Chapter Two
"I'll find out who you are eventually, so why don't you just tell me your name?"
Lex merely stared at the man in the captain's uniform. She'd given up glaring when he had seemed amused by it.
"Okay," he sighed, "then maybe you can tell me where the others are. They managed to get away with some very valuable equipment, and we'd like to get it back."
Again Lex stared at him in mutinous silence.
"You do realize the people you're protecting are the very same people who left you behind? They obviously don't think very highly of you, to do that."
No kidding, Lex thought darkly, her mind's eye burning with the image of her so called friends shrugging as they'd left her scrambling onto a table, the room flooding. There'd be payback once she tracked them down.
The captain watched her closely for a moment. Realizing he would get nothing from her, he shook his head and crossed the room to the door. "I'll give you some time to think about this. I'll be back."
He pulled open the door, nodding to the tall guard standing just beyond the threshold. He stopped in the doorway, his attention caught by someone just out of Lex's view.
"Sorry, Cap, the others got away. Slippery little devils."
Lex's eyes narrowed, her ears straining as she recognized a vaguely familiar voice.
"That's alright, Crocker. We'll just have to work with the one we've got, once we find out who she is." The captain stepped into the hallway, closing the door behind him.
Through the small window in the door, Lex caught a glimpse of a face as it peered in at her with curiosity. Gasping, she turned her back to the door quickly, hoping time had clouded his memory.
Her emerald green gaze sped around the sparsely furnished room frantically. She was definitely trapped here this time. No windows, and with only one exit, the door locking from the outside and guarded by a man who was almost twice as tall and three times as wide as herself, she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Settling into the corner of the narrow bed, she snorted at the ridiculousness of her thoughts. Even if she managed to get out of the room, she was in a submarine, Lord knew how many miles under the surface, completely surrounded by her worst nightmare. No, this time there was no escape.
Sighing, Lex drew her legs up, resting her chin on her knees, and let her thoughts once again drift into the past.
After the incident on her sixth birthday, Lex's father had come home less and less. Mourning his absence and blaming her daughter for it, Angelica had turned to alcohol for solace. At first she'd sat in her bedroom, crying and staring at photos of her faraway husband for hours on end, drinking wine from a crystal goblet. But as time passed, and her husband slowly lost touch with her, the wine had been chugged straight from the bottle until it no longer had the ability to numb her. Then Angelica turned to hard liquor. And with it had came her demon.
In the days that followed, Lex had come to view school as an escape from the Hell her home had become. If she was lucky, Angelica would have slipped into an alcohol induced sleep by the time Lex had come home from school. But when the pure alcohol began to lose its potency, even that had been lost.
Lex had lost count of the times when she'd been torn from a listless sleep, her mother shrieking and cursing at her, tossing her around the room, her long nails scratching deep gouges into Lex's tender skin. The teachers had been alarmed by Lex's haggard appearance, the bruises, scratches and deep circles under her eyes. Too afraid to speak, Lex had said nothing when they'd asked her what was wrong. After her teacher's well meaning phone call to her mother had resulted in an even more wrathful beating, Lex had tried desperately to hide in the classroom, out of her teacher's view. Miss Bell, realizing what had happened as a result of her first call, had left well enough alone, just as Lex had begged her.
Months passed with Lex too afraid to sleep at home, catching quick naps in Miss Bell's office during recesses and lunch period. But the lack of sleep had finally been her undoing. Exhausted, she'd made the mistake of letting her guard down, curling up on the top of her canopy bed, instead of hiding in the basement crawlspace to sleep. Very quickly she'd fallen into a deep sleep, never realizing that her mother was in the worst state ever.
Angelica's mood had lightened over the past week as she'd anxiously awaited the arrival of her husband to celebrate their twelfth wedding anniversary. All that had changed when she'd received an impersonal message from him saying he wouldn't be able to make it home. There had been no mention of their anniversary, nor any promise to make it up to her. Sweeping the vid-phone to the floor with a scream of rage, Angelica had raced from the room.
Lex, curled into a fetal position amid her stuffed animals, had been startled awake as her bedroom door burst open, crashing into the wall with enough force to puncture the drywall. Running to the bed, her eyes wild, Angelica had grabbed handfuls of Lex's long auburn hair and dragged her to the floor.
Twisting and whimpering, Lex had tried vainly to escape the kicks and punches, her arms covered in blood as Angelica dug her nails into her skin deeply. It was only when her mother had tripped on a stray doll on the floor that Lex was able to run from the room, out the front door and into the cold night without turning back.
After a day of wandering the streets, keeping to the shadows of doorways and garbage bins as people stared, Lex had discovered the downtown district. No-one gave her a second glance here, as everyone had a past they were running from. Amid the brief glances of the prostitutes and winos, she'd frantically scoured dumpster after dumpster for scraps of food, crawling into the dimly lit stairwell of an apartment building when she could hold sleep off no longer.
It was in that very stairwell that Lex had met Jack. From that moment on, her life turned around an interesting corner.
"I'll find out who you are eventually, so why don't you just tell me your name?"
Lex merely stared at the man in the captain's uniform. She'd given up glaring when he had seemed amused by it.
"Okay," he sighed, "then maybe you can tell me where the others are. They managed to get away with some very valuable equipment, and we'd like to get it back."
Again Lex stared at him in mutinous silence.
"You do realize the people you're protecting are the very same people who left you behind? They obviously don't think very highly of you, to do that."
No kidding, Lex thought darkly, her mind's eye burning with the image of her so called friends shrugging as they'd left her scrambling onto a table, the room flooding. There'd be payback once she tracked them down.
The captain watched her closely for a moment. Realizing he would get nothing from her, he shook his head and crossed the room to the door. "I'll give you some time to think about this. I'll be back."
He pulled open the door, nodding to the tall guard standing just beyond the threshold. He stopped in the doorway, his attention caught by someone just out of Lex's view.
"Sorry, Cap, the others got away. Slippery little devils."
Lex's eyes narrowed, her ears straining as she recognized a vaguely familiar voice.
"That's alright, Crocker. We'll just have to work with the one we've got, once we find out who she is." The captain stepped into the hallway, closing the door behind him.
Through the small window in the door, Lex caught a glimpse of a face as it peered in at her with curiosity. Gasping, she turned her back to the door quickly, hoping time had clouded his memory.
Her emerald green gaze sped around the sparsely furnished room frantically. She was definitely trapped here this time. No windows, and with only one exit, the door locking from the outside and guarded by a man who was almost twice as tall and three times as wide as herself, she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Settling into the corner of the narrow bed, she snorted at the ridiculousness of her thoughts. Even if she managed to get out of the room, she was in a submarine, Lord knew how many miles under the surface, completely surrounded by her worst nightmare. No, this time there was no escape.
Sighing, Lex drew her legs up, resting her chin on her knees, and let her thoughts once again drift into the past.
After the incident on her sixth birthday, Lex's father had come home less and less. Mourning his absence and blaming her daughter for it, Angelica had turned to alcohol for solace. At first she'd sat in her bedroom, crying and staring at photos of her faraway husband for hours on end, drinking wine from a crystal goblet. But as time passed, and her husband slowly lost touch with her, the wine had been chugged straight from the bottle until it no longer had the ability to numb her. Then Angelica turned to hard liquor. And with it had came her demon.
In the days that followed, Lex had come to view school as an escape from the Hell her home had become. If she was lucky, Angelica would have slipped into an alcohol induced sleep by the time Lex had come home from school. But when the pure alcohol began to lose its potency, even that had been lost.
Lex had lost count of the times when she'd been torn from a listless sleep, her mother shrieking and cursing at her, tossing her around the room, her long nails scratching deep gouges into Lex's tender skin. The teachers had been alarmed by Lex's haggard appearance, the bruises, scratches and deep circles under her eyes. Too afraid to speak, Lex had said nothing when they'd asked her what was wrong. After her teacher's well meaning phone call to her mother had resulted in an even more wrathful beating, Lex had tried desperately to hide in the classroom, out of her teacher's view. Miss Bell, realizing what had happened as a result of her first call, had left well enough alone, just as Lex had begged her.
Months passed with Lex too afraid to sleep at home, catching quick naps in Miss Bell's office during recesses and lunch period. But the lack of sleep had finally been her undoing. Exhausted, she'd made the mistake of letting her guard down, curling up on the top of her canopy bed, instead of hiding in the basement crawlspace to sleep. Very quickly she'd fallen into a deep sleep, never realizing that her mother was in the worst state ever.
Angelica's mood had lightened over the past week as she'd anxiously awaited the arrival of her husband to celebrate their twelfth wedding anniversary. All that had changed when she'd received an impersonal message from him saying he wouldn't be able to make it home. There had been no mention of their anniversary, nor any promise to make it up to her. Sweeping the vid-phone to the floor with a scream of rage, Angelica had raced from the room.
Lex, curled into a fetal position amid her stuffed animals, had been startled awake as her bedroom door burst open, crashing into the wall with enough force to puncture the drywall. Running to the bed, her eyes wild, Angelica had grabbed handfuls of Lex's long auburn hair and dragged her to the floor.
Twisting and whimpering, Lex had tried vainly to escape the kicks and punches, her arms covered in blood as Angelica dug her nails into her skin deeply. It was only when her mother had tripped on a stray doll on the floor that Lex was able to run from the room, out the front door and into the cold night without turning back.
After a day of wandering the streets, keeping to the shadows of doorways and garbage bins as people stared, Lex had discovered the downtown district. No-one gave her a second glance here, as everyone had a past they were running from. Amid the brief glances of the prostitutes and winos, she'd frantically scoured dumpster after dumpster for scraps of food, crawling into the dimly lit stairwell of an apartment building when she could hold sleep off no longer.
It was in that very stairwell that Lex had met Jack. From that moment on, her life turned around an interesting corner.