That night, after spending 13 years, 9 months, and 22 days as a slave, I escaped. I shed my clothes, crouched with my back to the door, and sprinted towards the exterior wall. Two steps from it I jumped and used [Discorporate].

For the first time in 5 years my mind abandoned the wall, free from protecting itself from [Assessors]. It no longer mattered. Instead, it frantically computed vectors and distances, laser focused on the twin goals of holding myself in [Discorporate] and timing my exit. There wasn’t room for anything else.

When trying [Discorporate] for the first time, I realized it had two giant, dangerous drawbacks. First, once I [Discorporated] I had no eyes, ears, no senses of any kind. I was completely blind. I  could  sense if I passed through something, if only vaguely, but no more. Second, whatever direction I was moving when I activated [Discorporate], and at whatever speed I was moving, that was it. I couldn’t change. I had no muscles, nothing to push off of, no ability to slow down or change directions. Wherever I was going that’s the way I would keep going until I ended [Discorporate]. It was a blind leap.

My journey started in the cells under the arena, so I jumped to make sure I would reach the street. As I floated upwards and away, I tracked matter within my body, passing through me. There were brief flashes of emptiness but I waited, mind focused to a pinpoint, as I passed them. Finally, my body passed of out matter and into open space. Quickly I deactivated [Discorporate].

I fell five feet as gravity took hold once again. I braced for it and managed to avoid injury.

Two night watchmen walking down the street saw me and shouted. Bad luck, I grumbled. I oriented myself, trying to ignore them as they ran towards me now, and gave myself a gentle push, narrowing my focus again. I activated [Discorporate]. The panic had long since left, the pain long since ceased to matter, but the disorientation would always be there. I felt my mind tiring, my will draining as I maintained the intense focus required. The first building passed and I guessed when I entered the street. Releasing my focus I fell, choking back bile.

Stolen novel; please report.

I might hold [Discorporate] for 3 seconds, total, for the rest of the night. Might. I needed to either find a place to hole up or run. Only I couldn’t run. My body had been broken and battered too often for me to believe I could outrun professional guards. On the other hand, hiding with [Discorporate] was easy. Just find an unused space and [Discorporate]. Simple.

The guards were shouting on the street I’d left behind, so I didn’t dawdle. I ran, bare feet slapping on cobbles, eyeing one building after another. Finding a suitable building turned out to be harder than I’d thought. Eventually I came to a group of warehouses and decided I’d not find better. The better guarded warehouses likely wouldn’t let the watch in to search for a random woman, so I picked one of those. I ducked between two buildings before the guards got more than a passing glance, then turned towards the warehouse and sprinted, activating [Discorporate] at the last moment.

I held it until I passed into the warehouse. Barely. I left go and collapsed, ignoring the massive piles of stock that surrounded me. In truth, I didn’t care what the warehouse contained. Given how I got here and how I would probably have to leave, greed was pointless. I just needed a place to hide.

After a good minute of sitting on the floor panting from exertion, I picked myself up and began exploring. It didn’t take over-long to find a corner that looked abandoned, dust accumulated thick enough that I worried over being found. I pushed away the worry, knowing it was pointless, and began worming my way in among the stacked crates. I had just enough muscle, at 14 strength, to shift the stacks a little. After forcing myself between them, I slid back the ones I’d moved, covering my hiding place. It wasn’t wide, maybe a foot, but I managed to lay on my side and stretch out. Believing I had done everything possible at the moment, I stretched out and slept.