If you are not familiar with my preferences in writing adult fiction you may want to check out the general introduction my work here before reading this story The copyright to this work is held by the site owner, identified here as Susie Skewed, and licensed for private viewing and reading only This page last updated 09 July 2010

"I want her to suffer!"

The second speaker stared at the first. "If you're sure. I mean, I can get her sent somewhere real special if she's convicted, but you got to give me the necessary to ensure that."

The first speaker gave a little laugh. "There's no problem: we've put together a first-class package for you, everything you need. You just send in the cops and make sure they look where I tell you and you'll have your perfect evidence trail."

The second speaker shrugged. "She must have really pissed you off, but that doesn't make the price any less."

"Yeah, well, nobody walks out on me. I want that bitch to face a real hard time." A brown paper package slipped across the prosecutor's desk. "There's a little sweetener on account and the moment I hear the sentence handed down you get your full payment."

The prosecutor looked into the envelope and nodded appreciatively. "This is on top of my fee? Well then, I think I can arrange for her to go somewhere very special indeed. And for a very long time."

The first man smiled for the first time. "That sounds real good."

This short exchange was the beginning of the nightmare for Janet Wren. As a teenager, Janet had longed to escape from her respectable but oh so dull small town upbringing and her opportunity had come when she'd secured a scholarship at a minor college, which took her away to the city. She had worked hard, attained a respectable degree and was pursuing a steady career when she made the fatal mistake of becoming involved with her boss, whose business empire was not the respectable organisation she had taken it to be when she first accepted a position there. Her second mistake was to leave her erstwhile boss and lover a note explaining her distaste for his business and her intention of leaving him before her own position was compromised by becoming aware of something she would have to have reported to the authorities. Not only had she spurned a powerful man but in her concerned to do the right thing, she had underlined her potential powerlessness in the face of his revenge.

"Get out!"

Janet stumbled out of the prison van still in a daze. The period from her arrest on trumped up charges through her short and cursory trial to her arrival inside the gates of Greenwood prison, convicted and sentenced, now seemed to have flashed by. She shuffled forward, encumbered by the chains around her ankles.

"Name!" The cold faced wardress seated at the desk snapped at Janet.

"My name is Janet Wren and..." she got nothing else said before the wardress shouted at her again.

"I'm not interested in anything else except who you were. Now you're prisoner 82479. That's all you are and all anybody is interested in. Medical. Next desk." She cocked her head at a desk further down the hallway where a bored looking woman in a white coat was sitting.

Janet opened her mouth to say something but the woman was already screaming "Next!" to the woman in line behind her, so she shuffled onto the next desk desperately hoping that her handcuffs would be removed by the doctor as they were hurting her wrists quite badly.

The woman in the white coat watched Janet's clinking shuffling approach. "Doctor?" Janet began imploringly. "These handcuffs....."

"Who gave you permission to speak, and who the hell are you?" The doctor glared at her.

"My name is Janet" Janet began again.

"This one has forgotten her number already" the doctor called out to the wardress at the first desk.

"Oh no, it's 82479," Janet said hastily, seeing the first wardress begin to stand up with a furious expression on her face.

"So when anyone asks you who you are, you tell them," the Doctor said coldly. "You say "Prisoner 82479, Ma'am." Is that clear?" "That's that

"Yes, Ma'am, quite clear," said Janet nervously. The prison seemed to be living up to her worst expectations.

"Good," the Doctor looked down at her notes. "Well, I have a full set of medical records on you already so you'll be pleased to know I've marked you down as fully fit for work and punishment. But just so you don't forget the importance of following rules I'll put you down for a little something after you've been issued with your uniform." She nodded to a nearby wardress "this one is ready to go."