The Prisoner Project

FOUR

"If the blue meanies are going to get me they'd better get off their asses and do something."

- The Zodiac Killer

FOUR

I HAD GONE BERSERK and yelled at Frank, told him that they were all sick to think that I would want to utter any words to this Banshee person. Frank had calmly told me that my reaction was normal. I had wanted to slap him. Then Frank had given me a day to think about it and walked me to my accommodation. The room that he had showed me was unbelievably big. Government funded, obviously.

It had a King-sized bed, beautiful work desks and side tables, a kitchen area with a fridge full of condiments, a bathroom with bath tub, a shower and a toilet that looked more expensive than my own apartment. It was too good to be true. Perhaps they were doing all this to apologise for my future discomfort.

My phone buzzed the familiar tune for Hey Ya by OutKast. "Hello?"

Diana's cheery voice hollered in my ear. "Don't hello me, stupid. Were you seriously not going to call me?" She said in between crunches, she was eating something and I already knew it was Cheerios. I had lived with my sister for long enough to know what she was eating at certain times.

"Hey, Diana." I glanced at the wall clock above my table. 11pm. "Jesus, I didn't even realise how late it was. I swear I was gonna call. How are you?"

There was a pause, and then another crunch. "How am I? That's beside the point. I want you to tell me everything. How was it? Did you get the job? Where on earth are you staying? Was it all some stupid prank? Give me the details, woman!"

"I'd rather be shot in the head than relay the events of today." I groaned, moving from the work desk to the kitchen. I grabbed a blood red apple. "But I know you'd do worse than shooting me if I didn't tell you so I'll try."

"That bad?" She offered, sounding sympathetic.

I nodded even as she couldn't see me. "Yeah. You wouldn't believe it but I am living a few miles away from Belladonna and Baby Blue. No, not their graves, they're fucking alive. That's not all, I was pretty much asked to interview the Devil." I paused for emphasis. "And the Prisoner Project? It's not a fucking joke."

There was silence at the end of the line. And then there was crash, as if glass had met hardwood, and then a high pitched - "Holy shit, I just spilt my entire bowl of cereal!" I heard a chair scrape and then she was back on the phone. "OK. Damn, you need to tell me everything because I went deaf at some point between Belladonna, the Devil and alive."

"I'm serious. Belladonna and Baby Blue are at this prison. A lot of others too. I literally saw her. It was terrifying." I put the phone at the croon of my neck and searched for a knife. "Alright. So picture this. I walk into the prison and the guards at the gate ask me of I'm here for the job. I nod and they begin doing lots of security scans on me. They say it's to ensure my details are on the system if I do get the job." I grab the knife and slice into the apple. "At this point, I have a mini heart attack because I realise that this is not a joke and I'll probably have to do something really crazy for the amount of money in the job description."

Diana hm-ed. "Fast forward to the good bits, Aria."

"There are no good bits." I do air quotes, tossing the knife in the sink when I'm done. "I know crazy, we've both been through so much for me to know exactly what crazy comprises of but this was straight out of a horror novel."