Misha jolted awake with a feeling like she was falling. Her eye cracked open a smidge and immediately shut as her back slammed against a metal grate, knocking the wind out of her chest.    She wheezed, gasping for air. Blood seeped from a concave on the back of her skull, soaking her dirty blonde hair into a deep strawberry red.
   The man stood over Misha, revolver holstered on his hip."Welcome home, poppet. Did you sleep okay? I didn't wake you up when we were busy, did I?" He tipped the brim of his black cowboy hat and winked, "Don't worry, I used protection."
   Her hands retracted to her throat by instinct, one seized around the base of her neck, and the other flopping back and forth at the break in her wrist. Dirt caked under her fingernails, and body encumbered by the smells of poverty, Misha rolled over onto her stomach. She coasted in and out of    alertness, crawling away from the man in desperation.
   "What's a matter, baby? Don't like how daddy's treating you?" His heavy boots clomped against the grates beneath his feet, reverberating the metallic clang down the corridors of the spaceship. "Don't worry. Daddy's got a special something coming your way." He flipped open a panel on his wrist and pressed a few buttons, closing it with a click. A playful children's tune blared through all the speakers onboard.
   Misha's head dropped to the grate, collapsing face first. Dark red streaks ran down the sides of her pasty white face, accumulating on the tip of her nose and dripping to the deck below. "Big.... brother..." she gurgled. Yellow cerebrospinal fluid leaked from her nostrils into her mouth, only to seep back out, dribbling down her chin.
   He jumped and clacked his heels in the air, landing besides Misha's ruined body. The man clutched a ball of her hair in his fist, and yanked her head back, whispering in her ear, "You know you liked it."
   "Maxy..." Misha whimpered, too weak to cry.
   He drew the revolver from his side and jammed it into the concave spot on the back of her head, cocking back the hammer, "Say good night, princess."