Divas Prison Ch47
"So you want to know if it's all true right?" The aggression in Ronda's words was as obvious as it was frightening. Paige began to wonder if sitting down was a good plan. But she was sure that she had seen something in the new arrival, something that was worth examining. She had been welcomed to the table they shared, but just as quickly, Ronda had snapped on her.
"If what's true, I don't..."
"Don't give me that." Ronda interrupted. "You're all the same. I haven't had a conversation in months, probably years, however long it's been since I got arrested, that wasn't someone wanting to know if some story or another about me was true. Telling me stories about myself that make me out to be the female Rambo or something, like my life was some kind of damned action film. Even people who seemed afraid of me wanted to ask, even though they had me in their handcuffs all the time."
Paige realised something at that moment. "Ronda, before you came to this block, how many people have you spoken to who weren't guards?"
Ronda didn't answer at first, she looked around the room, looking at each guard in turn with a look of hate before looking down at the table, her hands playing with each other. "One. Just one."
"Well exactly. These assholes live to give us a hard time. They don't care about you, or me, or any of us. Of course that's all they were interested in. Look, I've heard things, of course I have, I'm not going to lie to you. But they are just stories. All of us have stories as to why we're locked away in here, but they are yours to tell. If you ever want to, I'm all ears. You can trust me, and there are others here that you can trust too. If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine too. The reason you're here doesn't make you who you are, not to me. It does to them, and that's why they've all asked questions that much have really made you mad."
"Who says it made me mad?" Ronda's anger was still there, but she sounded more defensive now.
"Because the first time we were face to face, you grabbed me around the throat. I hope you didn't do it for fun." Paige was trying to lighten the mood, and it did go some way to reducing the tension at the table.
"Yes I did, and I'm sorry." Ronda said quietly.
"You already apologised, and I accepted it, it's in the past ok?" Paige said, hoping for agreement, which she got in the form of a nod of the head from Ronda, making Paige feel like she could continue the conversation.
"Besides, you already more than made up for it. I can't repay you in kind for you saving my ass from Mickie and her lot, but I definitely owe you something."
"Do you mean when they tried to get me to join them by knocking you out the other day? You don't need to thank me for that, I was never going to do that. Why would I?"
"Well at the time, I thought I was sunk. I was scared what you'd do to me. Sorry, but I didn't know anything about you then."
Ronda looked upset to hear it. "I don't go around beating people up for fun, or because they are there. That's what I'd have been doing. You,did nothing to me, except possibly show me the first bit of human kindness in a long time.
Paige was confused. "Me? What did I do?"
"After I, you know, tried to choke you, I'm still sorry, I thought you and the other two were going to be more of the same, wanting to know this or that about me, or if some part of the rumours that go around are true. I wasn't ready to entertain anyone at that moment, but I still shouldn't have done what I did."
"Don't dwell on it Ronda. Besides, when you came back later, we shook hands. It's behind us."
"Yeah, and you didn't have to be so cool about it, but you were. Then you offered me a chance to join you and your friends. Nobody has wanted to spend time with me. Then those women just wanted to use me to make their lives better, and potentially do you some serious harm in the process. Hell no. That's not who I am, no matter what they or anyone else thinks. What the hell is their problem anyway?"
Paige could see that Ronda was getting worked up about it all. "Ok, please calm down, you have to remember, you're still very scary. You still put two women to the floor in one punch and it hard to not be afraid."
Ronda took a breath and stopped talking for a while. Paige tried to think of something else to wake her to restart the conversation. "What I mean is, you are clearly good in a fight, those two didn't get a look in before they hit the floor. How did you get so good?"
Asking about something from her past seemed to light something inside the woman that everyone had been afraid of for so long. "Oh, well that's from many, many years of practice. Practice and training. I took up martial arts as a kid. Weekly lessons just to learn how to defend myself. Turned out I was good at it. Got my black belt in judo as a teenager. I studied others as well but that was where my real love was. You know I competed in a lot of tournaments? I know you wouldn't. Nearly qualified for a national competition. Finished third in State, but that wasn't enough. Had to win it. Girl who defeated me won it. I still think I beat her though."
"Yeah, and I bet you did too." Paige said, getting a very quiet, very short laugh from Ronda in return. "Why didn't you try again?"
Ronda shrugged. "There was no money in it, and I didn't want to work minimum wage jobs all my life. I turned to boxing, getting my skills up there, plus there was that MMA stuff getting going. There was a chance for real money there and I got good at it. I thought I was going to be a champion."
So what stopped you? Angelina and Madison are far from the toughest girls in here, but you still put them down in what I'm guessing was one punch each? Truth was I had my eyes closed at the time."
"Those two could be knocked down by a feather." Ronda smirked to herself, but Paige spotted it and Ronda knew she had. "Ok ok, so I miss competing, but that doesn't make me a monster."
"Of course it doesn't, and you definitely don't seem like a monster to me. Still scary though, I still wouldn't dare mess with you."
"Paige, you don't need to be scared, you have nothing to fear from me."
"Thanks Ronda. You really have seemed different, at least o me since you came back from that visit they took you too. I never get visits, seeing that really makes me wish that I did."
"Visit? I've haven't had visitors."
"Then who was that Dan guy you went off to?"
"Oh, he's, well, he's my counsellor. He's helped me with anger issues that I had and then he helped me deal with coming onto a block with you all, to help me deal with being around people again. He's been amazing. Seeing him is definitely the best part of my life right now." Ronda had no knowledge of how to mask her feelings, and it would have been obvious to everyone on the block when Ronda looked down, went bright red and started to play with her hair. Luckily for her, Paige was the only one looking, and she figured it out right away.
"Oh my god, you're hot for him, aren't you?"
Ronda looked horrified, not because it wasn't true, but because she couldn't believe she'd been rumbled. "What? No! Of course not, why would you think that, he's helping me with things." Her quick talking speed and rambling did nothing to help her case.
"It's ok to be, Ronda, I know that feeling all too well. And I promise you, letting it out can only be a good thing, it was for me." Paige said, looking at Becky, expecting her to be staring back, considering how concerned she was at Paige talking to Ronda in the first place, but Becky's attention was firmly on something in the distance, but it wasn't clear what, nor was it the time to find out. "Go on, be honest, think about him and see what you feel."
Ronda squirmed in the seat, trying to avoid any eye contact. "No, I, it's not that, it's just, but, oh ok dammit! Yes, I've got the biggest thing for him. It's stupid, it's pointless, it'll never lead to anything, but he makes me feel like a damned schoolgirl with a crush. There. You happy now?"
"Yes I am, and so should you be. Because now we can start to put a plan together."
"A plan?"
"Yes, a plan. Now we both know it's not going to end in marriage and kids, but that doesn't mean you can't get a different kind of happy ending, right?"
"You mean?" Ronda asked, knowing the answer.
Paige nodded. "We will do what we can to get you at least a piece of him."
"A piece, no way, I want the whole thing." Ronda stated, her tone showing how much she wanted it. Both women shared a laugh at her comment. "Thank you Paige, I don't know why, but you really are being a friend."
"Like I said, we all need one, or more. Whatever your story is, it isn't who you are." Paige replied, putting Ronda deep in thought.
"I should probably get back, Becky is going to be going crazy, would you like to come with me?" Paige asked but Ronda didn't answer. Paige froze when she saw something she didn't expect, a tear roll down her cheek.
Ronda started talking without looking up, finding the words hard to get out. "I...I stopped competing because I got pregnant. It sounds obvious, but it wasn't just being pregnant, it was having my baby girl. I didn't want to be away from her for a second. She was my whole world. Five years old. Only a week from her sixth birthday. I had everything planned, then I made the biggest mistake of my life. Took a shortcut home from picking her up from school. There was a gunfight going on. I must have been down that road a thousand times. I stopped the car but it was too late, a bullet went into the car and took my baby away. It was quick at least, I don't think she suffered. But I did. I will for the rest of my life, whether I spend it in prison or not, and I know I will."
"I'm so sorry Ronda. I can't say I know how that must have felt." Paige said, but it didn't make an impact on Ronda who had that look on her face that had frightened Paige and others before.
"I went back there, I didn't know what else to do. Everyone was trying to help me, work sent me home. And I saw one of them. One of them I recognised. And he was laughing. Laughing like everything was fine. Like he didn't care that he killed a helpless little girl. And I saw who he was laughing with, or at least one of them I recognised. Stephanie McMahon. The daughter of the Governor. I asked around as to why she'd be hanging around people who were trying to kill each other. Nobody believed me at the time, but I found out she was running illegal activities all over the place, and the building they were outside, where they shot my baby from, was hers. They said they were probably having to fight off gangbangers from trying to either take or destroy their operation. The police were no help, said there wasn't enough evidence, probably on her payroll too. I couldn't take knowing all of that. I went to confront her. I waited in front of that building for days before she showed up, but she had people with her when she did. I should have waited, but in my grief and desperation. I just walked in, went past several people, found her in an office. I lost it at that point. I started screaming at her. I wanted to know what was worth more than my daughters life. But she just sat there. With this look on her face I will never forget. She didn't care, not about me, or about my daughter. Probably about nothing but the big bundles of cash that sat on the desk. She took them off, put them away, but I saw them. I went towards her but some of her goons came in and they grabbed me. Two big men, one on each of my arms. You know what she said to them? "She's a problem, get rid of her." No emotion at all. They dragged me out and into another room, must have been to the other end of the building. One of them held me while the other one got his gun out. I should have been dead, but they didn't expect me to be able to fight back. I was able to get an arm free and take the one who held me down. The other was so surprised he didn't fire. I grabbed his arm, I think I broke it, but he dropped the gun either way. While the happened the first one pulled his gun out and fired. I got the other one in between us so he took the bullet. I grabbed the gun on the floor and shot the first one. I'd never even held a gun before. And suddenly I'm in the room with two dead bodies. One of the guns had a silencer thing on it, which means only one shot rang out, which was a good thing and a bad thing. It meant that evil bitch didn't run, she expected one shot, that killed me. But I guess it must have been heard, because someone called the police. They said someone heard the shot." Ronda clenched her fists in frustration.
"It's ok Ronda." Paige said, putting her hand over one fist. "Don't get angry. That's what you want to avoid right?"
"Right." Ronda conceded. She knew how angry it made her. "I don't mean to get mad, not with you. But I'll never be peaceful. I just need to keep it down, unless I need it."
"Nothing wrong with that." Paige said. "If you want to stop, we can change the subject."
Ronda took a breath. "No. I need to finish. Without getting worked up. I wanted to find McMahon. I had to. She had to pay for it. There was another guy with her, just outside the office she had. He pulled a gun as well, I just managed to shoot first. She went to run, but she isn't much of a runner. I caught up to her and dragged her back to the office. She was begging for her life the whole way. Sorry, I can't help smiling at that. Not that I could take it in at the time, I was reeling at having shot people."
"I bet you were. How did you get over it?" Paige asked.
"By shutting down. It's why I was so cold, so uncaring, being ready to take anyone's head off that asked. But not anymore. At that moment, I was screaming at that bitch. McMahon I mean. She took my daughter from me, and she should pay for what she did. She pleaded with me to spare her life, but I was never going to kill her. I wanted justice for my daughter. It was at that point the police came running in. I was never given a chance to say much. They all had guns on me. I tried to explain what she's done, I challenged them to search the place. At that point McMahon got aggressive, going on how I killed all her workers and was going to kill her too. Anything to distract them. I don't know what they would have found if they tried searching the place, but I bet it would have put her behind bars. Of course, the cops only listened to her, made me drop the gun and put my hands behind my back. As they put handcuffs on me, she had this smug look spread on her face. I pulled away from them, and I promised her that she wouldn't be able to run forever. I promised her I'd see her again, and when I did, she'll suffer agonising pain for as long as she lives. They dragged me off after that, took me to jail, but she didn't look so smug anymore. Im sure she had a lot to do with my bullshit conviction, let alone my solitary confinement, but the thought that I might still have a chance to get my hands on her again is what keeps me going. I might be locked up for life, and I'll wait for as long as I have to, but her luck will run out, and I will be waiting for her." Ronda stopped, feeling angry once more, but couldn't say much when she saw Paige was sat with her jaw dropped. "Um, you ok?"
Ronda snapped her fingers to bring Paige around. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine, but that was badass, especially when you got to her. Do you wish you had shot her then?"
"Sometimes. But at the time I didn't think I'd be convicted of killing the men who tried to kill me. It was all self defence, but she has too much influence, got me the death penalty. On death row I wished I had, then I'd have been going to the chair for something I did. But my lawyers got a lot of support from charities and kept fighting, they told me there was a lot of support for me, there were some people who believed the truth. They got the death sentence commuted, and then got me out of solitary."
"Yeah, I know someone in the office you'll have to thank in part for that." Paige said, thinking of Charlotte.
"I will. Thanks for listening to me. It feels great to have someone to talk to who wants to talk to me. I didn't want you to always wonder about me. You can tell people if you want to, Or they can ask me, as long you trust them."
Paige smiled. "That's what friends are for. Actually, on that front, I need to introduce you to someone. Becky, my girlfriend."
"Girlfriend?" Ronda asked quizzically but with no malice. "You mean you're...?"
"Yeah. She was, and is my cellmate, but we became close, and well, I love her. That's not a problem is it?"
Ronda shook her head. "Not at all. It's not my deal as you know, but it's not a problem for me. Where is she?"
"You mean you can't tell?" Paige laughed. "She's probably staring at us now, worried about me. It's not you, she just worries about me. It's sweet. Becky?" Paige turned looking for Becky, and when she spotted her orange hair, she saw something that made her stomach turn. "Becky! She screamed as she broke out into a near run.
Becky was being held down over a table by a guard as she was being given a full pat down by Lana. Lana saw Paige approach and signalled to others. Before Paige could get to her girlfriend she had a guard take hold of each of her arms, leaving her helpless as she watched Becky's arms get pulled behind her and handcuffs put on her wrists. It was the first time she had seen it happen, sending a shock through her whole body.
"Get off her! Let her go!" Paige shouted as she too was pushed over a table. Lana came over and gave her a thorough search as well.
"She's clean, you can cuff her up." Lana told the guards holding Paige down, the disappointment clear in her voice. Paige wasn't able to stop them and quickly found herself handcuffed too. Both her and Becky were then picked up from the tables, a guard holding each of them from behind tightly, despite their inability to fight them off.
"What are you doing? This part of your problem with me? Then let her go. She's done nothing to you!" Paige pulled against the guard holding her, wanting to get at Lana, but his grip was too tight. Lana just smiled, enjoying the upper hand.
"I'd shut up if I were you, inmate." Came the voice of the head of the block, Rollins. "I won't hear a word against my team from any of you, and you two are in enough trouble as it is."
"What? What the hell are you talking about?" Paige demanded.
"Paige, don't." Becky tried to calm her down, but it was too late to save her from a club to the stomach from Rollins. Paige was held in place, the guard stopping her from doubling over.
"You will learn respect, one way or another. For now, maybe one of you can explain this." Seth held up a large knife in a clear plastic bag.
"I've never seen it before. What does that have to do with us?" Becky asked, while Paige caught her breath.
"You'll need to do better than that inmate, considering this knife was found in your cell." Paige saw Becky's face change to a look of fear. She knew that she really had no idea. Since Paige herself didn't either, that only left one answer in her head.
"It's nothing to do with us. It must have been planted there. Probably by her." Paige got out eventually, wheezing as she talked, directing her words at Lana.
"Be careful, you're already going to The Lock, I won't lose sleep if I add to your time there." Rollins said bluntly. It was successful, as Paige was silenced at the thought of going to solitary, but only,for a second or two.
"You can't do that, we haven't done anything!" She cried out, her tone more desperate now."
"Shut. Up!" Lana got in Paige's face, knowing she was safe. "You think having a deadly weapon in your cell would go unpunished? Contraband of any nature will be dealt with, and we will not tolerate it. Especially from the likes of you who are dangerous troublemakers. You should be relieved we found it before you used it. You are on the path to spend your whole life within these walls. One day you'll thank me for punishing you and your little friend." Lana walked over to Becky and squeezed her cheeks with one hand, pushing her lips out. Becky tried to turn her head, but wasn't able to shake the grip. Lana moved her face towards Becky, their lips almost meeting, before Paige cried out.
"Don't touch her, please!" Paige hated seeing Becky touched like that. She then hung her head, saddened and frustrated that Lana had gotten to her once again. Lana knew it too, and smiled, looking to her superior for orders.
"Nicely done." He remarked at her successfully subduing a prisoner. "Take them away."
Neither Paige or Becky resisted as they were forced to walk in the direction of the exit from the block. The Lock wasn't far. Each block had a fair amount of solitary cells in case of the need to punish inmates for violating rules or on occasion, protecting them on a short term basis.
"Hold them here." Lana said while she checked paperwork. Becky and Paige were pushed against a wall and held there. They looked at each other, knowing they were going to be locked up separately for a while.
"I love you." Becky whispered to Paige.
"Me too" She whispered back, happy the guards weren't focused on them except for holding them in place. "I'm scared Bex. I've not done this before."
"I know, and I won't lie, it's horrible here. But it won't be forever right?" Paige could see Becky was afraid too, but more of their separation than anything else.
"Right. We will always find our way back together." Any advice on getting through this?"
Unfortunately for Paige, Lana interrupted before she could get an answer. "Take this one to cell three, and her to cell eleven." Becky was pulled from the wall and pushed into a cell close by them, a heavy red door closed behind her. Paige caught a glimpse of Becky's hands as she put them through the hatch on the door as she was walked past and around the corner. She was stopped at another open cell and given a push to get her to go inside. She did and the door was immediately closed behind her, with the hatch open.
"Hands." came the instruction and Paige did as told, feeling the relief of having the handcuffs removed. As she rubbed her wrists to smooth them, she looked at her new home.
It was a disgusting sight. There was no bed, just a mat, no pillow or blanket. The mat had stains on it, the origin of which nobody would want to know. The toilet was worse. It looked like it hadn't been cleaned in its existence and previous owners had been suffering from who knows what. She tried the tap and found the water ran well, the only good thing she found. She sat down on the mat and closed her eyes, trying to keep calm and wait for lights out. What she didn't know, and figured out after hours upon hours had passed, was that they didn't turn the Iights out in The Lock, to make it more of an unpleasant experience. Like the food she was given wasn't punishment enough.
After what she felt must have been over a week, but in reality was only a few days, it became harder and harder to keep a level of calm. She refused to call out for help, not wanting to give them the satisfaction. It might have been a good idea, because by the time she had spent just over a week there, things had gotten worse.
A/N: Oh man, it feels so good to be back! I really had concerns that I wouldn't be able to pick this up again, but here is the first new chapter in a while. I'm sorry it's been so long, but I have been working on, and completed a different story. I mentioned it back when I started, but its called 'Be Mine' and can be found through the site. Do give it a look if you can. It is M rated though, please be warned.
I will be working on this more now, but I do have another idea that I'm working on that's more based on the wrestling side that I may try out soon, watch this space :-)
Thanks for reading.
