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Exhaustion screamed at her. Her eyes felt heavy as she walked past the cells, seeing the empty or occupied beds. Mia felt unsettled as Rick led her through the prison halls. The sudden change of scenery was strange. Instead of the usual greenery that had been embedded into her eyesight was know replaced by dark and glommy walls, yet the ghostly silence was still there. Rick looked down at her occasionally to see if she was doing okay.
He led her up a case of metal stairs and motioned her down the upstairs walkway. Going further down the hall, he paused at one of the empty cells. "I'd say this one will do." He announced.
The cell was small, of course, and empty. The bed was stripped down to a simple off-white mattress. A small wooden desk was placed on the opposite wall. A simple bulb of light hung from the concrete ceiling. It wasn't much but it was a place to sleep and Mia hadn't had a place to sleep in over three years. She walked in slowly, head looking up and down, side to side.
"I know it's not much but you can decorate however you want. Whatever you need, we'll look for it on a run,"
Mia looked at him and smiled, shyly. "It's great."
Rick smiled in approval. "I'll look around for some spare sheets and a pillow. I'll also have one of our girls, Beth set you up with some fresh clothes. Her cell's just a few more down from yours."
"Beth?"
"Beth Greene. Maggie's younger sister. She's a few years older than you."
Maggie's sister. Already, Mia was curious about her. She hoped she was as kind to her as Maggie had been. She gave him a small nod. "Thank you."
Rick rested his hands on his hips and gave her a smile, nodding lightly. "Just give me a minute. I'll be back."
She watched him walk off and leave her to her lonesome self. Mia stared at the blank wall before her and ran her fingers over to the rough concrete. It reminded her of the tree bark she had gotten so used to seeing, which made her glance down at her wrapped wrists and she immediately dropped her hand. Mia then walked over to the empty bed and carefully sat down. She sighed quietly and remembered the last time she ever sat on a bed. It was her own. Minutes before her father went on a crazy rampage, minutes before she hid in her closet to block out all the noise, and minutes before she was ripped from her home and her hometown.
Thinking of her bed made her think back to the times when she woke up from nightmares, screaming and crying so loud her mom and dad would come rushing into her room. There was one specific night when she woke up crying and her dad came into her room. He crawled under the covers with her and grabbed one of the books by her bed, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, and started reading to her until she fell back asleep. It was her favorite book.
