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“You were both chosen for a very unique and important purpose,” Quus said. “You’ve been chosen to partake in one of the noblest causes there is… Entertainment!”
The walls flickered into life as hundreds, then thousands, of Changelings appeared. They were not holographic projections like Quus. They were regular screen images.
“How about we show them what we think of them, fellow Lovers’ Escape fans?”
The crowd roared. As one, they morphed into replicas of me and Chax. And when I say morphed, I mean, full-on Mystique from the X-Men movies style morphed. They looked identical to us. I couldn’t even tell the difference.
I gripped Chax’s hand between both of mine. I’d never seen anything like this before. It was terrifying.
The crowd roared with adulation as they waved their placards above their heads:
WE LOVE YOU, MADDY!
SEXY CHAX! BE MY SAVIOR!
“These are your fans,” Quus said. “And they’ve been watching you every minute of every day since you first popped up on our screens.”
I gulped.
“Screens?” I said.
“You’re the stars in our breakout hit show, Lovers’ Escape! Wave! You’re live to over fifteen billion Changeling viewers throughout the galaxy!”
I just gawped. Chax reacted better than I did and waved absentmindedly. I did the same.
They’ve been watching us? Then that means…
They watched us have vigorous sex last night. But there was no way they would show that on TV.
“Now, we’ve had active contestants before but we’ve never seen anything quite so smokin’ hot as we did last night!” Quus said. “Have we, viewers?”
The crowd roared with excitement.
“I imagine we’ll be expecting a boost in reproduction yields this cycle for sure!” Quus said. “But things didn’t begin quite so hot and steamy for you, did they?”
Half the screens switched over to images of me when I first appeared in the room. I wandered around, lost, and alone.
“Hello?” I said. “Is anyone there?”
Half the crowd of creatures performed their version of my terror, copying every step and subtle cadence of my voice.
“Hello?” they said. “Is anyone there?”
“And then, of course, you met your partner, Chax,” Quus said.
The images flicked over to the highlights of me leaping out of bed and sliding across the floor on my ass. Then me arming myself with a pen and piece of paper and aiming it at Chax, who was still groggy with sleep.
The presenter chuckled and hid his smile behind his cue cards.
Chax’s taut muscles were on show for everyone with eyes to see. I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous—he was mine!
“Your romance didn’t take off on the right foot,” Quus said, “and we began to fear things might not work out after all.”
On the screen, we argued and my expression of rage was truly an ugly thing. I felt a little embarrassed at my reaction—even though it seemed perfectly reasonable at the time. Our audience appeared to enjoy it.
While they were mesmerized by our memories replaying on the screen, I tapped on the back of Chax’s hand in tap code. He was new to it, so I tapped slowly. He made no sign he felt it but his attention shifted slightly in my direction.
WHAT IS GOING ON, I said.
