Jeremiah picked himself up and then returned to sitting on the welded steel bench inside the holding cell.
One by one, Jeremiah watched the other detainees get their bail paid and leave their holding cells and each time, the fear in his heart grew because he knew what was installed for him at the end of the night.He wasn’t going to be bailed out and would be sent to prison to rot and, because of the severity of the crime he was being framed for committing, he would have an instant target on his back.More time passed and something switched.Instead of fear, what grew in Jeremiah’s heart became hatred for the entire Prescott family members. The only one spared was his mother.They had committed the crime and also framed him for it and all he could think of was getting revenge on every single one of them.If the opportunity ever presented itself, then he was going to take it with full force and not look back.Finally, the police station closed and Jeremiah, being the only detainee left and was put under the supervision of a single officer, plotted.He thought of specific ways to get revenge on each family member, and they were all terrifying.He had been watching them since the day he and Michelle moved into the family estate. A member of the family by blood alone, but never one in the true sense of the word, and as such, he had to manage by observing them from afar.Now, all those details he’d observed over the years were going to be a deadly weapon in his hands.“Just you wait. I’ll be back and all of you are going to regret ruining my life. That I promise” Jeremiah promised, then the night ended.The next morning, he was taken to prison where his mugshot was taken, then he was given his uniform which had his prisoner number and the badge that represented the crime he was arrested for.His was the red badge for murder.He was taken to his cell by two very mean-looking officers.Like he thought, the crime he was framed for committing had given him a massive target on his back. However, the target wasn’t from the other inmates locked up with him, but rather the police officers.There were certain crimes one would commit to receive the harshest treatment from the, upholders of the law and, aside from rape, pedophilia, and human trafficking, murder was the highest on the totem pole.No one cared to know if the murder happened by accident or not. All they needed to know was that the uniform had a red badge on it, and they would treat the inmate as badly as they wanted.“Get in, you asshole!” said one of the two police officers, who had taken Jeremiah to his cell, as he pushed him through the open cell door.Jeremiah staggered inside then, by accident, tripped over his feet and fell forward.From behind, he started to hear the two officers laughing.Jeremiah looked back at the two, frowning that they could treat him like that. It was like he was less than human in their eyes, but he couldn’t really blame them because it was all the Prescott family’s fault for framing him.“That’s what you get, murderer,” said the officer, who had pushed Jeremiah, as he sneered at him with absolute disgust.The other officer pointed at Jeremiah, then he pointed at another side of the room, which prompted Jeremiah to follow the direction, and he saw that there was another inmate in there who looked very rough and haggard.“You two are roommates now. You can kill each other for all I care, but what I don’t want is to hear a single noise coming from this room. Understood?!”Jeremiah glared at the officer, not feeling the mood to answer back after what the two had done to him, but his cellmate nodded his head energetically.“Loud and clear, Officer Mark. Not a single noise would be heard from this room”, Jeremiah’s new cellmate said, then gestured that his mouth was sealed.Both officers scoffed.“Monkeys” Officer Mark rolled his eyes, then closed the door shut and both officers left.Annoyed, Jeremiah smacked his tongue and tried getting up.However, before he could get up on his own, his cellmate rushed to his side and offered him a hand.Jeremiah looked at the hand that the man was offering for a moment, then he looked at him from head to toe. He was hesitant about getting help, not just because it was from someone he had just met in prison, but he was also getting very strange vibes from the man.Why would the man want to help him up when he could just stand up on his own? Jeremiah thought as he stared at the enigmatic man’s stretched hand.Suddenly, he saw the man smile innocently, and seeing that it was genuine, Jeremiah gave him a little trust.Next, he looked at the man’s uniform badge and saw that the crime that sent him there wasn’t that bad, which made Jeremiah give him a little bit more trust.Jeremiah sighed, then, going against his better judgment, he accepted the help.“Thank you,” Jeremiah said as he took the man’s hand and was being helped up.“My name is Jeremiah Steel, by the way. What’s yours—?” He asked but wasn’t able to finish when something strange happened.His cellmate went from gently helping him up to grabbing his two shoulders when he had gotten to a certain height, and then he pulled him up aggressively.“What the hell?! What do you think you’re—?” Jeremiah complained but was cut off.“I’ve been waiting for someone like you for a long time, and now I can finally be free,” the cellmate said, and Jeremiah grimaced.“What the hell are you talking about? As a matter of fact, who are—?““We have to hurry! I can’t take the voices anymore. They are always talking and won’t let me rest in peace, but you, you’ll have to take my place” the cellmate said, then reached down and grabbed the bottom of Jeremiah’s uniform shirt.“Take this off!” the cellmate instructed, then started stripping Jeremiah off his shirt.Jeremiah's eyes widened, then he frowned and tried fighting his cellmate to stop him from doing what he was doing to him, but he couldn’t.The cellmate’s actions were just so chaotic that anything Jeremiah tried to do to stop him didn’t work.Within a second, the man had taken off Jeremiah’s shirt and suddenly they both heard the cell door getting knocked on.Both Jeremiah and the cellmate looked at the door, but their two expressions were completely different.Jeremiah was curious about who was knocking, but he was also happy because it meant that he had help to deal with the maniac next to him. The cellmate, however, looked scared.“They’re here! I have to hurry before I’m forced to do it all over again” the man said hurriedly, drawing Jeremiah’s attention back to him and seeing that he had taken off his shirt too.Jeremiah’s eyes widened.“Hey, what do you think you’re trying to do?! Why did you take off your—?!” Jeremiah stepped back, trying to get away from his cellmate, who, for whatever reason, wanted the both of them shirtless, but he couldn’t get far.The man got closer really fast and started to aggressively wear Jeremiah his shirt. Even though Jeremiah tried to fight him, the man’s chaotic strength was just too much. Within seconds, he was able to wear Jeremiah his shirt.Jeremiah was very confused. Why did his new cellmate just switch their shirts? He wondered but wasn’t given the time to think more about it because the man hurriedly grabbed his hands and started chanting something.“Hey, let go!” Jeremiah yelled as he tried pulling his hands free, but was shocked to realize that his hands wouldn’t budge. He tried pulling his hand free some more, but still nothing. Something that was beyond the cellmate’s grip strength was keeping both his and the man’s hands together, but Jeremiah had no idea what that was.Panicking, Jeremiah looked at the cell door where he could still hear the strange type of knocking. He grimaced after realizing that it wasn’t just regular knocking but rather sounded like a form of code.However, he didn’
“Wake up” echoed an eerie voice at the back of Jeremiah’s mind.“Huh? Who said that?!” Jeremiah asked internally, feeling like he was surrounded by multiple entities.“Food. We can sense delicious food and it is so close. Our hunger rises, now WAKE UP AND FEED US!”Jeremiah gasped, panting as he regained consciousness and opened his eyes.‘What was that? What was that voice and presence I just—?’ He thought but paused when he realized something.“Wait. Why is everywhere so dark?” He asked himself, then grimaced because he felt something covering his head.“What’s this on my head? Wait, is this why everywhere appears so dark?” Jeremiah tried to take the sack off his head, but to his surprise, his arms were cuffed behind his back, so he couldn’t move them. “Looks like I’m still handcuffed, but why?” He asked himself, wondering why he was still handcuffed when he had already been taken to his cell and had been released from his cuffs.He also realized that he was sitting on the floor.“
Jeremiah's widened eyes fidgeted. A spine-chilling cold washed over him as the sight of the aged gentleman begging for his help caused his entire body to vibrate with shock and disbelief.His bones became weak for a moment, and, as a result, he fell backwards. Although, he was already sitting on the floor and, as such, didn't and couldn't fall far.However, Jeremiah placed his left forearm behind himself and his right palm beside his body, using both to barely prevent his entire back from touching the floor. Jeremiah looked up and saw the bodyguard staring down at him with a no-nonsense expression. A sight that eliminated any idea of this being a joke or prank being played on him.Panting, Jeremiah stared at the back of the aged gentleman's head, and knowing what it meant, he understood the gravity of what was being asked of him. "Umm, I don't know what to tell you, sir, but I can't help you," Jeremiah said, hoping again that the man would listen."Doctor Michael, all a mortal man,
“The Mr. Gordon Folly?! You mean the man who stands as the richest person in all of Beethoven, Gordon Folly?!” Jeremiah asked. William smirked and chuckled lightly.“That is correct, Doctor. It brings me joy seeing that you know who my master is, because it means you understand why your help is so important”, William said.Jeremiah grunted, then wondered just how talented this Doctor Michael person was for William to be going this far just to seek his help.His next thoughts became ones that questioned why someone so important was in a prison cell when he met him. Also, why was he looking rough and unkept like a man who had given up on hope and life in general?As a matter of fact, the color of the badge on the uniform shirt he wore was one that allowed the possibility of bail, so if Doctor Michael was really that important, then why hadn’t his bail been paid when Jeremiah met him?Jeremiah had so many questions about his mysterious cellmate, but just as he began to get lost in them,
Jeremiah, although not this extremely intelligent Doctor Michael person, was still smart enough to know that the same promise that William had given him had also been made to every single person brainstorming in front of him right now.He knew that based on how active and passionate they were about what they were doing.Even he would act the same way they were when receiving a favor from the richest man in Beethoven, who also was amongst the top ten richest people in the world, was on the line.“Isn’t this kind of overkill?” Jeremiah asked, and William grimaced.“Overkill? How so, doctor?”Jeremiah cleared his throat and said “I mean, more than one thousand people are fighting for the same thing and only one out of all of them is going to be the winner. That’s quite a lot if you ask me.”William looked at the crowd and said “If this is what Doctor Michael considers overkill, then I wonder what he would think about the actual scope of the think tank project.”Jeremiah jolted in shock.
Jeremiah left the two men and walked towards the crowd, getting close enough to hear the incoherent rambling that the majority of them were doing.Jeremiah grimaced, thinking that their words were incoherent to him because he didn’t understand the medical lingo. However, after analyzing it a bit more, he realized that they were purposely not saying their words properly because they didn’t want another person to steal their idea.“Hmm, the competition is very serious for it to be at this level” Jeremiah commented, then saw one practitioner who seemed approachable.“Good day”, Jeremiah greeted the man, a doctor, and to his surprise, the response he got was a mean sneer.“What do you want?!” The man asked.“Nothing. I was just trying to be friendly—““You want to steal what I’m working on don’t you?!”“What?!” Jeremiah asked, feeling embarrassed.“Friendly my ass. Look here, I’m not in this project to make friends or be friendly with anybody. I’m only here to win the task and nothing mor
“Sir, I don’t wish to sound disrespectful or like I’m challenging your oversight because in no way, shape, or form, am I trying to do that, but I just would like to know what exactly you see in Doctor Michael that made you go through all those processes to get him here? What’s different about him from the hundreds of thousands of doctors, scientists, chemists, and the multitude of other practitioners engaged in the think tank project?” Steven asked. William looked at his rather curious bodyguard and smirked. “Like you said, Steven, I went through all those challenging processes to get Doctor Michael here because he is what is known as a miracle doctor and I mean that in the actual sense of the—“ William said, but then stopped when he noticed something. He heard some rowdy noise and complaints coming from the crowd of practitioners. “Hey, watch where you’re going!” “Fool, why the hell are you in such a hurry?” “You better not have made me forget the thesis I was coming up with or
Finally, Jeremiah and Steven got to the last door they had to go through to leave the building and Steven unlocked it.Throughout the entire journey of making their exit, Steven had discreetly done his best to stall them from getting to that entrance door.From walking slower than he normally does to taking more time to unlock each door they went through and then doing the same when he locked it behind them.He was able to buy a minute and a half, and he did all of that because he wanted to give Jeremiah a little more time to rethink what he was doing.In truth, Steven didn’t care that Jeremiah’s decision was going to make him miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime. The same opportunity that half a million people were fighting tooth and nail for at that moment.Rather, his motivation stemmed from the fact that he knew just how much William, his boss, wanted Jeremiah to stay.‘I guess he’s not changing his mind. There’s no helping it then’, Steven thought, and then he opened the doo