As they all slept, a guard walked up to them. It was the guard in charge. Kiya slowly opened his eyes to see the guard in charge; he was holding his hands behind his back.
"You, wake up."
"....." Kiya couldn't react, as he didn't have the presence of mind.
"WAKE UP, DAMN IT."
"Wha... what?" Kiya answered, half awake.
"You... you have the chance to see the master," the guard said.
"Why would I go see the warden if we got our freedom?"
"Master said that he wanted to see the young boy who found out the killer... and that's you."
"What?"
"He will only give you your freedom after he sees you. Remember, you are still a slave."
"It's not like I can disagree or have an opinion of myself."
"Yes, that is true. Now, wear this shirt," the guard said as he moved a bit to show the boxes of clothes for everyone.
"Is that all ours?"
"Yes. The master doesn't like people that aren't well-dressed... even if they are slaves."
"I feel like something is wrong here. No warden would want to grant a slave freedom. No guard would offer a slave clothes. I thought something was wrong from the start when you gave us... freedom."
"Listen here, you little shit. If the master wants to see you, then he will," the guard said as he came closer.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Calm down," Kiya said as he raised his hands and lowered them when the guard stood back.
"Now, wake all those little shits and make them dress up," the guard said before he walked away.
After some time of pondering, Kiya tapped everyone gently. As time went on, his taps grew more aggressive. The rest of them were in deep sleep. One by one, each of them woke up, slowly but surely.
"Hey, wake up... we have to wear these."
As the rest of them heard Kiya's words, they opened the boxes—each with their name tags. They looked at the clothes with a bit of happiness. After all, they wore ragged clothes all throughout the journey from the prison block to the cabin. They didn't even get a chance to bathe, if it was not obvious enough to the guards. They all smiled lightly at the clothes.
Frederick opened the box labeled with his name. He looked at his maroon shirt and black pants. Cameron opened his box to a light red shirt and black pants.
Kiya opened his box and saw a blue short-sleeved shirt and black pants that were a bit high. Genzo opened the box to see a green shirt and black pants.
'Huh, I wonder if they only have black pants,' Kiya thought.
They all sat down, exhausted.
"You can go to the bathroom to change," a guard said.
Having heard that, they went to the bathroom. After a while, they all came out looking fresh.
"We are getting way better treatment than that of the usual slaves," Fred said.
They nodded in agreement. Suddenly, the guard came over.
"Follow me," the guard said, not trying to speak with them anymore.
They all followed the guard. As they walked out of the main door, they saw Hitleck standing there, devastated because of his so-called friend. He was standing there, looking down at the ground. Thomas was a friend whom Hitleck thought would stay beside him. He stood beside him as a murderer trying to escape his sins.
They went over to Hitleck, not knowing the situation between him and Thomas.
"Hey Hit, where have you been?" Frederick said in a friendly manner. He stopped and looked down at Hit's arm.
"What happened to your arm, Hit?" Frederick asked in worry while taking a look at his hand.
"..."
Hitleck did not say anything. Frederick thought that Hitleck needed some alone time. He moved back, still looking at Hit's arm. He figured that he could ask Kiya about what had happened when they were in there.
"Kiya, how did Hit get hurt?"
"..."
"Answer me."
"It was me. I cut him with a knife."
"What? Why did you even do it?" Fred asked with confusion. Genzo was also curious as to why Kiya hurt Hitleck.
"I wanted to get Thomas to say that he himself is the killer."
"Why did you hurt Hitleck for that, huh?" Fred was a bit angry; Hitleck helped them after all.
"Why do you think Thomas hid behind Hit?"
"Because he is stronger than an average human?" Genzo answered.
"I believe that Thomas purposefully hid himself behind Hit to not get caught. He tried to get closer to Hit on every opportunity he could find, but the thing is that Hitleck bit the hook purposefully... Like he was searching for it. That's when I thought that something was wrong with Hitleck."
"But that doesn't give you reason to stab him with a knife." Fred said,
"Yes, it doesn't, but I had good reasons to believe that either Thomas or Hitleck was the killer. My goal was to strengthen the friendship between Hit and Thomas. Well, guess what, it worked. I completely threw that idea that Hitleck was the murderer off the rails when that middle-aged man killed himself. The look on Thomas's face was a bit strange, almost like it was not his first time. Yes, I did throw a knife at Thomas, hoping for Hitleck to catch it or push Thomas out of the way, but Hitleck let the knife cut his palm. It was not my fault."
"You manipulated him, didn't you?" Fred said in anger.
"Whoa, manipulation is a strong word. Also, I didn't manipulate him; Thomas did."
"Hey, hey, Calm down for a second." Genzo said. "What matters is that everyone is safe."
They backed out, Fred still glaring at Kiya. As the commotion settled down, the guard-in-charge came towards them.
"EVERYONE, YOU FIVE WILL BE ESCORTING THE MURDERER ALONG WITH A FEW GUARDS. THOSE THREE BEATEN WILL ALSO BE COMING." The guard yelled, radiating superiority.
"What? Why do we have to be the escort?" Kiya asked.
"YOU CAN DO IT ONLY IF YOU WANT YOUR FREEDOM."
'Shit, this guy is basically blackmailing us, and with that smile of his." Kiya thought as he looked at the guard who was smiling.
Kiya also looked at Frederick, who was angry at him for stabbing Hit's arm. He saw Fred go over to Hitleck for comfort. He wondered about the future if things go on like this. He worried about Frederick and Cameron along with Hitleck. Genzo was in a pretty good mood before the quarrel, so Genzo was nothing to worry about.
Unbeknownst to him, he was worrying about something that would not affect him as the future did.