Page 13 of Caretaker

I felt it. Day by day, horror by horror, I was getting a little colder.

After a while, I stopped peering into cells. But I wouldn’t forget.

“Stark’s in BSec,” Cindy said when one of the guards started to lead us to the left. “It’s this way.”

“No, he’s in DSec.”

“He got moved weeks ago. Where have you been?”

Shane and I glanced at each other. “What are those names?” I asked.

“Sections of the prison.” There was a tiny amount of grim pleasure in Cindy’s voice. “ISec is Iron Section, which we just left. BSec is Blood, DSec is Dark, and PSec is Paranormal.”

“And they mean what?” I demanded, already angry, already terrified.

The guards weren’t concerned. No human got in trouble for the conditions inside a supernatural prison. Maybe someday that would change. Maybe it wouldn’t. Everyone knew what prisons for supernaturals were like. Everyone knew how bad they were.

But I guess I hadn’t really known.

“I’ll give you a pamphlet when you leave.” Cindy was growing impatient. “We’re here. You have half an hour.”

I shook my head. “That’s not long enough.”

“Sorry, but those are the rules. You would have gotten an hour but you didn’t show up on visiting day—so you get thirty minutes.” She waited, impassive.

Finally, I nodded and turned to face the barred entrance. No sense wasting time arguing. Honestly, I wasn’t sure I could have taken an hour in that soul-sucking horror of a place.

The discordant buzz sounded, and I straightened my spine and walked into BSec to visit Angus.

And that was the scariest damn thing I’d done in a long, long time.