 Don't you just feel different today? Gulture said to jock. I don't know jock rumble bottled up in here. I don't know how I feel Troy Gulture looked up at the clock the aluminum mesh on the wall of the lockup They even tried to cage time. He liked to say the guards for secure max cell block 5 a New Jersey high-security penal institution where most of the time behind the glass of the bulletproof booths Looking down on the cell block from the second floor tier Gulture could see their silhouettes up there But you couldn't see their faces most of their time. What were the light being behind them like being watched by ghosts? jock a tall blonde man with a heavy John Aryan army tattoos real name Rudolph Simpson and Gulture a stocky dark man with a short black beard heavy black brows both Convicts were in coveralls prison yellow standing by the ping-pong table just toying with the paddles jock bounced the ball into the paddle, but didn't try to serve it. It was almost lights out Pretty soon the guards would tell them to the public address to put the paddle on table and go back to their cells It being Monday three guards would come to each cell unlock them one at a time doing a quick check to see if anybody had managed to Make some pruno or tucked away some other contraband Same old same old for almost a year now No movement and getting Gulture transferred to state medium security where it was so much easier roomier a man could hustle some drugs You shouldn't have busted up that security guard shins his court-appointed lady lawyer told him snooty fucking bitch Like to get her along once he was out Have her out of that pants suit lickety split Restless nervous. How about serving that fucking ball there jock? Jock shrugged and served and they batted it listlessly back and forth till it bounced from the table and jock went to chase it down Gulture waited tensely. Gulture was feeling more than his usual restlessness Something in the air was about to bust open like a lightning storm I ought to try to explain to jock again, but it was hard to explain the hunches he got Gulture and jock had become allies since the Jersey guys came into the cell block Chalini and DeLauro Trying to throw their weight around When you get out this tang's gonna get you you don't give me what we want in here. Chalini said cigarettes Whatever we want this tang Gulture doubted that fat bastard Chalini was really a made man And if he was you probably have had a better lawyer Doing any time to speak of just for stealing a car with a jail So crowded meant you had a bad lawyer Strange Chalini and ended up my high security for stealing cars Maybe it was his record maybe pissed off the cops or maybe it was a plant made a deal with a warden to catch the others with contraband You really don't feel something like in the air Gulture asked softly as jock came back with a ping-pong ball I don't know Troy. Hey could be I do feel funny jock paused bounced the ball on the table It could be they put something in the dinner one of them experiments. They do in prisoners Jock was prone to paranoia Craziness in your block boys was one of the things you put up with Gulture sighed and glanced up at the clock again Don't wait a voice whispered don't waste what? The voice faded before quite finished What'd you say? Gulture asked looking sharply at jock didn't say nothing jock said returning the luck eyes narrowed I thought I heard a long ago. You called my name The wave has risen now. You can hear my reply reach out use the red vitality. Don't wait There it was again a whispering something about calling a name a wave risen a red vitality Someone whispering and not jock, but no one else was standing close enough just the two of them standing at the ping-pong table Whose voice was that sound like it was coming from right behind him Gulture looked nobody there Whispering, but what was the voice saying? Couldn't quite make it out. You didn't hear somebody whispering Gulture asked jock frowned at him You fucking with me cuz I don't like that The wave rises let it guide you Was that what it was saying the wave rises let it guide you and there was a feeling with it The whispering went with a rise in that strange restless feeling like years ago He'd never forgotten it started with that Alistair Crowley book He'd got as a teen from that crazy stoned old friend of his pop old dude with a long white hair used to run the Charlie Manson That strange feeling Gulture got when he'd read the book not understanding all of it But when he'd drawn the diagrams and called the names of power listed in magic and theory and practice Nothing definite it happened that night here is before but just the feeling that something unusual was in the air a tingling That seemed to want to talk to you But nothing that you could actually see in next morning 5 a.m. His father had got himself paralyzed Slid as Harley under a truck which was a good thing for his son a blessing as the that old drunk father Lawrence like to say Because it meant no more beatings from the old man and because it meant that eventually Gulture could get his pop alone with The old son of a bitch stuck in his bed take his time ending the old pricks life Smothering him slow which Gulture did within six months of the accident Now in secure max cell block 5 the feeling grew and grew in his chest as the whispering got louder and louder Good feeling strong like when he did dexadrine to get through a night of jacking trucks getting them over the pen border You got a rise a sensation of power inside like nobody could sneak upon you nobody could bust you nobody could stand in your way Another voice from nowhere, but no this was the guards talking for the PA Okay, guests of the state back to your cells for inspection chop chop Gulture tossed a ping-pong battle under the table and they walked back to the cells each just a little bigger than a motel bathroom Usually you had to share but here in secure max jock and Gulture each had a cell side by side The cell doors were open, but they'd be automatically closed in a few minutes once the cons were inside The whispering again the wave rises No longer is it held back open be guided And something else lost in the echoes of chalini and the other jinnies shouting at one another from their cells I shot up so I can hear Gulture muttered What exactly was the whispering telling him to do and why was the light going purple in here? Was he having a stroke or or what? Maybe he should ask to go to the infirmary You know fat chance not something they granted without his being practically dead He stepped into his cell found the plastic comb The guards worked hard on not giving you anything you could use as a weapon and somebody else or yourself Toothbrushes were short and soft. There were no springs on the bed. No toilet seats and on and on But he'd been working on the end spine of this comb scraping it against a rough spot on the metal frame of the door and he had it pretty sharp Wasn't much of a weapon He hadn't been sure what was going he was going to do with it till now Don't waste any time the whispering said Gulture could hear it more clearly now the wave is rising. It won't continue forever do it He sat on the bunk and took the spiky plastic end spine of the comb and bent it a little outward from the other Spines gridded his teeth and jammed it into his wrist It took a moment to punch through Had to press hard and then he sucked air through his teeth as pain jolted through his wrist and blood Squirted and read so dark. It was almost inky He hadn't hit anything major just a bunch of smaller vessels But it was more than enough blood for his purpose He yanked out the plastic spine then climbed in close to the wall over his cot Dipped the index finger of his other hand into the blood on his wrist and started drawing just letting the feeling guide him Like the whispering said it felt good to do that and he always did what felt good