3rd POV
The morning shift change at the prison began like any other day. Guards shuffled through their routines, checking cells, making their rounds, their boots clattering against the cold, concrete floors. The air was thick with the staleness of confinement, carrying the faint echoes of the prisoners’ murmurs and chains.
Down in the lower levels, where the most dangerous or most heavily watched inmates were kept, the atmosphere was heavier. It was quieter too, though not in a peaceful way. The silence in Kenneth’s cell seemed unnatural, even more so after the intense interrogations and beatings of the past days. The guards approaching his cell felt it as soon as they got close—the stillness, the cold air that seemed to hang heavier in that part of the prison.
One of the newer guards,
