"I guess this is it," Tyler muttered grimly, getting up from the bunk to stand behind Nick. He stood behind the bars for what he hoped would be the last time, as they slid open with a bang.
"Let's go Nick. You're out of here."
Nick nodded, before turning to examine the cell he had lived in for the last sixteen years of his life. He would not miss it. The amount of inmates that had come into this cell and shared it with him, he would not miss. Except perhaps Tyler. He looked around at his cellmate.
"I'll miss you," Tyler sighed with a shrug. He seemed young and nervous. Just as he had been all those years ago.
"No you won't," Nick assured him kindly, "You have Tom."
"Yeah but whose to bet my next cellie won't be some good guy trying to do good things in prison?"
"Briggs! Hurry it up."
"Must be nice to drop the Henderson name," Tyler smiled.
Nick ignored this, hurrying along in a whisper, "You shouldn't trust anyone in prison. Not even me. You never know when someone will turn on you. Or lie to you. I'm an honest man whose been stating my innocence for sixteen years. But I liked to keep it quiet. Because there are untrusted men in who saying the exact same thing. You don't trust no one."
"What about Tom?"
"You tell him the exact same thing, my brother."
Nick took a step forwards and gave Tyler a quick hug, who returned it, slapping him a few times, "Yeah, you go out there and live your life. Say hi to Damien."
"I will," Nick smiled. He grabbed his small box of things and took one last sweeping glance around the cell.
"Get out of here," Tyler grinned. Nick returned it, stepping out of the cell and watching the gates close behind him. He smiled at Tyler a last time, before following the guard away. As expected, all the prisoners were yelling at their gates, not for the first time trying to touch him or grab him. As he passed Tom's cell, he embraced his hand in a tight grip, ignoring Russell as he sat glaring at him from the bunk.
"Nick," the guard muttered, pulling him away.
Nick lowered his eyes, remembering to keep walking forwards and away from this jail for life. When they get out of the cell block, he was returned with his belongings, and he smiled absently at the clothes he had worn on the day of his arrest. A pair of ripped jeans, a shabby old t-shirt. He couldn't wait to buy new ones. And when he walked out those doors into the open air, that was bliss. Smelling the air was like he'd never smelt it before. Walking away from those guards meant just one other thing - walking past those reporters and locals who were screaming at him. Some in delight, others in anger. He didn't care. Both Ryan and Brian were there waiting near the gates, ready to escort him away. And as he took one last glance at the prison behind him, he felt a twinge of guilt. Leaving behind the one man he feared most in his life; teamed one with the one man everyone else feared in that prison, with a whole lot of gangsters and a whole lot of good about to put to the test. But he was ready to move on from that. He was certain. He was innocent.
[589 words]
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