incarcerated

16.

eddy decided to pull what was probably his tenth all nighter that month and made himself coffee around 5 am. his eyelids had been fighting with him for hours and were practically begging to shut and stay shut, but it was too late. and he had way too much work to do.

    about thirty minutes after breakfast in the cafeteria had started, a loud knock on eddy's door startled him out of his half-sleep at his desk. he glanced at brett, who was still sound asleep, and cleared his throat.

    "what?" he asked loudly.

    "they're fighting in the cafeteria, sir," a frantic voice explained. "all of them. it's huge. guards are involved."

    "jesus christ," eddy muttered as he grabbed his keys. he leaned down and kissed brett's forehead gently before walking out the door and locking it behind him.

    the commotion in the cafeteria could be heard as soon as eddy walked past b dorm, which was relatively far from the large room. his pace quickened as soon as the sound reached his ears and the guard behind him struggled to keep up with his long strides. exhaustion and anger flowed through his veins and he was ready to throw some people into solitary.

    as soon as he walked into the cafeteria, he discovered that this was no ordinary fight. every single person in the room had their hands on someone—inmates and COs alike. one of the younger officers frantically tried to pry two men apart and was thrown to the side like a rag doll before they continued fighting. one inmate was lying on the floor with a strangely crooked posture, his face beaten to the point where eddy couldn't identify him if he tried.

    just as the warden was about to start pulling people apart, he saw something that infuriated him. CO hernandez was losing a fight to one of the smallest inmates in the prison, a man only an inch or two taller than brett. but that wasn't what bothered him. what bothered him was when hernandez grabbed the man by the hair and slammed his head into the brick wall much harder than necessary.

    "hey!" he shouted, pushing his way through to the other side of the room. the inmate laid on the floor and hernandez stood next to him, just staring in horror at the limp body. everyone had stopped and turned to see where eddy's scream came from.

    "everybody back to your fucking dorms!" eddy's loud voice resonated through the large room. the inmates did not protest, shuffling quietly back into the hallway. only the guards and eddy remained standing in the room. their only company was the two prisoners lying on the floor.

    "what the fuck happened here!?" he shouted, chest heaving as he crossed his muscular arms. CO cooper was the first to speak.

    "w-well, sir, uh.." he began, taking a deep breath. eddy looked in his direction.

    "what?" he spat.

    "it started with two of them. the, uh.. um.."

    "spit it out!" eddy shouted, putting his hands on his hips. cooper was visibly shaking and definitely regretted his decision to speak.

     "one of them refused to stop making racist comments to the other one. they got loud and the entire cafeteria was, um, listening in, sir. they all started fighting the second one of them swung."

eddy took a deep breath, reminding himself that exploding would not be the best reaction to the situation. in, out. don't go off.

"are they dead?" he asked. two of the guards checked each of the unconscious inmates' pulses and shook their heads.

"get them to medical," he spat. "and clean this the fuck up. interview the inmates and get me a clear fucking story on who did what so i can actually punish some of them."