The Old Prison

Every night since he moved into his new apartment he was awoken at about 4am by a quick series of heavy footsteps from the stairwell that lead to the exit. They seemed to start from the floor above and finish at the ground floor. Leo Frissel had recently graduated from Dr. Harby Flight School. And while he already had begun working for Zanussi Airlines, like a lot of recent graduates, he was just beginning to chip away at his student loans. Although Leo had always wanted to become a pilot, his occupation didn’t go well with the touch of claustrophobia he suffered from. Even though the pay was good, being in debt meant he had to find the cheapest apartment in the vicinity of the airport he was stationed at. His search led him to The Old Prison apartments. A former prison from the 60s that had fallen into disrepair. A miserly developer bought it in the 80s and saved money by salvaging the existing building while converting the interior into apartments. Leo was sure his room had a past life as a solitary confinement cell. He could stand with his arms outstretched and touch the walls on two sides of the room. Whatever its function and size, it was cheap and within walking distance of McGarry Airport, cutting time and money off his commute.

While at cursing altitude and surrounded by blue skies, Leo would ponder over the cause of these midnight footsteps. Being the novice co-pilot he was, he dared not to appear odd his fellow co-pilot, so he would reveal his thoughts and theories to the flight attendants prior to take-off and while embarking and disembarking from the plane. Everyone shot down his long winded, complex explanations that had gotten into his head which made him consider keeping his imaginative ideas to himself. That was until his plane landed in Holloway shortly before Christmas, when Leo was two months in the job.

A passenger disembarking the plane overheard a long-winded story Leo was forcing upon a flight attendant, Sherry. The disinterested flight attendant had been on the same flight crew with Leo 14 times by now and had heard 14 new chapters to what had now become a very plain, repetitive mystery novel. The passenger, an elderly gaunt man from McGarry was smiling to the flight attendants as he walked to the stairs to exit the plane when he halted abruptly. His left hand dropped his walking stick and his other hand grabbed the railing at the foot of the steps. He turned his head clockwise and shot a gaze with his owl-eyes at the chatty pilot who had seen the passengers stick falling and dropped his voice. Leo was about to finish his sentence to the inattentive flight attendant when he was muted by the old man’s stare.

The old man pushed passed the other disembarking passengers and waded his way across the plane to a now frozen Leo. "Repeat that". Leo would have remained frozen had Sherry not laughed out of confusion over this bizarre situation. As she did Leo reverted to generic smiling pilot, "Thank you, have a nice..." The man with the beams for eyes kept his stare locked on Leo and said, "Who told you about the prison?"

"I live there" a puzzled, yet thawed out Leo replied. Sherry waved her hand between the two once all other customers had disembarked. "Sir, would you like me to fetch your walking stick for you?"

"I lived there too young fella", the old man replied.

Sherry waited for a response. The old man seemed less intimidating now and his almost hypnotic stare weakened.

"Sherry,” Leo said, “This is a friend of mine. We’re ok here.”

Sherry is confused by equally disinterested in the situation. She goes ahead with her duties.
"My name is Leo."
"Stewart Walker-Pierce."
"Sir, I have a lot of questions for you but you've already answered one... So, you were in The Old Prison…Do you have another flight to catch?

“Yes.”

“How long is your layover?”

“Long enough to tell you about the footsteps.”

A look of fear washed over Leo. It was as if this man was inside his mind. He felt like the victim of a professional burglary. The alarm disarmed. Nothing out of place. The family sleeping. Valuables stolen and the victim is only aware long after the act. Once Leo had composed himself, the two agreed to discuss the footsteps. They found Stewart's boarding gate and sat in a corner overlooking the runway.

“Before we go into this… who else have you told?”

“Just some of the flight attendants. I’ve been meaning to tell some friends but it sounds crazy. “

“And did they all respond like that woman?”
“Sherry? Yeah. I’m not a very good story teller.”

“Good. look there’s something about the prison that I need to tell you.” Stewart took a deep breath. “What’s your room like? Is it cramped, near a stairwell?” — “Final boarding call for flight ZA119”, was announced over the Tannoy system. Stewart finally revealed some emotion on his face. It was either a look of anger or fear.

“I told them this would happen…I told them”
“Whats wrong? What’s going on? how do you know? Am I in danger?”

“You’re already in danger young man. Me and some of the other officers and inmates warned the developers of this. We tried to fight the renovation at every turn. They ignored us and ploughed on during the boom times and now people are in danger.”

“Thank you for warning me but this is very confusing. Are there criminals hiding out in the vacant room or is the structure unsafe? Have inmates returned there to live? Who is keeping me up at night Stewart?” Leo felling frantic, forgot to breath and choked a little and looked stunned.

“She cursed us but we didn’t listen, we didn’t care. But as some inmates were sent to solitary confinement. That’s when she had her revenge. Now it’s your turn.” --- “Last and final call for flight ZA119. Could Stewart Walker-Pierce please come to boarding gate 23 for flight ZA119 to Blackchester.” The announcement over the Tannoy woke Stewart from the trance he had slipped into. Leo remained stunned.

“I have a flight to catch Leo. All I have to say is get out now son. Maybe it’s too late, but you might still have a chance to escape the suffering those men endured at the hands of her ghost. I’m sorry.”

Stewart rose to his feet gingerly and shook Leo’s hand like you do at a funeral. The old man picked up his walking stick and hobbled briskly towards the departure gate and onto the plane. Leo had so many answers and so many questions that he sat in the terminal stone silent among the hectic airport announcements and rushing travellers. It was only as he stood up that he realised Stewart had handed him a clipping from a newspaper, small enough to fit into a wallet. It read, “Teen singer murdered in prison”. Much of the article was too worn to make out. When he turned it over, “Officer S.W. Pierce” was written beside a partially legible quote, “I… let her out of…sight”. Leos blood ran cold. On autopilot, he staggered through the crowded airport, bumping into suitcases and travellers until finding a seat in the pilot’s lounge that faced a wall. His mind in the clouds and a storm was coming.
Once Leo made his return flight to McGarry he slowly walked to The Old Prison apartments on a dreary autumn afternoon, the former prison somehow looked even more forlorn than the sky above. At the foot of the stairs that seemed to be the origin of his worries, he stopped momentarily, running over Stewarts warning. He weighed up his options; He was over a hundred kilometres from home, in debt, had no friends at Zanussi he felt comfortable enough with yet, that could offer him a bed for the night and had a shift in a few days. In his mind, he had no choice but to climb those stairs and he did so for the last time that night.

Leo Frissell lay in bed for an hour. The fear kept him awake, yet all the worry made him tired and he drifted off to sleep until 2am. His body was found hanging from the single lighting fixture in front of the lone window in his room. His death was ruled as suicide. His co-workers revealed to the police that he had been complaining of night terrors attributed to depression likely brought on by work related stress. His parents admitted that he had become distant since moving to McGarry and although they
asked him to visit at their expense, he never took up their offer.

What the coroner’s and police's report failed to mention was that a series of unfortunate events brought Leo to an early grave. In the years prior to its use as an apartment block, The Old Prison
hosted an annual party on the 21^st of October, the first day of winter, to liven up the spirits of its inmates and to curb the rate of suicide between its walls. The party consisted of music and dancing and tasty food. The main course of the event would be short performances from some local musicians who volunteered their time. 1960 saw the final year of the party and the opening act was a brave young girl of 17 named Scarlett Goulding. Scarlett stood up in front of the lively, and at this point, sober audience. She strummed her guitar, sung a few country ballads and stepped down from the stage after three songs. At the behest of the warden it was suggested that she leave immediately following the performance, but she decided to stick around for the remaining singers. Although under the protection of an armed guard, a small fight broke out between two inmates at the interval and his attention was drawn to the scuffle. Scarlett’s eyes were drawn to the fight too.

A hand reached for her mouth to cover her screams and two more hands grabbed a hold of Scarlett’s body. She was rushed into a dark stairwell by two sober, cunning, cruel inmates. She managed to slip from their control momentarily, racing down the stairs for fourteen steps before the men caught up with her. The overzealous inmates demanded she stop screaming. When she failed to obey their orders, they twisted her neck. The two inmates responsible evaded detection and made it back to the party just as the prison guards found Scarlett’s lifeless corpse lying on the stairwell. She was rushed to the local infirmary, but was pronounced dead upon arrival.

The town of McGarry was appalled at these crimes. Following failed attempts at finding the inmates responsible for Scarlett Goulding’s rape and murder, the prison who felt the eyes of the town on them, sent a series of prisoners into solitary confinement to use as scapegoats to quell the fury of the public. Those responsible for her death remain unknown to all but the perpetrators and the victim, and may never have been sent to solitary confinement themselves. On the one-year anniversary of Scarlett’s death the three inmates held in each of the cells used for solitary confinement all committed suicide. This occurred every year until The Old Prison closed down in 1965 and against the warning of the former occupants was renovated into apartments in 1991. Leo Frissell was pronounced dead on 21st October 2007. The Old Prison apartments are still standing in the town of McGarry today.

Side Note; This was a short story sent to me by Gerard Gilroy, a friend of mine who is also a fan of telling sinister tales. Hopefully he will add further contributions in the future.