Page 36 of The Way We Rot
“Ah,” I said, shutting him up with the press of the blade, anger twitching through me, fear roiling inside my aching stomach. “But you did. You did hurt me, rape me, abuse me. And men like you don’t deserve a life.”
He groaned, the drugs I’d given him making him sleepier and sleepier. He was already sliced up, almost naked with streaks of blood across his body, and now he was unable to move, unable to fight me back at all.
“What are you going to do?”
“Cheer myself up.”
It wasn’t the biggest change of scenery. We were still in the same prison, the same building, just a different part of it. But there were new people, other guards with kinder faces and nurses with stronger medication I didn’t like taking.
A place where all the crazies would go to live out their days, fucked on drugs and padded cells. It had a whole different vibe, with bright walls, open spaces and mind-numbing activities rather than metal tables and one ratty pack of cards. My arrival here had been somewhat of a blur, after a day or so in the infirmary with Nurse Sally’s questioning looks and gentle questions, but I had settled into the soothing routine of it. Kinda enjoying myself.
I’d been here a little over a week now, the wound on my scalp patched up and almost healed. No one questioned the state of my body to me when they saw my head, thinking I’d done it all to myself somehow. It wasridiculous, and I had to think Adrian had something to do with it, manipulating the system to keep himself safe.As far as I was aware, no doctor or nurse had even glanced between my legs.
They made me speak to a psychiatrist every day, but then all I had to do was plant myself in front of the TV they had here, and most of the other inmates were too dosed out to mind what I put on.The nurses changed the channel whenever I wanted, which was a dream come true.
For the first time in ages, I had a little control over my entertainment. And the drugs they were giving me were mild, a sedative to stop me hurting myself again. So my days passed much the same.
Myself and Dora, an inmate around the same age as me who had never said a word or even a grunt of acknowledgment, were watching a medical drama when a nurse summoned me to the front with a shout of my name and a beckoning hand. Maybe this was it, my time to return to the place I despised more and more with each passing day.
I had to get out of there; I just had to. I’d had thoughts of playing up the crazy even more to stayhere, but decided against it. Here would be harder to escape. Drugs made me dozier, dulled my senses. Sedatives were not conducive to a good escape plan.
“Ah, Dora,” I said, not actually knowing if that was her name, just deciding it suited her, with her blunt brunette fridge and big brown eyes. “Looks like you’ll have to let me know what happens next. Does she make it out of the freezing cold water?” I patted Dora on the head as I stood. “You’ll have to let me know with telepathy, I reckon.”
I strode over to the nurse, who I think was called Dean, and gave him a smile. He rankled, looked as though he wanted to flee. Probably watched the news and saw what I did. He was in the wrong dang job if he got scared of the inmates. I reached out to touch him, to test his boundaries, and got a lovely warning glare.
If I worked in a place like this, I would be googling the shit out of every single inmate. Couldn’t blame the man for the deep dive.Maybe he was desperate for the money. Or perhaps he was as bad as the rest of them.
I stepped back from him and narrowed my eyes —what kind of man washe?
“You have a visitor,” he told me, shoulders all square, fingers twitching as if he wanted to reach for a gun he didn’t have.
I wasn’t that scary.
“Who?” I asked, tipping my head.
“Corporal,” he said. “He’s waiting for you in the meeting room.”
I followed, curious. It could only be Adrian there, come to gloat or give me more cum in a bottle of something that used to be sweet. I missed the smell of him, so I would take it. But I wanted more. Being thrown in the crazy ward had scuppered those plans I had worked so hard for. It was nice here, but I had to get free of it. Or I feared I’d be stuck forever.
My plans with Adrian were failing because of these padded walls.
Nurse Dean opened the door to the meeting room and hurried me inside, stepping in with us and going to shut the door behind him.
“No need.” Adrian’s voice came, confirming my suspicions about who my visitor was. He stood up from the table, handcuffs in his grasp, waving them with a jangle. “We’ll be fine.”
“Uh,” Dean said, darting his eyes between us. “If you’re sure?”
Adrian dragged me to the metal table by my wrists, forced me into the chair, and handcuffed me to the little loop sticking out of the tabletop with swift precision. I let him, no fight, watching his every move, each ripple of muscle and tension of jaw.
“I’ll let you know when we’re through. This is confidential,” Adrian said again, his voice authoritative and calm. It made me shudder, want to spread my legs and vomit all over him in equal measure.
Dean nodded and dipped out, the door swinging shut with a slam. In the same moment it slammed, Adrian’s eyes were back on me, burning, angry.Ah.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” he asked, scowling, his gaze going to the gash running down my forehead. He strode over and settled into the chair opposite me. The wound was ugly, gnarled and swollen, bruised. Whenever I caught a glimpse of myself in a reflection, it surprised me.
“I wasn’t,” I explained. “That’s kind of the fucking point.”
“Did you do it on purpose?” His face was so accusatory, so vicious. It almost bothered me. But I didn’t show it. He couldn’t know.
