Bailey leaned closer to Mel, who was staring into middle space whilst simultaneously folding the paper. She appeared to be mumbling something.

‘…ertresorertresorertresorertresor…’

Bailey couldn’t make out what it was. She leaned in closer still.

‘What’s that, Mel?’

Mel ignored her, the paper rustling. Seema and Kay were now sitting as far back away from Mel as their respective corners of the cell would allow them.

Mel burbled the same noise over and over again like a Buddhist mantra while the paper rustled, a small origami animal beginning to take form.

‘…ertresorertresorertresorertresorertresor…’

‘I can’t hear you, Mel,’ said Bailey getting closer, close enough that she could feel Mel’s hot breath on her face. ‘Speak up.’

‘If you know what’s good for you,’ whispered Seema. ‘You’ll stop right there.’

But Bailey pressed on. ‘Mel. Why do you think they’re scalped?’

Mel suddenly stopped folding the paper. A half-completed origami duck fell between her legs. Both Kay and Seema watched it drop in horror. They had never seen Mel not complete a duck.

Mel’s eyes suddenly focused on Bailey. She spat a single word at her.

‘HAIRDRESSA!’

Then like a banshee Mel was up and had her hands around Bailey’s throat, wrestling her to the ground.

Before she had time to react, Bailey was off the bunk and on her back on the concrete floor with Mel sitting astride her, screaming and throttling her.

Bailey gasped and tried to speak but she could hardly even breathe. ‘Uhhh… Mel… ughhh… puh-lease…’

Mel’s mouth was wide open, yellow teeth bared, emitting a wail like an air-raid siren that just would not stop. Her bloodshot eyes stared into Bailey’s with the force of industrial lasers.

Bailey wasn’t weak, but she was no match for a strength drawn from a deep reservoir of madness.

‘MI KILL HIM! MI FUCKING KILL HIM!’ screeched Mel.

‘Go for it, Mel!’ Bailey heard Kay shout in encouragement. She was enjoying the spectacle.

Mel’s fingers were like metal rods bending into the soft flesh of her neck, squeezing her windpipe, cutting off the blood in the arteries in her neck. Bailey tried to lever her fingers under Mel’s hands, but it was no use. It was as if they were welded to her neck.

With a horrifying finality, Bailey suddenly realised that Mel would kill her unless she did something fast. She had unleashed something beyond her control.

She clenched her fists and put them together and, with all the force her fading strength could muster, she punched Mel in both breasts.

Mel’s wailing suddenly went off-pitch with a high squeak of pain and, for just a moment, her grip weakened on Bailey’s neck and that was all Bailey needed. Using a jiu-jitsu counter she had learnt in defensive groundwork training, she pushed Mel’s right elbow outwards, causing her to lose balance and topple sideways. She then got her knee up underneath her and kicked downwards hard, knocking Mel’s leg away.

She flipped Mel over on her back, wrenching her hands from her throat. Suddenly their positions were reversed. Bailey pinned one of Mel’s arms down with her knee and the other down with her hand and used her remaining arm to shove an elbow across her neck to force her head back against the floor.