I’m posting this because I can’t stop thinking about this woman and I feel like sharing this might help me get some closure.
Back when I was about 24 in 2007, I was arrested after I was caught with weed while it was illegal in my state.
I was sent to a women’s prison somewhere in New York. You’d think the scariest thing I would have experienced was being around violent criminals of all walks of life or some crooked officers.
No. The scariest thing I ever had to deal with in that prison was who I swear was probably not human.
It all started one day when I was chatting with my cellmate named Roxanne. Roxanne was arrested for involuntary manslaughter after her ex-boyfriend broke into her house.
A new prisoner was brought into the cell across from ours.
The woman didn’t look like she belonged here. She was a petite, adorable looking woman with short, fluffy strawberry blonde hair and green eyes. She had a happy looking smile on her face, like she was happy to be arrested.
Me and Roxanne looked at each other in confusion.
“I wonder what she got in here for?” I asked.
“I don’t know. She doesn’t look like a criminal. Looks like a kindergarten teacher.”
Roxanne looked at the lady. “Yo! Whatcha in for?!”
The woman tilted her head, still smiling. “I’d rather not say.”
The way the woman talked matched her expression. Excited but soft and airy.
Roxanne looked a bit confused. She turned to me.
“Damn, I wonder what she did that she wants to keep secret.” Roxanne said, scratching the back of her head.
Roxanne faced the woman again. “You got a name?”
“Judith.” Replied the woman, still smiling.
I could see Roxanne become mildly unsettled by Judith’s unusually chipper attitude.
“Uh, cool!” Roxanne had an uncomfortable smile on her face.
Roxanne started whispering to me. “Not gonna lie Carrie, this bitch creeps me out.”
“Yeah,” I whispered back. “No one should be this happy to be arrested.”
The next morning, Roxanne and I woke up to hear a fellow inmate whimpering to the guard.
It was Judith’s cellmate, she looked scared out of her mind like she had been tortured.
“Please get me out of here! Put me in solitary confinement! I don’t care! Anywhere but with her!” The inmate groveled.
The guard gave her a sympathetic shoulder rub and let her out.
The guard walked into the cell to talk to Judith.
Me and Roxanne watched in anticipation to see what would happen.
After a few minutes, the guard began screaming in pain. She ran out, holding her hand up to her eye. It was bleeding like crazy.
Judith peeked out and showed us the eyeball of the guard like she was proud of what she did. Once again, she still had that happy go lucky smile on her face.
Me and Roxanne almost couldn’t believe what we were seeing. We weren’t even sure if Judith was capable of doing something like that. The guard was a 6 foot tall woman bulging with muscle and Judith looked like you could snap her over your knee.
Me and Roxanne turned away to talk.
“Holy shit! D-did she do that!?” I exclaim in shock.
“Yeah! How can a ten pound little lady like her do that?” Roxanne added.
All the while, we would occasionally see Judith peeking at us with that same smile that now took on a more sinister undertone.
She was put in the hole for a week and charged with assault. But, we all know now that wouldn’t work.
One day at lunch, me and Roxanne ate and chatted.
I felt a sense of dread when I saw Judith walk to our table with a tray of food, still smiling that damn smile.
As she walked, she accidentally bumped into a taller inmate, knocking her food away.
“Watch it, bitch!” The inmate snarled.
Judith was barely fazed. “I’m sorry.”
This made her mad. The inmate grabbed Judith by her collar.
“You think you’re better than me, smiley! How about I wipe that shit off your face-“
Judith grabbed a fork off of a nearby table. Without hesitation, she stabbed the inmate in her jugular. The inmate grabbed the area as it spurted blood like a fountain.
A few guards came to take the inmate to the infirmary.
Judith looked towards us, her smile appearing wider.
Me and Roxanne took our trays and moved to a different table.
It only took a month for the entire prison to fear Judith. She went through every cellmate like toilet paper and no one dared cross her.
Even the guards were petrified of her and would approach her cell like she was a dangerous animal.
They would wear protective gear when they needed to go in her cell to do routine checks to make sure she wasn’t sneaking in contraband.
She was in the hole more times than I can count on both hands and feet, but that never deterred her.
Judith always looked at me and Roxanne like she was a grizzly bear and we were two vulnerable rabbits. Strangely enough, we were always spared from her wrath. We weren’t sure if she liked us or she was waiting for any reason to horribly maim us.
We were out in the yard one day.
Roxanne and I were playing basketball like we usually did. When we stopped to take a break, I saw Judith sitting on a bench looking out in the yard with that same fucking smile on her face.
I shivered at the sight of her just sitting and smiling, like she was waiting to pounce on whoever her new prey.
And then a new inmate came into the yard. A girl who we knew was also caught with drugs. Much like Judith, she was tiny; but unlike her, she was meek and scared of her own shadow.
I hoped to god that Judith wouldn’t go for her. She would die if that bitch got her hands on her.
Then I saw Judith beckon the inmate towards her like a siren. I felt my insides twist like snakes as I saw that poor girl walk towards her. I couldn’t just sit there and I ran towards her. I grabbed her wrist and drug her away.
I told her all about Judith and to stay away from her at all costs. The inmate looked at me in disbelief until Roxanne verified my accounts. The inmate nodded and walked off to work out.
I looked back at Judith and felt my blood run cold.
For the first time, Judith stopped smiling. Instead, she had a look of pure, hot, unadulterated rage on her face for getting in the way between her and her prey.
I swallowed. I have never felt that scared in my life. And I have seen some scary shit.
I turned to Roxanne and she looked like she was going to piss herself. “We’re fucked, Carrie. We’re gonna die.”
Later that night, neither me or Roxanne could sleep. We would just hold each other and wait in anticipation for Judith to come in and either kill us or horribly injure us.
I looked around to see if Judith was there or listening. I saw Judith asleep in her cell, on her side away from us.
“Roxy, we gotta get out of here.” I whispered.
“You crazy?!” Roxanne whispered back.
“I know but I’d rather be on the lam than spend another night with that smiley bitch running around!”
Roxanne gave it some thought. Then she gave an approving nod.
We both talked quietly, occasionally checking to see if anyone was listening. Once we had a plan, we were ready.
I stood guard while Roxanne looked through the mattress. She pulled out a hairpin and picked the lock with it.
We both snuck around, avoiding guards and cameras. After hours of painstakingly dodging security, we found the exit.
“We made it.” I sighed, “Now let’s get out of here.”
Roxanne gave a nod.
I reached for the door.
And then I heard Roxanne scream. I turned sharply and saw Roxanne with blood coming from the right side of her head and trying to stop the flow. I felt my heart drop as I saw Judith drenched in blood, hands behind her back, and with Roxanne’s ear in her mouth. Her smile was so wide I could see her gums.
“You thought you were safe? I heard your plan and followed you. Shame I had to take out everyone who got in my way. At least I got what I wanted.” Judith said, her tone still as chipper and light as ever, like this was all normal to her.
Judith pulled out the head of that tiny inmate from behind her back. She tossed it at my feet. I could tell by the way her neck was separated from her body, the inmate’s head was ripped off like an ingrown hair and not cut off.
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU!?!” I shrieked, asking a question I always wanted answered.
Judith snickered. It wasn’t an evil laugh, but a normal sounding laugh. Like this was all one big joke to her. “You ask too many questions.”
Roxanne pulled out the hairpin and jabbed Judith’s thigh as hard as she could. Judith yelped and grabbed her now bleeding leg. While she was occupied, we both made a run for it back in the prison for either another exit or an officer.
As we ran, we saw a trail of carnage. Prisoners, guards, staff, all of them horribly mutilated in various gruesome ways with body parts ripped off or disemboweled. How Judith could manage all of that alone was beyond me.
An officer with blonde hair, who turned the corner, saw us and made a hand signal for us to stop.
Roxanne and I stopped.
“What the hell happened!? It’s a bloodbath!”
“Judith did it.” Me and Roxanne said in unison.
The officer’s eyes widened. “I knew she was crazy, but I didn’t know she could do all of this.”
The officer saw Roxanne bleeding. She took us to the infirmary and had her patched up.
“I don’t think she’s human. If she is, there is something wrong.” I mumbled, nervously swirling my cup of water.
The officer nodded as she handed Roxanne a bottle of soda.
As we sat around, we jumped as we heard banging on the door. The officer took out her gun and aimed it at the door. I stood near Roxanne and held her hand. The door flew off its hinges and Judith stood there, still smiling and the blood now dried, making her look like a corpse.
“Put your hands behind your head! I will shoot you!” The officer commanded.
Judith stood still, seemingly compliant. The officer lowered her gun and was about to pull out her handcuffs.
Then Judith lunged towards her and sliced her arm open with her nails. She turned her sights on me and jumped on me. She grabbed my leg and pulled my calf clean off like a chicken leg.
I shrieked in pain like a banshee. I knew I wasn’t going to survive. I closed my eyes, bracing myself for death.
Then I heard a gunshot and Judith gasping. I opened my eyes to see Judith with her eyes wide with pain. Then two more gunshots, Judith jolting with each one. She fell on her side and went limp.
The officer was panting with her gun out. She put it back in her holster and fell to her knees in exhaustion.
I blacked out for several days, fading in and out of consciousness. I woke up to Roxanne, the officer, and a doctor with a clipboard.
“Good, you’re awake, Ms King.”
I was a bit out of it because I had just woken up from a coma. “Wha?”
“Luckily we were able to get you here in time. Any longer or you would have died. But we sadly couldn’t reattach your leg.”
I sighed. I looked at the officer. “Is she dead?”
The officer nodded.
I have never felt happy to hear that someone died before. Thank god I never have to deal with Judith again.
I was discharged and me and Roxanne were released once our sentences were up.
We later got married and started an organization for youth in the prison pipeline.
Even though she’s dead, I still have night terrors of Judith. Sometimes I fear she is still out there somewhere.
I have heard a rumor that after her autopsy, her body vanished from the mourge.
And then later rumors of people in the area that they sometimes hear giggling and smell blood.