Gripping the Lines

Shackles

Warnings: swearwords, violence, sad

*448 words(BELOW)*

"Hey! Stop that!"

The female inmate rushed to comfort the woman in labor. The blonde's water just broke, and she was beginning to feel contractions, but the security guards wasted no time restraining the 17-year-old to her hospital bed and rolled her into a separate room away from the prying eyes of her tormented prison mates. 

The red-head, however, managed to follow the action all the way up to when they rolled the blonde into her room.  At this point, the red-head was restrained by a guard. "Please! Let me see Hailey!" she cried out. "I can't let her stay in there by herself! Let me comfort her!" the red-head screamed, struggling violently against her attackers.

"GAH!!" cries and screams could be heard from inside the room as the resident doctor entered. The red-head managed to escape the first man's hold and streaked across the hall. She was within a yard's distance when she tumbled to the hard cement floor. Two guards had jumped her at the last checkpoint. "Stop resisting, Loraine!" one of the guards commanded. "Never!! She's in pain!"

"Shut up, stupid bitch!" the guard yelled again, but to no avail. Loraine continued her scramble. "No! She's only 17! She needs someone in there with her! She shouldn't have to be alone and chained to a bed while she screams in pain from the contractions! Hailey's suffering more than she needs to! Let me go!"

The first security guard pulled out his wooden baton, seeing that his victim wasn't planning on backing down, and aimed a blow for her head.

Loraine dodged in the nick of time and swerved, throwing the man off. Free once more, she stumbled onto her feet and scrambled into the room, rushing to Hailey's side. The red-head grabbed the blonde's hand and held it, wincing as Hailey squeezed her hand tightly. Hailey looked up at Loraine for a moment and mouthed the words Thank you before screaming again. Another contraction wracked her body.

"It's okay, Hailey. I'm here. It's okay. Just breath, Hay, okay?" Loraine told the blonde, who nodded vaguely and made a horrible attempt at calming her breathing, but with no success. She sought to break the chains against her wrists, being met with only jingling and metal digging harshly into her skin. "P-please," Hailey begged, "Get these off me, please. I feel trapped."

Loraine nodded and turned to the two guards on the floor, both of whom were struggling to get up. "Hey! Undo her shackles! No pregnant mother, criminal or not, deserves to be in chains during childbirth!"

The men stared at her accusingly, making no move to fulfill her request after standing up.

"Please," Loraine asked with pleading eyes. "Please don't keep her chained."