Les Oiseaux de Mauvaise Augure

It had been about a day or so since the Lieutenant had come to pay Johnny a visit. He was out in the courtyard, a dirt-covered, grass-spotted patch of earth, smoking at the chain link fence. He glanced out into the openness around him. He looked up at the cloudless blue desert sky, squinting and shielding his eyes from the sun.

It was free time. 'Free' time. Free 'time.' Ugh.

He licked his dry lips, letting his eyes scan the crowded courtyard, the hundreds of inmates stuck together in the small space, all angry and insane and bigger than him. You know what they do to guys like him in prison, right?

He let his gaze fix on one of the guards, standing on the opposite side of the yard. The image of his face kicked at the grey matter sitting in his brain, trying to stir up a distant memory from his life. His face was familiar, and Johnny didn't like that.

Johnny was good with faces. But there was something about this face that felt rather... different. The hair, the eyes... something about this face was different than he remembered it as. But, he'd met him before. Somewhere. And that probably wasn't a good thing.

Johnny tried to pry his mind off of the guard. He didn't want to linger on him too long. He had better things to worry about. His gaze, though, passed over another inmate, and he locked eyes with him for a brief moment. He turned back to the fence.

"Hey fag, you looking at me?" Johnny rolled his eyes. He didn't answer the man. He was a ten foot tall Hispanic man with a heavily tattooed shaved head. He had a scar from the corner of his mouth leading up his cheek to his temple. "You stupid son of a bitch. The fuck are you looking at me for? You want to fucking start something? I eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast." Johnny dropped his cigarette to the ground, stomping it out with his flimsy white ked sneaker. He sighed when as he heard the inmate's heavy footsteps stomp over to him. He finally turned back to the crowd, which were mostly focusing their attention to the brewing fight.

"I wasn't trying to start anything with you."

"Shut the fuck up, you pussy fag."

"Walk away." He was suddenly right in front of Johnny. He shoved him hard backwards into the chain link fence.

"Now you're trying to tell me what to do? Fuck you shorty." The man was at least twice his size. Johnny didn't let any of his fear show. The man suddenly raised his meaty clenched fist and brought it down hard onto Johnny's face. He hit him three times quick and hard- nose, eye, temple.

"Fuck!" Johnny yelled, finally attracting the attention of the guards. Johnny tried to strike back at the inmate, managing to hit him once in the jaw. His vision was blurred though, and his arms weren't long enough to really have any sort of advantage over him.

The guards were on top of them quickly, prying them apart from each other. Only now could Johnny hear the shouts of the other inmates underneath the ringing in his ears. He could make out other guards fighting off those inmates. He did not fight off the two guards who had a hold of him. He knew where he was going, and he didn't really mind.

Solitary confinement. For a week, at the very least. Johnny definitely did nothing to deserve the inmates negative attention, and did not try to provoke him, so his sentence would not be as lengthy a punishment as the Hispanic man's.

Johnny let the guards slap on handcuffs, and he struggled to keep up with the guards long strides as they walked him back inside and to the white wing of solitary confinement. The bright white lights buzzed like white noise, and the walls were a blinding white. It was so clean and lonely, but it was safe. So, Johnny wasn't going to complain too much.

One guard opened the cell and the other shoved him in. Johnny put his hands back through the hole in the door and they took off the cuffs.

"Dinner will be brought to you later. You'll go to the nurse after, if you really have to. Don't cause any more trouble, Seward." They both left him alone, and Johnny could faintly hear the other inmate being brought in. Johnny was about to turn his back to the door and head to the white mattress on the floor, but there was suddenly a face at the window that caught his attention. The familiar guard from the court yard. Johnny furrowed his eyebrows. The hole in the door was opened quickly and a tray of food was shoved through onto a metal sheet attached to the door. His dinner? So soon? The guard just squinted his eyes at him, and walked away. Johnny rushed to the window, looking out after him, watching him walk down the hallway and through the secured door to the next wing. Johnny looked down at the food. It looked normal enough. Spaghetti, mashed potatoes, and carrots.

Johnny took the tray and brought it back to his mattress on the floor and stared at it for a moment. He swallowed nervously, glancing back at the window once more. He shrugged and shook his head. He took the plastic spork and took a bite of the mashed potatoes. He swallowed. It tasted normal enough. Soon, he'd finished off the potatoes and half the spaghetti.

And then he started to feel funny.

He started to feel too hot. He started sweating, and his breathing got shallow.

"Oh fuck, fuck, fuck!" He stood up quickly, stumbling back into the wall and almost falling over. A terrible stabbing pain started in his stomach. He bent over, clutching it tightly. "No, fuck!" He was getting dizzy, and his it started to get even harder to breathe. He ran to the door and started banging. "Help! Someone help! I need-" His throat started to close up. He grabbed at his throat, falling and stumbling backwards again. He fell to the hard concrete ground. He coughed and groaned. "Ohhh, nooo," he moaned out one last time. His vision was blurring and fading even further. But, in the corner of the room, he could make out one figure. She was a beautiful blonde, wearing a white dress. "Lacey," he whispered painfully. She walked towards him, and he could feel her soft hand on his cheek.

And then the whole world went black.