Fight or Flight [SAMPLE]

Chapter 2: Promises and Protection

Even as a flurry of motion began sounding around the block the next morning, Georgianna didn’t move from her place, curled in the corner of her bed. She couldn’t move. She was sure that the moment she appeared from her cell, it would be expected that she go to see Ta-Dao and Vajra. She wasn’t ready for that yet. She wasn’t ready to see Ta-Dao’s triumphant smile as he claimed his price for her protection.

Other inmates were moving around the block, some passing her cell. They each glanced in with expressions of varying degrees of pity and hatred as their gaze met hers. Most had heard the commotion and heard her crying out for Ta-Dao’s protection. They had probably jolted at the thud of Hallun’s body hitting the ground. They knew that, like Dhiren, their medic was now in the brothers’ grasp. She would act as ordered, even if that meant leaving someone to die in pain.

The women looked more sympathetic. They knew the fear in her voice as she’d screamed for help. Maybe they had been that woman screaming in the past. She didn’t know whether someone had come to help them the way Dhiren had rescued her, but she doubted it.

Slipping her hand beneath the wilted pillow, Georgianna ran her finger along the edge of a piece of folded paper, a note that Keiran had managed to pass into the compound. Her relationship with Belsa sergeant Keiran Zanetti had been complicated to say the least. They had both agreed that they didn’t want anything serious, and neither was ready for the Veniche tradition of joining, but the longer she had spent with him, the more she had realised just how much she liked him. The fact he’d helped organise the escape of two of her friends from their Adveni owner had only strengthened their connection. One of the things Georgianna felt worst about was that before she’d been caught during the escape, Keiran had already agreed to have a discussion about what their relationship meant to them.

No one had admitted to putting his note in her cell, and no free Veniche had stepped onto the block since her arrival. When Georgianna lay alone in her cell, wracked by nightmares of Maarqyn buying her as a drysta, or of spending the rest of her life in this hole, the note felt like her only comfort.

She pulled it free from its hiding place and unfolded it. The paper was crumpled, the writing faded. Repeated readings and keeping it close at all times was taking its toll.

I have too much time on my hands.

Be ready.

K.

It had been weeks since its arrival, left on her pillow while she helped Dhiren with an injury. Keiran had said that she should be ready and given the impression that he was working to get her out, but she’d not received any more information. In each quiet moment, she prayed that whatever he was planning would happen soon, but the longer she waited, the more she feared that something had already gone wrong. Had a note with instructions she was meant to follow not been delivered? Had Keiran been captured? Was he dead? If he’d been captured, was it because he had been found to be a member of the Veniche rebel group, the Belsa? That alone was a crime punishable by death. Or was it because he had tried to help her?

The walkway groaned outside her cell. Georgianna folded the note and shoved it back under her pillow. She still clung to it, waiting for the next look of pity or thinly veiled disgust.

“He’s not coming back.”

Dhiren stood in the doorway, rubbing his jaw thoughtfully. Georgianna twitched and grasped the note tighter.

“I know that.”

He nodded and stepped into the cell, taking a seat on the foot of her bed. Georgianna pushed herself up, pressing her back against the wall and bringing her knees up to her chest. She wound her arms around her legs, pressing the note against her shin.