He gazed emptily at the logo. He knew it meant something, but his tired mind refused to fetch the knowledge. "P&R" the logo annoyed him, he knew that much. Something told him he should be running, but running from what? In reality he was quite comfortable, enjoying that bodiless oblivion found just after waking from a deep sleep. He sighed, and heard a whimper. It wasn't his whimper. It was too light, and too airy. Was someone else in the room with him? Noise came to him. Confusing and distant at first, but slowly sharper. He heard a telephone ring somewhere distant. Voices chatting talking casual footfall. He blinked, and the logo snapped into focus. "P&R" he ran the name through his mind again, and at last he understood. He was in a hospital bed at clinic of some sort, but not the Woodpine hospital or school nurses office, it was some private clinic clearly owned by Prosperity & Redevelopment.
He sat up suddenly grasping some of his danger, but too quickly. His head swam, and his stomach lurched. Panting he rolled to his side, but his breath caught in his lungs as wispy blond silk tickled his nose. He brushed it aside, and like the fracturing of a glacier, his perception cracked, and he plunged into an icy cold reality. Hair fell in his face again... HIS hair, but sight of his hand had grabbed his attention. It was small. To small, and too smooth. He held his short manicured nails up to his eyes only as long as it took for him to be distracted by the pale nude body exposed as the blanket fell.
Breasts. These were breasts. It wasn't exactly that long since he'd seen a pair, but never from this perspective. He grabbed them, half expecting them to plop off, or feel numb like a prosthesis. They did not come off, and they were not numb.
"Wha!?" The ill formed word tumbled past his lips. "What's going on?" His voice rose in pitch and tension with each word, which only served to unsettle him more. This was not his voice. High, lofty, and sweet, sounds reached his ears, as opposed to his familiar deep coarse timbre.
"Good morning Brandi." The sharp voice cut through his self examination.
Brayden looked at the intruder with a gaze of both shock and suspicion. She looked every bit the owner of that voice, with a domineering posture, and immaculate business skirt suit. Her hair was in a tight bun with crisp bangs, but her steel grey eyes, were savage. It reminded Brayden of the difference in a panther he'd seen once in the zoo and a bobcat that came upon his camp in the wild. These eyes were that of a predator in her element, not a tamed pet of the corporate world.
He scowled, and quipped. "That's not my name."
The woman chuckled. "Oh? And what is your name?"
"Bray..." The name caught in his throat. It felt wrong to answer. A mix of anxiety, and tension, and self doubt. It felt like standing up in class, and defiantly insisting the sky was green in front of all your peers. He scowled. Good thing he was used to defiance. "Brayden." He stated. The name still came out with an odd patter, like pronouncing an unfamiliar word from a foreign language for the first time.
She glanced down to the tablet in her hands, jotted some note, or tapped some icon, and looked back up. "I'm afraid you're mistaken, dear. Brayden died tragically after making a dangerous climb to vandalize P&R property." She tapped through that tablet again. "And according to the records we procured from your school, I'm surprised something like this didn't happen sooner."
Brayden flushed red and his scowl deepened, even as his mind reeled at being informed of his own 'death'.
"YOU," she accented the word with a jab of her stylus. ", are Brandi Fall." She smirks. "I thought the surname was appropriate considering your introduction to P&R." You moved here from Watford, an older P&R development city, to work as a maid at the Woodpine Valley lodge."
"There is no Woodpi~" Brayden was interrupted before he could finish.
"As the lodge is still under construction, and considering your delinquent history, you've been assigned a temporary position with your VIP handler at a local estate." She lowers the pad. "The rules are simple, and clear. Follow them, and you will live a good life under R&P's care. Break them, and I get to find a more suitable position for you in society." The predatory gaze returns, even if her voice remains even. "Is that clear, Brandi?"
Brayden's whispered defiantly. "That's not my name."
"Oh?" The lady perked up, and strut forward. The clack of her heels tapping out the countdown of her arrival. She didn't stop until she was right next to the bed, looming quite high over Brayden. Under her gaze, he felt naked for the first time, and pulled the blankets higher past his chest.
--I'll edit this later. Tired now--
