***The white queen

As Mathilda hid behind the big console, she heard multiple footsteps enter the room. Bewildered she looked around herself.. there seemed to be no way out. There even wasn’t any window in the room.
“FIND HER!” She heard the woman screaming.
Then she saw the white boots on her left.. the horrible man. He tried to grasp her, but she was too quick; almost hyperventilating she ran away from the console. The woman started firing her pistol at her, just in time she let herself fall behind one of the chairs. There seemed to be two stormtroopers in the room now, together with the woman. One of them still had the knife in his right hand; the other had some big lasergun.
Mathilda jumped from chair to chair, playing some kind of hide and seek. She remembered her mum teaching her Holo-chess. She felt like a chess piece herself now, like the queen that was being surrounded by pieces of the opposing site. The white queen..
In a beautiful white dress, with a very wide skirt and a lot of shiny jewels she jumped from square to square, a nice crown on her head: a rope of pearls with a big light blue one hanging on her forehead. Two soldiers and the black queen were chasing her, but she was fast and could go in all directions. If she would only reach the opposite site of the chess board..
The exit of the room came closer and closer. The woman was still shouting. Ok now.. big move. Mathilda jumped up from behind one of the last chairs and started running like hell towards the door. Something cold hit her back, accompanied by a bright red flash. Suddenly it felt as if her body was transferred into some lifeless puppet, which she couldn’t control anymore. It fell on the ground. The two troopers and the woman stood around her, she was lying on the back blinking at the ceiling.. checkmate.

She remembered.. it already felt like a while ago. This man that had taken her for a walk out of the cell, in the base. The suns felt so bright, she had to blink for minutes to get used to it again. She was standing on the ramp, the man was sitting behind her. He had such a pistol as the woman in his hands. He was talking about a lot of things, boring adult things. She didn’t like this man with the long brown hairs; it was as if he didn’t care about things, about life. With her mind she was somewhere else..
This could be a chance.. as she wasn’t in the cell maybe she could escape now. Holding Bantha in her hands she peered around, trying to do this as unnoticeable as possible. To the right, then around the corner..
Then there was this other guy dressed in the same black suit. He appeared from the corner where she was planning to run towards. The man behind her got up. They started talking about her, in adult language. Mathilda sighed, glancing to the right again.
“Well we will probably need a foster family after Aaricia is executed.. her father is too busy as Imperial soldier and her only other relative is a rebel.” She heard the man, who had taken her out, saying.
She frowned, anger growing in her.
“The Empire has good facilities for girls like her. Send her to Compnor would seem likely.” The other man said emotionless.
Glaring Mathilda turned around.
“So Mathilda.. maybe one day you will become a stormtrooper too.” The brown haired man said to her, making a smile.
“I don’t wanna be in a hostfamily and you’ll never execute my mum!” The child yelled, then ran away, holding Bantha in her right hand.
It was hot, panting she ran around the big building.
“STOP!” A voice behind her shouted.
She almost tripped when somebody grabbed her right arm. She pushed the brown-haired man away.
“I HATE YOU!” Sweating she continued running, as hard as possible.
“Join the line.” She heard the man saying. “I hate myself. Just like your mother. Noone likes me.” He started cackling.
Mathilda ran into a wall, she turned around. The man offered a hand to her.
“Come-on now.”
“Cut the chattering and move her back into her cell.” The other man, that was standing a few meters further away from her, said.
“You heard the man.” The brown-haired man said to the girl.
She stuck out her tongue at him, running into him then to the right. Also then she had felt the coldness on her back..
When he had put her back into the cell he had given her a pen and a pack of papers.
“Here, so you can write. When I was a kid I wrote a lot.” He said.
For the first time she smiled at somebody here, but he didn’t notice this. He had already turned around; quickly he closed the forcefield and walked away. She grabbed the papers and sat down on the chair. Holding the pen in her right hand, ready to put letters onto the paper, she stared at the whiteness and emptiness of it.

“Now the horrible man is really mad.” The woman said with a neutral voice.
Feeling faint, leaning with her back against the back wall of the cell, Mathilda stared at her, blinking. She raised an eyebrow.. was it as if this woman had been crying? She looked pretty sad.
The horrible man slowly walked into the cell. This time the forcefield was closed.
She was in the same corner as before, it felt like a déjà vu. Fearfully she stared into the black lenses of his helmet. She recalled her mum saying that under this suit there was a human, like the woman.
“Y.. you are a human.. I know that.” The child said with a hoarse voice.
The stormtrooper stood still for a few seconds, then drew his knife again. He started singing again, swinging the knife between her eyes.
“Which one first?” He asked.
“P.. please don’t hurt me!” She shouted.
The trooper grabbed her doll.
“Nooooo!” Mathilda tried to grab it back. “Don’t hurt Bantha please!”
Tears formed in her eyes.
Not Bantha..
He made a slight carve in it’s belly, a tiny stream of saw-dust started coming out of it.
The girl burst into tears, trembling all over her body.
Then he moved his knife towards her direction again. She opened her mouth to start talking..
“This is enough RK-379.” She heard the voice of the woman. “Keep the doll with you just in case.”
“Yes ma’am.” The knife got put away in it’s holster again, with the wounded and bleeding Bantha in his hands he turned away from her, walking out of the cell.
“From now on you will talk Mathilda. Talk to me, and your doll will live.”
“Ok.” She said quietly.
“Who gave you this beautiful dress?”
She looked at her clothes.. no she wasn’t wearing the beautiful queen’s dress. Comparing to that this dress was boring.
“Mum gave it for my birthday.” She sniffed.
“Oh nice. Did you also get cake on your birthday?”
She nodded. “Y.. yes. Chocolate cake.”
“Ah.” The woman smiled. “I like cake.”
“C.. chocolate is my favorite.” Mathilda said.
“Think about your mum. If you tell me where she is I will get her to take you away from here and together we will eat chocolate cake.” The woman stared at the child for some seconds, that felt like eternity and then suddenly she turned around, walking away.
Feeling confused, tears coming out of her eyes Mathilda stared into the emptiness of the corridor in front of her, on the other side of the forcefield.
Just as empty as paper without something written on it, empty white paper..
The child grabbed another sheet and lying on the mattress, sniffing sadly, she continued writing.
At least she could escape from here somehow..
Once upon a time there was a girl, that together with her mother lived in a beautiful tree-house. But there were more people. She had brothers and sisters, and two fathers. One was from the Empire, and he had long brown hair. Everybody hated him but she didn’t.
Every room was on another branch, the branches were so wide that you could walk easily on them. If you looked down it was so high that you could barely see the ground. Sometimes there were even clouds below the house..