The first night in jail is kind of hell no one prepares you for.

The ring of steel doors reverberated in my head long after they closed on me. The cell was clammy, the air thick with sweat, rust, and a foul something I couldn't name. Eyes followed every move I made in every direction—hungry, snickering, sizing. A stranger's environment, and already vulnerable prey.

Whispers circulated in the block.

That's him, the singer.

The imposter.

Pretty face.

Wagers he won't last the week.

When the guards took us line to shower, I could feel it growing. The glares were too pointed. The jokes were barbs, slicing through the silence with a blade.

Steam filled the bathroom, but it didn't hide me. Scars drew eyes, silence taunting.

"Sing us a song, superstar," someone jeered. "Oh wait—you can't."

The rest screamed. Hands shoved me hard, my back against the dripping tiles. A piece of soap slid on the floor, inches from me. The largest one was on his knees behind me, his hot and rotten breath on the back of my neck.

"Let us see if the fairy tales are real," he snarled, pressing his weight onto my back heavily as another opened me up with his bare hands. "You're top or bottom pretty boy?"

"Let's see."

Panic washed over me. I tried to turn around, but they were too strong.

"Give me the soap." The one who was opening me up shouted.

Please.please not. I burst into tears as I begged them, already knowing their plan.

My shins scraped against tile, searing pain racing through my legs as one of them shoved the bar of soap inside me.

"Please.stop." I beg, face flushed with pain.

"Bigger than other cocks that have been rammed up your ass?" One prisoner taunted.

The taunting grew louder.

Then a warning shout from the back—"Guards!"

The grip loosened and the soap plopped out of my ass. A fist smashed into my ribs, another across my jaw. “

“Keep quiet or I’ll replace the soap with my feet,” the big one spat before shoving me to the ground. Laughter echoed as they scattered, leaving me gasping for breath, pain radiating through every bone.

The world whirled around me, black blotches at the edge of my vision. My body fell and I was slammed with darkness.

⸻

Marcus's grin when I came to. For a moment, I wondered if I was dreaming, if some blow to the head had fantasized up the last thing I wanted to see. But no—the smug curl of his lip was too vicious, too deliberate.

"You're a mess," Marcus drawled, as if commenting on the weather. He sat back in his chair, utterly detached, crossed legs as if he had visited on social business and not after my life had blown up.

"Oh Marcus… thanks for coming. I was having this horrible nightmare-"

"It wasn't a nightmare." Marcus cut me brutally.

I strained my voice with a rasp in my throat. "Why?" The word cracked. "Why are you doing this? What did I ever do to you?

Marcus was grinning, his head wagging as though I were an idiot child. "That's the problem with you, Adrian. You think that people are faithful because you have shared something of yourself. You really thought that Ethan wanted you. That he loved you." He leaned forward, his eyes glinting with malice. "But the truth?" I was simply. convenient. A stepping stone. Nothing more.

My heart was racing, my bedside monitor registering my thundering heart. "I loved him," I gasped, the words torn from me. "I gave him everything. I gave you both my trust. And this is what I get?

Marcus's smile was a knife. "You gave him scraps, Adrian. Hope you couldn't make happen. A noise gone now. A face no sticker will sell again. Ethan is better than that. I am better."

The betrayal in what he said stung worse than the fists that had been directed at me hours before. My mind whirled into a craziness, recalling every memory—nights we laughed, when I thought we were a family, when Marcus vowed he was with me.

"Was any of it real?" I shook, my voice. "Every word, every smile—was it all a lie?

Marcus leaned forward, pitied me near. "You don't understand, do you? In this world, nothing exists. No love. No loyalty. Only power. And you, Adrian… you weren't powerful. You were convenient."

The words cut through me like a blade and I stood there, hollow. I stepped away, my vision blurring against the hot burn of tears, but his laughter stuck behind me like a shadow.

"Enjoy your stay, then," Marcus replied, standing, brushing off pretend dust from his arm, "Ten years is a long way. if you make it through it." He leaned forward enough that I could feel the coolness of his breath against my ear. "But for me? Don't count on it."

He stood up straight, evened out his collar, and, one final venomous smile twisting his lips, strolled away from me into the clean quiet.

I turned over onto my back, staring up at the ceiling, my body battered and battered, but hurting the most was that I had trusted the wrong individuals:

I had been betrayed by the very people whom I felt I could trust.