The Healer's Revenge

Chapter One: The Letter Thief

Arya grimaced as she grasped her ankle.The swelling was immediate; she had distinctly heard the snap of a fragile bone the moment she hit the floor. She forced herself to take slow, deep breaths. The swelling briefly seized, and then within a few moments dissipated completely. She breathed a sigh of relief.Luckily, she had slipped from the top bunk during one of the busiest parts of the day. She peered suspiciously outside her cell, scanning the entire pod in a couple of glances. The uniformed guard on the high-rise in the middle of the pod was leaning over the edge of the concrete barrier, speaking to one of the female inmates. Arya recognized her from cell B103 – a slight, mousy girl with a frail figure and trembling hands. She stammered and kneaded her hands while she spoke to the officer, who regarded her with as much disdain as a,cockroach on the kitchen floor. Taking one final scan of her surroundings to ensure that her fall had gone unnoticed, Arya lifted herself up and began to climb back into her top bunk when she heard a shrewd voice from behind her.

"That was a nasty fall." The voice dripped with sarcasm from the top bunk opposite. Certain that she had been alone in the cell, Arya glared across the cement cell and locked eyes with a pudgy face, barely discernible from the surrounding white blankets that encumbered her.

"Isn't it a little early for you to be awake?" snapped Arya. Her cellmate was notoriously lazy and known for sleeping until lunch arrived, as food seemed to be the only certain thing that motivated her to leave her bed.

"Oh, I planned on sleeping in,"the pudgy girl yawned. She ran a tiny hand through her dirty blonde hair. "But I've been up all morning reading – I found your letters to your father just fascinating. You shouldn't leave personal items sprawled across your bed – "

"Give me those!" snarled Arya, her face reddening. In a single bound she traversed the space between the two bunks and ripped the letters out of the girl's sweaty hands, breathing ferociously. The girl's face briefly drained of color when she saw the violence in Arya's eyes; her own eyes narrowed in on Arya's face before she spoke.

"There, there, Arya...are you threatening me? As cell Captain, it's my responsibility to report behavior that I find – ah – out of line." The girl's full pink cheeks broadened into a toad-like grin. Her large, ice-cold blue eyes twinkled with delight as she methodically smoothed the pile of letters in her hands.

"Those are my letters, Amber. They are personal property. I'll tell – "

"Tell who? Which officer, do you think, is going to believe the lies of a convicted child murderer–who not only murdered her own mother but her own brother? My mum said it was bad blood...bad breeding that caused the attack – " The words had barely left Amber's mouth before Arya flung herself across the top of Amber's bunk, embroiled by hatred. She was throwing punches wildly, scratching at the chubby arms and chest of her opponent, wild with a hatred and rage that was all encompassing and that seared through her brain with a hot lust for blood as she screamed.

"HOW – DARE – YOU – You know nothing – NOTHING of what happened – I'm NOT – A – MURDERER –" but the last words were muffled as the iron arms of two muscular guards pulled her off of her piggish opponent, who was shrieking with pain and howling as she grasped her pudgy arms, now covered in scratches, her face bleeding from the attack. Within less than a minute the guards had shackled Arya's hands and feet and were holding her upright in a painfully erect position, forcing her back into an unnatural arch. One of the guards tapped his temple twice; immediately his eyes became a blank white slate. As he spoke, black letters filled the white spaces of his eyes.

"Report 09 for cell 101. Inmate B777, Arya Sesino. Type: Unprovoked assault on cellmate."

"I WAS provoked – she has my letters – sh-she took my private letters –" Arya stammered. With a single swift movement the shorter guard of the two smacked her across the mouth; Arya felt the salty taste of blood as her lip split against her lower teeth. She grimaced in pain. She closed her eyes; she momentarily forced her breathing to become level as she allowed her body to slump between the two guards. She felt the wound in her mouth quickly close up as she focused her energy on reversing the swelling. The guard that was minding the report had focused his attention on Amber, who was sitting upright in her cell, rubbing her arms methodically and rocking back and forth.

" – and out of nowhere she came flying at me like a wild animal, yelling about murdering her mum and brother and saying I'd be next – she'd left her letters all over  the whole cell this morning like she always does, and I was cleaning up after her – "

"LIES" spat Arya as she felt her energy returning to her body, fueled by fresh hatred for the pasty white human before her. "I never – NEVER – leave my letters out –they're private – she was in my bunk – "

"Are you suggesting that Amber is lying to an Officer, B777?" The guard tapped his temple once more,and his eyes clicked into a fresh white slate. "Inmate B777 claims cell Captain Amber Gucker of providing false information to a Pod Officer. Note on record: Amber Gucker has a current system standing of 45 with no infractions since arrival." The guard paused, made  a wiping motion with one hand over his temple, and blinked as his black eyes re-appeared. "Amber, quite frankly I expect your parents to push for the maximum sentence during prosecution. To be honest, I don't know why we were even housing a cell Captain with an inmate in negative system standing." He tapped his temples again. "Procure system standing and background for inmate B777," he paused, and then laughed softly as letters and numbers flitted across his eyes. "Seven hundred years, Arya? I think it's useless, then, to add more years to your sentence...no...you must be taught a lesson. As amusing as I find your little outbursts, all good things must come to an end, eventually..." His voice trailed off as his irises disappeared into the back of his head for a few moments. And then, his eyes reappeared and he sneered with a sickening satisfaction.

"Flag inmate B777's file for Ultra Violence and send a request for the immediate transport of B777 to Pod Zero for an indefinite time." He smiled maliciously as he cleared his mind slate with a lazy hand wave. "I'm sure B777 will be more at ease around her own kind in Pod Zero – she doesn't know what a privilege it has been for her to be housed above ground. A month or so below ground ought to dry up those violent tendencies." She gripped her shackles, cold with fear. Pod Zero was where inmates went to waste away below ground; in the transportation halls, the screams of those driven insane could be heard reverberating upwards from the dank and stone chambers.

Arya stammered. "No – I –please, sir – I'll take any – I'll take all – of the Seven Punishments to stay here – p-please don't send me down there –" Before she could finish speaking, the shorter guard plunged a syringe into her thigh and she let out a heart-piercing shriek before collapsing on the floor. The ceiling swirled above her. Amber laughed maliciously as she tucked the letters back into her blanket. "I'll take care of these for you, Arya." She tried to speak, tried to reach out, but her arms were anchors and the floor an angry ocean beneath her. Within seconds everything around her became a thick pool of black fog as her eyes slipped into the back of her head and she passed out, cold.