No Matter What

I slowly came to, lying on what I thought was the floor, but as soon as I sat straight up, I was forced back down onto the bed, and a sharp pain shot through my ribcage. I heard yelling and screaming around me as chaos ensued with my sudden movement, and I struggled under the grip of whoever held me down, ignoring the pain. A doctor appeared over by an IV, and stuck a syringe into the line, and I slipped under again as the morphine flowed into my veins.

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^*Madison’s POV*^
“Okay, he’s out, let go of him, Chuck! You’re going to cut off circulation.” I swatted the guard away from the young man as he sunk back into what we like to call a temporary coma.

“Want me to cuff him to the bed?” Chucked asked, taking a pair of cuffs from his pocket.

“My god, he just tried to sit up. He didn’t know where he was probably, he was shaken up. There was no need to sedate him.” I said, brushing some of hair out of his face. Chuck saw how comfortable I was at being this close to him, and cuffed his hand to the bed.

“I swear Madison, you should keep your guard up around these people. They’re dangerous.” Dr. Walkon said as he stepped around me.

“I do, but come on, look at him! Three broken ribs, fractured wrist, black eye, bloody nose and busted lip, plus he’s jacked up on pain medication, how much damage could he do?” I said, and Dr. Walkon and Chuck just shook their head.

“Can I go now?” Sander’s asked from beside me. I looked over at him as he continued to hold his head back, trying to stop the bleeding. His nose had been bleeding since he got here, which was two hours ago. It snapped when according to him, he was attacked and had his face slammed into the floor.

“Does this still hurt?” I asked, and touched his knee, which had a brace on it, thanks to Mr. Henslee and his friend Marshall. Matt flinched and gritted his teeth.

“Fucking jackass.” He muttered and laid back down, but not without tugging at the handcuffs that were holding his left arm to the bed once more.

“Come get me when he comes back around.” Dr. Walkon said and I nodded as he walked off.

“Tell me, Madison, how do you stay so calm around these people?” Chuck asked me, and I just shrugged.

“I don’t know, there’s something about seeing big muscular people humbled that just really hits you hard.” I said and he nodded and looked over at Brian. Oxygen tubes at the base of his nose, and his face looking a mess, not to mention the wrapping around his torso. If you toned down the muscles a little bit, and stripped him of all of the tattoos, then he’d look like he was in death’s grip, but when you add those two features, he looks like he’ll spring to life any second, and wrap his hands around your neck.

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^*Brian’s POV*^
I finally came out of my second knock out, but this time I didn’t sit straight up in fear that I was still on the floor with that guy towering over me. I went to bring my hand up to rub my eyes, but my right hand was cuffed to a bed. I took a deep breath and felt a sharp pain in my ribcage.

“Hey, he’s awake.” I heard Matt’s voice and I looked over to see him lying in a bed beside me, handcuffed to the bed like I was, with a bandage over his nose, and one pant leg rolled up, revealing a brace on his knee.

“Where the fuck am I?” I asked groggily, trying not to breathe deeply since every time I do I can’t breathe for a second because of the pain.

“You’re in the medical center. You were attacked.” The nurse said coming over and asking me to lift my hand, and I did as she put a clip on my index finger.

“Attacked?”

“By Crunch and Marsh, the two people that attacked you at lunch. I guess I was standing a little too close to you, and they fucked me up too.” Matt said, his voice slightly nasal.

“Why in the hell am I handcuffed to the bed?” I asked, pulling at the cuff. I already had dried blood around my wrist from pulling and tugging on it in my sleep. The guard beside my bed was asleep, and the room was dimly light by a few lights, the Plexiglas windows above the beds were pitch black, suggesting it was night outside.

“You shot up from the bed, and freaked out, and Chuck got scared.” She said, and I sighed, and let my head fall back against the bed.

“When can I go?” Matt asked from beside me.

“You can go right now if you can get out of the door.” The nurse said, hooking up an IV to me. I watched as Matt swung his legs off of the side of the bed, and hesitated a second before jumping down, and he immediately fell, cringing as he grabbed the knee in the brace. “Can you get to the door?” The nurse asked.

“Shut up, Madison.” He seethed, and tried to get up, but instead just sat on the floor. The nurse, whose name I’d now learnt was Madison helped him up and back onto the bed, and he laid back down. “Fucking bastards.” He muttered and rolled over to where his back was to me.

“Is he okay?” I asked Madison, and she sighed, and started hooking up heart monitor stickers on my side and chest to a machine.

“Broken nose and messed up knee. Took forever to let him get the doctor to slip the bones back in place, and once they did he fainted.”

“You would too if you had someone moving bones around without cutting into your knee.” Matt muttered.

“W-what happened to the guys that beat us up?”

“They ran away, then Matthew was able to somehow stand up and come get a guard.” She said and I nodded. “Now, don’t try and move, don’t take really deep breaths, and don’t make sudden movements with your right hand, and don’t touch your face.”

“Why?”

“You have broken ribs, fractured wrist, and you’re face looks like hell.” She said, and walked to the end of the room, and walked through a door. I watched through the glass as she grabbed her keys, and coat, and then turned off the light and then walked over to the door, just as another nurse walked through.

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^*Madison’s POV*^
“Who do we have to deal with tonight?” Tripp asked as he walked through the door I was just about to walk out of.

“Sanders and Haner.” I said, and I could still feel Brian’s eyes on me.

“Wait, you’re leaving me alone with possible two of the most dangerous people in this whole place?” Tripp asked me as he grabbed my arm, and I rolled my eyes.

“They’re not dangerous, Matthew can’t even stand, and Brian can barely breathe, don’t be such a baby. Plus they’re both cuffed to the bed and Chuck’s here.” I said, and motioned over to Chuck, who I had let get some rest while Sanders took a nap and Haner was still out from the morphine.

“Oh yea, I’m supposed to put my life in his hands. I feel real safe.” Tripp said sarcastically, and sighed, and I opened the door.

“Hey,” I stopped him before he could walk off. “Don’t scare the kid, he just got here and he’s already nearly been put into a coma by Henslee and Marshall, so keep an eye on him.” I said, and Tripp nodded.

“Don’t worry, I won’t make you look bad.” He said, and I smiled.

“Dr. Walkon will be here at six, and I’ll be here at seven.” I said, and he gave me a thumbs up.

“Got it.” He said, and I walked out, waved a quick goodbye to Gary, and walked down the hall, the guard opened up the door so I could walk into another corridor, and down a flight of stairs. I kind of felt bad for the two guys. Matthew was always getting into fights, ending him and another person in the center at least once a week. I guess you can say we’ve become friends, in a way. He doesn’t trust Tripp at all, and teases me a lot that I flirt with him, and it’s only a matter of time before we start fucking on the desk, and then I tell him that the only reason he keeps beating up certain people is that because deep down in his heart, he secretly likes them, and wishes they would rape him. That’s earned me a few death glares in my few years of being here, but it makes him shut up about Tripp. Matt’s really a nice guy once you warm up to him, or, you know, remind him that you have the power to kill him at any given second with an overdose. But that Haner kid… He doesn’t seem like the type of person everyone’s been portraying him to be. He doesn’t seem like a badass person that will kill anyone in his path, and always keeps the devil’s wiseass smile in his eyes, that’s clearly visible through the glare that always resides on his face. He doesn’t seem like the kind of person you’d normally find in prison, he looks like it, but there’s something about the way he talks, and how he acts. There’s just something about him in general that just makes you think that he doesn’t belong in here. I’ve seen him now, I’ve talked to him; there’s something about him that scares me, but there’s also something that keeps telling me that he couldn’t harm a fly.

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^*Brian’s POV*^
I watched as the man walked towards the door at the other end of the room.

“Hey, watch this.” Matt said, pointing at the man, and then he suddenly jerked the cuffed hand, and it shook the bed, and the man flinched violently, about to run. Matt just laughed. “Still scared, Tripp?” Matt asked, and the guy who I guessed to be Tripp just glared as he opened the door.

“Very funny Sanders.” The guy muttered sarcastically, and walked in, slamming the door behind him.

“I take it you’re in here a lot?” I asked Matt, and he sighed.

“I guess you could say that. Though, we reside in the minimum security wing of this place, so fights break out frequently.”

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^*Jimmy’s POV*^
“Hey Zack,” I started, leaning over the side of my bed to look down into Zacky’s bunk.

“What?” He replied, sounding tired and uninterested in a conversation.

“What do you think of the new guy?” I asked and he shrugged.

“He’s not that bad, I guess. We’ve seen worse. Doesn’t seem like the prison type, though.” He said, and I nodded, hanging my head off of the frame of the bed.

“I know, he seems kind of…shy.” I said, and Zacky nodded, and pointed a finger at me.

“But, you know what they say, the quiet ones are always the ones that turn out to be mass murderers.” Zacky had a point. I think.

“I think he’s a pretty cool guy. It’s nice to welcome another person into our little group of rejects.” I said, humor seeping into my voice. Zacky scoffed.

“Rejects, you got that right. A guy with anger management issues, a borderline lunatic that laughs at the most depressing things, someone who has a problem with everyone, and now we have the little kid that knocked the judge out, and killed his step-father.” Zack laughed lightly.

“I wonder how he’ll make it in here with Crunch and Marsh lurking around.” I wondered, and Zack shrugged.

“I bet he’ll be in the hospital by next week.”