Autumn can't believe it's him. Of all the people in the world, of course, it has to be him.
"What are you doing here Autumn?" Peter repeats firmly.
Autumn breaks out of her trance and gently coughs up, "I'm here to report to prison."
She catches his shocked expression as he exits the room without saying a word and she is left in a panic. How did she match with this man on Tinder? How did she sleep with a prison guard on the day before she reports for her incarceration? She keeps trying to wake up thinking this is some cruel joke her subconscious is playing on her.
Peter comes back thirty seconds later, composed, with a clipboard in hand, and a tall female officer accompanying him.
The red-headed woman, not much older than Autumn, asks frostily, "Are you Ms. Autumn Williams?"
She gently chokes up a 'yes' as she fights back her tears.
"Ms. Williams. My name is Officer Blankenship and this is Officer Lee. You are here to start a minimum of a six-month sentence at the State Correctional Facility for Women. From here on, you will be referred to only as your inmate number, 931005. Do you understand?"
Autumn nods feeling a few tears welling up in her eyes.
"You will respond to all questions with, 'Yes ma'am or yes sir, no ma'am or no sir, or I don't know ma'am, or I don't know sir.' Do you understand #931005?"
Autumn manages to squeak out a 'Yes ma'am'. She can't make eye contact with this guard as she feels herself descend further into being #931005 with teardrops trailing down the side of her face.
"Looking at your file here, you're some rich girl who thought she was above the law. Some brainless party girl. I can see just looking at you inmate #931005 that you think this is some nightclub. Who reports to prison in a black cocktail dress?"
The harshness of Officer Blankenship's voice, the coldness of her emerald green eyes, and the cruelty of her words mix together as the intake procedure begins.
Officer Blankenship motions for Peter to cuff Autumn. He pulls out a pair of handcuffs from his belt and secures the cold metal on her slender wrists behind her back. She feels that they could be tighter, and she clings onto the hope that Peter offered her this small respite out of a still-existent attraction.
The guards led her down a hallway with Peter's hands tightly clutching her arm. She wishes she could just rest her head on his back, but right now she is being led to a non-descript intake room to be transformed into #931005.
Peter takes off her handcuffs and Officer Blankenship starts barking instructions. Autumn's fingerprints are smudged in ink as she rolls them on a paper to identify her for the future. She is then taken by the arm and told to stand in front of a mugshot board. She backs-up against the wall as the camera flashes capturing a single tear and her look of shame to be memorialized forever. After her sentencing, Autumn obsessively checked the state's inmate database to quell her anxiety of going to prison. She wishes she didn't know how much information any of her friends, former co-workers, anyone who she has ever met, and any stranger from around the world could see. She dreads the thought that they will not only see her mugshot, but also her weight, which cellblock she lives in, and whether she has behaved in prison and accumulated any demerits.
The constant barking of the female officer in a belittling tone makes her feel less like Autumn Williams and more like #931005, inmate at the State Correctional Facility for Women.
She looks at Peter, who is standing next to Officer Blankenship, with pleading eyes. He understood everything that was unsaid just a few hours ago and yet he looks at her now stoically, perhaps tinged with a bit of disdain. She wants to beg, she wants to explain but she is left with nothing.
Just as she feels the tears come back, a loud buzz fills the room.
"Officer Blankenship. You are needed for a Code Yellow in Cellblock C. Officer Blankenship. You are needed for a Code Yellow in Cellblock C."
The officer looks at her partner and sighs.
"I can't believe the bitches in that cellblock are fighting again. Lee, finish this inmate's intake."
Peter looks a bit exasperated but quickly manages to hide his surprise. He nods and as Office Blankenship leaves to Cellblock C, he handcuffs Autumn behind her back and leads her into an examination room. She is released from the metal cuffs, told to strip off her clothes, relinquish her bag, and stand at attention for her strip search.