Chapter 2 — The Warning
1677 Words
The line moved slower than usual.
Liv shifted her weight from one foot to the other, the rubber soles of her shoes barely whispering against the polished floor. Her fingers tightened around the strap of her bag, her grip unconsciously firm as she adjusted it higher on her shoulder.
The prison had never felt welcoming.
But today it felt different. Sharper. It was like something in the air had edges.
Her gaze moved restlessly, not settling on anything for long but taking everything in all at once. The guards weren’t just standing at their posts like they usually did.
They were watching.
Alert in a way that made her chest tighten without her fully understanding why.
She noticed it in the way one guard stood near the metal detector, his hand hovering too close to his radio, as if he expected it to go off at any second. Another’s eyes swept the room in steady intervals, not bored or distracted, but focused. Waiting.
Liv swallowed, her throat suddenly dry as she looked ahead, trying to anchor herself in something normal. Something familiar.
Maybe she was imagining it.
Maybe she was just nervous.
“Next.”
The word snapped her out of it. She stepped forward quickly, almost too quickly, fumbling slightly as she pulled her ID from her bag.
“Visiting Justin Hale,” she said, her voice softer than she intended.
The officer barely looked at her. The scanner beeped as he ran her ID through, his expression unreadable before he gestured toward the inner gate.
“Move along.”
Liv nodded and slipped the card back into her bag. The metal detector loomed ahead, cold and impersonal. She passed through, holding her breath without realizing it.
No sound.
She exhaled quietly.
The heavy door buzzed open in front of her, the mechanical click echoing faintly in the corridor. She stepped through, and the moment it shut behind her, the sound felt louder than it should have.
Final. It was like something sealing and cutting her off from the outside.
The visiting area was quieter than usual.
Not empty, but muted.
Conversations stayed low, voices dipping into murmurs that barely carried. Chairs scraped less often. The usual restless shifting had been replaced by something more restrained.
Even the guards felt different here. They lingered longer and also watched closer.
Liv moved toward her usual table, her steps slower now, more aware of the space around her. She sat down carefully and smoothed her skirt over her knees out of habit. The fabric clung lightly to her skin, and only then did she notice how warm it felt in the room.
Too warm.
Or maybe it was just her.
She exhaled slowly, her fingers pressing lightly against the fabric as if grounding herself.
That small moment before he arrived never got easier. No matter how many times she came. No matter how much she told herself it would.
Her gaze drifted toward the entrance, her heart picking up just slightly in anticipation.
Then she felt it.
Not a sound nor movement. Just a shift that's subtle but unmistakable.
Her eyes moved without thinking, pulled by something she couldn’t name, and landed on him.
He stood near the far end of the room, speaking quietly to one of the guards.
At first glance, there was nothing unusual about him. Just another officer in uniform.
But the longer she looked, the more that first impression unraveled.
He was tall, but it wasn’t just the height. He was broad in a way that made the space around him feel tighter, as if the air adjusted to him instead of the other way around. His shoulders stretched the fabric of his uniform, the sleeves drawn slightly over arms that looked heavier than they should have been.
Solid. Grounded. And unmoving.
He didn’t gesture when he spoke. He didn’t shift or fidget like the others. He simply stood there, composed, and somehow the people around him adjusted to that stillness.
Liv frowned slightly, her gaze lingering longer than it should have.
There was something about him that she couldn’t explain. Something that felt familiar, though she couldn’t say why.
The thought slipped almost as quickly as it came, like trying to recall a dream that faded the moment she reached for it. But the feeling didn’t disappear with it. It stayed, settling somewhere low in her chest, warm in a way she didn’t understand.
Her breath shifted without her meaning it to, a small, uneven inhale that caught before she could steady it. For a second, her body reacted before her mind could follow, a strange awareness flickering through her as if she had already stood too close to him once before.
Like she knew what it felt like to be within that space. To have him standing just behind her. Too near.
Her fingers tightened against her skirt.
The sensation passed quickly, but not completely. It left something behind, faint and unsettling.
It wasn’t fear.
It wasn’t the feel of comfort either. But something in between.
She realized she was staring.
Why? She didn’t know. She just knew she shouldn’t keep looking.
And yet—she couldn’t quite look away.
“Liv.”
She blinked.
The moment broke instantly, like being pulled out of something.
Justin was already sitting across from her. She hadn’t seen him come in. Hadn’t heard the chair move.
“Hey,” he said.
Relief hit her first. Immediate and warm, pushing everything else aside.
“Hey,” she replied softly.
For a moment, the room faded. The guards, the tension, the weight in the air—all of it dimmed around him.
He looked thinner.
Perhaps it was the way his face had sharpened, the angles more defined now than she remembered. His eyes still found hers the same way, still held that quiet pull, but there was something behind them now.
Something tight.
Something guarded.
“You came early,” he said.
“I thought it’d be quieter,” she admitted, her fingers curling slightly against the edge of the table.
“It’s not.”
His tone was flat. Too flat.
Liv studied him, her head tilting slightly. “Are you okay?”
Justin ran a hand through his hair and exhaled through his nose. The motion was familiar, but it lacked the ease it used to have.
“Yeah.”
He wasn’t.
The word sat wrong between them.
She leaned forward slightly, her voice lowering. “What’s wrong?”
He hesitated, then leaned in closer.
“They’ve been shifting things around.”
Liv frowned. “Shifting what?”
“Schedules. Guards.” His eyes flicked past her shoulder, scanning the room before returning to hers. “People getting moved.”
A small knot formed in her chest.
“Isn’t that normal?” she asked, though she wasn’t sure she believed it.
“No.”
The word came sharper this time.
“Not like this.”
Her fingers pressed into her skirt again.
“What does that mean?”
Justin didn’t answer right away. His gaze held hers, something unreadable passing through it.
“Liv.”
Her stomach tightened.
“You need to listen to me.”
She nodded slowly. “Okay…”
“If anything happens, you leave.” His voice dropped, urgency threading through it. “Don’t wait for me. Don’t look for me. Just go.”
Her brows pulled together. “Justin—”
“I’m serious.”
The interruption was immediate.
She stared at him, her breath catching. “What are you talking about?”
He hesitated again, and that hesitation scared her more than anything.
Then he said it, quiet and controlled.
“Stay away from the warden.”
Liv blinked.
“The warden?”
Justin’s jaw tightened. “Yeah.”
“Why?”
He didn’t answer.
The silence that followed felt heavier than anything he could have said.
“I don’t even know him,” she said, her voice softer now.
“Good.”
His eyes locked onto hers.
“Keep it that way.”
A sudden shift in the room pulled her attention away.
One of the guards moved quickly toward the entrance, his steps sharp and purposeful. Another raised his radio, speaking into it in a low but urgent tone.
The tension from earlier wasn’t in her head.
It was real and it was building.
“Justin…” she murmured.
But he was already watching it too.
His expression had gone still. Too still. Like he was bracing for something inevitable.
A loud metallic clang echoed from somewhere deeper inside the facility.
The sound cut through the room, sharp and violent.
Everyone froze.
For a split second, there was silence. Heavy and pressing. Then the shouting started.
Distant at first, muffled through walls and corridors. Then closer. Louder.
Liv’s breath caught, her fingers tightening against the edge of the table.
“What is that—?”
Her voice barely made it out.
The door at the far end burst open. The impact echoed as metal slammed hard enough to make her flinch.
Guards rushed in, boots hitting the floor in quick, heavy strides. Orders were shouted over each other, sharp and impossible to fully understand.
Inmates stood abruptly, chairs scraping loudly. The earlier quiet shattered in an instant. Confusion spread fast, then shifted into agitation.
“Stay seated!” someone barked.
No one listened.
The noise grew louder, closer, until it pressed in from every direction, swallowing the room.
Justin stood up suddenly, the movement sharp enough to make her jolt.
“Liv—”
But the rest of his words were lost in the chaos.
The room shifted too fast. People moved in every direction as guards shouted and radios crackled. Something was breaking down, and everyone could feel it.
And for the first time since she started coming here, Liv felt real fear.
Not the quiet unease. Not the subtle tension.
But something colder.
Immediate.
It curled tight in her chest as her pulse spiked.
Because whatever was happening—it wasn’t contained anymore.
- Writer
