2:45 pm. Spetember 30th, 2026.
Maximum Security Prison. Visting Area.
Needlessly bright fluorescent lights, is the first thing visitors notice. Then there was the thick glass divides, that separated the prisoners and visitors, like exhibits at a Zoo.
Soon ,the grinding sound of a metal door opening, pulled Grace from her thoughts, as she gazed ahead through the glass divide, at the young man being led through the door in an orange jumpsuit.
Alexander looked much better than he did a few months back. His curly black hair was looking slightly brown and unkept, but the bruises had stopped appearing.
"Kiing. You have forty minutes. No extra time." The prison guard uttered sternly, before standing to the side .
Alexander gazed at Grace behind the divider with a warm smile. Their eyes lingered on one another for a while, before he moved to take his seat on the opposite side of the divide.
They both reached for the phones slowly, and Grace's soft voice soon came through, as she studied Alexander's eyes.
"How have you been, Alex ?"
"Did you enjoy the last books I brought ? "
"How about the journalling I suggested, is it something you liked ?"
The questions came pouring out of Grace in a hurry. They only had forty minutes.
But Alexander just remained quiet, as a single tear fell down his eyes, and more soon followed.
As he gazed at Grace, and how haggard she currently looked, his heart couldn't stop breaking.
Grace's cheekbones were hollow and gaunt. Her eyes sunken with shades of black underneath.
The same black suit she always wore to pay him visits, which once looked fitting on her---Now seemed a couple sizes too big.
Grace seeing the tears streaming down Alexander's face, was completely gutted, he hasn't cried like this since the first few months he was brought In. Soon her own tears came streaming down as well, she thought Alexander must be having a heard time in prison.
"Alex. Just hold on okay ?, am still working on....."
"Gracie....." Alex interrupted with a hoarse voice. "Please. Just stop."
"Stop what Alex ?!" Grace asked confused as she searched Alexander's eyes for answers.
Alexander took a deep breath in, before he spoke again. He knew if he made it obvious it was for her own good, she wouldn't listen.
He needed to make it about him.
"Gracie. Stop pushing with the case. It's a dead end. And It makes me sad, and my stay in here more torturous, knowing you have been putting your life on hold for this" Alexander spoke softly as he gazed into Grace's hollowed eyes.
"Conclude your studies in Health Administration, which you have put on hold for so long."
"Start a career and .....marry a good man .." Alexander's voiced cracked at this point, at the weight of his statement, the tears streaming down nonstop.
Grace was white as a sheet, her lips trembled, as if in an attempt to protest, but seeing the finality in Alexander's gaze, her own tears burst out like a fountain.
Their light sobs echoed through the visitors area, and even the stern prison guard who had led Alexander in, soon found his eyes red and tears trickling down his face.
"Gracie. Start a beautiful and lovely family, and come once in a while to tell me about your life."
"You know, this was something we never got to have growing up as orphans."
"If I see you happy. I am happy too. It makes me sad to see you not living to your full potential. And enjoying life" Alexander finished speaking in broken sobs, as he and Grace both stared at each other for a while.
Then Grace quavered into the phone, as she cleaned her tears with the elm of her suit, donning a reassuring smile. "I Promise Alex. I won't make you sad again. I will become very happy."
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8:15 pm. January 30th, 2027.
Cell Block A, Room 55
Alexander sat atop an old metal cot, under a harsh flickering light, behind heavy metal Cell bars.
There was a steel toilet and sink to the side, and a few novels laying around.
Alexander had his hand in a journal, with a prison approved pen, he began writing.
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Dear Diary.
I turned twenty five today.
Gracie brought me a new book, and congratulated me.
She always remembered my birthday, even when I forgot.
She looked better today, and she's finally returned fully to her studies.
I have decided to do as she suggests and start keeping a journal.
But it hasn't been easy in here.
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8:40 pm. January 30th, 2028.
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Dear Diary.
I turned twenty six today.
I think am getting used to prison life.
I do miss being able to go wherever I want and get whatever I want...but thats okay.
Gracie brought some more books for me. I find myself lost in their pages sometimes.
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9:00pm. January 30th, 2033.
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Dear Diary.
I turned thirty one today.
Gracie said she had found a man she liked.
And that they were getting married in August.
I am not sure how I really feel about that.
But I know am very happy for her.
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9:10pm. January 30th, 2043.
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Dear Diary.
I am forty one today.
Everything's become..... monotonous.
I fear there is a darkness building up in my heart from this immense.... Loneliness.
BTW. Gracie now has a beautiful daughter called lucy.
She showed me a picture.
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9:30pm. January 30th, 2053.
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Diary.
Am... fifty one today.
Gracie came to visit.
I have been having dark thoughts.
Gracie would not like the kind of thoughts I have been having.
I think this captivity is finally getting to me.
I can feel the ravages of time in my bones, and when I look into Gracie's face.
Still. She's the most beautiful woman on the planet.
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9:40pm. January 30th, 2058.
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Diary.
I am... fifty six now.
Gracie hasn't visited in a while.
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9:45pm. January 30th, 2063.
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Diary.
I am sixty one.
Gracie has stopped visiting...
Guess she moved on with her big family.
I am not sure..... I can hold on for much longer.
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10:00pm. January 30th, 2065.
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Diary.
What's even the point of holding on, and living this sort of ... Existence ?.
Gracie, my love...If you come across this.....
Know that I am happy for you and the life that you have built.
I am just...
So tired.
Dear diary.
This will be my final entry.
_____
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An old man with grey white beard and hair, gently closed a journal in Cell Block A, Room 55.
He placed the journal underneath his metal cot, as his dull blue eyes, gazed outside the little window in his cell.
Soon a small multicolored butterfly flew in and landed gently on the tip of his right index finger.
And again flew out through the small opening, beyond the prison high and heavily guarded fences and into the night sky.
"Must be nice." He murmmured in a gruff voice.
"I wish....."
"I could go there. "
"That place...The place were Gracie and I....would run to and spend most of our time back at the orphanage."
"It was so beautiful there." Alexander murmured in nostalgia, images of his young self playing under the night sky, flickered through his mind.
||Do you truly wish to go there ?||
A voice. A voice same as his own. Spoke from within him.
"Of course. A taste of freedom before i bid this world goodbye. Wouldn't that be wonderful ?" Alexander responded absentmindedly. He reasoned the voice was just the echoes of his fractured mind keeping him company.
||The 'move', will be draining. Brace yourself.||
"What's that suppose to m...."
Alexander did not get to finish that statement---
Because he was gone.
His form had vanished.
Like someone had pressed 'delete' on his existence.
Cell Block A, Room 55.....
Was now empty.