The nonstop jeering and insane laughter followed Luke all the way to his new cell.
"Get in."
A guard shoved him through the door and slamd it shut behind him.
These guards didn't know the warden's plan. They just saw Luke as another new heavy hitter and treated him like dirt.
Luke looked around the place he'd be calling ho for the next few weeks. It was nothing like the regular block.
This was a transparent cage.
The entire wall facing the corridor was one solid sheet of thick, blast-proof glass. Everything inside was on full display.
Every inmate on both sides could watch each other with zero obstruction.
No privacy. None.
Luke walked over and tapped the glass twice.
The dull thud told him it was solid.
He glanced up at the ceiling. Besides the vents, there were several nozzles spaced out. He guessed they could flood the cell with knockout gas if things got out of hand.
The rest of the room was bare. One bolted-down tal bed. One toilet. One tiny sink.
Everything was screwed to the floor or walls so nothing could be turned into a weapon.
Luke grabbed the edge of the bed and shook it with all his strength. It didn't budge.
He spent a long ti searching for any possible escape route before finally giving up.
This place was a fortress. Even soone who could dislocate every joint wouldn't get out.
He started running through the plan he and Warden Holden had agreed on.
Step one: stay quiet, settle in, and wait for the next murder.
Step two: when it happened, watch every inmate's reaction and narrow down the suspects.
Step three: focus on the most likely ones, gather proof, and find the fatal flaw in this prison's security.
Yes—the flaw.
Holden wasn't just worried about a few dead cons ruining his reputation. He was terrified that soone had found a hole in his prison that even he didn't know about.
After all, he still worked here. If a mass breakout ever happened, he'd be the first one to pay for it.
"Hey, new guy."
A singsong, creepy voice drifted over.
Luke looked up. In the cell diagonally across from him, a gaunt white man was pressed against the glass, writhing with excitent.
"What'd you do to get in here? Give sothing juicy."
The man stuck out his tongue and licked the glass, leaving a wet sar.
Luke ignored the psycho. His priority right now was staying invisible.
He stripped off his shirt, revealing the lean, defined muscle he'd built in just over two weeks of brutal training.
Ignoring the stares from every direction, he dropped into his usual routine in the narrow open space.
Push-ups. Pull-ups on the bed fra. Squats.
Prisoner Fitness was all about maximizing what you had in a tiny space.
Sweat poured down his body.
[Prisoner Fitness: 3 XP]
[Prisoner Fitness: 3 XP]
…
The steady chi in his head drowned out the noise around him for a while.
Just as he finished his last set and started to stand, a smooth, cultured voice spoke from the cell right next to his.
"Young man, you've frightened the children."
Luke couldn't see the speaker, but the voice alone told him it belonged to a well-educated middle-aged man.
"You're joking, right? These are all murderers."
Luke leaned against the wall, keeping his tone cautious.
"No, no, no, young man. That's far too harsh."
The voice sounded almost amused, like he'd expected that exact reply.
"They may have blood on their hands, but at heart they're all just pitiful creatures."
"Take the man directly across from you, for example."
Luke followed the direction and saw a large, muscular inmate sitting on his bed with his back to the glass. The man rocked back and forth like a child, murmuring to himself.
"Mommy… Mommy, where are you?"
Luke felt a flicker of surprise. He hadn't expected soone this far gone to be locked up here.
"You're saying they all have excuses?"
"No. I'm saying they got exactly what they deserved."
The voice imdiately corrected him.
"I used him as an example because he's the least innocent one in this entire wing."
"Before he ca here, he committed three murders and multiple counts of corpse desecration."
"He dug his own mother's body out of the grave because he missed her."
"Later he killed three more people the sa way—then turned them into human-skin furniture."
"Cris like that, and all he got was twenty years because of his intellectual disability."
The voice paused, then added,
"Now do you understand, young man? Their minds are fragile. They can't handle being intimidated like this."
Only then did Luke notice sothing.
Ever since he started training, the constant screaming and howling had grown noticeably quieter.
The sa white guy who had been licking the glass and yelling the loudest was now curled in the corner, still staring at Luke—but his muscles were twitching and veins stood out on his forehead.
He was terrified.
All the noise, all the madness… it was just a loud, desperate act.
They were all scared little kids hiding behind crazy masks.
Luke turned toward the thick wall beside him.
This unseen neighbor spoke with calm intelligence, like an outsider calmly dissecting everything around him.
Luke suddenly realized the most dangerous person in this supermax wing might not be the ones screaming the loudest.
He licked his dry lips and asked quietly,
"What about you? What are you?"
The voice that answered carried a clear note of pleasure and pride.
"I'm nothing like them."
"They call the Cannibal."
"But you… you can call Hannibal."
Hannibal?
The na hit Luke like a punch to the chest.
That was the character from a famous horror movie in his past life—an elegant, brilliant psychiatrist who was also a cannibalistic monster.
The nickna, the na, the location…
Everything lined up perfectly.
He hadn't just crossed over into 1980s Arica.
He'd crossed into a movie world.
A horror movie.
If Hannibal Lecter was real here, what other monsters from films might exist in this world?
Luke's heart started hamring against his ribs.
He suddenly had the feeling that the murders happening in this prison were nothing like what he had imagined.
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