"You... You really knew..." Johan's voice was emotionless, almost dead.
Disappointed.
"Come on... Of course I knew!" Erick retorted with a smile in his voice. "Why else would I make a ridiculous offer like swapping places with me, even more so to a homeless man like you, if I didn't know that someone would do something against me that would cause me a minimally reasonable inconvenience?" He sneered, laughing through his nose, to Johan's complete surprise.
'But why am I disappointed...? What else did I think would happen...? That he would be someone genuinely good and that he was just thinking of giving someone like me a chance to change his life...?
Johan laughed, but his laugh wasn't nervous this time.
It was a cold, emotionless laugh.
Of someone who had given up hope.
"I should have imagined..."
"Yeah... You should have imagined." Erick replied, almost condescendingly. "But what about that? Any plans for surviving Hollowood?"
"Hollow... What?"
Johan heard Erick burst into laughter on the other end of the line.
And then a female voice spoke in the background...
"Would you like anything else, dear? Or can we go to the bedroom?"
"I'm sorting a few things out here, sweetie. How about getting that wonderful body under the covers and waiting for me there?"
"Don't take too long, handsome!"
Johan could practically feel the grin on Erick's lips.
"What are you... Fuck, never mind, I don't want to know. You haven't answered my question. What is Hollow... Hollow..."
"Hollowood?" Erick retorted. "It's a maximum security prison, where the country's most dangerous criminals are taken when the system doesn't know what to do with them... It's fucking hell..." Erick laughed again.
Johan was speechless for a few moments, completely stunned by Erick's words.
After a few moments, however...
"How did you..."
"How do I know all this? Dude, you must have figured out by now that I'm the head of one of the most influential mafia families in this country. Do you think I've become rich and solidified my power? Knowledge is power, and information generates knowledge. So... It's only fair that I control my information networks, isn't it?"
Erick seemed to be having a lot of fun with Johan's situation, but after a few more laughs, everything seemed to fall strangely silent on the other end of the line.
And a few silent moments later, just as Johan was about to ask if Erick was still on the line, he said.
"Stay calm, breathe, and remember... You are Erick Vaughn. Even in Hollowood, you'll have some allies and associates, and with the brains you have, it'll all work out. You'll do fine."
The problem with Erick Vaughn, for Johan, was that the bastard was too difficult to read.
One moment, he was making fun of the catastrophic situation Johan had gotten himself into - because of him - and the next, Erick was standing there, looking like a big brother.
Assuring his little brother that everything was going to be all right.
It was simply impossible for Johan to know how to react around this guy.
"You're such a bastard, you know that? You're a dirty bastard!" Johan said, trying not to scream. "But... But if you say so, then I'll give you the benefit of the doubt this time..."
Johan felt warm inside, the scenes of all the situations he had been through all his life playing out like a movie before his eyes.
"... I've never given up before, even if the odds were all against me... So I'm not giving up now. But be sure of one thing, Erick Vaughn..."
"I'm listening, man." The wicked smile on Erick's lips was audible through his voice.
"When we meet again, I'm going to give you a punch that will leave you unconscious for three days straight, am I clear?"
Erick's laugh echoed on the other end of the line.
Crystal clear, amused.
Full of delight.
"Survive first, Johan Reed. Then I'll let you give me that punch."
Click.
Erick had ended the call, leaving Johan there, with only the sound on the other end of the line announcing that it was busy.
"Erm... Mr. Vaughn?" The guard called out.
When Johan turned around, however, there was none of that desperate look on his face.
No.
What was there now was the purest, most blazing determination of a man who was willing to go to any lengths to survive.
To climb the steps of the days that would pass him by, towards freedom.
'What the fuck... Who knew that one day I'd end up in prison like the other guys on the street...' Johan thought, walking towards the guard. 'At least Mason isn't here. It would suck to run into that big guy right now...'
Johan thought he would be guided back to his single cell, but the guard followed him in another direction.
"Where are we going...?" Johan asked.
His chest suddenly tightened, and an inexplicable knot formed in his throat.
"I must apologize to you, Mr. Vaughn, but... Greater forces ordered me to take you to the common cell, along with the other criminals."
'Claudius...' Johan thought, immediately gritting his teeth.
A few meters later, Johan found himself in front of a series of common cells, full of criminals.
Real criminals.
All watching Erick with eager, greedy eyes.
It was as if Johan was a piece of dead meat, and those guys were a flock of vultures, ready to bury their beaks in the newly arrived meal.
The guard stopped in front of a cell containing five people.
Johan looked through the inmates, and when he looked at the last one, his eyes went wide.
Johan felt his hair stand on end, a sudden chill running down every inch of his spine.
'Oh, shit...'
"I'll be damned!" The last inmate said, with a cynical smile on his lips.
'So much for being optimistic...' Johan thought, as the guard opened the cell, and the five of them looked at Johan as if he were a new dish on the menu.
"So you've finally taken the easy way out, kid...?"
Johan entered the cell, one step after another, trying to ignore the voice of the huge, blond man with a swastika tattoo covering his bare shoulder.
"I'm talking to you, kid!" The big man said, coming closer and almost spitting in Johan's face.
"I'm not deaf, Mason..."