A hundred identical gray cells, floating by with footsteps ahead as he walked down the eerily empty hall.

The corridor of identicals stopped as soon as he met eyes with her.

Yes, she was already looking in his direction, as if she had been waiting for someone to arrive.

Those eyes of hers were eerily alert; it really did seem as if she had been waiting.

Hmm, or maybe waiting wasn’t the right word. Expecting, perhaps.

There was something supernatural hidden behind those eyes; or, at least, that’s how it seemed to him.

That’s why he was here, after all.

”So you’ve finally come to rescue me, my knight in shining armor?”

She said that in a mocking tone with a smile that seemed too dramatized to be genuine.

The girl with long tendrils of jet black hair looked so thin it seemed she might blow away with a gust of wind.

The man questioned himself for just a moment.

This is the girl, right?

No, there was no doubt about it, this was her–the same girl.

The girl, who seemed to “have one foot in reality, one foot in another dimension,” so to speak, noticed his hesitation.

”No, that’s not it, is it?” She increased the volume of her voice in an accusatory kind of way.

”You’ve come like in the movies, as the random passerby who opens up the cage of some unknown monster…”

She seemed satisfied with herself at that sentence, grinning a little.

All the while, she maintained eye contact with him, not once blinking.

He blinked, a bead of sweat forming on his brow.

He cleared his throat as he spoke in a firm voice.

”You’re ▇▇▇▇.”

The girl tilted her fragile-looking head a bit, finally letting herself blink, her eyes filled with a mysterious kind of black aura.

It took a few heartbeats for her to respond with a lazy kind of sigh.

”And you’re going to bail me out, no?”

She rolled her eyes just a bit, then re-fixated her catlike gaze on the man who was half hidden by the shadowy bars that were in front of her.

The man gulped, a little bit of his nervousness inevitably showing.

But no, he was very sure of himself.

So sure of himself, in fact, that he would let a lion out of its cage.

”I am. My name is ▇▇▇▇▇▇. I’ve already made the preparations, I just wanted to see you beforehand, so that you understand the circumstances. After all–”

”--I already understand that,” She said in a slightly annoyed, no, definitely annoyed, tone of voice.

Her eyes narrowed, really seeming like a cat sizing up its prey.

”I think you’re the one who needs to understand something,” the girl snapped as if she were correcting him.

Then, she smiled.

It was the kind of smile that would make anyone a little uncomfortable, the kind of capricious smile that makes one wonder what entertained it.

”Don’t you know you’re going to end up like the rest of them?”

A vile remark made in a playful kind of way.

Empty words.

The correctional officer standing nearby looked unamused by the small girl’s banter.

Yes, he was there before, but the man had been too focused on the girl.

He exchanged a glance with the officer, who sighed, seeming exhausted.

”You know you’re not just going to be off the hook, young miss,” said the wizened officer with another sigh. “That’s what they all think, y’see, that they’re just going ‘free,’ and that history will repeat itself.”

The man considered his words.

”That’s what being in here will do to you. It will make you brand yourself a criminal, since society already has branded you as just that. And then you have ones like these, who think this is their destiny, that their fate can’t be changed.”

The officer glanced at the girl, who lowered her gaze a bit, almost as if she were actually listening to his words.

”But, that’s not the way our society really works. You get out of here, you’re weaned off of the system, and then you move on with your life. Almost like you forget what happened in the first place…

”Except you don’t really forget. You just kind of overwrite the past in a way, compartmentalize, maybe is what you’d call that?”

The officer folded his arms, eyeing the girl as if she were his daughter and he were giving her a “tough love” kind of lecture.

”Anyway,” he said. “Don’t worry that you’re getting off easy, missy. We’ll be watching you along the way.”

It seemed like the girl really was lost in her thoughts.

Was she even listening?

▇▇▇▇▇▇ spoke to break the silence.

”I don’t care about what you did before–”

Hasty words.

”--No,” he corrected himself firmly, composing himself again.

”You’re mistaken if you think I fear you like a child would fear a monster under their bed.”

He cocked an eyebrow meaningfully.

”You’re merely a girl, after all.”

She was–she was merely a girl with a little experience that he happened to need.

”And also…

It’s exactly because of what you’ve done.”

He added nothing more than that.

The girl broke out of her trance and actually looked up to him in a slow, foggy kind of way.

She held her gaze there for awhile, meeting eyes with the man who stood directly before her.

Finally, she laughed a tired kind of laugh.

”Well, this should be interesting,” she sighed with a dramatic flair.

”I agree,” the man replied almost immediately.