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Riley
“Ten…”
My eyelids fluttered, weighed down as if they'd been soaking in a vat of molasses.
My head throbbed in rhythm with my heartbeat.
There was a… memory of…something.
“Nine…”
But it slipped through my fingers like a dream upon waking.
Dim, hazy awareness of my surroundings began to settle in.
The thick glass walls of the pod, slightly fogged from condensation, hemmed me in.
Beyond it, a cacophony of roars, hisses, and other, even stranger sounds reached my ears.
“Eight…”
My foggy mind struggled to make sense of the spectacle before me.
It was like a macabre carnival with various creatures encased in pods similar to mine.
Some were menacing, their eyes filled with anger, while others exhibited palpable confusion.
They were big, monstrous beasts obscured by the condensation on the glass.
“Seven…”
Panicking, I tugged at my arm, only to find it was being restrained.
That’s when I noticed him.
My heart raced at the sight of a creature, ahugecreature on the floor of the pod beside me.
His appearance was both terrifying and strangely regal.
Glistening scales covered his skin, reflecting the ambient light in hypnotic patterns.
But it was his eyes, pools of molten gold, that ensnared my attention.
They gleamed with intelligence and curiosity.
Towering horns crowned his head, making me wonder if they were a sign of status or just another bizarre feature of his species.
Hisspecies?
What the hell was I even talking about?
“Six…”
I shut my eyes and swallowed hard. “Okay, Riley,” I whispered to myself, “get a handle on yourself. This is not real. You are not in a pod. You are not surrounded by weird creatures. And youmost definitelyaren’t handcuffed to an alien.”
I opened one eye and saw that the creature was still there, his head cocked to one side.
I immediately shut my eye again. “You are having a nervous breakdown, that’s all. You’re under a lot of stress from work. You ate something that didn’t agree with you - cheese, probably, and that’s why you’re seeing these things.”
