The cell would be a scar in his mind for the rest of his life. The dark muddy walls, the smell of piss and decay and the long miserable bars of hell had seemed to be alive and transmitting fear and pessimism in the minds of the teenagers in the area. He was the same as all the others imprisoned there. The thing he couldn’t have guessed was how he came to be in there and how he met the random, strange girl that couldn’t seem to shut up. All the kids in there had been drugged, beaten, taken, and finally put in a godforsaken cell, in the heart of an unknown prison, all because they had lost their battle. ‘I don’t belong here. I won. This is slowing me down, my father could be dead and I wouldn’t be able to do a damn thing because of this infernal s***hole.’ he kept on chanting in his mind.

“Hey, are you there?” he heard the sing-songy voice of his optimist companion.

“What do you want, Shauna?” he spat.


“A conversation.” she said, as had been her response to the question for the past five minutes.

“Look, I need to get out of here, my dad could die any second.” he said raising his tone anger welling up inside him with just the thought of how his father had been brutally intercepted from his life.

“So could mine, so relax.” she responded in her same irritating voice

“Just shut up!” He had viciously responded, making sure that his voice had had that bitter and angry tone to it.

“Rude, Jay Jay! Why’s you gotta be so mean all the time?”

“It’s Jacob to you.” he grumbled. No one ever talked to him this way. He could feel the anger inside him beginning to awaken but it quickly died down as his thoughts drifted away to his father and his need to get out of there.

“What’re you thinkin’ ‘bout almighty Jacobson? Huh?”

Jake’s icy blue eyes were hinting at his fury and he was starting to lose it. ‘Dammit that stupid girl just doesn’t shut up’ he thought. That small spark of fury brought back recent events. He thought of his mother. About that fire within him that had burned brighter when he defeated Minos. He remembered how that fire had begun as a small candlelight when he was told his father was alive. Since then, it had been growing steadily within him, and he knew that one day it would either save him, or kill him.

He quickly diverted his thoughts back to the general plan and his head began to fill with different calculations. ‘I could talk my way into making the guard coming in. But that wouldn’t work because it would take time and the security would be paying attention to the security cameras to see the fight’. Then a light bulb went off in his head.

“Alright, I know what to do to get out of here, but I need your help.” he told her, eagerly breaking the silence.

“Okay, what’s up?” She asked, optimistic, as always.

“When you see the guard in front of my cell, catch his attention and buy me some time”

“Yessir” she responded, the sarcasm giving Jake another wave of rage. ‘We are in the middle of a crisis and this girl is making jokes. She’s got to be crazy.’ he thought to himself wondering if his plan might actually work.


The guard was walking around the corner thinking about how fortunate he was with such a big salary. All be had to do was babysit these children. He knew for a fact that the people who had hired him were not stupid and he did find it odd that they would care for such defenseless children, but as long as he was being paid well, he didn’t give a damn about those teenagers.

He was walking down the rows looking through the bars and into the cells making sure that everything was in order. He stopped in front of one particular cell that he had been specifically told to keep an eye out for. He looked in and was dumbfounded. The kid wasn’t there, maybe the kid was under the bunk, but before he got the chance to look he heard a noise from the cell next to it. It was a girl; he remembered from the paperwork that her name was like Shayne, Sheena, Sheila, or something like that.

“Helloooooo, Mista, I think that there’s somethin’ on your arm.” He heard the voice of the girl.

He instinctively reached for his right arm and only felt his badge “What do you want girl. There’s nothing there.”

“I'm sure there is. It’s something crafted out of plastic, obviously fake gold, I just can’t make out the figure.”

“Are you insulting my badge kid? Don’t make me go in there and beat you.” the guard said as he began to lose his temper. ‘No one insults my badge like that.’ he thought, anger beginning grow as the only thing about the job that gave him any sense of pride was being humiliated.

The guard would have never seen it coming. Jake had stealthily crawled from under the bunk and had crept up to the bars while the guard was being distracted by Shauna. And without a moment’s hesitation or sound, Jake grabbed the man’s jacket, thrust the guard forward without letting go, and with all his might, Jake pulled back. The guard didn’t even blink before his body pounded into the bars and lay unconscious, crumpled on the floor.

Seconds later, the body was pushed to the side by the hard metal cell door that had clicked open because of the white plastic card that was now in Jake’s possession. He made sure that the door didn’t creak in order to make a fast and quick get away, but he knew that would be impossible when he heard the unmistakable sound of Shauna’s voice, “Dude, you gonna help me outta this or what?”
As he neared the door, he actually started to put a face to the girl that had been in the cell next to him for as long as he had been in the facility. From his own cell he hadn’t been able to see much, but he pictured her as a small and scrawny girl, almost like a bug. When he stood in front of her cell now, looking into her amber eyes, he was taken back. He actually took a few steps backward taking in everything that he saw. It would have taken him a million years to guess that the girl whom he was happy to be rid of was the same one standing in front of him. Despite having been in a cell for a while, her wavy auburn brown hair was perfectly intact. Her light tan, was not damaged even though her skin hadn’t seen the sun in at least a week. Jake’s first reaction was that she was a goddess. It was the only explanation to this truly amazing transformation. He was already starting to fall for her, but the thought of his father came back to him and the urgency to leave helped him get out of the his dumbfounded state of mind. From there he wasted no time in trying to get the door open.

As soon as the door clicked, it swung open…fast. An unexpected kick blew Jake of his feet and he fell to the floor. In a minute, Jake was tied up on the floor of the prison half dazed. When he came to, he was propped up against a wall with fabric handcuffs and his dirty brown hair, thick with mud. Shauna immediately broke into tears. Even though he had just been overpowered by her, he couldn’t help feeling bad for Shauna. Even when she cried she could easily be the most beautiful girl in the world to him.

“I'm sorry!” She sobbed with a wave of salty tears pouring down her face.

“IIIIttts ….okkkkay.” he responded as if he were under a spell. He couldn’t talk, he was just… paralyzed.

“Did I over’act, sorry it’s jus’, you never know who you can trust.” she apologized with the last few persistent tears slowly streaming down her cheeks.

“It’s okay um, I p-p-probably would have done the same.”

“I’m a terrible person, you help me escape from prison and I can’t even trust you?”

“N-no you’re not, you’re just scared.”

“You really think so?” she asked with her eyes lighting up.

“Y-yeah, c-can you like um, untie me now?” he said trying not to sound like an idiot.

“I guess so.” she sniffed and with red eyes and shivering hands she managed to free his hands and his bound ankles.
“Well, you did say you we are in a hurry to get to your old man right, well lead the way macho man” She said wiping away the last teardrop and trying to put on a fake grin. She was trying to act confident again like she had been in the cell and if she noticed that Jake was at a loss for words, she didn’t show it.

“O-Okay, f-f-follow me” he said trying to sound more confident and brave. They began to walk in the narrow hall avoiding eye contact with the kids locked up around them, especially the small ones. Jake would have helped them gladly but there was a much more important task at hand, ‘these kids could wait’ he thought. But the more and more he walked by them the more the lie he told himself stung and the guilt began eating him alive. It was unusually quiet and it seemed that everyone had heard and seen the guard go down. Now they were begging with their silent pleas for help to get out.

He was saved by someone who witnessed the events through the security cameras and set off the alarm. They began to run. Guards poured in from everywhere, rooms, cells, doors, and even hidden trapdoors. Jake started to use his speed and skill from being a track star by; jumping gliding and sliding past the guards. He glanced over to Shauna and saw her attack with such speed, skill, and agility that he was mesmerized. He would have crashed into a guard with a Taser if Shauna hadn’t yelled “Watch out dumbass!” From then on in an attempt to not make himself look like a fool, he shook off his thoughts of Shauna and continued forward with the occasional kick, jab, or punch.

At one point, when they were running and there seemed to be no more security guards to take down, Jake heard Shauna scream and he turned around. She was on the floor writhing in agony, being kicked by a male and female guard.

“Jacob!!!!” she screamed, with a panic in her voice.

‘Finally a chance to be heroic in front of her.’ Jake thought. He just hoped he wouldn’t blow it. As he ran towards them, his icy eyes were blinding. They were full of fury. Not only had those people taken his father, but now, they were hurting Shauna, ‘Over my dead body.’ he thought. Jake sprinted towards the two guards and did a perfect jumping kick and connected with a man’s face. He put a well-placed punch in the gut of the woman and as he was getting ready to place a final punch on the lady, he flew off the ground and crashed against the wall, feeling the familiar metallic taste of blood in his mouth. Another punch came. He ducked and slashed at the oncoming foot of the man. As soon as Jake saw that the man was unbalanced, he set a perfect hook that took both the enemy’s breath and consciousness away. Only one more he thought. He anticipated the wild kick and used the wall to jump over the pursuer. He quickly turned to face his enemy’s back, chuckled, and let loose a strong and powerful roundhouse kick that made the enemy fly away and into her companion by the wall. The prisoners began to make a wild racket seeing how Jake single handedly took out the guards.

When he reached Shauna, she had calmed down a bit but didn’t look like she could move, much less run.

“Are you okay” Jake asked too out of breath to care if he sounded stupid.

“Do I look okay? Jus’ go, reinforcements’ll be here soon.”

“What about you? I can’t leave you here on your own, they’ll kill you!”

“You know they won’t, and plus, you have to find your dad.”

“What about yours? I won’t leave you.” With that he bent over to pick her up but she thrashed and screamed.

“Stop, Jus’ Go, I’ll survive here. I don’t wanna go!”

“Too bad, then you’re my first hostage.” He effortlessly picked her up, fought her resistance and with her safely nestled in his muscular arms, he ran towards the big iron door in front of them.

When Jake opened the door he saw a big spiral staircase going up. It was too late to turn around; he could hear the reinforcements running past the noisy cells of the other victims, not far behind. He took the best option and flew up the stairs taking them three at time. When he reached the top there was another big door and for a second he thought that they had been underground. He opened the door to see the fantastic aerial view of the prison. He heard Shauna groan and say “S***, smooth move.” But by then they could hear the sound of hurried footsteps beginning to climb up the staircase and saw the searchlight coming close to them.

“Alright, we have two options wait for the guards to get up here, beat us to pulp, and take us back, or jump.”

“I think we should…”

“AHHHHHHHH” they screamed in unison as Jake jumped off the edge and they were swallowed by the darkness of the night’s cool damp air.