If our love was a story book, we would meet on the very first page. –Shayne Ward
Prologue
Despite the darkening skies and the looming clouds overhead, Rey, no more than nine years old, ran down the street before ducking into a darkened alleyway. She panted, chest heaving and gasping for air as she tried to regain her breath after running for several blocks. Anger coursed through her veins while she recalled the conversation that had sent her in a blind rage in the first place. The biting cold winds would normally cause her to shiver, but not on this night. At least, not whilst her blood boiled and her face flushed with anger.
Spying a loose can on the ground, she began kicking it down the alleyway, taking satisfaction in the distance and the loud clanging of the can bouncing off the cobblestone floor.
"Could you not do that?"
The girl jumped back, startled by a deep voice. She searched around for the owner of the voice and almost tripped over a pair of long, lanky legs in the process. Turning around, she had to squint in the dark to just make out the shape of a man, back propped up against the wall with his head tipped down.
Curiously, she stepped closer. "Wot'sit to ya."
The man grumbled. "It's not polite to cause a ruckus or disturb people at night. Didn't your parents teach you a thing called manners?"
The girl let out a sharp bark of laughter causing the man to cringe from the loud noise. She dropped into a low squat in front of the man, trying to catch his eye in the darkness. "Me mam an' pa are gone, mate. Dun ya know it's rude to lie on the floor an' block the pathway?"
"Kriff, do you not speak Basic?"
"I can, jus' choose not ta." The girl looked indignified at the snort the man let out. "I can but then that would be rather strange, wouldn't it?" Like a switch, her rough accent smoothed into another dialect, a posh one, but not of Corellia. If the man looked surprised, Rey wasn't able to see it from the shadows. "A street urchin who can speak Basic, much less the way I do? That's bound to turn a few heads so imma stick to ma 'peasant' accent, thanks," she said, lifting her fingers to make air quotation marks in the process.
"Who are you?" he whispered.
"'Am nobody, mate. 'Sides," the girl started, looking around the alley, noticing it was just them. "Wot ye doin' lyin' there for?"
"Look, for my sake, boy, could you just…speak normally for now?" Ignoring her mistaken gender, she cocked her head to the side and observed the man. The light rain from earlier made his long scraggly black locks clump with rainwater, hair hanging over his face as he held the bridge of his nose between his fingers in annoyance. Besides that, however, there weren't many features the girl could see in the darkness. As she lifted herself to full height, she noticed that he had an arm slung across his midriff, long fingers clutching his abdomen as if injured.
She wandered closer to the entrance of the alleyway and into the bright area of the main road. "If you're injured, you should get it looked at before it gets worse." The man remained silent.
Leaning on the edge of a sandstone wall, she looked out onto the abandoned streets. She had calmed down slightly and was starting to feel the bite of the chilly night. In her rush, she didn't bring a jacket and with the initial heat from running six blocks fading, her loose pants and oversized shirt were not appropriate for the cold winter night. Her lack of footwear didn't help either, dirt caking between the soles of her feet. She rubbed her arms, feeling her skin pimple as she tried to will the cold away. At the same time, her stomach grumbled from not having eaten since early in the morning.
Just as she started to entertain the idea of returning to the house where her 'family' was (the idea of calling them family made her sick to her stomach), she saw a bright light coming closer and closer. Shielding her eyes from the harsh light, she could just make out two figures – policemen, she guessed, patrolling the streets.
Being the only person in plain sight on the street, the policemen immediately moved towards her until they stood before her, shining their torches into her eyes. In spite of their abrasive actions, Rey squinted past the bright light and just made out the white uniforms that donned their bodies. The pair had matching jackets, white and crisp, neatly buttoned up with a white leather band firmly draped across their chest. Contrasting starkly with their white suit jackets and pants were the shiny black boots that went up to their knees. On their chest were three black circles, indicating their rank.
"Hey kid, what you doing out at this time?"
She lowered her head and pulled her squashed hat she had on further over her face. "Ya, sorry 'bout dat'. Jus' felt like goin' for a walk, ya know?"
The policemen looked at her suspiciously and continued. "There's been a murder nearby, some poor Lord stabbed to death. Have you seen anything while out on your...'walk'?"
"Nah, nuttin' out of da ordinary."
As she kept her head down and waited for the policemen to move along, she noticed how still the man behind her became. She stored that fact away for future use, knowing better than to help such high ranking officers.
"Come on, we still have a lot of ground to cover. No use wasting our time with some street scum," the officer said to his partner.
Gritting her teeth, she nodded and watched them walk down the footpath until they rounded the corner, disappearing from sight. It was rare for anyone to realise that she was actually a girl, what with how she dressed. In addition to her baggy clothes and the flat hat she squished all her hair into, the grease and dirt that smudged across her face hid her gender efficiently. If anyone ever saw how long her hair was, framing her face like an angel, Rey knew she would never be mistaken for a boy. At the tender age of nine, she was still small and could use her youth to her advantage. However, she dreaded the day when she could no longer hide in plain sight.
She waited a total of three seconds after the officers disappeared before snapping her head back towards the injured man, questions on the tip of her tongue. Before she could get any word out, she watched as the man tried to stagger to his feet, hands pressed against the wall for support.
"Hey!" Rushing to his side, she helped him stand properly until she was sure he wouldn't fall over. "You shouldn't move if you're hurt. It's dangerous to be here at all if you're hurt but-"
He cut her off before she could finish her chastisement. "Why didn't you report me?"
Now that she was close enough to him, she gazed up and saw his face for the first time, unobstructed by his hair. He wasn't very old, maybe nearly of age, if not already, and seemed like a handsome man. Even though a frown marred his face, his strong features indicated that he was most probably of noble upbringing – there was no way someone growing up on the streets would keep a face that handsome and not be kicked in by the street gangs of Corellia.
His listless eyes hiding behind his stringy hair bored into her, making her restless. She avoided his eyes, tilting her head to the side, knocking her hat off her head in the process. Immediately, she let go of the man and reached down to snatch it from the puddle it had fallen in, roughly shoving it back over her hair once more. She hoped that he didn't notice her three buns she hid from view, but she knew it was wishful thinking. When she turned to him again, she could see the moment of realisation dawning on the man, finally realising that she wasn't a scraggly boy, but a scraggly girl instead.
Holding his midsection, he scrutinized her. "Who are you?" he asked again.
She coughed, kicking the ground absentmindedly and dropping her voice to a low falsetto that was obviously not her own. "Like I said, I'm nobody. And I know better than to involve the Corellian Security Force. It's best to avoid them, if you can help it."
He nodded minutely and stumbled away from her. "You should forget what you saw here tonight."
She crossed her arms. "Same goes to you," she mumbled, not caring if he heard.
Looking down, she grimaced at the patches of blood that were stained on her oversized shirt from when she helped him to his feet. He paused and looked at her appearance, as if wanting to apologize for inconveniencing her but at the same time ask more about her. At her defensive stand, he quickly shut his mouth and stumbled down the alleyway with speed that was impressive of an injured man. She hummed to herself, perfectly happy with neither getting involved in the other's business.
Sighing deeply, she accepted that she had to return to her 'home'. There wasn't any clean water around for her to wash her shirt, but the pain of needing food was becoming unbearable. Kneeling by a puddle, she scooped some water and dumped it on her shirt, scrubbing it furiously, hoping the blood stains would fade to a light brown. She tried not to cringe at the heavy metallic smell of blood that she couldn't help but breath in. With dirt on her hands from the puddle, she rubbed her palms into her shirt, satisfied that it just looked like she fell on the ground, rather than help a probable murderer escape.
As she slowly made her way back to her make-shift home, she tried not to stumble on the uneven path. As she neared the district borders, she hoped to cleanly slip by whoever was on duty. Hunger pains had weakened her and injuring herself or getting caught due to clumsiness was the last thing she needed.
The heavy metal barricade that blocked her exit came into view but Rey breathed a sigh of relief seeing the young man stationed at the border. Relaxing her shoulders, she stepped from the shadows and neared the guard. "Finn."
The man, Finn, turned around at the sound of his name. "Rey? Kriff, what are you doing here at this time? It's not safe! I heard that there was a murder in this district so there's more guards on duty tonight."
Unlike the previous guards Rey ran into, Finn's uniform was not white, but a dark charcoal grey instead. Everything else was the same, golden lining with a similar band draped across his chest. "Plutt told me 'is plan fo' me," said Rey, slipping back into her street accent.
She didn't need to elaborate for Finn to know what Plutt said. "I'm sorry, Rey."
"Dun worry, I figure it out. I always do."
"That's good. I'm sorry again, Rey. For leaving," he elaborated. "I couldn't stay in that place."
Rey tensed her shoulders at the sound of his apology. "It's fine. I haven' seen ya 'round. Wot's wif ya? Wot's wif...this?" She gestured at the uniform.
"Well, I had to resort to what I knew to survive. I stole from an officer, which I know is risky, but he gave me a second chance. Helped me more than Plutt ever could."
"Wot? So yer one of them now?" The venom in her voice did not go amiss.
"You might not understand it now, Rey, but you will in the future. You can't stay there forever. The officer who helped me, he's on his way to becoming a detective. He's promised to mentor me and make me a detective too. Not all of them are bad, Rey."
"Na' all of us can 'ave the same faith in them as ye can, Finn. Na' all of us can be so lucky."
Finn sighed hearing the hostility return to her voice. "Get out of here, Rey. I wish the best for you, I really do."
Not needed to be told twice, Rey quickly slipped past him into her home district without a second glance at him.
As she moved through the abandoned streets, Rey passed a flickering lamppost. Her eyes were drawn to an alleyway that was illuminated from the nearby light. She saw an unmoving lump on the ground, positive that it was a child who had succumbed to the cold or starvation or even the heavy air pollution of the lowest district. This was a normal way of life for Rey – police officers becoming frantic at the possibility of a rich man being murdered but ignored the hundreds of people who died from living on the streets. Shaking her head, Rey willed herself to move on from those thoughts. Thinking about the gentry's discrimination never helped anyone.
However, her eyes softened at the very idea of what her life could have been. If her gang didn't find her when they did…if they didn't listen to her pleas and cries…Rey shivered at the possibility.
She was extremely fortunate and grateful for her gang. She held no memory of her parents, only being told that she was abandoned on the streets. Her current family - the local gang who had stumbled upon her pitiful self - thankfully found a use for her. That was years ago and she could barely remember that far, only the distant memory of pain and coldness from that night. Despite all this, Rey would be a lot more grateful if her leader hadn't just informed her of his plans for her, as if she had no choice in the matter. No, she would not bend to his request.
Then, flickering like the lamppost, an idea slowly came to her. Yes, instead of spending the rest of her life on her back like the rest of the of-age girls in her gang did, she would become someone more valuable.
Stopping in front of rickety two storey-house that was far more run down than the others on the block, she jumped up and braced her hands and feet on the slippery stone walls. Trying her best to swallow her grunts of exhaustion and stave off her hunger pains, she slung her foot over the nearby window ledge and slipped into the house with an ungraceful thump.
The house was brightly lit inside, so navigating her way to her leader was a breeze. Taking a deep breath, she set her shoulders back and held her head up high. Twisting the knob in her hand, she pushed the door open – her resolve to become something more than a whore firm in her mind.
Before she could set a foot into the dimly lit room, the deep voice of the crime boss and the leader of her gang stopped her in her tracks.
"Welcome back, Rey. Have you accepted your fate?"
She refused to let the man unnerve her. "Nah, bu' I 'ave an idea that could increase yer profits, if handled properly."
At the sight of the large man approaching her with a hint of curiosity and interest shining in his large eyes, Rey knew she had won. No one would dictate her future but her.