CHAPTER 42: CHAPTER 42; REINCARNATION

Tank’s massive shoulders began to shake violently and a sound came from deep in her chest, a broken sob that she had probably been holding back for a few minutes now.

"We really couldn’t save her.... But I thought... I thought we’d have more time. I thought we could figure something out."

"She was so scared," Blade said, her voice barely audible. Tears dripped from her chin onto the concrete floor. "When they brought her back from that visit, she was so scared and frightened, and we couldn’t do anything. We couldn’t stop them from taking her. She had lost all hope. If only we had accompanied her...."

This was their first time being in such a tragic situation.

"Those bastards killed her," Razor spat through her tears, her hands clenching into fists.

Tank tightened her arms around Shuyin’s body, holding her closer as if she could somehow protect her now when it was far too late. "She didn’t deserve this. She was innocent, really innocent, not like the rest of us. She didn’t belong in this place."

"She reminded me of my little sister," Blade admitted quietly, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. "Before everything went to hell. Before I ended up here, she had that same... that same look in her eyes. Like she still believed people could be good."

"And we let her down," Razor said bitterly. "Just like everyone else in her life let her down."

She looked down at Shuyin’s face, peaceful now in death despite all the bruising and swelling. "They haven’t even bothered to see if she is faring well... How could they treat her like this?"

They had informed the guards of her condition and yet, they did nothing! They knew this was the situation in Blackwater prison, but hadn’t expected it to be this serious.

Blade reached out again, this time letting her hand rest on Shuyin’s arm. "I’m sorry, princess. I’m sorry we couldn’t save you. I’m sorry we weren’t strong enough to protect you."

"What kind of future do we have in here now that she is dead?" Tank asked, her voice hollow. "We’re gonna get blamed for this. They’re gonna say we killed her, add more years to our sentences. Maybe even put us in isolation permanently. Or receive even worse prison time."

"I don’t care," Razor spoke up fiercely, looking up at them with red, swollen eyes. "I don’t care what they do to us. At least we tried to protect her, at least we stood up for someone who needed us, I won’t regret it. That’s gotta count for something."

"It doesn’t count for shit in here, and you know it, it would only become a mess," Blade said sadly, "Nothing good ever counts for anything in Blackwater."

Tank shifted slightly, adjusting Shuyin’s body so it rested more comfortably in her arms.

It was a pointless gesture, the girl couldn’t feel anything anymore, but she did it anyway.

"We should have told her," Tank said quietly. "We should have told her that we... that we actually started to care about her. Not just as insurance, but like a person."

"She knew," Blade said. "I think she knew and she will understand...."

"You think so?" Tank asked, desperate to believe it.

"Yeah. The way she looked at us this morning before they took her, she definitely knew we weren’t just protecting her to save our own skins anymore."

A long silence fell over the cell, broken only by the distant sounds of the prison, metal clanging, muffled voices, and the ever-present hum of the ventilation system.

Tank sat there holding Shuyin’s body, not ready to let go yet. Not ready to accept that the young woman who had stumbled into their cell just two days ago was gone forever.

"What do we do now?" Razor finally asked.

"We tell the truth," Tank said, her voice hardening with resolve even as tears continued to fall. "When they come, we tell them exactly what we think happened, even if they will be a lie, that Torch and her crew killed her on Mama Bear’s orders. We go down fighting if we have to, but we don’t let them blame this on us, we deny everything. We don’t let them rewrite what happened."

"They won’t believe us," Blade said. Those names were bigger in Blackwater prison than anyone else.

Tank looked down at Shuyin’s face one more time, memorizing the features. "I’m sorry, princess. I’m sorry we couldn’t give you more than two days. But I promise you this, we won’t forget you. We won’t let them pretend you never existed. Your story ends here, but we’ll remember. We’ll remember Lin Shuyin."

She bent her head down and pressed her forehead gently against Shuyin’s, a gesture of farewell and respect. "Rest now. You’re free, you can fly away, no more pain... No more fear.... You’re free."

The three women sat there in the darkness, holding vigil over the body of a girl they had barely known but had come to care about deeply. A girl whose death would change nothing in the grand scheme of Blackwater Ridge, but had changed something fundamental in each of them.

They had failed to save her.

But they had tried.

And in a place like this, sometimes trying was all you had.

The minutes ticked by slowly. None of them wanted to be the first to move, the first to break this moment, the first to let reality come crashing back in.

Because once they let go, once they called for the guards, once they reported the death, it would all be over.

Lin Shuyin would become just another statistic. Another inmate who didn’t survive Blackwater Ridge.

And Tank, Blade, and Razor would have to figure out how to keep living in a world that kept taking away everyone who deserved better.

So they sat and they quietly grieved. And they held on to the broken body of a princess who had briefly been their friend.