capeandcowl | twenty. text. backdated to monday.

In the 1940s, rumor has it that a prisoner on the island of Alcatraz was killed by a ghost. 

Back in those days (unlike these days), they had isolation chambers called hole cells where the prisoners were kept in near darkness for weeks on end. "Bang bang bang," one prisoner cried and pounded. "Someone's trying to murder me in here." But the guards thought he was hallucinating, as those being tortured with solitude tended to, and so they did nothing. When the prisoner stopped screaming, they were quite content until they opened the cell and found that he was dead. He had markings on his neck. Strangulation. No one else was in the cell.

Ghost stories have a sort of charm, don't they? Whether or not you believe them, I mean. I don't generally because we didn't have imports back then and because the living can be fucking horrible enough. I'm certain one of the guards killed him and thought they had a clever way of covering it up. Which they did.

I wonder what the prisoner's crime was. But I don't even have a name.

I know I would take death as a legacy if nothing else.

You came into this post angry, and now you're arguing with Edward like a child.

Are you calm now?

Do you really think all parenting is a manipulation?

Did you make your response to criticize me, Thomas?

I don't think it was a very polite thing to do.

[Pause.]

I remember you, when you were a child.

You said we needed to be hardened up, when we were children. When we were vulnerable.

You'll have to pardon my saying so, but you did seem very vulnerable.

And I hardened up that year. It's not like I stayed that way my entire adolescence. I think I remember you. Was that you? The liar?

You goddamn hurt me. What was wrong with you? Why did you do that?

It was a very cruel thing of me to do. I'm sorry for it.

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;

text, private;