a little room and a sturdy jacket (description)

I have a room. No windows, just four walls, a ceiling, and a floor. There's a door, but I don't use it much, personally, just to recieve my daily loaf of bread and pitcher of water through the slot at the bottom.

Sometimes I imagine there's more to this room than the soft white walls and floor and ceiling so high, it echoes when I scream, like in a church cathedral. But at least churches give you something pretty to look at so you don't even want to think about screaming: Stained glass windows.

I pretend there's a window in my room. I like to sit there and poke my head between the red velvet curtains and squint past the grimy glass and metal bars.

Before me stretches the city in all it's foul beauty. Smoke funnels from the chimnies of mills and bake houses, pitch black against the cloudy grey sky. In the distance, half-hidden by this acrid fog, I can barely make out the outline of a clock tower and if I press my ear to the glass, I can feel the subtle vibrations of its vast internal machinery, ticking...

***

Jasper's jacket is made 'o the sturdiest material. A stiff fabric, like a canvas yeh paint on. It's white... Well, it was white once, but wif the way 'e carries on in there, I expect it'd be brown by now, ripped ter shreds if it weren't so damn sturdy. Not that I'm complaining, mind. I just wish to impress upon you the violent nature of it.

Some say we should treat 'em better, but I say let 'em rot in that room there. What 'e done ter his family is a sin, it is. Oh, but 'e'll get 'is own at the gallows come Friday and then it'll be God 'e answers ter, not me...

We tried ter bring 'em up once, ter see how the others take ter 'em. Well, 'e took ter them like a wolf takes ter meat and twice as vicious. Nearly bit me finger off, 'e did. It was back to the basement wif 'em after that.

Now 'e just sits wif his face pressed against the wall, laughing 'is 'ead off and when I come down to bring 'em food, 'e snickers and says, real quiet like, "I'll bet a finger's twice as nice, but I can't afford the price..."