- the thing happening to her...Her being judged in front of the elders, with the final verdict as the last line of the chapter
As she blinked her eyes open, Lina found herself back inside the safety of her star.
"Chase?" Her voice was coarse. Upon hearing its scratchy sound, Lina brought one hand up to her throat and pushed herself up with the other.
"Yes, Miss. Lina?"
She smiled when she heard Chase's automated voice. It had always comforted her, made her feel safe and welcomed. It reminded her of her home where no one was telling her what to do and no one cared about how she acted or looked.
"How did I get here?" She stood up off of the bed and walked over to her mirror beside the closet. Her hair hadn't been tampered with, but she was wearing only undergarments. The only weird thing was they weren't the same ones that she had previously wore.
"What?" She mumbled to herself as she looked down at her outfit. Her eyes widened to their fullest extent when she saw her legs. She ran her hands down them, and was absolutely furious when she found that they had been cleanly shaven.
"Fuck!" She winced as she shouted; the loud noise upset her head.
"Language Miss."
"Yeah, yeah. It's just...I mean, you know how much this meant to me. Ugh."
When she realized that this wasn't the only thing the elders found irritable about her appearance, she removed her bra and underwear. She lifted her arms and checked in the mirror to see if they had also been shaved. Then, she looked down past her hips to find that the only hair that remained on her body was on her head.
"That bitch." Lina whispered as a tear streamed down her cheek.
She pulled her underwear back on and stormed out of her star.
"Miss-" Chance began to protest to her actions, but was unable to before she made her way out the door.
The doors to the Chapel burst open, causing all of the elders inside to jump. Lina walked past the man now presenting a case to the elders and stood in the middle of the room. Tears were ready to flood out of her eyes, but she wouldn't allow them to.
"M-mis...You can't be he-here unless you are decent" One of the younger males among the elders stood up and turned away as he spoke to Lina.
She completely ignored him and was searching for the elder she had been with yesterday, or earlier in the day. She didn't know which.
Once she spotted her, she stomped over to her seat and stood less than a few feet away from her face as she began speaking.
"How could you do this to me?" Her voice wavered as her throat tightened.
"Do what, Miss?" She tilted her head in confusion.
Lina chuckled wryly. "Violate me. To this extreme. That's going too far." She backed up from the elder's spot and stood once again in the center of the room.
"Proper language, Miss." A woman on the council spoke from across the room.
"Oh, eat me." The woman gasped as did many of the other council members when Lina responded.
"Listen, I know that none of you like me all that much, and only use me for whatever smarts you think I have, but you can't disrespect someone like that. You took something precious from me. Something that made me who I am and proved that I'm different than all of you douchebags."
"Miss! You cannot speak that way to the elders! Show some respect and decency!" A woman from the side of the room shouted over to Lina and threw a clean undershirt at her that landed a few inches from her feet.
Lina stared down at the shirt and was able to feel her heart pound inside her chest. She felt her body getting hot and knew that she was about to do something she was going to regret.
She looked up at the woman and smiled sarcastically before slightly lowering her head and spitting on the cloth.
"No thanks."
"Miss, we will not warn you again. Apologize and fix your attitude!"
"I won't. I'm not sorry and I should be allowed to act however the hell I want to act." Even without raising her voice, Lina was able to completely shock each and every person in the room with her behavior.
"Then it's final. You aren't welcome here anymore."
"Thank you, I couldn't want anything more than that at the moment."
"You will be gone by morning, and are hereby banished to Quadrant 1.187.4." Lina was taken aback by the elder's orders.
"Wh-what?" Lina leaned forward expecting an elaboration.
"Leave." The elder's words became cruel and cold to the point that Lina actually felt afraid. "Now girl. Or you will be removed." Two men in the back of the room holding large white sticks stepped forward. Their faces were concealed by silver reflective masks that covered their whole face.
"Someone will visit your star tomorrow at dawn. If you aren't gone, you will be imprisoned. If I were you...I would hurry to pack your things."
"How do I eve-" Lina began but was cut off by the irritated woman.
"Your instructions were already uploaded to a small device. Here." She tossed a thin rectangular device over the desk. It slid across the floor and hit Lina in the foot. She starred down at the black screen, then leaned down and picked it up.
"Good riddance, bitches." Lina turned around and left the Chapel, leaving the doors wide open behind her.