Her arms dangled out through the hard metal bars, watching the guard as he walked down the way. “Lights out in five” he said as he walked, watching and holding onto the gun on his belt. Lacey just watched as she squinted her eyes, counting the days until she was done.

She tapped her fingers to make a small noise, as though she was bored with something to say.

The guard looked her way as he came to her cell, stepped in closer and told her “get back and in bed” he said with a stern voice as she stood up straight and hit her fist on the bar.

“You got two seconds to get your ass away from the door. Your man ain’t comin around this time.”

Lacey just grinned and said “Fuck you” as she flipped him off and went back on her bed.

The guard then glared with a grin on his face. “You need me to take you down the way, closed off for good?” he finished, watching her lay there flat on her back as she stared at the ceiling with nothing to say.

“One more word, you’ll wish you were dead” he said, then stepped back and began to walk to the cell next door.

Just when he got there, a loud shreak filled the silence and he started to run. When he came to the source, there was blood on the floor swimming out from under the woman lying dead in her cell. The girl next to her was screaming and jumping like a wild chimpanzee, blood on her clothes and in her blond hair.

On the floor, the guard saw a knife next to the woman he knew was dead. With the blond still screaming, he yelled “Shut up!” as he pointed the gun straight through the bars. “Shut up or your next!” he finished, as the blond began crying and sat on her bed.

He opened the cell to see the dead woman, her eyes still open but nothing was there. Two more guards had come running through yelling “Get back!” to all the other women leaning through their bars to see what had happened. The chatter was loud and some were laughing until one guard pulled his gun in the air and silenced the ward.

Everyone stopped as the guards took one key and opened the cell where Elizabeth laid. Bending down, they saw a blue sticky note laying next to her frame on the cold dingy floor. One picked up the note to see what it said.

“I belong to god and will no longer breathe” is what the note said, almost like a scribble from a kid who was five.

“Damn fool” the first guard said and called the medics to come take her away.

Just as she left, the first girl still laying on her back on her bed whispered to no one “I wish it was me.”