Ravensborough by Christine Murray Page A

his left inner forearm.
    ‘Cool tattoo,’ I whispered to Mei.
    She rolled her eyes at me. ‘Hardly. It’s a Pagan gang mark.’
    Seriously, I had so much to learn.
    ‘What is the FPL?’ I asked.
    ‘They’re a very violent Pagan faction. FPL stands for the Federation for Pagan Liberation. They talk a load of rubbish about freeing their people, but really they’re just a load of thugs.’
    Mei raised her voice at the end of her sentence and the guy whipped his head around to glare at her. Mei gazed calmly back at him as he was led away to the cells. I shrank back in my seat. This guy looked like he could cause us some serious injury if he wasn’t being restrained by two officers. Why antagonise him?
    ‘They’re like dogs, you know? They smell fear,’ she said as if it was no big deal.
    Just then the door of the station opened and Mum and Rupert came in. Mum looked at me with anxious eyes. I quickly introduced them both to Mei.
    ‘I’m sorry, what an awful way to meet’, Mei apologised. ‘I promise I won’t make a habit of ending up in police stations with your daughter.’
    Mum smiled weakly. ‘Are you ok?’ she asked. ‘Did they arrest the guy who assaulted you?’
    ‘Not yet,’ I said. ‘But he stabbed another man with a flick knife. I think the police are focusing on that more than me.’
    ‘Oh my God!’ Mum gasped. ‘That could have been you.’
    ‘The man in question knocked into Ms. Edwards by accident. The motivation for the attack was a personal grudge. He bumped into your daughter as he was trying to make his getaway,’ the police officer interjected helpfully. She was obviously used to calming hysterical people down.
    The drive home to Chesterfield was kind of awkward. Rupert and Mum didn’t seem to be speaking. At one set of traffic lights Rupert put his hand out to cover her, but she moved it away.
    ‘I thought you said that it was safe here,’ she said quietly.
    ‘It is safe, mostly,’ Rupert argued. ‘She was knocked over in the middle of a crime, that could happen in any city in the world. Unless she gets wrapped up in the conflict, she’s just as safe in Ravensborough as she was back home in Dublin.’
    When we got home tensions were still strong. I’d been through enough drama for one night – I wasn’t in the mood of witnessing anymore. I went upstairs and had a shower instead. The warm water soothed my aching muscles. I got out of the shower and groaned when I saw my reflection in the mirror. A reddish purple bruise was settling on my right cheek where I’d hit it off the pavement. I’d have to wear my hair down tomorrow. No doubt it would only get worse overnight.
    I was right. The next day not only was my face a funky purple yellow colour, but my cheek had swollen up, distorting the shape of my face slightly. It seemed like everyone was staring at me, laughing at me because of my injuries. It looked like my new girl sheen had worn off and I was finally accepted. Now I was just one of the fray, and able for the taunts and cruel whispers that I’d gotten back home. Great, just great.
    I crept into political studies, picking a seat as near to the back as possible so I could just disappear into the background. Unfortunately, the bad luck that seemed to be around lately refused to dissipate.
    ‘Scarlett, what happened to your face?’ asked Ms. Jeffries. Any chance I had of remaining under the radar disappeared as everyone swivelled in their chairs to gawk at me.
    Mei rolled her eyes at me. She knew how much I hated any kind of attention, let alone this kind.
    ‘I bumped into someone last night and fell,’ I said simply. There was no was that I was going to get into more detail than that. There were a few snickers around the class at my clumsiness. I’d hoped that I would be more popular here than I’d been back in Dublin, but it seemed like a case of same shit different school.
    Cat looked around, obviously irritated by the way our classmates were amused by this.