Amanda wrapped her fingers around the cold black bars and observed the woman across from her cell. She was staring absentmindedly at the wall with an angry look on her face.

This frightened Amanda enough to look for something else to do. She studied the contents of the cell. It was dirty, dank and cold; just like the cell she had shared with Laura. Two bunk beds flanked the walls, and a grungy toilet against the back wall.

Amanda sat herself down on the bunk bed adjacent to the right wall. She found herself in quite a lonely existence.

"Damn, I wish I had someone to share this shit hole with."

Amanda picked up the top sheet of the bed with her hand and examined it. The fabric was rather thin and starchy. Amanda noted this would not be sufficient on those cold winter nights. Then she looked to the pillow.

She punched it with her fist to see how firm it was. It wasn't in the least bit firm. It was like a potato sack with balls of bunched up cotton in random places all throughout the inside of the pillow. She could sense her life here wasn't going to be that comfortable, and with Matthews the well respected cop framing her; there is little chance she'll get out scotch free.

"Matthews probably has something brutal set up for me."

Amanda was talking to herself, trying to cancel out the uneasiness of the tiny cell. Ever since she was a child she struggled with claustrophobia. Her father used to lock her in a closet under the stairs whenever she did something he deemed wrong. He'd often lock her in there for hours at a time.

Sometimes her absence would go unnoticed for as much as an entire day. Amanda's mother worked constantly to keep the house as her father lived in it unemployed. Her mother was mostly unaware of the abusive situation her father dealt to her. Amanda was the oldest, so she was the least worried about in the family.

She had three younger siblings that her mother was busy with. Amanda rarely was able to take care of herself; she was either helping the babies or doing chores. In that one small moment where she had some time to herself; she tried to get some sleep. She never had good grades, and didn't even graduate from high school because she had to be taking care of the family most of the time.

She had no time to study for tests or do homework. Everything about this cell reminded her of her past life. It was enclosed, dirty, unkempt, and she was alone within it. She hated this jail cell more than any other place she had ever been to.

Amanda had been in the holding cell previous, but the prefix "holding" was enough to soothe her. She knew it meant she wouldn't be there forever. However Jail is a completely different situation all-together. Jail could mean life sentences, death penalties, or a sentence of so many years that you would never be able to live through it entirely. Also the uncanny resemblance to that room under the stairs was haunting.

It wouldn't be as haunting if someone else was here with me...

That thought brought her back to the memories of Amanda's time in the holding cell with Laura. Though Laura felt alone, she was soothed by Amanda's presence. Amanda also took equal comfort in Laura, and that is what Amanda missed most.

She could not get her mind off of Laura now, she was missing how much better things were when she was in the holding cell. As her mind wandered, a group of guards were fiddling with the lock on the jail house door. Eventually with a click and a push, the door was open and the guards were out into cell's hallway.

Around 4 guards entered, three restraining a svelte blond girl who was dressed for a night on the town. Amanda looked up from the bed, and rushed to the bars to see what was going on. Amanda coiled her fingers around the cold black bars as her eyes darted from the guards to the girl they were holding. She noticed the girl's blond wavy hair, and immediately made a connection.

"LAURA! ITS ME!"

Amanda addressed the woman in excitement as she saw the similarities between her and Laura. One of the guards took the woman to the cell opposite Amanda's cell. Most of the guards disregarded what Amanda had said except for one. That one guard turned around and looked at Amanda, observing her unkempt appearance and saggy unfitting clothes.

He seemed slightly intrigued with her, as he clutched another orange uniform under his arm. Amanda spotted a name embroidered in gold on his dress shirt. It read "Peter". Amanda noticed that the man had strikingly attractive features to him.

His uniform was clean and pressed like he had ironed it. Amanda judged by this that it had been his first day if not first week on the job. For some reason Amanda could not put a finger on, Peter looked rather out of place in this dump. Amanda's focus then shifted to the woman. As the guards locked the woman in, she vanished into the depths of the cell wordlessly.

"Why would they put Laura in that cell with that angry woman? She doesn't deserve it..."

After Amanda uttered that sentence, the woman addressed her. Once she walked back towards the cell's bars it was obvious that it was not Laura. Amanda's heart sank as she met eyes with the woman.

"My name isn't Laura, it's Brenda."

Amanda exhaled in disappointment at Brenda's remark. She released her grip from the bars and instantly lost interest in the events that took place outside her cell. She slouched down upon the wall and slid to the floor, sitting arms and legs crossed in a saddened state.

Staring at the wall opposite her, she itched the back of her neck where months ago a necklace that Brian had given her rest. It was as if a part of her was missing without that jewelry. All of a sudden Amanda heard a slight clanging noise.

She lifted her head and saw Peter standing above her just outside the cell. Instantly he looked at her hands and realized that they had still been cuffed.

"Let me fix you up..."

The man opened up the cell using a ring of various keys and then knelt down in front of Amanda. With a very small key he unlocked her cuffs and hooked them onto his belt loop. Amanda looked like a small child, hunch backed up against the wall in the fetal position. For this reason Peter took pity upon her. He took the bundle of clothes from underneath his arm and set them in her lap as she looked up at him bleary eyed.

"Take the clothes that your wearing now and put them by the edge of the cell door when your done changing into the new set I gave you. I'll be back for them shortly."

With that Peter closed the cell door behind him and walked out the jail house doors accompanied by the rest of the guards. Amanda tossed the bundle of new clothes on to her decrepit cot and continued to stare at the wall. She felt as if there was a giant void in her life, she could sense her inner self being ripped apart at the seams. Then she spotted it from the corner of the room.

A glass shard was situated in the middle of the floor staring back at Amanda with a devious glint. On hand and foot she crawled towards the shard, not even feeling as if she could control her own body. Senselessly she picked up the shard between her index and thumb finger.

Immediately blood started dripping onto the cold concrete floor as Amanda slowly guided the shard across the top of her wrist. The blood pooled against one post of the cot as she continued on without thinking. Her mind was blank, her movements took over any reasoning she had left within her.

She was hyperventilating loudly and crying continuously. Any movement or sounds other than those emanating from herself were exaggerated and less intently focused upon than when Amanda had spotted the Laura look alike. The shard had reached the end of her wrist and successfully left a large red streak upon her.

Once she had tossed the shard to the side, moments of happier times with Brian raced through her mind. Temporarily, she felt at home. Soon after, a feeling of regret sunk in, and she collapsed to the floor sobbing. That was the last thing she remembered.

Amanda woke in the same cell she had been in before, however her wrist had been bandaged and wrapped in gauze. She looked to her right. Amanda's fingers graced the floor's surface as she looked for clues as to what had happened.

She found quickly that the pool of blood next to the post had vanished. There was a shiny spot on the floor where the blood had once been. She got back on her hands and feet again, and decided to stand up to take a good look around.

The glass shard was missing from the room as well. Frantically, Amanda searched for the glass. She wanted to keep it.

However, her efforts to find the shard were unsuccessful. Once she had given up, she noticed the clothes she was wearing had a lot less give. Whoever came to clean her up must have dressed her in the new clothes that guard had handed her before. Amanda approached the door and glanced out from between the black bars. She saw a figure hovering in the hallway, dressed in the blue uniform.

As she looked closely, she saw it was Peter.

But…why would he help me?

She couldn't figure out why the man had been so nice to her. She knew next to nothing about him, but from what she saw he didn't exactly seem like a compassionate being. He was observing Amanda as she noticed her surroundings beforehand; he had been there the whole time. Amanda walked up to the gates and met eyes with Peter. He then spoke.

"The others are out lifting weights. Do you think you're well enough to go join them?"

Peter juggled a set of keys in his hand as he asked her why she had hurt herself with the glass. Amanda shifted her head from side to side, indicating she didn't have an answer for him.

"Why don't you go outside, and get a little air? Sounds good?"

Amanda reluctantly nodded and watched as the guard unlocked her cage. Awkwardly, Amanda's eyes darted from the lock to Peters hand's as he fumbled with the key. Eventually the key made contact with the lock. In it went, but the lock wouldn't budge.

The guard jiggled the key until the lock finally gave way. The gate swung open. Now there were no barriers between Peter and Amanda. Amanda shot Peter a clueless look and he motioned her out of the cell. She stepped just out of the cell, and Peter retreated behind her to close the cage.

Then Peter approached a large metal door that read "Fire Exit Only". With little effort, the man pushed on the door and it flung open. Once they were outside, Peter went back through the door and locked it. Amanda jumped in shock as she heard the door slam shut.

Trying to forget the memory of Peter, Amanda observed her surroundings. In front of her were several women, some sitting on sets of bleachers, while the rest of them worked out. Amanda never worked out in her life, she never needed to. Ever since she was a small child she had remained skinny.

She didn't see the reason to gain muscle. Seeing no need for working out, Amanda approached the benches. She sat down on the lowest bench. It had no people sitting on it at the time, and that's how she liked it. Lately something was changing in her. Ever since Amanda realized she would never see Laura again, she wanted to cut off all ties with humans in general. Laura's absence was the last straw. She wanted to be as secluded as possible. Out of reach, out of range, she would love it if she was just invisible.

Amanda picked her head up. She was getting eye strain from staring at the floor for too long. Amanda looked around and saw a dark patch to her right. There was a large concrete balcony above it, creating that dark shadow.

Perfect, nobody will ever notice me if I go in there.

Amanda approached it, and was shocked as to what she saw. Within the shadows of that balcony, a secret operation was taking place. She froze up, unable to get any closer. Hoping nobody would notice her presence, she stood as still and quiet as possible. Unfortunately for Amanda, she was noticed. A weathered looking woman with red hair and a tattoo on her right arm addressed her.

"Get out of here…unless you want some."

In one hand the woman held a plastic bag of syringes. They were dirtied, and had appeared to be used several times. In the other hand she held a wad of crinkled bills. On her shoulder was a cheap old feed bag, and within it were various assorted items. They seemed to be jail rations.

"So what the hells the deal? You buyin' or not?"

Amanda stood wordless in front of the woman. She wanted to tell her she wasn't into that kind of thing, but on the other hand she was afraid of the adverse reaction to her not conforming.

"I-I-I'm new here."

Amanda stuttered with uncertainty, she did not want to be involved at all, but she didn't want to upset the burly woman. The woman cast a smirk upon her face, and then the wrapping on Amanda's wrist caught her eye. She studied Amanda's bandages intently. The red head spotted a small spot of dried blood located on the underside of her wrist. After that discovery, her grin grew even larger.

"Oh, gotcha. Here, first ones on me."

With that sentence, the redhead shoved one of the syringes in Amanda's hand. It had some kind of suspicious looking substance within it, obviously some kind of illegal drug.

"Well what are you waiting for kid? Shoot up!"

Amanda looked at the syringe helplessly. She tilted her head back up at the woman and shot her a confused look. The only type of "drug" Amanda had ever done was smoking, and some casual drinking. She never got too involved however. She was too busy.

"I've never done this…"

With Amanda's comment, the red headed woman laughed heartily. The woman's friends, obviously paying attention to the situation were also laughing.

"Here kid."

The woman grabbed Amanda's arm, and looked for a vein. Her eyes wandered around the crease of her arm, and spotted a blue spot. She took the syringe from Amanda's shaking hands. Once the syringe was out of her palms and her control, Amanda tried to struggle away from the woman.

"Hold still, fuck! I'm try'na help you get away from all that cuttin'."

Eventually Amanda gave up, and the syringe had been inserted into her vein. The woman pushed the top of the syringe down, and Amanda watched the liquid lower in the plastic casing. Once all the liquid had vanished, Amanda felt a strange feeling come over her.

Amanda slid down against the wall to a sitting position. Her lids lowered, the redhead and her companions becoming fuzzy before her eyes. All of a sudden, a feeling of sheer euphoria came upon her. It rushed up and sneaked up on her without any warning. Several minutes passed as she sat stagnant. After she enjoyed the rush, she decided she wanted something to drink. She grabbed the redheads pant leg and tried to talk to her.

"Water…?"

The woman laughed in her face, and walked forward. Amanda could not keep her grip, so she gave up. The euphoric rush was almost gone. Amanda felt around on the ground for any type of wet substance. Her mouth was ridiculously dry, and her skin felt warm. Had she been able to look in a mirror she probably would have appeared flushed.

Unexpectedly her extremities grew weak. It felt as if someone had tied a heavy weight to all her fingers and toes. Amanda felt horrible after the rush. She couldn't move. For some reason, her breathing became erratic, and then she blacked out.