Vengeful Desires

10-

"Well, well...I knew I smelled shit around this area," Diaz's mocking voice rang out. She appeared in the doorway flanked by her usual cohorts, eyes narrowing as she zeroed in on Amirah. "So you're back, huh? And you didn't even check in to get my permission first?"

The other women snickered and jostled behind Diaz, feeding off her bravado like hyenas drawn to the scent of weakness. Amirah sighed, closing her eyes as she lay back on her bunk in a clear attempt to tune out the unfolding confrontation.

Diaz seemed to bristle at the perceived dismissal, taking an aggressive step further into the cell. "Oh what, you too good to even look at me now, Princess?" She turned her sneer towards Yun. "Your lil' book buddy got no manners. You sucking her dick now just cause she went crazy?"

Rather than rising to meet the antagonistic energy, Yun simply arched an unimpressed eyebrow at the intrusion. "Why don't you quit flapping those dried up lips and get the hell out of our cell, Diaz?"

" Yun, don't be stupid." Diaz began. " I can turn these bitches against you.

However her former acquaintance jerked her chin meaningfully towards the corridor. "Pretty sure everybody's sick of watching you run that rancid mouth just to hear yourself bark."

A silence fell as Diaz visibly bristled at the rebuke. Her gaze snapped towards Amirah's prone form, upper lip curling in a sneer of visceral disgust. It wasn't a face she made. It was the existence of her that truly festered at Diaz's soul.

"Figures the princess would have some stupid bitch running interference for her stuck up ass..."

Amirah remained utterly impassive, keeping her eyes closed as she willed herself to retreat into the cocoon of numbness that had allowed her to endure so much torment already. Only the slight tightening around her mouth and the almost imperceptible flaring of her nostrils gave any hint that she registered the unfolding confrontation at all.

Eventually, it was Yun who broke the stifling quiet with a noisy snort of derision.

"You got some weird-ass obsession with Amirah, you know that?" She shook her head slowly, dark eyes gleaming with a hint of mocking pity as she raked her disdainful stare over Diaz and her posse of Kim and some other new woman they seemed to have replaced Yun with. "All this big tough act, and you still can't get over some hurt feelings from a woman who barely knows you exist."

Diaz opened her mouth - either to protest or escalate her aggression further. But before she could get a word out, Yun pressed on in that same lazily contemptuous cadence.

"Nah, let me guess - Amirah looked at you the wrong way once, or didn't bow down properly when you tried flexing those weak ass 'yard muscles', and now you've made it your whole sad life's mission to punish her for it?"

She tsked loudly, lips twisting in a disdainful moue. "That shit is sadder than being some junkie's bottom bitch. At least they get high as an excuse..."

The words seemed to strike a nerve. Diaz straightened up, squaring her shoulders as her thuggish entourage rallied around her - snickering and hooting their own goading taunts now that blood had officially been drawn.

Before the situation could escalate further, however, Amirah pushed herself upright on the cot with a resigned sigh. She cast a sidelong look towards Yun that managed to communicate a wealth of wordless gratitude even as she pursed her lips at the other woman's antagonistic provocations.

"It's okay, unnie," she murmured in a low, placating rasp. Turning her gaze towards the seething Diaz and her minions, a muscle ticked in Amirah's jaw briefly before she drew a steadying breath.