The Original Sam

This is the Second Draft index post for Trace. (I've succumbed. There's no other title for it. Trace, irrelevant as it is, it shall be.)

Trace

Colin Byrne is a pickpocket, an artist, and an occasional consultant for the police. He's also an ex-felon, an initiate into the unspoken, unseen magic that only prisoners know: how to disappear, how to tell fortunes, how to steal souls. Now NYPD detective Joseph Wright, the man who put him in prison and saved him when he got out, wants him to return to Railburg State Correctional Facility to help investigate a case.

Some things at Railburg haven't changed. His protégé Noel is still the best ink artist in the prison, and their mentor Gutierrez still talks to God. The gangs are still the ones with all the power. But some things are different -- there's a young Blood named Laney who sees demons, and another prisoner Colin helped put away is slowly poisoning Railburg's food. With mysterious forces aiming to incite a riot and the Aryan Brotherhood constantly harassing Laney, Colin has bigger problems than the one he went to Railburg to solve.

Until Joseph arrives at Railburg, posing as a guard, and Colin discovers Joseph might now be just as dangerous as anything else in the prison...

Because of the variety of length, chapters have been posted in sets of three per post.

Chapters 1, 2, & 3 | Chapters 4, 5, & 6 | Chapters 7, 8, & 9 | Chapters 10, 11, & 12
Chapters 13, 14, & 15 | Chapters 16, 17, & 18 | Chapters 19, 20, & 21 | Chapters 22, 23, 24, & 25