"Those are the ground rules," Tanya mumbled as they walked through the hallway, the only other sound being the clicking of their heels against the hard floor. "You'll learn the rest as we go along."
Mala nodded, choosing the overlook the fact that the woman refused to make eye contact unless absolutely necessary, and that she always walked a couple paces ahead. It was exactly the same thing that blondie had done; who she hadn't seen in the hours that she had been at work. The prison was like a ghost town: hauntingly quiet.
"We'll spend most of our time on the ground floor, room G5, which is one of the camera rooms, overlooking the front of the building and the prisoner cells. Always have your notepad and always document."
"Okay."
Tanya stiffened at the sound of her voice and walked a bit faster, "we'll go there now and you can introduce yourself to the camera men. They are..." she trailed off and Mala didn't bother to question her on what she was going to say. "After that you're done for the day. Tomorrow I'll take you through some things and Thursday will be your official start."
Mala couldn't wait to get away from the woman, fed up of her jumpy attitude, yet at the same time she wished that she could be in the penitentiary for that little bit longer. She was starting to get used to some of the layout, recognising halls and rooms that she had briefly been in before, and she wished that she was able to ask further questions, however she knew there would come a time for that. For the moment, she had to pace herself.
Rushing would be her downfall if she gave into the urge.
Plus, in about an hour she had to be at the university campus, signing in for the first day of class as well as picking up all the work that she would need to catch up on. She just didn't have the time to spend too much longer at Irongate.
Hopefully she would get a glimpse of Auden soon though. The bond was tugging on her, whispering to her that she should turn around and trail the pull towards him.
They didn't walk for too much longer before stopping in front of room G5.
Tanya seemed to have a bit of a wobble before pushing open the door and walking inside.
Mala knew immediately what the human had been trying to say earlier.
The whole room smelt like shifter.
At their entrance, the two men in the room turned to face them, eyes trained on Mala. They were sat on rotating office chairs in front of the numerous camera screens, wary expressions on their face.
Tanya spoke up first, looking at the notebook in her hand rather than any of the shifters in the room, "this is Joan's replacement."
Mala plastered a nice smile on her face to cover up the sad pang that hit her chest at Tanya's pathetic introduction, "I'm Malandra. It's nice to meet you."
She walked forward and held out her hand to the man that smelt an awful lot like chocolate chip cookie dough. He towered over her when he stood up, thick black hair and dark moles over his face being the second thing she noticed about him. He had permanent smile lines around his mouth, and a particularly intense scowl on his face.
"Jon," he said simply, shaking her hand with a firm grip before retracting it just as fast.
The second, lemon and lime smelling man, gave her a once over, his shocking olive eyes narrowing when he was done with his observation.
"Mattheus." He said, reaching to shake her hand in a similarly unenthusiastic manner.
Mala took note of his light brown hair and the stud in his nose, the way he quickly turned away from her and looked back at the cameras as though she was the most uninteresting thing to happen to the room. Jon looked at her for one second longer than his friend and then was turning away without another word too.
She couldn't lie that it hurt to be brushed off so easily by her new co-workers, especially since they were also shifters. She had been hoping to find some comradery with them but rather, it seemed like they were just as fond of her as Tanya was.
She reconsidered her stance and decided that it was for the best anyway, there was no point in getting close to people at this stage when she was just going to have to abandon them.
Taking a step back, she turned to look at the cameras too, scanning over each one to try and find her mate and failing miserably.
Tanya shuffled behind her, "that's it for today. You can find your own way out?"
"Okay, thanks." She replied, pressing her lips into a tight line.
She thought about letting the girl know that she was going to university, that she would see her back at the house later, but decided against it. It wasn't like the woman cared.
Still, she hesitated before leaving the room and making her way out of the penitentiary.
Day one and she was already hating it.
She made it safely to the university and mostly kept to herself. Picking up the material that she had missed, she forced the books and papers into her already over stuffed backpack and made her way to class.
There weren't a lot of people on campus, considering it was coming up to three in the afternoon, and nobody approached her at all. It wasn't like high school where a new face would have everyone standing at attention. Mala was just another unknown face blending into the background.
Class was boring, the lecture rushing past in a blur and before she could blink twice, people were filtering out of the room. She wasn't far behind.
All she could think of was getting back to the house, hopefully before Tanya, and getting some sleep. She wanted it to be the next day so that she could find out more about the penitentiary, figure out the weak spots and the weak people. She also hadn't slept much the previous night, too worried that she would wake up in half-form, blood all over Tanya's room with no reasonable way to explain why it was happening to her body.
She was glad that when she did eventually wake up in the morning, there was no red liquid seeping out of her, and she hadn't shifted at all. She hoped it would last. She needed the rest.
A few thoughts had been circulating in her mind for the last couple of days. One of them being about the struggle she'd had shifting into full-form. Her shift into full-form had been a penny short of permanently traumatic, spurred on by her lack of shifting. So, her theory was that, if the waiting longer between full shifts made it more painful, then the shorter she waited between full shifts should technically be less. It made logical sense so she hoped it would make practical sense.
Because of the restrictions placed on shifters, most of them didn't do it often- pain was expected. But she thought about all the toddlers that went prancing around the streets in full-form. She had never actually seen a toddler shift before, but she would have thought that if it was overwhelming painful for them, that they'd be averse to doing it.
She could remember her father telling her stories about her being afraid to poo when she was a toddler, just because it hurt one time.
Her thoughts were getting jumbled, her attempts to string ideas making her more confused than before, but she knew that she was on to something.
It was a long shot, but she was going to practice shifting as often as possible. She wanted to get better and faster at doing it. For all she knew, that may be the only way she'd ever be able to let Auden escape with his life.
She was almost out of the university building when she passed by the bulletin board, pausing by it out of interest.
Her eyes were automatically drawn to one particular poster decorated with black glitter and a howling wolf, under the clubs section.
Shifter Rights: Politics and the Lupine Revolution.
Humming out loud, she stared at it for a long minute.
Every Wednesday and Friday @ 5:00. Room A1B
Shifters only.
That was the only information the poster gave and she found herself feeling intrigued. She wasn't one to get heavily involved in politics but something was pulling her to go along to one of the sessions. An image of that conspiracy website popped up in her mind and she pulled out her phone, swiftly snapping a picture of the poster before continuing on her way.
---
She finally got a glimpse of her mate and it was as glorious as it was heart breaking.
She wanted to kill them all: Tanya, Jon, Mattheus, Wellington, and every other person who worked in the damn prison.
They had given him no privacy. Every inch of the cell was in full view of the black and white camera, from the pitiful excuse for a bed, to the disgusting toilet. All Auden did was sit on the bed, staring blankly at the wall or flipping through one of the books that he had stashed next to him.
He looked exactly how he did the first time she had met him, his hair a knotty mess, the bags under his eyes visible even under the colourless filter.
"That's Auden Ovilio."
That was the first full sentence Jon had said to her since she'd entered the room two hours ago. Tanya was in the corner, looking over papers that she was about to let Mala read, and Mattheus was concentrating on pressing buttons on the keyboard in front of him.
"I know." Mala responded back to him, the words coming out rougher than she'd intended. She softened her tone before speaking again, "I interviewed him when I was touring the station the other week."
Jon nodded, regarding her distastefully.
She didn't know what his problem was, but she was fed up of it.
She missed the workplace banter with Cameron and the little jokes her dad would shoot her when they passed each other in the hallway. She even missed the questions of 'are you okay?' from Bateman that he would ask whenever he came around to her desk and the small talk in the police cruiser with her partner.
"Do any other shifters work here?" She finally asked, firstly to break the silence and also to find out what she was up against.
It took five seconds for Jon to figure out if he would bother to reply, "One other."
"Where does he work?" She pushed.
"Security."
Mala groaned internally, filing that piece of knowledge away for later. Another shifter in security would be a hassle.
Tanya coughed from behind the wall of archived camera footage and she rolled her eyes, walking around the shelf to look at the human.
"Tanya?"
"You can sit down now."
She sighed and walked to sit on the chair opposite the lady, peering down at the papers neatly presented on the table.
"Here is a list of things you'll be looking for." Tanya said, circling around one of the pages with her finger.
Mala looked past the pink, acrylic nails- which she couldn't deny she was insanely jealous of: she had always wished that she could wear acrylics, but shifting and fake nails didn't form a good combination- and to the text in front of her.
Inmate behaviour.
(Un)Usual patterns.
Warning signs as defined by phycologist/therapist.
And a bunch of other requirements that she didn't fully understand at this stage.
"We sit in on their sessions with Zoe and-"
"Zoe is?"
"-the phycologist- and we act an external set of eyes. In depth reports on the inmates are required once a week. At first you'll only shadow me but when training is over, we'll split them between us."
"Right."
"We are responsible for taking each inmate to and from these sessions without the help of guards."
"Seriously?"
Tanya looked annoyed by her constant interruptions and made eye contact for a split second before looking away again, "pardon?"
"I mean, why don't guards come with us?"
The expression on the human's face was something she couldn't work out.
"Guards are on call if you need them, but before this session they are given a mild sedation-"
"They're sedated but you expect them to answer truthfully to the psychologist?"
Tanya sighed, "The sedation doesn't make them loopy. It just makes them physically weak and unable to shift so you can handcuff them and escort them out of the cell. You'll have a mild tranquiliser and a Taser just in case. Plus, as I said, guards are on call if you need them."
Mala blanched, a sickening feeling overtaking her, so she kept her mouth shut before she verbally annihilated the woman in front of her. She didn't even dare to look behind her at Jon and Mattheus' reactions. She had no doubt that they knew what was being done to these prisoners- they would see it all through the camera screens.
"Anyway, this file is for you." Tanya slid over another sheet of paper, "it's the password for your monitored account. You only use that account for work related things, if you want to go online during your free time, you'll have to bring your own laptop."
This continued for the next few hours as Mala was taken through the rest of the preliminaries and Tanya showed her the ropes- or as much of the ropes as she could before the contract was signed and her job was made official.
"Tomorrow morning, you'll sign the last bit of paper work and then we have an inmate to take to Zoe. It's a new quarter so we can pick who goes first. Do you have any preferences?" Tanya asked the question cautiously, steeling another look at her face.
She feigned indifference, "I only know inmates number two and four."
Tanya clicked her tongue, "Henderson is due for a medical exam tomorrow so we'll go with Ovilio."
She tried to control her heartrate and breathing, not wanting to alert the two shifter males that something was up. They were silent, listening to every part of the conversation from the other side of the shelves.
The human lady squinted down at her watch, "I have to hang around for another hour but you're free to go."
She stood from her seat.
"See you at the house."
Tanya nodded and pulled out a folder out of her bag, Mala's cue to walk away.
She didn't risk a peek at the cameras again, not when both Jon and Mattheus were staring at her as she emerged from behind the obstruction.
"See you tomorrow, guys." She murmured to them, walking out the room.
She looked at her phone and saw the time, disappointed to see that it was too late for her to make it to the university for the shifter politics club. She had been looking forward to going and promised herself that she would try harder to make it to the next one.
On the way home, she stopped off at one of the local supermarkets and picked up some food for dinner. Tanya had been doing all the cooking since she had arrived at the woman's house and she felt a bit bad since her hours were extremely long.
It hadn't escaped her notice that the human's face was verging on the gaunt side, a sign that she often forewent eating dinner when she came back from work, only bothering to cook for Mala's sake.
Mala didn't want to give the woman any more reason to detest her presence, so she was going to have dinner prepared for her when she made it home.
The notion of feeling useful spurred her to slave over the food for the next hour, only pausing twice to answer messages from her dad and Cameron. It was worth seeing the surprised expression on Tanya's face when she got home and smelt the food, the corners of her lips turning up in what Mala would accept as her first smile.
It didn't mean that the tension between them was immediately gone. In fact, there was still zero conversation during the time they ate, but at least when she went to wash the dishes, Tanya brushed her away from the area and started doing it herself without reeling back from the contact.
She retired into her bedroom and decided that instead of catching up on more university work, like she'd done the previous evening, it was time to do some more research on Irongate.
Her first port of call was to find out why nobody had ever successfully escaped.