If Luke said his life in prison was fine, people wouldn't believe it easily. It seemed a lot of them thought Luke was being tortured, stripped naked, beaten by the other prisoners until he died. Even though Luke's relationship with his three cellmates, namely fish, the Bronx, and especially Nad, is not that familiar. But, Luke is totally fine in this place. In fact, the officers would immediately intervene if one of them got into a fight, separate the abused prisoners, and call a psychiatrist for depressed prisoners. But that rarely happened, except for two prisoners fighting. But still, the people who live outside this prison don't want to accept that fact.
"You can tell me anything about it, Luke," Amy said as she and Andrew paid her a visit. Luke got annoyed himself hearing that because it seemed Luke had told him a thousand times that Luke was fine.
" I'm fine, Amy. What else do I have to tell you, anyway?" Luke said , irritated.
"Then what about that indentation on your cheek?"
"Oh, my God. I didn't say that before. This is because another prisoner accidentally bumped into me and spilled his food, and then he—"
"That's it, Lu! That's it I mean! You're being disturbed here, right? I'll report the warden. No, no. I'll report social services!"
Hearing this made Luke's head itch a lot. He said, "Why are you reporting to social services, you nut!"
"That there is violence in this prison," Amy replied, as firmly as she believed it.
Luke turned to look at Andrew who had been giggling when he heard the argument between Luke and Amy.
"Andrew, can you translate this 'I'm fine' in human language for Amy? It seems she doesn't understand our language, Andrew."
"Yeah, I'll translate it for her later. Well Babe," he turned to Amy, "her visit is over."
Just like in visiting room 777, even here when the detainees' visiting time is over, the lights on each table will flicker. If the visitor does not leave immediately, then he is prohibited from visiting again. That's why Andrew tried to warn Amy. I'm grateful.
Andrew said "Hey, Luke, we're leaving, okay. The day after tomorrow we'll try to come back here again."
"Ike. Thanks for coming to visit."
"Luke, remember this, okay, you have to be careful with a pencil or cutter. "
"Ouch, darling. Prisoners aren't given permission to have that thing casually, you know. Come on, let's go. The officer is already glaring at us.
"See ya, my looney. "
"See ya, Katy."
Well, one person left, then another person came. What was different was that the person met him while outside detention.
At that time, Luke had been here for about three weeks and, he didn't know if this was the procedure, but the next day Luke had been instructed to do scene reconstruction for the Adam Bowleans case. Luke has made up his mind for this one, because remembering every detail of the scene makes Luke nauseous and very guilty.
Ah, before forgetting, Luke wants to reveal a little bit about one thing; namely about Luke's desire to visit Adam. Luke wanted to see how Adam's real condition was and Luke had already said that to Jeremy. Jeremy said he would work on it. Then one week after Luke expressed Luke's wishes, Luke was actually allowed to visit Adam Bowleans. Amazingly, without interruption or swearing from Mrs and Mr. Bowles . Somehow Jeremy begged them. Even so, Luke was still a defendant so several officers escorted Luke and gave him a very short time limit.
So, Luke saw it. Seeing Adam's body lying lifeless on the bed. With lots of hoses, and engine wires where he needs them most to survive. Part of his face was bandaged and his open mouth had to receive a large pipe. Even through the glass, Luke could hear the engines and Adam's short, ragged breaths.
Luke felt guilty again and again. Then Luke's mind prevented tons of 'what ifs' that Luke couldn't make happen. Such as;
'I wish I wasn't mad then.'
'I wish I hadn't gotten to class earlier then.'
'I wish I had just skipped class at that time.'
And what ifs and whats makes Luke even more frustrated. Even though Ben, Ulfa, Jeremy, and Luke's friends said that it was not purely his fault, Luke felt that they said that just to calm him down.
"It's satisfying to see. Isn't it?"
Luke turned and found Patricia standing in front of him with her hands bandaged with cloth.
"Are you happy now? When you're done seeing my brother, leave. No one likes you to visit him. We don't need that empathy of yours. You're a monster, you bitch. You're more of a monster than me and my brother."
Luke couldn't even say sorry.
And that's how Luke went about reconstructing it. Watched by many students and local residents. Some of them kept shouting 'hoo' or 'you'll just die', without knowing anything. Also the flashing media camera flash which is annoying and makes his eyes dazzle half dead. But Luke tried to ignore it. After the procedure for reconstructing the incident which took almost a day, suddenly someone approached me. She is a woman who claims to be a journalist.
Well, here's what Luke said about the guy who came. He asked how old Luke was and how life was in prison.
"Did you accept violence there, son? Did any wardens abuse you? Did they treat you humanely? And how do you explain those bruises on your hands?"
Huft… Luke was tired of this question for a long time. But here's another. Luke also has to maintain an attitude not to add to society's bad assumptions. So all Luke did was tell him that Luke was fine. No one discriminates or does evil, even the prisoners are asked to do gymnastics every morning so we can live healthier and longer. That's how it is. However, it seemed that the female reporter was not happy. He seemed to want to write controversial articles and publish them for his own stomach. Yeah, Luke's just trying to be negative.
Even so, there are at least two people who believe that Luke is fine. The first person is Rei. He had come alone without Amy or Andrew.
"I don't think Amy would be comfortable if we were just the three of us, Luke. You know, I have a feeling Amy is jealous of me. That's it," he whispered.
Luke giggled.
"So, are you starting to get along with your cellmate, Luke?"
"Not yet. It doesn't really matter," Luke said, holding up his vahu.
"Oh, I see."
Rei smiled. Awkwardly rubbing his forearm.
"So what?"
"Oh, no. No. I just wanted to say—"
"You want to say sorry, right?" Luke deliberately cut his sentence short. "Never mind, never mind, Rei. What happened had to happen. Even though it doesn't make any sense. I'm really tired of hearing apologies all the time, you know?"
Hurriedly, Rei shook his head.
"No, Luke. I'm not going to say that. Because what I wanted to tell you is, thank you. You're… very kind. I mean, even though you seem cold and aloof, I didn't ignore you. Thank you, Luke. Oh! And as a thanks, I've left my homemade cake to the guard. You can eat it in the room and try to get along with your cellmates. Well , I have to hurry, Luke. Visiting hours are over. Bye~... "
Rei Suzurao left too. Yeah, that's how he is. Luke almost forgot how and why they got close until he saw the cake and remembered everything.
Leaving aside Rei's somewhat unfamiliar cake, let's address the second person who believes Luke is fine. But, Luke's a 100 dollar bet, needless to say that what came was…
"You?!"
"Jade, Luke. I told you that before, didn't I?" the error.
Yes. It's Jade West. The mysterious figure who is terrible but actually has a heart as soft as rabbit meat. This time, perhaps because of the procedure, he didn't wear his hooded jacket and didn't wear a mask. Makes Luke easier to recognize him.
they didn't talk much because it seemed like Jade wanted to finish the conversation quickly so she got to the point.
And he said, "I'm here to tell you a secret about you, Luke. That you're a werewolf."
***