chapter 3

3.
“We have you all set in Block C, just have to stop by the warden’s office. She requested to see you individually.”

Freshly clothed in an orange jumpsuit, towels and toiletries stacked on her arms, Shauna nodded. Lex so far had been quiet, but not horrible. When he did speak, he had actually given her some good tips on how to survive in this place.

“Don’t look the big tattooed girls in the eyes, if someone asks for your food, give it. And never piss off the warden. Which, by the way, it’s time. Let’s go.”

Lex was insistent on that last one. Shauna swallowed past a lump in her throat. That she would need to meet the warden, this quickly after arriving, and after-

‘I’m going to have a lot of fun with you,’ she remembered Virginia’s words, her tone, and how owned she had felt. What could the warden have been talking about? Was she going to be chained up, tortured? Shauna stifled a shudder, eyes widening.

“Already?” she squeaked, internally cursing at how pathetic she sounded. Shauna wasn’t someone used to being at the beck and call of others. She had prided herself at always being in control, one step ahead. This… ownership of her already grated, the grin she had seen earlier stuck out in her mind. How the warden had looked like she had won something. Lex cocked a brow.

“Yea, now. You okay?” Shauna shook her head and beckoned Lex to lead. The two marched across the second floor of the west wing, the only sounds keeping Shauna’s brain from falling into the violence and chaos around her were Lex’s boots on the metal grating, and the clinking of her cuffs. It wasn’t long before Lex beckoned to an office door hardly different from the ironclad cells that surrounded it.

“Come in. Please, take a seat.” Virginia’s voice oozed out, sending ripples of goosebumps down Shauna’s spine. She cast Lex one last nervous look before she stepped in, aghast when she spotted her loose leaf papers still clutched in his palm.

‘Well,’ she thought, ‘if he was nice to me before, he won’t be after reading those…’

Shauna got her leaden legs past the threshold, needing to squint to make out anything in the dusky office.

“I hope you haven’t had too bad a time with the cold, California girl you are. Don’t worry, that won’t be a problem much longer. Sit.” Virginia nodded in the seat’s direction, a small smile tucked on her lips. Shauna cocked a brow and sat, or rather, fell into it. The seat was wider than two of her put side to side, and looked so overbuilt that it could fit a giant.

“What, do you need this kind of thing so your brutes don’t crush it?”

Victoria looked genuinely confused for the briefest of moments before casting her ebony hair backward, laughing.

“Well, that is a nice secondary benefit.”

Eyes like vultures settled into Shauna’s forehead. Victoria set her chin on laced fingers, elbows halfway across her desk. It was like she was looking at an exotic animal, and every second the stare continued made Shauna want to crawl out of her own skin.

“So, uh, ma'am, did you want to talk with me?”

Virginia smirked.

“See, already used to the roles and names. Eager to obey. I knew it.”

Now Shauna was distinctly weirded out. This was the least professional conversation she had been a part of in the system yet. At least those others had been about her, her looks, or her sentence. The way Victoria was staring at her, how she spoke. It reminded her of…

‘No, this isn’t some smut story I’d come up with. This gal is a regular, power tripping prison warden just like all the rest. There’s no way that-’

As if the universe was mocking her, at that precise moment Virginia's hand shot out. Her talon-like finger reached upward, flicking Shauna’s nipple and sending her modest breast shaking.

“What the fuck!” Shauna cried. Virginia’s smile broadened.

“Go ahead and scream. No one’s going to help you here, Shauna. Or should I call you Zykar?”

All the blood fled from Shauna’s face. She sat open-mouthed, not daring to breathe. She was bare. Exposed. It was like Virginia had stripped her and sent her packing into the Bangor wilderness.

“What… did you…”

Virginia slammed down a notebook with Shauna’s name splayed over it.

“Shauna Kazyr? Zykar? C’mon, a little anagram like that isn’t fooling anyone.”

This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be happening. Was karma real? Was this last horrid year the result of all the fat she had inflicted on others? So many thoughts swirled, and yet all Shauna could do was sit there and listen.

“I’m actually a big fan of yours,” Virginia finally broke the silence. A momentary lapse in the chaos.

“R-really?” Shauna squeaked again in that way she hated. For a split second, an alternative path forward laid itself out. Of herself and Virginia, teaming up. Maybe fattening a few guards into early retirement, or maybe giving the prisoners a hefty winter coat.

“Yep, I’ve read every one of your stories. You have a certain style I crave. I have to say, you may understand my naughty brain more than anyone else on the planet.”

“Thank you?”

Virginia laughed. And that’s when Shauna knew she was in big trouble.

“Don’t. I’ve done my research on you. Found out that not every one of your stories is based in fiction. My my, you really did a number on Barnie. No wonder he tattled, you’d have him immobile in another year or so.”

That name brought the anger back. Shauna felt it rise in her, oddly thankful for her former hog. She hadn’t felt hot like this in a long time, it was as if she regained a piece of herself.

“What did you do to him? How did you get him to talk?” Shauna growled.

“I saved his life, that’s what. I’d keep that temper down missy.” Virginia placed her head back on her fingers and cocked it to the side. Shauna narrowed her eyes.

“And why would I do that?”

It was like Virginia was in on a hilarious joke Shauna was ignorant of. She could see the warden failing to hold back a child-like glee, the energy finally reaching her face in heaving ripples of mad energy.

“Well,” Virginia said, pursing her lips, “I might up your goal.”

Shauna felt distant, like she was controlling herself from afar.

“My goal? What are you-”

“I mean, I thought 180 would look good on you, a nice 80 pounds of new blubber, but sure, 200 is even better.”

Silence. Shauna had to pick her jaw up off the floor. She was free falling into her worst nightmare. All those hours in the gym, all the slim bodies she had packed with lard. Online, there was a common idea around the type of feeders Shauna ran with. That, the badder the feeder, the worse the fall was. The call to gain, expressed through growing others, would make you succumb eventually, and the more you fattened the bigger you got yourself. Was this her fall? Shauna struggled through shock to speak.

“You can’t.” Virginia beamed.

“I can, and I will. You deserve it after all your good… work. Call it a retirement. It’s what you want after all. We understand each other.”

Virginia shot her chair backward and stood, towering over Shauna.

“Get along now, pig. Your new diet starts tonight. You’ll be getting much more acquainted with Lex. I can't wait to see how he reacts as you turn into a total blob. Ta taaa!”