Punished By the Prison Warden

Chapter 1 Alice

ALICE

“Alice Clement, I find you guilty of theft, breaking and entering, and destruction of private property and sentence you to one year in prison!”

The judge’s gavel comes down hard, echoing through the courtroom, causing my stomach to sink like the Titanic. Somewhere behind me, I hear my mom’s desperate wail as the tears start to fall.

“I’m innocent! Momma, help me!” I cry out. But it’s too late. Big men in uniforms are already dragging me away, my wrists handcuffed like they’re worried I’m actually dangerous. Me. A five-foot-three girl, barely one hundred pounds. Who am I a danger to?

“You’re no daughter of mine,” my mom hisses, eyes bloodshot as she stands. “I broke my back raising you on my own, and this is how you repay me?”

“Mom, I swear—” But I don’t even have time to finish as I’m hauled out a side door and into a grim corridor. My legs turn to Jell-O, but it doesn’t matter. The guards hold me, dragging me on.

“Don’t try that with us, sweetie. You’re going to prison, and it can be the easy way or the hard way.”

The other man chuckles, his voice like sandpaper. “Sure wouldn’t mind if it was the hard way, am I right?”

This cracks them both up as my pulse goes wild and my heart rattles like a flag in a hurricane.

How did this happen? I’m the world’s best-behaved girl. I’m eighteen and have never been suspended, never had detention. I’ve never even been late to school. And yet suddenly, I’m a criminal.

It all started three weeks ago when Jamie, the lady who runs the nail salon where I work—well, worked—came rushing out of the back office, screaming at the staff that cash had been taken from her safe.

I didn’t even know she had a safe, but she instantly accused me because I ‘looked guilty’ and was the new girl.

Nothing I said could convince her otherwise. She never liked me. Even tried to accuse me of being late when I was on time. Before I could even defend myself, she called the police and I was arrested and booked.

Mom and I couldn’t afford a lawyer, so one was appointed by the state—one who could not have cared less about me. I swear, six months in law school and I could have given myself a better defense.

Now here I am, on the verge of a full-blown panic attack, as two double doors open in front of me, revealing a white prison van.

“No, please!” I cry out, squirming against the impossibly tight grip of my captors. “I didn’t do anything!”

“Shut up,” one of them barks as I’m hurtled into the back of the van. My vision blurs and my head spins as I’m chained to the wall and the doors slam shut behind me.

The engine roars and the van leaps forward, sending my head slamming into the wall. I cry out in pain and pray for a miracle. But it doesn’t look like I’ll be getting one.

The ride to the prison feels fast, but I have no way of judging time back here. No phone, no watch, no human contact. Just me, a pair of handcuffs, and a chain.

Just as I’m starting to drift off, the doors open and the same two men snatch me up like a fresh new delivery and carry me out with the same lack of care. Somehow, I manage to look up and see a sign over the door that reads: Last Rites Penitentiary.

“You’ll love it here, sweetie,” one guard chuckles. “The only girl. You’ll have the pick of the litter.”

Adrenaline rakes through me. “W-what do you mean, only girl?”

The other guard smirks down at me, his lips dry and cracked. “Oh, they didn’t tell you? Until last month, this was an all-male facility.”

A sense of doom crashes into my stomach, weighing me down as I stare up at the stained brick walls, the fences ringed with razor wire, and the armed guards at regular intervals.

All this for petty theft? Petty theft I didn’t even commit?

“How many men?” I ask, my voice no more than a breath.

“Five thousand and seventy-four.”

I swallow hard, fighting the urge to vomit. A shiver courses through me as the gates open and I’m pulled inside. I want to kick and scream, fight for dear life against this terrible sentence being thrust upon me, but what good would it do?

All the energy has been drained from me, and I’m nothing compared to the men at my sides. They could lift me over their heads with one arm just for a laugh.

They think I’m some kind of floozy, when in reality, I’m closer to a nun than a regular girl my age. I’ve never had a boyfriend. Never even been on a date—Mom made sure of that. Then again, none of the boys at my high school were interested in me anyway.

They called me Alice Blunderland. I’m a bit clumsy—always catching my foot on something or tripping over myself. I was never good at sports and much prefer being at home with a good book and a glass of ginger tea.

I have had desires, though. Like any teenage girl, I’ve felt that hungry itch inside that’s too deep to scratch. I tried handling it myself, but without any success. I was able to get close a couple times, but it was like something was missing.

Something real that doesn’t come from me.

“Hey!” The guard barking at me shocks me into moving my legs again. “Start walking. It’s time to meet the warden.”

“The…the…warden?” I stammer. “Why would he want to meet me?”

One of the guards clicks his teeth and winks. “Yeah, I wonder.”

I retreat into myself as I’m tugged down a labyrinth of corridors lit by flickering fluorescents that hum at a frequency that causes my skull to shake.

This is my home now. The realization nearly levels me. For the next year, this is my home.

But I’m not a bad person…am I?

Mom abandoned me, the judge called me a criminal, and Jamie instantly accused me of being the thief. Even the guards treat me like I’m no more than trash.

Don’t cry. Don’t.

A crimson door opens in front of me, and I’m hauled inside. Before I can even get my legs under me, I’m dropped to my knees. I’m trembling as I look up, and my eyes settle on a man—suited and hidden in shadow, sitting in an enormous chair, his eyes gleaming down at me from the darkness.

“Warden Rew, this is Alice Clement.” Tension hangs in the air like the threat of another year of imprisonment.

My nose itches. I raise my hand to scratch it, forgetting my wrists are cuffed together, and end up smacking myself in the face with the steel.

I cry out as the pain sizzles through me, but it’s not the pain that’s giving me the most distress; it’s the fear.

Silence.

Then a slow tapping sound from the dark. The moment stretches on like a wire being stretched to its breaking point. Then there’s a click, and a light switches on, revealing the man seated before me.

The warden.