The cabin has remained silent since they stepped in. Both sisters had their lips heavied with words usaid and yet their minds despaired with what to say first and how to say it. In the end their self blame and guilt had played a good role in keeping their lips shut tight
"Lois..."
"Lala... "
However it seems they'd both decided to be bold enough in defeating their tense minds and tight lips. And yet the collision of their words brought back the silence they'd driven away.
The night had grown cold and silent in their cabin, after managing to escape all three inspections. The two sisters were both so good at their disguise, a new discovery for the both of them. They'd never worked together as a team, even while they stayed in Kantama, in the same shabby home.
And yet today, they had managed to fit in so well with the people on the ship, and no one questioned them or spared them a suspicious glance.
They just realized as they laid on the floors of their cabin in the tense silence that,
days had gone by so fast leaping into several weeks and then months but the memories of their estranged past still lingered,... Back then,Lara had to wait patiently for Lois to set off to her daily hurdles, she would let her eyes linger on the guard's suit Kanta had bestowed upon her sister. In her heart she vowed that one day she'd also be a permanent worker, she would also own a gun and stand tall and firm as a guard, she would be as strong as Lois, as bold and as fierce and even if she couldn't match her sharpness and her cold agility, she could still learn to be a tiny bit as cool as her if she worked harder.
Truly, she disliked being left behind or left out even if it was by her elder sister. She'd seen how her maa's eyes would glaze with pride while she watch Lois leave the house, she had admired that too. She wanted to be looked at that way, with that much pride. And so she would quietly watch as her sister leaves the run down apartment, make sure their maa was soundly asleep before she set off to achieve that goal. She'd leave to find simple subtle jobs and put her all into it, she fulfilled all her missions, got the recognition she'd worked so hard for and finally she was about to receive a reward for that. If only she had completed Dante's gig.
She had so much to talk about, so much to say, conversations long halted by the unfortunate event.
And as they laid on the comfortable beds, their eyes refused to give in to the darkness. And their lips shut tight, patched and voiceless.
The soft rays of the moon peeked through the shifted curtains. The ship was as luxurious as people whispered it be. It was totally different from the slave ships she'd so often spotted on the shores.
However even in that comfort, their eyes remained so wide, questions and unspoken words thickening the air they gulped in huge sighs.
And just when they decided to break the silence, their minds seemed to have been in sinc with their decisions, their lips moving to word their issues at the same time.
"you talk first. " Lara whispered to her elder sister.
And after a brief silence, Lois's dimmed voice reached her ears. .
"Lara, I ...had been ... I was.. I wanted to tell you... Before.."
Maybe it's been too long that she had forgotten how Lois used to be. However she was sure she'd never seen her stumble so much in her speech, her head dipped at the possibility of a scolding coming her way, maybe Lois hated her so much she couldn't find the words to describe the terrible feeling. Maybe she'd loose the only support she now had too. The possible maybes grew along with each clock tick within the dim cabin. However after a few suffocating moments, Lois's dimmed voice reached her lowered ears again saying words so much in contrast to what she'd thought she would hear.
" Sorry, Lala , I wanted to say that I'm sorry and that I didn't mean what I said. When I called you a nuisance, I didn't mean that. "
Lois could be prideful annoying and several other things, however she had her gentleness hidden underneath that cold facade and she knew that. She might have said those hurtful words in the past, but she knew, she'd always known she hadn't meant it that way.
"I know." She was at fault back then too, if only she'd just listened.
"I should've listened to you back then. "
"No, you were just trying to help. I should've seen that, we both have the right. .. had the right to take care of maa."
The name of their lost comfort slipping out her mouth ones again engulfed their cabin in deep silence. No one uttered a word for a long time.
"I'm glad we didn't return to that chaos though. If Martha had another one of those rascals I'd have jumped off the roof this time. "
Lara's words were awfully off the topic that encompassed them in their tense silence, however it was her way of trying to losen the stiffened air around them.
They'd lived in a broken down apartment in the slums. Their maa had made sure they never ended up out on the streets, by the gutters or in the alleys like the others. She was the strongest and the most resilient mother she'd seen. She didn't loose the small settlement to the thugs even when paa died, even while she grieved, even while she had them as her greatest distraction, she held on tight she held on long enough, she did so well. And finally when they'd grown old enough to hustle too, her body had given up on her. Turns out, their maa held on for far too long.
However, the shaggy apartment was occupied by several shabby people too. They did deeds far more shameful to keep staying in the not so warm lodging.
And Martha was one of those tough willed women. Everyday a different thug walked through her doors and into her bed. The same thugs that loitered around the shady and dark alleys and the streets she'd sneak out to. Doing the same risky deeds they did. Before she had aged enough to walk the streets of Kanta in search of gigs, she was a petty thief, a friend of the night. Although, stealing from the dwellers of the slums was the most risky game one could play.
The reason was simple, really. The dwellers of the slums who were still privilege enough to live in shabby studios and run down apartments like they did, undertook all sorts of backhanded and shady jobs to keep their stay. Imagine trying to take from someone like that. They weren't as willing to let go as the folks from Kantar, the guards, the traders, the dealers, and the better dwellers surrounding the masters, the lackeys, and the dogs of the big bosses. She hadn't imagined ever taking from a master or a big boss though. She'd only entertained the idea when she saw the legendary E•card.
Back in the apartments, she had had to watch the same men she'd hurdle over victims with each night walk in and out of Martha's door. She wasn't the only one who did such degrading pass downs. Several other women joined her endeavours in the slums and in the various studios in the barely standing apartments. However Martha was the only one who'd deliberately produce a little one out of her endeavours. Every other sane person had questioned her once or twice about her terrible decisions. Who birthed so many little rascals in Kantama? And all she'd say in response was that, she was raising a strong team of future money makers. In the end the entirety of their shady street had to live with little rascals who caused mayhem for everyone, they were a menace to the thugs, to the prostitutes, the cons, and when they ventured into the markets, and the other towns, the slave masters had to hold back so many times from trading one of them.
They were everywhere, Martha's little rascals. The loitered around the gutters, down the sewage systems, on the roofs, damaged roads, intersection, broken down apartments, the thug's street, meandering roads that lead to Kanta,in the dark alleys and if you weren't so lucky, you'd come home to find one of them hiding sneakily in your closet, listening in on conversations and watching quietly, waiting for the information that would get them their money and when they do get a bit on you, you'd be sucked dry of every penny you made that day or from whatever endeavours you wished to keep hidden and even then, you couldn't be so sure they weren't gonna sell you out or come back for more. They were the worst beings that dwelled in the thug's slums.
And they took everything, disrupted everything, made a mess of everything, sadly she had sometimes had to bear the burnt of their ruthlessness. She had paid them a couple of times to not interrupt her 'unpermitted takings'. If there was anyone else she'd been so grateful to get away from, it would be Martha and her little rascals.
"She had another one."
The subtle voice of her sister reached her wandering mind.
"What?"
She had completely forgotten her sister's existence. Reminiscing about the days gone by, entranced her. She wondered how she had lived without them all those months. 'Something else occupied your mind.' A soft mocking voice quipped in her head. She quickly smashed and shut it away. Yes, she had been so selfish and shameless, so desperate to leave it all behind, to erase them, her disturbing past. She had been ruthless. But she wasn't going to think of that now, her misdeeds could lay aside. Now, she just wanted to be here, with her sister, the one who'd risked it all to save her. And she didn't dare to question her on what desperate measures she'd taken to gather all the information and help needed to achieve that.
"Martha, ...she had another little vixen."
"That shameless hag, I knew that bum on her was not the pregnancy fat she'd claimed it was."
"Yeah, really, thank God we didn't have to return to that hell hole. " Lois sighed in frustration too.
"I wonder why those senseless thugs walk onto her bed. Do they not feel the frustration of seeing all those rascals wandering the same streets as them, grappling for the victims you work so hard to stalk? F*ck they don't even know which one of the little rascals might be their actual kid." Lara had always thought those thugs probably lost their minds.
"She's the cheapest and they aren't responsible for them, it's logical, that they'll walk into her bed. " Lois answered reasonably.
"Yeah logical, but still very f*cked up."
" You still love cursing I see."
"And you still don't know how to vent your frustrations, I see."
" There is another way of venting frustrations you know?"
" Ah, yes, let me guess, punching a gravel bag? No thank you. I want to learn to fight not disfigure my arms and break my precious fingers."
" Eases up the frustration though. Still wanna learn to fight?"
" Yep, and I want to learn to use a gun too. A pity we never had one of our own. Lucky you, you'd been given a rifle as a guard, were you not? At least you got to hold one, what did I get, a rusty pocket knife!"
" I've held several guns too. Not just one."
" Aye, are you showing off right now? Where did that come from huh? You still are such a tease, damn why does everyone have to bully me. And where in the world did you get the chance to handle so many firearms?"
Maybe she'd been too annoyed to notice the deep silence that'd settled in the room, it had only lingered for a while, the weird expression on Lois's face too, however anyone who saw Lois now would know she'd just been disturbed by a thought or several thoughts and maybe most of them had to do with a particular white haired and silver eyes hunk . A fighter far stronger than she could ever be, someone she could never defeat and was definitely gonna gut her open if he found them. And maybe that was why she'd quickly collected her thoughts, Lara couldn't find out about that. They were surely going to escape, he'd only be a memory, a character belonging to a forgotten past. Her secret gamble. She felt so guilty for taking her time to find Lara, she couldn't possibly let her know about that... person.
"I can teach you."
"Really?!"
Seeing the glint in her sister's eyes, she wondered how she had lived through those months without this daily routine. She had missed teasing her little sister and ensuring the little glow that only burned within her sister never burned out. Lara was a joy, the break she had from the darkness she ventured into during the day. Seeing the silly girl still grin and give out such energetic positivity in Kantama had not only amazed her maa but her too. Maybe she had been too blinded by her envy to realize she enjoyed her little sisters stubborn and rebellious nature. Somehow she found a way to light up the deepest darkness, a darkness she hadn't escaped., Lara might be the only one who did, she snatched the light from the lone moon in the skies and dared to disperse it in the presence of the darkness that swallowed their former home - Kantama. And that little idiot didn't even realize it, she wasn't even trying, and it wasn't by intention, lara just glowed that way. Maa was their comfort, her comfort however Lala was her joy, her cheer. Maa would be so proud of the both of them now. Somehow, they'd both escaped Kantama's dark and brutal claws. She had clawed and crawled, she had tried so hard, done so much, to ensure she wasn't drugged underneath all that filt, to make her Maa proud, to see her little bundle of joy not loose her glow. She had escaped, she survived it, even if it was in the most gruesome way, she did. And she'd brought her sister out of it too. She had her lala here with her too. On their ride to freedom and no one was going to stop them.
"Yes, I'll teach you to protect yourself. And yes, I'll teach you to use a gun too."
" Really?! Wait...But we don't have a gun."
"We're on a ship full of masters Lala, a gun wouldn't be so hard to find."
" Ah that's right, they can afford those."