Right now, though, there was no pausing.
We spun around each other, punching, and kicking, hands and fists jabbing and thrusting quickly. She managed to spin me into the side of the bunk, cornering me against it, but when she went to throw a kick at me, I had already spun to the side, forcing her to miss and kick the air.
I then grabbed the opportunity to whip a bunch of her thick, curly, black hair around my hand and hurl her into a wall. I tried to pin her to it, but she was slippery, and too quick even for me to manage to keep her in one place.
I rarely got into fights that ended in stalemates, but we couldn’t seem to land legitimate blows on each other. A knock here, a bump there, but nothing that noted either of us as a clear winner of that combat.
By the time our logical, rational minds reasserted themselves, we were both panting, sweating, and a little scratched up, but otherwise okay. I stared at her, breathing hard, my back pressed up against the bunk bed. She, meanwhile, stood near the cell door, resting against it.
“Well…” she said, “That was some fun.”
“Fun?” I asked, checking my lip for blood. There was none. “I could’ve killed you.”
“Uh, I don’t know what fight you were just in, but I almost killed you, okay?”
“That’s… that’s not…” I shook my head. “Where did you learn to fight like that?”
Alexa shrugged. “Nowhere.”
“Bullshit. That’s real training. Someone taught you how to throw a punch and defend yourself.”
“A little bit the streets, a little bit my older brother. Life is tough out there. Lots of assholes who wanna steal your shit.”
“Like you tried to steal my bunk?”
“That bunk was empty when I got here, okay? If you wanted to make sure no one took it, then you should’ve been sitting in it.”
“All the time?”
“That’s the rule. You wanna keep it, you don’t move from it.”
I eyed her up and down. “We’re going to need a better rule if you’re going to be my cellmate.”
“We’re gonna need a bunch if you don’t want us killing each other, because I almost did, and I don’t think there’d be any consequences.”
I shook my head. “Probably not in this place…” I trailed off, letting a moment of silence finally settle in the cell. Things had been tense. Too tense, too aggressive, too quickly. But the murder urge was starting to fade, leaving only animosity and not a burning desire to kill each other in the air.
“You fight pretty good too,” Alexa said.
“Thanks.” I climbed onto my bunk, letting my feet dangle off the edge. “So, what are you?”
Alexa frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Shifter, mage, what?”
Her eyes narrowed a little further. “Mage.” She tapped her collar. “Used to be, anyway.”
Mine suddenly felt a little heavier around my neck. “Yeah. These things take some getting used to.”
“They just take your power away,” she clicked her fingers, “Just like that?”
“All of it. Except your ability to kick ass with your fists.”
“Handy skill to keep, I guess.” Alexa paused. “What are you?”
“Serakon.”
She shook her head. “I’ve never heard of them.”
“That’s probably a good thing. Most people don’t like my kind.”
“Any reason for that?”
“Lots of reasons, most of them aren’t totally wrong. But I’m gonna let you make up your own mind.”
“I guess I can relate to that.” She crossed over to the sink by the side of the cell and pressed the button for the waterspout to activate. The stream was meagre, but she cupped her hands under it, making a bowl to drink from. “Next question,” she said, “What are you in for?”
“That… is complicated.”
“Isn’t it always?”
“No, this one’s really complicated. I’m not sure if I want to, or even can, explain it all properly.”
“Let me guess… they say you did something you didn’t do?”
“No, I did it. I killed a guard.”
She perked up, her eyes wide, then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “You… what?”
“You heard me. I wish I could say they were wrong about what I’d done, but they weren’t. They caught the right girl. The only problem are the circumstances.”
“The guy was a jerk who deserved it?”
“He worked for this place. Don’t they all?”
“Right… was it self-defense?”
“It doesn’t matter. I killed a guard, they caught me, and now I’m here. Stuck.” I paused. “What about you?”
Alexa moved closer to the bunk, looked up at me for a moment, and then slid into the lower bed. I listened to her settle, though by the amount she was moving and squirming around, I didn’t think she’d get used to the bed she’d been given. But then, that’s what this place was, wasn’t it?
It was designed so you could never get used to it.
So you could never truly feel comfortable.
So you could never adapt.
Alexa gave off a long, drawn-out sigh. “Same as everyone else who gets thrown in here. I crossed the wrong asshole.”
“Crossed?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Looks to me like we’ve got time… who was he?”
Alexa sighed. “I met him at a club one night, thought he was hot, so I went home with him and we hung out a few more times after that. He was a mage, too, so we had shit to talk about. Plenty of it. But then I saw the little shrine he had in his closet.”
“Shrine?”
“Coalition freaks aren’t just loyal to their jobs. The Coalition is like a religion to them, one that goes against mine. They want to oppress humans, enslave them, turn them into puppets. My Magistrate wants to protect them from outside threats, and from themselves. His closet was covered in candles and offerings to their Gods, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t sensed it.”
I lay on my back on the bed and looked up at the ceiling. “There’s more to the story than that… I’m sure there is.”
“Oh, there is.” She paused. “I ghosted him, but he wasn’t gonna take that lying down. He started following me, stalking me. Finally, I agreed to go back to his place and talk to him, he said I’d misunderstood. Like an idiot I went, he tried getting handsy, and when I tried to fight back, he stunned me and locked me in his bedroom. I was there for three days before he forgot to stun me again. Stabbed him in the balls with a knife and ran, but I got caught.”
I swallowed. I didn’t want to ask her to elaborate or go into more detail. She’d said all she had to say. “That’s disgusting,” I said, “He… kidnapped you, but you got thrown in here?”
“That’s how this whole place works. They get to jail whoever the fuck they want, and nobody can say anything about it. Just wait ‘till my brother finds out.”
“Your brother?”
“He’s an ex-Legionnaire. Used to work for the Magistrate. Taught me how to fight. You hear about the break out that happened a few years back? Rumor has it that he was involved. He ain’t ever admitted it to me but, he also never denied it. He won’t just sit around while his little sister rots away in here.”