Desire 2: Caged

27

"Listen to me! Look at me, Deysire."

I looked at her and could see the look of disbelief on her face. She looked as shocked as me. We managed to get me out of the blood stained jumpsuit and into a clean one.

"Listen, you're going to go back to your cell and act like this never happened. Don't tell anyone what happened here, not even Rayna. Do you understand me?"

I could hear her but was overcome with a number of emotions, the most dominating one being fear. I could hear her but couldn't process it. I could tell it angered her because she started to grow impatient with me.

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?" She yelled.

"Yes!" I swiftly spoke

"Good, get to your cell and act like this never happened."

I started moving slowly.

"GO!" She demanded.

I started to walk, my hand was in pain. I can't believe what I'd just done. Once I made it outside of laundry and back into the main hall, I knew I had to pull it together. I did just that, held my head up and went straight to my cell. Rayna was there. She looked as if she were waiting on me. She was sitting on my bunk and had tears in her eyes.

"Everything okay?" I said offering a care that I just honestly didn't have but this was Rayna, she always had my back.

"She told them it was me. Griffin is awake."

I looked on in shock.
"Wait! How do you know?"

"I talked to Papi and she told me that word was going around life hall that I was the one who stabbed Griffin."

"Rayna, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. I was hoping she wouldn't wake up."

"RAYNA?"

"What, Deysire?"

"We just have to come up with a plan. I'm here for you. I have your back."

She forced a smile. "Thanks, girl."

"You're welcome. We won't let this get back to you."

"Well, well, well. Since when did you become the brave one?"

I tilted my head back and said "I don't know but I like it."

The next few days Rayna and I just kind of sat around our cell. Hoping that our sins would bypass us. I hadn't seen Ja'Zaye since the day we were in laundry. I have to admit, I was feeling used. I started to think that I wasn't going to get out and as the days went on, I realized that I was right. I was also scared for Rayna, I promised to help her but seriously? I can't help myself right now. The days started passing with no word of Griffin and I heard nothing about Jade. The suspense was killing me, so I decided to go to Ja'Zaye.

As I entered her cell, I could hear whispering followed by applaud.

"Ja'Zaye, I need to speak with you."

Everyone around us took that as a command and left. Once I made sure that everyone was away from the cell, I walked over to Ja'Zaye.

"What's going on with our little situation?"

"What situation?"

"Ja'Zaye, cut the s**t!"

"What situation, Deysire?"

"Jade! How is she?"

"Oh, she's dead."

"WHAT?"

Ja'Zaye started laughing. "I'm just joking. Calm down, she's fine. I told you, I had it all handled."

"Why would you do that?"

"Oh, chill out. You've got quite the reputation around here now."

"Reputation? What do you mean?"

"They're saying you're nothing to be f***ed with."

"Who said that?"

"Everybody's saying it. You're going to be good at this, but first we have to break the sensitive side."

I can't lie. It made me feel good. For once, I felt like I had power.

"You can thank Jade, she'll be back from the infirmary later today."

"Thank her? For what?"

"Jade is my crash dummy. She has a high tolerance for pain and an even bigger love for pain medicine. Get what I'm saying?"

"Wait! Are you telling me that Jade wanted to be hurt?"

"I'm telling you that you can thank her later this evening." She said sliding me a bag with pills inside.