Chapter 1

“Peace. Calm. Nobody will suspect anything.” I swore to myself as I tried to walk as unsuspiciously as possible. All I had to do was get to the spacecraft. Once I do that… once I do that I am safe. I could escape to the world in which my own caring is not a fatal flaw.

Eridia.

The name itself is pretty tacky. As if ‘Where Dreams take Flight’ is a good name for a planet. The only reason it is so popular despite its cringe-inducing name and it’s overly tacky title is because it is true. In Eridia, you trade pure freedom for safety.

I would never make that decision on my own, and he knows that. I love my freedom enough that I wouldn’t give it up. Which is specifically why it is the perfect place to hide in plain sight.

Without the fear of the end of the world. Of being roughed up by a gang. Of… of the people you should be able to love and trust most in the world…

No time to think of that. It happened to me, it was awful, but it ends tonight. If I wasted time bemoaning my past, all I will be doing is slamming the window to my future shut. I finally got to the area where he left my ship. My beautiful baby ship that I build myself, with my own two hands welded every part of it. Silly me, I even named it L-8. It was supposed to be a pun because everyone else was too late (get it? Late, L-8? It’s- oh forget it!) to stop me.

When I saw it, I gasped. It was tied up in such a way that I almost cried. It would almost be better if he sold it so it wouldn’t be harmed the way she so clearly was. She was a beautiful red and blue disk-shaped aircraft – I put so much time and work into forming her myself when I was twelve – that I used to fly across the cosmos with.

Sure it wasn’t fancy or beautiful as I didn't have a big budget when I was just a kid, I took whatever parts I could get. It was more beautiful than any other spaceship to me because it was an extension of me. But now… the rusted metal, the iron chains wrapped around its form. It made me gnash my teeth. I wanted nothing more than to rush back at him, to attack him. To make him feel every moment of pain I could possibly put him through, for hurting not only my body, not only my self-worth but the object that was symbolic of my very soul.

I almost actually turned around to go back to him. To demand his apology. L-8 was more than just a ship. She represented my hopes and dreams and my future. She represented who I was and who I wanted to be when I was oh-so-innocent.

This… this felt like what he did to me. Destroyed parts of me that he didn’t like. Tore down. Hurt me on purpose, yet also just let me be hurt by the things around me. Put a chain around it so it couldn’t escape. I would make him pay. I could make him-

As I glanced down at my arms I winced. Oh right. The problem – I recalled Looking at the barely healed gashes and the blotchy red bruises, tied back up by some gauze – was that I couldn’t make him do anything. Petty revenge wasn’t at all worth any of this possibly continuing.

I needed to leave as soon as possible, so I had to let go of my anger. Anger isn’t worth it. A moment of triumph isn’t worth it. I need to leave him, and never see him again. Only then could I be safe and happy and… I could make everything better for myself.

I used some old spray to de-rust it – thank god for things working for once – and burnt the chains off with a mini-flame thrower. My ship is fireproof – it had to be, to get through the thick atmosphere on some planets – so it didn’t burn.

Too bad that awful man is right sometimes. I am dumber than I think I am. This was a realization I made, as I touched the door to open my ship. Forgetting that it had just been ON FIRE I wasn’t ready for the way my skin sizzled. I can’t believe I had actually forgotten just how hot it was in my haste to enter the car. I stared at the charred flesh of my hands. Beautiful espresso skin charred. I would need a skin graft in order to heal the skin, and then more time to build up the callouses.

I choked back a scream – I can’t let anyone hear me here, they may warn Robert – as my eyes overflowed with tears. Why am I such a failure? Why do I ruin everything I try to do?

Knowing that I don’t have a chance to do much, and probably won’t have much or any freedom if I don’t get moving, I get into the car. The nerves are going haywire and I want to think only of the pain, but I knew, if I don’t escape now, I will never get the chance to do so.

I got in, throwing my knapsack full of money and a few days’ food into the back of the car. I couldn’t take anything. He could have tracking chips on any piece of my belongings. I don’t have time to scan any of my things, needing to leave immediately. I don’t know – and I definitely don’t care to know – which things he thinks are most important to me.

He knows the ship is. That’s why it was hidden in the shed and tied up. That’s also why I had to take a pit stop. I drove a few lightyears, finding a random planet. It didn’t matter what planet, just that it had a trading outpost with some people who could keep their mouths shut. It took several days to find the right place; the food I packed was all gone by the time I got there and my stomach was snarling for sustenance. “I’ll trade all my things for a new ship, three… four weeks’ food, and clothes.”

Thank the gods for the chip on my neck that allows me to speak any language fluently and understand it as my native tongue. I can’t afford to waste even a moment of my time. Every second wasted is a second closer he gets to me.

Speaking of the chip…. “I have one request. Scan my body for B-32 and T-165 trackers.” I told the pudgy toad-esque creature in front of me.

I didn’t much care for appearances. Hell, I probably wasn’t the prettiest thing around according to most species. He was ugly down to the bones, though. A pure sleaze ball in demeanor and a crooked smile that made me grind my teeth. I was leaving my perfect ship with this disgusting thing.

“Ahh,” The creature’s slime covered lips curled up in a smug expression I could barely describe as a smirk. “Turlish bounty hunter after ye’, eh?”

“They want to kill me because I betrayed them.” I immediately replied. The lie rolled off my tongue like turpentine. Was it a lie? At this point, not even I was totally sure. They do want to kill me. By leaving I did betray them. However, I’m not so sure about the cause and effect relationship between those two things.

He looked over my body after I stripped nude and lit my clothes on fire. I almost shivered in revulsion as he scanned me. “There is one embedded into your left breast.” He informed bored.

I scowled as I looked over at my own body. This was gonna hurt.

I grabbed a surgical scalpel after injecting a slight amount of numbing agent into my breast. He gave it to me on the house, but not nearly enough to make all the pain go away.

My own blood poured over the silver tattoo on my stomach, staining it with a disgusting crimson as I continued cutting the chip out of my breast. I was crying at the pain of my hands and my breast.