Mavis, my cell mate, escaped once. Said he’d be back to free us once he found a way past The Shadow. Then, he’d taken off, down the long corridor where jailbirds pounded and cheered. He’d been the only one in years daring enough to attempt escaping. And then he was gone. His screams could be heard echoing around this hellhole. Swallowed by the abyss. He’d failed. Since then, no one dared to try to escape again.

Until now.

I’d been terrified to meet the same fate Mavis had. That is, until the Greens had imprisoned Gale, the love of my life. Now, I’d do anything to free her. She doesn’t deserve this, just because she fell in love with a Red. I had to free her.

So, I opened the cell. Yes, it’s unlocked. None of us are locked in cells. We are free to venture as far as we choose. But most of us don’t make it back. There are no guards of any kind, our meals appear at designated times. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Truth be told, the meals are our only way of knowing what time it is. Most prisoners here go crazy from boredom. All we can do is sleep and play whatever games we can come up with. But once all the games have been played, and we’ve slept the sleep away, we have nothing.

Most dragon meals as long as possible, to preoccupy themselves. Others do nothing but twiddle their thumbs and wait until their mind slips into insanity.

We have a community of a sort here. Once a man goes crazy, The Big Guys come in and free the cell mate, locking Mr. Crazy inside. We’d provide them with a bucket and move the cell mate into an empty cell.

We are given nothing, no objects of any kind. They don’t want us to die, that would make it too easy. No, they want us to rot. They want us to go crazy and sit alone in a cell. Alone until we get old and wither, awaiting death. Some find a way to end their suffering, though. Some use jackets we are provided during winter seasons to hang themselves. Or they enter a “crazy cell”, and let the psychos beat them to death.

Gale won’t last. She spends her days on the bed, rocking. Sleeping as often as possible, dragging on meals until the flies finish it off. Most of the jailbirds have become like a family, we have to. If we fight or argue, our sanity will dissipate faster than ever. The smaller kids would be isolated or sent to The Shadow to die. Instead, they are sent to stay in my cell with Gale to distract her from the growing boredom.