Just a quick disclaimer, I don't have that much knowledge of Star Wars, okay? So please don't hate on me saying I'm inaccurate or whatever because I just love the movies and have a basic knowledge.

The air was heavy with the heat of the looming summer. Even in the depths of night, sweat hung like wet clothes in the cramped room. I tossed fitfully from side to side, my clammy limbs brushed against the equally clammy limbs of my sister. Sweat coated both our bodies from head to toe. My mother and father too laid restless by our sides. The room was not fit for four, yet we managed to squeeze our heated bodies to fit on the floor.

I tried to breathe deeply, but the air was stale, suffocating. The manacles that bound my wrists and ankles chaffed painfully with the added lubrication of my perspiration. I stared at the ceiling in frustration. It was only mere hours before our owners roused us for a day of labour. I could already feel the heat of the two suns burn my back as I worked in the fields. I could already feel the crack of my lips and the roughness in my mouth from dehydration. I could already picture the slaves collapsing in the heat. I could already picture the ones who would be carted off, limp and lifeless, their corpses sold for meat.

I closed my eyes and willed with all my heart for the world to change. I willed with my every fibre that I could be free of this place. I willed it so strongly my eyes began to burn and my nails dug deep into my palms.

There was a crash from beyond our confinement. I sat up immediately. I turned my head from side to side, strained my ears to hear what the sound was. In my heart, hope dared to blossom. Had my prayers been answered?

There was another crashing noise, and a wail, and a scream of desperation and mourning filled the air. The hope in my heart cracked like fine porcelain.

"Lilicry," I shook my elder sister awake.

She pushed my frantic hands away with a grown, her eyelids screwed closed as another bang resounded outside our walls. I shook her harder, but she merely turned on her side, covering her ears.

"Lilicry! There's someone out there," I hissed, but she waved me away.

I heard another crash, closer, and stood. My palms clammed, but not from the heat now. A fear had settled in my stomach like a metal ball. I inched slowly towards our door. The only means of entrance and exit. It was locked tight at night to prevent escape, but would it prevent entrance from an enemy. I hovered by the door, unsure of what I had stood for. Was it to fight? Was it to run? All I knew was that I was standing, facing the door, waiting. The screams from fellow slaves echoed through our walls, and finally my father sat up, blinking away the sleep from his eyes.

"Bria, what are you doing?" he asked, his voice thick with sleep.

I lifted a hand to silence him. I could hear footsteps now, heavy and formidable. They stopped at our door, and through the thin wood I heard muttering men. The handle moved slowly, it jostled and fretted, but didn't budge. My father was whispering frantically at me, but I couldn't make out his words. Everything felt slow, heavy, as if I were wading through a bog. I couldn't force myself to move, because I knew whatever came next, it was something I willed into the world, and I alone had to take the brunt of it.

The door barely stood a chance against their blasters. It shattered like glass, debris flew through the air like salt and powdered our skin. My eyes burnt against the light that leaked from outside, and I struggled to make out the figures that marched towards me. One of them grabbed my forcefully by the waist, and trapped me against their chest. As my eyes adjusted, I saw the signature white armour of the Stormtroopers. I didn't struggle. I knew there was no use. My mother was wailing, I could see tears streaming down her weathered face. My father held her back, he too knew not to anger the First Order. My sister, however, had always been an emotional fool.

She leapt from her place on the floor, her wild auburn hair, much like my own, as electric as a stormy night sky. She lunged for me, a desperate action born from love. Her fingers grazed mine, but that was all she achieved before they shot her dead. The sight of her head hit the ground, her eyes frozen open in death, made me snap out of the dullness in my head. I screamed and thrashed violently against the trooper, my head contacting with his helmet. His grip tightened as he began to drag me from the room. My mother sobbed over my sisters body. My father watched on wordlessly.

"Lilicry!" I screamed, my heart broken into a million shards.

The stormtrooper who held me pressed something to my neck, and I felt a small sting, before there was darkness.

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