Her clothes seemed not to fit her anymore. It felt like an itch that got worse every time she scratched it, or a vest a size too short that just didn't reach her waist. Something was off, something very annoying and it only got worse.

Sand under her nails made her feel unhygienic to touch her bruised eye, even more so with her cut lip. She couldn't help herself from touching the wound inside her swollen mouth with a dry tongue.
Dust. It was everywhere. It clogged her sinusses and irritated her eyes. It was in the very air she breathed, so she made sure to breathe slowly, almost sensually. She found herself waiting, jumping at the smallest sounds, but was unmoved by the loudest screams.

She adjusted her position on the rug and curled her feet towards herself. They were watching her. She knew it. She could feel it and she pretended not to be affected by it.
She was tough.
Her hand dug in the dust, feeling its way towards the mug of filthy water she had refused to put to her lips a few microts ago.
She'd thrown it against the walls, but every time the guards returned to refill it. That and they kept checking her bucket.

Yeah, she was waiting. She knew that now.
She remembered breaking Nerri out of prison countless times on many different planets and colonies, returning the trickster's smile with the gleeful promise of an exciting getaway. They knew the routine by now.
Air ducts, search lights, guard dogs, alarm sounds and a lot of corridors, before they'd skip and jump on to the nearest leaving spaceship as victorious stowaways.
They were never tired when they were running, only stopping to lick their wounds clean when they were safe and together. She missed him.
The hug that meant everything was going to be okay.
She'd never known anything but the smile. She'd always wondered how he looked before she found him. She would never know now. Especially not now.

She spilled the water, guzzling it down too fast it ran down her neck and leather vest, but it was for the best; if she'd had one more drop of that disgusting liquid she would've vomited half the meal she ate that morning all over the floor. She didn't see where she threw the cup this time, but she could still see the numbers. Those frelling numbers.

Rygel said he'd fix it. He'd get her out. He said he frelling would.

They had their little fun. They had their little torture. Now it was time for Chiana to get what she wanted. Sadly, the guard was smart enough to stay clear enough away. She yelled and screamed, waving her arms around in search of something to hit and kick. In the end she gave up.

The cold didn't go away completely, but that all changed when the adrenaline started to kick in once again.
A voice started yelling. Something had happened. Chiana sat completely still.
She started to think she was the only prisoner down here in the casino dungeons. At least the only one that mattered.
She remembered the lively promenades up there in the night. Then there was a flash and now there's nothing. Frelling nothing.

"What happened to the lights?" a man shouted audibly now and Chiana instinctively looked up. Something was definitely going on. The lights were out and she never even noticed it.
Could she dare speak up? In her state she couldn't risk drawing the attention of any unscrupulous person. She had to pretend she could still see. Yeah. That would work.
Just stand up straight and pretend to see. She couldn't believe she was actually trying it.
When she heard footsteps pass her cell she jumped to the bars.

"What's going on?" she asked, trying her best guess to where the person might be standing and focusing her eyes there. "What's happening? If anyone even thinks of touching me..."
She didn't allow herself to finish her sentence.
The footfalls stopped a mere step away and she could hear the sound of sand beneath the man's shoes grinding as he turned to face her. She was waiting for him to stop hesitating, but deep down she didn't want him to.
The man's breath lingered and she knew he saw her.

"You're blind." he said and Chiana instinctively looked away. She didn't know why. She shouldn't feel ashamed.
He was still watching. He smelled like spilled oil and flesh. More blood.
She raised an angered lip and swung her hair back with a cocking of her head, trying to hear more than just the seemingly yearning perverted sighs. She wanted to curse, kick the bars with an eager 'Frell you!' but she didn't.
She felt herself grow tinier as she pressed her skull against the bars. Then the words came.
"Can you get me out of here?" she asked, breaking the silence. His breathing stopped.
She waited for an answer, but he was already gone.

The silence felt weirder now. Did she really resort to begging for her life, her eyes, to a total stranger? When was the last time she begged?
"Never again...never again..." she muttered to herself. Too tired.
She fell to her knees on the rug in the middle of her cell without chairs, clutching the spot on her body which once held her brother's Life Disk. It was gone now.

Then there were alarms. There were guard dogs. There were search lights. She could hear them when she put her ear to the ground. Her tears mixed with the sand on the floor as her open eyes gazed into nothing. She didn't care anymore. All she wanted now was sleep.
Two reeking men, like clouds of chakun oil, finally passed her cell looking for the stranger who Chiana by now had realized wasn't one of the guards. Their guns were smoking.
"Girl," the first one asked her. "Did you see someone pass here just now?"
The second guard told him she couldn't have.
"That girl's blind." he said. "She didn't see anything."

He might as well have just spat on her to cap it off.