The Prison Ghost

The sound of the siren meant someone tried to make a break. Bill knew that sound too well. A few times the alarm was set off to alert the guards of an inmate trying to break free, but most of the time it was tripped.

Bill had been in prison for fifteen years and counting and he watched it many times before. The guards will run and check it out and come back confused. He loved the newbies. After the first five years he started finding it funny.

It happened at least once a day. The old timer guards would sometimes join the long timer inmates and watch the newbies with ridicule. The prisoners and guards alike that had been there for a long time had stopped responding, but watched in the distance.

The old timers would watch with amusement as the newbies scrambled to catch the potential escapee. One of the young guards caught an oldie smirking and confronted him.

“What’s funny old man?” That you got a rookie chasing down an inmate?”

The old guard said nothing as the rookie huffed at him in a frenzy. The old guard shook his head and walked away nonchalantly.

Bill was on the way to the cafeteria when he was stopped by a new inmate.

“Hey, did you hear about what happened this morning?”

Bill acted oblivious so he could get the kid’s perspective.

“We had an escapee,” the kid said.

“Really? They catch him?”

“I’m not sure, but they don’t know who it was.”

“How do they not know?”

“Everyone is counted for.”

“That is odd. Maybe it was just a malfunction of some sort.”

“I guess that’s a possibility.”

“If there was a powersurge it would cause the power grid to shut down momentarily.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

“I hope the guards figured that out.”

“I’m sure they did. Some of them have been here longer than I have,” chuckled Bill.

The kid went off to his usual table to pass the word along to all the other inmates that weren’t familiar with Gerald’s story.

Bill took a seat at his usual table and began reminiscing about when he first arrived at the facility. Gerald was his cellmate. He took Bill under his wing which took him by surprise. At the time, Gerald had already been here for five years and Bill expected him to be a major asshole. Upon meeting he gave the impression of being very rigid, but astonished Bill by actually being rather light hearted and jovial. Gerald explained to him that he only acted that way around the others so nobody would mess with him. Bill took his advice.

Even though Gerald was incarcerated for a nonviolent infraction, he wasn’t very liked by the guards. Maybe it was the persona he faked. He walked like he was a hardened criminal who had been in the facility for a multitude of years. Maybe that was what made the guards start beating him. He wasn’t really sure, but it became a weekly occurrence that grew to almost daily. One day he was beaten almost to death.

Maybe that was what sparked his plans for escape. He planned it for weeks before the attempt. Bill remembered laying awake most nights listening to his plans. He smiled at the memory of almost being caught by a guard and the joke that incited afterward. He provided cover for him by saying that Gerald talked in his sleep.

You sure are pretty, boss.

Well, tell him to shut up.

You got it.

The duo laughed it off as soon as the guard was out of earshot. Soon afterward was the attempted escape. He planned for it to happen during the day, but somehow some of the other inmates figured out what he was doing and because he didn’t know who was a snitch, he changed the plan. He faked it at night so nobody would figure it out. The true escape happened when he decided to skip dinner to find the fire alarm.

He waited a couple of nights later to actually pull the alarm so nobody would get suspicious. After the fire alarm sounded, he snuck out into the back of the yard to hide so it would be easier to disappear. Once everyone was counted for and on their way back to their cells, Gerald made a run for it. As he began to scale the fence he was shot in the back and instantly died.

“I still feel like he’s in a better place,” Bill said to one of the newbie inmates.

“Why was he beaten?” said the newbie.

“Never found out. The guards that did have long since passed away.”

“He’s the one that trips the alarm?”

“Every time.”

The newbie turned to the block where Bill slept and stared through the bars. Blinking rapidly to clear his vision, he sat up straighter when he thought he saw a man standing in the cell looking at him.

Bill looked amused when the alarm sounded for the third time that week. He smiled when the guard approached his cell.

“How’s it going, Bill?” one guard asked the long term inmate.

“Gerald’s at it again.”

The guard chuckled. “The newbies are going to get tired of it soon.”

Both laughed together as the new guard returned from checking the block.

“It’s all clear, sir,” the young man reported out of breath.

“How long are you going to let him do that before you tell him, Harold?”

“A few more times.” He chuckled. “It never gets old.”

“See you at dinner.”

“Later, Bill.”

Bill continued to watch from his bed in the cell that housed him for the past fifteen years. Taking a quick glance over at his late cellmate’s bed that had been empty for almost as long. After his mate died he made a deal with the guards to leave him solo. It took convincing, but they finally agreed.

“That never gets old does it Gerald?”

The bed creaked as if someone sat on it with confirmation to Bill’s statement. Bill looked back through the bars and watched as the cell block began to calm back down.

As Bill watched the prison slowly resume order, he laid down on his cot and waited for the quiet. In the distance, he could hear the guard approaching.

“Lights out.”

The lights flickered out.

“Goodnight Gerald,” the guard responded.

The bed squeaked once more in response.