She had gotten so good at living behind those tiny four walls. Piper couldn't tell you how many days she had spend in here. She had no idea what time of day it was, she had lost track of that a long time ago and she could never tell which meals where which. They were usually the same disgusting slop that she couldn't distinguish what was supposed to be breakfast from what was supposed to be dinner.

It's funny how you take for granted all of the things you get so used to. Even the most basic of things like Red's food and even the thinnest of mattresses.

She paced back and forth in her cell like a caged animal. It had become part of her ritual, she didn't have a book to read or a radio to listen to, so she wasn't left with many options. She could sit still and let her own thoughts drive her mad or she could exercise. She would pace until her legs ached with exhaustion and then she would pace some more. Then she'd move to push ups until her arms were sore, sit-ups until her stomach cramped and all of the other exersizes she either made up or thought she read about in magazines. Sometimes, when the thoughts weren't itching at her, trying to suck the life from her, she would try some of the poses Yoga Jones had used in her classes. Those usually didn't last very long until thoughts of Larry and Alex and Pennsatucky crawled up into her brain and then she would pace again until her aching body was all she could think of anymore.

Her legs quivered as she sad down back against the board that the prison liked to call a "bed". She could feel her eyes beginning to droop as exhaustion began to take over. That was another thing that she had to get used to during her time in the SHU. There was no sense of sleep cycles. There wasn't any light to differentiate between day and night. There wasn't a time to sleep, she slept when she was tired, she woke when she wasn't. She only knew it was day when the slot on the door would slip open and someone would jam a food tray through the hole, holding it for her to grab it and dropping it to the floor if she took too long to reach for it.

The food was barely edible but she managed to force it down. She always ate slowly, just one more thing to chip away at her time and make the days go by faster.

Her eyes burn from the tears, the torn skin on her hands burn, her muscles burn from the exertion, but all she feels is anger. Anger at Pennsatucky, Anger at Larry, Anger at Alex, Anger at herself, Anger at this so called God of Pennsatucky's that has fucked her over at a near constant basis lately. She pushes herself off of Pennsatucky and falls onto the cold ground beside her.

Piper looks down at her bloody hands, more blood staining the snow around her red. She looks back at Pennsatucky, her face is battered almost beyond recognition. Pennsatuckly barely moves or makes a sound at least she can hear the gurgles of air bubbling through the blood surrounding her mouth.

At least she's still breathing.

She had to do it. She knows she did. Pennsatucky was going to kill her.

She was going to kill her.

"Oh my God."

Piper looks up towards the door. It's Fischer, the rookie guard who discovers them. She's kneeling between Piper and Pennsatucky in an instant and from the looks of it its seems like she's trying to take Pennsatucky's pulse. Piper's pretty sure she's doing it wrong.

Piper doesn't hear what Fischer mumbles into her radio but more guards are pouring through the door. All but one of them rush over to the scene. Piper looks up to the one body standing at the door and makes eye contact with Mr. Healy who looks between the bloody mess that is now Pennsatucky's face and Piper with wide eyes.

Piper wants to call out to him. Ask him why he didn't help her when she was about to get murdered but rough hands are pulling at her and pushing her to the ground, her face is pushed down into the cold snow and something snaps against her wrists.

Piper can hear a guard making his rounds outside her door. His foot steps echoing around the walls of the empty hall. The only other sound is the screams coming from a cell a few doors down.

She wonders how much longer she will be stuck here. She wonders how long until she's driven to that level insanity.

She thinks for a moment that she might already be there.

At least she wasn't dead. At least Pennsatucky wasn't dead. At least she could argue self-defense. At least Taystee had been right, Piper could easily take Pennsatucky but she would have never thought it would have some to that.

She can feel the prison twisting its way inside her and changing her. She's adapting like an animal just to survive her sentence. The old Piper, the one that walked into this prison such a short time ago, never would have survived this long. The old Piper would have been lying dead in that snow a fucking wooden cross stabbed into her heart.

She feels the laughter bubble up in the back of her throat.

"Who the fuck carves a cross into a shiv?" She says to the beige wall.

Maniacal laughter echoes into the hallway and it takes a minute for Piper to realize the laughter is coming from her own mouth.

This only makes her laugh even harder.

She can hear the hall erupt into laughter and screaming in response. No one really knows what their laughing or screaming about but its good to have something to do other then count the bricks that line the wall of their cells.

Piper doesn't stop laughing until she hears something slam hard against the door and someone grunt a harsh command for silence. She listens as the slamming continues onto doors down the hall as the sounds die down.

Slowly she falls asleep and back into the nightmares that have haunted her these past months.

She wakes to a familiar grinding sound. She rises to her feet and checks the slot for whatever shit they plan to serve her today but she finds it still sealed tightly in place. It's not the first time she's heard noises before, she's just about to lie back down on her bed when she hears someone bellow through the door.

"Against the wall, Chapman."

She sits up in shock for a moment. She hasn't seen or heard from anyone, minus the screaming and the harsh barks of short commands that she forgets what to do. She doesn't move until she hears the command again, only harsher and more threatening.

"Move against the wall or we're going to fucking leave you here."

The thought of freedom has her up and against the wall in an instant.

There's a few more seconds and the loud grinding sound of the door sliding open. Piper doesn't remember it hurting her ears the way it did on the way in. Maybe the walls echo the sound louder from in here.

There's a guard up against her, running his hands along the loose fabric of her beige uniform like she could have some how managed to fucking smuggle something while being locked underground in a fucking hole for months. She can tell by the way the hand lingers on her ass for half a minute that it's Pornstache. She's almost thankful to have this douchebag touching her, at least that means she's almost free.

Everything moves in a blur. Her mind is swimming too much to really keep track of everything that happens. Before she can process a thought she's standing in her "room" again and she hears Pornstache barking.

"You have fifteen minutes left for breakfast." He says before he turns and leaves her, a set of the guards trailing behind him. Maybe things have changed in her time in the SHU but she never remembered Pornstache having a guard escort with him before.

She practically runs to the cafeteria. She never thought she would be so excited to eat Red's cooking in her life. She steps in through the open door and immediately enters the short breakfast line.

There isn't much left but Piper isn't really going to complain. The food is identifiable and looks like 5-star cuisine next to the shit from the SHU.

Nicky isn't even paying attention when she mechanically lifts up her spoon to plop eggs onto Piper's plate. She drops on some factory produced sausage still without looking up or asking and she throws a little bit of leftover toast before she looks up and opens her mouth to say something.

But the words never come out. Instead her mouth stands gaped open in shock, as if she might as well have seen Piper rise from the dead.

Red's looking up from behind Nicky's shoulder in an instant, a shit-eaten grin across her face.

"Welcome back." Is all she says with a little nod before she turns back and disappears into the kitchen.

Piper returns the nod even though Red is long gone. She takes bits of whatever hasn't been cleaned up or eaten already and turns back towards the tables.

She finds everyone staring at her. She doesn't even bother to bat an eye. She knows how word travels around here. She knows how everyone makes sure a shitshow of what actually happens and how fast the truth can be twisted into such a ridiculous story and for once, she doesn't give a fuck what they all think.

She just hopes they're all afraid.

/* Want more? Let me know what you think! */