While walking through lines of empty prison cells, the light bulbs blinking from above, the young officer stopped and cleared his throat once again, finally pushed open the door in front of him.
Not even a soul in the room gave a damn about him, most of the prisoners were busy munching the food-like mush on their plates. The young officer intentionally made his steps wider as he walk through the aisles between the tables, but the sound of his footsteps were almost silent.
However, only few looked up and scoffed seeing the rookie. In their eyes, he is like a newborn lamb cruising through a hunted forest alone, naive and ignorant.
"Ah, you're the new one huh."
A middle-age officer walk up to the young one with a wide smile on his face. He gave him a few hard pats on his back, taking the lamb out of the wolf pack.
"I gotta tell you that you are a lucky one," says the middle-age officer. The two stopped at the corner of the cafeteria, a good place for them to watch over everyone.
"May I ask how so, sir?" The young officer asked cautiously.
"Well, this is a fairly new prison. It doesn't smell like underground sewer, and you are not like us boring watch dogs."
He said it with a small smile on his face as he point out his finger to a person sitting alone in the crowded cafeteria. The young officer saw a skinny man slowly sending food into his mouth spoon by spoon. He had hair that is not long nor short, and every hair is neatly combed. Which is a rare sight to see in this prison.
"That man right over there is Benjamin Harkmen, the reason why you are here."
"I only knew that he escaped from the last prison he stayed by setting up a fire if I recalled correctly?" The young officer squint his eyes while looking at Benjamin.
It might be hard to believe that a small man like him caused the whole disaster. All they knew about him was a series of crimes he had done and his job as a so-called illusionist. Some police doubted that the identity he provided was not even a real one.
"We didn't even know how he started the fire, and there was no evidence to prove him guilty for that crime. It is your job to watch over him and find how he caused the fire, so we could make sure that he stay behind bars til the day that the devil himself drag him to hell." The officer stared at Benjamin while talking, and had not blinked for even a second.
Benjamin Harkmen stood up from his seat with empty plate in his hands, and returned it back to the lunch staffs in the cafeteria. He does not even bother reacting to the prison guard, who was standing beside the door while making a tensing expression toward him, and just casually walked out of the door.
The young officer followed Benjamin Harkmen for about a week, it was intense at first and then things got boring very quickly. Mainly because the man never do anything interesting.
Benjamin Harkmen was just like other prisoners. He wakes up by guard's call, eats breakfast, does the work that he's assigned to, eats lunch, read books, eats dinner, takes a shower, read books again, and then goes to sleep. He rarely talk to anyone, and would sometimes meet the young officer's eyes with a mysterious smile on the face. These steps repeated for days, and were starting to become irritated to the young officer.
It was until one night, he lost Benjamin during shower time and found out that he did not return to his cell by the time he was told to. That was the moment that he can finally feel the adrenaline hits him again.
The young officer held up his flash light, walking from place to place looking for Benjamin Harkmen. If that man escaped from the prison again, while it was under his watch, he is definitely getting fired for sure.
He walked to the out door running track, there was only one light pole standing in the dark, lonely night, lighting up the field with its light bulbs.
Suddenly, a few shuffling sound came from the dumpster located at the side of the track.
"Who's there?" The young officer quickly pulled out his baton towards the dumpsters.
A man stand in the shadow of the dumpster with his arms folded, and slowly taking his time to walking out and meet the young officer.
"Put your hands up!" The young officer demanded.
"I'm afraid I could not do so, sir." A voice that is foreign yet somewhat familiar answered.
When the man is completely out of the dark, the young officer saw a black cat was gently rest in the man's arms, which the cat didn’t even pay the slightest attention to the rookie. The man was not just any common prisoner, but the infamous illusionist, Benjamin Harkmen.
“I don’t think this prison is kind enough for its prisoners to have a pet.” Young officer still hasn’t let down his guard since he is facing his target face to face for the first time.
”Oh, you misunderstood. This is not my cat.” Benjamin immediately let go of his arms, and the cat just gracefully jumped down then walk away into the dark.
The cat’s meowing can be heard behind the dumpster. Maybe it was its home, and Benjamin just happen to be here for some reason. As the young officer tried to convince himself, he noticed that Benjamin Harkmen was making a wicked grin on his face, and just smiling at him which sends shiver down to the young officer’s spine.
”Well, I said let’s stop the game and get to the point, shall we?” He made a statement out of nowhere, and confusion was clearly splattered across the young officer’s face.
”I beg your pardon?”
”It’s been quite a while and you didn’t make any progress. I’m already bored and tired of circling in the same labyrinth, but I still have to admit that I have gained something from all this.” Benjamin Harkmen continued with his nonsense and ignoring the man standing across from him.
“Why are you saying these things to me? Is this one of your ways to lure people into your illusionary world?” The young officer again had his hand on his baton, was prepared to use it if things got out of the hand.
The illusionist just made a few laughs without answering his questions, which just made the rookie felt even more annoyed.
“It felt like dancing in a duo without a partner. Maybe a bit of fire would be what it takes to enlighten you.”
Benjamin Harkmen put both of his hands in front of himself, and let to the officer finally drawing his baton out and point straight at his face.
“Wow wow wow! I was joking, don’t get too serious about it.” He said it with a grin on the face, not even a tiny bit of scared feeling was found between his words or face.
“Your terrible humor would definitely get you in trouble someday.”
“Let's be clear here, I didn’t start the fire from the last prison I stayed, if you’re wondering.”
”Wha……b-but how can you prove that? And why should I trust you?” His statement made the young officer fell into the whirlpool of questions. First Benjamin Harkmen was gone after showing, he then found him by this weird place, then he just started blabbering nonsense.
“Believe me or not, I wish I could find the answer from you, sir.”
The light bulb up top blinked for a few time, just like a foreshadowing for a scary scene that is about to appear in every horror movies.
”Well, that’s all I could say, and I hope you don’t fail me.” The illusionist put up his hands again, but this time with an even more mysterious smile.
”What are you doing? What is happening?” The young officer’s mind was filled with confusions and anger, and now a slight amount of fear had join the party.
”And just a gentle reminder for you: don’t push yourself into the abyss.”
Benjamin Harkmen lightly clapped his hands, and immediately there are meowing sound coming from the back of the dumpster again, as if the cat was answering him.
The next thing the young officer knew, he is now in the same prison cafeteria that he grew familiar for this mission.
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