Lynx observed with mild interest as the artificial sun stretched over the glittering skyline of Utopia. A stark reminder of the bright lights and blinding luxury that so heavily contrasted with what became of her life.
'Another fucking day, huh?' The woman silently asked herself as she took a sip of water from her cup.
The worst of the previous night's withdrawal episode had finally passed. But even so, the very skin around the woman's body still felt too tight for her liking. It was the kind of sensation that made her feel as though she would suffocate at any given moment.
At this point, Lynx couldn't tell if it was the withdrawal symptoms slowly choking the life out of her or the memories. The sharp, unwanted reminders of her previous life. The ones that kept coming back to her with brutal force at the most inopportune moments.
She honestly couldn't tell the difference anymore.
For a moment, the woman's hands twitched. And an old craving had once again gnawed at the back of her mind. One that constantly reminded her of a visceral hunger that clawed beneath her skin, making it feel like she was going to crawl out of it at any moment. It had been three weeks since she'd had any real sort of relief from the pain. The treatments, effective though they may have been, didn't last forever. And Lynx didn't know how much longer she would be able to hold out before her next fix. Even so, the woman couldn't afford to slip up now. Especially not with the new job that she had agreed to last night.
On the surface, it was a simple operation. Stealing some files from a big-time corporate executive was exactly the kind of thing that she was used to. On top of that, the payout was going to be enough for her to leave this nightmare behind. And to finally escape both the chains of addiction and the suffocating glamour of this god-forsaken colony. This job was exactly what Lynx needed to start fresh somewhere far away from Utopia. A place where her name didn't mean anything and where she wouldn't have to constantly look over her shoulder.
It was enough to give her a way out.
Once again, the woman's mind began to wander, as it always did, to a place she couldn't escape from. A place she'd been running from her whole life.
After a deep sigh, Lynx closed her eyes and let the memories flood her mind. Just like they always did whenever she finally felt comfortable enough to let her guard down.
-(o)-
The middle area of Utopia was a far cry from the polished surfaces of the luxury colony's resorts and high-rise hotels. It was the kind of place where the streets were lined with faded neon signs, dusty alleyways, and people who had long since given up on the idea of making it big. It wasn't a place for the weak and helpless. Here in the middle area, only the strong survived. The rest just got eaten alive. And those who were smart left as soon as the opportunity presented itself.
Just like her mother had done.
Lynx still remembered the day her mother walked out of their family's modest little apartment for the last time. It was a cold morning, one when the air felt thick with uncertainty. Lynx was only eight years old at the time. Her hair was still tangled from the previous night's sleep, and her bare feet felt cold against the metallic floor. She had woken up only to find her mother hurriedly packing her things into a duffel bag. All while he sound of zippers and rustling fabric filled their small living room.
"I'm leaving." The woman had said without even bothering to look at her daughter. "I refuse to be stuck here any longer."
Lynx's young mind didn't really understand at the time. The girl just stood there, clutching the corner of her blanket while staring at her mother with wide eyes. "What do you mean, Mommy? Where are you going?"
Her mother didn't answer. She didn't even look up. She just continued stuffing her clothes into the bag as if Lynx weren't even there.
Her father had been in the next room at the time, half-drunk and passed out in his bed. But even at her young age, Lynx knew that even if he had been awake, the man wouldn't have tried to stop her mother from leaving. He simply didn't have the strength. He was a man long broken by a lifetime of chaos and bad choices. A man whose life revolved around sex, cheap drugs, and the fleeting warmth of wealthy women who never cared about him enough to stick around.
Her father was a prostitute, the special kind who catered to the lonely yet powerful men and women of Utopia who could afford to pay for his time, but not his love. He'd always told Lynx that it was just a job, just another way to survive. But Lynx had known, even as a child, that survival wasn't the same thing as living. And in their world, they were just as disposable as the people who paid for her father's services. Disposable, forgotten, and discarded.
Her mother's departure had pretty much set the tone for the rest of Lynx's life. Abandoned, left with nothing but the faint memory of a woman who couldn't deal with being tied down by a child she could only see as a hindrance to her goals. A woman who was too busy chasing after her own version of success to care about the family she'd left behind. A selfish bitch who didn't even have the decency to say goodbye.
-(o)-
By the time Lynx was thirteen, her father had become a shell of the man he once was. His skin had turned grey, his eyes grew dull, and his gaze became distant. And although his clients continued to pay for his services, it was clear that the man wasn't going to be around for much longer.
That was around the same time when Lynx began running errands for the local street gang. All while using that time to learn how to navigate the back alleys of Utopia's underbelly as if it were second nature to her. The group paid her well, sometimes with money, and sometimes with drugs. But despite her less-than-stellar circumstances, Lynx actually enjoyed the work. And every job came with the satisfaction of knowing she was one of the few who could get things done in a colony full of people who couldn't be trusted. She was quick, smart, and had a fire for survival that couldn't be matched. For many, she was the exact kind of person who was in high demand everywhere in the colony.
-(o)-
A few days after her sixteenth birthday, Lynx found herself joining one of the colony's many mercenary groups. The kind that traded dirty work for money. Money that was used to buy herself a place to sleep at night. Which was exactly what the young woman needed after her father passed away a few months prior. Fortunately, the group didn't care about her past and didn't ask questions as to why she was there. All they cared about was one thing: results. Anything beyond that was no one else's problem but her own.
Her first mission, if she could even call it that, had been a total disaster. It was a simple extraction job for some middleman in Utopia's corporate hierarchy. The kind of job that happened as often as space debris hitting the outer shell of the colony's solar panel. She had been given a gun, a promise of a big payout, and the belief that she was tough enough to handle the job.
She had been wrong.
Her target had been expecting her, and her escape had been sloppy. But by the time the dust settled, Lynx got what she needed, and her reputation had grown in the colony's underground circles. Her world began to change shortly after that. Lynx wasn't just some dusty kid from the slums anymore. She was a weapon. A mercenary. A name that carried weight in Utopia's criminal world.
And yet, despite all the tech she'd stolen, the people she'd killed, and the jobs that had sent her deeper into darkness, there was one thing Lynx could never escape from: her father.
He was the only real family that she ever knew. But he was also a ghost who haunted her thoughts. A shadow that never let her go, even in the moments when she was too busy surviving to think about anything else. When she finally resolved herself to leave Utopia behind and began making plans to escape this gold-plated hellhole, he was there. An ever-present reminder of the things she'd been trying to outrun her entire life.
-(o)-
The buzzing of her smartphone broke Lynx out of her unexpected flashback. After regaining herself, the woman quickly looked over at her coffee table to see that it was a new message from Milo. The Korrin heist was quickly approaching. And the money she was about to make would change everything. It was a chance to finally break free from Utopia, to rid herself of the addiction, the ghosts, and the demons that had clung to her for so long.
But for a moment, just a moment, Lynx let herself feel the weight of the past again. She allowed herself to feel the old pain-the abandonment, the betrayal, and the harsh lessons she learned in the gutter. She wasn't a child anymore, but the memories didn't care about something as trivial as that. Or anything else for that matter.
With a deep breath, Lynx wiped the tears from her eyes. The weight of reliving everything she'd been through pushed her further into the chaos inside of her. But now wasn't the time for any of that. She couldn't afford to feel. Not now.
She had a job to do.