Todd Gleshan rustled about in the crisp white sheets of his bed and looked over at his little sister. "If Mamma finds you still dressed when she comes in to check on you she will be very upset." He smirked, hoping to see some kind of fight. "Go to sleep, pooh-brain." Jemmy mumbled back at her big brother. "You'll get your hide tanned for sure." He crowed. "Will not. Mamma loves me!" "She likes me better." "Does not!" "Does too! You are ugly and horrible!" "At least I don't smell!" "I do not smell!" "Yes you do! All boys smell!" "Ugly-Ugly-Ugly-Ugly!" "I may be ugly now but one day," she growled at him, "I'm going to be beautiful and everyone will like me and nobody will like you! You're so horrible, I wish you were dead!" Todd looked smug, knowing he'd succeeded in getting to her. "I'm her favorite because I do what I'm told." The airy voice came back. "You're just a big suck-up." Jemmy yelped angrily. "I'm still her favorite. She doesn't even like you. I heard her telling Mrs. Dinfler just last week on the holocom." Jemmy blinked. This was a lie. Wasn't it? "How do you mean? How doesn't she like me?" the girl demanded. "Because," Todd turned to face her, wavy hair sticking out all over the place in utter disarray, "Papa was on his way home to see you for your birthday when he crashed. He tried to get back specially. So it's all your fault that he's dead. And mamma hates you for it." "That's a lie!" Jemmy screamed, taking off a shoe and aiming it at her elder brother with surprising accuracy. It hit him on the head before bouncing onto the floor. For all of three seconds Todd looked stunned, as if considering whether or not to burst into tears. Then the natural progression to waterworks followed as he quickly gave in to his habitual howling. "Put a sock in it, stinky!" Jemmy shouted. "You'll have Mamma in here!" He'd howled something incoherent interspersed with hiccuping and snuffling, then started to cry once again. "You are useless!" Jemmy was on the point of taking off her other shoe to throw at him when light suddenly flooded into the room, causing them both to recoil. "What is going on here?" a sharp, female voice cut through the air. Todd jumped backwards a little and grabbed the sheet that covered him whilst Jemmiah regarded the tall figure of her mother with wariness. Thena Gleshan surveyed the scene before her and thinned her lips in annoyance. "What are you doing with that shoe?" she pointed at Jemmy. "I'm getting ready for bed." Jemmiah answered as innocently as she could manage. "And why are you NOT already in bed?" she asked. Jemmiah could see her eyes narrowing even in the dark. "Your brother is already in bed. I told you over an hour ago to get changed!" Jemmy scowled at Todd, who sniffled quietly to himself. "She hit me!" he rubbed at his eyes. "With her shoe!" "Tale-teller!" Jemmy stuck her tongue out. "Look, mamma…and my head's all sore." He pointed at the bruise. Thena activated the lights and crossed over to her son's bunk, bending over to look at the purple mark on his forehead. "Oh, hush now honey." She kissed the offending lump gently. "It'll be fine. I'll put a cold cloth on it for a few minutes and it won't hurt so bad." She turned round swiftly to glare at the unrepentant face of her daughter, set as it often was in that familiar, stubborn expression. The one that Thena had seen as a child every time she looked into the mirror, staring back at her… "Did you hit him with your shoe?" she asked bluntly. Jemmiah considered lying but decided that it would be in her best interest to come clean. Better to have her mother angry with her than disappointed as well. "Yes, mamma." She nodded sullenly. "I will not tolerate such behavior." She saw her son smile out the corner of her eye and reeled round to face him. "From either of you. Understand?" Both children nodded silently. "Good. Off the bunk, missy." Jemmy sighed but jumped off the bunk as instructed, walking over to her mother with a certain amount of defiance evident in the set of her face. "Turn around and bend over." Just momentarily, Thena wondered if she really wanted to discipline her daughter. They were all tired and longing to get home to Corellia. It had been the end of an arduous and exhausting tourist trip round some of the greatest wonders of the galaxy and the children were beginning to get cranky. Well, even crankier than normal. Giving the girl a smack was almost as painful to her as it would be to her daughter's pride but she couldn't afford to let her two children think that she was a soft touch. If an example had to be made then so be it. She give the girl three sharp, small whacks on the rump and then set her back on her feet. "Don't look back at me like that unless you want some more of the same." Thena warned as she caught the angry look in Jemmy's eyes. "Do you think I've treated you unfairly?" "No." Jemmiah stared at Todd. "But you never smacked him! I always get punished but you NEVER hit him!" "That's enough." Thena cut her off abruptly. "Go get changed for bed this instant." She followed her daughter with her eyes as she grabbed hold of her nightclothes and trundled towards the adjoining fresher room. "Why can't you two get on? I'm not asking too much?" Thena shook her head in desperation. "Because she's UGLY!" Todd shouted. "Stinky!" screamed Jemmy back at him. "Nobody likes you!" Todd yelled out. "Shut up, pooh head!" Jemmy called out. Thena stepped between the two, cutting off the fresher room from Todd's sight. "Quiet, both of you! We've got five days until we get back to Corellia. The least you can do is try to behave! OK?" Silence. "OK?" "Yes, mamma." Came back the grudging call from both children. Thena nodded, waiting until Jemmiah walked back into the room now properly attired for bed. The Corellian girl made a point of rubbing her sore behind as she went past, but held her head high in the air so that it was all Thena could do to not laugh out loud at the melodrama of the whole thing. She kissed Todd once more and wished him goodnight, and was rewarded by a watery kiss on the cheek. When she went to kiss her daughter, Jemmy moved her head away. "Goodnight, Jemmiah." Thena sighed. Jemmy responded by pulling the covers around her and silently rolling onto her side. "Well, goodnight anyway." She mumbled, casting a long look at her children before switching off the light and closing the door behind her. Todd sat up almost immediately she was gone. "Told you she'd tan your hide." He gloated. "At least when I get skelped I don't cry like a baby!" "Ugly!" "You," Jemmy squirmed round to face him, "are never gonna get to heaven now! There's going to be a great big devil with lots of sharp pointy things to stick in you whenever you're bad, which will be all the time because you are horrible! And he's going to wrap you up in a big giant chain and it's going to be red hot because it's all hot in hell and you'll catch fire and they'll be nobody there to here you crying!" Jemmy hissed. "And you won't get any wings!" ********************** She couldn't move. That was that first thing that managed to seep back into Jemmiah's mind on waking up. Her head hurt, her whole body hurt and there were funny, dancing black spots before her eyes that hadn't been there before the ship had crashed… She'd been dozing on her bunk, or at least trying to. Her brother had lost the battle to stay awake soon after their argument had ceased and she'd just lain there listening to his rhythmical, steady breathing hoping that she would soon do the same. But rest had eluded the five year old girl and she'd spent the best part of an hour staring up at the ceiling of the ship with drooping eyelids, the gentle hiss of the ventilation system trying to lull her… There had been a funny, metallic sound…a sort of clanging noise that had echoed eerily round the ship. Hurrying feet and the sound of the crew members voices, muffled as they scurried back to the flight deck. Then some kind of giant invisible wave had knocked the ship all sideways and then… She'd remembered that Todd had fallen out of his bunk, to scared to scream or cry but she'd clung on to her bed in the vain hope that as long as she stayed in bed that she'd be safe, like those silly games that they played in the garden back home on Corellia where they'd jump from stone to stone so that the monsters couldn't get them. This time she knew the monsters were real and it wasn't fun anymore. Perhaps if she closed her eyes… There was the vague sensation of being lifted up by rough hands and carried away from the smoke and the flames but Jemmiah didn't dare to open her eyes, not even when she felt cool air against her skin instead of the scorching heat of the ship and the smell of burning was far behind her. As long as she didn't look, she told herself, everything would be fine. Her head was throbbing now and there was a loud rushing sound in her ears that made hearing difficult. The one who was holding her was saying something in a deep, rumbling voice which somehow Jemmy managed to identify as that of the captain of the ship they had chartered. He was alive, then. But what of her mother? Her brother? Suddenly she regretted her harsh words to Todd. Even if he had deserved them. "How's your one?" the younger male voice of the co-pilot asked in concern. "I'm not sure." She heard the captain reply as he lightly tapped her on the cheek. "What about the boy?" "I've only just got him to calm down." The man answered. "It's the woman I'm more concerned about." Jemmiah decided it was safe to open her eyes. "I'm not sure where we managed to come down." The co-pilot continued. "I'm not even sure if I managed to get the distress call out before the equipment failure kicked in." "Nargotria." The captain's rumble sounded ominous. "That would be my guess. It's the nearest planet to our position before we were attacked." "Never heard of it." Answered the co-pilot. "It's not part of the republic. Not surprising, really. This far out, who would want it…hello?" the captain bent over and looked into Jemmiah's open eyes. "So, you've decided to come back to the land of the living?" "Owch." Jemmy blinked. "Where does it hurt?" asked the captain. "Your head?" "Yes, sir." She mumbled. "Well," he smoothed away the wavy hair; "if it's any consolation I also have a sore head. Infact it hasn't been so sore since the last time that I went out on leave with Seb over there and we drank a little too much of the local produce. Isn't that right Seb?" "I don't want to think about it." Groaned the co-pilot. Jemmy squinted towards the shaking little heap in the captain's jacket that sat cowering and silent by the co-pilot. "Is Todd alright, sir?" Jemmy asked. "He's just a little scared." The captain smiled. "Don't you worry, treacle! Jak's gone back to get some supplies from the ship, just incase we have to spend a little time here." "What about Mamma?" Jemmy whispered. "Ah…she's having a bit of a lie down at the moment. Over there by your brother, see? She hit her head and it was a little sore, so she's going to have a rest for the moment until it gets all better." Jemmy stared up at him and the captain wondered if she could tell that he was trying to be optimistic. In truth there was no telling when the kid's mother would come round, but there was no need to frighten the youngsters with that just yet. "We're going to have to move soon, anyhow." The captain said. "I'll carry you and Seb will carry your brother." "What about Mamma?" Jemmy repeated, this time in a more indignant voice than before. "Jak will be back from the ship with the supplies. He'll help your mother…but we really can't stay here. I'd like to put some more distance between that ship and us…" He broke off suddenly as if some distant noise had grabbed his attention. Jemmy watched as his slightly lined face began to further crease into a frown, torn between doing his duty be his passengers and concern for his crewmember. "Gun fire." He mumbled, but even if she hadn't quite heard his words she somehow contrived to read his lips. "We'll move onwards." He decided quickly. "But Jak…" protested the co-pilot. "Jak can take care of himself." Replied the captain grimly. "I'll carry both the kids. You carry the woman." "I can walk." Jemmy stated. "We might have to do a bit of running." He rumbled, and for the first time since she'd been brought off the ship Jemmy began to appreciate how much trouble they were in. She looked at her mother as the co-pilot bent down to pick her up over one shoulder. She liked the co-pilot. He always had a cheery smile and knew many corny jokes that would still make you laugh even though you knew they were bad. He wasn't smiling now. "I think perhaps if we headed off towards the high ground in the…" he began as he tried to take Thena's arms. Suddenly there was a loud noise from nearby and the words died in the co-pilot's mouth as he pitched over, a smoking whole in his chest. Jemmy could hear her brother screaming as the man's body fell just feet away from him, and desperately wanted to tell him to keep quiet. The only thing she was really aware of as the captain took a shot in the head was the sound of her brother screaming. The only one left on their feet now was her, and she didn't know what to do and so she allowed herself to sink slowly to the ground. The man who had fired the first gun stepped forward. He wasn't as young as the co-pilot or as old as the captain but yet his hair seemed to be virtually white. She thought that odd, as until then the only people she had seen with white hair were old. He walked over to her mother, who was still lying asleep on the ground. "This one should be worth keeping," he grunted, nudging her with his boot, "don't you think?" One of the other men, a scruffy looking man in some kind of outfit decided to take a closer look. "Concussed." He said. "As well for her." The white haired man answered with a curving smile. He turned round to gaze at Jemmy and her whimpering brother. "What about these two brats? What do we do with them? Target practice?" He unholstered his gun again and slowly but surely aimed in Jemmiah's direction. "If I give you a head start, rat, will you run?" he asked breathily. Just as the man seemed to be considering squeezing the trigger a chirping noise sounded from his jacket pocket and Jemmiah watched, legs completely paralyzed with shock, as he turned his attention to his comlink. "Levinstowe." He answered gruffly. "No, we didn't come away empty handed. The woman should be worth something…disposed of the crew as per usual. We've also got two kids here by way of an extra bargain." He said sourly. He paused. "Not sure. Small. I dunno, about five or six? I'm not an expert when it comes to brats. What do you want done with them?" A minute passed before anything more was said and all the time Todd continued to cry. "I'm sure I'll think of something." The white haired man answered with a grin. "Levinstowe out." The scruffy man in the black uniform stood over Jemmiah's mother. "What's to be done?" "Merdan doesn't want them." The man called Levinstowe shrugged. "I think a little trip to the cliff's would be in order, don't you?" ********* They'd taken her mother away in some kind of speeder and Jemmiah didn't know whether or not she should be happy or scared. If something bad was going to happen to her brother and herself she was glad that her mother wouldn't be hurt too. Yet part of her desperately wanted only for her mother to be there to give her a reassuring hug and a kiss, telling her that everything would be OK. Except that Jemmiah knew that it would not. She'd been carried in a vice-like grip by the white haired man called Levinstowe, who smelled almost overpoweringly of strong Corellian Tabac. It caught at her throat and made her want to gag but she daren't even cough when this man was holding her. The fact that he smiled the kind of smile she'd once seen on a large, predatory reptile in the zoo did nothing to ease her fears. They'd got out of the speeder and had been carried steadily upwards for the past half-hour, Todd being carried by another man in a black uniform. He was still crying, and Jemmy could tell that Levinstowe was not pleased by it at all. "Does he do nothing but cry?" he hissed. Jemmy said nothing, she thought it was safer not to chat back this time. "You ever been up to the cliff's?" he asked her, his eyes gleaming. She shook her head. "No? Well, this will be a new experience for you. Even if it isn't along one." Some of the men in black had laughed at that. There was a slight ridge straight ahead, and Jemmiah decided that this was where they must be heading for. Over the side she could see jagged, black rocks forming cavernous openings and levels. She hoped they weren't going to be abandoned in the caves because she got scared in the dark sometimes, just like Todd. They marched towards the end of the ridge and Jemmy saw what appeared to be a sheer drop below. "Very picturesque, don't you think?" Levinstowe snorted, pulling Jemmy roughly off his back so that she landed in a heap on the ground. "You'll be able to examine it close up in just a moment." He turned first of all to her brother, still sniffling and whining. "You like games?" Levinstowe asked. The question seemed to surprise Todd, and he managed to lisp out a "yes." "That's good." Levinstowe nodded to his men, "because that is what we are going to do." Three of the uniformed men came forward and grabbed the boy, each taking an arm or a leg, with Levinstowe himself taking hold of his left arm. They staggered as far to the edge of the cliff as possible. Suddenly, Todd realized what was going to happen and began to scream. Jemmiah could only watch as they started to swing the terrified boy backwards and forwards, inwards and outwards. All the time she heard him screaming for their mother and then finally for her, trying to kick out at the men who had him spread-eagled. "Jemmy!" he shrieked. "Don't worry about your sister, she's going to follow you down shortly." Levinstowe laughed. "Now stop bleating, kid! You're giving me a headache." Todd let out another scream and Jemmy covered her ears as they sung him out again. This time they let go. She screwed up her eyes until they hurt, not wanting to see and not wanting to hear, until one of the uniformed men grabbed her by the arm and pulled her hand from her ear. "Your turn, I think." He snickered. "At least you're not as noisy as the other brat." Levinstowe remarked. "All that screaming he made on the way down has done nothing for my nerves." He eyed her momentarily. "I think it's a pity, really. I much preferred you to your whining brother." He stroked her cheek. "You know, I think maybe we should get to know each other a little better before we go our separate ways. If you do what you're told maybe I'll just shoot you. Or else I could always throw you straight off the cliff." He made a grab for her and Jemmy struggled backwards, trying to shove him away. "My, what a temper!" he tutted as he made a grab for her hair. The comlink in his pocket went again, and a hiss of air escaped from between his teeth in irritation. "Levinstowe. Look Rufus, what is this?" His eyes widened in shock. "What do you mean, you've changed your mind? You can't!" Pause. "The boy's already dead. We sent him over the cliff barely a minute ago…yes, we do still have the girl but I don't see how…" Levinstowe's brown eyes seemed to grow darker and darker as he listened. "I have a major share in this place, Merdan. I have just as much right as you to say who stays and who doesn't. If you wanted to sell the boy you should have spoken up quicker. Anyhow, we still have the other one…I'll bring her back to the camp if that's what you want but I can't imagine that anyone…" Levinstowe listened, nodded grudgingly after a few moments and then cut the comlink off. The look he gave Jemmiah was not pleasant. "It's your lucky day." He remarked dryly. "Then again, perhaps it isn't." ****************** "You'll stay here. You have no choice. This is your new life from now on." Rufus Merdan paced the floor infront of the shaking yet strangely dignified figure of Thena Gleshan. Her quietness disturbed her. He'd expected pleading, begging and wailing but not this…silence. "My children?" she said quietly. "The boy died in the crash." Merdan appraised her coldly with his grey eyes. "I believe they are bringing the girl in as we speak." Thena's lip began to tremble just a little, but managed to control herself somehow. Her son was dead. Her little girl was alive. The agony and the ecstasy threatened to combine and topple her mind. "You can keep the girl with you," Merdan continued, "although Levinstowe might want to sell her into slavery. Anything for an instant profit. Or else he might…well. It's that kind of place." Rufus grinned. "I am in charge here and as such I have the final say in what happens here. I can make certain your daughter remains unmolested… for the time being. She will have to be put to work in the kitchens or cleaning…" "She's only five." Thena's eyes were shining. "I have no passengers here. One way or another you work or you die, it's that simple. Now, for a small price I can keep your daughter away from Levinstowe and the others." "Price?" Thena gasped. "I think you know what we are talking about." Merdan walked behind the chair the battered and bruised young woman was seated upon and slowly ran his fingers through Thena's hair. "Which is it to be? Or should I just have your kid sold off to some Hutt despot in the back of beyond?" "Agreed." Then said bleakly. Rufus stood up, a cold smile on his lips. "I think that was very wise." He turned to leave, halting at the door. "I'll have one of the women find something more suitable for you to wear." The door closed, leaving Thena alone with her grief. ********** "This is the brat." Levinstowe shoved Jemmy forward in Rufus' direction. Rufus sat down on his haunches so that he was the same level as the girl and took hold of her chin. "Your mother said you were called Jemmiah. Is that right?" The girl nodded. "This gentleman," he looked behind her to Levinstowe with a slight sneer, "says that you saw what he did to your brother. Is that also true?" The girl nodded again. "Then listen to me. However long you live in this place, however long you last…you never tell anyone what you saw, got that? I mean anyone. Not your mother, not any of the other women." He let go of her chin with a snap. "Because if you do, I swear that day will be your last. I promise you. Understand?" "Yes, sir." Jemmy managed to whisper. "Good." He pointed at the door. "Go in." Jemmy looked uncertainly from Merdan to the slightly ajar door but decided that nothing could be of more importance than getting away from Levinstowe, who'd continued to poke and prod at her all the way back in the speeder. She shakily walked towards the door and pushed upon the wooden surface. Inside, head in hands, sat her mother. "Mamma!" she tried to cry out, but the words wouldn't come. Thena grabbed her daughter and held her so tightly that Jemmy thought she might smother but that no longer mattered. She didn't care if she did smother. If this were her last breath it would be in the arms of her mamma. "Jemmiah, sweetheart. What happened?" Thena asked, holding the child's head between her own hands, tears running down her face. Remembering Merdan's words, Jemmy again just shook her head. "Mamma, I didn't mean to be horrid on the ship. Really I didn't." "I know, honey." She squeezed her again. Jemmiah blocked out the memory of the cliffs and resolved never to think of it again. "I just want to go home." |
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| Angel Wings By Jemmiah |
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