The Meaning Of Eternity (TMOE #1)

Chapter 30: Promises

Lucius wouldn't stop staring at the wall. If he thought about it, he was rather certain it'd been hours. Joseph had been silent and even Vaughan had stopped trying to get under his skin so the only time he would react was when guards passed by the cell door.

He'd flinch. His heart would skip a beat, because what if they were there to get them? To finally drag them to the gallows?

Perhaps it'd be just as well. Why prolong it? He was just sitting there and dreading it after all, so might as well be over with it.

It was such a ridiculous thought. Why would he want to hurry up and die? Why had he just given up? If there was some way to get out he had to at least try.

But what could he do? He was stuck in there with nothing but the clothes on his back. No knives, no disguises and no important jewellery from important people.

Oh to have Anthony's ring at a time like this. He wouldn't blame himself for leaving it at the tavern, seeing how he probably would've dropped it at Carner's or been stripped of it upon his arrival at the prison, but had there been even the slightest chance for it to help him out of there he'd still have to regret it.

It wasn't supposed to end like this. He'd made up his mind to make the world pay for what it had done to him. Each and every one of them would've been punished. Every abusive brother, every judge, every condescending guard and upper-class person would have been dealt a fate befitting their kind. He'd finally managed to discard all those tragic emotions of his in order to do it and still, there he was in a prison cell. About to be executed.

He wouldn't accept it. How could he?

So he slowly got up from the floor and leaned against the bars, looking around for a guard.

"What, uh... What are you doing?" Joseph asked, voice cautious.

"I'm gonna talk to that guard again. Or... Any of the guards, really."

"For real, they don't care. No matter what you say."

Lucius shook his head.

"I still have a ring that Anth—Lord Hargreaves gave to me before he was shot. If I can just... Make one of them go get it for me it should be enough to get me out of trouble, I mean—"

"They won't. That's the most farfetched plan I've ever heard." Joseph shook his head back as Lucius turned around. "No guard in here would bother going out of their way and head to a location to see if there was evidence for the sake of a criminal."

He was right, and Lucius sank down against the wall again with a sigh.

Joseph awkwardly cleared his throat.

"So... You, uh... Were chummy with the Hargreaveses?" he asked, a troubled wrinkle having formed between his eyebrows. "... Did business with the BBT?"

A vague recollection of the name of Anthony's trading company hit Lucius and he nodded.

"That's..." Joseph's lip curled as he pretended to inspect a suspicious stain on the stone floor. "I mean, I guess shady people get along with shady people... But the Hargreaveses? Really?"

Lucius pursed his lips.

"I... Know they're one of those rich, powerful families we both hate, but Lord Hargreaves was a good asset to me."

"Oh, yeah no that's not what I was thinking about. Though I guess that one doesn't sit well with me either, but..." Joseph adjusted his position, grimacing as if trying to figure out how to put it. "... It's more about the stuff that goes on behind the scenes, so to speak."