The bright yellow baggy jumpsuit that Cora had been given was itchy. Cora scratched irritably. The material felt coarse and roughly made. She stepped outside the changing room. Another guard was there.
"All right, Merandez." he sneered in Spanish. "Back to your cell." Cora glared at the guard bitterly, but followed, doing her best to ignore the sneers and smirks of the other prisoners as she strode down the hall in what she hoped was a confident manner. She was stopped at a cell that was identical to her own, except instead of a cot there was a bunk bed, and a young man was scowling on the bottom bunk.
"Why are we stopping here?" Cora was puzzled.
"Ruben Salven, this is Cora Merandez. Cora, this is Ruben." the guard said.
"Wait, you want to put me into a cell with him?!" Cora yelped. "You can't do that!"
"Ruben is a special case. Solitary confinement only makes matters worse." explained the guard. Salven was staring at Cora with a rather hungry look in his eyes. Cora wondered if this was what the guard was talking about when he spoke of complications and lack of funding.
"I'll go into Solitary Confinement." Cora volenteered bravely. The guard chuckled.
"Nice try." he unlocked the cell door and slid it open, giving Cora a none too gentle push inside, leaving her staring at Ruben Salven.
"Hola." Salven said with a slight, greasy grin. Cora found herself backing off, and the grin faded off Salven's face.
"Hola?" Cora said tentavely. Salven spoke in heavily accented, furious English.
"Oh, you're too good for jail now?"
"What?" Cora was baffled, then she glanced at her pale hands. Oh. He thought that she was an American. She sighed and scaled the ladder to the top bunk without saying another word. It was pointless. Americans were despised for their greed and explotation. In some ways, the Mexicans were being just as bad about it as the Americans.
"Don't you ignore me, you bitch!" Salven shouted, pacing across the room. The legs of his yellow jumpsuit, akin to Cora's, made a whisk, whisk sound.
"Anger problems?" Cora asked, draping herself slightly over the railing of the top bunk to give a sardonic grin to Salven. To her surprise, he seized her forearm and dragged her down, sending her toppling onto the hard concrete floor. She let out a cry as her elbow banged painfully against the floor.
"Got you now, Merandez." Salven grinned, brushing his long hair out of his eyes. He had surprising strength for such a scrawny guy.
"What was that for?" Cora said sitting up painfully and rubbing her elbow. Salven didn't answer, but drew his footback and sent a painful kick to Cora's jaw. Cora went skidding back two paces on her back, with a dull thud going on through her jaw.
"That," Salven said in a satisfied way "Is for ignoring me, American."
"I was born and bred in Mexico, you idiot!" Cora snapped, getting to her feet. "So you shut your filthy mouth!"
Ruben laughed, then sat down on the bottom bunk and shook his head. HIs greasy hair swung back and forth as he turned his head.
"You think that makes any difference? Your father is one of the ones who enslaved my father. For what? A penny a day! Not enough to feed a family!"
"How the hell do you know about my father?" Cora tsked. She was positive that there would be brusing on her elbow and face now.
"I had a little chat with the guard." Salven said smugly.
"Up yours." Cora painfully got to her feet. She was considering asking the guard to shoot Salven. Or to push forward the date of her excecution. Either would be good. Odd, that she'd rather face death than a guy who looked like he was only ninety pounds.
Salven gave a harsh laugh and swung up to the top bunk. Cora flopped on the bottom bunk and fell into a light sleep, often interrupted by Salven's soft muttering to himself.

It was three days later, and the swelling on Cora's face and elbow was only beginning to go down. To make matters worse, there was a pain in her stomach that was dull, but never-fading.
Cora was going to die with a purple jawline, a black elbow, and an upset tummy. Wasn't life just spectacular? She looked up, surprise in her face as one of the guards opened up the door. It wasn't time to be let out into the courtyard (one of the side districts of Hell), or the cafeteria (the Sixth Circle of Hell), or anything like that.
Salven had taken notice of this odd occurance too. He swung off the top bunk where he usually stayed, landing on his feet with an agility that he rarely showed, even when he wasn't lounging on the top bunk. He spoke in a string of agitated Spanish that Cora couldn't keep up with.
"Salven, Merandez." the guard said silently.
"What is it?" Cora asked in English, then repeated it in Spanish. Speaking English in this living hell had gotten her quite a few knocks and bruises. Once a knife had flashed. Cora still wasn't quite over the shock of that. She was having nightmares still.
"You two have visitors."
"I told them to go to America." Cora muttered. It had to be Mother or Father. Who else could it be? No one else would come an dvisit a little rag tag assassin. Unless it was the media. Eitherway, Cora was not happy.
Ruben merely grinned and cracked his knuckles.
"Lead the way, Senor." he said simply. The guard scowled, but opened the jail cell.
"Cocky, aren't you?" Cora hissed.
"And why not?" Ruben replied.