"Holy crap, kid! Could you be any quieter?" the guy exclaimed as he rocked on his heels. With a huff of breath like Nathan had physically struck him, he lowered his cigarette to an ashtray next to the chair and twisted it out. "Are you lost?" Teeth like a wolf's shined in the dim overhead lights as he prowled closer, and Nathan backed up until he hit the wall.

"N-no," Nathan's stutter had him internally cursing himself. "I am supposed to live at LC Penitentiary starting today."

"Oh?" There was no real question in the word, just deranged amusement as the man pressed a hand to the wall next to Nathan's head and lowered his face to his. "You don't have the eyes of a killer." The word tightened the knot in Nathan's stomach as the man inhaled him like he could smell his fear.

"I haven't killed anyone," Nathan let out, his voice shaking despite him begging it not to. The worst he'd done was cripple Randy for life. He'd never meant to hurt him, but as Randy skewed the facts during the trial to condemn him, he'd wanted to push him all over again.

It was impossible to get more words out with the man inches from his face and picking him apart with unusually pale blue eyes for someone with such a tanned countenance. They froze Nathan with ice as they took hold, and he was unable to pry himself free as the man roamed his body like a juicy steak.

"Strange," the man said as he slipped a mint out of his pocket and popped it in his mouth. "Last Chance Penitentiary doesn't normally take your kind. There are five men here and every one of them was a death row inmate. Not the court-screwed-up, innocent kind either. This is where the worst of the worst go for one final hoorah before they fall to the gallows." Peppermint blew onto Nathan's face as the man took what was left of his personal space.

"Why?" The single word croaked from Nathan's throat, but it wasn't a complete thought.

Why would they put monsters like that in society and take off the leash? And why the hell had they sent him here if it was a playground for the depraved? This wasn't freedom. It was death, and he shivered as the man locked him in by placing his other hand next to Nathan's shoulder.

"Some weird rich fucks think they can change the damned into something useful to society. I think." The man ran his hand over his five o'clock shadow. "Sometimes I'm not sure if they don't want us all dead and this place is just passing entertainment."

"This is crazy." Nathan's voice cracked, and he couldn't eat his words as the man's eyes darkened.

"I suppose I may be a bit crazy." The man leaned so close that he breathed the words directly onto Nathan's lips, and there was no way out as rough fingers gripped the bottom of his chin and the man's lips pressed to his own.

Nathan shoved the man back and ducked under his arms, all while the pervert watched on with a dark chuckle like he'd let him go just for the fun of the chase. Keeping his eyes on the threat, Nathan rubbed the taste of peppermint off his lips and backed down the hallway.

"Where are you going?" The man growled as he stood up straight and crackled his knuckles.

Nathan turned to run, but a whoosh of wind stopped him as a swing door opened in his path. With the dim lights, he hadn't seen it, and he froze in place as a man dwarfing the first pressed one arm to either wall. It barred Nathan's way out the front door, and he couldn't move away without walking right back into the first psycho. Panic sped his breath as he looked between them to choose the least of two horrible ends.

The wall of muscle between him and safety looked like a villain straight out of a spaghetti western. Gold hair curled around his face in long waves that ended at his upper chest, overlapping a suede riding jacket with shredded fringe hanging from his elbows. A literal cowboy hat of the same earthy color dangled from his hand, and all of that insanity paled in comparison to the bite of his hazel eyes as they pierced through him.

"Can't let you run off," the man said with a faint southern accent and a barely discernable upward curl of his lips. "Ian, Mags said greet him. I guess we should have been more specific."

Ian chuckled with his damn wolf teeth as he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "Not my fault, Tanner. Mags said nothing about him being so cute." Ian licked his lips, and bile rose in Nathan's throat as he remained between a rock and a hard place. Cornered like he was, panic was setting in, and the world around him was tilting as he breathed too quickly.

"Come here, kid." Tanner dropped his arms from the walls to reach for him, and the only place Nathan could flee to was the floor.

With his back pressed to the wall, Nathan sank until he buried his head in between his knees. As his tears multiplied, he wrapped his hands up over his head and curled in on himself.

"God dammit, Ian," Tanner growled, and after some shuffling, his next words were so loud that he must be crouching in front of him. "Look, Nathan, you can hide all you want, but when you're done, we're still going to be here. The only thing that will change is my patience with you."

The snap at the end of Tanner's words had Nathan retracting his trembling hands and craning his neck to meet his dark hazel eyes. Tanner didn't look thrilled to be dealing with him, but he'd yet to prove as deranged as Ian. It was better he didn't piss the man off if he was stuck living with him, so he tucked his head lower and gripped his pantlegs until his knuckles turned white.

"See, not that hard." Tanner shifted his long hair behind his shoulder, and the movement had Nathan flinching with an audible whine. "As much as you don't like us, we're your roommates, and that's not going to change. Ian" –Tanner gestured to the man Nathan was incapable of looking at– "is an asshole, but he's an asshole to all of us, not just you. If you're easy prey, he's going to keep at it. That being said, Ian likes people flustered, but he won't bend you over a table so just deal with it."

Deal with it? Was he supposed to just take it when another guy shoved him into a wall and made out with him? Panicking and running somehow made him easy prey as opposed to what? Lying back and letting him molest him? What sick logic did these psychos function on?

Tanner stiffened his jaw, as if sensing Nathan's thoughts, and he swallowed hard.

"I'm Tanner, and pretty much the man in charge around here, though I'm also an inmate in this facility. You'll meet Mags later, the person actually in charge, but they're awful with other human beings. I don't think they'd know empathy if it slapped them in the face. I understand your plight, but I personally hate teenagers, so I'll have little patience with you if you don't listen and behave. Can you do those two things?"

Nathan rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand again. It did little to remove the feeling of Ian's lips from it, and he didn't put much stock in Tanner being any better. If he didn't respond though, Tanner was going to lose patience. Whatever the hell that meant.

"I don't want any trouble," Nathan squeaked. He didn't know what this man wanted him to say, but he'd seen enough prison shows to understand that pissing off the man in power was the quickest way to a body bag.

"Good," Tanner said coldly.

"Should we kiss and make up?" Ian chuckled from where he was leaning against the wall.

A thwack shut the man up, and a cold sweat rolled down Nathan's neck as he found a knife planted in the wall next to Ian's head. Tanner had moved so fast that Nathan could barely follow him, but his arm hung outstretched from whipping the weapon at his fellow inmate

"I'm just trying to be friendly." Ian smirked, yanking the knife out of the wall as if this were normal. "I think you dropped this." Ian tossed the knife across the floor and it thumped as it landed near Nathan's leg.

A sleek gunmetal-grey blade with no hilt was so close to him that he could feel the cut of its edge, and as Tanner reached for it, he panicked. Nathan kicked the blade as he scrambled to get away, but he accidentally hit Tanner's hand in the process, and the man cursed as Nathan tried to flee out into the living room. Before he could make it, Ian pounced on him like a puma, grabbing him by the shoulder and yanking him to his side. Nathan flailed, swinging a fist for the man's face, but Ian just batted it away like it was a fly.

"Let me go!" Nathan screamed, his voice breaking as he was unable to get out of his grip.

"Calm down," Ian growled, but Nathan continued to struggle in his hands. He didn't want them on him, touching and caging him.

Floor boards creaked, and Nathan's legs turned to jelly as Tanner stalked toward them with purpose. The chill in his eyes and the hostile roll of his head on his neck foretold how much pain he was about to be in, and even if Ian let him go now, he couldn't move. For the second time today, a man shoved him against a wall, but he stared at Ian's back instead of his lips as he tried to sort out up and down.

"Tanner, stop," Ian said, backing into Nathan so close that the silk of his shirt brushed his face. Leftover cigarette smoke wafted from the fabric, and with how quickly Nathan was breathing it in, he didn't know if he was going to pass out or not.

"I gave that little shit a chance to be civil." Tanner growled, dwarfing Ian in size as he stood in his face. Though they were both big, Tanner had a few inches on Ian and twice the muscles on his arms, like all he did was work out.

"He wasn't trying to hurt you, Tanner. He was frightened. Put some ice on it, you pansy. You probably just jammed a finger. Heaven forbid you can't toss a knife for a few days." Ian tried to brush it off, but it only tightened the twist of Tanner's lips as he flared his nostrils.

"Get out of the way, Ian. If I have to give him a few bruises to get him to behave, I'll happily teach him that lesson."

"No." Ian backed another step, practically squishing Nathan into the wall as the navy silk marauded his nose. Somehow the man who'd just assaulted him now stood in his defense, and the best he could manage was trembling as his body sandwiched him with the cold wall. "I scared him, all right. I'll fix it. Just go cool your head."

A sound came out of Tanner's mouth like a beast snarling, and Tanner's eyes raked Nathan with a promise of retribution as he walked past to a stairwell. The stairs groaned with each step Tanner took like they were dying under the weight of his rage, and Nathan gasped for breath as Ian leaned off him. Without Tanner, he was very much alone with Ian, and Nathan backed a step as the man turned to him.

"I won't touch you. Just stop." Ian rubbed his temple with a hand.

Nathan tried the best he could to still his rickety form, but his heart pounded so hard that it was difficult.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry I accosted you. I get carried away sometimes." Ian dropped his voice to a whisper that sounded like sincerity, but Nathan had entirely reasonable doubts as he used the wall to stay standing. "We're supposed to get you situated before dinner, and if you refuse to work with me, Tanner will come back, anger in tow."

"What do you mean by situated?" Nathan forced the words out with a rattling breath. It sounded like he was speaking with someone's hands around his throat, which was possible at any moment should he misstep.

"Normal things. Layout of the house, the facilities, your room. Nothing frightening except my company." Ian's blue eyes glittered with amusement, and Nathan nodded so the man didn't consider coming closer to repeat the words. "Well, as you can see, the living room is down here." Ian gestured to two couches and a handful of recliners organized around a flat-screen television. "Feel free to use it. Tanner spends a lot of his time down here in the morning but is usually gone by nine."

"Gone?" Nathan asked.

"Yeah. We are allowed to leave the penitentiary, as I'm sure you know. You'll be able to leave as well after you have a sit down with Mags later, but for now, you're house confined. Follow me." Ian walked a few feet to the stairs, and Nathan froze at the landing. If he went up, he'd be closer to Tanner. "He's in his room, and as long as you don't cause any problems, he won't come out." Ian paused, and his lips curled into a smile that curdled Nathan's every cell. "Ladies first."

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Word Count: 2314