Tag: Jen

6.16

Anna B.1 Comment

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Lachlan

Sure enough, Chelsea stood in the living room, along with two other girls. A short blonde girl Lachlan didn’t recognize stood beside Chelsea, while a familiar-looking girl with chin-length brown hair lounged on the couch, her legs dangling over the arm. It took Lachlan a moment to realize who the brunette girl was.

“Angelina? I… what? How the motherfuck are you here?”

Before Angelina could answer, the blonde girl let out a shriek, running toward Sam and nearly knocking him over with a hug.

“Sammy-wammy! You’re alive!”

Sammy-wammy? Lachlan would have to remember to give Sam a hard time about that.

“Jen?” Sam looked startled. “What are you doing here?”

So this was Sam’s girlfriend? She was pretty good-looking, Lachlan guessed, but something about her bothered him.

“I was looking for you because you disappeared, and then there was this girl looking for Chelsea, and then this other lady tried to kill her but I saved her life! Then the other lady was like–“

“That’s enough,” said the woman with the axes. “I can sum it up for you. Jen was looking for you after you went missing. She ran into Chelsea’s friend Naomi, who was looking for Chelsea–“

“Wait, is Naomi here too?” said Lachlan.

“Don’t interrupt me,” said the woman. “Jen and Naomi ran into an… old friend of mine who was working for CPSI. She trapped them here, along with a biotechnologically engineered human calling himself Falcon. They were attacked by a creature and Jen became separated from the group. The end. There. I just saved us all about twenty minutes of listening to Jen chatter on. You’re welcome.”

“I still have some questions,” said Sam.

“So Falcon and Naomi are here?” said Lachlan. “We have to find them.”

“Falcon’s one of the Stanley fabrications, correct?” said the woman.

“I… think so?” Jen looked up, still latched onto Sam like an overly chipper, blonde vice.

“If so, he’ll probably be fine, at least for the time being. He’ll have plenty of allies here,” said the woman. “If I were you, I’d be more concerned about this Naomi you mentioned.”

“Can we like, take a time-out for a second?” said Jen, finally untangling herself from Sam and facing the group. “I think some of us should probably introduce ourselves, because I have no clue who Sam’s hot friend is, and he looks super confused too.”

Hot friend, huh? Lachlan revised his initial impression of Jen. Maybe she wasn’t so bad. At the very least, she had good taste in men.

“Fine,” said the woman.

“Why don’t we go around in a circle and say our name, how we ended up in the Pit, and one fun fact about ourselves?” said Jen.

“No,” said the woman.

“I’ll go first. Hey, y’all, I’m Jen Washer, and I was stranded here by a crazy lady while looking for my boyfriend–hi, Sammy! My fun fact is that I have a black belt in Taekwando.”

“We’re not doing this,” said the woman.

“I’ll go next!” said Angelina. “My name is Angelina–that’s long for ‘Angela’–and I ended up here after I went to Borgo San Severino to look for clues about what happened to my friend Chelsea. My fun fact is that I am the president and founder of the official Italian street team of the greatest band in the whole entire universe–The Goldfish Technique!”

“It’s not a real street team,” said Lachlan. “It’s you and your twelve-year-old sister.”

“Does this mean you’re going next, friend of Sam’s?” said Jen.

Lachlan shrugged. “If I must. I’m Lachlan Newton, I was ambushed outside of my work by what I now assume were CPSI goons, shoved into a van, and thrown into this delightful place. My fun fact about myself is that I’m a much bigger fan of The Goldfish Technique than Angelina is–Oi!” He dodged as Angelina hurled a small, round object at his head. It bounced off the wall behind him and rolled to his feet, and he saw it was a grape.

Angelina was so weird.

“Don’t throw grapes at me!” he said. “What’s the matter with you?”

Angelina stuck out her tongue.

“Oh, that’s very mature,” he said.

“Your butt is mature,” she retorted.

The woman with the axes sighed, rubbing her temples.

“I’ll go next,” said Chelsea. “I’m Chelsea Brown, I was caught by a woman named Sarah and put in here, and my fun fact is that I collect odd things.”

“What constitutes an ‘odd thing’?” said Sam.

“I know it when I see it,” said Chelsea. “Um, I have medical antiques, a Victorian locket with someone’s hair in it, a toad skeleton encased in resin… You know. Odd things. I find them at antique stores and stuff.”

Lachlan gestured at Angelina, who was clinging to Chelsea’s side, draped over her arm like a coat.

“Is she part of your collection?” he said.

Angelina made a face at him.

Jen threw an arm around Sam, squeezing his shoulders.

“Your turn, Sammy!” she said.

“Okay, then,” said Sam. “My name is Sam, a machine sent me here while I was trying to save Chelsea, and my fun fact is that when I was a kid, my family moved out of our house because my dad thought it was haunted. And… I guess that means it’s her turn.” He looked at the woman with the axes.

“Fine,” said the woman. “My name is Mrs. Sharma, I was sent here because I was a CPSI employee who no longer served their interests, and my ‘fun fact’ is that I need an aspirin.”

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6.13

Anna B.1 Comment

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Angelina

“I have to get out of here,” Mrs. Sharma said. “I have to find her. If she’s still with CPSI…”

Angelina didn’t completely understand what was going on, but Mrs. Sharma seemed to know this Sarah, even care about her. Luckily for Mrs. Sharma, Angelina could help.

“I figured out a way out of this place, I think,” said Angelina.

Mrs. Sharma snapped back into her stern demeanor.

“Somehow, I highly doubt that,” said Mrs. Sharma.

Her tone reminded Angelina of a teacher admonishing her for not doing her homework. Few things were more frustrating than an authority figure speaking to her in that tone, and while Mrs. Sharma didn’t have any real authority over them, she certainly seemed to think she did.

“I did!” said Angelina. “I figured it all out in a notebook. It’s right–hold on…”

She shimmied one shoulder out of a backpack strap and cumbersomely shifted the bag to the front of her body, wincing as it bumped against the wounds on her ribs. She unzipped the bag, and a few grapes she’d picked while she was walking the Sentiero Angelica tumbled to the ground. Mrs. Sharma raised an eyebrow.

Angelina had never understood how some people could open backpacks and reach in, pulling out the exact item they were looking for in one fluid motion.

She stuck her hand in and felt for her notebook, but felt only pencil shavings, a crumpled piece of paper, and a couple grapes. Oops. She’d forgotten the notebook.

“Well, uh, it’s not right here. I must have left it with the snake guy. But Chelsea can tell you! Right C?”

Chelsea nodded.

“She really did figure something out,” said Chelsea. “If anyone can help us get home, it’s Angelina.”

A trace of nervousness flashed across Mrs. Sharma’s stoic face.

“What do you mean you left it with the snake guy? What snake guy?”

“We sort of… I guess fell into this really weird place,” said Chelsea. “I’m honestly not really sure what happened. There was this… snake-man creature who captured us and showed us these illusions that… well, I don’t want to get into it, but suffice to say, they weren’t very nice.”

Chelsea laughed humorlessly, an almost imperceptible shudder passing over her body.

“Zogzhesh,” said Mrs. Sharma. “I’ve encountered him.”

Hadn’t Zogzhesh mentioned meeting a human woman?

“I think he told us about you,” said Angelina. “You’re the other person who smelled like the terrible ones?”

“Excuse me?”

“Wow, rude much?” said Jen.

Angelina was confused for a second, then realized how her comment had been misconstrued.

“No, that’s not what I meant!” said Angelina. “I didn’t mean you smell terrible. You smell good, actually! Especially for someone trapped in a place without showers!”

Mrs. Sharma frowned.

“My friend is referring to something Zogzhesh said,” Chelsea clarified.

“Yeah,” said Angelina, “He said he smelled the terrible ones on me, whatever that means. He said it explained why I escaped him, and why I could figure out so much about how this place works. He said he met another woman who was the same way.”

“Ah,” said Mrs. Sharma. “I understand what you mean now. I suspect he was mistaken about you, though. You don’t strike me as someone with any exceptional abilities.”

“That’s not true,” said Chelsea. “When we got trapped in Zogzhesh’s… whatever, she pulled us out somehow. And she’s figured out a lot about how this place works. She’s one of the smartest people I know.”

A slight smirk formed on Mrs. Sharma’s face.

“You must not know very many people.” She turned around and resumed walking down the street, throwing a glance over her shoulder at them without breaking her stride. “Come on. We can talk more when we get to my house. We’re wasting time standing around here, and I hate wasting time.”

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6.12

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Chelsea

Mrs. Sharma slowed her pace when Jen mentioned the name Sarah, her head twitching almost imperceptibly as though she had wanted to whip around to face them and stopped herself.

Chelsea considered asking about Sarah, then decided against it. Mrs. Sharma had made it clear she didn’t want them to ask questions.

“Sarah?” Angelina’s eyes widened as she turned to Chelsea. “Falcon said Sarah was the one who took you.”

Mrs. Sharma’s head perked up in front of them.

“Yeah,” said Jen. “Sarah was the one who tricked me, Naomi, and Falcon. She had these cool freaky powers, and she trapped us here.”

This time, Mrs. Sharma didn’t resist the urge to whip her head around. She stopped walking so abruptly, Angelina narrowly avoided stumbling into her. Mrs. Sharma fixed Jen with an intense stare. Her expression was purposefully neutral, but with a fierce spark in her dark eyes that looked almost hopeful.

“Um, hi?” said Jen.

“What kind of cool freaky powers?” said Mrs. Sharma.

“Like… telekinesis powers,” said Jen. “Like she could use her hands to do stuff without touching anything, you know?”

Mrs. Sharma’s neutral, vaguely annoyed visage slipped away almost entirely, replaced with an expression that looked almost frantic.

“And you said this Sarah works for CPSI?”

“Hey,” said Angelina. “Why are you allowed to ask us questions?”

Mrs. Sharma shot Angelina a silencing glare.

“It’s her, isn’t it?” said Jen.

“What are you talking about?” said Mrs. Sharma.

“You said you had someone worth fighting for. I take it Sarah’s your someone, right? She has to be.”

“That’s none of your business.”

Mrs. Sharma’s voice was soft, but retained some of its intense edge.

“I don’t know what Jen’s talking about, but I think that probably means yes,” said Angelina.

The comment earned her another glare.

Mrs. Sharma stopped walking and turned to face them. Angelina didn’t stop walking in time. Chelsea grabbed her arm to stop her from colliding with Mrs. Sharma.

“Tell me where she is,” said Mrs. Sharma.

“I don’t really know,” said Chelsea.

“I don’t either,” said Jen. “She tricked us into coming here, but she didn’t come here herself.”

“Where was she when you last saw her?” said Mrs. Sharma.

“Well, I was at the CPSI headquarters,” said Jen. “In the engineering building.”

“Me too,” said Chelsea.

“I’ve never even seen this Sarah person before,” said Angelina.

“How is she? Is she safe? Is she alright?”

“I mean, like, I guess?” said Jen. “She was kinda…violent, but technically you could say she was safe and alright?”

“All this time,” said Mrs. Sharma. “All this time, I’ve been searching for her here, and they never sent her here.”

“Are you okay?” said Chelsea. “I’m… not really sure what’s going on, but you seem like you’re processing something big right now.”

“I think I am okay,” said Mrs. Sharma. Her voice was still soft, with none of its previous intensity. “I think I’m more okay than I’ve been in a long time, actually.”

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Interlude 13 – Straight Ahead

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Mona

Mona glanced back at the three girls to make sure they were following, then quickened her pace.

Ugh. This was just what she needed.

She had considered letting the girls go off on their own after they’d been reunited, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to do so. She couldn’t just leave three defenseless girls to get eaten, as tempting the blonde one and especially the brown-haired one were making it.

Maybe she would have felt differently if they weren’t so young. Young enough to make her think of her own kids, though these girls were at least five years older and far less polite. Young people, even the most useless ones, were still full of potential, and if she wrote these girls off as not worth saving, she would be robbing them of that potential. No one deserved that, not even a scruffy brat like that brown-haired girl.

Of course, that meant Mona was stuck with a babysitting job when she had far more important things to do.

“Um, excuse me, ma’am?” said the chatty blonde one. Jen, she’d said her name was.

“What?” said Mona.

“I think I kinda hurt my ankle?”

Oh, great. This one was a whiner.

“What do you want me to do about it?”

“Um, like, maybe slow down? Just a smidge?”

“Walk it off. Quit being a baby.”

“Maybe it would be a good idea to slow down for a bit. I’m sure we’re all pretty tired.”

The redhead, Chelsea, was speaking now. So far, she’d proven to be the most tolerable of the three.

“I’ve fought off creatures ten times my size, suffered far worse injuries, and walked for way longer than this. You’ll be fine. Just keep up.”

“Where are we even going?” said the brown-haired girl. Angelina. The worst one.

Mona had disliked Angelina at first glance, with her disheveled hair and dirty boots, and Angelina had only reinforced that dislike in the few minutes they’d known each other. Mona was tempted to ignore the question, but the girls did have a right to know where she was leading them.

“I’m leading you to my house. I was headed that way anyway, and it should give you a chance to regroup and tell me more about these friends you’re looking for. The sooner you find them, the sooner I can get you out of my hair.”

“Just out of curiosity, can I ask why you’re helping us?” said Jen.

“You’d be as good as dead if I didn’t. I can’t in good conscience leave you to fend for yourselves. Though if you keep bothering me with questions, I might reconsider.”

“When you say your house, does that mean you actually live in this Pit place?” said Jen.

“What did I just say?” said Mona.

“To stop bothering you with quest–oh. Yeah. Sorry. Yes, ma’am. No more questions.”

“I have a question,” said Angelina.

Mona stopped walking and whipped around to glare at her. Angelina seemed to shrink under her gaze. Good.

“My house isn’t much farther now,” Mona continued, answering Jen’s question before Angelina had the chance to speak. “And yes, I do live in this place. Not by choice, obviously. I was sent here against my will, like I’m guessing the three of you were. I can’t help but wonder what three kids like you could have done to piss off someone as powerful as the Clydes.”

“What? Piss off someone as powerful as the Clydes? Do you mean like, Billy and Lily Clyde?” Jen paused. “Wait, did that count as a question?”

“I’ll let it slide,” said Mona. “So you didn’t do anything to piss off the Clydes. At least, not as far as you know. So if CPSI didn’t send you here, how did you end up here?”

“I wasn’t sent here either,” said Angelina. “I came here on my own to find C. And I found her! Yay!”

“I wasn’t talking to you,” said Mona.

Angelina’s statement piqued Mona’s curiosity even more, but she wasn’t about to reward rudeness.

“Um, I came here looking for Chelsea too,” said Jen, “and my boyfriend, Sam, but I obviously still haven’t found him yet.”

“That doesn’t explain how you got here in the first place.”

“Um, it’s a long story.”

“Most things you say seem to be. Try to summarize it.”

“Um, well, long story short, I was supposed to drive my boyfriend home ’cause he can’t drive, but I couldn’t find him anywhere at work. So I was looking for him, right? And it was getting really late, and I was kinda worried, and then I saw this girl who was talking on the phone, and she said she was looking for someone–“

“How is this a ‘long story short’?”

“Right, sorry, so um, basically, she was looking for Chelsea, and this lady named Sarah came up and said she was also looking for Chelsea.”

Sarah?

Could it be…

No. Mona dislodged the thought with a quick shake of her head. It was a ridiculous idea. Sarah was an extremely common name. There was no reason to be sentimental about a coincidence.

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6.11

Anna B.1 Comment

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Angelina

As she ran at the creature, Angelina realized she had miscalculated.

She had charged at the creature before considering what she could do, or how she was going to help Chelsea. At the rate she was going, all she was going to do was ram directly into them.

She realized she needed to stop before her body remembered how. She lost her balance and swayed forward, falling directly onto Chelsea and the monster. The three of them crashed onto the cobblestones in a heap.

The creature pushed them to the side, and Angelina’s tailbone collided painfully with a protruding cobblestone as she hit the ground. It loomed over them, twisting backward, contorting its head backward and upside down at an unnatural angle.

It snapped its small, featureless mouth at them in a display that would have been comical if everything else about the creature had been less terrifying.

“You bitch,” it said.

“You’re the bitch,” Angelina said.

Beside her, Chelsea gave her a small, incredulous head shake.

“What?” said Angelina. “It attacked us. It is a bitch.”

Belfry fluttered above them, biting and scratching the creature’s shoulders. The creature lifted a hand to swat at him.

Angelina tried to slide out from under the creature, but a long, thin arm reached out to press her chest, pinning her to the ground so the cobblestones dug into her back. Stone scraped the back of her head as she turned to face Chelsea. Chelsea was pinned down too.

There were voices approaching from somewhere behind them; Angelina couldn’t make out what they were saying, but she thought they were speaking English.

Were some more monsters arriving to ambush them? That was just what they needed.

Was there one thing in this place that wasn’t going to try to eat them?

The creature twisted its head around just in time for something to collide with it with a sickening crack. It fell to one side, and Angelina could see the source of one of the voices.

“Ow, ow, crap, ow!”

A girl about Angelina’s age with blonde hair and a light dusting of freckles across her pale face stood, standing on one foot and massaging her ankle.

“Hi,” said Angelina.

“Hey!” The girl’s eyes lit up with recognition as they fell on Chelsea. “Chelsea! You’re okay!”

“Jen?” said Chelsea.

A woman with axes strapped to her back sauntered out of the shadows, stopping a few feet behind the girl and crossing her arms. She was thin, with a slight gauntness to her otherwise attractive features that would have made Angelina suspect she’d been trapped in this place for a long time if not for everything else about her appearance. Her hair was sleek, pulled up out of her face in a neat bun, and her crisp button up and slacks were pristine and unwrinkled. She even wore a subtle layer of makeup that Angelina couldn’t imagine anyone taking the time to apply in a place like this.

“That was actually impressive, Jen,” said the woman. “Maybe you’re not as hopeless as I thought you were.”

“Um, thanks?” said the girl. Jen, apparently.

Chelsea pulled herself to her feet, then reached out a hand to Angelina and helped her up. The creature lay prone beside them.

“So I take it these are the friends you were looking for?” said the woman.

“Well, I know one of them,” said Jen, “but I have no clue who the other one is.”

“I’m Angelina. Hi!”

“Hi,” said Jen. “I can’t tell you how nice it is to see another friendly face in this place!”

“I hope I’m not one of those friendly faces you’re referring to,” said the woman with the axes. “I’m certainly not friendly. Not to you, anyway.”

“Compared to that freaky dude I just kicked, you are,” said Jen. “Madam Grumpy-Pants over here is Mrs. Sharma, by the way.”

Mrs. Sharma frowned.

“Never call me Madam Grumpy-Pants again.”

“You do look kind of grumpy,” said Angelina.

“And you look like you crawled out of a ditch,” said Mrs. Sharma.

She turned her frown on Angelina, and Angelina had a sudden urge to sink back into the shadowy alley behind her. Mrs. Sharma had one of those disapproving frowns that she was used to seeing from teachers.

“My friend’s been through a lot today. I’m sure all of us have.” Chelsea stepped forward and extended a hand. “I’m Chelsea. It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Sharma.”

Mrs. Sharma’s frown softened a bit, and she accepted the handshake.

“It’s nice to see at least one of you knows some manners.”

Belfry fluttered up to perch on Chelsea’s shoulder.

“Hello, signora, my name is Belfry!”

“Ah, you must be the one I’ve been seeing fluttering around. You’re Project Pteropus, aren’t you?”

Belfry cocked his head, confused.

“He doesn’t speak English,” Angelina said. “Just Italian. And his name is Belfry, not Project whatever.”

“Pteropus. It’s interesting to see him in person,” said Mrs. Sharma. “I wonder how he was able to survive the accident. He seems to have remained remarkably stable since then, too. And he’s… cuter than I expected.”

She reached out to stroke Belfry’s head, and he let out a happy chirp and leaned into her hand.

“Aw!” said Jen. “I have no clue what he is, but he sure is cute!”

“If they hadn’t ended up vaporizing themselves along with an entire town, I’d say the Italian team was far more competent than the idiots I was forced to work with,” said Mrs. Sharma.

Angelina felt herself bristle.

“Don’t talk about it so casually. A thousand people died, you know.”

“Yes, and you’re not going to bring them back by being rude.”

“I’m not being rude. You’re being rude!”

“I’m so confused right now,” said Jen.

“Okay, I’m sure we’re all pretty scared and confused right now,” said Chelsea. “Let’s not take it out on each other.”

The lying on the ground creature stirred, letting out a groan. Mrs. Sharma turned on her heel, motioning for everyone to follow.

“We should leave before it wakes up. I don’t want to have to deal with a Dave right now.”

“A Dave?” said Jen.

“That ‘freaky dude’, as you so articulately put it, is a Dave fabrication. A poorly made and unstable piece of biotechnology. They’re not dangerous in their partially mutated state, but they are really annoying. They kind of remind me of some other people I’ve met today.”

She turned around to glance between Jen and Angelina. Angelina stuck out her tongue, prompting Mrs. Sharma to turn back around with a scoff.

“Well?” said Mrs. Sharma. “Are you three just going to stand there and waste time? Follow me.”

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Lost – Interlude 8

Anna B.1 Comment

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Jen

“Help!” Jen clawed at the fluorescent blue tendril wrapped around her body. “Naomi? Somebody?! Help!”

Until now, Jen had been thinking of the trip into the pit as a little bit exciting. Of course she was worried about Sam and Chelsea, but the sheer surrealism of the situation had made it feel like one of her video games or TV shows had come to life, and she was a plucky heroine thrust into a thrilling adventure. Only now was the gravity of the situation beginning to hit her. She was in real, mortal danger.

Being grabbed by a shrieking blue rectangular monster had a way of ripping off her rose-colored glasses.

She struggled harder as the thing lifted her higher into the air, then pulled her downward until her feet were dangling over a Venus-flytrap-like mouth lined with thousands of teeth. She squeezed her eyes shut and tensed, squeaking out a final, desperate appeal to a higher power.

“God, please, help me, help me, help me.”

Her descent stopped abruptly, and the monster’s grip on her lessened. She opened one cautious eye, then the other.

There was a sickening wet ‘thwack!’ sound, followed by the creature’s shrill shriek. Its grip relaxed even more, and she slid out of its grasp and tumbled to the floor.

Her ankle turned as she landed on it, giving way with a worrying popping sound and sending a shock wave of pain up her leg. She tried to climb to her feet, but her ankle screamed out in protest. On her hands and knees, she scurried to the corner of the room.

When she turned to look back at the creature, she saw they were no longer alone in the room. A woman squared off against the monster, twirling a pair of firefighter’s axes that looked far too heavy for her to be swinging around so deftly.

The woman was thirty-something, with amber-colored skin and sleek black hair that she had pinned neatly behind her head. She wore a bored, vaguely annoyed expression that was better suited to being stuck in traffic than it was to fighting a giant, blue rectangle monster.

“I will kill you if I have to,” said the woman. “I suggest that you get out of my way.”

Her voice was even and calm, not even the slightest bit out of breath for all her impressive ax-swinging.

The monster lashed out its tendrils at the woman, trying to disarm her, and she countered each one, swinging her axes in graceful arcs and hitting each limb with a loud thwack and severing some of them. The severed limbs regrew in seconds, the old limbs falling to the floor and thrashing like worms cut in half. One of them writhed toward Jen, and she shrunk back, nudging it away with her good foot.

The monster spoke with a rumbling voice that came from somewhere other than its gaping, toothy mouth.

“You’ll kill me?” It sounded amused. “I can’t imagine that’ll work out so well for you, sweetheart. You’re about a tenth my size.”

Jen had never met a monster before, but she had never imagined they’d be so condescending.

“I’ll only tell you once more,” said the woman. “Get out of my way.”

The monster laughed an echoing laugh that Jen could feel vibrating the wall behind her.

“Okay, then,” said the woman. “It looks like we’ll have to do this the hard way.”

The woman backed up, weaving between tendrils until she was on the far side of the room from the monster.

Then, she leapt–a graceful flying leap that would make any ballerina jealous–and landed on top of the monster’s rectangular body.

“Hey!” it said. “What are you doing?”

“You’ve delayed my schedule,” said the woman. “I don’t like being delayed.”

She wrapped her arms around the monster’s jaws, leaning backward. The monster wavered, flailing its many arms. One arm reached for the woman, trying to pry her away, and she countered it with an effortless looking side kick.

Whoever this woman was, she was pretty awesome.

Unable to balance with the woman’s added weight pulling it down, the monster toppled to its side with a screech that blasted through the room and gave Jen the urge to cover her ears. Its limbs spasmed, sticking out rigidly from its body. Its skin was see-through enough that Jen could see the outlines of its massive organs throbbing and pulsing.

“Look, lady,” said the monster. “I get it, you’re stronger than you look. Kitty’s got claws. Whatever. Just tip me back over and I’ll let you go.”

A small sneer curled at the edges of the woman’s lips as she climbed off the monster and walked around to the other side of it.

“You’ll let me go? I’m not sure why you think you have the upper hand here.”

“Please, come on,” said the monster. “I can’t move like this.”

The woman slid the axes into two sheathes attached to the expensive-looking bag she wore on her back. It looked designer, but Jen suspected the woman had modified it a bit. She couldn’t imagine Gucci had started making backpacks with built-in fire axe sheathes.

The woman reached into the bag, removed a long knife, and unsheathed it.

“What are you doing?” The monster was sounding less and less condescending by the second. “What are you doing with that?”

“You’re pathetic,” said the woman.

“Come on,” said the monster. “Let’s put that knife away. Let’s not do anything crazy.”

“Look at you,” said the woman. “You fully intended to devour me minutes ago, and I’m crazy for fighting back. You’re so much like him, it makes me sick. He really did have you made in his image, didn’t he?”

“Please,” said the monster. “Please. I won’t devour you.”

The woman scoffed.

“You’ve stolen my time,” she said. “It’s my most valuable commodity, and the only one I can never get back. You will repay me with information.”

“Wh-what kind of information?”

“I’m looking for one of the sisters.”

“That’s it? This place is crawling with them. You shouldn’t need me to–“

“I’m looking for a specific sister, you dull-witted cretin. Where is sa131?”

“What does she look like?” said the monster.

Anger flashed in the woman’s eyes, and her voice tensed as though she was trying very hard to keep it even.

“She looks. Like every other sister. You brainless. Third-rate. Abomination.”

She jabbed the monster with the knife, not quite hard enough to break its translucent neon-blue hide.

“Listen, lady, I see dozens of sisters every day. I probably eat dozens of sisters every day. I don’t remember every single number–“

The woman jabbed at the monster again, as if to remind it the knife was there. There was another, more intense flash of fury in her eyes, and this time, she couldn’t quite manage to keep her voice calm and even.

“If you have eaten sa131, I swear I will cut her out of you myself and leave you here to bleed.”

She inhaled deeply, regaining her composure.

The monster let out a shrieking roar that shook the room sent a shock wave of pain through Jen’s head. It was the type of sound that was so loud and abrasive, it overwhelmed her senses to the point where she shut her eyes on instinct. When she opened them, the woman stood as calmly as she had before.

“It’ll take more than that to paralyze me. You, on the other hand, enter a state of partial thanatosis the moment you’re tipped onto your side.” The woman sighed. “You were so poorly designed. It’s little wonder your mutated anatomy and physiology are such a mess. For example, do you know how close your thoracic aorta is to the surface of your skin?” She shifted the knife downward, towards a pulsating vein the width of a human’s arm. “Oh, look, I see it right here.”

“My thora–thora-what’s-it?”

“The largest artery in your body. Idiot,” said the woman. “If you don’t want me to sever it, I suggest you rack your tiny, useless brain and try to remember. Have you seen sa131?”

“I’m sorry, please. I honestly don’t know.”

For a moment, Jen felt bad for the monster. Then she remembered it had been trying to kill her a few minutes ago.

“Well, if you don’t know, you’re useless to me.” The woman pulled her knife back and looked at it, considering. “The question is, are you worth dirtying my favorite knife?”

“No! No, I’m not! I’m really not!”

The woman shrugged, slipping the knife back into her bag. She turned to leave.

“In that case, I think we’re done here.”

“Wait!” said the monster. “I can’t move like this! You can’t just leave me here! What if the sisters find me?”

The woman shrugged again, not turning around.

“I imagine they’ll kill you.”

“Wait! No! You can’t just leave me like this!”

Jen stood up, bracing herself against the wall. Her hurt ankle felt unsteady beneath her, but she was able to put weight on it. She hobbled after the woman.

“Hey, you!” the monster called after her. “You! Girl! Help me!”

What, so it could eat her? Yeah, right.

She still felt a little bad for it, though. Even giant rectangle monsters needed to eat.

“Hey!” Jen called to the woman. “Hey, excuse me! Wait!”

The woman did not wait.

“Excuse me, ma’am?” Jen followed the woman through a doorway that looked as though something very large had forced its way through it. “Ma’am, did you hear me?”

The woman kept walking, but turned around, looking at Jen as though she was a piece of trash the woman had just noticed lying on her freshly cleaned floor.

“I heard you very well. You’re loud.”

“Oh, um, okay, great, well, hi!” said Jen. “My name is Jen.”

The woman didn’t respond. Jen continued, trying her best to keep up with the woman.

“Well, it’s actually short for Virginia, but ‘Jen’ is so much cuter, don’t you think? For a while, I actually tried to go by J.K. in middle school, because my middle name is Kayla and I thought it’d be cool or whatever, but it didn’t really stick. People kept calling me ‘just kidding’ and asking if I wrote Harry Potter.”

The woman was silent.

“You’re a woman of few words, aren’t you?”

“When I want to be. My father always told me it was best not to talk unless you can improve upon the silence,” said the woman. “You should really take his advice to heart, because in the few seconds I’ve known you, absolutely nothing you’ve said has been preferable to silence.”

Oh. Ouch.

“Your dad said that? I thought that was like, a famous quote or something. Wait, is your dad famous?”

“No.” The woman looked annoyed. “He was not.”

Jen knew she was babbling, but the woman made her nervous. Her cool disapproval reminded Jen of a mean Spanish teacher she’d had in middle school. If that Spanish teacher had also been a badass action movie heroine, that is. Now, there was a strange mental image.

“Sorry,” said Jen. “Some people tell me I talk too much.”

“Maybe you should consider listening to them.”

Wow, this lady was pretty mean. Jen guessed she shouldn’t have been surprised after seeing how the woman had treated the monster, but still.

“So,” said Jen. “That was really awesome how you fought that monster back there. It was like something out of like, a show, or a video game. You saved my life!”

The woman turned to Jen, looked her up and down, and frowned.

“I did not intend to do that.”

“Um, okay, well, you still did,” said Jen, “and it was really cool! The way you fought him off with those axes and then tipped him over! How did you learn cool fighting moves like that?”

“With a combination of exceptional natural gifts and rigorous discipline,” said the woman. “It also helps to have someone worth fighting for.”

“Ooh, who’s that?” said Jen.

“Who is what?”

“Your ‘someone worth fighting for,” said Jen. “Is it like, your boyfriend or something?”

“Where I come from, children know better than to pester adults with nosy questions,” said the woman. “And no, it is not ‘my boyfriend’. I’m not one of your little high school friends.”

Child? High school? Was this lady serious?

“Um, I actually start my second year of college in the fall.”

The woman scoffed.

“I worry about the state of higher education.”

“I’m just gonna ignore that little remark and get straight to the point,” said Jen. “I was hoping you could help me. I came here with some people and we got separated. Can you help me find them?”

The woman turned to Jen, studying her intently for a few seconds with a scrutinizing glare that made her want to hide behind something. Then, the woman spoke.

“Fine.”

“Okay?” said Jen. “Thank… you?”

“The sooner we find them, the sooner I don’t have to tolerate your company anymore,” said the woman. “Follow me.”

“I’m kinda already following you, but okay,” said Jen.

“I guess since I’m going to be enduring your presence a little longer, you should know what to call me,” said the woman. “My name is Mrs. Sharma.”

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5.4

Anna B.1 Comment

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Naomi

Falcon thrust his hand out at the creature, but his invisible force barely slowed its rise. For every tendril that lost its grip on the concrete, two more seemed to appear from below.

Falcon turned to Jen and Naomi, his brow knit with effort, and mouthed a single word.

“Run.”

Well, he didn’t have to tell Naomi twice.

She took off running, hearing Falcon’s footsteps behind her as he caught up to her and then passed her. She couldn’t hear the creature behind her, or at least, she didn’t think she could. She wasn’t sure what something with so many gross, slithery limbs would sound like as it moved, and she really, really didn’t want to think about it.

Falcon wasn’t as far ahead of her as she would have expected given how much taller than her he was. It almost seemed like he was slowing down so she and Jen could keep up, which was kind of sweet despite being incredibly stupid.

Then again, Naomi guessed it didn’t matter how fast he was as long as he was faster than the slowest member of the group. It was like that joke about the two guys running from the bear: “I don’t have to outrun the bear–I just have to outrun you!”

Naomi noticed with a chill that there were no sounds behind her–not the creature in pursuit, nor Jen’s footsteps. Maybe Jen had just taken off in a different direction and separated from the group, Naomi told herself, trying to channel some of Jen’s earlier optimism. Maybe Jen just had very light footfalls.

Or maybe the metaphorical bear had picked off the slowest runner.

<><

Chelsea

Chelsea and Angelina stood by the window together as Belfry perched on the windowsill in front of them.

They watched through the dim green light outside, waiting for another chunk of the world to appear or vanish. Angelina had scrawled some kind of diagram in a notebook she’d been carrying with her. Each time an object disappeared, she’d scramble to mark it on the map with such enthusiasm that the notebook ended up sliding from her grip more than once. Her hands were dotted purple with ink.

“You were right.” Angelina held up the notebook. “Look.”

Chelsea stared at the notebook. The diagram featured multiple layers overlapping each other, lines extending in different directions, and little doodles of things like houses, flowers, and birds. There were several scribbled-over areas when Angelina had crossed things out. Some things were labeled in Italian, others were surrounded by question marks.

“Sorry, I’m… not sure what I’m looking for.”

“The pattern. I started to see it a little bit as we were looking out the window, but it makes more sense now that I draw it,” said Angelina. “See? Look at the ‘X’s and stars.”

Chelsea looked more closely. The drawing had been so busy that she had missed it on her first look. She still wasn’t sure what exactly most of the diagram represented, but the map was dotted with ‘X’s and stars that formed a kind of intricate, incomplete spiral.

“Wow,” said Chelsea. “It’s kind of like a vortex.”

“Some of it is missing because I can’t remember most of what I saw disappear in the crater, but it’s based on that, plus the stuff that disappeared in here.”

“Angelina, this is amazing,” said Chelsea. “How did you figure this out?”

“It was really easy if you saw things disappear in the crater too.” Angelina shrugged, then turned her notebook to another page. “I made a map of where I think things should disappear soon.”

This page was a lot more straightforward than the last, depicting a street lined by pentagons that represented houses. Angelina had marked some places on the map with large stars and labels in Italian.

“When you say soon, you mean…?”

“A few minutes.”

Really? It was that easy?

Angelina turned to Belfry and spoke to him in Italian. He gave an enthusiastic response.

“He’s coming with us,” said Angelina.

“Of course he is,” said Chelsea. “We can’t just leave him here all alone.”

Angelina put down her notebook, stood up, patted her shoulder and said something else in Italian, and Belfry fluttered onto her shoulder. She headed for the door.

“Wait,” said Chelsea. “Are you going now? Just like that?”

Angelina paused in front of the door, swiveling on her heels to face Chelsea.

“Why should we wait?”

“I just think we should be careful,” said Chelsea. “Your map is amazing, but we don’t really know how this place works yet. I don’t want you to get hurt again.”

Angelina turned back toward the door.

“I won’t get hurt! Come on. Let’s go. If we stand close together by the corner of the orange house, we’ll be out of here in a few minutes.”

Angelina opened the door and stepped outside. Chelsea picked up Angelina’s backpack and notebook and started after her.

“Angelina, wait,” said Chelsea.

Angelina turned around with a smile, not breaking her brisk pace.

“Of course we’ll wait for you. We’re not leaving without–Ow!” Angelina stumbled as her foot caught on a cobblestone. She recovered her balance and kept walking. “I wouldn’t leave without you, C. Follow me!”

Angelina skipped across the street, heading for a house the color of orange sherbet. Chelsea jogged after her.

“We should probably be careful. This place is really strange. Maybe we could watch a few more things disappear before we try this, just in case it doesn’t work the way we think it does.”

Angelina walked around the side of the house and stopped, turning to face Chelsea again. Chelsea caught up with her.

“It’ll be fine,” said Angelina. “It should happen somewhere around here.”

A gruesome thought crossed Chelsea’s mind as she remembered the severed monster head she’d found next to Angelina.

“Angelina, wait!” said Chelsea. “What if this weird effect only takes parts of us? We could be cut in half or something!”

A strange, static-like smell filled the air, and a soft crackling sound began to pop around them. Chelsea reached for Angelina’s hand, to pull her away. Instead, Angelina pulled her closer, wrapping her arms around Chelsea’s waist. Angelina has surprisingly strong arms, but then, she was a drummer after all.

Chelsea might have been embarrassed at being so close to Angelina if the possible threat of being split in two wasn’t looming over them.

“What are you doing?” Chelsea called over the increasingly loud staticky noise.

“If we’re close together, there’s less chance we’ll get cut in half!”

That didn’t even make sense!

“I’m not sure that’s the best idea! We should probably get out of here before…”

Chelsea heard her own voice fade away to nothing as the crackles and pops grew louder. Their surroundings grew brighter and brighter, until the light was so intense it should have hurt her eyes, but there was no pain. She tried to cling tighter to Angelina, but the other girl’s body dissolved in her arms as though made of sand.

The light faded again, until there was nothing but heavy, intense darkness.

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5.3

Anna B.2 Comments

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Angelina

Angelina lay face-down in the lumpy bed, resting her chin in her hands as Chelsea dabbed disinfectant on her wounds. Belfry had done his best, but as it turned out, bats weren’t the best at applying bandages.

Without the nightgown on, the air was cold enough to make her shiver a bit, but somehow, Chelsea’s face looked redder than before. Hopefully, she was feeling alright.

“I’m so sorry,” said Chelsea. “I should’ve done this to begin with. It’s just been such a… a weird, weird day.”

“It so has.” Angelina nodded emphatically. “This is nice, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“This. Being here with you.”

“It is nice,” said Chelsea. “Not exactly how I pictured our first meeting, but nice.”

“I always kind of hoped I’d meet you at my first Goldfish Technique show. Like, we’d see each other from across the bar and run over to each other all excited and hug in slow motion.”

“Once we get home, I’ll take you to see them.” Chelsea twisted the cap back onto the disinfectant tube and removed the bandages from the first aid kit.

That sounded like the kind of thing people said because it sounded nice, but Angelina really hoped Chelsea meant that.

“When I was 17, I took the train five hours to stand outside when they opened for The Blame Collection in Milan. I could kind of hear them. It was the most beautiful-est sound in the world.”

“You didn’t go in?”

“You had to be 18. I wanted to sneak in, but I couldn’t find a way.”

“Wow,” said Chelsea. “That’s dedicated.”

“Lachlan said I was like a crazy person,” said Angelina, “but he’s always telling me if I was a real fan, I’d have seen the band live.”

“That’s not fair. He lives in the same city as they do. He can see them all the time.”

“He says if I really loved them, I’d have found a way to see them by now.”

“It’s easy to be a fan if you’re lucky enough to see them every weekend,” said Chelsea. “You’re on another continent, and you single-handedly founded the Italian street team.”

“Lachlan said the Italian street team doesn’t count because it’s just me, you, and my sister.” Angelina sighed. “You’re not even Italian, and Martina’s only 10 and she doesn’t even like the band.”

“It counts,” said Chelsea. “How many street teams has he founded?”

“If you and I never get home, do you think Martina will carry on her big sister’s legacy and help the street team live on in my memory? Probably not, right?”

“Don’t say that,” said Chelsea. “We’ll find a way home. If there was a way here, there has to be a way back too, right?”

“Maybe not. Maybe it’s like a… space thing that sucks in planets and stars. I don’t know the English word for it. In Italian, it’s buco nero.”

“A black hole?”

“So it’s basically exactly the same words. Now I feel dumb.” Angelina pursed her lips and stared out the window at the dark silhouettes of long-empty houses. “It can’t really be like a black hole anyway. Things from here can go back to the normal world. When I was in the crater, I saw things from the town appearing, like lamps and envelopes.”

“Lamps and envelopes, huh?”

“And other stuff. It wasn’t just a field full of lamps and envelopes.” Angelina giggled at the idea. “Just an endless field full of lamps and envelopes! That would be so weird!”

Angelina tried and failed to suppress another laugh at the idea of a field of lamps and envelopes. Chelsea laughed too, which was nice, because most people probably wouldn’t have found the idea funny.

“Anyway, if lamps and envelopes–” Angelina stifled another giggle and continued. “If lamps and envelopes can come back from here, you’re probably right that we can also go back.”

“Did you notice any patterns in how the things appeared?”

“Not really,” said Angelina. “It seemed completely random. I don’t think we could predict it.”

“This might sound weird, but I’m not sure I believe randomness exists,” said Chelsea.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you know how computer programs can’t really generate truly random numbers?”

“Yeah,” Angelina lied.

“Since they have to use algorithms, the numbers can’t actually be random. They have a pattern you can predict. Then there are the random number generators that use radio noise from lightning. A lot of people say that’s completely random, but lightning can be predicted too…”

Angelina nodded, watching Chelsea’s reflection in the window as she spoke. Her red hair was falling into her face as she leaned down to apply bandages. She was so smart–she probably knew everything. She was so pretty too, even prettier in person than she’d been on video or in pictures.

“…even things like dice rolls and roulette wheels,” finished Chelsea.

Angelina realized she had missed most of what Chelsea had said.

“My point is,” said Chelsea, “it’s possible to find a way out of here. We just need to figure out the pattern.”

Angelina hoped she was right.

<><

Naomi

Naomi, Jen, and Falcon walked together across the cold, dark concrete expanse, heading for a distant ledge where the concrete appeared to drop off into nothingness.

Naomi had left her pen in the car, but fortunately, Jen had been carrying another pen in her pocket. Unfortunately, that pen had turned out to be a pink, glitter gel pen shaped like a cartoon cat. The writing it produced was barely legible, and even worse, holding the stupid thing made Naomi feel so silly and childish.

‘Have you been to this place before?’ Naomi wrote.

She passed the notepad to Falcon. For Jen’s benefit, he shook his head no instead of signing it.

So they didn’t even have a guide. Fantastic.

She held out her hand, motioning for the notepad back. He handed it to her, and she wrote another message.

‘Please, at least tell me you know something about this place.’

He wrote something on the pad and handed it back to her. Jen craned her neck over Naomi’s shoulder to see what he had written.

‘It’s dangerous. My brothers and I always thought of it as a death sentence.’

‘Thanks for the reassuring words,’ she wrote back.

Jen motioned for the notepad, and Naomi handed to her.

‘Sarah said there was dangerous stuff in here. do u know what kinda stuff?’

Falcon shook his head again.

Jen wrote another message.

‘look on the bright side! at least up here nothing can sneak up on us!’

She drew a smiley face at the end of her message, despite this being in no way a smiley face type of situation.

A strange screeching roar came from somewhere below them, causing Jen and Naomi to jump. Naomi took the notepad.

‘Something could still come after us from below. We need to be careful.’

‘we’ll be fine!’ wrote Jen. ‘we just need to stay positive!’

She added another smiley face. This girl was really something else.

How were they supposed to stay positive when they were stranded in some kind of pit between realities? When there were unknown monsters lurking below them and they didn’t know if their friends were alive or dead?

They were not going to be fine, Naomi was sure of that much. Right now, though, she had to focus on finding Chelsea. After that, there would be plenty of time to worry about how doomed they all were.

The roar sounded again, louder this time.

‘Something is roaring,’ wrote Naomi. ‘It’s getting closer.’

‘hey now we don’t know that sound is something scary!’ wrote Jen. ‘maybe it’s not as bad as it sounds!’

‘Please be less optimistic,’ wrote Naomi.

The roar came a third time, this time rumbling from almost directly below them, shaking the concrete they stood on.

Falcon looked down, concerned. He gave Naomi and Jen a questioning look, as if to ask ‘was that it?’. Naomi nodded.

Jen didn’t respond, instead staring vacantly at the horizon. It was strange–she’d been annoyingly positive moments before. Now, she looked almost paralyzed with terror.

Before Naomi could ask if Jen was okay, the concrete in front of them began to crack and splinter. Writhing tendrils erupted from the cracks, so vivid blue in color they seemed to glow in the dim light.

So much for staying positive.

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5.2

Anna B.2 Comments

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Naomi

No, no, no, no, no.

How could she have been so stupid? How could she have not seen this coming?

Of course Sarah had tricked them. Of course she had stranded them in the Pit with no way back.

She should have just taken the device while Sarah’s hands had been tied. Now there was no way back home, and no way to rescue Chelsea.

Tears stung her eyes as she slammed her fist into the wall, the pain splintering through her knuckles.

Jen approached, placing a gentle hand on Naomi’s arm.

“Hey,” said Jen. “It’ll be okay.”

Naomi shrugged off Jen’s hand.

“No, it won’t. Don’t you get it? Without that stupid device, there’s no way out of here. We’re stranded in this place.”

“Aw, don’t be a Negative Neville. There’s always a way out. We’ll find it.” Jen produced her cell phone from her pocket. “Maybe we can call someone for help.”

“You really don’t understand what’s going on, do you?” said Naomi.

“Oh, right. Other dimension. No service. Doy!” Jen slapped her forehead. “Still, we’ll find some way out. I know we can do it.”

“No,” said Naomi. “We can’t.”

“Well,” said Jen, “maybe we should focus on finding Chelsea first. Then we can figure out the whole ‘getting home’ thing.”

Naomi shrugged. Jen did have a point. Finding Chelsea was still a priority.

“Fine,” said Naomi. “Let’s go.”

She turned to Falcon, who was watching them with a confused expression. Oops. She had gotten so wrapped up in her emotions, she’d forgotten to communicate to him.

‘Find C,’ she finger-spelled.

Then, she gestured for him and Jen to follow and headed for the nearest door.

<><

Lachlan

After the day he’d had, it would have been an understatement to say that the break he was taking was well-deserved.

Lachlan and Sam sat side-by-side on the plane wing, their legs dangling off the side. Sam wore a brown leather aviator-style jacket Lachlan had found in the plane. Lachlan had considered keeping it for himself, but he’d decided Sam needed to stay warm more than he did. Besides, this way he’d be able to give Sam a hard time about it later.

The jacket probably wouldn’t have fit Lachlan anyway. It was a bit snug on Sam, but it suited him well.

“You sure?” Sam had said when Lachlan had given him the jacket. “You’re probably cold too.”

“Nah,” Lachlan had said. “You keep it. It almost makes you look cool, and you need all the help you can get in that department.”

Sam had told him to shut up, but he’d accepted the jacket anyway.

Lachlan gnawed on a strip of strange jerky they’d found in the plane, while Sam fidgeted with a bunch of small, spherical magnets, clumsily arranging them into pentagons with one hand and sticking the finished shapes to the wing. Nikola lay draped over Lachlan’s lap, staring at the jerky he was eating with large, pleading eyes.

Nikola hadn’t had much success leaping up onto the wing next to them, so he had instead levitated into Lachlan’s lap and settled there. The fact that Lachlan had hardly noticed this was a testament to how many unbelievable things he’d seen that day.

“Okay, your turn,” said Lachlan. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth,” said Sam.

“Oh, come on, Samurai. You’ve picked ‘truth’ every time. Live a little.”

Lachlan took a bite of the jerky, then gave another piece to Nikola. The jerky had an odd taste and smell, bad enough that Sam had refused to touch it, but Lachlan was almost too hungry to care. He sipped the mystery liquor to get rid of the taste.

“You’re going to make me do something stupid, like lick the plane or put my underpants on my head.”

“You betcha.”

“Then I stand by my choice,” said Sam. “Truth.”

“Oh, come on,” said Lachlan. “You’re no fun.”

“Fine,” said Sam. “I’ll pick ‘dare’ this time. But I reserve the right to refuse anything too idiotic.”

“I dare you to put your underpants on your head and lick the plane,” said Lachlan.

“Ha ha.” Sam set aside a magnet pentagon and started on a new one. “I’m not doing that.”

“At least I didn’t dare you to lick your underpants and put the plane on your head.”

“You’re an imbecile,” said Sam.

“Few lesser men can comprehend my brilliant mind.” Lachlan shook his head with mock-disappointment. “Fine. I’ll go easy on you in my infinite benevolence. I dare you to eat some of this weird jerky.”

Sam frowned at the jerky and scrunched up his nose.

“That stuff smells nasty. I’d rather put the plane on my head.”

“Well, unfortunately for you, seeing as I highly doubt you’re capable of lifting roughly two tons of metal onto your head, it’s either the jerky or the underpants on the head thing.”

“I pick truth,” said Sam.

“That’s not how the game works.”

“I pick truth.”

“Alright, but this place isn’t exactly chock full of food options. If I were you, I’d consider readjusting my standards for what I consider edible.”

“I physically cannot ingest something that smells like that,” said Sam. “Or something that’s that violent a shade of pink.”

“I’m not sure how you can smell anything over the blood smell.”

“The fact that we’re surrounded by the smell of congealing blood and I’m still finding this jerky more unpleasant is just a testament to its nastiness.”

“Fair enough, but don’t come crying to me if you die of starvation.”

“I’d be dead.” Sam squinted. “It would be physically impossible for me to ‘come crying’ to you or anyone else.”

“Come on,” said Lachlan. “Mmmm. Delicious jerky.”

Lachlan waved a strip of the jerky near Sam’s face. Sam recoiled, scrunching up his face into such a funny expression, Lachlan couldn’t resist waving the jerky even closer.

With a movement so forceful it startled Lachlan, Sam shoved his magnets into his pocket, stuck out his tongue, and practically fell face first onto the wing. He lost his balance, exclaiming in surprise as he slid off the wing, falling to the ground.

Nikola looked down at Sam, his ears perked in concentration. Sam stopped in mid-air, hovering about a meter above the ground.

Lachlan stared at him.

“What… in the name of fuck was that?”

Sam frowned.

“I was licking the plane. I was licking the plane and then I fell. Shut up.”

Sam tightened his lips as though he was trying to fix Lachlan with a serious expression, but a laugh escaped him.

Whatever Sam had just done had been one of the stupidest, most nonsensical things Lachlan had ever seen a sober person do, but he couldn’t suppress a laugh either.

“You… why?”

“You–you told me to!” Sam laughed. “I–the jerky was in my face, and I–you–“

Lachlan dissolved into a laughing fit.

“You licked a plane! You–you licked a fucking plane!”

Sam bobbed up and down in the air as laughter racked his body.

“I did! I licked a plane! I licked a plane and now a dog is making me levitate!”

Nikola looked between them, his large brown eyes full of confusion and concern. He broke concentration to reach up and lick Lachlan’s chin, and Sam toppled to the ground. He fell far enough that it must have hurt, but he continued laughing as he pulled himself into a sitting position.

“I licked a plane!”

“You did! You’re a plane-licker!”

Lachlan braced his hand on the plane’s wing to steady himself as he shook with laughter. It was the kind of laughter that was so intense it didn’t make a sound, the kind that usually came from consuming far more alcohol than had been in the little metal flask.

It made him think of Naomi, the first time they’d met in person. She’d had her first ever drink with him because it had been legal for her in Australia, and she’d gotten drunker after the one drink than he would have after five. She’d seen a paper napkin that she’d thought was a weird shape and doubled over the bar, tears streaming down her face, laughing with such intensity it was almost scary. She’d been so embarrassed about it the next day. She still got mad when he brought it up, which he often did.

A tear ran down his cheek and he wondered if he looked as crazed as she had.

Thinking about Naomi reminded him that he might never see any of his friends again, but somehow, that thought only made his laughter more intense.

Sam stood up and leaned forward against the edge of the wing. His laughter had begun to die down, but as Lachlan’s laughter increased, Sam’s came back in full force. He grabbed the wing with his good hand to steady himself.

All the insanity of the day, all the hopelessness, the terror, the blood, the sheer unbelievably of everything came pouring out of them at once.

They were in another reality! Three women had tried to devour them alive! They’d seen a guy step out of a talking squid covered in skulls! They were covered in blood, sitting on an airplane with a super-powered dog on top of an infinite building, and they might never see their homes again, and to top it all off, Sam was a plane-licker!

There was nothing they could do except laugh.

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4.8

Anna B.4 Comments

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Naomi

The sky was still dark as Naomi, Sarah, Jen, and Falcon sat in Jen’s car, parked in front of a chain coffee shop that had just opened for the morning. Falcon and Naomi sipped coffees, Sarah sipped tea, and Jen sipped an unknown pink beverage heaped with whipped cream.

Sarah broke the silence.

“Supposedly I can’t drink coffee,” she said.

“Okay,” said Naomi.

Sarah looked at Falcon, who gave her a confused frown.

“I wonder why he can drink it and I can’t.”

“How do you know you can’t drink it?” said Jen.

“What do you mean?” said Sarah.

“You said ‘supposedly’,” said Jen. “That means you’ve never tried it before, right? So how do you know?”

“Technically I’m not allowed to eat or drink anything except these weird nutrient packets,” said Sarah. “Anything else could mess with my physiology.”

“You’re drinking tea,” said Jen.

“I’m not supposed to,” said Sarah, “but I know for a fact it won’t hurt me.”

“How do you know that?” said Jen.

“I don’t know.” Sarah shrugged. “Does it matter?”

“No. It doesn’t matter,” said Naomi. “We don’t have time to talk about your dietary habits. We need to make sure we have a plan.”

She handed Jen a notepad she’d brought with her.

“Jen, can you take notes for Falcon?”

“Sure!” said Jen.

“The first thing we need to do is get to the machine,” said Naomi.

“That’ll be easy,” said Sarah. “No one will be in the lab this early, and if they are, all we have to do is act natural.”

“Will someone need to stay behind to operate the machine?” said Naomi.

“We can set it on a timer,” said Sarah. “It’s a little more dangerous that way, but it should be fine.”

“Dangerous how?” said Jen.

“If you’re halfway into the chamber when the gateway opens, only half of you could end up in the Pit,” said Sarah. “I don’t think that’s ever happened before though.”

“Um,” said Jen.

“Don’t worry,” said Sarah. “I won’t even set the timer until you’re all safe in the chamber. If anyone gets split in half, it’ll be me.”

“What about once we’re in?” said Naomi. “What then?”

“The most important thing would be to stick together,” said Sarah. “We’ll stand a better chance against anything we run into in there.”

<><

Lachlan

“59… Falcon… he’s not alone,” said the skull squid.

Lachlan wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but the creature’s skeletal faces seemed to relax, their expressions softening.

“He’s not,” said Lachlan. “He’s been with Dominic, Melanie, and Jess for over a year now. I don’t know him well, but he seems happy with them.”

Lachlan decided it might be better not to mention that Falcon wasn’t actually with his friends at the moment.

“That was my biggest fear,” said the creature, “that he was alone. My brothers and I were never meant to be alone.”

“Falcon has a lot of people looking out for him now,” said Lachlan. “We’re all working to make sure CPSI won’t find him.”

“I’m confused,” said Sam. “Who’s Falcon?”

Lachlan shot him a look, silently telling him to shut up.

“I saw his face in your memories,” said the skull squid. “All I wanted to know was that he had someone.”

It could read memories? Creepy.

“Hey, 98,” said Mahender, “if you don’t have any more questions, I think we’ve terrified these two for long enough.”

The skull squid bobbed its mass of heads in a disturbing approximation of a nod.

“You’re right. They’re free to go.”

The ring of creatures around them parted, giving them room to leave.

“One thing before you go, though,” said Mahender. “I suggest heading to the town. It’s your best bet if you want to find medical supplies.”

“Town?” said Lachlan. “There’s a town?”

“It’s almost completely deserted, but there’s medical supplies, some food and even personal grooming supplies.” Mahender grinned, ruffling his own hair. “It’s how I manage to stay so handsome even in a dimension made of nightmares.”

“Technically, it’s not a dimension–” said Sam.

“How do we get to the town?” interrupted Lachlan.

One of the creatures lifted a misshapen, face-covered arm and pointed.

<><

Naomi

Being pulled into the Pit wasn’t any less nauseating the second time around.

Naomi felt her body reform, squished against the dirty carpet by a heavy, warm mass that lay on top of her. She shoved at the mass, striking at it with her fist.

The mass let out a pained groan, and Naomi realized belatedly that she was hitting Jen.

“Ow,” said Jen.

“Sorry,” said Naomi, “but you were on me.”

Jen groaned again.

Naomi pulled herself to her feet, then offered a hand to Jen and helped her up. A few feet away, Falcon pulled himself off the floor.

“Sarah,” said Naomi, “you know more about this place than any of us. Where should we head now?”

There was no reply.

“Sarah?” Naomi said again.

“Um, Naomi,” said Jen. “I don’t think Sarah came here with us.”

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