The violet tinted twi’lek sat huddled in the corner of the freighter’s cargo hold. Back behind a maze of stacked crates and cargo containers, she’d hid for the length of the voyage. She didn’t know how many days it had been, but it seemed like the ship would be in hyperspace forever. She didn’t even know where it was going. She only knew that it was going away.
That, and she was afraid.
So very afraid.
She had no idea what else awaited her outside the hutt territories, but it had to be better than the place she’d just fled. Better than the only place she ever knew as her home. But it did not feel like home any longer. When she was younger, maybe. When she was still a girl, master had been nice to her. Always treated her with a kind smile, and often gave her candy. But as she got older, it seemed like he changed more and more. It became a rare thing to get a single nice word from him.
The other slaves had tried to warn her but she didn’t want to believe it. He had been the same to them all, they said, and that once she got to be a certain age, all he’d want was her body. And all she could ever do was obey. She’d seen what happened to the other girls when they didn’t. But she could not obey anymore…not after that last time…not after what he wanted to make her do…How could he…?
Still…what if she was wrong…what if what master kept saying was right…maybe he was protecting her from even worse things in the galaxy. It didn’t feel much like protection, but she couldn’t help but fear she’d made a horrible horrible mistake by running away.
She had no idea why she ran to this ship. No idea why she didn’t just stay and put up with master’s perversions. Why did she listen to such a fleeting feeling, no matter how right it felt at the time. What if she was only making things worse? What if the crew found her? What if they made her do even worse things than master had?
Sylia hugged her knees to her chest tightly, and began sobbing quietly, as she had done so many times already on this trip.
She was so very afraid…
“Hey you! What the hell’re you doin here!”
Sylia jerked awake with a startle. She must have fallen asleep and been found by one of the crew!
Her eyes darted around and loadlifters were busy hauling cargo out of the bay. She looked up to the angry voice, only to spot the devilish visage of a male devaronian. Eyes wide, she recoiled in panic and scrambled away from him, stumbling clumsily over some crates. She ran right past one of the load lifters being operated by an iridonian, and dashed down the loading ramp.
She paused just long enough at the bottom to look around and get her bearings. She heard those men on the ship shouting after, she had to get away! She found an exit and darted off again, immediately rounding the corner once she was through and barreled her thin frame down the hallway, dashed around another corner and hunkered down. Her chest heaved as she breathed heavily. She was already out of breath. She’d never had to run so much in her life, and the fear sent a fresh stream of tears down her cheeks before she clenched her eyes shut, and and hugged at her knees again.
She stayed there, in the CZ-220 corridor, too afraid to move, too afraid to stop crying, too afraid to open her eyes, even after some time when she could swear she could feel eyes upon her…
“Hey…” a female voice said, “are you okay…?”