She’d strut around with a burning scalp and ragged clothes like it was some twisted fashion statement, but her retaliation was just as sharp. It started when she took my things—slipping off with my bedding, leaving me shivering on those cold winter nights. At first, it felt petty, almost childish, but it didn’t stay that way for long.
One morning, I found my toothbrush snapped in half and chiselled into a shiv. Knowing full well that room inspection was going to be taking place that morning. She was setting me up, the crafty bitch. The same day, my socks vanished, not the lost-in-the-wash kind but gone without a trace.
I caught her smirking behind a book when I asked the guard about them. I fucking knew it was her.
She started slipping notes under my door, no words, just sketches. Depicting ways in which she would kill me, given half the chance. Most of them just made me laugh. Angry little stick men with oozing blood puddles, stabbing me over and over again.
I wasn’t going to back down. So, I pushed back harder.
If she wanted to see me dead, then upping the stakes was my only choice. I waited until my next round of cleaning duty, as a bottle of bleach would miraculously go missing from the cleaning cart. The guards didn’t question it when I told them I had used the last of the bottle. When in reality, I stashed it under my hoodie, ready to slip some into Misfits morning beverage. The thought alone gave me so much pleasure that I couldn’t wait to see her writhing in pain and vomiting everywhere.
It had changed from a game of laughs or petty annoyances. To a battle of elimination, and neither of us was willing to lose. Every day, the line between enemy and ally blurred just a little more.
I was starting to find it increasingly difficult to fuck with her, having her officer glued to her side 24/7. But when I caught sight of her officer perched outside the showers, I jumped at the chance.
Standing in the corridor, I discreetly flipped through a magazine while she grew increasingly impatient with how long Misfit was taking. She looked at her watch and then at the door. I don’t think she really took in that I was there. But the diabolical grin that appeared when she headed to the bathroom was priceless. I moved without hesitation, dropping the magazine and slipped through the door into the thick steam that instantly surrounded me. I hadn’t thought this through, but the opportunity was too good to pass up. Catching sight of her towel and bundled clothes next to the cubicle, I grabbed it and headed straight for the door. My footsteps quickened as the sound of water stopped the moment my hand touched the handle. In the hallway, her officer hadn’t come back yet, leaving her unprotected and vulnerable.
That itself should have been enough for me to rethink my actions, but this was too fucking funny. I discarded the clothes, tucking them behind one of the large bookshelves in the communal area as I took a seat on the far side. Trying to remain as casual as possible about what I had just done. The noises came first, rising laughter and whistling sounds from the corridor as heads started to wonder what was going on. Inmates shifted from their seats as officers barked orders to avert their eyes and turn around.
She hadn’t? Surely.
How wrong I was, as I watched her round the corner into the communal area, she stood there in all her glory. Stark fucking naked, locking eyes with me. Her middle fingers raised, holding them out in front of her.
“Good game, cunt.” She said.
My smirk widened as I bit down on my bottom lip. Had to give it to her, she owned that shit. Didn’t take long for the guards to cover her with a sheet, ushering her off while the remaining guards assembled a barrier to stop the chanting lads from following.
I knew something was off the second I stepped out of the rec room. The corridor was too quiet. Not the usual echo of doors clanging or guards barking. Just silence, weighted and stretched, like the whole place was holding its breath. I slipped past commissary, moving on instinct more than anything. That itch in the back of my skull, the same one I got before a fight kicked off or when someone slipped a shank into the showers.
When I turned the corner near Dr Brenner’s office, the door was cracked open, and frantic clanking coming from inside. That door was always locked tighter than the inmates’ jaws. I didn’t make a sound as I crept closer. Inside, Misfit crouched low behind the desk, rifling through one of the metal cabinets with a look I’d only seen many times before, on a junkie trying to score before his veins gave up.
She didn’t notice me at first, too caught up in whatever high she thought she was chasing. Her fingers moved quickly and methodically. Until she paused, yanking out a particular file with a jackpot grin on her face.
My name. Clear as day across the top. Tyler McCabe. I stepped into the room, slamming the door against the wall, making her freeze. Her head jerked up and her eyes locked on mine, wide and unapologetic.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” the fire igniting in my voice. She stood slowly, her fingers tightened around the edge of the file like it was a knife.
“I think I’m continuing the game of humiliation you insisted we play,” she said. “What was it you said? See who breaks first.”
“And you really think something's going to be in that folder?”
She shrugged, “I don’t know. Guess we’ll find out.”
My face twisted as I watched her flick the file open in her hand.
Blinding heat mixed with a panic I hadn’t felt before rushed to the surface. There’s too much in there; she wouldn’t understand. Closing the distance between us, she twisted from my grasp with the file still clenched in her hands. I wasn’t about to let her use the darkness of my past against me.
“Oh,” her tone mocking. “Now I know this is valuable. You just gave yourself away, Screech.”
“You don’t get it,” I snapped. “That stuff in there? That’s not power. It’s pain. And if you think using it makes you stronger—”
“I know it makes me stronger,” she said, cutting me off. “Now, how about we make you bare everything, the way you did to me?”
“Stop her!”The voice was loud enough to make me flinch against the intrusion, and my eyes widened as she flicked open the file once more.
Lunging towards her like a madman. Her face turned startled as I wrapped my hands around her throat, slamming her back against the desk. A pained chuckle left her lips as I felt my grip tighten around her windpipe. “Read another fucking word out of that file, and I'll kill you right here!”
The file fell to the floor as her eyes narrowed to mine, now sporting a dangerous smile which seemed only to fuel my fire even more.
