Redemption

James stared across the cold, dark room as Iron Vale inmate 33527 materialized from the portal. His leg emerged first from the semi-translucent plasma, his arm and the rest of his body followed. The inmate had only left through the portal seconds before. Time jumps were quick from this perspective but Iron Vale inmate 33527 had spent hours on the other side living in the past. The next minute would determine whether he completed redemption and became a free man or served two more years in the prison before trying again. Redemption was the only way out of Iron Vale.

Redemption had been a staple at Iron Vale since James had arrived a decade before. The idea was explained to inmates as a way to atone for their crimes by taking a more serious criminal off the streets. The criminals were chosen through a secret judicial process called a stealth trial. These criminals were so bad that they weren’t even aware their trial was being held. After they were charged, inmates were able to make up for their poor choices by murdering the guilty party of the stealth trial.

James stood, analyzing the inmate’s reaction, as his fingers on his right hand danced against his thigh, a mechanism to focus left over from when he played piano. James glanced over to the judge’s booth. The judges were hidden, anonymous, on the other side of a row of lights that served as a progress bar to show how much data they had analyzed. The judges needed to scour their sources for any signs the target was alive to know if the inmate had completed his task and found redemption. The task was always murder. The progress bar was slowly lighting up, 20%, 30%. James went over the details of his own task in his head. Three opportunities. The locations that the target would visit, the bar, a quick detour to some nearby alley, a store to get groceries, and finally back to her house. James figured he could complete his task in the alley, possibly on the way to the grocery store, or before she made it to her house. His fingers skipped against his pant leg seemingly at random.

Inmate 33527 still hadn’t moved from where he emerged from the portal. The progress bar had reached 80%. His eyes transfixed on the row of lights, his face already appeared resigned as the guards removed his leash, the technology that would automatically bring him back to through the portal after 12 hours, the maximum time allotted.

The man stared as the final light turned red. He slowly fell to his knees before the guards cuffed him and dragged him by his arms towards the exit.

James stepped forward; it was his first chance at redemption. He stopped underneath a row of spotlights leading to the portal, the rest of the room shrouded in darkness. As the doors closed behind inmate 33527, silence engulfed the cellar until several guards approached him. They lifted his shirt and attached the leash, a device the size of a deck of cards, to his back with an adhesive. He had to be entirely focused, he only had 12 hours. His footsteps echoed on the concrete floor as he stepped toward the rippling plasma screen in front of him. His fingers skittered faster against his leg, reaching a crescendo.

He entered the circular plasma door and was immediately thrown forward, into the past.

He stumbled into a dark alley, catching himself against the side of a dumpster. He composed himself, looking around to be sure no one saw him. He heard music and cheering at the end of the street, no one would have noticed him.

James felt raindrops on his shoulders, a refreshing feeling after being imprisoned for a decade. He took a moment to lean his head back to feel the water land on his face before making his way towards the busy street.

He spotted the target across the street at a bar near the window, a woman in her late 20s, dark hair and short stature. Not the kind of person you would expect could be capable of terrible things. James couldn’t just burst in, casualties were not tolerated and meant immediate failure. James took his chance to go to a bar across the street from the target. If he was outside the prison, he would at least enjoy himself for a minute.

James entered the bar and made his way towards a dark corner booth by the window. He ordered a beer and thought about if being released even mattered, it wasn’t like there was a lot on the outside for him anyway.

***

After the incident, James’s friends and family abandoned him one-by-one. He tried to convince them he was innocent, but they just couldn’t believe it against the evidence saying that he assaulted and murdered the two men with little provocation. He had gotten into some fights as a kid but that wasn’t who he was anymore. The smaller man from the incident, the man who lived, had made a compelling argument against him. He was visiting someone in the area, and just happened to be walking down the street when James attacked him. That was his story at least. The witnesses all saw that as well, no one saw them chasing the boy. No one saw them confront James. To his credit, the boy had remained persistent. That James had protected him from the two men. But he was just a kid who had been in shock at the time. He couldn’t even say a word when the police had arrived.

***

James noticed movement across the street. The past didn’t matter anyway, he thought, he was focused on getting himself out. The target had gotten up, slung a tote bag over her shoulder, and was heading out the door. James chugged the last of his beer and headed for the door, his fingers tapping against his thigh as he walked back out into the rain.

The next stop was an alley a few blocks away. He watched the target head outside and walk around the corner. She put on a raincoat and pulled the hood over her head as the rain picked up. She would be easy to tail tonight.

James walked up the street, trying not to draw attention. In a minute or two he would head into the alley and complete the task. He trained his peripheral vision on the alley entrance since she had disappeared. But after only around 30 seconds James saw her turn the corner back onto the street and set off to the next location. He missed opportunity number one. He slammed his fingers into his thigh as he made his way toward the alley entrance. How was she so quick?

He decided he was going to find out a little more information, see what she was working on in her last hours. He ventured deeper into the alleyway looking for a door or person but only ran into a dead end. He started looking around, she hadn’t looked like she was carrying anything out of the alley. Then he remembered the tote. She must have left it somewhere.

James trudged around the back of the alley throwing up boxes and moving garbage bins. Finally, he spotted some graffiti spelling IV, and underneath it, a rusty bike covering the tote. He pulled the bike out of the way and grabbed the tote underneath. Inside he found a stack of papers. He gasped as he flipped through them. Pages and pages of emails and memos. One symbol showing up on nearly all of them, the Iron Vale logo.

As James read a few pages, he found the memos formal, but the emails were clearly not meant for outside eyes. He started reading the correspondence, talking about removing certain people.

“Shit” he said, realizing the time. He had missed the second opportunity while reading the papers. He folded a few and shoved them in his pocket but left the rest.

He would have to take advantage of opportunity three, the final location. He began to make his way to the target’s house. As he rounded a corner, he realized that it wasn’t far from where the incident happened, where he was arrested. He was surprised he recognized the boring suburban streets in the rain.

***

It had been a beautiful day leading up to the incident. He had been walking home from a friend’s place by himself along a quiet suburban street lined with cars and small houses. He had a grocery bag in one hand and his shoes in the other, choosing to feel the grass beneath his feet while avoiding the dilapidated sidewalk.

He turned the corner and saw a young boy running towards him, maybe 15 or 16 years old. He looked terrified and when James noticed the two men running behind him, he understood why. The smaller man came barreling around the corner first before the larger man followed at a slower pace.

The boy cowered behind James and whispered, “please help”.

James looked around the street as the two men pulled up in front of him. There was no place he could go where they wouldn’t catch the boy. He would have to stand his ground.

James stood a little taller, still in the grass. “Can I help you?”

“Hey man, this has nothing to do with you, we don’t want to hurt you, just step aside.” The smaller one said.

“Just leave the kid alone. Walk away and we can forget about this.” James said assertively.

The two men started walking around James in opposite directions. James could feel the sweat start to pool on his forehead.

Under his breath James whispered to the boy, “run”.

“What?” the boy said, clearly missing the sign.

“RUN!” shouted James. He watched as the smaller man faltered on a piece of broken sidewalk. The larger man was still too far to reach him. James lunged at the smaller man, knocking him into the car parked on the sidewalk, setting off the alarm. James reared back and landed a swift punch to the side of the small man’s face, knocking him out.

The larger man had started running after the boy. James chased after, catching him just before he reached the boy and tackled him. He forced the larger man onto his back as people started flooding the street from all the commotion. All they saw was James punching this man in his face over and over.

***

James made it to the final location and stood on the opposite side of the street, more determined than ever. It didn’t matter that this person had dirt on Iron Vale. This was about him securing his freedom. He stood opposite the nice two-story home with a big porch and from what he could see inside, a spacious living room. In the corner sat a stand-up piano. His finger tapped delicately against his quad. There were several lights on inside but no movement. James would catch her before she entered the house and would be on his way.

James heard her footsteps before he saw her. The target was on the opposite side of the street, he needed to move quickly. He emerged from behind the tree and started around the nearest parked car when a truck came speeding down the road, music blaring. James crouched behind the parked car, cursing. The truck whizzed by, and James looked up just in time to catch the target open the front door to her home. He missed his chance.

He would need to take his shot inside the house. He noticed a man coming into view of the front window, greeting the woman. James snuck around back, in through the unlocked back door, and found himself in the kitchen. He would need to be careful if he didn’t want any extra casualties.

The man and woman were still talking in the living room as James slowly stood up. He pulled a knife from the block to his left and took a step. As soon as his weight shifted, the floor let out a long squeak. The talking in the other room immediately stopped.

With the element of surprise gone, James took the knife and walked into the other room, they obviously didn’t have anything to protect themselves. The fingers on his left hand took over tapping his leg as he walked through the doorway with the knife in his right. He immediately stopped upon seeing the couple, the knife landing on the floor with a small clang.

Before James stood the man that had witnessed his arrest, the man that had tried to stand up to the cops at his trial. The only one who even attempted to prove he was wrongfully convicted. He stood in front of the woman, his wife, the target, and after a few seconds his expression changed to one of disbelief and confusion as well as he recognized James.

After a long pause, James blurted “What did she do?”

“What do you mean what did she do, she hasn’t done anything. Why are you here, aren’t you supposed to be in prison?” the man, Sam, said.

James picked up the knife as he remembered his task, he couldn’t stay locked up.

“James, right?” Sam said. “No need for violence. Are you at Iron Vale?” Then to Heather, “I think it’s happening again.”

“What are you talking about, ‘again’? And why did you have emails and memos from Iron Vale?” James said.

“How did you see those? Were you following me?” Heather said.

Sam cut in, “look, we can explain this all if you just put the knife down, but we promise you don’t want to do this.”

James continued to interrogate them before they finally explained the case Heather had been working on. She had started compiling a case against Iron Vale several years ago. She had made some progress but was missing large pieces that were fundamental to the case. She knew that some inmates were released while others weren’t with almost no explanation. She knew that the few others who had looked into Iron Vale had gone missing, but the cases could never be tied back to them and there was no consistency to the murders. She also found that they had diverted massive amounts of energy to the prison, much more than the building theoretically needed, which made her wonder if they were electrocuting inmates. Though the biggest issue she found was that there really weren’t that many people that were questioning their practices. That’s where James’s stealth trial information was able to fill in the gaps.

James’s grip on the knife had slowly been loosening as the pieces started coming together. The stealth trials were a ruse, just meant to take out anyone who stopped the prison from profiting. Finally, he caved completely. The three of them sat through the night creating a plan to get James out of prison while keeping Heather alive to continue the case.

James left Heather and Sam alone to say their goodbyes, and just before sunrise Heather and James left. It would take some more time for the plan to be complete, but Heather needed to disappear for it to have any chance of success. Turns out James wasn’t the first one to come after them. Sam and James helped to extract some of Heather’s blood in order to spread it through the house. They also put some on the upholstery of the car before James and Heather drove away. After leaving the city and driving some distance, they abandoned the car, said goodbye, and Heather continued on foot. Before faking her death, James had helped find an abandoned location where no one would find her, not even Sam. Heather would remain there until the plan was carried out, however long that took.

James found himself alone once more. He tapped his leg with his right hand as he reached behind his back with the other and pressed a button on his leash. Immediately he found himself back in the portal. He took a moment to himself before all of this became real. He would be a different person after walking through, but in this wall of plasma, he didn’t exist in the current world and nothing could happen to him, good or bad. He took a breath and a step, fingertips lightly tapping his thigh.

The guards started approaching as he took in the dark cellar around him once again. To his left, the white lights began illuminating, ticking off percentages of the data accumulated that the judges needed to confirm or deny that he was a free man. All it took was a single piece of evidence to suggest Heather was still alive and the judges would keep him locked up. The guards lifted his shirt over his head and removed the leash. Through his white shirt he could see the last light illuminate green. He breathed out for the first time since stepping through the portal.

James was escorted into an elevator, given his personal belongings from a decade before, and strode out of the prison a free man. He saw Sam and Heather as they pulled up in a car having just become reacquainted just that morning, followed shortly by a dozen police cars.

“Isn’t this a welcome sight” James said smiling as the cops filed past him and into the building.

“One more surprise for you.” Sam said. “We had to make sure they wouldn’t travel back again, so I may have learned how to divert extra power to overload the machine, allegedly” Sam said holding a finger up in the air signaling James to wait. The ground started to lightly rumble and shake, followed by several muffled explosions coming from deep below their feet as they turned and walked back towards the car.