The Prison Project

Chapter 56 – Calm Before The…

Margot’s POV

The hours passed slowly. Long. Agonising. Suffocating.

I had no idea what time it was anymore. There were no clocks in the cell, no sunlight slipping through windows to measure the day. Just the same dim, artificial glow from the ceiling panel that buzzed faintly when the silence dragged too long.

And God, it dragged.

I hadn’t heard a single sound from the corridor since I sat back down on the bed. No voices. No footsteps. Not even the distant clang of a door slamming. It was like I’d been dropped into some vacuum – a sealed bubble where time stretched into infinity and I was the only one left breathing. The only one left in the entire compound!

My stomach growled again – louder this time. A deep, aching twist that folded me over where I sat.

Just when I was getting used to the three meals a day routine…

I pressed my hand flat against it, as if that would quiet the sound, but the hollowness only seemed to deepen. I hadn’t eaten all day – not a bite or a sip. I’d skipped breakfast due to sleeping in with Coban – the memory seeming humorous now amongst what was currently going on between us. Lunch had also most definitely been missed entirely too, swallowed up by the gym disaster and everything that followed. Now it had to be nearing dinner time, if it hadn’t already passed… I was being starved again, which I realised quickly… Was it intended as a new punishment from him? For revealing too much skin in a male dominated zone? For not listening to him? For not understanding most of this place yet?

Starvation as a punishment was something I was accustomed to living back with my father. I figured it would mostly be down to poverty and not having money, but even when there was food, he never shared it… The thought made my stomach churn in a different way now, an array of fresh tears rising to my eyes…

I stood up quickly, unable to sit still a second longer trapped in my thoughts of the past and how they linked with my present. My legs were stiff from how long I’d been curled on the bed, but pacing felt better than just waiting for him.

Back and forth. From the edge of the bed to the locked cell door. Back again. Each step was deliberate, but frantic. I chewed the edge of my thumbnail until it bled, forcing myself to stop only when I tasted copper.

I couldn’t read. The book I’d started yesterday sat unopened on the desk, the corner of the page still folded neatly from when I last dog-eared it. A fantasy novel twisted with a romance – a vampire love story. I’d been so eager to escape into it before, to let myself believe in some other world beyond this one. But now? Now it felt too cruel to allow myself the pleasure…

I kept glancing at the door like it might swing open any second and reveal him standing there – Coban. With that unreadable look in his eyes. That brooding, predatory stillness in his body. The memory of the gym kept flashing behind my eyes. The way he grabbed me. The sound of my own breath catching in my throat as he dragged me away. The sharp slam of the cell door behind me like a cage snapping shut.

He hadn’t come back since. And that wasn’t like him. Coban didn’t leave me alone often. He loomed. Hovered. Controlled me. He always needed to be watching.

So where was he now? The silence pressed in harder now. I paused at the door again, straining to hear anything – any sign of life beyond these four concrete walls. Nothing. Had the place been evacuated? Had everyone been set free? It felt like I had been isolated entirely now… the only prisoner left here to rot…

I wondered if Coban was still furious, somewhere in the gym or tearing up another inmate just to cool himself down… Would I rather him rage at me or disappear entirely? It was hard to say… I pressed my forehead against the cold metal of the door, breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth, trying to calm the rising dread I couldn’t shake.

I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t read or breathe or think or do anything other than wait. Wait for him to come back. Wait for the moment my nickname would be barked like a curse. ‘BELLA!’ The pet name sent shivers through me every time… But what if he never came back? What if he handed me off to someone else, asked for a swap? Decided I was too much hassle for him?

The last one twisted something sharp inside me because I knew that was the worst case scenario – being paired with another inmate. Coban had become my comfort in this place, despite everything else. I looked to him for praise and protection. I hated that I was even thinking like this.

I hated that this place was changing me, rewiring something deep inside that used to understand right from wrong, safety from danger. Coban was danger. He was violence and fury and shadows you don’t dare poke. And yet… He hadn’t hurt me physically yet. Not like how my father would. He hadn’t struck me, even in his angriest moments. He’d thrown and grabbed me, sure – but that was restraint for someone like him. He chose not to be here. Not to explode.

I clenched my fists at my sides, feeling the tremble in them, then turned abruptly on my heel and marched to the small sink in the bathroom. I splashed more cold water on my face. Third time today. Didn’t help much now. But it gave me something to do.

I inhaled a steadying breath, whispering reassurances aloud in an attempt to distract myself, before a knock made me jump violently… “Hurry up and come out before we miss dinner!” I heard him break into the silence, causing me to flinch at the sound I’d almost hoped to hear for hours on end now. He was back.

I quickly fumbled with the bathroom handle, revealing myself to him to show that I was fully dressed and definitely ready to eat something today… Thank the lord he’s decent enough to take me to eat something before bed! “Thank you, I’m starving!” I admitted, my voice careful and quiet around him as I glanced up to find him waiting for me by the cell door. “Come on then, hurry up!” He mumbled, motioning his head as I hurried towards him, inhaling a fresh breath as I stepped out into the cell block. It had only been a few hours but it had felt like an eternity alone in there with so little to do…

“Coban, I’m sorry about earlier, I just…” I began, staring at his large back in front of me as we walked. “Save it for later when we get back!” He snapped, and with that, my lips were sealed…