VENGEFUL ✸ Matt Murdock

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 , 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆.

[ CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE ! ]
come home.

CLAY HAD GOTTEN transferred to the county's women's prison for holding until her official hearing--which was two weeks from now.

She had no intention of making friends with any of the girls here, especially since she knew why most of them had been here. But one woman in particular, she recognized. Far too well.

"Clay Azalea," The voice was easily recognizable. Clay turned around to see the girl smirking, her eyebrows raised in amusement. She had her arms crossed against her torso and was leaning on the doorway like she always had. The brunette now scoffed. "I didn't think I'd ever see you end up here."

Clay clenched her jaw as she faced her. "Nice to see you too, Sloane."

Sloane got off of the doorway and approached Clay. "I didn't think those who worked with the law ever got locked up. What are you in for?"

Clay let out a light sigh, and as she was about to respond, someone else did for her.

"You didn't hear?" It was a deeper voice than both of theirs, but the woman was shorter than both of them by a few inches. "She got charged with murder."

Clay watched as Sloane's eyes raised once again, in amusement. "Again?"

Clay's eyes widened momentarily as she mentally cursed herself for what she'd told Sloane in the past.

The girl spoke up once again. "No. This is her first time being charged."

Sloane smirked, her gaze remaining on Clay's. "Clay knows what I'm talking about."

"You two know each other?"

"No." Clay lied, fists balled at her sides.

"Oh, yes we do." Sloane almost laughed. She was so bright with excitement and challenge, all Clay wanted to do was fight her. "Clay and I have quite an interesting past."

Clay remained silent. Tried to keep her anger at a low level.

"So who'd you kill this time?"

"Leo Parr." The girl answered for her once again.

Sloane actually laughed this time. "Woah. You killed your best friend?" Her laughter grew. "You really are heartless. Well--then again, you did kill your own father."

And that was when Clay lost it. She hooked her arm around Sloane's neck and flipped her, landing her on the ground as she straddled her hips. She punched the side of her face once, watched as she spit the blood out on the ground, and then repeated the same to the other side of her face. She didn't say a word, she didn't want to. She wanted her fists to say words she never could. As the girl recovered, Clay pinned both of the girl's hands to the sides of her head. In which, Sloane grinned at her with blood-covered teeth. "You always did like this position best."

Clay ignored her comment, growing angrier. She stood, and replaced her hands with her feet. Now, instead of her hands holding Sloane's wrist, it was the bottom of her shoe. She sunk the heel of it into Sloane's left wrist and smiled in satisfaction as she watched the girl struggle to escape her grip. She didn't get to savor this feeling of satisfactory, though. A guard came up behind her and grabbed her wrists, locking them in a pair of handcuffs. The man shouted something, too. But she couldn't make it out. She was too focused on the woman from her past holding her wrist in pain on the ground.

The guard turned her around and they made their way to the exit, while all the other women had been ordered to return to their cells. Typical protocol when a fight broke out. And then, she felt her leg give out beneath her. She hadn't felt anything in her left leg, so she hadn't known what happened exactly. But when she looked up from the ground, she saw Sloane smirking down at her as another guard retrieved her.

It was all a blur. It all happened so fast.

But she knew that Sloane had to have known about her leg. The only question was: how?

TWO HOURS AFTER the fight, they allowed her to speak with her lawyer--Matt.

"I had it all set up, Clay." Matt ran a hand through his hair as he paced across the room. "I had things lined up. You weren't even going to have to go to trial. And now..."

Clay didn't say anything. By the looks of it, you would think she was embarrassed. She wasn't, though. Not in the slightest. She was proud. But stayed silent.

"Say something."

Clay shrugged. "I don't know what you want me to say."

Matt sighed as he pulled the tucked in chair from the table and sat in it. "Explain yourself. Who was that girl?"

She shrugged again. "I don't know."

She wasn't saying anything. Wasn't thinking anything either.

"Don't bullshit me." Matt grabbed Clay's hand and exhaled. "You need to talk to me."

Clay moved her hand away. She thought for a moment. Thought about whether she should tell Matt about Sloane or not. Slowly, she sighed. "I can't tell you who she is. Or how we know each other. But she knows a lot about me. About... the things I've done. But I swear, I haven't seen her in over a year. I don't know how she knows about my leg."

Matt's eyebrows furrowed. "She knows about your leg?"

Clay nodded. "Yes. But I don't know how."

"What do you mean she knows about your leg?"

"After the fight, as the guard was walking me away... she kicked my leg."

Matt remained silent for a moment. He checked the time on his watch and then he finally said, "I've got to go, but I'll figure this out."

"Okay."

Matt gathered his belongings and walked toward the door. Though, before leaving, he turned back toward her. "Don't get into any more trouble, okay, Clay? Your sisters need you."

Her sisters. She hadn't even thought about them. She hadn't even thought about herself.

"Matt?"

"Yeah?"

"How are they? My sisters?"

"Honestly?" he sighed again. "Not good." he paused and swallowed. "You need to come home."