It Wasn't Meant To Turn Out Like This

Brian Haner Sr. sighed once the prison guard exited the room. The room the guard had led him into was cold and impersonal, made entirely of what looked like steel, or some imitation steel. He sat down at the steel table set up in the room, clasping his hands on the tabletop. Before he left to head to the prison where Mayza was taken, McKenna had told him that if he came home without Mayza, she would be very upset and enraged for a long period of time. Senior hadn’t responded, not knowing even himself what decision he would make concerning Mayza’s fate.

The door opened and Brian looked over to see the same prison guard who had escorted him pulling Mayza into the room. Once they crossed the threshold, he released her arm and turned back around, stepping from the room and closing the door firmly behind him. With the way they had Mayza secured, someone might think she was a lethal, heartless serial killer, when Brian knew she was the complete opposite.

Mayza walked over to the table and scooted the chair away from the table with her foot, gingerly seating herself on the hard plastic seat across from Brian. Her hands were handcuffed behind her back and she wore what looked like an aluminum vest that covered her entire torso. A steel ring circled around her forehead, disappearing beneath her violet hair.

“What’s the vest for?” Brian asked, genuinely curious about the supposed “precaution”.

“It keeps my wings pinned down so I can’t fly away,” Mayza answered. She spoke in a flat monotone. Brian sensed that although she looked calm and collected on the outside, on the inside she was scared to death.

“And the ringlet?” Brian asked, motioning at his own forehead.

“It neutralizes my mental capabilities so I don’t send you flying across the room and wreck havoc throughout the prison,” Mayza said. “It’s more difficult to restrain fairies than just a normal human being.”

“When I arrived here, the head guard here at the prison spoke with me in his office. He gave me my options,” Brian began calmly. “He said that I had four options on how I could deal with you. I could sell you, keep you in prison for a time determined by me, kill you, or keep you. He suggested that I have you killed—according to him, your ‘violence’ is a liability.” Brian stuck “violence” in air quotes with his fingers. “He told me that one day, you might turn against the family. An unstable-minded fairy is apparently a bad fairy to have around.”

“I understand,” Mayza sighed, showing emotion for the first time. She looked suddenly defeated, her pink eyes darkening.

“I had to use all my willpower to not laugh in the man’s face,” Brian continued. “If Brian or Brent had done what you did, they would be the heroes, not the villains. People would be congratulating them, slapping them on the back and going, ‘Good job, kid, you did good.’ It would be front page news: Older Brother Saves Little Sister. You deserve to be in prison about as much as they do. It’s only because you’re a fairy that everyone thinks it’s a bad thing. Personally, I’m just thankful that my baby girl is doing just fine.” Brian paused and Mayza just looked curiously at him. “Therefore, I have decided to keep you. I trust you enough to know that you’ll never turn against any of us, especially not McKenna.”

With that, Brian stood up and went to the door to get a prison guard to release McKenna’s bonds.