day removed.

One day.

One damn day.

Even if I'd spent the whole year in this prison, one day still meant life or death.

let me out let me the hell out for god's sake but nobody cared nobody would listen i'd like to tell you that kellen stayed late that night i'd like to tell you that when the entire floor began to glow red hallways cells the stone itself

As whatever ungodly abomination in the earth began to wake upon the changing of the season, as distant footsteps became a traveler at the door of our minds, I'd like to tell you that Kellen was there, hit the button, opened the gates, and let us all out.

I'd like to tell you that I didn't see anything.

that I'm not permanently a broken man.

I didn't claw at the walls of my cell as it approached slowly, moving a few steps every twenty to seventy minutes.

I'd like to tell you that all three of us were able to run away and escape that horror upon reality, with its rotting hands and blind eyes radiating crimson light as it searched for us at random.

But I can't give you a satisfying end to this story.

The disbursement company fired Kellen and changed the locks on the property.

According to their paperwork, all the prisoners had been moved, and they thought he'd been getting paid for guarding an empty prison.

They left us in there for 11 days before the heir was found.

We spent 11 nights with that thing.

For 11 days, we starved.

For 11 nights, we sat absolutely still, not daring to move or breathe or even look left or right.