Behind Bars

Murder

A week

I'd been here for a fucking week andy chances of getting admitted to a mental institution was rapidly reaching its peak.
I thought I loved the sense of quietness but that wasn't until I met the lunch ladies or as I liked to call them fire to my already kindled insanity.
Their suspicious glances followed me everywhere I went and honestly,I was beginning to get scared.

That situation of kill because of your fear of getting killed.

Also,I was used to the chaos and noise in the jail room so this was a difference I had to get adapted to.

For a whole hellish week,the only thing I did each day was peel onions. I could win a record in the Guinness Book of World Records for fastest peeled onions.
Anytime I tried to get close to the cooking, their looks were enough to shrink me and make me feel like a kid caught with his hand in a candy jar.

When I was told this was my punishment, I wasn't exactly ecstatic. I had been ripped off of hard labor–the punishment I heard had been given to Rick.

First, my body gets battered up with the hits and bruises from him and his posse and then he receives hard labor whilst I am here in this place serving soggy, tasteless mashed potatoes to rude, ungrateful inmates who never hesitate to make crude jokes about the hairnet on me.

A week ago,I told myself to make the best of it. All those optimistic words and shit but now,I can't take it anymore.

I've only spent a week in this place which means I have three weeks, twenty days, thirteen hours, thirty minutes and three seconds.

I was beginning to think the lunch ladies were the ones spending the prison sentences instead of us because I had never seen any of them crack a smile.
They went around strictly, barking orders to each other but me, especially and cooking up meals that matched their personalities.

This was one hell of a punishment.

Earlier,the warden had announced that he was going to have a meeting with us. I didn't hear that from him though,one of the lunch ladies was generous enough to let it spill around me in a quick conversation with her coworker.

Whatever the news was,if it wasn't to get me out of here,I didn't care about it and I definitely did not want to hear it.
Breakfast had been served and I was seriously dreading my daily task of peeling onions. You'd think the sting in your eyes will get better after peeling thirty or more onions? It never did.

The moment one of the lunch lady walked in with a familiar basket,I knew there was no escaping it.
"Ladies,she speaks up and
Gentleman,this time speaking under her breath.
I'm here to welcome our newest member. She would be spending two months with us".

The lunch lady moves aside to reveal a redhead with her face stooped to the ground.
"Ariel, she nudges her
Introduce yourself"

"Hi", she mutters lifting her head.
I blink once, twice  trying to cover up my shock. The girl standing before us had an amazing smile and she was simply stunning.

The redhead standing shyly, smiling sweetly was just in a word–breathtaking and I wondered why she was here. Why she'd even choose to come close to a place like this.

"This is your first day so just get to know the place and if you have any questions. Don't hesitate to ask",the lunch lady says placing the basket of onions on the counter with a nod towards my direction and walks away.

Dragging my feet with a heavy heart towards the basket,I angrily yank it off the table and unknowingly a broken part of the plastic basket gets entangled with the nook of the chair beside the counter.