19 Penny #3
Steeling myself, I lowered my hands down to my sides and balled them into fists.
I opened my eyes again, mapping a path through the environment.
Thilar had gone down the center. Whether or not he stayed in that area was a mystery, but I chose to veer to the far right, searching for a small path where he’d likely not follow me.
Already, I could hear my own footsteps in the silence and slowed my gait, treading with the toes of my boots toward a tiny walking path between two thick, rocky holograms.
I had to remember I was the competitive sort. I was determined.
I could beat him.
I just had to think like a cat.
Be stealthy, Penny, I told myself.
The suit the monrians had given me had a built-in pair of soft-soled boots that hugged my feet like climbing shoes.
I was making little to no sound once I focused on my steps, but Thilar could hear my pulse for crying out loud.
I had no doubt he could hear my footsteps, no matter how carefully I moved.
While I was focusing extra hard on keeping my stride silent, my shoulder slid across one of the holographic rocks, sending a pulse of light straight up the entire thing like a rescue flare.
“Focus, Penelope,” Thilar said from somewhere far away.
I held my breath, quickly and quietly moving away from the hologram to a different area. I was already shivering from the intense cold. Taking long, deep breaths, I tried to control it. It would be too loud and was already affecting my concentration.
I found myself on my belly at one point, crawling under an archway of stones where Thilar surely couldn’t squeeze.
I still had no indication of where he was, though.
I felt loud and clunky. He was quiet as a mouse, despite his size.
None of the holograms had lit up anywhere in the room to betray his position.
When I emerged from my crawlspace, I found that the ground had become even more tricky to walk on.
It was like hiking a rocky mountainside, which would have been fine with adequate light and the ability to make sound, but I had neither.
I decided my best bet, with no other low points to navigate, was climbing and getting to high ground.
So, I started to quietly ascend. If the idea was to get to the other side of the room, I had to figure out where that was.
I was on all fours, my feet braced on two stone-like protrusions while my hands were gripping two more.
I was a damn mountain goat, but I was startled by the quiet flash of a hologram twenty feet from me in my peripheral.
My head snapped toward it, every one of my movements ceasing so I could properly hear, but there was nothing to detect.
My heart was pounding. My fingers were like ice.
But as my teenage self would say, “I wasn’t a pussy. ”
I focused on what I was doing when the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
My brain said look left and I did without question.
There was nothing there. At least, not what I could immediately see.
But then one of the vertical rocks on the peak across from me started to look odd.
I squinted, as if that would help, but it wasn’t until I saw the eyes staring at me that my heart nearly leapt out of my chest. They were like cat eyes, reflective in the darkness.
I gasped, nearly losing my footing, when Thilar started sprinting toward me.
It was entirely unfair.
Like everything in space.
Like everything in life.
You can’t rely on “fair” to save you.
I heard the recruiting officer’s voice ringing in my head as I moved.
I nearly tripped a few times and caught myself, leaping across gaps and praying I didn’t fall and break an ankle.
Then, finally, I spotted the light where the door to the room was barely visible against the far wall.
If that wasn’t considered the other side of the room, I didn’t know what was.
I headed toward it, glancing back momentarily to see that Thilar was no longer in pursuit.
At least, not from that direction.
When I heard movement to my right, I didn’t even look.
I kept rushing toward the door, unsure how I was going to get down once I reached it.
My pulse was suddenly racing like I was right back in that arena on Mekah Prime.
It wasn’t the best feeling, but it would serve me well to get used to it.
I didn’t have a lot of time to talk to a therapist about my feelings in space.
I was so close to the door. So close.
I leapt off a ledge, scaling the side of the incline and praying I didn’t break something on the way down.
When I hit the floor, I stumbled into a sprint, but Thilar’s hulking silhouette was running alongside me.
I made a split-second decision to veer off only feet from the door just before he cut me off.
There was a certain terrified and exhilarated thrill that came from hearing his heavy steps pounding behind me. A thrill that should have scared me out of my skin. All anyone did in the arena was chase me and I felt sick thinking it was anyone other than Thilar.
What did that say about me?
Just before he could grab me, I dropped to the ground, rolling beneath a small crevasse in the artificial stone. Thilar let out a growl, almost like he was frustrated, and then bounded onto the stone ledges high above, keeping pace with me as I fled down a narrow passage.
I needed to find a way to turn back around and get to the door, but now he was right on top of me and he was faster. More agile. And he could definitely see clearer than I could. Every step I took, I was nearly tripping over myself.
But then he disappeared…
I did not see his shadow leaping over me and I could not hear his footsteps or his heavy breathing.
And I stupidly let that slow me down. I peered up and backward, searching, but when I couldn’t see him, I questioned myself. I slid to a stop, pinning myself against a wall as I tried to quiet my panting breath.
There was no way he lost me. I knew he was likely watching me from somewhere in the shadows, but I couldn’t very well stay put. I started creeping along the rockface, listening to every sound and watching every shadow and every shape.
Crouching in a tight corner, I let my hand glide over the pockets on my pants.
With nothing else on me to use as a tool, I carefully pulled out half of a leftover nutrient bar and then searched for a hologram to chuck it at.
I tried to find one across the room that I could hit with my average throwing skills and tossed it that way.
It didn’t hit my target, but it hit one nearby, sending a ripple of light through the room.
I heard nothing.
Wherever Thilar was, I couldn’t sense him. I didn’t know if he would fall for my sly little trick, but I had to try for the door again eventually.
Slowly, I snuck out of that tight corner and began creeping further along the wall, but I was turned around now.
All I could do was hope I was going in the right direction.
Finally, the narrow passage opened up and there it was again.
The door on the other side of the room. I did my best to map out a way to get there, but my eyes wouldn’t adjust completely no matter what I did.
So, I bolted. As I got closer, I saw another crawlspace up ahead.
If Thilar cut me off, that was my escape plan. He couldn’t fit. That was his downfall.
Just as I thought, he was there, sprinting to cut me off. I dropped onto my stomach and quickly slid into the narrow space, but that time, he was quicker than me. I felt his hand wrap around my ankle and let out a startled yelp as he dragged me backward.
I writhed, kicking and struggling when I saw him looming over me, a beast in the night, eyes glowing. He reached down and clutched my wrist, hauling me to my feet.
“You almost made it,” he said, almost playful.
“What do you mean, almost?”
I jerked out of his grasp, which he clearly wasn’t putting much strength into, and tried to run again. His fingers wrapped around my arm and tugged me backward, throwing me off balance. I fell back just as he crouched and bent me over his shoulder. When he stood, I was off the ground.
“What… Thilar!” I complained.
“That was very good, considering your poor night sight.”
He began carrying me back toward the control panel, despite my kicking legs. I tried to push up against the small of his back, but all I was getting was a clear view of his backside wrapped in tight, combat material as he walked.
I growled, trying to twist out of his grip, but my efforts went practically unnoticed.
“I learned a lot from the way you navigated the environment,” he continued, finally setting me on my feet once we reached the controls.
“This was just a learning experience for you?”
“Everything is a learning experience.” He tapped the panel and the room slowly began to wipe the terrain clean and return to its neutral state.
I wanted to slap him…
Not because I was angry, but because I was feeling something.
Something strange and out of place. Because he was doing something to me that I never imagined someone could and I couldn’t use Mekah Prime as an excuse anymore as to why I was attached.
He was filling my thoughts, distracting me.
Consuming me. Turning me to mush when I should have been guarded.
And our brief little game of tag only excited those feelings.
I shouldn’t have wanted to be chased, but it was him, and the butterflies in my stomach went wild at the memory of how he fucked me in the arena because he caught me.
It wasn’t just his warmth I wanted. I had a crush. Or maybe it was more than a crush. Whatever it was, it was problematic.
I hugged myself, cold and uncomfortable, and stared up at Thilar, my brows pinching in the middle.
He was surely oblivious to the fact that I was attracted to him.