I didn’t sleep last night… how could I? This time last week, my biggest issue was deciding on whether to get take-out for dinner or just search the refrigerator for something that hasn’t completely gone bad.

I was the first to shower this morning, making me the first to arrive at the lunch room. I sat there, with this dead expression on my face that seeped from my soul.

I came to prison… to do a job. A job that goes against everything that I believe in! A job that’s serving as my death sentence.

And now, I am not even sure if I’ve risked everything, for a bloody lie – I don’t know what I regret the most: not trying harder to get out of this mess before it even started, or not saying goodbye to my old man.

I’ve always been like this...

“Well, look what we have here?”

I lifted my head to find that I’d been too far astray in my thoughts. Allowing myself to be consumed with emotions had never been a key trait of mine; I’ve always opted for the more stoical approach to life.

“Hey, asshole! Remember us?”

It was 7:23 in the morning and the lunchroom was already packed. Everyone wanted to make it into work on time, so there was no time to waste. Everyone, except these guys…

“I bet you thought you’d get away with that stunt you pulled yesterday, huh?”

Really… they’re going to make a scene here, in the cafeteria?

“What do you want Assface? Do you miss the taste of your own blood already?”

I felt a sharp pain in my left toe as I said this. I flinched to see that I am even more surrounded than I realized. The crowdedness of the lunch room provided ample cover for the goons sitting beside and behind me to quietly harass me.

The sharp yet cold feel of a knife on my back had me sitting stiff and straight as a pillar in my seat. I looked to my left and my right to see some guys, working with them no doubt, standing in the direct angle of the only two cameras pointed in my direction. Some big guys ahead of me, decided to stand and linger, so neatly blocking the guards from my view.

The leader from yesterday comes closer to the table and sneers goadingly. He stood to face me, as another Asian looking retard from his group came and sat down before me.

“I wanted to personally apologize for what happened yesterday. You see, I don’t think we properly introduced ourselves. My name is Yaku, and these are my men; we run this place. This place that you’re going to call home for the rest of your miserable life, it ain’t the guards in charge kid, we are!”

“Is that a fact?”

My response aggravated him, as the look on my face had changed from a pale dead expression to that of utter annoyance.

“Now this is how things are going to go from now on. You’re going to apologize to my man, Mike over there, and his guys too. Then you’re going to pay a small fine of one week’s worth of points to me by the end of this week. And from now on, you’re going to mind your own business, until told otherwise.”

“And if I don’t…”

The pulse in Veiny’s head once again revealed itself as my persistent insolence and lack of respect pushed him over the edge.

“Let’s teach this motherfucker the lesson he’s been begging for!” He yells.

Yaku, (the K-pop reject) rose his hand to put his advancement to a halt. He takes the spoon from my bowl and places it on the table then lifts it closer to his face…

“You will learn respect kid,” he retorts, as he coughs up a chunk of spit to sully my porridge. “Or I’ll have your dick cut off in your slee…”

Without even thinking, I took the bowl straight from his hand and smashed it into his not-so-pretty face. I immediately throat-chop the two fools sitting next to me and got up from my seat slowly, wiped the few particles that had made their way onto my uniform off with a napkin and walked out to the passageway between the two lunch tables.

“Let me make myself clear…” I began to wing it. “I take orders from no one.”

This might be the sheer hotness of my head talking, but I had one of two choices. I could have backed down, given them what they wanted- suffered some public embarrassment and maybe a few slaps in the face and hope to slip under the radar while I tried to figure out a way to complete my mission and get out of here.

Or, I could not.

The way I see it is, there is a strong possibility I’ll never get out of here and I refuse to be somebody’s bitch!

“I’ll make this decision a little less complicated for you, you can leave me alone, and I won’t beat you to a blundering pile of shit. Which will do us both a favor and will also save yourself from further embarrassment. Or you can take your chances of fighting me again which I can guarantee you will not end well. Your choice.”

I felt a prime example of if eyes could kill, as the Eight large men before stood tentatively to attack. Mr. Yang (I have a tendency to call people random names) is aided from the floor as his left ear bleeds from the impact of the porcelain dish I used to punish him. Blood and all, barely standing, he yells “Get him you, idiots!”

Veiny steps one foot ahead and a big guy on the left grabs him by the shoulder, “Wait…”

He seizes everyone’s attention… “This fool ain’t worth it. You all know the consequences better than he does; I got a family to think about. I’m out!”

He looks me down, top to bottom then says, “Your day will come… believe me!”

The lot of them start to walk away, but then veiny orders an attack.

“Screw that!” he gave out “This asshole needs to learn a lesson.”

Two of the guys changed their minds and decides to join him and the other two from the bathroom. The others opted out and scattered across the room. Slowly the everyone began to realize what was happening.

They surround me, the five of them, giving no room for the exit, they begin to carrel me. Veiny pops out a shard of a piece of tile, resembling that from the bathroom. The one to my left is closest to my lunch table. I jump at him, landing two kicks; one in the stomach, the other in the crotch. I reach for my tray, only to find Veiny stabbing at me, I use it to block and jump on top of the seating where I immediately turned and successfully jump-kick him in the head from the higher angle.

I rush down from the table to approach the other three in defense position. I soon received an unexpected surprise as a jolt of energy passes through me from the sudden impact of a premonition.

O crap, why now…

The faces around me all fade away as I’m mentally thrust into the realm. Images fly by with no clarity of where or when. But finally, I see a face…

Oh shit, I know this guy…

The intense moment allowed for a punch to land straight across my cheek, which drove me back to reality.

What the fuck is wrong with these people and my face!

I felt myself shudder as I fell backward into the gathering crowd.

As the three men approached me, I had to put aside all thoughts of my vision as this was neither the time nor the place.

This is my opportunity to make one thing clear there is a new Bad Dog in prison, and you better not fuck with him!

I will make them rue the day they messed with me.

I stood up from the floor fists clenched ready to put them into their places, for all to see… when a shock of lightning that hit me square in the back, had me immediately begging for death. The shock paralyzed me, and I fell back to the floor. I felt my cells relapse and restart again from the jolt of pain passing through my every muscle.

On the floor my eyes helplessly watched as the others soon followed suit to bathe the floor with their saliva and piss, as one by one, we were trazzered (A tasering tranquilizer) for misconduct. Yeah, the nifty new invention by the government which first electrocutes the victim and then forces them into a deep sleep. That was when everything went dark.

Lights out for me…