What Happened Back Then?

He slowly approached them on the line, wearing a straw hat, too. Zella placed down the huge stem scissors, and smiled.

Leo turned to Zella, and gave the energy back. "My wife," Leo whispered.

Lavender grinned, and decided to walk off to give them some privacy.

"Ms. Lavender," Zella called out.

"Stay here, dear. Have some time with your husband. He rarely goes here, so snatch the chance." Lavender tapped her shoulder, and walked away, leaving her alone with Leo.

Zella waited for her to reach the door before finally turning to her husband. Leo picked up a dark pink one, faster than she expected.

He reached it out to her.

"For you, my love," Leo didn't know if he should say that, but he did.

Although nothing ever sparked inside his heart, he still said it.

Zella's eyes landed upon the dark pink petals of the rose, admiring it for a while, before taking it from him.

Leo placed his hand behind, swallowing. Zella pursed his lips, smiling a little.

She observed how his fingers trembled when holding the stem still. His eyes were screaming of eagerness, wondering how the scene would turn out.

Leo's mouth twitch rather than a smile, and it made her wonder…

"It felt like it's the first time you have given a flower to a woman," Zella pointed out.

Leo's heart must have stopped. She caught him again.

Zella's smile dissipated from her lips, turning to him with emotionless eyes. Leo raised his eyebrows, recovering to his composure.

He needed to be composed, or else, Zella would know.

"How can you say that when I gave you a lot of flowers before we get married? Even until now, I give you that. I let you have this garden and grow a lot of roses. You like roses, Laina."

Leo must have the ability to twist those words, because what else can he do but to lie in front of her.

Zella just have to question his every action, because she couldn't remember anything. Leo's heart was beating louder than usual.

No one had ever done this to him but her.

"How come I feel it's the first time I've seen this garden? I don't want to question you, my husband, or if you're really my husband, but it felt like… I'm here just for a few moments," Zella pertained.

A lot of times Leo thought those questions, and by the time Zella spoke it up, he swallowed.

The lies kept on coming, he kept on deceiving her. Leo should continue what he started, but he doesn't know how it'll end.

"My wife."

Leo took a step closer, placing his hands on her waist, and she didn't even retaliate.

It never sent electricity down his spine.

Nothing… made him want those lips and body pressed into his.

Leo must have been distracted by the fact she's a death convict more than his fake wife.

Besides, he doesn't want to marry anyone. But look where that promise had gone.

Zella turned to Leo's eyes. It looked sincere, but behind those, it might not be.

Zella held the dark pink rose by its stem, and waited for him to say anything.

Leo touched the ribbon underneath her chin, removing the straw hat from her face, and placing it on the rack beside them.

Zella couldn't stare back down. She just kept on admiring his face.

"Do you know what I like about you?"

"No, I don't know," Zella responded quickly.

"It's the way you keep your hair down."

He reached out for the pin holding the bun in place, letting her hair cascade. Zella felt the hair strands flowing smoothly behind her dress.

Leo tucked in the pin inside his slack's pockets, admiring her heart-shaped face, her brownish hair, and her lips.

Zella and Leo stared at each other for a while.

"It's only the hair you wanted?" Zella asked.

"No." Leo even shook his head.

"Then what else do you want?" Zella must have kept on provoking him.

"This…" Leo hitched her waist closer, and leaned in forward.

…

[A month ago. 15 days after the arrest.]

"I never thought they could draw a maze of lines in a small piece of paper." J

aina held out the paper on the light, pinching it with her thumb and forefinger.

Zella checked the hallways if there's any officers patrolling around the area.

Jaina opened up her book, removed a secret pen inside, and Zella turned to her, astonished.

"You are hiding a pen there?"

"Shh. They never found out even after 2 years. It's the one who convicted me so they never tried to open it." Zella nodded, turning to the tiny piece of paper once again.

Jaina wrote down the words she saw.

Ventilation.

Duct.

Tunnel.

Cover.

Line.

These words might be the clues, as Zella thought.

Jaina gave it to her. She checked the tiny piece of paper, and saw the parallel lines.

Zella bit her bottom lip, knowing it'll lead them to the escape.

Jaina spoke up, "The thin line over here must be the way out of the penitentiary. We just have to check if it is."

"But there's an infirmary we have to take care of, Jaina."

"We have to figure out the way along," Jaina assured.

She retrieved it from Zella's hand once again.

Jaina, as a bookworm she was, knew the way to solve their problem.

Zella stood up from the bed, checked the ventilation, and scrutinized the edges. It has a lot of screws.

"The first step is to get a screwdriver, Jaina."

…

As the night fell, both of them waited for the police to patrol the area.

The lights shone inside their cell, and she tucked in herself inside the blanket.

Zella didn't know how long it took, but after a second, Jaina was the first to jump out of her comforter, and retrieved the screwdriver.

"Keep it low, Jaina," Zella reminded.

Jaina listened to her and slowly unscrewed the ventilation.

Zella sighed, removing the blanket over her face. She's glad to help Jaina, but they have to switch places to do that.

Zella turned to her side, hissing. This might take too long.

She slipped her hand inside the pockets, retrieving the tiny piece of paper, and examined the small maze.

Zella needed to figure out the way before dawn, or else, their plan wouldn't go the way it should be.

Jaina was busy unscrewing the hinges of the ventilator.

She coughed up, covered her mouth fast, and Zella checked if she's alright.

"The smoke up there… it's suffocating, Zella." Jaina wagged her hands in front of her nose, falling back on the bed, and exhaled hefty amount of air.

Zella turned to the hinges, and there's only one left.

Zella climbed in the bunker, reached her bed, and placed a blanket over her shoulders.

"Just rest on my mattress, I'll take over," Zella ordered.

Jaina coughed, eradicating the smell down her throat. It stuffed her nose, knowing there must be a poisonous gas released through the ducts, so that the prisoners wouldn't be able to escape.

Lots of things could have been done to them, but they're left to suffer inside a prison cell without even retaliating.

What's more faster in dying was swallowing a thousand pills and sleeping over for the night. Zella hated her life, much more after she became a prisoner.

"Why did we have to do this to just escape? Why did we have to torture ourselves and wrack our brain on the way out? Too sickening to be an Idris citizen."

She never hated her life when she was a kid. In fact, she's enjoying every afternoon playing with her hometown friends.

But the moment they moved in to the urban area, rented an apartment in her high school, and gone through college with city people, she knew that life wouldn't be the same again.

"It's because the leader of our country put shackles in our legs, wrists, and legs, Zella. They don't want freedom for the citizens, but to let the people oblige in every command she executed," Jaina remarked.

Zella couldn't help but to release those angry tears while unhinging the screw.

When she finally did it, she caught the ventilation door, and hissed. It isn't heavy as she thought it was.

She inserted it right at the duct, place it carefully upon the hole, and puffed her cheeks.

No footsteps in the hallway meant they're safe. Jaina stood up, peeked at the front of the blanket, and no one's observing them from afar.

A prisoner was still awake across their cell, and he's doing something gross.

Jaina took a step back, disgusted about what she had seen.

Zella rubbed her hands, shaking off the dirt from her fingers, turning to her.

Beads of sweat trickled down at each side of her forehead, mumbling, "We did it. We can inspect the duct tomorrow by lunch."

…

[A month ago. 16 days after the arrest.]

A lot of them flooded inside the cafeteria for their lunch.

Jaina and Zella were the last ones on the line.

They intend to be the last, so that they could run back on the holding cell, but that would be suspicious.

Jaina whispered behind, "We need to inspect the duct right when the open gates started."

Open gates were the dangerous part of being a prisoner. If they have a dispute with the leaders of the gang, they could get battered and beaten to death.

Something Zella disliked the most since she first came here.

It has been 16 days, but everything was tiring. Zella had to suffer every day, thinking of a way out.

"Are you in a rush?" Jaina continued.

"I just got the news for my verdict, Jaina."