"Stop!" The guard shouted as they arrived at one of the checkpoints in the prison and then when they went through it they turned into another hallway and it was packed.
Everywhere was guards with guns in their hands, all of them staring at him, as the guard pushed him forward. They looked at him with unease and all of them were ready, like he could do something like if he was a monster that could break those chains and kill everybody there.
"Stop!" Again a shout and the guard opened the door and behind it was a table with a chair and with a blonde middle aged woman sitting there her eyes immediately glued to him.
The guard pushed him in and seated him down and then chained him to the table and they left.
And that was it, silence. None even spoke a word, only the breath could be heard until the woman stood up and pulled off the mask of Joseph's head.
It was painful. The bright light hurt his eye after all the darkness, it felt like his whole eyes were boiling and for a moment he couldn't even see anything, but after some minutes passed everything became clear.
"Cassian Joseph… you look better than I thought you would." She said and yeah it was surprising to her, he was actually looking good, his skin was clear without any sign of beating not even a scare on it, only his beard and hair was unkempt.
He said nothing and just stared at her in a way that made her a little uncomfortable especially after hearing all the stories after reading through all the files, reports, documents on him.
"You can speak."
"Am I this dangerous…?" He asked as looked up at the two guards behind her gun in their hand.
"Good question, actually I want to be alone with him." The woman said as she turned and looked up at the guards.
"We can't leave you with him–"
"Just go, it's okay he doesn't have superpowers." She said and the guards took some time looking at each other but eventually they left the room.
For minutes they just sat in silence looking at eachother like it was a staring contest.
And that was her first time experiencing what was in that report and what people described as evil. His eyes were empty, nothing was in those eyes, not a single bit of emotion, not that light that everyone has, he looked like a soldier who got shell shocked during war, but there was something else that she couldn't name at all.
"Throughout the ten years your lawyer tired 34 times to try to get you out or lower your sentence even wanted to file a lawsuit against the government, police and the federal agencies." She started. "He said it's all a misunderstanding and unlawful arrest and well it had points. There was no connection, no DNS, nothing that could connect you to any of the crimes you were accused of. So Joseph it was all a misunderstanding?"
"It was more like a planned action." He said simply.
"You said it was your family, your mother, father and two brothers, through connections they put all the terrible crimes they did on you so they could save themselves and could remain in power.They did it through connection to the government, right?"
"Right."
She leaned back in the chair. "I believe you Joseph, I actually believe you so much that we reopened your case and arrested 56 people who were bribed on government level, even the judge was jailed and the police chief." She said and she tried to see something like the reaction of Joseph like if he gets happy or something but there was nothing he just sat still starring with those eyes. "I checked every piece of evidence and there was not even one as your lawyer said, no DNS, no photos, nothing that would connect you to the crimes that you were accused and allegedly done, not even a single fingerprint a, hair piece nothing." She crossed her arms. "But the thing is Joseph, there were 153 witnesses that pointed fingers at you and gave detailed statements about what you did, how you did, who you met, who you killed even when you took a shit… well if we look at the bigger picture we can see it was all false statements they lied under oath and they got away with it and you Joseph Cassian the youngest of the house of the Cassians was arrested on the crimes that your family did."
She couldn't even imagine the feeling of it that your own family fucks you up on a level that you can't do anything. Barely 18 years old, who doesn't even know what the world is about, just put in jail.
"So it is true, you're not scary, you're not dangerous, not the guy everyone thinks about as the most powerful in the country. You are just a victim of your own family, a victim of corruption. It's just all a big misunderstanding, or more importantly a premade plan that your family did to save their own self. A misunderstood crime boss of the city." She looked at him waiting to say anything.
"Yeah, ten years for something I never did." He said, but she caught it, she felt it, his voice was carrying something so dangerous, something that she couldn't even name.
Maybe it was the fact that he needed to act as one, the fact that everybody thought he was dangerous. He, without his knowing, became one with that or it was all an act on his own.
"Joseph Cassian, this paper in my hand is your release approval with the signature of the Justice Minister." She held it up. "But there is a little problem I want to ask you about."
He tilted his head, listening.
"Your family, all of them died. The Cassian mafia family crumbled, and not just them, Siccorio's family, Salvatore family, and the Lisonda family, they all crumbled, they all died in the same way. They were all killed." She leaned forward putting her hand on the table. "Not just them, but everything was lit on fire, all of their warehouses, everything."
"How crazy is that." He said and his expression didn't change at all, not even a little bit.
There was no reaction, but that was the strangest thing… he was under heavy surveillance and nobody could talk with him, so that way he couldn't even know about his family and what happened outside… still he had no reaction to it.
"Yeah, but you know what is very interesting?" She leaned forward a bit, with a smile on her face.
He shook his head.
"Your father and your birthday, the same day. And when you turned 19, that was the time your family all died. A gunman just walked into the well-protected family house, with a machine gun, and killed them all. But not just that." She leaned back. "The attacker or attackers cut their heads off and sent them to the bribed official who had their hand to have you jailed." She shook her head. "How is it possible for a gunman to walk in and just cut off their heads in the house of the biggest mafia?"
A very great question that nobody could answer, because there weren't any witnesses. How strange is that?
The biggest mafia family with thousands of people, and the guards just vanished as well everybody in the house, while inside the family had the birthday party.
A case that the best agents were assigned to, and they couldn't do anything but to point finger to the obvious one.