magisternihil's 100-word story for July 22, 2025

magisternihil wrote the following micro-story on Hectalex on July 22, 2025. Each story on Hectalex is inspired by a daily visual prompt and must be exactly 100 words.

As prisons went, it was supposed to be ideal. The structure was designed to be expandable, with new specially-designed pods simply locking into the existing substructure. Then the new government started making more things illegal, and acts that had been previously acceptable now became offenses worthy of confinement. Unfortunately, the new laws were not always made known until a person was arrested. The prisons expanded to fill the cities. Before long the cities began to combine, until the entire country was nothing but cells. They still called it progress. The streets were indeed safer. There were no longer any streets.

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