A Bullet (Ruby Rose fanfic)

FIVE (ISELEN POV)

"Hoe check?"

"That's it," Moina confirms while she monitors the corridor ahead of us although she shouldn't be worried since inmates step back when we get closer. Ruby walks next to us, nodding with her head quietly like a queen greeting her subjects, and smiles when Erin and Pilar say goodbye in order to go to their work in the store while we head to the library. "A group beating given to a prisoner to see if she'll stand up for herself and can bear the punches, what Corona did to you this morning was a simple chin check... one-on-one."

"I understand..." The truth is that I'm feeling better after drinking some coffee and taking a painkiller, the toast I ate for breakfast turns in my stomach uncomfortably because of the punch I got and my jaw is still throbbing, but I'm not about passing out anymore and won't embarrass my girlfriend with my weakness, that's why I can pay attention to the explanations the girls are giving me.

"No, you don't understand it, babe." Ruby stops abruptly in front of a door and turns around to look at me, keeping the 'I'm a badass member of the Irish mob' attitude, but her eyes show a hint of sadness and affection when she raises her hand and fixes my beige uniform on my collarbone. "You'll never be alone for the next months, not only because you live in a prison with hundreds of inmates and guards, but because Moina, Glenna and I myself will be with you all the time. You can't go to the bathroom or the laundry alone, you won't have one minute to shut it all out and relax or think about your things quietly. And that's probably the biggest drawback of this situation. It can drive you crazy, literally."

"The boss is right," Glenna puts her arm on my shoulders protectively. "Even if Ruby is the most powerful person in Bayview, in a certain sense at least, the truth is that some inmates go psycho for whatever reason and a hoe check or a quick stab with a shank during a violent fight is something that can happened anytime... We could give you some privacy in the chapel or your cage but we must be guarding the door anyway. I guess that the only place where you could be alone with your thoughts safely is the library restroom while we work... let me show you."

The Irish brunette opens the door and invites me in with a flourish of her hand. The room is surprisingly big and luminous thanks to several windows on one side, despite they have thick bars, there're five tables with four chairs each and shelves packed with books and magazines cover three walls. There're a couple of solid couches under the windows and the dark green upholstery looks old but clean, a small fridge and a rolling cart with more books stacked on top stand out between them. A door leads to what looks like a simple, white tiled restroom at the back of the room. If it weren't for the fact that there's wire mesh covering the glasses, it'd look like a high school library... it even smells like one: old books and disinfectant cleaner on the floor.

"This is the Education area. There're a couple of classrooms in this corridor where inmates can get their General Educational Development and a smaller room with two computers and a printer. To be honest, nobody ever comes around at all... Do you see that massive building across the yard? Those are the workshops where most of the inmates spend their days, except for the kitchen and bakery, of course. From textile manufacturing to woodwork and metalwork, they're producing spare parts for lifts and escalators for example, a printing house where they make Christmas or birthday cards, they take care of gardens and orchards... Before they get their job assigned, they prison administration provides training, even to inmates that work in the kitchen, and they're interested in developing those skills that will help them to find a job outside faster than educational qualification."

"What are you doing here, then?" I ask with curiosity while reading some titles of books, most of them are classics and there aren't new bestsellers, but some volumes about art and architecture make me smile.

"The library works because some inmates read in order to kill time, even if they work they have plenty of free time and they have to do something besides fighting or getting depressed. And also, there's the smuggling business..." Glenna points at the rolling cart and I stare at her confused.