She wasn't going to forget a single detail. Alice didn't sleep much that night. She kept touching the back of her neck where her hair used to hang down past her shoulders. Now there was nothing there but short uneven stubble. Every time her fingers found the empty space, her stomach twisted again.
By morning she had made her decision. She was going to file a complaint. A real one on paper with her name attached. No backing down. She got dressed for her shift and drove to the precinct, running through the words in her head.
Sergeant Corbin restrained me. Officer Miller held me down. Officer Gordon filmed it. Simple, clear, true. She walked into the building and headed toward the locker room, ready to change before roll call.
That's when she noticed the stairs. A pair of officers by the coffee machine went quiet the second she walked past. One of them smirked, nudged the other, and looked away fast when she caught his eye. Down the hallway, two more officers glanced at her, then at each other, then broke into laughter. They didn't even try to hide.
Alice's chest tightened. Something was wrong. This wasn't just about her hair. People were looking at her like they already knew something, like they'd already seen a punchline she hadn't heard yet. She found Officer Dove Whitlock by the lockers, pulling on her vest.
Dove was quiet, a few years older than Alice, someone who mostly kept to herself. But when she saw Alice, her face changed. Her eyes went soft with something that looked like pity. "You haven't seen it yet," Dove said quietly. "It wasn't a question. " "Seen what? " Alice asked.
Dove hesitated, glancing over her shoulder to make sure no one else was close. Then she pulled out her phone and turned the screen toward Alice. It was Gordon's video, the whole thing. Corbin grabbing her hair, Miller holding her arms, the scissors, her own face, frozen and silent, refusing to give them anything. The video had a caption underneath it posted in the precinct's group chat late last night.
Welcome to the family, Vincent. Alice stared at the little red numbers under the video. 47 views. Then she watched the number tick up to 48 while she stood there. It's been in the group chat since last night.
Dove said almost everybody's seen it. I'm sorry. I should have said something the second I saw it come through. Alice felt her face go hot, then cold. 48 people had watched three grown men hold her down and cut her hair off.