Lydia
I am lost.
Again.
It’s not like I’ve even gone a long way from the atrium where the aquiums are.
I can’t have gone more than twenty paces, but then I turned left, or was it right…
? I’m not sure. What I do know is there is not an aquium down this way.
There is nothing but twisting passages, and every time I turn back, I end up getting more lost.
This is absolutely stupid. I had no idea how bad my sense of direction was until I ended up at the mercy of aliens and their indeterminately similar corridors and passages.
“Why can’t they mark them with colors or something!” I mutter to myself as I plough ever onwards.
I have my comm, but I can’t bring myself to call for help.
It won’t be the first time, and it’s getting rather embarrassing now.
Especially as my friends are all joined with Sarkarnii.
I can’t keep asking them to come and bail me out.
I’m supposed to be an adult. I’m supposed to be able to look after myself.
Even if that hasn’t ever worked out for me. At twenty-five, I’m the youngest human on Vorostor. But what I’ve been through…
The lights go out. I squeak in alarm, despite my promise to myself to be brave and bold today. I squeeze my eyes shut and count to ten. When I open them again, there’s enough ambient light coming from I don’t know where which means I can still see the walls and floor of the passage.
The light seems brighter up ahead, so I go towards it. And yes, I appreciate this isn’t the best of ideas, but what else should I do? I don’t know why the lights have gone off. I don’t know what’s waiting for me in the dark.
Admittedly, I’m not sure what is waiting for me in the light either, but my instinct drives me on. I turn and turn again, which is when I find the dead end.
It’s like a large white box with walls that stretch up high above me but are open to the elements.
Perhaps some sort of exhaust when this place was an actual space ship, rather than a city on the ground.
There is a metal grill in the center, which all goes to my original concept.
Equally, it seems strange to have a passage which leads here, to what is essentially nowhere.
I turn around. I’m going to have to go back into the dark, no matter how scared I am. It’s the last thing I want to do, but what else is there?
Plus the longer I’m here, the more it reminds me of something else. It reminds me of the rooms before and after I was abducted. All the places I did not want to be. All the pain I felt and which echoes through me both memory and not memory. It is all I want to forget and all I can’t.
Which is when the growl rises out of the grating. A growl which is too familiar. I’ve heard it here in Darax’s sector before, when I’ve been lost, and I don’t know where it comes from, only it haunts my dreams.
“Mine.” The word forms and swirls around the space as I back away.
“No.” It bursts from me in a way I did not expect.
I don’t belong to anyone. All that stopped the moment I found myself on Vorostor.
“Yes.”
The growl is arguing with me. And I’m still standing here arguing back. Perhaps some boldness is left inside me after all. Perhaps it wasn’t plucked out of my heart completely.
There’s a soft sizzling sound, like meat on a barbecue, and to my horror, a hand complete with claws grasps one of the bars from underneath. I’m frozen to the spot. The grill looks solid. It has to be solid. Whatever is down there isn’t getting out.
It can’t get out.
Can it?
This time there is no growl, only a snarl as the hand strains, and with a grinding pop, the grate is pushed back, flipping open like a gate.
Somehow I manage to get a message to my legs.
I manage to unstick myself from the wall, and before I can see what is coming out of the hole beneath the metal, I’m running back down the dark passage, flinging myself along the walls, sliding all over the place, my bag gone, everything gone, only my desperation not to be at the mercy of the thing which I am absolutely sure is coming for me.
The passages turn. Left. Right. Right. Right. Left. I don’t know where I am. I don’t care as long as I’m putting distance between myself and it.
Whatever it is, it wants me, and I will not let it have me. My autonomy is precarious at best, but it is in existence and it is going to stay that way.
I won’t belong to anyone or anything. Not now, not again, not in the future. If my nightmares have taught me anything, it is not to ever surrender, no matter how scared I am.
With a sudden rush, I burst back out into the atrium, much to the surprise of a small group of Sarkarnii warriors. They turn to me, tails lashing. At least one flares his wings for a second before they disappear.
“Little female,” one of them growls. “Are you well?”
“There’s…” I pant out, my lack of breath meaning I’m struggling to speak. “There’s…” I drop my hands to my thighs, bent double as I attempt to recover from the fright flight.
I manage to lift my hand from one leg and wave it behind me, but I’m pretty sure the Sarkarnii are too confused at finding a little human out of breath and red in the face to do anything about my vague motions.
“Warriors!” A voice rings out across the atrium. “Look sharp. Lord Deus has escaped.”
I lift up my head to see two more Sarkarnii marching across the floor towards me, although their eyes are firmly on the others next to me.
“Nev it. Someone’s going to lose their head,” one of them mutters.
“Lord Deus?” I finally manage to say.
“Have you seen him, female?” one of the new Sarkarnii to the party asks me.
“I saw something,” I say. “Back there.” I point over to where I came from, only now realizing there are two passages leading away from the atrium.
“With me, warriors,” he growls. “We’d better get him back in containment, or Lord Darax will have our insides to decorate the next gathering.”
I detect some slight hesitation on behalf of the others, but ever dutiful, the warriors join forces and head towards the lefthand exit.
“Wait,” I call after them. “It’s the other way.” But my voice is as a mouse squeaking, and I doubt they even hear me over the racket they make. “The other way,” I finish lamely and turn away.
Which is when a huge hand covers my mouth and another gigantic arm wraps around my body.
“Well done, little ember. Now we are alone together. Now you belong to me.”
I can’t even do my usual mouse squeak against his hand. He’s placed it so I can breathe through my nose, but I still can’t breathe. My entire body is shutting down. The fear is so great.
Everything goes black.