Two hundred and twenty five years. What an utterly ridiculous prison sentence that was to hand out. Why didn't they just say life in prison without the possibility of release? Tessa Blanchard didn't have an answer to that question. What she did know was that she was about to enter Stamford Correctional Facility for Women, and would never leave again, unless she was transferred. That made describing the place as correctional pretty stupid, too.
The prison van that had transported Tessa to her new home had arrived at its destination. She only knew that because the rear door opened. The guard who had been sitting across from her in the van for the past two hours got off his seat and crouched down to unfasten the rings around her ankles.
"Don't try anything," he warned her. It was the first exchange of words between them. Tessa had spent the entire ride glaring at him, looking right at him so that they made eye contact unless he chose to look somewhere else. She hoped it had made him feel uneasy.
"Do I frighten you, sir?" she asked, putting no respect on the supposedly polite form of address.
"Shut your mouth and move," she was told, her ankles freed from their restraints.
Two burly male guards from the prison facility were waiting at the back of the van to take charge of her. Tessa didn't bother to cause a fuss or try to go against what she was being told to do, knowing that it would only result in her getting filled in with their battens before being dragged inside. Prison guards didn't fuck around with cop killers, she had learned that lesson the hard way long before her trial.
The two Stamford guards helped Tessa down from the van, each one of them roughly taking one of her arms to frogmarch her in through the nearby entrance door that was being held open by another guard.
"She's your prisoner," the guard from the van said to the other two, formally completing the hand over. "Don't do anything to her that I wouldn't do."
Tessa didn't look back at him. She would never see him again, so there would have been no point. In any event, she was quickly bustled in through the door, which was slammed shut behind her by the third guard. She was then taken through a metal gate, which was locked behind her by the third guard. She found herself in a processing room much like the one she had gone through many times at her previous prison. Two female guards we waiting to deal with her.
At some point, out of Tessa's sight, the clear plastic bag containing the few pathetic possessions she was allowed had been handed over to guard number three. He dumped it on the desk in front of the two female guards and turned to leave, glaring at Tessa in the process. She didn't dignify him with a response of any kind.
Now that she was safely inside the prison, with no possibility of escape, the two guards who had brought her inside set about taking off the rest of her restraints.
"Step out of line, these will go back on, and you'll find yourself in solitary," one of them warned.
Again, Tessa didn't bother responding. Those two would soon disappear anyway. She knew enough about the system by now to know that they wouldn't be guards from the cell block she was being put on. The two women, however, would be. They were both blondes. One had shorter hair, was quite pretty, and didn't look much like a prison guard. The other had longer hair, a mole on her cheek, and looked like she could be a mean bitch when she wanted to.
"Step forward," shorter hair ordered. "Confirm your name, please."
Tessa stepped up to the table. "Tessa Blanchard, July 26th 1995." She then gave her prisoner number, answering the three questions that would be necessary in one go. The details were checked against a list. Meanwhile, the stern-faced woman was going through the bag of possessions in case anything was being smuggled in. Nothing was.
Shorter hair set a light grey shirt and a dark grey pair of pants on the table. "Your new uniform. You will go behind the screen over there to change into it."
Longer hair made a show up snapping a pair of black latex gloves onto her hands, giving Tessa a look that showed she enjoyed what she had to say. "But first, a full cavity search."
"Of course," Tessa said wryly. It was unnecessary, but it would be done anyway, just to give her a rough time. Predictably, they had decided to give the cop killer as 'warm' a welcome as they could. "Are you at least going to introduce yourselves before you molest me?"
Longer hair took on the task, starting with her own name. "Guard Rousey. This is Guard Young. You may address us as Ms or ma'am."
"What about cunt?" Tessa suggested.
"Try it, see where it gets you. Now, get behind the screen."
Tessa walked behind the screen, where she was given a full cavity search by Rousey, with Young watching on to make sure everything was above board, and to step in if Tessa kicked off. She wasn't going to give them the satisfaction.
When the search was over, Young handed Tessa her uniform, and she put it on. For the rest of her life, this miserable shit was what she was going to have to wear. At least it was comfy, she supposed.
"Take your things," Rousey instructed. "We're going to take you onto B Block now. It's currently on lock down after an incident this morning, so you'll be in your cell until dinner."
"Have I got a cellmate, or am I by myself?"
"You have a cellmate," Young said, choosing not to elaborate as both guards removed their gloves and dropped them in a plastic bin.
With that, Tessa took her bag of belongings and was escorted through two more locked metal gates, onto the block. She found herself walking into what passed for a leisure area. There was a pool table, which currently had no balls or cues on it, and a seating area with a TV high up on the wall. The TV was switched off. There was a metal gate in the far corner that Tessa assumed was where people came from the staff areas, and from other blocks.
Escorted further in, Tessa walked through a dining area, with plastic tables and chairs that were bolted to the floor. On the far side of the area was a wide serving hatch that was closed with a metal shutter. At meal times, prisoners who worked in the kitchen would serve the other prisoners with their meals from there, Tessa knew.
"Lifers are on the first floor," Young said, heading for a set of metal stairs. The ground floor was separated from the upper floor by netting, so that nothing could be thrown down from there at prisoners or guards. Thinking of guards, Tessa noticed that there were no others in sight. With the prisoners locked down, they were probably in the staff room with their feet up, drinking coffee, she thought with contempt.
"This way," Rousey said when they got to the top of the stairs. She turned right at the top, then left to walk down the landing. "Cell 118 is going to be yours, unless you give us a reason to put you in solitary."
And I'm sure you're looking for any little reason you can find, Tessa thought, continuing to keep her mouth shut.
Reaching cell 118, Rousey set about unlocking the door.
"Dinner is at five. You get an hour," Young said. "After that, there is an hour for recreational time, counselling or religious services. Your personal officer will talk to you about all of that tomorrow morning. For tonight, you'll be back to your cell after dinner."
Tessa nodded to convey her understanding.
"In you go," Rousey said, pushing the door open. "Deville, you have a cellmate," she said to the cell's inhabitant as Tessa walked in, before closing the door and locking it.
A dark haired woman with tattoos all up her side and big nose sat up on the bottom of the cell's two bunks, swinging her legs around to the floor. Big nose or not, she was attractive.
"Well, shit," the woman said. "If it ain't the Queen of Diamonds. We heard you were coming here. I guess there's no need to wonder what you're in for, they've been covering your trial on the news."
"It's good manners to introduce yourself before you go on a monologue," Tessa said in a tone that certainly wasn't friendly.
"Sonya Deville," the woman announced.
"Since you know what I'm in for, I think you should tell me what you're in for."
Sonya gave a single laugh. "Certainly nothing that compares to being a con artist and jewellery thief so high up the wanted list that the FBI gave you a special name, or that compares to shooting four cops dead."
"That's what I'm in for. I wanted to know what you're in for," Tessa said, still standing in the middle of the cell.
"Murder. All of the lifers in this block are in for murder. I killed two people, and that's all I'm saying until I know you better."
"Fair enough," Tessa shrugged. Approaching the bunks, she threw her bag of belongings on to the top one. "I guess I'm up here."
"You are for now. Hopefully I won't be your cellmate for long."
"Meaning?" Tessa demanded, ready to take offence.
"I'm supposed to share with my girlfriend. We've been moved to separate cells for fighting."
"You had a fight with your girlfriend?" Tessa asked with raised eyebrows, realising that Deville had meant a physical altercation, not a verbal one.
"We weren't fighting each other, we were fighting together. We beat the fuck out of another woman."
Tessa couldn't help grinning at that. "Oh. That makes more sense." Her first impression of Sonya wasn't too bad, so climbed up onto her bunk and lay down. "What are the guards like in here? That Rousey woman looks like a hard case."
"Yep," Sonya laughed, sounding like she was recalling something. "She's one not to fuck with if you can help it."
Tessa grunted, unimpressed. "What about Young?"
"She's nice, honestly. She's my personal officer, and she's done a lot for me."
"Nice to know they're not all assholes."
Sonya got up and went over to the water fountain in the corner of the cell for a drink. "Some of them are okay with most of us. I don't like your chances much. You killed four cops. Apart from fucking or killing kids, that's as low as it gets with the guards."
"Armed police turned up when I was robbing a jewellery store. They were ready to start shooting at me, so I started shooting at them. There was a gun fight. It's not my fault they didn't know I used to be a marine, and I was better at gun fights than they were."
The look on Sonya's face confirmed what Tessa had been expecting. She had a reputation with the inmates ahead of her arrival. That was good. Killing cops had probably won her favour with a lot of them.
After a moment, Tessa fixed her gaze on Sonya. "So, who's the Head Bitch in Charge in this hole?"
"Charlotte Flair," Sonya replied without needing to think about the answer.
Tessa allowed a smirk to appear on her face. "Not anymore."
A/N: Thank you for checking out this first chapter! I'd love to know what you thought of it.
If there are any people you would like to see in the prison, whether as guards or inmates, let me know!