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Eliza lived in a constant Deja vu. The days being a prolonged plague, just like the days before and just like the days to come.

Eliza, along with the other inmates, sat in the same positions all trying to desperately cling onto a false aspiration.

"I'm gonna be back." The guard who had locked them in the cafeteria, said.

That was ten months ago and still no sign of the man. At first, Eliza had hope. As the days passed, her flicker of hope extinguished. It felt as though the walls slowly grew closer and closer every day, devouring the air in the room. And just as all hope felt lost and the air had evaporated, she fell asleep. Falling into a light state of peace for a few hours before waking up to a new day and a new hope. A hope to be freed and rescued. To feel the warmth of the sun and the euphoric feeling as fresh air filled their lungs. The pattern repeated every day. An inescapable loop.

Ten months, 302 days, and almost a year.

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𝐃 𝐀 𝐘 𝟏

The terrified screams echoed through the prison corridors causing Eliza to swiftly stand up from her bed. Her cell door stood ajar, creaking as she pushed it open and stepped into the chaos in the cell block. Alarmed faces passed her, fleeing from an unknown threat. Eliza scanned every face trying desperately to locate Sebastian.

A loud alarm blared from the speakers and cries in agony made the hair on Eliza's arms rise.

The panicked crowd rushed towards the exits. The force of the other inmates and guards pushing through caused Eliza to stumble through the cell block without knowing what caused the alarms.

The brunette split up from the panicked crowd, being pushed by a guard into a nearby cafeteria. Sebastian's gaze softened as he spotted Eliza stepping into the room. He launched into her arms, holding her close.

The guard locked the doors, reassuring them that he would be back. Suddenly- without knowing- Eliza had been locked into her own personal destruction.

Other than her and Sebastian, four other inmates were in the cafeteria with them- Tomas, Jules, Oscar, and Big Tiny.
Tomas quickly took on the role as the "leader", having Jules as his own personal attack dog, ready to bite and attack whenever Tomas would want her to. She always tried to prove herself to him. Both Tomas and Jules were intimidating and you didn't want to get on their bad side.

Big Tiny was a sweet guy really, even though he didn't look like it. So was Oscar. Eliza really liked both of them.

Then there was Sebastian. A young boy, only 18. He was only supposed to be in prison for a month. He had been shoplifting. He was an innocent boy really. The other inmates kept their crimes to themselves but the tattooed tear under Jules's eye revealed a thing or two.

·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙　✩　*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙

Eliza sat quietly in her regular spot on one of the two couches in the room, with her book in her hand, constantly turning the pages without reading a word. Her gaze traveled around the room, observing the same scene as she did every day. Nothing and no one had moved. Nothing had changed. The same days over and over. A constant Deja Vu.

On the floor, in front of the couch sat Sebastian and Oscar playing an intense game of tic tac toe which they had created with some matches.

Jules sat on the couch at the far end of the room along with Tomas and Big Tiny. Tomas kept bouncing an old tennis ball against the wall, the sound echoing in the room along with Big Tiny's humming. Jules was fiddling with a pocket knife.

Every now and then they would hear the sounds of groaning and banging coming from the other side of the locked door. Assuming it was just an animal, the inmates didn't pay much attention to it.

"And I won again!" Oscar sang. "Man, you suck."

"Not fair," Sebastian muttered.

"Not fair? Bro, it's a hundred to one."

"I've won more than one time!" Sebastian laughed.
Their voices had attracted more of the animals outside causing the doors to rattle as they pounded on it.

"Will you shush it?! You're making them go crazy outside." Tomas barked at the younger boy whose gaze fell to the ground.

Eliza gave Tomas a hard look. The man just rolled his eyes before continuing to bounce his ball against the concrete wall. Tomas had a bad temper. Even Eliza was scared of him sometimes.

"Don't worry, kid. He's an idiot." Eliza mouthed to Sebastian, bringing a slight smile to his face. "Oscar, move. My turn."

Eliza jumped down from the couch and sat down on the floor where Oscar had been sitting. She grabbed her four pieces which were X's made out of matches.

"You start," Sebastian said.
Eliza placed her piece in the middle square of the tic-tac-toe board.

"Basic," Sebastian muttered as he placed his piece in the top left corner.

"Shush it." The brunette laughed before putting her X in the bottom right corner.

Sebastian placed his second piece under his first one but Eliza blocked him. The boy's last move was to put his between Eliza's bottom pieces before the woman placed her winning piece in the top right corner.

"You really do suck." She gave him a sly grin causing him to frown.

"No, let's rematch," Sebastian said.

Before they could start their second round a yellow moth landed next to their board. Eliza immediately froze and stared blankly at it. It was the first sign of life she had seen for months except for a small spider she had spotted in Jules cereal. Its yellow wings almost lit up the grey room.

"Hey, there little guy," Sebastian said in a soft tone.
Eliza tried to reach out to it but Sebastian quickly stopped her. "Don't. Moth's wings are really fragile."

"What is that?" Oscar asked.

"It's an Isabella tiger moth." The boy replied.

"It's beautiful." Eliza smiled.

"How did it even get in here?" Oscar asked.

"I don't know. It must be a sign." Sebastian said.

"A sign?" Eliza frowned. "A sign of what?"

"Moths symbolize change, transformation and hope. Might be a sign of a something good. Maybe a savior. Maybe it's the military coming to save us." The blonde boy replied.

Suddenly the moth began to flap its wings and lifted from the ground, flying across the room towards Jules and Tomas. The yellow animal landed on Jules's arm causing her to shoot up from her seat. He swung her arms around in panic making Tomas and Big Tiny flip around. Jules began to wave her knife around her as she screamed in horror as if the animal was the most poisonous creature in the world.

"Jules! Stop! You're gonna kill it!" Sebastian said.

Tomas rolled his eyes and went back to playing with his tennis ball, completely unbothered. Big Tiny stood up and tried to help Jules but the moth had already flown to the top of a bookshelf.

"Calm down. It's gone." Tomas snapped.

Eliza's and Sebastian's eyes met and a smile grew on the duo's faces, slowly turning into a laugh. The two broke into a long and loud laughter causing Jules to spin around and pull out her knife. The sharp blade pointed to Sebastian's face and Jules's eyes were flaming.

"Got something to say, blondie?!" She snapped.

Sebastian's gaze nervously flashed around the room.

"Nothing?!" Jules said before pointing her knife at Eliza. "Now what about you?! Huh?!"

"Don't point that thing at me!" Eliza swiftly grabbed Jules's hand and twisted the knife at her face instead. Jules fought back and tried to get out of the brunette's grip but Eliza swiftly grabbed a piece of Jules red hair and pulled her head back. The brunette grabbed hold of the woman's hand and squeezed it tightly causing her to scream before dropping the knife. As she did so, Eliza let go of her and grabbed the pocket knife from the floor.

"You fucking lunatic!" Jules shouted as she tried to fix her hair before sitting back down on the couch. And like nothing had happened, everyone returned to their normal positions.

___________________________________

The once grey concrete room was now a dark void with only small rays of moonlight lighting up the room. Tomas and Jules shared one of the couches and Sebastian slept in the other. On thin mattress on the floor laid Eliza, Oscar, and Big Tiny. Everyone slipped in and out of a fragile grip of consciousness. They were all sleeping uncomfortably but sleeping on the floor is something you can get used to. But the constant nightmares, draining you from hope and a grip on reality is something you can't escape.

Eliza laid on her side watching as Sebastian's chest sank and rose slowly. It calmed her to watch. Watching him was a habit, a way to fall asleep.

As her eyes opened and closed once more she saw something landing on the cold concrete surface in front of her face. Its yellow wings looked even prettier as they were being lit up by the dim moonlight. The woman tried to remember its name. A Isabella tiger moth. 

Eliza held out her hand shyly as to not hurt it. The creature flapped its wings slightly and landed quickly on her index finger. Eliza rolled onto her back and held up the creature in front of her face. The animal stretched out its wings revealing their undersides, without lifting from her finger almost as if it wanted to show off its beauty. The undersides were a bit brighter with small black spots scattered over them. The moth looked powerful with its wings stretching out on each side. The brunette couldn't help but smile at the sight.

Soon after, it lifted from her finger before landing on the armrest of Sebastian's couch and it stayed there as if it, like Eliza, found a sense of peace in watching the boy sleep. Eliza laid back down on her side with her eyes remaining on the moth.

"Change and hope" that's what Sebastian had said earlier. Eliza found hope in the smallest thing. Like a moth landing by her bed at night. Every pound by the animals outside, reminding her that life still existed, gave her hope. She even found hope in the little things she imagined. Like how she imagined hearing gunshots in the yard earlier that day. All a hopeless attempt to find something to cling onto and believe in. A way of staying sane. And Eliza did feel hope. She wasn't gonna die in there, none of them were. She would lead them out.

_____ ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ _____
𝟏𝟖𝟏𝟎 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬
𝐟𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝟏𝟔𝐭𝐡 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒
_____ ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ _____

—Ava's note—

Finally the prologue is out!!! I'm so excited for this story! This was just kind of an introduction to what life looks like in the prison. So basically I switched two inmates to two oc's of mine. I switched the character Axel to Sebastian who is this child or young man, who's the most innocent and sweetest character. And I switched the character Andrew to Jules. And Jules is basically a bitch.

Anyway I hope u all enjoyed this! Love u all!