I was asleep in Solitary, having yet another Slasher nightmare, when that godawful noise woke me. I rolled over and went back to sleep, hoping not to dream.

 

There's nothing an inmate can do about any event, especially not on a prison barge in deep space. You're informed, either officially or through the GenPop grapevine. There's no grapevine here in the Solitary Confinement Module, though, so I'd have to ask a robot guard about the noise. I'd see one at breakfast.

 

Except breakfast didn't come.

 

I woke up ravenous, saw my tray hadn't arrived, and knew something serious was wrong. Pounding on the cell door would do nothing, so I sat down to think things through.

 

That's when Pop-pop showed up.

 

"You gotta get outta here, Hoss," he said. "I cain't keep him out no more. I'm too tired."

 

My grandfather died when I was six: old, tired, heartbroken when Ma remarried a man who beat her.

 

"It's okay, Pop-pop," I said. "I can handle Randy. I whupped him when I was fourteen."

 

"Randy ain't the trouble," the old man said. "He- Oh! Oh Lordy, I felt that one. I gotta go, Hoss. Sorry I cain't..."

 

He faded from sight, and I was alone in the cell.

 

I'm not one to see ghosts, but they say it happens in Solitary. Even if it was just me cracking up, though, I still needed to find help. The Slasher nightmares were already too much. He'd killed them, but I kept dreaming the knife in MY hand...

 

Took hours to pop the lock. Bunk would never be the same again. Ah, well.

 

That got me into a corridor with five empty cells and a gate. I reached through the bars and went by feel. Prisons are designed to keep us locked in, though I always wonder why. Even if we all escape, it's outer space. Long cold walk back to Catalina.

 

"Maybe they realized you ain't worth bothering with, Kid."

 

I didn't bother to look. "I'm not a kid anymore, Randy."

 

"Yeah, and I'm dead. Don't stop me being here."

 

"Didn't ask you to come." I felt the lock turn.

 

"You never did understand, you little shit," he said bitterly. "I kept trying to teach you: Don't make trouble. Too damn stubborn."

 

I turned. He was the same weasel I remembered, stinking of sour sweat and Old Spice. His disappointment didn't bother me.

 

"I learned, you rat. Learned to stand up. Fight. Protect my own."

 

"Yeah, look where that got you," he spat. "You never learned my lesson."

 

That stopped me for a second. "You picked a piss-poor teaching method."

 

"Only way I knew, learned from my own daddy. You're right, though. Coulda woulda shoulda." He sighed. "But I never guv up on you, boy. That's why I'm here. You gonna have to face him."

 

"Him who?"

 

"He wants you, taking credit for his kills. Man up!" Randy started to fade.

 

Oh Hell, he means the Slasher.

 

I forced myself to say it: "Thanks for the warning, Randy." Then he was gone.

 

I still despised the man, but I no longer feared him. He was merely slime, cowardly, more weak than evil. The Slasher, though... He'd set me up long ago, a locked-room mystery with eight bodies and only me who coulda done it. His ninth victim. After I got sentenced, I'd thought he was finished with me.

 

Bloody knife... MY hand...

 

No more time for nightmares. Desperately, I looked around. The entryway had one hatch, a thick one leading back to the main ship. I walked up and looked through the small window, but instead of the corridor I expected to see, there was... nothing. Nothing at all.

 

I shielded the window with my hands and strained to see anything other than plain black. Could those be... stars?

 

"They jettisoned you, pally. That was the noise."

 

I spun around. "H-hey, Chase. I didn't expect you."

 

He smiled gently. "No, I don't guess you did. Came to warn you."

 

"Chase, I betrayed you, got you killed," I said. "I didn't mean for you to die, I'm sorry about that, but the set-up — it was about money. Why would you...?"

 

"I never blamed you, pally. It was business. I'd have done the same, and you know it. Now I can do you a solid, and it doesn't cost me." He leaned in close, and I swear I could smell the TicTac on his breath. "He's coming. You can't beat him."

 

"But how—" I gestured at the hatch, the sealed office, the complete absence of controls, any way to do anything.

 

"I don't know from spaceships, pally. I only know this: You can't survive, not alone. You need other people — or else. We've kept him away as long as we can, but he's just too strong." He smiled sadly, then began to fade.

 

"But how can anyone possibly get in?" I asked, frantic.

 

"He's inside already, pally." Chase vanished.

 

But how? How could the Slasher be here? I'm all alone, surrounded by deep space on all sides!

 

The courts didn't believe me. Hell, even my own lawyer refused to accept my innocence. I rated prison, sure, but not for that. It was unspeakable, what he'd done.

 

How could he even find me way out here? He's just a man!

 

...MY hand...

 

I'm taking no chances. Going back into the cells. I'll lock myself in, barricade the doors, and leave this account behind in case the worst happens.

 

At least if he gets me, everyone will know the truth: I'm innocent!

 

* * *

 

MISSING PRISONER DISCOVERED DEAD

Dateline, Cirtus Prison Barge, SY2832.604

A prisoner who was reported missing after the accidental ejection of his solitary confinement pod was discovered dead this morning, the result of blood loss due to multiple incisions on his body. Video shows no record of any assailant entering the pod, and no weapon was found...