Chapter 17: It is all falling apart

Johnny was staring at a far point on his wall. He had done so for the past twenty minutes. The guilt was eating him up. He knew that he shouldn't feel it. Filarion deserved to be behind bars. And yet...

A loud knock broke his reverie, and he went to see who it was. To his surprise, it was sheriff Rocco and two guardsmen.

"John Morrel, you are under arrest for having ties with the Elathana mafia, headed by one Filarion Elathana. You have the right to remain silent," Rocco said, and nodded to the two guards. Johnny could see Adam come from his room, and he shook his head.

Johnny wanted to ask who got him in this situation. Was it Filarion himself? Had he been pissed off enough after hitting Johnny to begin dragging him down in the dirt? Was it gentle Prisila? Now embittered after the imprisonment of her brother? Must have been Feneria, for Filion was out of the estate.

Johnny let the chains be placed around him, and then let himself be placed on a horse. The sheriff kept glancing at him. When they neared the village, Rocco turned around.

"If you help me bag the other two rats, I will make sure you get minimal. You owe them nothing. They have it coming," the sheriff said in his grave voice. Johnny imagined Prisila in prison, and his stomach twisted.

"I don't know what you are talking about, sheriff," Johnny said. Perhaps he owed Filarion at least this much, for the years of love. For the initial help.

Johnny could fool himself all he wanted, but he knew that if it hadn't been for Filarion, he would have never become an adventurer. It was as simple as that. Filarion had not wanted to drag him into this. It must have been one of his siblings who have done it.

Johnny was placed in a cell soon after exchanging his tunic and pants for an orange uniform. He stared into it, and went to sit on the stone slab that served as a bed.

He could hear whispers from a different cell. Straining his ears, he heard Filarion's voice, then Feneria's. He shook his head. They must be down the hall from him because he hadn't seen them walking to his cell.

So, it had been Feneria. He tried to imagine her in an orange cocktail dress, and snorted. No, no cocktail dress for the lady. Tunic and pants, just like everyone else.

Filarion's voice was irritated, and Johnny wondered if he was chewing up his sister. Then, Johnny heard a sharp female laugh breaking the silence. The guard went pass Johnny's cell.

"Keep it down, or you will be moved to the isolator," the guard growled, and both elves quieted down. Then, wonders of all wonders, Kaniel and Prisila came inside the hall. They were not wearing orange, and Johnny was disappointed.

Prisila stopped to stare into his cell, a deep frown marring her pretty face. She stepped to the bars, but not within grabbing reach. Johnny wondered if she thought him a beast now.

"It had to be done," the youngest Elathana spoke, and Johnny gave her a soft smile.

"Did it? You ruined me," Johnny spoke the truth. No one was going to hire him now, that the word spread he had been in prison. He was not going to stay in it as long as Filarion, or even Feneria, but he was going to say goodbye to his rank.

"And you ruined Filarion and Feneria," Prisila insisted. Johnny could see Kaniel glaring at him. The tank snorted.

"Feneria ruined herself. If she had let her brother take the fall, instead of trying to bag me," Johnny began, but Kaniel kicked the bars.

"You are a rat, Morrel," the elf snarled and then spat on the ground. "You owe everything you are today to the Elathana family. To Filarion in particular. You were nothing but a street rat, when you came for the first time to the estate."

"And whose fault was that?" Johnny snapped. "Tell me, Kaniel, did anyone but the Elathana family sold weapons to the bandits? The people, no, the scum, that killed my family?"

Kaniel blinked at him.

"How should I know?" Kaniel said, eyeing the guard who stood to the side, ears strained.

"Maybe I deserve this," Johnny admitted. It made his bitterness go away then. He would do his time, and then he was going to be free. Rebuild, find someone kind and pure, like how he had thought his little leaf had been.

Johnny shook his head.

"But so do you all. But you know? I do owe you. I won't speak on those of you who got away. Filarion is enough, Feneria is a good bonus," Johnny went back to his bed. Dismissing the two elves.

Kaniel snarled again, and gripped the bars.

"Your life is over, Morrel," Kaniel spoke, spittle flying from his mouth. The guard let out a string of curses, as his baton went down on Kaniel's hands.

"Don't go near the prisoner," the baton must have just touched Kaniel because he didn't let it bother him.

"Let us go see them," Prisila took her sister's lover under the arm, and led him down the hall. Johnny tried to relax into the bed, but it was hard to relax on the stone.

"Man, this is some messed up situation," the prisoner from the cell next to his said. Johnny ignored him.

"You do know that we will be let in the yard come lunch?" The prisoner's voice had a threatening lilt to it now.

"I am an SS ranked tank," Johnny told the man, and silence followed that proclamation. He didn't fear that he was going to be stabbed, or something similar. He could defend himself.

When Prisila and Kaniel went out the same way they had come in through, Johnny caught the youngest Elathana's eyes. Her eyes were apologetic. Johnny waved at her, and she nodded.

Even the rose without thorns had procured some, once her brother and sister had been threatened. She was probably cleaning house now. Giving up all the information that won't land her in prison. Johnny just closed his eyes, and allowed himself to drift off to sleep.