Chapter 11 – The Debrief Margot’s POV

The second we approached the recognizable room from before, one of the guards posted just outside the doors shoved open the heavy metal to allow us entry, as a sudden wave of intense silence engulfed us both.

It was as though the entire room collectively held its breath.

My stomach twisted as we awkwardly took a couple of steps into the assembly hall, the oppressive weight of all those new eyes turning to lock onto us the second we had entered.

So this had been where everyone else was hiding….

The air hummed with an odd tension, or maybe it was the large industrial air conditioning fans, making the oxygen thick and heavy and somewhat hard to breathe.

There were rows of cold metal chairs set up in perfect, almost military precision, filled with a sea of rainbow bodies – each having signed up for the same fate we had.

I swallowed the thick lump forming in my mouth, realizing that the only empty seats were towards the very front…

And down there, standing atop a small platform, was the man with the scar himself – arms folded firmly across his chest.

A chill ran down my spine. He was flanked by two other men, both dressed in sharp suits, their faces unreadable but intimidating nonetheless. They stood so still, so rigid, as if they were statues in some sick version of a government monument.

We must’ve looked like two deer caught in headlights as we stopped just inside the door, caught in the gaze of the one hundred other women in attendance.

Their stares were unrelenting – some nervous, some curious and others just bored – all of them in different variations of the same uniform as us: colorful tracksuits of varying shades.

It felt like I had walked into some twisted pageant where we were the latecomers, the ones who hadn’t gotten the memo on how to behave, how to fall in line.

“Are we late?” I whispered under my breath toward Cara, but I could feel her hand brush against mine, her grip tight.

The once fiery confidence that had fueled her on the way here was instantly gone. She was as unnerved as I was, and the raw silence from the crowd made everything ten times worse. Not a sound. Not even a cough. Just a hundred pairs of eyes watching us, waiting for something – anything -to happen.

“Move and go take your seats down the front,” the guard who had let us in here suddenly hissed from behind, his tone harsh and evidently announcing him as the most impatient in the room.

I instantly snapped out of my daze and forced myself to move forward, tugging Cara in closely behind me.

Our footsteps echoed across the room, each one a reminder that we were very much out of place now, our every movement magnified in the silence.

Why did we have to be the last here?!

As we approached the front, my heart pounded in my chest, becoming too loud in my ears.

The man with the scar’s eyes locked onto us. I tried not to let his gaze unsettle me, but it felt like he could see right through me, right through everything I was trying to hide.

“Just in the nick of time, you two,” he said, his voice a low growl as he nodded towards the large wall clock. “I hope you won’t be causing us any issues throughout this project.”

I felt a cold shiver run down my spine as the others beside him sniggered.

His words were casual, but the underlying threat was unmistakable. I could feel Cara’s fingers tighten around mine, her hand clammy and nervous.

We sank down into our chairs, like two rabbits before a wolf, and the air felt like it was closing in around us.

The scarred man’s gaze swept over us one last time, his face impassive. He shook his head at our lack of response, a sigh escaping his lips as though we were the least of his problems.

Without another word, he motioned to one of the suited men standing nearby. The man stepped forward with the grace of someone who had done this a thousand times before. He adjusted the microphone, tapping it twice before his voice filled the room, crisp and formal.

“Ladies,” he began, his tone flat but authoritative, “you came here today amongst the very first to participate in this country’s most groundbreaking project to date: The Prison Project.”

I could feel my pulse quicken, and I shot a quick glance at Cara. Her eyes were wide, but she didn’t speak. Neither of us had any idea what we were really in for–not until now.

The suited man continued, his voice echoing. “Out of over a thousand applicants, you are the lucky one hundred who have been chosen. Chosen, not just for your bravery, but for your ability to step up and survive the unimaginable.”

He paused, letting the words sink in, before leaning into the microphone again. “The true purpose of this project, however, is not as simple as it may seem. While you are here for the purpose of helping to reform some of our maximum–security inmates, you will also be stepping straight into the lions' den with them.

The end goal here is nothing like what we have ever done before. We want each of you to work to form a genuine connection with these men, many of which are cold and completely cut off from any and all human emotion… and so we want to conduct this study in an attempt to change that!”

My stomach churned. Stepping straight into the lions' den?! Building a genuine connection with cold and cut off men?!

The thought that we were currently nothing more than lab rats in some twisted government game made my blood run cold… there was a very large chance this could all go terribly wrong…

The man’s eyes flickered across the room, scanning the hundred women before him with a slight smirk etched upon his lips. “Each of you will be assigned to your inmate, and in the next few hours when we dock, you will be moving into our newly adapted cells by nightfall with them – rest assured that we have upgraded these majorly for the purpose of your stay, of course.”

Excuse me?!

I blinked profusely, glancing at Cara as my fingers trembled.

We were going into this totally blind – zero prep or training!

These men could end us by morning!

This was a sheer gamble to see whether or not the prisoners would let us survive in their world with the hope of gaining their freedom in return!

This project was all about giving these dangerous men TRUST to keep us safe and alive in THEIR domain?!

In simple terms, we were being sent straight into a cell to live with a random dude who’s done unspeakable crimes…

The man with the scar gave us one last, lingering look before he stepped in to address us all once more. “We will have each of you sign the final contracts now, before briefing you on the inmate you have been assigned to one by one – equipping you with skills on how to navigate their moods and behavior. After this, we trust that you’ll make the best of your circumstances.”

I swallowed hard, feeling a knot in my throat as some of the girls in the room whispered in what seemed to be excitement?!

Were some of them actually keen to become a prisoner's roommate?!

What the fuck are we doing here… this was all wrong!