He was drenched by rain as he made his way up the hill. The glossy asphalt made him fear he would slip as he trudged upwards. He made sure he was in contact with the numerous trees that lined up both sides of the road. He would dash across the gaps between each tree, his heart skipping each time.

‘Damn weather report, sunny skies they said’

His face scrunched as the wind blew more water droplets into his face.  He checked the bag slung over his shoulder if water had leaked through. He let out a sigh of relief as he moved on forward. If anything happened to the documents inside, he was screwed, and more importantly, the Harry Potter novel was inside the only thing keeping his sanity intact from all those stares he received daily. He just reached the second book. He wanted to be lost again in the world of wizardry and wonder instead of the myriad of dangerous orange.

He already missed his wife, not her hollering of course. It seemed no matter how long he was gone she would still scream at him when she got the chance. But behind closed doors, she was still the best. His body warmed up at the thought. Now it was back to this dreadful place and his dreadful post.  The wind suddenly sped up, no it was his body, his legs had lost their grip. His vision tilted as his face smashed into the road.

“Fuck!” He cursed, picking his smudged body back up. He spat dirt out of his mouth. If he had a car this would be easier except he did, his wife had taken ‘possession’ of it. 

Checking the state of the contents he moved quickly and a few grueling minutes later he had reached his destination-where he was to spend the next six months; his place of work. He went to the radio attached to the wall. 

“Requesting entry,” He said quickly.

“Entry for who?” A voice responded after a few seconds.

“Let me the fuck in! It’s cold out here” He responded in fury as his face still burned from the fall.

“You know I can’t without a proper ID” The voice responded with a snicker.

“Colin Berg,” He said after a sigh. There was a loud buzzer before the monolith gray gates parted ways for him. He made sure to give the middle finger to the watchtower on the left. Before proceeding through an open field riddled with hidden sentries towards the main entrance. 

Colin fished out his access card from his bag. He sighed before swiping it down the slot. He pushed open the heavy doors revealing dull gray walls with a counter a few feet away and a guard standing idly by.

He walked up to the counter reluctantly and dropped the bag on the counter to be inspected while the idle guard came to frisk him.

“Enjoy your break?” The guard asked as he searched Colin.

“Mostly, In between all the screaming and hollering, yeah” Colin replied with a smile.

“And you’re… clear,” The guard said getting up. “Welcome back.”

He faced the counter once more where the documents were being leafed through. And then the novel was unearthed. The guy at the counter gave him a queer look.

“Move on, Bill” Colin hissed.

Bill turned away, flipped through the book carefully, and went on to search the rest of the bag.

He set aside the documents and returned the bag and its contents to Colin.

“Enjoy your er… book” Bill mocked.

“Piss off mudblood” Colin responded and left through the hallway door. His spirits sank as he walked through the unfortunately familiar hall. A door lay at the end amidst flickering fluorescent lights.

He heard noises coming through the door as he made his way towards the distant door.

“Should have gotten the audiobook”

Finally, the door revealed its contents. Countless rows of metal bars extended to seeming infinity both upwards and below, with evenly spaced, heavily-armed guards, easily defendable.  It was also meticulously clean and smelled sharply metallic with the faint underlying rot of unwashed armpits.  Voices echoed, reminding Colin of crowded underground metros, except the din held pain and anger, hatred, and the promise of instant violence.  Colin shook his head, clearing out the odd sense of vertigo.  How long would it take him to get used to this mausoleum?

He descended down the flight of stairs on the right. He always remembered to take it slowly as the last time he rushed the descent he was exhausted before he had reached his destination. Even though the air conditioning worked fine it only got stuffier the lower he went.

The stares had already begun, it seemed like one day, one of these oranges would pounce out and that would be the last he ever saw, he would never feel Aubrey’s warmth again. The thought terrified him. He quickly shook it off.

His destination was still further down, around five minutes had passed. It suddenly became cold, he was getting closer. After what seemed like forever he finally reached his destination-rock bottom. Colin felt uneasy as he walked as sauntered across the row of oranges in cages. 

‘Just get to the other side and you’re home free’

The goal was in sight but the chasm seemed impregnable. Colin tried hard not to flinch as he walked past them quickly. It was so close. He was going to make it, and then it would be over with. 

‘Just a few more steps’

His body froze and his chest tightened as he heard a voice from behind.

“Hey, Colin was it?”

Colin fought back his fright and turned his head swiftly. 

“Yeah”  He replied hoping his body hadn’t given off any clues yet.

“My term is already ended, I’m supposed to be out of here,” The voice said solemnly.

Colin gazed at those black bulging muscles and gulped. He forced a smile and replied. “Yeah, there were some issues at the higher-ups, so there will be no releases till at least six months from now especially with your kind.

“The man I used to be.'' The man countered calmly. And to everyone, it seemed so everyone except Colin. He was the only one who would catch the murderous glint in this man’s eyes.  He had them deceived, put up exceptionally good behavior but Colin had seen it, the first time was dumb luck but ever since then he was always catching that look. 

Colin smiled and said, “Yeah… I have to go now”. He walked quickly towards the door nodding to the guard at the side who nodded in return as he passed through the door. His back was drenched with sweat as he walked towards his office where he would resume his duty as a prison instructor. He stepped into the classroom. The tables were always so perfectly ordered that it sometimes scared him. He also had nightmares about some random inmate lunging forward and stabbing him to death with a shiv. Even though he had been assured that everyone coming to his class was verified to be non-violent it did nothing to allay his fears. Luckily there was a week before he would resume duty. Now it was only the ‘joy’ of settling in that had to be dealt with. The door beside the board led to his living quarters where he would stay once again for six months with occasional breaks before the holiday leave.

He jumped into the bed and quickly took off his shirt and threw it to the side without care and fished the book out greedily. He stared at the cover and smiled at how his wife would read books with him silently with her faint scent of cinnamon. He was always the slower one, forcing her to wait a few more seconds more to flip the next page. At first, it was infuriating for her but after two years, she was now used to it and would wait the extra seconds quietly.

Colin had also tried to increase his reading speed just to please her. But it was futile as she had noticed the discomfort on his face each time he tried and eventually told him that she would wait as long as it was both of them reading. Even now, it was easy to picture her by his side as he was about to take the dive to a world that would keep him from mental breakdown due to unnecessary but relatable paranoia of his workplace.

“Now, shall we begin?” He said to himself as he opened the book “Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix.”