The Scars Remind Us

A loud clack woke Ken from his shallow nap. He blinked and shot up, his back sore from the hard bed. The warden outside gave an agitated look and slowly unlocked the door.

“You\'re not supposed to be napping during the day, model boy.” Struggling for the last second, he finally tugged the door open. “Exercise until two, then you shower. Come on.” The warden was silent all the way to the weight room, where he undid Ken’s shackles. “Now, don’t make any trouble, there\'s cameras lining this place. One false move and we’ll be all over you like a fly on dog shit.”

With that, the warden turned and left. Ken looked around, uncertainly, then decided to just go along with it. He found a vacant bench and sat down, grabbing hold of a pair of ten-pound weights. After all, he wasn’t really in the mood to work out.

Across the room, a large built man with bright blue eyes watched the brunette, curiously. He rubbed his chin and turned back to the men gathered around him. “That’s the new guy, isn’t it?”

One of the men nodded, vigorously. “Yeah, Take, that’s him awright. He\'s da one thuh head warden’s been gushin’ ova. He’s s’posed ta be a real beauty.”

Take smiled, deviously. “Take a look at that killer bronze skin tone, that’s a ten right there. I’m gonna get a closer look. You guys, keep close. Even pretty ones got a tendency to bite.”

Ken saw the five men approach from the corner of his eye. His mind swam. He was almost a little scared. He stopped lifting and turned, a fiery glare crossing his eyes. The large, sharp-eyed man smiled wide and cackled. Ken clenched his teeth.

“I’m impressed.”

Ken glared harder, a little trick he’d learned from Ran over the time they’d known each other. “Why’s everyone here so talkative?”

Take laughed again. “Ooh, a lively one. I like that.” The men chuckled in the background. “And I like the look of you too. You’ve got the look of a hell bent angel.”

One of the men behind Take piped up. “Man, he IS a looker. Damn. I’m straight and even I’m getting turned on.”

“I hope you know, you guys aren\'t very good at compliments.”

Take crossed his arms. “What a sparkplug. Makes me wanna break your spirit.”

“Can’t you guys bug someone else?”

“Ain\'t no one here as good lookin’ as you.”

Ken felt a shiver go down his spine. He wished there were some sort of escape route, some way he could make his getaway without having to start up a huge brawl. He closed his eyes and looked away. Take released a quick laugh. He expected some sort of action, but much to Ken’s surprise, the men simply turned and walked away.

“We’ll have some fun, later, beautiful.”

Ken shivered again. He looked down at his hands. All this time he hadn\'t realized how badly he was shaking. What could he do? He was only one person. He choked. Maybe he deserved this. Maybe this was his punishment for what he did to Keiko. He shook his head and swallowed hard. No. There had to be another way to atone... there just had to be.

The overhead speakers cracked. “Err, two o’clock group, err, hit the showers.”

Ken’s heart and his stomach suddenly sank.

******

Ken was the last to get shoved into the showers. He knew the wardens were already starting to dislike him, but that’s not what mattered. His eyes wandered around the showers cautiously. He twisted his hand around the rope on his soap. He’d seen too many movies with scenes like this to do differently. He stepped up to a shower and breathed deep, trying for all it was worth to keep his cool. That guy who’d been bugging him earlier was in here, he just knew it. And he couldn’t help but repeat the things he’d said over and over in his head. Suddenly a hard hand came down on his shoulder.

“Hey, angel.”

Ken felt like he could pee himself. “Can’t you leave me alone?”

“’fraid not. So, you’ve got two choices. Take it like a man, or try to run off like a schoolgirl. Either way.”

Ken was slightly startled by how straightforward the bigger man was. He held his breath for a moment. Another nightmare from which he knew he would never awaken. He was silent for a short while.

Next thing he knew he had thrown a punch, landing Take right on the slippery tile floor. His nose was bleeding profusely. What had he done? He was frightened, despite the sudden rush of adrenaline.

The four men that acted as Take’s henchmen automatically jumped in, swinging their own punches at the brunette. Ken dodged one blow after the next, striking down two of the men. However, the men got to their feet quicker than Ken had expected. There was a shot to his gut. Ken went down. He knew he couldn’t hold them all off for long. Tears started running from his eyes as the four lackeys held him down.

“You’re a fighter, eh?” Take smirked and wiped the blood off his nose. It washed away easily in the flowing water. “I love this! I haven\'t had this much of a challenge since I’ve been here! You’ve breathed new life inta me, kid.” Take started rubbing himself. “We’re gonna have so much fun together.”

“No! Don’t!” Ken fought as best as he could, but the men holding him were strong. Take stepped behind him and he began to struggle harder, squeezing his eyes shut. He felt the large man behind him stroke his skin with a hard hand. “Ran!” He shouted, mindlessly. He knew no one would come to save him, especially not Ran.

“Who’s Ran? Your boyfriend? He’s gonna be so jealous. Especially since, ah... looks like you’re still a virgin, angel.”

He screamed as Take thrust into his body. There was a flash of white on the back of his eyelids. Take moved himself in and out, thrusting hard and without mercy. Ken heard himself scream over and over again, the pain too much for his body to bear. He nearly blacked out over and over again, but something in his mind kept pulling him back to consciousness. He wanted to die. Just wanted to die.

******

The young warden flipped open his cellphone. He didn’t even get a single bar in this place. He sighed heavily and flipped it shut, cramming it in his front pocket, although it was a tight fit. All the other wardens had laughed when he asked for tight fit pants. Screw ‘em. He looked damn good. He couldn’t say that for any of the other wardens. He spun around in his chair and faced the other warden currently on duty.

“Hey, I need ta make a phone call...”

“And leave me here to watch the monitors all by myself? Dream on, Tightpants.”

The young warden snarled. The other wardens had been calling him that all week. “Yeah, least I got the ass to wear tight pants, tubby! I’ve gotta make a phone call to my girlfriend!”

“Fine, fine.” The other warden rolled his eyes. “Use the phone in the office.”

“That phone’s tapped, Ryu, it’s a personal call. I’m not spilling my account numbers over a tapped line!”

“Why you gotta do this stuff from work, Shinji?” The other warden shook his head. “Don’t you have any other time to do it?”

“Sorry, man, my phone’s a piece of shit. I only get reception on peak hours of the day for some damn reason.”

“Fine. Go outside, but stay out of the range of the surveillance cameras. If Katsuko catches you making a call on duty, he’ll skin ya.” The warden turned away, irritated.

The young warden found it surprisingly easy to slip out of the cameras’ sight, though he still only managed to get two bars of reception. He punched in a number, abruptly, then put the phone to his ear. It was picked up almost instantly.

“Bombay, do you have the files?”

“I just finished downloading it, Balinese, now importing virus.”

Yohji smiled. “I knew we could do this without Abyssinian... by the way, where is he?”

Omi’s uncertainty was obvious, even through the static of the phone. “Um... I don’t know, he left about an hour ago.”

“He’s not gonna try to screw up the operation, is he?”

“I don’t think so. He doesn’t know a thing about it.”

“All right. It’s time to play the part a little longer. Once the upload is complete, start swapping the files and making alterations. Over and out.” Yohji stuffed the phone back in his pocket and quickly took a glance at his watch. He had to get back to his post quick. It was only ten minutes before his partner switched to visitation duty.

******

When the warden tapped on the bars and told Ken he had a visitor, the boy looked nearly dead in his cell, staring back blankly. He didn’t even blink. He couldn’t have blinked if he wanted to. Every time he closed his eyes he saw Take’s face, as if the image were burned into his eyelids. The cell opened with a creak, but he barely heard it. All he could hear was the reverberating echo of his own screams still bouncing from the walls in his head. The warden said something, pulled on his arm. Finally he conceded and rolled onto his feet.

“Hidaka Reiji, you’re up.” Ken didn’t even realize the man had called him by the wrong name.

Ken stared at the floor the entire way. It was dirty, unkempt. It tugged at his heart to look at it. People just walked all over the floors. Sure, every once in a while someone probably took a mop to it, but what was a mop going to do but spread the dirt around? And once you stuck the mop in the water it was dirty too, so it was just like a cycle. The dirty, unkempt floors washed with filthy water. You could never really clean those floors. They just got dirtier and dirtier as they were tread each and every day. How miserable. How fitting to himself. It was like his hands. No matter how many times he washed them, they were always stained with the blood of those he’d killed.

No matter how many times he was raped, his body would never be dirty enough to match his hands. It could never come close to the decrepit shell that he called a soul. He was worthless. Absolutely and completely worthless. It should only be common sense that Ran could never love him. No one should. His body deserved to be scarred. Maybe... he deserved the raping, too...

He suddenly wanted to destroy himself further, disfigure himself so badly that as he walked down the street children would point and mothers would cover their eyes. So horrifyingly ugly that people would plainly see what he really was. A monster.

“You’ve got ten minutes, model boy.” The warden unlocked the handcuffs that bound Ken.

Ken plopped down in the chair, half expecting it to be someone who’d accidentally asked for the wrong person. His gaze crept up toward his visitor.

“I know you didn’t kill Keiko, Ken. She overdosed herself on mood enhancing drugs, believe it or not. She poisoned herself. You’re innocent, Ken.”

The sound of that voice... Ken’s eyes locked on the red haired figure that sat on the other side of the Plexiglas. “R-ran?”

“I was investigating at the mortuary, so when I found out, I came right here.”

“Y-you...” Ken finally realized that he had been staring and his gaze snapped away. “Ran, I—I’m so glad to see you... I—I wanted to see you again before I... I’m gonna die here, Ran! My body hurts all over and I can’t stop crying anymore, I—know you don’t care about me, but... I—” Ken broke down, his head falling and his hands vainly pawing at the barricade.

“Ken, stop. I’ve had some time to think about... all this. And... Well, I confess, I do care what happens to you. You rotting away here is going to be the end of Weiss. I’ve been looking into myself, lately. I’m going to find a way to get you out of here.”

“I don’t deserve to get out of here. I’m a murderer, if not for Keiko, for everyone else that’s died by these hands. If I don’t stay here, how can I atone for all the lives I’ve taken?”

Ran touched the glass that met Ken’s hand. “You atone constantly Ken. You maintain your purity by weeping for every life you take. Every time someone falls by your hand, a little piece of you goes with them. If any of us needs to atone, it’s me, not you. You are still an innocent, despite the blood you’ve spilled. What I’m trying to say is... unlike the rest of us, you do not spill the blood of others, Ken. You only spill your own.”

The small timer sitting on Ran’s side of the table beeped and flashed. Five minutes. The next prisoner was guided into the room. Ken glanced behind him. A familiar burly man blew a kiss towards him. Ken’s brow furrowed and his eyes shot back to Ran. Ran could plainly see the fear in the brunette’s eyes.

“Yo! Angel, that your boyfriend? Ran, was it? What a stud!” Take shouted from across the room.

Ran momentarily glanced at the burly man, then back down to Ken. “How does he know my name?”

Ken’s eyes started to glass over. He wiped his eyes. “He... was... doing things to me, things that hurt, Ran... and I—I called out for you, I’m so sorry!”

“Hey, Ran! I deflowered your boyfriend! Jealous yet?”

Ran’s expression changed to one Ken had never seen before, one he wasn’t quite sure what it meant. After staring at the man for a moment, Ran looked back at the still shattered Ken. “He—that man raped you?” Ken couldn’t get any words to pass the clog in his throat. A tear ran down his face and a snivel emitted from his nasal passages. “Ken—“

Ran nearly hit the barricade as a sudden shock erupted through the prison.

******

“Hey, Shinji, look at this! Some little craphead is trying to hack a virus into the computer system!”

Yohji stood up and held back a smile. The first phase was under way. “Well, shouldn’t the anti-virus program nail it?”

“That’s just it, it’s disabling the anti-virus. But it looks like a weak virus. I’ll just kick it manually. Watch a master at work!” The warden’s fingers started flying across the keyboard. Of course, the warden would be able to destroy the virus. It didn’t matter. The virus was just a decoy. Yohji risked a peek over at the secondary computer across the room. Pages started to open one by one as Omi skillfully hacked the passwords from the bug Yohji had planted the day before. Soon enough, all the swaps would be finished. Omi had spent hours on the forged files, there was no way the prison’s personnel would be able to tell it from the original.

“Hurry, you\'re gonna lose it, tubby!”

“I’m not gonna lose it!” With a smile, the warden hit a final key, completely obliterating the weak decoy virus. “See. Told ya I wouldn’t lose it.”

Suddenly, the entire room shook. Yohji, caught off guard, landed squarely on the floor. The warden, who had been saved by the padded chair, stood up. Without a second’s hesitation, Yohji stood up and the two bolted out the door toward the disturbance. All the while, Yohji was still smiling on the inside.

“It’s cellblock four!”

“Someone’s trying to break out Shinshiro Sasuke!”

“Who is?”

“The Kimuya gang!”

By the time they reached the cell, the prisoner had escaped. “We’ve got to catch him or it’s our necks!” The wardens split up in two groups. One headed out the crumbled wall, the other down the hallway to seal off any exits, just in case Shinshiro hadn\'t left the prison yet.

Yohji followed the hallway group from the back, playing with the wire in his pocket. By the time they had reached cellblock five, Yohji pulled the weapon from his pocket and caught the slowest of the wardens by the neck, cutting off the blood flow to his brain. Careful not to kill the warden, Yohji let him loose as soon as he had passed out.

The other two wardens fell just as easily as the first. Yohji made his way down, nearly to the end of the block, and stopped. He turned toward Ken’s cell, excitedly. However, much to his surprise, there was no one in the cell. Yohji pulled open his cell phone and punched in Omi’s encrypted number. After three rings, the younger boy picked up.

“Hey, Bombay, emergency! The sparrow’s left the nest! What do I do?”

Omi was nearly speechless. “Gone? How the—that can’t be right! His schedule said he was supposed to be there! Did you give me the wrong schedule, Balinese?”

“No way! Not possible! He’s supposed to be in here!”

“Did you take in account any variables? What’s supposed to be happening in the prison right now?”

Yohji thought for a moment. “It’s visitation hours but there’s—oh, geez!”

“Don’t panic, Balinese! I’m coming in to improvise! I’ll drop in from the skylight in the lobby, cover me!”