Second Time Around

Jumped

*Seth POV*

Today was the final court date for Katrina's attacker, and her mother. It was so hard not to just pick up the phone and call her right now, but I figured I would just wait until later after the court was finished.

I had just finished my breakfast, and was carrying my tray to the racks when I was blindsided with a tray hitting me upside the head.

When I got my bearings, I looked up to see this young guy who looked as if he had a chip on his shoulder. Without even a word, he and his friend started to hit me and kick me over and over. I don't know if they didn't think I wouldn't fight back, or what they were thinking, but they just f****d with the wrong one.

I was able to finally get to my feet, and once I did, one of the guys backed off. I'm sure he was confident they could get the better of me as long as I was down, but obviously he had second thoughts once I was on my feet.

The main guy didn't back down though. The two of us exchanged punches until the guards were able to get to us and pull us apart. Both of us looked a total mess, but I was still ready to finish beating this guy's ass.

He hadn't spoken a word to me the whole time we fought, but as they were pulling us apart, he said something that stuck with me. "You are a dead man Davis! So is that pretty little piece of ass you have on the outside! She crossed the wrong people!" he screamed.

So, I now know I am here with the asshole who attacked Kat's friends. Great. Knowing this got my mind working. Would this prick be sent here if he is convicted? If he is, how am I going to react?

The guards dragged both of us down to a small hallway and put us each into these small soundproof cells. It was almost as if once they shut the doors, I was put in a vacuum-sealed box.

For the first couple of hours, the silence was amazing. Then, it wasn't. It started to mess with my senses, and I felt as if I was going to go stir-crazy.

I had no idea what time it actually was, because all that we had to determine if it was day or night was a very small window near the ceiling. It looked as if the sun was setting, and I knew that Kat had been out of court for a long while.

I told her I would call this evening to see how things went, and she said that if she got out of there early enough, she would come visit. If she had, I'm sure she would have been turned away, and if she did, she was probably seriously pissed at me right now.

I laid down on the cot, and pulled the blanket up over my head. Maybe if I just slept until they let me out of this room, I would get through it faster. However, that wasn't my fate at all.

"Davis, to your feet!" the guard bellowed. I got off the cot, and stood with my back to the door like he instructed. I wasn't here to cause problems, I just wanted to do my time peacefully, and hopefully walk out of here to live the rest of my life with Katrina. So far, it's not worked out for me.

The guard opened the door, and placed shackles on my wrists and feet. He led me to another small room that looked like an office, and told me to sit in the chair by the desk. "Warden McCullough will be in here momentarily. Try not to cause any trouble," he said as he linked my cuffs to the chair.

I was about to meet the warden face to face. I had seen him making his rounds in the prison, but had never spoken with him. He was a short man, who looked as if he were a body builder at one time. He had dark hair with gray running through it. The hard lines on his forehead told the story of too much stress.

My mind kept wandering to Katrina. Hopefully, it wasn't too late to use the phones. That is if I didn't lose that privilege.

The warden's door came open, and he walked in with a purpose. I could tell he was going to be a no-nonsense kind of man, and I didn't want to get on his bad side already.

"Mr. Davis, my name is Warden Wendell McCullough. I'm sorry I haven't come to meet you yet, but we have been slightly busy here lately. Would you care to tell me what happened this morning?" he asked.

I didn't want to be labeled as a snitch, so I had to choose my words correctly. I knew I couldn't use an excuse of 'running into a door' or some lame s**t like that, so I told the truth.

"Well, honestly sir, I'm not sure. I was taking my tray to the racks, and next thing I knew I was being blindsided by two people I had never met or seen before in my life. All I was doing was defending myself in an attack," I explained.

I wasn't stupid, I knew there was surveillance all over the prison. I knew he had already viewed the footage, and would bust me out if I had lied. It was snitching, because I couldn't identify either man even if I wanted to. I barely even got a good look at either of them, and could only remember the color of their hair, and the one who continued to fight with me had a tattoo of an older-style coffin on his forearm.

I explained to the warden everything I remembered, and he wrote it all down. He stated that he wasn't going to suspend any of my privileges since I was only defending myself, but that if I had any other infractions within the next month he would take everything away for 90 days. He also said he was moving me into a more secure unit until they could figure things out.

I asked him if the new unit would keep me locked in the cell longer during the day with less 'rec time', and he assured me I wouldn't. I would just have to learn to live with the more elderly men in the prison.

I asked the warden if it was too late to use the phone, and I explained why I needed to call Kat. He said the unit phones had been turned off for the night, but allowed me to use his office phone with a guard present. He even gave me 20 minutes to speak to her since I had missed our visit as well.

I knew she had come, and now I felt awful about missing it. I picked up the phone, and dialed just as he had instructed me to. Kat answered quickly, and I didn't like the sound of her voice. It was shaky and held a hint of anxiety.

"Seth? How? I thought you were in trouble. They told me I couldn't see you or talk to you until after the weekend," she said. I explained to her what happened, and she broke down in tears.

"Babe, don't cry. It's not your fault," I said. "They are just trying to get to you through hurting me, that's all. I'm tougher than you give me credit for," I laughed, hoping to get her to calm down.

I heard her phone hit the floor, and her sobs increased. I called out her name a couple of times, but she didn't pick it back up. Finally, a voice came over the line, and what she said fueled an anger in me that I had to keep hidden.