pWhen she woke up, it took a while to realize that there were no bars on her windows, that she was in a bed rather than a cot, that no one was going to try to make her their bitch before she introduced them to Mr. Left Fist, Miss Super Strength, and their bastard child, How Many Cigarettes Are You Worth./p

pShe took a cold shower and began to get dressed before she went to check the window and saw that it was nearly sunset./p

pShe hadn't realized how late she'd slept. She wasn't used to not getting woken up at the crack of dawn to comments like "oh my god, Tess just shoved a knife she'd made from the spring under her cot into her gut!"/p

pAnd then it would all come back to her, and she couldn't get back to sleep./p

pShe'd missed everything. She didn't regret it, but she missed it anyway./p

pThey didn't miss her./p

pShe'd thought they might, but when she showed up, fresh out of her coma, she was nothing but a problem to them./p

pNo "Hey, how are you, sorry about that whole nearly-killing-you thing". No "Well, now that Angel's gone, we're okay, right?"/p

pNot even a visit in the hospital. Nothing since before graduation./p

pShe could still feel her warm lips on her forehead./p

pNot that it mattered./p

pShe was just another problem, another thing they'd have to kill./p

pShe didn't need them anymore, she decided as she pulled on her leather jacket, the last item she needed to wear. She had the clothes on her back, the mannequin, and the knowledge of how to kill someone with the underwire to her bra./p

pPrison life was filled with important life skills./p