The Cellmate (WIP)

On one particular day in March, I sat in the chow hall munching down with the other inmates while we anxiously awaited the new arrivals. Naturally, I craned my head to the left in unison with the other inmates as the doors to the cafeteria swung open and the new group of prisoners were escorted in by guards. None of the newcomers appeared to be anything special, except for one; what set him apart from the rest were his looks. The one that stood out to me was short, bald, had an elongated dome-shaped head, wore square-framed glasses and walked with a limp. My first thought regarding the man was that he wouldn't last a week; imagine my surprise when he limped over to my table and sat straight across from me. The man's beady eyes met mine and refused to break contact, I found it unsettling, so I broke the silence.

"What do you want," I questioned as I held my plastic fork cautiously.

"Your greying hair tells me that you've either been in here for a very long time and slash or has the experience of having lived a long life. Either way, you have knowledge and I was hoping that you'd share it with me so that I might survive."

Yep, the newcomer was wack. Wack, but observant and that discomforted me. On the other hand, his skills at observation reminded me of myself and had been key to my extended tenure in Scorall Prison.

"You are correct, I have been here for a very, very long time and for good reason. Tell me, why should I help you," I replied humoring him.

"Because I posses a wide range of knowledge about a variety of topics. I guarantee that you won't find anyone else here that can converse with you in as rich a dialogue as I," he responded without missing a beat.

I didn't know whether to laugh or to head back to my cell, this guy both amused and frightened me. I'm not sure which one he managed to do more. Before I could formulate a careful reply he lunged his arms across the table at me, I instinctively raised my arms in a defensive posture. Much to my surprise he pulled another inmate, Joss Thorne, down into the table. Understanding struck me when I saw the plastic fork turned shiv fall out of Joss's grasp. Joss Thorne had been about to stab me, the new goofy bastard had saved me. Joss Throne and I had a bit of history, but to cut it down to the basics, he was a dangerous lunatic who had it out for me. Word of the rumors I'd been spreading about him must have reached his ears, false rumors of him being a child molester. I'd came up with that fake rumor because, you know, child molesters don't last long in prison. Too bad that no one had been able to act on it before he was able to make a move on me.

I backed away from the table and watched as the small guy repeatedly slammed the much larger Joss into the table. Blood began to pour from Joss's forehead and nose as bones crunched upon each contact with the table. The guards rushed to the table and pulled away my strange savior.

"Unfortunate," stated the strange man in a calm gravely voice as he was escorted away by the guards.

One of the few remaining guards reached down and felt Joss for a pulse, "He is dead," the guard coldly stated to the others.

The rest of March was uneventful, the fun really began when April reared its head. I was sitting on my metallic bed reading a novel by Aaron Rayburn called "The Shadow God" when my cell door slid open and in stepped... You guessed it, my psychotic savior. I gulped as the door closed behind him.

"Salutations. It's so great to be out of "the hole"."

I closed my book and looked up at him, "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I thought it was obvious, I'm your new cellmate. We still don't know each other's names," he finished with a deep chuckle.

'Well, I'm obviously never going to feel comfortable in my own home again', I thought.

"I'm Maynard," I offered.

"Arthur Direham, failed philanthropist and bank robber."

"You robbed a bank?!"

"I tried to. Actually, that was my partner's job, I was supposed to secure an escape vehicle. We decided that it'd be best to do it near the location and kidnap the driver, that way we wouldn't have to worry about the car being reported stolen by the time of our getaway. I chose a vehicle with an elderly man inside of it, opened the door, and pressed the gun against his chest; I expected him to cower in fear, but to my surprise he told me to just put down the gun... and go home. I argued with him a lot longer than I had anticipated, next thing I knew my partner was running out of the bank with a couple bags of cash in hand. When I saw the bags I got excited and accidentally pulled the trigger, I killed an elderly man by complete accident. I felt so guilty and shocked that I just stood there while my partner pushed me out of the way and took off in the car."

"That's awful. Believe it or not, I actually know what it's like to kill someone by accident too."

"Really? What did you do?"

"Nothing too outrageous, I assure you. On August 18th, 2010 I was driving home on my way back from the bar and while I may have had a bit to drink, I didn't deem myself drunk and besides that what was I supposed to do? Leave my car at the bar? I couldn't do that, my town hasn't a cab or bus service, I had too far to walk and I wasn't about to abandon my car downtown. Anyway, I managed to make it to my block and was nearing my house when one of my neighbor's kids jumped out in front of my car. I tried to swerve, but it was too late; dead as wood. Not only did I have drinking and killing a kid against me, but I also had the fact that my neighbor's were racist and influential across town to contend with. Needless to say, I was railroaded at my trial and here I sit. I always hated them bastards, who else but them would allow their kids to play outside after 11 PM?"

My cellmate opened his mouth as if to reply, but was cut off by the yelling of Captain Conan Anderson, "Lights out, you sissies!"

The lights to all of the cells were cut off just as Arthur climbed into his bed. Although I could somewhat relate to Arthur, his many eccentricities made me uncomfortable, due to this I slept with my anus against the wall which went against my customary way of sleeping facing the wall; I was going to be in for a rough night. I kept an eye on Arthur's figure on the bed across from me as well as I could -hard to see, it being dark and all- when I was beginning to let my guard down and starting to drift off I noticed a flash of white. The white stayed present and hovered in the vicinity of Arthur's bed. I kept quiet and starred in confusion and dread for a while until my eyes were able to make out what the white was. The white was Arthur's teeth; that was not normal.

I fell asleep at some point in the night, as I was awoke by the guards turning on the lights and screaming for us to wake up and get some food at 6 am. I lifted my head up off my pillow as my mind flashed back to those abnormally white teeth; Arthur was still in his bed. We follow the other prisoners from the cells to the chow hall without a word between us. I sat across from him and watched his teeth as he chewed his food, they were a normal white. I couldn't have imagined it, could I? The man was weird, but that level of weird just wasn't possible.