by Smith, Bryan
On the surface, this notion was ridiculous. Livia Collins did not believe in things like precognition or anything else supernatural. Belief in such things was irrational. She trusted in science foremost and not at all in superstition.
Furthermore, belief in supernatural things would mean allowing for at least the remote possibility of life after death. And that, by extension, meant allowing for the possibility of a God or higher power, as well as that of a hell and the devil. For someone like Livia, who’d devoted her life to torture and murder, the idea of a fiery realm where the souls of evil men and women were consigned for an eternity of unending torment was a terrifying thing.
So she simply couldn’t believe in such things, not without completely losing her mind.
And yet…
The phone in her hip pocket buzzed, making her gasp in surprise. She rarely used it, as it was a primitive flip-phone from the early part of the century. It had no internet access and calls could not be made to anyone outside Prison 13. Most staff members had similar phones, all of them for internal communication purposes only. The only person who called her with any degree of regularity was Dr. Woronov.
Livia took the phone from her pocket and flipped it open, eyes widening at the single word on the little LED screen: WARDEN.
Gripping the phone tight and swallowing hard, she put it to her ear and said, “Livia Collins.”
“I am speaking to nurse Livia Collins, correct?”
The voice coming from the other end was female. While the woman’s faint accent was difficult to place, there was something in the way she enunciated her words that was vaguely suggestive of an aristocratic background. An educated haughtiness.
Livia was trembling. She gripped the phone even tighter to keep it from slipping from her sweaty palm. The warden had never called her before, nor had she ever directly interacted with Livia in person. Her imagination kicked into overdrive, conjuring up all sorts of dire possibilities behind this development.
“Hello?”
Livia cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. Um, yes, this is Livia. How may I, uh…help you?”
“It’s my understanding that an inmate named Lenore Flanagan, aka Spider, has been admitted to the infirmary and is now under you care.” The warden spoke quickly, ignoring Livia’s hesitant, nervous tone. “Correct?”
Livia coughed. “Uh…right. I mean, correct.”
“You have a reputation as a brutal torturer of inmates. Would you say that’s a fair assessment?”
Livia palmed sweat from her forehead. “Um…”
The warden grunted. “No need to be nervous, dear. You are merely doing the job we asked of you and I commend you for your work ethic.”
Livia let out a shuddery breath.
“Um, okay. Thank you, warden.”
“No need to thank me, young lady. I am simply stating a fact. You are good at your job. You are appreciated. But that’s neither here nor there. The real purpose of my call today is to request that you not harm Lenore Flanagan in any way. She is important.”
Livia grunted. “Huh.”
Well, fuck me, she thought. Maybe that really was an episode of genuine precognition. Goddamn.
“Excuse me?”
There was a sharper edge to the warden’s tone now. A dangerous one.
Livia cleared her throat again. “Sorry. Actually, I’ve done nothing to harm Spider. In fact, I’ve treated her wounds. She’s under anesthesia but stable now.”
A contemplative pause from the other end
And then: “How often do you administer proper medical treatment to inmates?”
“Before today? Rarely. Only once in recent history, in fact. A woman who’d had flesh-dissolving acid splashed in her face was brought to me. The vice-warden asked me to save her sight if I could. I tried.”
“I take it the effort was unsuccessful.”
Livia couldn’t stop fidgeting and wished she hadn’t quit smoking. A cigarette would calm her nerves nicely right about now. “It was a mixed result. She lost one eye entirely. She has some degree of vision remaining in the other eye. It’s blurry, though, as if she had a cataract.”
“I see. And what possessed you to take such unusual steps with Lenore today?”
Livia hesitated briefly before saying, “Just a feeling I had. It…felt right. Like it was what I should do. I don’t know why.”
“Hmm.” A tapping came from the other end. It took Livia a moment to guess this was the warden drumming her fingertips on some surface. A desk, perhaps. “Interesting. Very interesting. You know something, Livia? I have a feeling of my own. A feeling about you.”
Livia’s heart hammered in her chest. She leaned against the railing of Spider’s bed to keep from falling over. “Oh?”
The warden chuckled. “I am quite impressed with you. I’d like to see you socially tonight. Do you have anything planned?”
This time Livia did drop the phone. She let out a squeak of dismay and scooped it up again, putting it to her ear. “Sorry about that. Um…no, I have nothing planned. What did you have in mind?”
“Dinner and entertainment at Berlin 666. I’ll send someone around to pick you up at ten tonight. Wear something provocative.”
The line went dead.
Livia took the phone away from her ear and stared at it a long moment.
Then she thought, Holy fuck, do I have an actual date with the warden? What in the actual fuck is going on here?
Once the initial shock of it wore off, the gloating commenced. The warden was interested in her on something other than a professional level. She’d asked Livia to wear something “provocative”. Though their interactions had been minimal to this point, the warden knew what she looked like. This could only mean the woman was attracted to her. The more she thought about it, the more certain she was that there was a strong chance she’d wind up in the warden’s bed tonight.
It was fucking surreal.
She started pacing about the infirmary as she thought about it. Opportunities like this didn’t come along every day. She had to make the most of it. Though she rarely wore them, there were several very sexy dresses in her wardrobe. She would select the slinkiest and sexiest of them all and do everything in her power to completely wow the warden. And if it came to it, she meant to be the best lay the woman had ever had.
As the rest of that seemingly endless afternoon wore on, Livia worked herself into a state of near delirium over the possibilities, imagining a new life as the warden’s lover. If that happened, she meant to lord her newly elevated social position over Dr. Woronov, make that two-timing bitch regret ever cheating on her or treating her like an inferior.
She had an even bigger score to settle, though.
The fucking Frauenschaft.
Livia wasn’t able to start calming down until she was brought yet another patient late in the afternoon. This one was an elderly black woman from C-Block. The woman had collapsed on her way to the dining hall, where the line had just started forming for dinner. Based on her symptoms, Livia suspected simple exhaustion. She was too alert for anything like a stroke or heart attack.
Not that Livia gave a shit.
Once the woman was shackled to a bed, she got to work on her. The first thing she did was to conduct one of the “experiments” she’d devised for Holly prior to the intervention of the Frauenschaft.
Working quickly—and with the expected neat, surgical precision—she sliced off one of the woman’s eyelids. Then she cut a slit in the eyeball. Into the slit went the stem of a small plastic funnel pilfered from the janitorial supply closet. The woman screamed a lot and bucked against her bonds, apparently having discovered new reserves of strength.
Livia grinned.
And poured bleach into the funnel.
19.
At lockdown time, Jessica heard numerous cell doors clang shut automatically, yet the door to her cell remained open. Someone had disabled the auto-lock. This was interesting
. Jessica took it as additional evidence of the special privileges enjoyed by those associated with Alice Kincaid.
As cell lights went out throughout the block, Jessica sat in a chair in the middle of her cell and stared out at the empty second floor landing, waiting to see what would happen. The light in her cell went out same as all the others, but she could see well enough thanks to the dimmed overhead lighting above the main floor.
Within a few minutes, she heard a slow clicking of heels moving down the landing. This would be the guards doing the nightly bed-check, making sure all the inmates were where they should be. The ones without special privileges, anyway. She’d hear a few footsteps at a time followed by a pause, then a few more footsteps and another pause, and so on.
Soon, though, she heard another set of footsteps, dimmer at first than the others, then growing louder as whoever it was moved purposefully along the second floor landing without pausing. This should be the guard escort Lucy Thorne had mentioned earlier.
Jessica glanced over at the bottom bunk, where Lucy was stretched out and dozing. The woman’s plump, blood-red lips were slightly parted and a light snore was just audible. She stared at the woman and wondered whether she ought to kill her before the guard arrived. It would be a bold and possibly dangerous move. This Alice Kincaid person was a mover and shaker within the inmate population. She had guards who would do things for her. These factors and more meant Alice was a potentially very valuable ally.
Joining up with Alice and her gang would lead to all sorts of opportunities that might otherwise remain unavailable to her for a long time, including access to possible escape routes. Getting rid of Lucy would free up a spot near the top of Alice’s organization. It’d be a ruthless mob-like way of eliminating competition. This might impress Alice, who seemed like a very cutthroat kind of broad. But it could also go the exact opposite way. Alice might get pissed off enough to have her killed.
In the end, the uncertainty stayed her hand. She shifted her gaze back to the open cell door as the footsteps came closer. In a few more seconds, the guard came into view and stopped outside the cell.
Apparently sensing the man’s presence, Lucy snorted in her sleep and came awake with a groan. She sat up on the bottom bunk and rubbed at her eyes. After taking her fists away from her eyes, she squinted at the guard’s dark form and said, “Oh, hey, Sam.”
“Hello, Lucy.”
Lucy swung her legs over the side of the bunk and stood up, groaning again as she stretched. Her denim cutoffs were unsnapped and the zipper was down. She’d been masturbating earlier while stretched out on the bunk. Jessica had ignored this, figuring it was a deliberately provocative act. The woman did it to test her. After getting herself off, she’d slipped into sleep, for which Jessica had been grateful.
Now she looked at Jessica and said, “Get your ass up. Time to go see the boss.”
Not seeing any point in hesitation or second thoughts, Jessica rose from the chair and approached the open cell door, pausing there because the guard was blocking the way. Lucy was right behind her. She cupped a hand against one of Jessica’s buttocks and squeezed.
“Mmm.” The woman mashed her large breasts against Jessica’s back, put her hands on her waist. “If Alice doesn’t want you, I might claim you for myself. What do you think about that?”
Jessica let out a breath. “I don’t belong to anybody. Especially not you.”
Lucy’s hands tightened at her waist, fingers digging in hard. “Oh, yeah? We’ll see about that.”
The guard chuckled. “Let’s get going you two. We shouldn’t keep Alice waiting.”
He turned away from them and moved on down the landing. Lucy gave Jessica a push in the back that wasn’t exactly friendly. It made her stumble forward a step or two. Ordinarily, this would trigger an immediate and violent response, but she reined in the instinct. She still needed a fuller sense of this gang’s inner dynamics before doing anything drastic.
She followed the guard and Lucy stayed right behind her. As she continued along the landing, she cast occasional glances into the cells of other inmates. In some, prisoners were already asleep in their bunks. Low moans issued from other cells, the women inside them either masturbating or pleasuring each other. A loud smacking sound came from another cell. As Jessica passed that one, she glanced that way and saw a big woman savagely beating a much smaller one. It made her think of what she’d done to Spider. She didn’t feel good about that, but it’d been the right move. A power move. She’d do it again in a heartbeat.
At the end of the landing, they climbed a set of steps to the next floor up and a short while later arrived outside a cell with a sheet drawn across the front of it. The guard rapped a baton against one of the bars and said in a low voice, “We’re here.”
A light was on inside the cell and Jessica could make out the shadowy forms of furniture. Then another form became visible as someone rose from a prone position and began moving about in there. In another moment, the sheet was drawn back and then Alice was there. She smiled as she slid open the unlocked cell door and beckoned Jessica inside with a bent finger.
Jessica stepped into the cell.
Lucy made to follow, but Alice blocked her entry. “Sorry, doll. I need to have this meeting in private. You understand.”
The look on Lucy’s face said otherwise. More than that, she was upset about it. Seeing this made Jessica smirk. But Lucy forced a strained smile and said, “Sure, boss. When should I come back?”
“In the morning.” Alice glanced at the guard. “Same for you, Sam. We won’t be needing your escort services again tonight.”
Sam frowned. “But…I thought…”
“Never mind what you thought. Go away.”
Alice closed the cell door and pulled the privacy sheet back into place. A muffled bit of conversation was audible from the landing for a moment. Though she couldn’t make out the words, Jessica detected a distinct note of discontent. Someone wasn’t happy at being shut out tonight. This pleased Jessica.
Taking Jessica by the hand, Alice led her over to the back of the cell, indicating for her to sit on a futon. Jessica obliged, watching as Alice moved away from her and opened a mini-fridge. She took out a bottle of wine and set it on a table. From a cabinet, she took down two wine glasses. After uncorking the bottle, she poured a generous amount into each.
She then joined Jessica on the futon, offering her a glass as she sat down. “I hope you prefer red. It’s all I have.”
Jessica smiled as she accepted the glass. “My preference is anything with alcohol in it. I’m not picky.” She sipped from the glass, savoring the taste. It was better than she’d expected. “Mmm. Nice.”
Alice put a hand on Jessica’s knee. “I’m glad you like it. I had to suck a lot of guard cock to get something decent smuggled in.”
Jessica grunted. “So these special privileges you enjoy come at a cost.”
Alice squeezed her knee. “Of course they do, but in this case it’s worth it. That guard who brought you here tonight? Sam? He could take any woman here by force if he wanted, including me, but I’m smart, see. I’ve made it more interesting for him by fucking him better than anyone else ever has or ever could. As a result, I’ve got the boy wrapped around my little finger. He loves me. And he’d do practically anything for me, including smuggling in just about any kind of contraband you could name. One day he might even be my ticket out of here, if I work him just right. What do you think about that?”
Jessica thought it was exactly what she’d been hoping to hear. However, she kept her expression neutral as she sipped more wine and took a look around the cell. The mini-fridge and futon were far from the only luxury items not available to other inmates.
A boxy old-style TV sat atop another small table. Beneath it was a VCR. Next to the table was a rack of VHS tapes. A large shag rug covered much of the concrete floor. The cinderblock walls were mostly obscured by velvet sheets. Elsewhere a large—and quite old�
��steamer trunk containing who-knew-what sat against a wall. Another small table was devoted to ancient stereo components and a tall bookcase was overflowing with battered old paperbacks.
Jessica downed the rest of her wine and tossed the glass aside. It landed with a quiet thump on the shag carpet. “Here’s what I think about that.”
She grabbed Alice and kissed her on the mouth. Alice reacted with a startled gasp as her own wine glass slipped from her fingers and broke on the floor, missing the shag rug by inches. But in a moment she opened her mouth and allowed Jessica’s tongue inside. She moaned as one of Jessica’s hands went up under her shirt to grope a breast.
Jessica broke the kiss long enough to say, “You like that?”
She squeezed Alice’s breast again.
Alice whimpered. “God, yes. Oh, God. I’ve wanted you since I set eyes on you.”
Jessica smiled. “I know.”
She pushed Alice down on the futon and stood up to quickly strip off her uniform.
Alice propped herself up on her elbows and said, “That’s the last time you’ll ever have to wear that stupid thing.”
“Good. Now take that fucking shirt off.”
Alice quickly obliged, peeling off the cropped white T-shirt to reveal the very large and beautiful breasts beneath. Jessica climbed atop her, pushing her down again and writhing against her. She cupped one of Alice’s breasts very firmly in her hand and teased the nipple with the tip of her tongue. This made Alice gasp and wriggle beneath her.
“Oh, God. Oh, please.”
Jessica flicked her tongue harder against the stiffening nipple before drawing it into her mouth.
“Oh, God!” Alice arched her back and seized a handful of Jessica’s hair, wrenching it hard. “Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck.”
