AllFreeNovel
Share Us
GWEN
Traveling through the portal was… a bad acid trip. Or at least what I thought one would be like. Or, shit, like the clinical trials on that short-lived drug for cirrhosis of the liver. Human trials had gone horribly awry. Even a mild dose flooded patients with debilitating facial paralysis, paranoia, and delusions.
Psychedelic lights flashed around me. A parade of colors that swirled in sickening blurs.
The tentacle never loosened its iron hold on my body. And the more I struggled, the tighter it wrapped against me. Tighter and tighter until the suckers pressed against my skin, and I could feel the sharp talons at the centers.
And then, all of a sudden, the tight grip of the tentacle released me. No warning, and with zero care for my well-being. I spiraled out of control, the rainbow of color reaching a fever pitch. I was going to vomit. Thank god I hadn’t eaten much of the sandwich, and only a swallow of lemonade.
Back at the fountain.
Moments ago. Mere seconds.
I landed on the ground with a smack. I bounced a few inches, my body feeling like a crash test dummy; the surface below me was almost like some sort of rubber. I traced hands across it. Dolphin texture. I’d swum with dolphins once.
Another thunk sounded right next to my head. My rolling suitcase? God, if that made it through a psychedelic portal I was going to laugh my ass off.
“Is she okay?” A voice murmured near me, hesitant and feminine.
My eyes were closed. I should probably open them.
“I saw her fingers move. She’s fine. I have a feeling if one of the hunters brought back a dead one, they’d get in trouble.”
“Maybe.” The first voice answered.
“Definitely. Now move. I’ve got a job to do.” The second voice came closer, footsteps padding across that rubbery floor. A light touch fluttered at my wrist. “Good pulse. Nice figure. She’s got some muscles. Not from weightlifting. She doesn’t look the type. But, hey, maybe she’ll be strong enough to survive.”
“Why do you help them?” A new voice chimed in. “You were kidnapped too and now you help them.”
“I help them,” the voice nearest to me turned sharp and defiant, “because I survived the last games by hiding and my choices were to make myself useful or join the next games. I’m never going through that again. I won’t. It was terrifying. Trapped in a cave and listening to so much… death.” Her voice shook now.
“So you help them prepare other human women to die?” That first voice, angry now.
“I do what I have to do.” The voice was resolute, unyielding.
I opened my eyes then, lashes fluttering for a second before my vision adjusted. A domed ceiling loomed above me and a haze of violet light oozed inward from barred skylights. As I blinked away dust particles threatening my eyes, a vision of bright banana-yellow hair came into view. It swung like a frantic curtain framing an open window during a hurricane. A woman’s face came into view. Pointed chin, large dark eyes, and sparse lashes. Her skin was sunburnt, flaking at the edges, and her lips were even worse for wear.
“Are you hurt anywhere? Did the tentacle puncture anything?” She traced her hands over my body and seemed satisfied after a few passes, despite me not answering her question.
“I’m fine,” I pushed her away gently before sitting up. Or attempting to, anyway. The world swayed, the ground moved, and the little bit of lunch in my body finally expelled. Luckily, the splash missed my samples case.
“Ugh,” the woman groaned, quickly rocking back away from me before jumping to her feet and padding away. She returned quickly, wet cloth in one hand and a strange-looking bucket in the other. “If you have to throw up again, do it in here. The waste beetles will enjoy the meal.” She shoved the obsidian bucket at me.
“Don’t look inside the bucket,” a shy voice warned. I glanced up, finding a very young girl with bubblegum-pink hair staring back at me. “It’s gross.”
My eyes widened at the obvious teen. “Thanks for the warning. I think I’m okay now, though.” I shoved the bucket away, standing up and giving myself a few seconds to adjust while the world beneath me tried to teeter again. I steeled myself. I was made of stronger stuff than I was acting like right now. Hell, I’d beaten Jenkins in sales. And he was a slick-talking sleazeball with movie-star good looks. He probably could have found someone to buy even that liver drug despite the obvious failures during human trials. If I could outpace him, I could get my bearings and get the hell out of this… this…prison?
Where the hell was I?
I walked over to the young girl, studying her closer. She might be a little older than I initially thought, but not by much. “Are you okay?”
She looked at me, innocent eyes startled. “Me? You were just tossed out of a portal by a giant octopus.” She shivered, closing her eyes for a moment. “I thought I had it bad, but at least the thing that kidnapped me almost looked human. I mean, he was still terrifying and seven feet tall and, like, green, but he had two eyes and a nose and a mouth. All the bits you’d expect from a guy.”
“How old are you?” I almost didn’t want to know, but my curiosity had always gotten the better of me. My entire life, people fussed at me over it. Gwen, stop being nosey. Gwen, don’t spy on people. Gwen, don’t eavesdrop. I really should have been a private detective or something, not a pharmaceutical rep.
“Sixteen,” she shrugged. “I graduated high school early and started at USC last fall. It’s funny, because my parents were so worried about frat boys. And they really should have been worried about aliens.” She hiccupped and laughed, obviously only a few words away from having a complete meltdown.
“It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.” I reached out a hand to comfort her, but before I could touch the trembling girl, I was being forcibly moved. Fingers gripped around my upper arm and pushed.
