Upside down….

This wasn't my first time incarcerated, but it was my first time in a place like this. The bitch came back first, I heard the voice before I got a good look at her.

"Well, now that yer good an broken in its time to go make some new friends!"

She was short, maybe 5'5", with a very slight build. It was always the little ones who had the biggest mouths. She began to try to drag me by left arm. I yelped in pain. Laughter.

"Aw, that ain't nothin' sweetie! Wait till' they got a load a you downstairs."

Stringy blond hair pulled back in a filthy ponytail, a thin hard face. She looked like she'd been to hell and back, and then went back for more.

I stared at her. I knew that I should just keep my mouth shut, but knowing and doing are two totally different things. My voice felt like sandpaper in my throat.

"What's your name?"

She dropped my arm, shocked that I would dare speak to her. "What did you say bitch?"

The tone of her voice verified my fears. I knew women like this, had run into many. I had just thrown sand in her face, and was getting ready to do it again. I took a breath. "I said what's your name."

Her whole body stiffened. I saw her drawing back her leg in slow motion, felt the boot before it even came near me. She squared her shoulders, and took a step back. "Sit up bitch!"

Ok, easier said than done. I managed to begin to roll to my side but it wasn't fast enough for her, as she grabbed a handful of my wet curls and tried to yank me upright. I managed to use my right arm to prop myself up. She kneeled down in front of me, still gripping my hair tightly.

"My NAME is Verity."

I could feel her breath on my face, and I didn't like it. More footsteps down the hallway.

"Chill out Verity, playtime's over. Gotta get her downstairs before the warden gets back. " Big gorilla of a man.

Verity rose, and took a couple of steps back, regarding me as one would a stray dog. "Bitch wants to get up close and personal."

Gorilla looked at me and smiled. It was a disgusting smile, greasy lips and rotten teeth. Even with my head bashed in my brain was working, and I could tell the basic content of his comment before he even formed the words. "Honey, you and me already been up close and personal." Verity laughed. I wouldn't give them the satisfaction of vomiting, though it was a struggle to hold it back. Verity turned to him. "Which end should we drop her at?"

Gorilla thought for a moment. "Grand entrance, front door." Verity almost squealed. "Hah!" She looked at me. "You're in for it bitch!"

Gorilla grabbed me by the ankles and began dragging me down the hallway. Upside down was Verity's face, following behind me. At the opposite end of the hallway was a hatch, like the hatch on a submarine. Verity shuffled with some keys and opened it. More dragging, and my head hit the lip of the hatch on the way through. Two more hallways, each with hatches at the end. Each connected with the back of my head. Then I heard it. The voices, some yelling, some pleading. The sounds of metal against stone. People walking, some running. The sounds of an unhappy crowd.

The gorilla dropped my ankles. "This is your stop."

I could see Verity opening the hatch. My heart began to pound. Then a voice behind me.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Heavy footsteps. Still upside down I could see Verity's demeanor change. She stood at attention and a hand ran up to smooth back her hair, as if this would help in the least. Gorilla looked nervous. "Just bringing this one down Sir."

I didn't really want to look, and passing out again was sounding better and better. But I couldn't help myself. I tilted my head back a little farther, and saw a tall man, medium build. He had jet black hair with eyes to match, and very sharp features. He was of a different sort than these two pieces of filth, cleaner for one. He was dressed in dark utility pants and a dark shirt. He had holsters over his shoulders with various weapons, but they looked very clean, not often used. All in all he was an imposing figure, with an air of arrogance about him.

"Like this? Don't you idiots pay attention? CLEAN. They have to go down CLEAN."

Verity was standing to his left, and was making a mockery of what she thought was femininity. "Sir," she began, in a voice that was not hers, " We were.."

He cut her off as if she had never begun. "And what are you doing at this end? You don't drop off at this end! You drop off in the back!" His tone was a mixture of anger and condescension. "It is hard enough to keep these savages at bay, but dealing with you morons is downright impossible. If you throw them in all.." he gestured at me "..bloody and disgusting, it just riles the rest of them up all the more! Do you want to be dragging dead bodies out of there tomorrow? Better yet, do you want to fill out all of the paperwork on these animals? I do not. Hose her off and drop her in the back."

Gorilla was transferring his bulk from one leg to another, and Verity was barely looking at him from the corner of her eye. "Yes sir." But he spun and marched away, clearly happy with himself for putting them in their place.

They looked at each other and then down at me. Ankles up and dragged again. On the way back down the hallway they sniped comments back and forth, and I gathered that the white collar scum was an under-warden named O'Reardon.

"That mother fucker, like he cares what these pieces of shit do to each other! He just wants to bust balls. And you with that little girl voice, you need to stop tryin' to get at his balls!"

This pushed a button. "Fuck you," Verity hurled back, clearly aggravated. "I didn't hear you speakin up! I'm just tryin to stay on the bastard's good side!"

"Well the bastard don't want you on him at all." It continued on down the hallways, and I couldn't help but smile on the inside. Verity and the under-warden? Not likely. To him, she was as much of an animal as anyone in this hole. But the fact that even prisons had these type of politics struck me as amusing.

They took me to a room with drainage holes on the floor and hosed me off as one would an animal. The freezing cold water hit my battered body with such force that I couldn't hold back the cries, which of course delighted Verity. "O'Reardon wants clean. I'll getcha clean." The water jolted me, and brought me to a level of consciousness that I would rather have avoided. Instead of dragging me Gorilla hauled me over his shoulder, which put such pressure on my ribs that again I moaned in pain. Another maze of halls and hatches. Then we stopped. This was it. And in my mind, this was possibly the last "it" I would ever encounter.

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