Jade entered the community bathroom, the facility dark. Long shadows were cast across the floor as she entered, feeling uncomfortable without her armor protecting her vulnerable flesh. She shivered, her bare feet slapping against the wet ground. She peered down the aisle of showers.<\/p>\n
\u201cHello?\u201d she called. When no one answered, she turned and locked the door to the bathroom. Anyone needing to shower would have to wait.<\/p>\n
Jade let her towel fall to the ground and looked over her naked flesh. How easily that woman had torn through her armor. How easily she had ripped and mutilated her flesh. Jade\u2019s eyes closed as a shiver licked her spine. She couldn\u2019t let this happen again.<\/p>\n
She strode over to the first stall, opening the door to the shower and starting the water. Despite being alone in a locked bathroom, she still felt the need to close the shower door and lock it as well.<\/p>\n
The water warmed up fast due to the nature of the desert planet. Steam rose around her ankles and quickly filled the stall. Jade stepped into the water and felt it run across her freckled skin.<\/p>\n
The water rushed over the contours of her back, bubbling over the upraised scar tissue. She closed her eyes and lifted her face towards the water, trying to wash away the memories and the fear.<\/p>\n
The doctors had called it the Lichtenberg design. Whatever the hell that meant. The scars spread out as it followed the blood vessels in her back, the lightning burning them and making a perfect trail for A\u2019doxia\u2019s blade to follow.<\/p>\n
Jade felt A\u2019doxia\u2019s cold hand touch her back and her lips near Jade\u2019s ear. \u201cWhat beautiful skin, Private.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jade whirled around, throwing herself against the back wall and out of the water. Her heart thundered in her ears and her eyes flickered back and forth, wild. She covered herself, terrified of what might happen if A\u2019doxia found something else that she found beautiful.<\/p>\n
But there was no one there. No one stood with her in the stall. Jade slumped against the wall, her heart slowing.<\/p>\n
She would never let herself be tortured like this again. She would never be vulnerable again.<\/p>\n
Jade forced herself back into the water, doing her best to keep her mind away from what had happened just a week ago. She hadn\u2019t been on patrols since then. She hadn\u2019t seen Aris. She had been kept in the hospital ward for a while until her outbursts of terror seemingly passed. Jade learned how to fake being sane. Jade learned how to be strong. Jade learned to be alone.<\/p>\n
Jade closed her eyes as they started to burn from unwanted tears.<\/p>\n
A knock came at the bathroom door and Jade\u2019s eyes shot open. \u201cLet me in!\u201d Someone shouted. \u201cThis is a public bathroom!\u201d<\/p>\n
Jade\u2019s shoulders rose to her face protectively, like they would if she were about to fight. She reached up and ran her hand through her unwashed red hair, feeling the water wash away the sand and grease that had collected there. It was Aris who stood outside that door, angrily demanding to be let in.<\/p>\n
Jade reached and felt the scars on her back. Her flesh itched at her touch. She ran her fingers across the curves and lines of scars. For a moment, she was reminded of how A\u2019doxia touched her. Soft and gentle, running her fingers across the open wounds in her back and licking her fingers free of Jade\u2019s blood. Jade jerked her hand away and swallowed hard, tears burning at her eyes. She wouldn\u2019t let this happen.<\/p>\n
Never again.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jade walked out of the stall after Aris and other angry women had left to go get dressed and talk to an officer. She pulled her shorts on and a large, baggy shirt over her head. She grabbed her sunglasses and placed them over her eyes to keep them hidden. They fogged up instantly, but it didn\u2019t bother her much. She peeked out the door, saw no one there, and strode down the underground hallway. She turned right down the next, then left, then right again. Eventually she arrived at the dorms. The second one on the left was the one she shared with Aris.<\/p>\n
Jade opened the door and peered inside, seeing Aris pull at shirt over her head and cursing under her breath about no-good bathroom hogs. She turned around at the sound of the door opening and her face went slack.<\/p>\n
\u201cJade?\u201d She stood frozen, uncertain of what to do. Jade walked inside and closed the door behind her.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, Aris.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aris eyed Jade, still uncertain of whether she should hug the cold-shouldered woman or leave her be. \u201cWhere have you been? I haven\u2019t seen you in a week.\u201d<\/p>\n
So they didn\u2019t tell her Jade was in the medical ward. Just like Jade had asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got caught in a sand storm when I was out in patrol. I managed to get underground through one of the collapsed tunnel systems and stayed alive long enough to get back.\u201d She smiled. \u201cLuckily I didn\u2019t run into any Thrax.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aris\u2019 face lit up with worry. \u201cYou were\u2014oh Vix, I\u2019m so happy you\u2019re okay. I was so worried.\u201d Deciding against leaving Jade be, Aris rushed forward to hug her. Jade put her hands on Aris\u2019 shoulders and pushed her aside.<\/p>\n
\u201cUm.\u201d Jade muttered, shifting uncomfortably. Aris pulled away and smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just happy you\u2019re okay.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah. So am I.\u201d Jade\u2019s eyes flickered to the space to Aris\u2019 left, where A\u2019doxia stood, smirking. \u201cSo am I.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jade entered the community bathroom, the facility dark. Long shadows were cast across the floor as she entered, feeling uncomfortable without her armor protecting her vulnerable flesh. She shivered, her bare feet slapping against the wet ground. She peered down the aisle of showers. \u201cHello?\u201d she called. When no one…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[197],"tags":[29,172,122,173,82,158,157,68,179,184,178,185,114],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p27tjX-eZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=929"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":930,"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929\/revisions\/930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}