The weekend was fast approaching. Stephanie wondered how Suzuki was doing, and if he had managed to succeed in freeing the fragment. She spent the week making excuses for him, even though she knew that her classmates saw through them. Work, and school were very uneventful.
After work she was walking back to her apartment. The streets looked peaceful at night as usual. There were many hills, and her favourite one was the last one before her apartment. At the top you had a nice view of all the buildings glimmering at night. No one around, but her, the queen of the hill. As she walked down the tar under her broke into small pieces floating around as she walked, a piece would go to meet her feet with each step. The buildings around her crumbled, bowing before her. A pool of bright blue swirled beneath her, the pieces of tar hovered still, giving way.
"Finally.." She whispered.
She dived in, the impact of the cold knocked the air out from her. She could hear Hades voice calling out to her as her vision faded to black.
Light hit her eyes, and stinging painfully. She opened her eyes, and saw white all around her. It took a while, but her vision started coming back. She noticed an elderly man sitting on her right with a notepad. He looked up at her, his glasses drop further down his nose.
"Someone found you laying on the street. You seemed to be intoxicated, so we tested your system, and well.."
Stephanie saw her wrists were handcuffed. She sat up in a panic. She couldn't understand why she wasn't at Hades, she could swear she was almost there. Did someone interrupt her? Did they see anything?
The doctor called someone and the room filled with people. A man began talking to her, he showed her the tag hanging on his neck, she could understand bits of what he was saying, eventually she stopped listening, she couldn't bare anymore.They took away her phone, made her sign a few documents before moving her into a car. She had a rope tied on her handcuffs, and around her waist. The drive was long, and by the time she finished the processing process it had started to get dark.
After another long drive to a small mountain town, they arrived at Yamamoto Detention Center. It was already dark, and she was the only one entering at the time. The man leading her knocked on the door, and she could hear the terrifying rumbles of an angry woman.
"What is it!?"
"Sorry to bother you." He said gesturing towards Stephanie. The women looked down at her.
"Fine, alright! Bring her in. She knocked on a metal door and another woman opened a small sliding door. She peeked before slamming it shut,unlocking, and swinging the door open.
"Goodluck." Said one of the police officers, who had a sorry look on her face. This just made her even more anxious.
"Go into this room, and get undressed, then put this on." She handed her a robe.
Some of the female officers joined as they did a body search.They showed her to her cell. It was already sleeping time so she got a futon, and layed down.Finally she was alone.She began to cry, finally now she could let out all she had been holding in the whole day, in an attempt to keep any shred of dignity she had left. They had taken away her clothes, and jewelry, so she didn't have the necklace Hades had given her. She tried praying aloud to him, but the warden shouted at her, and pointed at the sign that had an obvious no talking symbol.
As the night went on Stephanie had still not been able to sleep. She looked at the clock constantly.
Back at Stephanie's house Mara had arrived. Hades was busy, and didn't mention any other time for her to meet. Mara curiously searched around the apartment, and waited an hour. Something had to be wrong. Mara pulled out some bright blue chalk, and began drawing a symbol on the ground. It lit up, and an orb appeared.
"Find Stephanie."
The orb began moving quickly through the walls of homes, and into the night sky. It went to Stephanie, and turned into a portal next to her. Mara came busting through.
"Stephanie!" She yelled.
Stephanie got up in a panic shushing her.
"Who's yelling?" The warden shouted.
Mara quickly hid behing the wall in the toilet. The warden had a quick look at Stephanie who was pretending to be asleep. She walked off,and shouted at another cell.
"Stephanie, what's going on?" Mara whispered.
"I've been arrested! If I leave I'll get into more trouble."
"So what are you gonna do?"
"I don't know yet, and they took my necklace."
"It's ok, draw this symbol anywhere, meditate on it, and we'll come."
Mara opened her hand, and a symbol glowed on her hand. Stephanie spent a few seconds memorising it, and nodded. Mara gave her a tight hug.
"Stay strong."
****
"She's where!?" Hades started throwing things off of his desk in a tantrum.
"I'm getting her out of there right now!" He yelled.
Mara jumped in to calm him down. "Master, we cannot interfere right now, it is Stephanie's wish."
He got some more anger out before agreeing.
Back at the detention center. At seven am Stephanie rolls up her futon, and packs it away.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm just packing my futon away.."
"Look how you folded it, it's a mess! Do it properly!"
The warden hovered over her as she quickly tried to figure out what she meant by "properly". She took a quick glance at the other futons, and tried to copy it.
"Hurry up, other people are waiting!"
Stephanie bit her tongue.She wasn't the type to let someone bully her, but she knew the warden held the power in this situation.
The rest of the day was an equal nightmare. They were locked indoors with no windows. They spent 10 minutes outside while the cells were being checked. The outdoor area was a small square where you could only see the sky through some wire as the walls were so high. It was crowded, and everyone just stood up straight, too scared to do anything out of the norm. Food was given three times a day with a bowl of warm water. The food was mostly fish, and rice. You could order your own food, but of course it cost money. Stephanie decided to order two meals a week, a coffee a day, and some snacks. The meals were the best part. Not only were they big, but warm, and delicious. All supplied meals were cold. The water was suppose to be served warm, but it almost never was. She was allowed a shower every 5 days, with only shampoo, and soap.
Within two weeks she had lost most of her weight. She had become rather weak. She looked forward to food, and bedtime where she finally had some ounce of privacy. At night she thought about escaping this place, the only thing holding her back was fear, fear of leaving everything behind.