To find out if there's hope at the end

Warning: There is a description of rape within this chapter. If you know you need to, skip ahead.

Aurora sat in the bathtub, which now held the mixture James had gotten from the two men who they knew watched their movement. A smooth helmet, riveted together through rugged punctures, sat afloat in the water. Sally could make out extremely fine needles inside from her seat on the toilet. Aurora followed her stare and held it up.

"It's the best I could do here...but it worked. They don't hurt, if you're wondering."

Sally gave a confused look. "How could they not?"

"Well...they're meant not to. They poke in at specific areas. These", she tapped the clear spots along her head that would so often glow with color. "are um...emotion nodes? I can't think of a better way to say it. They don't bleed, because they don't have veins. The larger ones are like...vents. The mix of adenosine and saline is carried directly to my brain."

"And it doesn't hurt at all?"

Aurora shook her head, setting the helmet afloat in the water again. "No, they're too thin and sharp."

Sally nodded, and the two shared an awkward silence. Neither one perfectly sure of how to ease into the topic. Aurora took a deep breath, her nodes shifting into the same sick green. "I...suppose I'll start with how it began."

Sally bit her lip. "...Okay. Just...take time to breathe when you need to."

Aurora gave a nod. "Thanks... I uh... Well, I only turned 26 close to a year ago. For us, that's like turning 18. I'd heard from our pod's ambassador how gorgeous it is out here...how much space there is. He talked about the placement program and I couldn't resist. I've always loved knowing more. I signed up. It only took a month to be matched with a home...a husband and wife. They told them they had decided to be a home for a Nova, instead of adopt a child. Everything about them seemed to be so perfect...like parents who just wanted to show us they could love us like we already do."

"I take it they didn't stay that way...", Sally guessed with a sour expression.

Aurora shook her head, staring into the water. "No...they did at first. It was wonderful. They treated me like I was genuinely precious to them...and then one day, they tried to lay me down on their bed... I didn't know better until I saw him strip naked... When I struggled, the woman sat on me and she...ripped a hole in my hydration suit. I wish I could understand what they said but... it's still jumbled in my memory. He...he put his penis in my butt. She kept spitting on it...and I felt...so wrong."

She stopped for more than five minutes. Sally got in the water with her and pulled her into a hug. Aurora's entire body had begun to glow and crawl with the gross green color Sally understood meant something horrible. Several iridescent tears fell into the water before she could continue.

"When...when he stopped it was because he...he finished. She ripped up my suit and they threw me in their basement...they only sprayed me down with a hose a couple of times each day...barely fed me...and one day, a few weeks ago, they stopped entirely. And after three days, they came in with just a little bit...she sucked on his penis in front of me. Then she pointed it at me and held my food out...she...she wanted me to do that for my food...when I turned away they left...they didn't give me any water that day.

"Then, they gave me scraps when I turned white. Just...just enough not to kill me...then he came down with another, shorter man. They tried to make me suck on his, too, and when I turned away he grabbed my head and forced my mouth open. I pushed out my teeth, and the shorter man screamed and ran...that night, they soaked me in water. I thought they were giving up at first but...they put this black square on me...a stun gun, I think."

She moved one of her legs, showing two dark spots that had scarred into her inner thigh.

"That was the night I ran away...and ended up here."

Sally couldn't think of any words to say. Instead, she pulled Aurora's head to her chest and held her tight. Slowly, Aurora's tears slowed to a stop and her nodes shimmered a brown and brighter green color.

"Thank you, Sally..."

"Of course.", Sally answered. She'd been choking back her own tears, hearing about it all. "And I promise, I won't tell James."

Aurora nodded, leaning into her new friend. The brown on her chest began to glow.