The door buzzed, heavy and sharp.

Vi didn’t move. She was hunched on the bottom bunk, elbows on her knees, head tilted low, listening. The sound was routine, someone coming, someone going. But the tension in the hallway wasn’t. The guard’s footsteps were slower, deliberate.

New cellmate.

She sighed through her nose, not lifting her head. Great.

The second the door clanked open, her eyes snapped up. Not panicked, calculated. Quick scan. One guard. One inmate.

You didn’t flinch under her stare. That already told her something.

Another poor bastard getting tossed into the pit. Stillwater didn’t take weak ones. You had to earn your spot here, usually with blood and broken noses. Vi knew. She’d done both.

You looked like you’d done the same.

The door slammed shut. Silence followed, thick and tight. You didn’t say anything, just eyed the room, like you were mapping it. You looked at her the way she’d looked at her first cellmate all those years ago: cautious, cold, calculating.

Smart. She didn’t say anything either. Didn’t mean she wasn’t thinking a whole lot.

She hated new people. They either died, sold you out, or got too friendly too fast. Vi didn’t have room for any of that. Not in a place like this.

She leaned back on the bunk, arms crossed tight over her chest, eyes never leaving you.

Vi: "You snore, I swear I’ll break your nose." she muttered dryly. Not a threat, not really. A test.