Footsteps, heavy footsteps that echoed through all of the hallways of the prison, and every prisoner knew exactly what was going to happen. That time came… that monster was finally going to be released.
That monster is finally going to be gotten rid of, and they can serve their sentence in peace.
Yeah, the prisoners themselves felt the fear, even though he was in that concrete block without any window. Even the doors were heavy iron doors that sealed off any noise from outside. Still, they were scared of the man inside… those who were serial killers, all of them were still scared by him.
Not just them, but the guards too, those guards who were armed to the top with assault rifles in their hands, their fingers already hovering over the triggers as they stood in front of the cell… how funny. Scared of a man who had no chance of attacking or even defending himself… but his name carried something, and his presence itself was dangerous.
They looked at each other with unease in their eyes, and first, the guard entered the pin, then unlocked the door with the key, and it opened with a heavy sound, like a vault was just opened.
"Prisoner 999. Stand up!" He shouted as he pointed his flashlight inside.
The scene was like a horror movie, the dark cell was lit up by the flashlight, and there was a figure sitting on the ground, long hair, the orange jumpsuit on him, just staring at the walls… but then slowly, he stood up, turning around and facing them.
"Put it on!" The guard shouted once again as he tossed in the chains in front of his legs.
For a second, he stared at it, but then bent down and attached it to his skinny legs.
"Now turn, on your knees and your hand behind your back!" The guard shouted again, and he did exactly that, slowly knelt down, put his hands behind his back, and waited.
Then the guard looked back to his colleagues and stepped in as fast as he could. He grabbed his hands and handcuffed him, then attached a long chain too, and lastly, he put the black mask on him, and they were done, ready to go.
So the guard grabbed the chain and, like he was a dog, dragged him out of the cell.
"Walk forward!" He shouted again, and he did, slowly walking, seeing once again nothing, just the familiar darkness.
But as soon as he stepped out of the cell and into the hallway, the other prisoners looked away or even bent their heads down like he was something supernatural, like he was a demon. But then there were the other ones, those eyes were looking at him.
"Slowly forward!" The guard shouted again.
And he slowly started walking on the cold hallway, smelling that familiar feeling, the despair, the suffering he could feel…. and could also feel the eyes on him.
He was nothing special to look at.
Skinny. Starved. Masked. But it wasn't what was outside that scared them. It was the thing that followed him like a shadow. The stories, the history about him, the whispers that he made a deal with the devil that he once was in hell but somehow escaped… yeah those witch stories that just too much to even hear… but there was some kinda truth in those stories because all of them agreed on one thing… he was dangerous.
The black mask on his head to not see how the prison looked inside, to not know where things are, the chains on him, no other prisoner were escorted like that, by guards with literally ARs in their hands the safety off.
They all understood it except one…
"Hey you, who are you?!"
The voice was cocky, too loud, the kind that hadn't been broken yet. The kind that didn't know who to fear. A newly arrived kid, maybe twenty.
"Why is everybody so scared of you?!"
He suddenly stopped and looked at the direction where the voice came from and at that moment everything seemed to stop, even the breaths. Even with the black mask covering his face, something radiated from him
"Move!" One of the guards shouted as he jammed the barrel of his rifle into Joseph's back "Move!"
But he didn't move, he just stared at the exact same direction.
And the kid kept going, but his voice cracked slightly, "What, you gonna stare me to death, you fucker?" He chuckled and looked around but everyone else had turned away. The other inmates, some lifers, some worse had their heads bowed like they were in church. Like looking at him was sin.
"Enough!" One of the guards shouted and turned toward the kid's cell, stepping in front of it and lifting his rifle.
"If you don't fucking want to die, shut the fuck up."
The kid chuckled. "You can't kill me, old man—"
"Not by me but by him." He said it in a low voice as he stared into the kid's eyes, then not a moment after turned and went back to the prisoner and pushed him to walk and he did turn back his head and just walked while the chains echoed through the whole hallway.
But the kid's question wasn't answered, so he turned back to his cellmates."Who the fuck is he?!"
Silence.
Then an old inmate who sat on his bunk, long gray beard and hair spoke. He was an old timer maybe 60. Nobody knew how long he'd been in, but the rumors said three decades, maybe more.
"He's Triple Nine."
"Triple what? That some superhero name?" He chuckled.
"Nah. It's not a nickname, boy. It's a warning."
"A warning?" The kid repeated.
"Triple Nine ain't no regular label." Another prisoner spoke mabe 30 from the corner as he sat on the ground "Nine's the top security level. Where they put the worst of the worst, mass murderers, warlords. But Triple Nine? That means he ain't just at the top... he broke the fucking scale."
The kid blinked, still confused. "So what, he did some crazy shit? What'd he do?"
"Crazy shit?" The old man laughed as she shook his head.
"For ten straight years, they kept him in that concrete cell. No light, no visits, no voice. Couldn't speak to anyone. Couldn't even look at a person. The cell they had him in wasn't a room, it was a fucking coffin."
"They gave him ten minutes of open air." The younger one spoke again as he bit his nails." A month. Not a day, a month. Ten minutes to breathe. Surrounded by ten guards with rifles and emergency kill-code authorization even if he speak one single fucking word."
"You're joking." The kid said with a half smile. "Ten years like that breaks everybody, that is impossible. " Y'all acting like he's some damn boogeyman. He looked normal. Skinny as hell."
"That's what scares us, boy." The older one spoke. "He is normal. No tattoos, no signs of rage. Just quiet. But when he walks… the world holds its breath."
Another inmate finally spoke from the upper bunk. "I was in D-Block when they moved him. Heard four guards quit the next morning. One pissed himself mid-transfer. They all refused to work the south wing after that. Said it felt like… like God turned His back on them."
The kid was staring now. Silent.
"You think you're bad because you led a gang in the East Side?" He snorted. "Kid, that man could and still can burn, your whole fucking city… he'd make it vanish in a day."
"Yeah? Well I ain't scared of no fairy tale! Ain't no man can do all that. I've killed, I've run the streets, I ain't scared of—"
But then came the laughter from multiple cells now, deep broken voices.
"His family name is Cassian, kid." As he said the name the whole cell block went quiet again..
"Wait… you mean like… that Cassian?"
No one answered, they didn't have to, because now he understood.
He wasn't just some inmate, it was Joseph Cassian