Chapter 19 - THE VISIT TO THE CAGE AND THE FINAL GHOST
There was one final task she had to complete before she could truly be free.
She had to visit the prison.
The Joliet Correctional Center was a grim,
gray fortress that seemed to suck the color out of the sky.
Noel walked through the security checkpoints,
the sound of buzzing gates and clinking keys a sharp reminder of the world she had escaped.
She sat in the visitor’s room,
separated from the inmates by a thick pane of reinforced glass.
When Darius was led in,
she almost didn't recognize him.
The man who had once commanded rooms with a flick of his wrist was now a shadow,
his hair gray and thin,
his shoulders slumped under the weight of his orange jumpsuit.
He picked up the phone,
his hand trembling.
"Noel,"
he whispered,
his voice a dry,
rasping sound.
"I didn't think you’d come."
"I’m not here for you,
Darius,"
she said,
her voice flat and devoid of emotion.
"I’m here for me."
"I saw the news,"
he said,
his eyes darting around the room.
"The center.
The expansion.
You’ve done well for yourself."
"I’ve done well for everyone you hurt,"
she corrected.
"The people you thought were beneath you are the ones who are building the future now."
Darius laughed,
a bitter,
hollow sound.
"You think you’ve won?
You’re still talking to a man in prison.
You’re still defined by what I did to you."
"No,"
Noel said,
leaning in until her breath fogged the glass.
"I’m defined by what I did afterward.
The slap was the last thing you ever gave me.
Everything since then has been mine."
She looked at him—really looked at him—and saw nothing but a small,
frightened man who had spent his life pretending to be a giant.
The power he had once held over her was gone,
evaporated like the steam from a bowl of soup.
"I forgive you,"
she said.
Darius froze,
his eyes widening in shock.
"You...
what?"
"Not for your sake,"
she explained.
"But because I don't want to carry you anymore.
I don't want your hate or your memory in my heart.
Forgiving you is the final act of letting you go."
She set the phone down.
Darius began to scream,
pounding his fists against the glass,
calling her names,
begging her to stay,
to fight him,
to do anything other than leave him in the silence of his own making.
She didn't look back.
She walked out of the prison,
the heavy iron doors closing behind her with a sound of finality.
The air outside was cold and fresh,
tasting of the coming winter.
She felt a sense of peace so deep it was almost painful.
The ghost was gone.
The phantoms had been laid to rest.
She was Noel Benton.
She was a builder,
a leader,
and a survivor.
May you like
But more than that,
she was herself.
