Thank you to everyone who has followed and faved this story, and I'm very sorry for the long wait. I couldn't think of a more appropriate time to update on Lucy's story than good ol' Hallows Eve. I'll have a few updates at the bottom author's note, but for now, on with the show!
Chapter 2: The Red Mile
Sahara Square
11: 38 AM
The air was blistering hot above the desert sands. It was especially bad in the rodent-sized bus as it drove down the scorching streets.
Lucy Sang was an absolute mess, and not just physically. In addition to her unkempt headfur, sweat-stained orange jumpsuit, and visible swelling around one of her eyes that suspiciously resembled a fist, her posture was hunched, her ears hung low, and the fur around her eyes was matted with tears. A muzzle covered the lower half of her face, and steel chain manacles around her ankles and wingtips jangled with every bump the bus hit.
She was snapped out of her stupor when the bus hissed to a stop. She glanced out the window, and managed to glimpse a sign that read Southeast Zootopia Small Mammal Penitentiary.
There was a loud clanging as a rat in a ZPD uniform banged her nightstick on the wall of the bus. "Listen up ladies! All of you are gonna get off the bus in two single-file lines! First the left, then the right!"
She kept talking, but Lucy tuned her out. She was still too busy feeling sorry for herself. How did I end up here? She'd been so close to finally being out on her own! Everything had been going so well!
How had things gone so wrong?
The Meadowlands
Zootopia Police Department - Precinct 8
1: 07 AM
After being tased and violently knocked unconscious, Lucy had woken up sitting in a chair in a dingy, dimly-lit interrogation room. The chair was clearly sized for a regular mammal, so her cuffs were chained through a ring on the front of the chair instead of the table.
Across from her, in a chair that had been pulled around from the other side of the table, was a female rat in a blue-collared shirt, brown jacket, and jeans. On a chain around her neck was a police badge. "Hello, Miss Sang," the rat greeted. "Glad to see you're awake. I'm Detective Rodentski."
"Happy to meet you," Lucy replied sarcastically. "Where am I? What happened?"
"Hm. Some memory loss. Not unexpected," said Rodentski. "You're in the Precinct 8 Police Station, currently under arrest for the murder of Leo Sang."
The world dropped out from under Lucy.
Memories of what happened at Leo's apartment started to flood back to her. The room started to tilt and spin. "No…" she murmured.
The detective rolled her eyes. "There's no need for crocodile tears, Miss Sang. We have you dead to rights. Motive, opportunity, plenty of evidence."
It only then hit Lucy exactly what the detective was saying. "W-wait, WHAT!?" she exclaimed. "H-he was dead when I got there! That's impossible!"
She could tell that Rodentski was visibly resisting another eye roll, probably followed by a "That's what they all say."
Her resistance was futile. "That's what they all say, Miss Sang. We have your knife as the murder weapon, your fur on the victim's body, and at least two witness accounts putting you at the scene at the time of the murder. I suggest you confess now and save us all a lot of trouble."
"Witnesses? What witnesses?" Now Lucy went straight from sad to furious. "They're fucking liars! I loved Leo! I'd never hurt him! I wasn't even anywhere nearby until Martina called me telling me to come over for an emergency! My fur was on Leo because I tried to revive him!"
"We found no record of such a call on your phone," Rodentski shot back. "In addition to Miss Mouseau's testimony of you attacking her and your brother over an argument about a scholarship the three of you were chasing, we have a neighbor who overheard the argument itself, as well as the struggle."
Lucy was too stunned to respond, which wasn't helping her case. That's impossible. There's no way they couldn't have found that call. And that neighbor sounds far too convenient. Could it be? Was...this more than just a stroke of bad luck?
Overwhelmed, Lucy put her head in her hands and slumped onto the table, shuddering. Which also wasn't helping her case.
To her credit, Rodentski at least had the courtesy to give her a moment before she asked again. "Are you going to confess, Miss Sang? I need to know before we can move on."
Lucy grit her teeth. She didn't care what they had or what they said; she wasn't going to confess to a lie. "No," she said firmly.
Rodentski sighed and shook her head. "Suit yourself. You get one phone call."
Lucy didn't know who else to call but her father. Even though she hated him, she clung to the payphone receiver like a life preserver as she waited for him to pick up.
After an eternity, he finally did. "Hello? Who is this? I'm in the middle of a very important meeting."
Lucy breathed a sigh of relief. "Dad! It's me, Lucy! Listen, there's been an emergency!"
There was complete silence from the other end of the phone, and for a second, she thought he might have hung up on her. Then she heard a mumbled apology for leaving whatever meeting he was in and stepping outside. Finally, she started to get her hopes up a little.
Those hopes were quickly, and very firmly dashed. "Why did you call me?" His tone was cold.
Lucy quickly explained the situation as she understood it.
Again, silence. Lucy assumed he was simply stunned at the news that his son was dead. "You have… the unmitigated GALL to call me, claiming innocence after MURDERING MY SON!" he roared. "The police have already told me what you did. You'll get no help from me."
Now it was her turn to be silent. At first, she was shocked to hear that her father not only knew about this already, but had immediately blamed her for it. But then she realized that she wasn't really shocked at all by this, and it quickly turned into bitter anger. "Are you serious?" she hissed. "The cops throw a few pieces of circumstantial evidence at you, and that's all it takes for you to turn on me?!"
He let out a snort. "Circumstantial? Do you expect me to believe this sort of thing is beyond you? You've always been an ungrateful brat, and with a history of violence to boot! It doesn't surprise me in the least that you would finally sink so low as to turn on your own family!"
Getting into a shouting match was not going to help Lucy right now.
She did anyway. "You...you old BASTARD! How dare you think that I could ever do this to Leo! It doesn't surprise me in the least that you're once again throwing me under the bus for the sake of your precious prodigies! Why should I expect you to care about me now when you never have before?!"
It would've been better had he continued yelling back. But even to the end, he refused to give her what she wanted. "You're a disgrace to the family name, Lucele. Don't call me again."
He hung up.
Lucy was shell-shocked as she followed the guard back to the interrogation room.
Meadowlands Public Courthouse
10: 31 AM
She still refused to sign the confession. But, in the end, it didn't matter. The jury had the same reaction as everyone else. Lucy barely listened as the prosecutor read off the various evidence against her. Her eyes were on her father and Lana in the gallery. Their stares were past icy. They were cold enough to chill her soul. The glare she sent them back was hot enough to melt it, though.
Next to them, Lillian looked like she just wanted to cry. She was too young to understand any of this. Anytime she started to let out a sob, Lana irritably shushed her.
Lucy still struggled to understand exactly what happened, but when Martina took the stand, something clicked in her head. "You BITCH!" she yelled as she stood, only to be instantly forced back down by a nearby bailiff.
Martina flinched away from the stand, in highly exaggerated fashion, and began to cry. "I-I don't think I can do this. I'm scared..."
"I'll give you something to be scared about, you lying, backstabbing-!" She was forced down again, this time with a stern reprimand and threat to be held in contempt of court.
Martina was still crying, hunched over with her head in her paws. Probably to hide the smirk on her face. How can nobody else see how phoned in this is?!
Naturally, it took very little actual convincing to get her to sing like a bird.
Lucy's jaw hung wide open as she heard what Martina had to say.
"W-we had just gotten home, my darling Leo and I. Earlier in the evening, I had tried to get Lucy and Leo to drop out of the scholarship competition, and while both refused, I of course understood. But Lucy came in and she... she tried to intimidate us into dropping out! I had no idea what had gotten into her! She was waving that knife around like she was insane, and was even crying! Leo tried to take the knife away from her, but she... she..." She broke down into more fake sobs.
"You guys can't seriously believe this!" Lucy argued. "Martina took my knife away from me in the art gallery! Surely there were some kind of cameras in there that saw it?"
"The cameras at the gallery were disabled the night of the event," the prosecutor responded smugly. "As were the ones near the apartment building where the murder occurred. Both by something resembling your knife."
Lucy fell down into her seat, stunned.
She planned this. She planned all of it. She thought of every detail. And all over a stupid scholarship!
It was so ridiculous that she could almost laugh, if she didn't instead want to curl up into a little ball and cry her eyes out. But she refused to give this mammal she had once called a friend that kind of satisfaction. So all Lucy could manage was to glare bitterly at the traitorous mouse up until she finally left the stand.
After that, she turned her ire on everyone else. Her family that had abandoned her, the detective who had interrogated her, the prosecutor who had humiliated her, the judge, the bailiff, the jury, and every other mammal in this room. They had all played a part in this joke of a criminal justice system. Lucy hated them all.
The inevitable guilty verdict didn't help either.
Lucy had been running mostly on raw anger for most of the trial. But when that gavel slammed, and the verdict was announced, her shoulders slumped, and her ears pinned back against her head. As she was led away, she struggled to describe the feeling in her heart. It was more than sadness, and more than despair. As she was shoved onto the prison bus, the word came to her.
Lucy Sang felt dead.
While she had barely paid attention to most of the lies being spewed about her, she did know where she was heading: the Southeast Zootopia Small Mammal Penitentiary, as the words on the side of the bus read. As if she was any more dangerous than the mouse now running free, having literally gotten away with murder. If Lucy knew this was how it was all going to turn out, then Martina could have the damn scholarship. That didn't matter to her anymore. Nothing did. Nothing at all.
If there was any bright side to this, it was that she didn't care who saw her cry anymore. So she cried.
Sahara Square
Southeast Zootopia Small Mammal Penitentiary
11: 39 AM
She was stirred from her thoughts by a baton to the side of the head, and dragged physically out of her seat by the loud rat from before. "Get up, Sang! No lagging behind!"
The bat wiped the remaining tears from her eyes and grumbled something that was quite clear to her own ears, but thankfully outside of the guard's hearing range. She was led through the prison gates with her supposed "peers", most of whom looked like they could rip her apart in seconds if she so much as stepped on their toes. Oh yeah, these are my mammals alright.
Thankfully, all the shed tears and the resignation to her fate had helped her sense of humor come back. She was going to need it.
Bleak grey walls and bars surrounded the procession on each side, from which many glowering eyes peered at them, no doubt seeing fresh meat enter their den. Unfortunately for her, Lucy was pretty scrawny even for a small mammal prison. She subconsciously found herself standing up straighter and trying to put on a brave face, as if the puffy eyes wouldn't instantly give away how terrified she was. It felt like an eternity before they finally left that hallway, but the worst was yet to come.
Next, they were each thrown into a cramped room and put against a wall to get their mugshots, just like on TV. Lucy wished she had paid more attention to crime dramas growing up, given that her life had just become one. She didn't even get the chance to come up with a unique expression before the camera flashed and she ended up with something between an angry scowl and just looking constipated.
Then she got her new orange clothes, and found out that she could be called something even more insulting than "murderer" or "psycho": 04232-016. Assholes.
Before she could change into those clothes, she was subjected to a very thorough and undignified strip-search. She was photographed several more times, likely so they had some kind of reference besides her face if she escaped.
When she felt as much like a low-class show chicken as possible, she was led to her cell. On the way, more of the prisoners laughed, jeered, made rude or violent comments, and just did what prisoners tended to do.
The cell itself wasn't absurdly tiny, at least, and it seemed fairly clean. The beds were all sized for medium-small mammals, around the size of a bunny's. A shape roughly two-and-a-half times Lucy's size lay snoring under the drab gray blankets on one of the beds. "Uh... Hi."
"Zzz... snort! Huh! Wuzzat?" The female mongoose who had been sleeping in the bed sat up blearily. She had yellow-orange fur that would have matched her jumpsuit if it were just a couple of shades darker. She looked to be rather lanky and bony, with headfur as if she'd just rolled out of bed. Which, Lucy supposed, she had.
"Hi," she repeated. "It looks like I'm your new cellmate." The mongoose didn't look as dangerous as the other prisoners she had met so far, and didn't seem terribly bright either, but Lucy remained on-guard.
The mongoose blinked a few times, as if struggling to comprehend her words. Then she yawned in her face, and Lucy's nose scrunched up as she got an early hint of the kind of food she could expect. "Hey there!" she said brightly. "Nice to finally get someone else in here. I was sick of having the space all to myself."
Lucy frowned. "You… want a cellmate?"
"Hell yeah! You have any idea how boring it gets in here?" She chuckled. "Well, I suppose you don't just yet. But no worries, I'll help ya get settled in. The name's Ci-Ci!" She held out a dirty paw excitedly, as if she thought this was a formal ball. What Lucy wouldn't give for a formal ball right now.
She shook Ci-Ci's paw hesitantly. "Uh... Thanks. My name's Lucy."
"Great to meet ya, Luce! So, whatcha in for? Me, I'm in for drug dealing and armed robbery."
Lucy winced a little. "I'm... in for... murder," she admitted. She expected Ci-Ci to pull away, look at her with shock or disgust, and beat the living hell out of her. She flinched and closed her eyes in expectation of the coming beating.
Instead, she got a paw on her shoulder. "Ouch. That's a nasty one alright. Did you do it?"
Lucy opened her eyes, blinking in that same comprehension-challenged way. "Well... no, but you'd be the first to believe me."
"It's a good thing I do then." She patted her shoulder a few times. "No point lying about it now, right? If you say you didn't do it, then as far as I'm concerned, you didn't do it."
She said it so casually, but after everything Lucy had just been through, that simple reassurance meant more to her than anything.
"Whoa! Okay, I like ya, Luce, but not that much."
It took her a second to realize she was hugging her. Lucy quickly pulled away, partially out of embarrassment and partially because this girl didn't seem to be on speaking terms with personal hygiene. Maybe that was why she was tearing up too. "Sorry, just... thank you. That really means a lot."
A shrill bell went off, loud enough to hurt Lucy's sensitive ears.
"Ready for some grub? Literally!" The mongoose exclaimed. "That's what's on the menu today: Mashed grub! They haven't served grub in weeks! Aren't you excited?"
Lucy just sighed. 19 years old and she was in prison, forced to eat mashed grub with incarcerated thieves and murderers.
"Yeah... Super excited." The bat replied halfheartedly. If Ci-Ci noticed her lack of enthusiasm, she didn't show it.
Mess Hall
12: 01 PM
Instead, the mongoose just pulled her out of their cell, hoping to beat the lines before they grew too long. Being forced to get up and move around at least helped wake Lucy up. The drab gray walls of the prison's mess hall were about as exciting as concrete could get. The bat wished she could add some color to them, to redesign the prison to make it more appealing, and for a moment, she smiled. It didn't last, though as she quickly remembered where she was - Locked up and unable to do paint, like she used to. Lucy sighed, taking her tray of grayish mush before sitting down at an empty table with Ci-Ci. Most of the other inmates ate very quickly, knowing that lunchtime only lasted fifteen minutes, but Lucy couldn't bring herself to do anything more than poke at her food with her spoon, despite how hungry she was.
"What's wrong?" Ci-Ci asked. "You not gonna eat?"
"I... I can't." Lucy confessed, her voice shaking a bit. "I just... Miss being able to paint."
"Don't worry, everyone here has stuff they miss. But if it's any consolation, I know some girls that might be able to smuggle in some markers for ya."
The bat raised her gaze. "You'd do that for me? That's so sweet of you. How do you-"
She trailed off as she noticed Ci-Ci's terrified expression. A looming shadow passed over the table, and just as the bat was about to turn around and stare up at whatever had interrupted her conversation, she suddenly felt a strong force push against the back of her head, shoving her face-first into her own tray of disgusting prison slop.
"Look what we have here!" A feminine, yet surprisingly deep spoke out from behind her. "A little baby bat flown too far from home."
Lucy shifted her gaze against the pressure pushing down on the back of her head, causing the prison food to mush against her face like mud. She forced one of her eyes to glare up at whoever was driving her head into the table, and took in the sight of a heavy-set tasmanian devil. Her muscular body was coated in the same orange jumpsuit as every other inmate in the prison. The devil's jet-black fur was coarse and wiry, as though it hadn't gotten a good combing in several decades, and as her thick muzzle split into a smug grin, Lucy could count at least half-a-dozen cavities sprinkled throughout the devil's teeth.
"I saw the guards bring you in earlier." She remarked. "New meat, huh? Well, allow me to give you the welcome you deserve!"
The tasmanian devil added more pressure to her grip on the back of Lucy's head, forcing her face eye back down into the glop. Lucy tried squirming, but she was outclassed in terms of weight and strength. It was a futile effort. The devil simply let loose another slew of sadistic chortles beneath her breath before wiping Lucy's cheeks around in the mushy food like she was cleaning up a spill. A few other nearby prisoners laughed at Lucy's misfortunate. Nearby, she could hear Ci-Ci growling in defense.
"Leave her alone, Beth!" She cried out.
"Aw, you hear that, baby bat?" The tasmanian devil, apparently named Beth, crooned to Lucy as she slightly lifted her head out of the gunk. "You've got a friend!"
As soon as the words left her mouth, Beth slammed Lucy's head back into the tray. A brief pang of dizziness overcame her, causing her vision to blur like fog.
"Stop it!" Ci-Ci demanded, reaching over and grabbing the devil's forearm. "You're hurting her!"
Snarling, Beth easily shoved the mongoose away and onto the ground, her body hitting the concrete with a light thud.
"Don't act so surprised! All you fine ladies got the welcoming treatment!" Beth stated with a cruel laugh. "It's only fair that the baby bat gets hers too!"
With another thrust of her paw, Beth shoved Lucy's face back into the tray. She could feel the cold, slimy substance that was supposed to be her meal forcing its way up her nostrils, and into her mouth and eyes. She wanted to cry. Where were the guards? Weren't they supposed to keep stuff like this from happening? Lucy tried calling out for help, but as one of her eyes managed to briefly rise above the edge of the tray, her plea caught in her throat, for all that she saw were scared faces and shivering bodies. Beth was the biggest, strongest prisoner in the entire prison. No one could stand up to her. They all just sat back, watching in silence and letting Lucy suffer as Beth had her way with her. The tasmanian devil barked another round of harsh laughter.
"You enjoyin' that, baby bat? No? Then ya better get used to it!"
This was the final straw. Lucy felt her eyes begin to water. She wanted nothing more than to fly away and tuck herself into her own wings, where no one could bother her. Ever since the trial, she had been trying her best to hold down her bitterest feelings. Now, she was being hounded by the reality of it all. Never again would she be able to enjoy the simple pleasure of flying through the air without a care in the world. Her love of painting, which she had spent years developing as both a passion and a potential career, was now never to be used again. But, worst of all, Lucy knew that she'd never be able to see her brother again.
My family...The two words resonated through her mind like the ripples of a stone thrown against a pool of water.
Her beloved brother was dead. That much couldn't be changed, no matter how much she wanted it to. But her own living, breathing family... It was they who had all of the new chances that life could offer. Yet they had made their choice of casting Lucy out, ostracizing her in favor of mourning their lost relative. Her brother had died to an ungrateful family, and Lucy herself had been punished for it - Sent to a place she did not belong because of a thing she hadn't even done. They had never cared about her nor her brother.
But enough was enough. Lucy was tired of feeling sorry for herself, and she wasn't going to let this bully have her way with her any longer.
As Beth's paw smushed her face into the gunk once more, Lucy lashed out and chomped down on the first thing she saw. Unfortunately for Beth, that happened to be her thumb.
Her sharp fangs easily pierced through the fur and flesh. Beth shrieked with pain before tearing her paw away from Lucy and stumbling back, tripping over herself and landing on her tail. The surrounding crowd of inmates gasped with shock, and the laughter of the masses was no more. The bat picked herself up off of the bench before rising to her feet and stepping back nervously, her anger having faded. Lucy then messily wiped at her snout and muzzle with one of her wings, cleaning off all the prison mush as best she could.
She watched as Beth hauled herself to her feet, clutching at her shaking black paw and huffing angrily beneath her breath, temper rising by the second.
"You little skank! You bit me!" She shouted before groaning in pain. A small stream of blood dribbled from her thumb and onto the gray surface of the concrete floor below, staining it bright red. "You'll pay for that!" Beth roared.
Lucy only had enough time to gasp as Beth charged and tackled her to the floor before raising her good fist up and socking the bat directly in the cheek. Pain instantly flooded her nerves, and Lucy had to resist blacking out. She raised her gaze just in time for another punch to connect near her right eye, causing her vision to momentarily blur. Past the surprise and pain, Lucy knew that she couldn't stay like this forever - She had to get herself back on her feet again.
She then managed to free one of her legs, before kicking Beth in the gut. Lucy was pint-sized compared to the big tazzy, but it had just enough force to make her wince and back off a bit.
Using her wings, she then took to the air before landing another solid kick against the devil's jaw. That one had all of her weight behind it, and caused Beth to flail back from the force of her mid-air strike. As Beth struggled from the pain, Lucy flapped away from the scene, landing several feet away. She tried to run away even farther, but the mob pushed her back in Beth's direction before crowding around the two of them in a crude circle, forcing them together into an unmistakable fighting pit. The crowd began to take up a hearty chant. "Fight, fight, fight!"
Past the sea of orange-coated bodies, Lucy briefly spotted Ci-Ci as she danced nervously along the edge of the crowd, trying to break in, likely in an effort to help her. The mongoose was small and slippery, but even she couldn't squeeze past the crowd between them. Shifting her attention to the threat in front of her, Lucy took note of Beth's stocky frame as she raised up her arms. The thumb on her left paw was still bleeding profusely, but she showed no signs of being hampered by it.
Lucy returned the gesture; raising her own comparatively stick-like arms up to her face and balling her clawed fingers into as good of fist as she could. She admittedly knew very little about fighting, but there was little else that she could do. Beth snarled before swiftly stepping forward and throwing a solid punch directly towards Lucy's face. Being smaller and lighter, and therefore much quicker and more agile, Lucy was easily able to dodge it. She tried returning a punch of her own, but was caught by surprise as Beth's other fist sailed out from the side and jabbed her right in the temple, causing a throbbing pain to pulse against the side of her skull.
"Lucy!" She heard Ci-Ci's voice call out past the roar of the crowd, but even with her enhanced hearing abilities, she could barely make it out.
Beth grinned before planting another punch into Lucy's belly, causing her to fold over around the devil's fist before falling to her knees. She sputtered weakly, resisting the urge to vomit. Lucy then wretched horribly, and would have emptied her stomach were it not completely empty. The hoarse, dry heaves strained against her throat, and the bat began to feel more tears well up in the corners of her eyes. Her body was in pain, and she knew that it was still not over. The tasmanian devil standing before her leaned forward and then threw her foot out in a strong kick that connected directly to the bat's chest. Her ribs ached with agony as fell over onto the ground.
Her opponent was simply too strong. And as the devil leered over her with fists raised like clubs, for a moment, Lucy feared that she was going to die.
Then another sound pierced the air: A powerful, rumbling spur-like metal falling against rock. Lucy's weary eyes looked up to see a small army of prison guards descending upon their location. One of them had a gun filled with rubber bullets, and judging from the flaky impression on the nearby concrete wall, must have fired a few of them as a warning.
"EVERYONE GET DOWN, NOW!" One of the guards yelled. "BACK AWAY!"
All of the prisoners quickly dispersed, with some running away and hiding beneath tables while others dropped to the ground entirely as armored guards of hares and ferrets pummeled the crowd into submission. Past the chaos, Lucy locked eyes with Beth, who snarled at her with hate before lowering herself to the ground.
Despite being new to prison life, Lucy knew better than to disobey the orders of heavily armored guardsmammals. She tucked her palms behind her head before laying down on the ground along with the other inmates. She let out a quiet sigh of relief. The guards were finally here! It certainly took them long enough. At least now they'd be able to protect her from Beth.
"Inmates! On the wall, now!" One of the guards shouted.
The inmates rose to their feet before huddling against the walls in a straight line, paws behind their backs, faces forward and emotionless, as though this were just another ordinary occurrence. Lucy shakily pulled herself up before following suit and joining the other prisoners in the line. She wheezed, trying to ignore the pain in her abdomen. The guards paced up and down the length of the group, sometimes stepping forward and patting down one of the inmates before moving along.
Finally, one of the guards - a lean beige hare - stepped forward and cleared his throat out. "Who started that fight?" He demanded to know.
"It was the new meat!" Beth piped out from her side of the lineup. "The bat bitch!"
The bat bitch felt her heart skip a beat. "No! I didn't do anything! I-I was just-" She tried to explain, but was cut off when Beth shouted out once more.
"That little leech bit me! See?" she accused, lifting up her paw and allowing the guards to get a good look at it. They grumbled amongst themselves.
"Beth was shoving my face into my food!" Lucy spat back, pointing to the grease still dripping down from one of her ears. "It was self-defense!"
The head guard looked back and forth between bat and devil skeptically before finally gesturing to the both of them at once.
"You two, come with me. The rest of you, back to your cells! Lunch is over!" He yelled.
While the other inmates shuffled off disappointedly, Beth and Lucy stepped forward. The guards cuffed them both, and Lucy swallowed nervously, wondering what sort of punishment they might inflict upon her. Ignoring the devil's withering glare of anger, Lucy was ordered to march down the hall alongside the other guards, no doubt towards whatever harsh lecture awaited her for breaking the rules of the prison. The bat's eyes were still somewhat red from her earlier tears, and the pain in her chest leftover from Beth's strikes began to return, but past it all, Lucy kept her cool, focusing on her other senses in an effort to ignore the pain.
It didn't take long for her to notice the blood dripping down her lips and pooling against her teeth. She realized it was the remnants of Beth's blood, from when she had bitten her on the thumb. Lucy dabbed it with the tip of her thin tongue. It tasted... Good. Really good. She lapped it up, before swallowing it all down in a single gulp. She'd never tasted anything quite like it before. In the past, she'd only been able to taste blood during special occasions with her fellow vampire bat family, and even then, the city itself provided it through donations gathered from hospitals. Beth's blood tasted fresh, coppery, and weirdly sweet, like a metallic wine.
Something about it was indescribably thrilling. As the aftertaste slithered between her tastebuds, Lucy felt a slight smile grow upon her lips, exposing her bloodstained fangs. Despite all the pain and sorrow of these past few weeks, the bat allowed herself this single smile shaped from the taste of her enemy's blood. Huh. May have been a bitchy battleax, but she has good taste.
Solitary Confinement
12: 48 PM
Lucy was unceremoniously tossed into a very tiny solitary cell. Very tiny, as in very tiny even for a rodent. It was five inches by five inches, little more than a stone bird cage. There was a three-inch bed, and a one-inch toilet. That was about it.
She was actually glad for the time away, and she'd never particularly minded being crammed into a tiny room. Heck, she hung out in her tiny ass attic all the time. Her only real regret was not having anything to paint with.
And just as she thought that, the eyeslot on the steel door opened and then slammed shut, and something bopped her on the back of the head.
Irritated, Lucy turned around. There was a paper airplane on the ground. Great. Not only am I in prison, the guards are gonna act like grade-schoolers.
She picked up the paper and unfolded it. To her surprise, there was writing on it that wasn't a crude picture of the warden. It had a few simple words, which still did not fail to creep Lucy the fuck out.
You have my interest. I'll be watching. —LB
I hope all of you enjoyed this. I typically try to post one chapter a month, but this month I actually had to do two, since I also wrote the Halloween chapter of Born to Be Drabbles. November will bring an Update for The Hero Club, as well as another chapter of the remastered SotH, and December will bring another chapter of this. If you want weekly updates on how my stories are going, as well as any chapter delays, pm me asking for a link to my Fimfiction account. I do my best to post update blogs there every sunday. Yes I know it's not a site for everyone, but well, I don't like Tumblr or Twitter, and I'm too lazy to remember more login info.
CiCi was created by and belongs to Upplet. The fight scene with Beth was written by Upplet, and edited by myself and Berserker88.
That's all for now, folks. I hope you have a happy Halloween!
