Chereads / Needledrop / Chapter 17 - 14

Chapter 17 - 14

Unsure

Wynnona

I enter Jake's hospital room, fully ready to get Billy's help in dragging Giovanni with us to his planet. A part of me is nervous. Being a fancy person with authority is strange. I'm so used to being the stupid girl that wears the same two outfits, dropped out of school, and fights for a living. The bruises on my knuckles have since faded.

Billy told us that the only things we needed to bring was ourselves and something to change into for sleep. I may have brought more than that, but it's not like I don't trust him. I have a bad feeling about this. I stop by my shared room with Brett and Keya to make sure they are ready to go. As I am leaving, I see a soft glow coming from the hidden pocket of my leather jacket. I turn back to the two and pull the book from my pocket. The orange stone has lit up, filling the room with its soft glow.

"Guys." I say to get their attention. They both turn to me and instantly turn their attention to the glowing stone. Something about this stone lighting up feels different. I look to Keya; her eyes betray the wide smile she is giving us.

"This means we are one step closer." She says in a cheery voice, but both Brett and I see through it. We know her far too well. I ignore this however and play along with her act.

"Whatever lies after is unknown territory." Brett says softly. "Maybe it's not too late to turn back." That's when I noticed his bag was not actually packed.

"What's going on Smith?" I ask him as the stone goes back to black and tuck the book into my pocket.

"Nothing, I just have a bad feeling about this." He says defensively. I make a mental note of it but don't push the subject.

"Finish getting packed, I'll be back in twenty minutes." I tell them, giving Brett a sharp look. I leave and head across the hall towards Oriana's room. I open the door and groan aloud at the scene before me. "Why does this keep happening to me!" I half shout half sigh in frustration.

Oriana has Lillian pinned against one of the walls of the room. Both women are without their shirts. Lillian's hands are about to undo Oriana's bra and Oriana's hands are down Lillian's sweatpants. Oriana has her head buried in Lillian's neck leaving obvious bites and bruises. The same spots that Jake has litter Lillian's body. They glow a soft blue as her head is tossed back, a deep silvery blush taking over her cheeks.

"What's up, Wynnona?" Oriana asks, not lifting her head or changing their positions. I hear a soft, strangled moan come from Lillian and don't miss the slight smirk on her face.

"Twenty minutes, then we leave." I tell them with an annoyed voice. I leave the room and close the door, heading to the hospital wing. I get there and hear soft voices from Jake's room.

"I am just saying you have spent a week morning the loss of your fuck buddy. He's dead and gone, get over it. We have a job to do." I instantly recognize Inezze voice. My anger flares at her words, an anger I learned was given to me from my father, Florence.

"He is more then a fuck buddy." It breaks my heart so much to hear the fight in Giovanni gone. His words were soft, a whisper. I can imagine him curled up in his chair, blanket wrapped around his shoulders, hand locked around Jake's pale, still hand. Over the past week Giovanni and I had gotten much closer to one another. I am starting to view him as a brother and let him in. I drop my guards around him.

"Enough, this is getting ridiculous." I hear her footsteps move further into the room.

"Please no." Giovanni begs weakly. That's when I come into the room. I see Inezze grey hand reach for the cord that is keeping Jake's life-support online. I grab one of my paper-thin throwing knives and toss it at her hand, crossing my arms after and leaning against the door frame. The small blade cuts the top of her hand, landing in the wall just above the cord.

"I suggest you don't." I tell her with a snarky smile, my eyes setting a heated glare on her.

"This doesn't involve you my dear, please walk away." Inezze speaks sweetly, the way you would to a child.

"No. I happen to think you need to leave." I growl at her. "Giovanni is in love with Jake, simple as that. So what they both happen to be men. Their love is true and real and strong. There is no reason for you to hate them so much. You speak of solitude and loneliness, how love is a weakness, but you yourself have fallen in love with someone. The proof of that is standing right before you." She looks stunned by my words. I am stunned by my words. "You've no right to force your child into the lifestyle you have chosen for yourself. He has a right to love and happiness as does everybody else." I find myself out of breath, my heart pounding. Where'd that come from? She storms past me and out the door after staring at me for a minute in silence. I look back at Giovanni who looks worse than when I left him this morning. His eyes are bloodshot, tears stain his cheeks, large purple begs are under his blue eyes, he looks like shit. His hand is clutching onto Jake's tighter.

"Thank you." His voice is soft and hoarse. An idea pops into my head at that moment.

"I'll make you a deal." He nods along to my words. "You come with me to this dinner and I will transfer Jake into my ship. Dayna will be able to watch over him and it will keep him safe from anyone wishing him harm." His eyes light up softly and I can't help but smile. He agrees and we call in Billy, getting his help in transferring Jake.

"Good afternoon Wynnona." Dayna speaks as we enter. "Welcome home Giovanni." He gives me a soft smile at Dayna's words.

"The medical bay is this way." I tell them as I lead the way. We get Jake onto one of the comfy beds and hook him up to the ship, his life-support connected to Dayna now. "Take good care of him Dayna." I command softly to the AI.

"Of course." Is her response.

"I'll go pack you a bag." I tell Giovanni as he settles into the warm chair next to the bed. I made sure to give him a comfy one that reclines so he can sleep properly tonight. I leave to get the others and pack a bag of stuff for Giovanni. While I'm going through his dresser, I find a bundle of polaroid's. Each is of Giovanni as he ages. It starts with him as a little baby and ends with a photo of him and Jake, Jake showing off the ring on his hand. After the pictures I find an old camera and a large bundle of paper, I assume it's for the camera. The camera is pale blue and has obviously been fixed several times.

I decide to pack everything in the bag I have.

I leave the room and meet everyone on my ship, giving the bag to Giovanni as I go by the room. I get to the central control unit and start up the ship, leaving the landing pad we are on. I put in the coordinates and leave the ship to travel at lightspeed. Keya is investigating the ship to a fuller extent with Brett. Oriana and Lillian are nowhere to be seen. Probably finishing what I walked in on earlier. I decide to go take a nap.

My mind has been focused on the vision I had a while back, mainly my own death and the girl I was with. From what I saw we were being rather intimate. A part of me longs to meet the girl I saw myself with in the vision, but another part is more focused on not dying in the time it takes to meet her. Something about this meeting also feels off to me. I can't quite place it, but something isn't right. And what is the orange stones challenge? What does orange represent again?

I decided I can't sleep because of my racing thoughts. I take a breath and grab a book I brought with me from earth. I don't regret not bringing all my books, this place had a huge library of books. I open the old pages and pick up from where I left off in my book. After a couple hours of reading we are close to our destination. I leave the room, heading back to being in control of the ship. A communication comes through to the ship, one I answer quickly.

"This is Néa Elpída requesting to land." I say through the communications system, reading a piece of paper sitting beside the system with the Greek words for 'new hope' written out. They allow me to land, so I maneuver the ship through the planet's atmosphere and onto a landing area. I hear a gasp behind me and see Keya gazing out the window at the beautiful planet before us.

The clouds are a fluffy, soft pink. The sky looks like it is a constant state of sunset, the soft oranges, deep reds, light pinks, and glowing amber lighting the sky. The ground is a bright turquoise with patches of deep green and crystal blue. People that were like Billy walked around, men without shirts and women with simple tops on. It was absolutely fantastic. Someone on the ground led my ship to a landing spot right next to the magnificent medieval looking castle that is just as brightly coloured as the rest of the planet. I land the ship, and everyone files off, me being the last. Lillian had somehow managed to get Giovanni away from Jake and dressed. I give him a smile that he returns slightly.

"He'll be okay. I will make sure to lock up the ship." I promise as I do just that. I come back to his side and wind my fingers through his, giving him a reassuring squeeze. The air of the planet smells like lavender and other fresh flowers. Billy stretches out his hands motioning to the planet with them.

"Welcome to Fladenra, my home planet." He says to us with a cheery smile. Someone comes over to our group wearing a fancy looking shirt.

"You must be the champions." He looks up from his clipboard and is shocked by our size. "I will admit, I was expecting three of you not seven of you." Billy and I both break into a fit of laughter at his shock. He glares at us then motions for us to follow him. We do and he leads us into the luxurious castle. People were separated into groups of two, a woman and her escort, excluding Oriana and Lillian. They had a room to themselves. Brett and Keya were together which left Giovanni and I to a room.

"I will never understand how this is supposed to work." I grumble, falling onto the bed with a sigh of annoyance. Giovanni smiles slightly at me, looking around the room. Hanging in the walk-in closet of the room are two outfits. A nice black suit for Giovanni with a black tie and golden button-down shirt. Beside it was a black dress with a gold thing around the waist of it. I glare at the card hanging on the hanger with my name on it. I go to look in the large bathroom to find the counter full of makeup.

"Wanna trade roles?" I ask Giovanni. He glares at me and starts to get dressed in his nice suit. I grumble and go to grab the dress, hiding myself in the bathroom. I start to undress and put the hell creation on.

The dress is actually really nice once it's on my body. The dress is black, the top has an added layer of sparkly tool. A slim thing of gold rests around my neck, the front and back of the top attached to it. The top is tight around my chest until my waist, where it flares out, the same layering of black fabric then a layer of shimmery tool over it. The front of the dress ended just above my knees, the back ending halfway down my quads. Around my waist is a golden belt of flowers that cascade down the right side of the dress. There are no sleeves leaving my arm bare to the chill of the fading light outside.

I have no idea what to do with my hair or the make up sitting on the counter. Just then there is a knock at the door. In walks Lillian once I open the door.

"I figured you'd want these and some help." Lillian gives me a knowing look as she hands me a pair of shimmery black heels. They looked to be four inches high with straps one either side of the centre going up to the ankle. The toes were open and the middle of the shoe where the straps met were laced together by a thin black strip of leather.

"Do I have to?" I whined like a child as I examined the heels. Giovanni smirked at me from the doorway to the bathroom he was leaning against.

"Yes." Him and Lillian said at the same time. I let out a sigh of frustration and annoyance before sitting in the chair offered to me. Lillian gets to work on my hair and make up while I put the hell creation on. After two hours of complaining and Lillian shooing Giovanni away, she's done. I look in the mirror only being able to stare in awe of myself. The girl before me looks like a completely different person.

The hair has a slight curl to it, the thick locks tamed by Lillian. It has been left to fall in the regular style, a chunk of my hair longer than the rest of my hair hangs over my right eye, hiding the violet eye from sight. My makeup is light and simple. A beep garnet brown colour is around my eyes making them pop. The brown is smoked with a simple soft gold eyeliner that further makes my eyes pop. My lips were painted a soft, deep red colour challenging my hair for which was darker. I looked like an actual woman with curves and beauty instead of my intimidating, dirty, figureless self I am so used to. The scars across most of my body and my arm tattoos were visible in the dress, but that didn't take away from the beauty I didn't know I possessed up until now.

"Wow." Giovanni breaths from the doorway. I turn and look at him, realizing he was rather handsome himself after his skin regained the colour it had lost, and his eyes no longer had deep purple bags under them.

"This is insanity." I breathe out. "I am not some fancy, pretty girl." I hug myself, trying my best to hide my figure again, and stare at the ground embarrassed by the attire. Giovanni comes over to me, gently pulls my head up by my chin so I will look at him.

"You are beautiful, no one or thing will change that. You should be proud of who you are, looks and all." He speaks softly to me, placing a light kiss to my forehead. "Besides, I'd be worried about you if you didn't have any insecurities." He pokes my stomach teasingly. He pulls away when I smile and hands me a small bag. In it is Athena and a couple other things, like my throwing knives.

With that he offers me his hand, one I take and give a squeeze. We headed out of the room towards the dining room the guy from earlier showed us where it was. I can't help the sinking feeling in my stomach, a usual warning from my instincts to be careful. That something bad is going to happen.