Chapter 84: The Prisoner Of Valley Ridge
**Julia POV.**
**THREE YEARS EARLIER.**
“Inmate number 969 was taught to fight and never trust anyone but a select few. But in order to survive this prison, she has to work with those who could break her.”
The warden spoke in a deadpan voice, with no hint of emotions or feelings. I sat silently on his desk, facing him and listening intently.
He continued narrating after a momentary pause.
“Inmate number 969 is the youngest registered violent shapeshifter in history. She is someone who is unable to control her animal urges and aggressions. When she turned nineteen, she was transferred to us — the Violent And Dangerous Shapeshifters Detention Centre in Valley Ridge. Since then, she has been doing the only thing she thinks will help her survive — she deceives and lies.”
I sighed and asked softly, “What is her current status, Warden?”
The warden replied in the same deadpan voice, “A few years back, a mysterious intelligence agent recruited her and converted her into an asset while she remained incarcerated. She remains here, till this day, as the only prisoner in history who is both an inmate and an intelligence agent. A criminal and a spy.”
“Who is this mysterious agent? Where can I find him?” I asked with a frown.
“I don’t know. But what I do know is this: Inmate 969 has started a chain of events that will either end in a prison break, or a life of torture.”
“Torture?” I shuddered in fright. “Is that allowed?”
“Allowed?” the warden snickered mockingly. “This is Valley Ridge, where the most — no, the worst threats to society — are sent for life imprisonment. Torture is the only way to tame them and maintain sanity in this facility.”
Valley Ridge. The name itself sent shivers down everyone’s spine. A place that was routinely described as worse than hell. A giant open-air prison for the ‘worst of the worst’ of whatever was left of our nation.
The ‘facility’ was not a structure or a building, or even a fortress. It was the entire town itself, full of prison officials, wardens, security personnel, and the prisoners themselves. They were the only inhabitants of the town. There were no civilians residing here.
Perched on top of a hill overlooking dense forests on all sides, it was surrounded by the ocean in the east and the impenetrable jungle in the west.
A moat full of poisonous snakes covered its northern boundary, while an electrocuted fence lay on the southern side.
Escape from this place was impossible.
“Warden, you said that inmate 969 is the youngest violent shapeshifter in history,” I asked him after gathering my thoughts. “How violent was, or is, she?”
“Well …,” the warden chuckled smugly, “she can’t resort to violence here. We have it covered. But before she was brought here, she had slayed more than a dozen people, and mutilated a dozen more. All before she turned nineteen.”
I gulped in discomfort and kept quiet. It was difficult to absorb so much in so short a period. But I had to ask him a question that had been nagging me since I first heard him mention it.
“What chain of events has she started that might land her in more trouble?” I said.
“Before I answer that, may I ask the reason for your interest in this inmate?” The warden sported a deep furrow on his forehead. “I heard that you have traveled a great distance to arrive here. May I ask why?”
“I will tell you everything, Warden,” I replied respectfully. “But first, I need to know the exact nature of the chain of events that she has set in motion. Please, indulge me.”
“She has, of late, started seducing the prison guards monitoring her cell by undressing in front of them,” the warden replied curtly. “And when she is not doing that, she flashes her privates to entice them into indulging in lewd behavior.”
I gasped in shock and shuddered at the imagery painted by the warden. But I had to ask him, “Isn’t your prison under constant surveillance? Like, security cameras everywhere?”
“Yes, but her cell is an exception. Her handler, the anonymous intelligence agent, got the surveillance cameras removed from her cell a year ago. Since then, she has been indulging in these outrageous acts with the prison guards. We even caught a few of them inside her cell in … um … various compromising situations.”
The warden’s disgust was evident in his voice, on his face, and in his expressions. I had to choose my words carefully before I could address him again.
“Warden, as you mentioned before, I have indeed traveled a long distance to be here today,” I uttered respectfully. “I just happened to bump into a distant relative in Twin Hills a short while back, and came to know from him that Amelia Kingsley is imprisoned here for life. That’s the purpose of my visit, to meet her, with your kind permission, of course.”
The warden looked at me with curious eyes, his jaw dropped at the nature of my request, and he started fidgeting in his chair.
“Why do you want to meet Amelia Kingsley?” he asked, baffled and inquisitive.
“Because she is my sister, my elder sibling. I had last seen her when I left home at a very young age ten years ago. And even though we were never close, I would still like to meet her again. At least once.”