Gilded in Gold Ch. 01

There was a stone bench that offered a magnificent view of the barren fields beyond the city limit. She folded herself on the dirty bench, and began sketching random shapes. Whenever she drew something, she did not have it preplanned in mind. She just watched the pathway of the pencil strokes, and used the little bits of powered lead that came off the pencil to shade in whatever she drew.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Are you okay?"

Gianna barely heard the whispered words of the girl she knew as Zena. She had been here the longest, and Gianna saw that she tended to mother the girls when they were alone.

"Nothing that bastard can do to me can break me." She hated the croak in her voice. Her throat was dry and her lips were split; her mouth tasted like shit and she didn't want to think about why. Thankfully, Zena seemed attuned to her needs; she brought her a glass of water which Gianna gulped down in one swallow.

"I told you not to talk to the Cross girl, Alexxa. Now will you listen?" Zena helped the newest girl sit up in her bed. After the night had ended, which was at five for them, Alexxa had been delivered to their rooms half unconscious and bleeding. A medic had been called and he had used a laser scanner to fix any internal injuries then patch her outer wounds. The only thing Zena was worried about was the mental scars that this girl would have. Unlike her and many of the other girls, Alexxa was here under a slave contract. Slave contracts had been sparse for the past fifty years but here in the ghettos, it was still thriving. But this girl was something special. The aura of power she gave off was unmistakably of those Psychs in the Sky Lands and her mental barriers were the strongest that Zena had ever come up against.

"Yeah, don't mention that bitch to me. She was the fucking cause. That bastard actually did this for her!" Alexxa ranted, her voice rising with her anger. "She fucking laughed!"

With a Gallic shrug that said, "What can you do?" Zena stood and headed to her own bed.

"Just do what you're told and you'll survive here. Do your time, and then get released."

Gianna's harsh laughter made Zena turn around to look at the girl. She was a beautiful girl, with dark hair down to her waist and eerie silver eyes with shifting shades. Heavily lashed eyes with full lips that needed no lipstick, she could have been one of those models on the Holovid e Motion Casts. The girl was just shy of six feet and she was no lightweight with those intriguing curves. Zena preferred women over men and never had she felt this pull of desire that she had for this incredibly brash and beautiful girl.

"I'm never getting released."

Zena nodded and got into her bed. She had learned in her business never to get too involved and the way to do that was no never delve into each other's pasts. She was already having uncomfortable feelings for this girl and she needed more. It was best that he distance herself from this girl.

Alexxa looked up at the ceiling, trying not to play the "what if" game. What if she had never sneaked into that club? What if she had never left her boyfriend to go dancing with a handsome, blonde man? What if she hadn't decided to take a ride on the wild side for once in her life and taken those shots? What if, what if, what if.... There was no use. Here she was a level 5 Psych under a slave contract to a lowly Red Lander. She once again tried to reach out to her brother, but her mental capabilities were half best at this point. Daniel made sure to keep her pumped with the drugs so to inhibit her powers. If she had been of a lesser mind, she would have been reduced to that of a stupid human. As it was, her powers were merely blurred, like a person's sight was under water. Sluggish, slow, but it still worked. She felt a faint touch, a whisper of her name and she smiled. He was coming for her. He would make them pay for what they had done to her; especially Daniel and his bitch of a sister.