Property of the State Page 6

  “Heiress! Time to lock out! Why I gotta tell you the same shit every day! Get up for breakfast and let’s go! Ain’t no sitting in the block at mealtime no more. Y’all bitches be scheming too much,” the same short, fat, female CO yelled at me through my cell door.

  I looked up and sucked my teeth. The hunger pains were really the only things that made me move. Fuck them COs is what I was thinking. They were bullies with a badge, but not when it fucking mattered. They didn’t protect people when we needed it, but they were here to harass us every step of the way, otherwise.

  Inside my cell, I washed my face and brushed my teeth at the little sink, but I had to go to the communal shower to bathe, which I absolutely hated. I gathered the horrible-smelling soap, shampoo, and lotion I had been given at intake and headed to the showers. I entered the shower stall and there were three other women inside already. They obviously knew each other because they were talking and laughing. Another corny clique. I hadn’t been in the mood to make friends since I’d been there, so I basically kept to myself. I spoke when I was spoken to; otherwise, it was silence. I had actually been doing a ton of reading about possibly changing my plea and having my case reexamined. I mean, it was clear self-defense and I still thought I stood a chance of getting everything reversed. Thank God for what Sandra had put me on.

  The sound of the other inmates in the shower laughing immediately grinded on my nerves; I couldn’t figure out what could be so funny or why they would be so happy when they were in prison, just like me. I just shook my head in disgust. Since I wasn’t trying to make friends, I had made up my mind that I wasn’t going to speak to them or join in their girlish banter. I missed the friends I had made in the county jail, though, especially Sandra.

  When the women noticed that I had come into the shower room, they stopped talking and eyed me up and down.

  “That’s her,” one of the women whispered, turning back to her little group of friends after rolling her eyes at me.

  I heard her immature, high-school-acting ass, but I ignored her. I wasn’t up for the drama. I knew they knew who I was. Everybody in Virginia probably knew of me now, after I had such a public plea hearing and sentencing, and since my arrest had made the headlines in every newspaper.

  The inmates continued to snicker and whisper about me as I took off my clothes and got into the shower. Stupid-ass, childish bitches. I was thinking those chicks were all probably locked up for some dumb shit, or because they were strung out on drugs and out there committing crimes to get it, which also made me think of Jillian real quick. Her pill habit had walked us down a long road of bullshit. It didn’t matter, though; I still missed my cousin like crazy.

  Anyway, I considered myself different. This incident was a fluke. An accident. A onetime thing that just went all kinds of wrong. I had been living a pretty good life before shit went awry. Yes, call me stuck-up, or whatever, but I considered myself different from the bitches I was locked up with. In my mind, I was above them, and that’s how I planned to keep it. Although, right then, just like them, I was behind bars with nothing and no way out.

  The cackling bitches finally left the shower area, leaving me relieved to be alone. It would be the only sliver of privacy I got anytime soon. I finished and prepared to go back to my cell block so I could go to breakfast and hopefully talk to my mother. My mother was still trying to find a work-around for my case too. It may not have made sense to everyone else, but to us, we had to keep fighting. The thought of it not working out made me anxious.

  I dried my body and then wrapped my towel around my hair and slipped back into a fresh prison jumpsuit. There were no mirrors and I was glad. I was sure that by now, I probably looked tired in the face and my skin was irritated with stress bumps. Just as I prepared to leave the showers, three women came rushing in. It wasn’t the same ones that had been in there earlier whispering about me, so I didn’t think anything of it. I got a good look at all of their faces this time and thought to myself they were all ugly as shit. I rolled my eyes and stopped, to let them go pass me before I tried to walk out. I wasn’t trying to bump anyone and get into any altercations. I was banking on good behavior to help me down the line when I had to face a parole board.

  These women clearly had other plans. One of them—a tall, very light-skinned, skinny girl, with a natural ash-brown Afro—stopped in front of me and blocked my path. She was an albino and ugly as shit, so I couldn’t blame her for being mad at the world.

  Not fucking today, I thought as I let out an exasperated sigh and stood holding my ground.

  “Yo! Your name Misty, right?” the tall chick asked, her face drawn into a tight scowl.

  I could tell she was supposed to be the tough one out of the group. She was so skinny I could see bones sticking up at her collar like they were out of place. The other two women—one that was so fat I doubted I could take her, and one that was obviously not as down with whatever was about to go down, because she looked more scared than me—stood flanking the ringleader.

  I crinkled my face and gave my own tough-girl look. “Yeah, I’m Misty and . . . who wants to know?” I snapped, dropping my stuff and balling up my fists. My street smarts told me to be ready for anything. I was outnumbered and probably outpowered, but I couldn’t show weakness.

  “I got a message for you from Terrell’s family,” the light-skinned chick snarled.

  I felt a sense of dread wash over me and my heart started to pump with pure fear. “What the fuck—” I started.

  Then, wham! Something slammed into my face with so much force I felt like my skull had cracked. I felt my teeth click and I thought I had swallowed my own tongue. Right away, the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth.

  “Ah!” I gurgled, and stumbled backward as another punch landed directly in the center of my face. The bridge of my nose cracked, immediately sending a stabbing pain up the center of my face that reverberated through my entire skull. I swear it felt like my brain had been knocked loose.

  “Ow! Help!” I wailed. Another fist slammed into me. This time my nose sprayed blood all over.

  A follow-up bevy of punches and slaps from the women made me see stars. At first, I moved my arms wildly like a windmill, but I couldn’t see clearly, so it was all for naught.

  “Ah! Somebody help me! Please help me!” I screamed again, throwing my hands up to my face as the blood leaked through my fingers. “Fucking bitches! Help!” I screamed, gurgling blood.

  My screams were for nothing. It was like I was alone in the entire prison with my attackers. There was no fucking CO in sight. I swear, this felt like a planned attack. I mean, when correctional officers want to harass me, they’re lurking around every fucking corner. So, where are they now?

  “Guards . . . somebody help!” I continued to scream for my life.

  “Nah, bitch! You’re gonna wear this ass kicking,” one girl gritted.

  “Yeah, you’re gonna die today, just like you killed Terrell!” another girl threatened through clenched teeth.

  Another close-fisted blow to the top of my head made me feel like things would go dark at any minute. I tried to fight, but I had no wins. My breathing was so labored, I thought my lungs had failed. Then I felt myself being dragged down by my hair. My defenses were up, but I had to face the fact that I had no wins over these wild bitches, who were now on me like a pride of lionesses on small, easy prey.

  I fell to the floor and immediately curled up into a fetal position so I could protect my vital organs. Kicks, slaps, and punches rained down on me like a hailstorm. The women punched and kicked me without mercy. I was bleeding from the side of my head and could feel blood filling up in my right ear. I kept my legs curled in and my arms over my chest in an attempt to keep them from hitting me in the heart. I knew that the right blow to the heart could cause it to stop on the spot.

  “This is for Ahmad too! Him and his family send their regards, you snitching bitch!” the ringleader of the attackers spat.

  “Yeah, and Ahmad als
o sends a great big ‘fuck you’ and said he hasn’t forgotten about you either!” the other chick snarled; and with that, she lifted her foot and kicked me with all her might, right in my head.

  The pain rocked through my skull like what I imagined a volcano erupting within me would feel like.

  “Agh!” I let out a bloodcurdling scream that felt like fire searing the back of my throat. I immediately felt shit closing in on me and then my world went black from the shock.

  * * *

  My eyes fluttered open as the sound of voices around me filtered through my ears. I had no idea where I was or how long I’d been there. I attempted to lift my right arm, but something prevented it. I moved my eyes to the side and noticed silver handcuffs glaring back at me. I looked around to see where the voices were coming from.

  There was a group of doctors standing at the foot of the bed I was in, but it wasn’t my cell bed. There was a CO posted up in a chair near the window in the corner of the strange room. I looked up and saw a monitor with numbers flashing. Then I became aware of the oxygen mask covering my nose and mouth. I was definitely in the prison hospital. I lifted up my free hand and saw the IV stuck in the top of it. The doctors were still talking, but none of them had noticed that I was awake.

  Trembling and feeling weak, I slowly moved my free hand and touched my head. I ran my fingers over the rough ridges of stitches on my head. It was so painful. I tried to lift my head and immediately felt darkness closing in on me. I knew then I had a bad brain injury, probably more than just a concussion. Panic quickly set in and my heart started racing fast. The machine I was hooked to began beeping loudly.

  One of the doctors whirled around, his eyes wide. “Ms. Heiress, you’re awake,” he said, sounding a bit surprised that I had made it.

  “Where am I?” I rasped, my throat dry as dust. I used my free hand to pull the oxygen mask from my face.

  “We are so glad to see you awake. You suffered some pretty serious injuries, especially to your head,” another doctor said, stepping closer to my bedside.

  “Where am I?” I raised my voice as much as I could, given my condition. The doctors all looked at one another like they were trying to concoct some story before they told me where I was. I eyed each one of them. My voice had stirred the CO and he stood up with a look of horror on his face.

  “You should rest, Ms. Heiress . . . really,” a female doctor said, trying to push me back down onto the bed pillow.

  “I want to know what happened and where I am!” I strained to scream. The veins in my neck and at my temple were raised and pulsing against my skin. The heart monitors were going wild with loud, rapid beeps. A piece of gauze on my head began to soak through with blood. I had busted a stitch or two and the pain made my eyes tear up.

  “Listen, calm down. They’ll tell you what’s going on when you calm down,” the CO said, moving closer.

  The doctors looked at each other as if they were trying to figure out who would be charged with giving me the information. Finally the petite female doctor stepped closer to my bedside. She was clearly nervous.

  “Ms. Heiress, the injuries you suffered during the assault were pretty serious. The blow you took to the head could’ve caused permanent damage. When they got you here, we had to work to get you better. We don’t think it’s safe for you back in general population. We have brought you here to a protective medical area for your own safety,” the doctor said.

  I flopped back onto the pillow. “So . . . you’re saying . . . I’ve been transferred?” my voice cracked. Blood soaked the head gauze again. “To a different prison?”

  “No, just to a different area, where you’ll be safer. There are only a few conditions to your stay in this area,” another doctor said.

  Conditions! What fucking conditions? I thought.

  Sandra had told me about state prisons where they used inmates as human guinea pigs to test drugs. She said she had read up about them and the ones where they used inmates as slave labor for big corporations. I had thought she was crazy, but maybe she had been right. I wasn’t letting them keep me here, safety or not. I’d rather take my chances than be given some disease they couldn’t cure, like Sandra said they did to several hundred inmates that she’d read about.

  “No! Take me back! Get me the fuck out of here!” I screamed, thrashing on the bed. The handcuffs dug into my wrist. Pain rocked through my skull and all of my muscles burned, but I didn’t care. They stood there and looked at me like I was speaking another language. But I wasn’t. I was speaking English so they understood me perfectly well.

  “Get something to sedate her!” one of the doctors yelled to a nurse who had come busting into the room to see what was going on. The nurse turned on her heels and raced out of the room.

  “Get the fuck away from me!” I howled, making the heart monitors go berserk.

  The doctors all looked horrified. Finally the nurse skidded back into the room and handed a syringe to one of the doctors. I was kicking so hard it took all of them to hold my leg still enough to be injected. The doctor was finally able to plunge the needle into my left thigh muscle. And he did it with ease, it seemed.

  “Ow! No! What the fuck are y’all trying to do with me?” I wailed. “Get off of” were my final words as the medicine in the needle immediately took hold of me.

  My body went slack, and my head lulled to the side. The doctors all looked at each other in relief.

  “That was the saddest thing I’ve ever had to do,” the female doctor said to her colleagues. “How do we just take away people’s rights like this every single day in the fake name of science?” she continued.

  “I guess somebody gotta sacrifice for sick people to get better,” the CO answered as he made sure I was really knocked out.

  “Yeah, but somebody also has to have some damn ethical responsibility too,” the female doctor said, sounding disgusted.

  I could hear them. And I could hear the sorrow in her voice, but I couldn’t react or respond. I was trapped in my own body. Buried alive. And, little did I know, that was just the beginning of a hell for me.

  6

  INFIRMARY OR TRICKERY

  The clanging of doors slamming shut snapped me out of a hard, drug-induced sleep. It had been more than a week since the episode in the hospital room and I was still not able to think straight. My stitches had mostly healed, but the headaches were still rocking through my skull randomly. They’d get so bad, I would have to hide from the light. There weren’t many hours I had been awake and conscious since I’d been in this new place, but in the moments I was lucid, my constant worrying made the pain worse.

  I wondered if my mother knew I’d been transferred to this so-called medical protective unit. I couldn’t stop worrying about her every time I gained the slightest bit of consciousness. My mother wasn’t cut out for this bullshit. I could just imagine how crazy she was going, being on the outside without me. I had no time to write Sandra either. I didn’t even know where they’d taken my personal things, which is where an envelope and money receipt with her address was located. This was some other type of shit these people had me going through.

  More noise around me told me I was fully awake this time. I leaned over on the bed and dry-heaved. My stomach wasn’t feeling right this morning and I knew right away that the queasy feeling meant they’d probably doped me up on too much shit. It wasn’t lost on me that the prison system had gone hand in hand with the big pharmaceutical companies. I’d heard from Sandra that they used inmates to test out drugs that they couldn’t get good results from testing on animals. In other words, treating humans worse than fucking rats and monkeys in labs.

  They tried to tell me being on this new unit was for my protection, but I knew better. Something else was up. Something serious. I dry-heaved for the tenth time. My gut was never wrong. I felt like I had landed myself in a serious situation with no hope. Isolation was how they made inmates fall to their mercy. I hadn’t had a visit, a phone call, pen and paper—nothing that wo
uld allow me to contact someone outside of this place.

  I closed my eyes and tried to calm the bat-sized butterflies jumping around in my stomach. I had no idea what to expect today, but judging from the way they had doped me up days earlier, I wasn’t hopeful that it would be any different. All of this was my fault. From sneaking around stealing pills for Jillian to killing Terrell, I felt like karma or some shit was catching up to me.

  More clanging, screeching metal and what sounded like a stampede of rapid footsteps caused me to open my eyes. I crumpled my eyebrows and stood up slowly. My eyes moved rapidly, scanning from left to right as if I was watching a moving train pass. I moved closer to the little window in the door as a phalanx of COs stomped past in a frantic line.

  “The fuck?” I whispered, my face folding into a frown. “Somebody probably tried to escape,” I grumbled.

  This was how they acted in the regular jail and prison cell blocks when they were preparing for a total lockdown. Just as I turned my back to get back into my bed, my door slid open and I heard my name being yelled like it was an emergency.

  “Heiress! Misty Heiress!” a tall, dark-skinned, fish-eyed CO yelled out. At first, I was going to sit quietly and see if the ape-looking officer passed by. However, that feeling in my stomach already had me so jittery, I just spun around on my legs after he called me for the third time.

  “That’s me. I’m Misty Heiress,” I said apprehensively, my eyebrows scrunched in confusion. Six more officers stepped up behind him.

  “All right, Ms. Heiress, I’m coming in there to cuff you. Then, nicely as you can, you will come with me. Quietly and without a fight, if I were you,” the ugly officer said as he signaled for the backup officers.

  Before I could put my wrists out on my own, two COs grabbed me and damn near dragged me toward the doorway.