Carolyn Elsner
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the cowboy bebop crew that privilege goes
to the animator.
Faye stood, her lithe body pressed against the bars of the cell. One hand
clutched tightly around the smooth, cold steel bar that held her from her
freedom, the other holding a cigarette, smoke flowing out into the dark
room. She was old now, no younger the youthful vixen of 21, now she was 40
and had been in jail nearly for fourteen years. She was still as lovely as
ever, her short black hair had grown long and was now tied back in a sloppy
bun, with random streaks of silver adorning it like a sad crown. She was
not wrinkled at all due to the beauty products, the few that she had. She
had been in the cell long enough to know that if you did favors for the
right people; you could get almost anything you wanted.
She heard the clanking of the heavy metal doors opening and closing and the clinking of a prisoner in shackles being led to her cell. Faye had assumed things had gotten better since the 21rst century, but she was wrong, the prisons, even on mars were still big steel contraptions, although they had been modified slightly. She didn't notice anything until the two guards and the girl stopped in front of her cell. The guards opened the door and roughly thrust her it. Faye's eyes shifted back to staring out and thinking, which she did now a day.
The girl stood timidly, the woolen sheets, which she was given for the cot, clutched to her chest. Faye finally pulled back after a while and looked the girl over. The girl was rather big, not fat, but had a lot of muscles. The girl had long muddy brown hair with a mixture of black and blonde in it. She had equally dark eyes, which seemed almost black.
Faye took a slow drag from the cigarette, examining the girl again before coughing and asking her "What's your name?" The girl looked terrified like Faye was going to kill her at any second. Faye shook her head and sat down on her cot, opposite the one of the other girl's. She put out the cigarette and looked at the girl, sighing "Listen kid I'm not gonna hurt you..." Faye motioned for the little one to sit down and so the girl did. In an assertive voice the girl stated her name "Neeha.my name is Neeha Kuriko.." Faye looked up and nodded "I'm Faye Valentine." Faye stated simply.
The girl lay back as there was a faint cry of "lights off!" and the lights were shut off. "So what are you in for?" Faye asked Neeha, staring at the ceiling. Neeha was hesitant to answer. Finally a small mumble came from her mouth "Murder" or at least Faye thought it was that. Faye smiled to herself in the dark "But you don't seem like one to commit murder.Tell me everything." Neeha was quiet for a little, then began her story.
On asteroid beta, things had declined, cities were ruined and everyone was poor. My family was gone and I had to fend for myself, so I started selling myself for a living. It had been pretty good pay, foreigners would come to our asteroid just for the girls (and some for the guys), but then people decided to rebuild it, for some reason or another. Rich people moved in, and most of my friends were forced out of their jobs.if you could even call them that in the first place. I was one of the lucky few that could keep selling myself and not starve on the street.
"One day, while I was there on the street, a bunch of drunks came out of the tavern.at first they bothered no one, but then they came over and started harassing me.. pushing me down and calling me names. I was bleeding all over, everything hurt. Suddenly an angel of a man came down and scared them away.."
Faye could picture it in her mind as Neeha told the story.
Blackness, she could see nothing. Neeha slowly opened her eyes, everything was blurry at first, then shapes came into view, then colours and finally she could see everything. She sat up immediately; she was in a lavish home on a couch, covered by a warm blanket. The blanket was a deep crimson as was the carpet and the couch. She looked around wildly, how had she gotten there, and why was she there? The last thing she remembered were the dirty men in the street, hassling her. She remembered being beaten. She touched her forehead and winced, there was a bandage wound around it, but it still hurt.
Her eyes shifted when she heard footsteps coming down the hall, out from the hall emerged a boy. Neeha's eyes widened as she saw him and her jaw dropped nearly to the floor. He had obviously just gotten out of the shower because he had a towel wrapped loosely around his slim waist and he was drying his hair off with a towel. He had a lean, yet slightly muscular figure with a long torso and creamy skin. His hair was a long, beautiful black, which reached his waist, and hung wetly in his eyes, which were dark brown and half lidded giving him a sexy look. She could feel a blush spreading across her face as she studied him, suddenly noticing she had been changed into new clothes.
He looked up suddenly, realizing she was awake. He tossed the towel, which he was drying his hair with aside. "oh you're awake..." He stated bluntly, he smiled a brief smile, "I was worried that you wouldn't wake up." He stared at her realizing she was blushing, he stayed calm and cool as usual "Don't worry, I didn't change you, my maid got some of her clothes, bathed you and changed you. You should be fine. What's your name?" He asked. She gulped and stared at him "I'm.Neeha." She said faintly. What was this she was feeling, no one had ever done something like this for her. No one had ever been so kind. The man nodded and smiled "I'm Gold, pleased to meet you. I guess you are staying here for a while until you are all healed, you have a few broken bones I'm afraid." She blinked and stared, staying here with him? Uh oh..
Faye smiled as she was led into the visiting room. One visitor was allowed at a time so she sat and stared at jet, an ex-police officer, now about 60 or so. His hair was still missing and his beard was now all gray. He looked at her with sad eyes and stood up to hug her. "Faye." he muttered, pulling her close. His robotic arm felt cold against her skin and she shivered. She missed him so much, he had always been like a father to her. "How long has it been Jet?" She asked once they finally sat down. "I don't know Faye.three years at least. how are you holding up?" He smiled comfortingly to her. "I've been doing fine.well as fine as can be since." She stopped in the middle of her sentence with the thought of HIM. She stared at her hands and a tear trickled down her cheek. Jet took her chin "Aw come one kid.don't think about it. It's in the past, you could be let out soon for good behavior! You can rebuild your life now and live with me and Ed!" Faye looked up at him "Ed.is she here?" Faye smiled, she missed the little monkey of a girl. Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Trivusky IV, she laughed at the memory of the small mad genius girl who had named herself. Jet grinned and stroked Faye's hair "Yes.yes she is.." She took his robotic hand and smiled at him.
After a long deep conversation with jet, in came a bouncing girl of around 23. She had spikey, long red hair and tan skin. "FAYE-FAYE!" She squealed as the affection leech squeezed onto Faye. Faye laughed a little, in her you Faye had hated the girl, but she had started to miss her a lot. Ed was no longer the little one that many people often mistook for a boy. Ed had grown nicely into a young woman. Faye noted she still had the mental capacity of a little one though. Faye never saw Ed sad, only twice, when Ein, their genius Corgi-dog, had died and the other when Spike.but she couldn't think about that. She had a friend to visit. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Neeha sat on a chair, smiling, her foot up on a stool. She giggled as gold brought in her food tray, almost tripping and spilling soup on himself. Her face had never been so aglow with happiness and love. In the past few weeks he had taken care of her and shown her love. She could not believe how lucky she was. She now had on nice clothes and ate only the best of food. Life had been a dream ever since she met him and she loved it. She was getting greedy for it, one deprived of love most of her life probably would want it.
Gold sat down next to her and smiled, soothingly running a hand through her hair. He then looked seriously at her, concentrating on her features, examining her. He then asked a question that made her jump, one which she did not want to explain "Why do you sell youself?" Her beautiful brown eyes widened as she thought what to answer, but he went on from there "You are a beautiful girl..you should be at home with a family.a husband. a job." She slowly moved her head away from his hand, feeling chills coming down her spine.
In a soft and shakey voice she answered him as best as she could to make him understand. "It's not as easy as you thing. You have everything I could ever wish for.but I have no education and no family. No man in his right mind who lived here would take me for his wife." Gold shook his head, and sighed. He rested his forehead against hers and brought his lips an inch away from hers.
A pale blush spread over her face, she tried to think of something to say, but words failed her completely. He was just about to kiss her when the telephone rang. He paused for a bit then got up and went to answer the telephone, leaving her there shaking and confused. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Faye sat, poking her lunch and listening to Neeha intently. She kept nodding and smiling sweetly at her. Faye couldn't help but think that this was leading to the same place she had been so long ago. She couldn't think about him without crying, and so she preffered not to think of it. She went on listening to the story.
A month had gone by and Neeha was now a maid in his house. She had never forgotten that one night where they had almost kissed. It was imprinted in her mind forever. She loved him so much and she knew he could tell.
One day Gold came back looking rather distracted and spacey and dreamy. It was the feeling that made her stomach clench and her blood feel like it stopped for a second. She could see plain as ever it was love. She needed to know who though. Through the tears she bit her lip and saw him stare out the window. When she looked out she immediately saw who he was looking at. Who could not look at her? This girl was like an angel on earth, with blonde curly locks and bright blue eyes, this girl must have been sent from heaven. Neeha stared in horror, thoughts running wildly through her head. There was no way in hell she could compete with this girl, this angel.
Later that week Gold came in with the girl, she now had come to know as no other name but 'Angel'. Neeha sat in the kitchen unaware when she heard a few voices in the living room, figuring that Fold was back and he had a visitor, she told Nabi, the other maid, she would go and fetch them drinks. She went into the living room cheerfully, humming a tune. What she saw made her sick to her stomach. There she was, the little Angel, sitting and cuddling with Gold. At first they didn't notice her and she just stared at them in a silence, which was brought on by horror. Then her hand started shaking, jiggling the crystal glasses on the tray and announcing her arrival. Gold looked up, worried, just to see her. He smiled and waved her over "Ah, Neeha.this is Lila, Lila this is Neeha..I saved her from." but Neeha couldn't hear him. She was completely blanked out staring at the girl. She felt like her whole world was torn apart. She felt like her heart was torn into pieces and stomped on and then spit on.
She couldn't see anything, not the ground rushing at her, not the broken piece of glass that stabbed her in the back, not a thing. She didn't even realize what was going on until she heard a few screams of the Angel. She didn't even realize that she had fainted until she woke up.
The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes, was Gold peering down at her. His face lit up as he watched her wake up. "Good you're awake, are you ok?" He asked, his voice dripping with concern. She felt sick, right there next to him was the Angel. She couldn't speak, could barely even breath. "You fainted and fell on a big piece of glass that had broken off from the cups you were carrying. It's a good thing that Lila took care of you.I was about to tell you about the engagement when you fainted, but I guess it's not the time right now." Once again her blood ran cold. Tears threatened to pour from her eyes, but her resistance was strong.
'Lila..' she thought 'Why the hell does he like her.no wrong question.Why does she get everything? It's not fair.doesn't she know what pain she's causing.I hate this.she needs to.she needs to.....she needs to die.' Neeha slowly got up in a feverish daze. She could not feel the pain eminating from her chest, or hear any rational thought, all she knew was pain, jealousy and hatred. In a nightgown of silk, looking almost like a ghost, she staggered to the kitchen, grabbing a carving knife.
Slowly and painfully she carried herself upstairs to the guest's bedroom where Lila was bound to be, asleep in her perfect halo of hair. She stood over her, making sure the little perfect Angel was asleep. She raised the knife high when suddenly she paused. Something was holding her back, it was long enough for Lila to wake up and scream before Neeha plunged the knife into her heart.
Blood seeped out through the nightgown as Lila was still screaming. Soon enough the screaming stopped, but it was still echoing in Neeha's ears. As the rest of the household ran in Neeha reared back covering her ears with the bloody murderous hands to stop the screaming, although she didn't realize it was she herself who was screaming at this point.
Gold now to was sobbing over Lila's body and yelling at Neeha, words that she hated "How could you? She liked you! I thought you two would be best friends." She slumped against the wall, tears pouring out of her eyes. She kept muttering over and over again in a plea of help 'I didn't mean to..I'm sorry.I really didn't mean too." But nothing could help her.
Faye stared at Neeha as Neeha finishd up her story, there were tears brimming in Neeha's eyes. Faye nodded a bit "Somewhat like my own.my man.never loved me.he loved some joke names Julia..then went to fight his best friend over her.they both died.so I went out and killed Julia.. I understand how you feel.don't cry." She thought about Spike and the tears spilled down her soft white cheeks. She remembered his cocky grin and his messy hair. How he lighted his cigarette, how smooth and suave he was.
The guard opened the cell door and both of them looked up from crying "Miss Valentine..You are free to go." Faye looked up in amazement. She looked towards Neeha and hugged the girl deeply. "I'll stay in touch.remember.when someone new comes in here.listen to their story..I'm going home to rebuild my life in a new way.."
She heard the clanking of the heavy metal doors opening and closing and the clinking of a prisoner in shackles being led to her cell. Faye had assumed things had gotten better since the 21rst century, but she was wrong, the prisons, even on mars were still big steel contraptions, although they had been modified slightly. She didn't notice anything until the two guards and the girl stopped in front of her cell. The guards opened the door and roughly thrust her it. Faye's eyes shifted back to staring out and thinking, which she did now a day.
The girl stood timidly, the woolen sheets, which she was given for the cot, clutched to her chest. Faye finally pulled back after a while and looked the girl over. The girl was rather big, not fat, but had a lot of muscles. The girl had long muddy brown hair with a mixture of black and blonde in it. She had equally dark eyes, which seemed almost black.
Faye took a slow drag from the cigarette, examining the girl again before coughing and asking her "What's your name?" The girl looked terrified like Faye was going to kill her at any second. Faye shook her head and sat down on her cot, opposite the one of the other girl's. She put out the cigarette and looked at the girl, sighing "Listen kid I'm not gonna hurt you..." Faye motioned for the little one to sit down and so the girl did. In an assertive voice the girl stated her name "Neeha.my name is Neeha Kuriko.." Faye looked up and nodded "I'm Faye Valentine." Faye stated simply.
The girl lay back as there was a faint cry of "lights off!" and the lights were shut off. "So what are you in for?" Faye asked Neeha, staring at the ceiling. Neeha was hesitant to answer. Finally a small mumble came from her mouth "Murder" or at least Faye thought it was that. Faye smiled to herself in the dark "But you don't seem like one to commit murder.Tell me everything." Neeha was quiet for a little, then began her story.
On asteroid beta, things had declined, cities were ruined and everyone was poor. My family was gone and I had to fend for myself, so I started selling myself for a living. It had been pretty good pay, foreigners would come to our asteroid just for the girls (and some for the guys), but then people decided to rebuild it, for some reason or another. Rich people moved in, and most of my friends were forced out of their jobs.if you could even call them that in the first place. I was one of the lucky few that could keep selling myself and not starve on the street.
"One day, while I was there on the street, a bunch of drunks came out of the tavern.at first they bothered no one, but then they came over and started harassing me.. pushing me down and calling me names. I was bleeding all over, everything hurt. Suddenly an angel of a man came down and scared them away.."
Faye could picture it in her mind as Neeha told the story.
Blackness, she could see nothing. Neeha slowly opened her eyes, everything was blurry at first, then shapes came into view, then colours and finally she could see everything. She sat up immediately; she was in a lavish home on a couch, covered by a warm blanket. The blanket was a deep crimson as was the carpet and the couch. She looked around wildly, how had she gotten there, and why was she there? The last thing she remembered were the dirty men in the street, hassling her. She remembered being beaten. She touched her forehead and winced, there was a bandage wound around it, but it still hurt.
Her eyes shifted when she heard footsteps coming down the hall, out from the hall emerged a boy. Neeha's eyes widened as she saw him and her jaw dropped nearly to the floor. He had obviously just gotten out of the shower because he had a towel wrapped loosely around his slim waist and he was drying his hair off with a towel. He had a lean, yet slightly muscular figure with a long torso and creamy skin. His hair was a long, beautiful black, which reached his waist, and hung wetly in his eyes, which were dark brown and half lidded giving him a sexy look. She could feel a blush spreading across her face as she studied him, suddenly noticing she had been changed into new clothes.
He looked up suddenly, realizing she was awake. He tossed the towel, which he was drying his hair with aside. "oh you're awake..." He stated bluntly, he smiled a brief smile, "I was worried that you wouldn't wake up." He stared at her realizing she was blushing, he stayed calm and cool as usual "Don't worry, I didn't change you, my maid got some of her clothes, bathed you and changed you. You should be fine. What's your name?" He asked. She gulped and stared at him "I'm.Neeha." She said faintly. What was this she was feeling, no one had ever done something like this for her. No one had ever been so kind. The man nodded and smiled "I'm Gold, pleased to meet you. I guess you are staying here for a while until you are all healed, you have a few broken bones I'm afraid." She blinked and stared, staying here with him? Uh oh..
Faye smiled as she was led into the visiting room. One visitor was allowed at a time so she sat and stared at jet, an ex-police officer, now about 60 or so. His hair was still missing and his beard was now all gray. He looked at her with sad eyes and stood up to hug her. "Faye." he muttered, pulling her close. His robotic arm felt cold against her skin and she shivered. She missed him so much, he had always been like a father to her. "How long has it been Jet?" She asked once they finally sat down. "I don't know Faye.three years at least. how are you holding up?" He smiled comfortingly to her. "I've been doing fine.well as fine as can be since." She stopped in the middle of her sentence with the thought of HIM. She stared at her hands and a tear trickled down her cheek. Jet took her chin "Aw come one kid.don't think about it. It's in the past, you could be let out soon for good behavior! You can rebuild your life now and live with me and Ed!" Faye looked up at him "Ed.is she here?" Faye smiled, she missed the little monkey of a girl. Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Trivusky IV, she laughed at the memory of the small mad genius girl who had named herself. Jet grinned and stroked Faye's hair "Yes.yes she is.." She took his robotic hand and smiled at him.
After a long deep conversation with jet, in came a bouncing girl of around 23. She had spikey, long red hair and tan skin. "FAYE-FAYE!" She squealed as the affection leech squeezed onto Faye. Faye laughed a little, in her you Faye had hated the girl, but she had started to miss her a lot. Ed was no longer the little one that many people often mistook for a boy. Ed had grown nicely into a young woman. Faye noted she still had the mental capacity of a little one though. Faye never saw Ed sad, only twice, when Ein, their genius Corgi-dog, had died and the other when Spike.but she couldn't think about that. She had a friend to visit. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Neeha sat on a chair, smiling, her foot up on a stool. She giggled as gold brought in her food tray, almost tripping and spilling soup on himself. Her face had never been so aglow with happiness and love. In the past few weeks he had taken care of her and shown her love. She could not believe how lucky she was. She now had on nice clothes and ate only the best of food. Life had been a dream ever since she met him and she loved it. She was getting greedy for it, one deprived of love most of her life probably would want it.
Gold sat down next to her and smiled, soothingly running a hand through her hair. He then looked seriously at her, concentrating on her features, examining her. He then asked a question that made her jump, one which she did not want to explain "Why do you sell youself?" Her beautiful brown eyes widened as she thought what to answer, but he went on from there "You are a beautiful girl..you should be at home with a family.a husband. a job." She slowly moved her head away from his hand, feeling chills coming down her spine.
In a soft and shakey voice she answered him as best as she could to make him understand. "It's not as easy as you thing. You have everything I could ever wish for.but I have no education and no family. No man in his right mind who lived here would take me for his wife." Gold shook his head, and sighed. He rested his forehead against hers and brought his lips an inch away from hers.
A pale blush spread over her face, she tried to think of something to say, but words failed her completely. He was just about to kiss her when the telephone rang. He paused for a bit then got up and went to answer the telephone, leaving her there shaking and confused. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Faye sat, poking her lunch and listening to Neeha intently. She kept nodding and smiling sweetly at her. Faye couldn't help but think that this was leading to the same place she had been so long ago. She couldn't think about him without crying, and so she preffered not to think of it. She went on listening to the story.
A month had gone by and Neeha was now a maid in his house. She had never forgotten that one night where they had almost kissed. It was imprinted in her mind forever. She loved him so much and she knew he could tell.
One day Gold came back looking rather distracted and spacey and dreamy. It was the feeling that made her stomach clench and her blood feel like it stopped for a second. She could see plain as ever it was love. She needed to know who though. Through the tears she bit her lip and saw him stare out the window. When she looked out she immediately saw who he was looking at. Who could not look at her? This girl was like an angel on earth, with blonde curly locks and bright blue eyes, this girl must have been sent from heaven. Neeha stared in horror, thoughts running wildly through her head. There was no way in hell she could compete with this girl, this angel.
Later that week Gold came in with the girl, she now had come to know as no other name but 'Angel'. Neeha sat in the kitchen unaware when she heard a few voices in the living room, figuring that Fold was back and he had a visitor, she told Nabi, the other maid, she would go and fetch them drinks. She went into the living room cheerfully, humming a tune. What she saw made her sick to her stomach. There she was, the little Angel, sitting and cuddling with Gold. At first they didn't notice her and she just stared at them in a silence, which was brought on by horror. Then her hand started shaking, jiggling the crystal glasses on the tray and announcing her arrival. Gold looked up, worried, just to see her. He smiled and waved her over "Ah, Neeha.this is Lila, Lila this is Neeha..I saved her from." but Neeha couldn't hear him. She was completely blanked out staring at the girl. She felt like her whole world was torn apart. She felt like her heart was torn into pieces and stomped on and then spit on.
She couldn't see anything, not the ground rushing at her, not the broken piece of glass that stabbed her in the back, not a thing. She didn't even realize what was going on until she heard a few screams of the Angel. She didn't even realize that she had fainted until she woke up.
The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes, was Gold peering down at her. His face lit up as he watched her wake up. "Good you're awake, are you ok?" He asked, his voice dripping with concern. She felt sick, right there next to him was the Angel. She couldn't speak, could barely even breath. "You fainted and fell on a big piece of glass that had broken off from the cups you were carrying. It's a good thing that Lila took care of you.I was about to tell you about the engagement when you fainted, but I guess it's not the time right now." Once again her blood ran cold. Tears threatened to pour from her eyes, but her resistance was strong.
'Lila..' she thought 'Why the hell does he like her.no wrong question.Why does she get everything? It's not fair.doesn't she know what pain she's causing.I hate this.she needs to.she needs to.....she needs to die.' Neeha slowly got up in a feverish daze. She could not feel the pain eminating from her chest, or hear any rational thought, all she knew was pain, jealousy and hatred. In a nightgown of silk, looking almost like a ghost, she staggered to the kitchen, grabbing a carving knife.
Slowly and painfully she carried herself upstairs to the guest's bedroom where Lila was bound to be, asleep in her perfect halo of hair. She stood over her, making sure the little perfect Angel was asleep. She raised the knife high when suddenly she paused. Something was holding her back, it was long enough for Lila to wake up and scream before Neeha plunged the knife into her heart.
Blood seeped out through the nightgown as Lila was still screaming. Soon enough the screaming stopped, but it was still echoing in Neeha's ears. As the rest of the household ran in Neeha reared back covering her ears with the bloody murderous hands to stop the screaming, although she didn't realize it was she herself who was screaming at this point.
Gold now to was sobbing over Lila's body and yelling at Neeha, words that she hated "How could you? She liked you! I thought you two would be best friends." She slumped against the wall, tears pouring out of her eyes. She kept muttering over and over again in a plea of help 'I didn't mean to..I'm sorry.I really didn't mean too." But nothing could help her.
Faye stared at Neeha as Neeha finishd up her story, there were tears brimming in Neeha's eyes. Faye nodded a bit "Somewhat like my own.my man.never loved me.he loved some joke names Julia..then went to fight his best friend over her.they both died.so I went out and killed Julia.. I understand how you feel.don't cry." She thought about Spike and the tears spilled down her soft white cheeks. She remembered his cocky grin and his messy hair. How he lighted his cigarette, how smooth and suave he was.
The guard opened the cell door and both of them looked up from crying "Miss Valentine..You are free to go." Faye looked up in amazement. She looked towards Neeha and hugged the girl deeply. "I'll stay in touch.remember.when someone new comes in here.listen to their story..I'm going home to rebuild my life in a new way.."