text: The Inmate By: Jacob Slankard Click... Click... Click... 37-year-old security guard Rick Thomas rubbed his eyes and yawned as he checked the prison’s security cameras. Click. A view of the outer wall. Click. A view of the front entrance. Click. A view of the first-floor cells. Click... Click... Click... After he clicked through all the camera feeds, Rick stood up and began walking towards the staff restroom. *I can’t wait for four am so I can leave this hellhole and get shit-faced drunk,* he thought as he walked into the staff restroom. Rick urinated, flushed the toilet, washed his hands, then looked in the mirror. “What the hell!” he exclaimed, nearly jumping out of his skin in surprise. Standing next to him in the mirror was a middle-aged Hispanic male wearing a striped prison jumpsuit. Rick yanked his taser out of its holster, spun around, and aimed it at... nothing. He swiveled his head left and right, but the man he saw in the mirror was no longer in the restroom with him. Rick opened the restroom door and glanced around the guard station, but the room was empty. He shook his head and went back to the sink. *I must be going crazy,* he thought as he splashed cold water on his face. Back at his desk, Rick clicked through all the camera feeds again. Click. A view of the recreation yard. Click. A view of the visitation room. Click. A view of the cafeteria. Just as he was about to switch to the next feed, Rick saw something on the screen that caught his attention. Sitting at one of the tables was an inmate staring at the far wall. Rick was examining the feed when the image disappeared into a burst of static. “Come on, you piece of shit,” he muttered while banging on the side of the computer monitor. After a few more seconds of banging the camera feed returned, but the cafeteria was empty. *I know I saw someone,* he thought, getting up and leaving the guard station. Rick walked across the grass to the main prison building and entered. As he walked down the corridor that led to the cafeteria, a whispering sound blew through the corridor. Rick froze in place, staring at something in front of him. Standing a few feet in front of him was the inmate he had seen in the restroom and on the cameras. The inmate was about 6’2” and stout. He was wearing a tattered and stained prison jumpsuit. Rick unholstered his taser and aimed it at the inmate. “How did you get out of your cell?” Rick asked him. The inmate said nothing, only continued to stare vacantly past Rick’s shoulder. Rick took a step towards the inmate and said, “I asked you a question, inmate,” The inmate looked Rick in the eyes as a sinister grin spread across his face. Seeing the grin, Rick took a couple of steps backward. “What are you smiling at?” he asked. In the blink of an eye, the inmate started running full speed towards Rick. “Stop, don’t come any closer!” Rick yelled, tightening his grip on his taser. The inmate ignored him and continued his approach. Rick took a deep breath and pulled the trigger. The prongs shot out, but as soon as they touched the inmate, he dissolved into a mist. Rick’s jaw dropped, and his eyes widened in surprise. “What th-,” he started to say, but was cut off when something slammed into him and knocked him to the ground. Rick rolled onto his back and looked to see what pushed him down, but the corridor was empty. Rick started to get up off the floor but froze when the lights started flickering. *What is going on here?* he thought to himself, starting to feel afraid. As quick as the lights started to flicker, they stopped. *Must have been a power surge,* Rick thought as he got back to his feet and tried to dismiss his fear. He was walking back down to the guard station when the lights went out. Rick fumbled for his flashlight, found it, and switched it on. The bright, powerful beam cut through the darkness, illuminating the inmate that kept on popping up. *I’m losing my mind,* Rick thought, then said, more to himself than anyone else, “You’re not real. You’re just a figment of my imagination.” The inmate smiled and said, “Tell me, Rick, if I’m just a figment of your imagination, how was I able to push you down a few minutes ago?” Rick’s mind scrambled to find an answer to the question but came up with nothing. “Frustrating, isn’t it. It’s amazing how you think something is a figment of your imagination and it turns out to be real and concrete,” the inmate said, slowly walking towards Rick. “What do you want?” Rick asked The inmate stopped approaching and said, “Well, first I want to get out of this body and show you my true form. Then I want to take your body and use it as my host.” “Your true form?” Rick thought out loud, not understanding what he meant. The inmate smiled, then his face started to ripple and deform. Rick watched in horror as the inmate’s face bulged out and ripped open, exposing a pale, sickly grey face. Extremely skinny and hunched over, the creature that burst out of the inmate was about 6’5” and had a bat-like face with horns curling out of its forehead. It flapped its leathery wings and whipped its tail back and forth. Rick watched in wide-eyed terror as the creature leaped across the corridor and landed in front of him. “My true form is frightening, isn’t it?” the creature said in a deep, booming voice. “Wha... Wha... What are you?” Rick stammered. The creature smiled and said, “I’m a demon.” As soon as the demon said this the building started to rumble violently, and the lights flicked on, emitting a deep red glow. Rick lost his balance and fell to the ground, his flashlight rolling a few inches away. The demon took advantage of the situation and jumped on top of Rick, wrapping its tail around his throat. As his airway was restricted, Rick began to beat on the demon with his fists. The demon chuckled, then said, “It’s futile. There’s no way that a puny human like you could defeat a demon of my rank.” Rick groped for his flashlight, grabbed it, then slammed it into the demon’s left temple. The demon moaned in pain as it rolled off Rick. Rick didn’t miss a beat, getting up and running down the corridor. The demon shook off its daze and flew down the corridor, landing in front of Rick. Rick skidded to a stop and turned to run in the other direction, but the demon was faster, its hand flicking out and wrapping around Rick’s throat, squeezing tight. “You’re in good shape for an alcoholic,” the demon said, smiling. “It’s too bad you’re about to die.” “Please... I got a... family,” Rick gasped painfully as memories of his wife and two daughters flashed through his mind. The demon chuckled and said, “Aren’t you just a hypocrite, only thinking about your family when you’re about to die. You should have thought about them when you were getting shit-faced drunk. You should’ve thought about your daughters when they didn’t get any Christmas presents from you for the third year in a row.” As a tear fell from his eye, the demon plunged its hand deep inside Rick’s chest, bones snapping like twigs, and clenched his heart. “Aargh!” Rick coughed up blood that was pooling in his throat as agonizing pain pulsed through his body. The demon’s tongue shot out and licked the blood off Rick’s face. The demon, satisfied that it had caused him enough pain, ripped Rick’s heart out of his chest and threw his body to the side. The demon lifted the heart to its mouth and took a bite out of it. It closed its eyes and savored the meaty texture of the heart, the finished it in three bites. After consuming Rick’s heart the demon began to ripple and change. The demon doubled over in pain as patches of skin appeared and began to spread all over its body. Once the skin covered its whole body, the demon stood straight up. The face it now wore was the face of Rick Thomas. The demon lifted its face to the camera on the ceiling and smiled. 1 week later... Mallory Thomas noticed a dramatic change in her husband Rick’s behavior but satisfied her curiosity with the idea that he realized his problems and received help. Life went happily on until two months later when the Thomas family mysteriously disappeared, sparking a missing-persons case that to this day hasn’t been solved. The End.