Confession of a King

A smile crept onto my face as I thought back to earlier in the morning. Kim and Gary were watching Alec for the week, allowing Matt and I to have a vacation away from our son. The two grandparents had told us that they had their fingers crossed that this vacation would be when their next grandchild was conceived. It would be a lie to say that Matt and I hadn’t been using all of the available time to try to make that happen. I had gotten lucky in that Mr. Morgan granted me the ability to do a half-day of work today, not having to be into the office until noon. That gave Matt and I hours on end to try to impregnate me this morning.

My husband had woken me up to the smell of breakfast entering our bedroom. A pair of boxer briefs sat low on his hips, showing off a few curls around the waistband, as he carried a tray to me. Once I sat up in bed, I realized that he had made me french toast with strawberries and whipped cream, a side of scrambled eggs and some bacon. A cup of coffee was sitting on the tray as well. My entire heart swooned with happiness as he then proclaimed to me how much he was enjoying our time together. He loved having our child around, but us having alone time was something he cherished. Then, after I ate, he went after his own breakfast with his head between my legs and then bent me over every flat surface in our bedroom.

My body ached, my lady parts were sore and it hurt to sit, but the morning was worth it. I licked over my lips, causing myself to leave the dream daze I was in and then grabbed my third cup of coffee of the day. I brought it to my lips and let the caffeine slide down my tongue and into my throat, letting a low moan out at the warm liquid. My office had been colder than usual. I wasn’t sure if it was because I had started working again when it was the heat of the summer, and now the cool fall breeze was creeping in. It just seemed draftier than in previous years. I put it to the back of my mind that my boss wasn’t trying to make my time here miserable after that outburst two weeks ago. Mr. Morgan really wanted me back on his team, but did he have other motives?

“Hey, Ivy,” Billy poked his head into my office and looked toward me. “Mind if I come in? Levi should be down in a few moments.”

I smiled at the man who my husband almost caused to lose his job, “Absolutely. What’s up?”

Billy took a seat across from me and sighed. “I just want to apologize to you about the way that the other officers have been treating you. I know some people are uneasy knowing about your past here, and who your husband is. I appreciate your work ethic and how much you care about the inmates. You don’t deserve the looks and snide comments that you receive.”

“Thank you. That is really nice of you,” I folded my hands on my lap. “I definitely do not feel welcome in this place. Sandy is really the only one who I knew would not pass judgement on me. I know it is difficult for people to wrap their minds around me being married to Matt, but that is my own business and no one else’s.”

“I agree,” Billy nodded his head. “I think people are uneasy because of the relationship you had with him prior to getting him out of here. But that is neither here nor there. I actually wanted to mention to you the possibility of speaking with James Sullivan. He has been asking to talk to you, but obviously when he is in solitary he is not even supposed to be speaking with a therapist.”

My eyebrows raised and I looked at Billy, “I will take any opportunity to meet with Mr. Sullivan. Is he available to talk this afternoon?”

“He should be. I still need to pass it by Mr. Morgan, but what time would be the best for you today?” Billy asked.

“Mr. Bratton is my only one this afternoon. I should be done with him no latter than two-thirty. I technically get off at three, but I will stay late in order to speak with Mr. Sullivan.” I pursed my lips, “Even if Mr. Morgan says no, I am willing to bend rules. Something is going on with this inmate that is causing him to get into so much chaos. I would really like to speak with him before this turns into self destruction.”

The door opened and Sandy escorted Levi Bratton inside my office, looking at Billy and I with an eyebrow raised. I just smiled at her and nodded for her to begin restraining Mr. Bratton in his seat while I finished my discussion with Billy.

“I really appreciate you taking his well-being into your mind. I hope to see him later,” I smiled at Billy.

Billy nodded, “I will see what I can do. See you in a bit, Ivy.”

After both Billy and Sandy left the room, I fixated my focus onto Levi Bratton. He was our transfer inmate from a different facility who was unable to get through to him. A problem inmate, a lot like Matt, who ruled at the top of the food chain and caused multiple fights to break out. What was interesting was that he was not technically involved with a gang, or affiliated with any gang activity, according to his past officers and facility. He was thrown into prison for murdering his child’s rapist. Something that I did not think needed to go into a court of law. But, as he was in prison, he racked up his body count. Taking out multiple sexual predators but also other inmates along the way.

When I met Mr. Bratton a couple of weeks ago, he was not interested in talking with me. I assumed as much would occur. Coming into a new place, where you were once leader of your turf and on top of the world, now an underdog, had to be difficult. When you were once the one who instilled fear in others, but now had to try your best to never drop the soap, was something that men feared. It was something that Matt had nightmares about if he were to ever land himself back into the slammer.

Last week, I made a breakthrough with Mr. Bratton and he actually opened up to me. We chatted about the incident that landed him in his prior facility, the murder of his child’s rapist. His daughter was six years old when she was raped by her baby sitter’s boyfriend. The story was flashed all around the west coast when it had come into the hands of the justice system. It had turned out that the babysitter was sexually assaulting the child for a period of time, and then her boyfriend joined in on their disgusting, so-called “fun”. Ultimately turning it into a child pornographic video of the boyfriend vaginally and anally raping the six year old little girl. Mr. Bratton explained to me exactly how he murdered the couple. The police had been on a manhunt of them after Mrs. Bratton went to authorities, not knowing that her husband had already held them captive in the cellar of their home.

I felt for the family, for the little girl and for her father who in my opinion, had the right to do whatever he pleased to someone who hurt his child like that. Unfortunately, our justice system preferred to do things the legal way and to imprison someone. The Bratton’s daughter would have to live with this for the rest of her life, and her parents would have to live with knowing the sitter they hired was a teenage, sexual predator. A parents nightmare.

Mr. Bratton was not too much of a talker, even if he had confided in me about his past crime and family life. He had brought to my attention that other inmates had told him about my own personal life, and that I was now the wife of the infamous Shadows. An original from Long Beach, California, Mr. Bratton knew well who Avenged was. He explained to me that he feared his daughter were to fall into their trap. Having heard stories of rape and torture from the gang. I assured him that none of the men of Avenged did anything of the sort to women. None of them would ever rape anything, and quite frankly, didn’t tolerate those who were sexual predators.

Aside from that small conversation, my home life with Matt was not something I felt comfortable telling Mr. Bratton about. It bothered me that the inmates would be so quick to let a newbie in on information that did not have anything to do with them. But, a prison was a lot like high school, just filled with criminals who loved to gossip.

Today, Mr. Bratton was not in the mood to speak and that was alright with me. We only had to sit together for an hour of silence if he did not feel like speaking, and quite frankly, my mind was elsewhere. I took the quite time as a possibility to type up and collect thoughts on what I was going to speak with Jimmy about. I needed to know why he kept getting thrown back into solitary. Why he felt the need to step up into the top-dog position at the prison when it continued to get him into more and more trouble. He had so much against him, I worried that if they were to ever instill the death penalty again, he would be the first to go.

Jimmy’s situation pained me. Did he have the exact brain mapping of someone who was criminally insane? Yes. Absolutely. But did he have to be put into a prison for that? Not necessarily. Jimmy would have been better off in an actual institution where they could work with him to become a functioning member of society. He would never be able to be released, but he wouldn’t be thrown to the wolves and slowly becoming more and more psychotic. What would a cannibal need to go to prison for in the first place? That’s a chemical imbalance. He needed medication and constant psych-evaluations from actual physicians. Not cinderblock walls and guards smacking him around with pistols.

I was glad when it came time for Sandy to escort Mr. Bratton out of my office, as I was so flustered with what I was going to say to Jimmy that I was ready to pull my hair out. I walked over to my Kuerig, making another cup of coffee in preparation for what could possibly be hours of discussion. I was willing to go on as long as possible with Jimmy. I would stay here until midnight if need be. Matt could live without me at home for a few more hours. He had me all morning.

“Ivy,” my voice sounded from the door as I picked my head up from my laptop. Mr. Morgan had a cold look on his face, “Mr. Sullivan is here for a meeting with you. You will have one hour with him and we will be right outside this door. It is to remain unlocked and we will enter as soon as that hour period has passed.”

“Yes, sir,” I responded and watched with wide eyes as they wheeled Jimmy into the room on a gurney. He was bound up in a straightjacket, that hannibal mask back on his face. Mr. Morgan instructed the officers to sit the inmate into a chair and take off the mask. I looked to my boss before he walked out of the room, “Thank you for this opportunity.”

Blue eyes pierced into me as the door shut. I stared back into those crazed orbs, not knowing how to start this conversation. Luckily, Jimmy opened his mouth first, “Ivy! It has been a long time!”

He looked happy for someone who was in a straightjacket and had been living in a padded room for the last few weeks, so I let out a sigh of relief. I gave him a light smile, “What is going on in that brain of yours, Jimmy? Why do you keep getting yourself into trouble?”

“It is not me. You cannot believe that it could possibly be me!” He shook his head like a mad man, “The voices inside. They tell me. The walls whisper to me at night, Ivy. They let me know who the man is ready for.”

“Who is the man, Jimmy?” I raised an eyebrow as I began to jot down notes on my laptop.

“It depends on where they are going! Sometimes it is the man above. Sometimes the man below. They tell me when it is time. When the people are ready. Then it is my turn to do it. I bring them to their next form of life. The angel of death,” Jimmy nodded his head. “Leana must not worry about me. You tell her not to worry, Ivy. I will be fine. I just need to finish my play and then I will be back and I will hold her again.”

I furrowed my eyebrows, “James, you are not making any sense. What is going on? Are they doing things to you in solitary?” He seemed extra crazy. I worried that they were toying with him, turning him more insane by not feeding him, completely isolating him, or worse, electrocution. I didn’t trust a single person after Matt explained his time in solitary to me. “Jimmy, Matt told me that is a bad place. Are they doing mean things to you?”

“Shadows. Shadows was supposed to go below,” Jimmy rattled off. “The man was angered. I failed my job. I failed it.”

“What job? Matt was supposed to go where? What do you mean!” I couldn’t wrap my head around what he was saying.

Those blue eyes looked straight into me, “The man told me to tell the word. I told the word. Shadows was to be sent below. It failed.”

My eyes widened and I pushed back in my chair, it slamming against the wall, “You told Behemoth.”

“I told you bad things would happen. Shadows would have fun with you. Too much fun. You needed out before you were pregnant. He was destined. They told the angel of death that Shadows was destined.”

“I… I… Jimmy… I need to go…” I collected my things and darted out of the room, running into Mr. Morgan on my way out. His eyebrows raised when he saw my panicked state, “I quit. I fucking quit. I’m never coming back here.”

Notes

Hello, I'm back!

So this chapter, Jimmy's confession, is why the story is named what it is.
Jimmy was the mastermind behind getting Shadows killed.
But why?

We'll find that out soon.

thanks for feedback and putting up with my periodic updates!