Darkness was all around except for a single bright spotlight high above. The small room smelled of blood and sweat, it pervaded every pore of his being. Again and again, this place has seen such horrors.
“PLEASE STOP! PLEASE! I WILL SUBMIT!”
The man was in agony and the slaver loved it. He loved it so much, his soul was burning with passion. He wanted this man, he wanted him so very bad. “Such desire,” though the slaver, “I must punish this man for making me want him.”
Whoosh, crack, SMACK, “AAAHHHH!”, whoosh, crack, SMACK, “PLEASE!!”, it was a horrible rhythm repeated again and again and again…
“YOU BASTARD! YOU MAKE ME WANT YOU! FEEL THE STING OF SIN!” the slaver yelled at his poor victim.
“PPPPLLLLEEEEAAAASSSSEEEE!”
***
Karled woke with his own hands choking his throat. He was covered in sweat and gasping for air.” Damn, another nightmare,” his thoughts cursed him, “did I wake them?”
He realized that he was choking himself to keep quite and quickly removed his hands. His gasps for air subsided, he was able to compose himself and looked around quickly, watching the slow rise and fall of the two others who were with him under the blankets.
The bed was a simple shelf in the cargo hold and yet it was a luxury to be cherished. It wasn’t on the floor, among the filth and rats. It wasn’t a dark hole, stinking of sweat and death in the bowels of some station deep in CVA space. A simple shelf with a blanket may not sound like much, but what lay beside him in this bed was the greatest thing he could have hoped for. His family, alive and reunited after many years.
These past few weeks had been the most eventful of Karled’s life. He had found his wife when a station in Z-R had been liberated by -A- and their allies. It was a miracle that he had prayed for and his prayers had been answered.
Miracles it would seem, would become something more present in his life. That drunken pilot, Xious, was a miracle, or mainly the story he told over many rounds at the liberation party in Unity Station. The story of how one of the Warriors of the Ushra’Khan, an “improbable Ammarian” as it was put, had taken in a small child slave that was recently freed. This Ammarian and his half sister were looking after her. Another miracle in finding this Ammarian, the miracle of his assistance in rejoining with his beloved Taren and the speed in which they were brought to D-GTMI station, where the greatest miracle of his life was before him. Breanne was alive and for the most part, unharmed.
Yes, the shelf was not a real bed, but being together with family again was the one thing that melted all these past years away.
“Finally,” Karled thought to himself, “we are a family again. What do we do now?”
Breanne began to stir, her eyes slowly opened, small slits slowly crept apart, revealing very sleepy eyes. She was all tucked in under the blanket with sleepy warmth radiating from underneath. She yawned as she began to speak, “AArree we there yet?”
“Not yet but we should be docking soon,” he continued, “want to come with me and get mommy breakfast?”
Breanne yawned again and tried to sit up, but the blanket had other ideas and continued it valiant struggle to pull her back into a deep sleep. The blanket won this round and she drifted back into serene slumber.
Karled smiled and silently extracted himself from the the warmth of the bed. He had to bit his lip and his foot touched the deck, it was keeping true to a morning’s chill. He could not sleep anymore, his dreams were simply too horrific. “When will this be over?”
Karled’s stomach decided to change the topic of this mental conversation and remind him of it’s emptiness. “Okay, okay, breakfast first then,” he muttered to himself.
***
Leainati was working in small galley of the ship. Small was a kind work. These Vagabond heavy assault cruisers were built for battle, not as a tourist cruise ship. She had barely enough room to prepare food before the heat was too much. As she left the tiny room, she say down on an old crate that her brother, Ga’len, had left secured to the floor. She didn’t wonder why this crate was here, just outside the entrance anymore. Sure, it was blocking the hallway, but you needed someplace to take a rest. Many things her brother did seemed to not make any sense, not until as he put it, “time and knowledge finally decide to sit down and have a little chat.”
Karled could be heard coming down the corridor, “Ahh, so you are finally awake. I trust the little one is sleeping well?” Leainati spoke cheerfully.
“Yes, she’s sleeping well, ” Karled spoke while rubbing the back of his neck. His face was still wearing lines of a restless night.
“Still having the nightmares are we?” Leainati asked as she handed him a plate of food.
Karled took the plate of food, “Thank you. Yeah, it’s funny, ” he continued, “I thought that things would go back to the way they were once I found Breanne and Taren. I thought we would have our lives back. I guess I didn’t ever think it would really happen. Now that it has, I just, I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.”
Leainati placed a hand on Karled’s shoulder, “It took me a while to become comfortable with not looking over my shoulder every five minutes. I must admit, I still struggle with the nightmares, the memories of the torture at the hands of some Amarrian pig.”
“Does it ever end? Do the memories stop haunting you?” Karled asked with hope in his eyes.
“No, ” Leainati said, looking down at the floor, “the memories will never go away, you just get used to them being there,” She looked up at Karled’s face, “The important thing is to let them be memories and nothing more. Don’t let them control your thoughts and actions. Not all Amarrians are bad people and not all Minmatar are victims of the slavers.”
Karled took a bite of food and tried to smile as he chewed, “I know, I know. Your ‘half-brother’ Ga’len, he’s not like any Amarrian I have ever met. I hope people are as kind as the two of you have been.”
Leainati smiled and chuckled, “You had better stop flirting with me. I’ll have to kick your butt.”
SMACK!
Karled’s eyes were wide open. Behind was his daughter, Breanne. She was grinning from ear to ear as she pulled her hand back to smack her father on the butt again.
“DAD! Why are you flirting with Aunt Leainaaaatiiii?” Her voice struggling past another yawn.
“Yeah dad, want to explain why you are flirting with this….woman?” Taren asked, winking at Leainati.
“Uh, uhm…I was…,” Karled’s mouth opened and closed but he simply could not form words. Taren moved forward and hugged her husband.
“You are so easy to torment sometimes,” Taren chuckled as she spoke, “Come on, let’s leave Leainati alone and get packed. Ga’len signaled me on my data pad, we will be docking soon.”
Continued…
More of The Bleeding Rose
Tags:
Breanne,
D-GTMI,
Ga'len,
HellFleet Alliance,
Hellhounds,
Karled,
Leainati,
Taren,
Unity Station,
Ushra'khan
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