Twenty-four Seven

The Stupid Tennis Ball

                ● CHAPTER ONE●

   A sword was pointed at me when I woke up, plus, I had a terrible hangover.
   "You are the child of Ajanta," a female voice said.
   I have to thank my hangover for messing up my head, making me unable to scream, or at least hit her.
   I squinted at my attacker. She had a white mask like cloth around her eyes, which were an unusual shade of orange. She used her other arm to tilt my head back, forward, and both sides, which was not helping my hangover.
   "Yes?" I answered sleepily.
   She yanked me up by my arms. Her sleeves rolled down to her wrists and it was made of the strangest cloth. Her jacket changed from black to white with every sudden movement, mesmerizing me.
   Still not helping my hangover though, colored dots danced around my eyes as I struggled to focus on my attacker. I couldn't even think clearly.
   She pushed a bottle to my lips, pouring its contents. It tasted like coffee and I greedily swallowed it all.
   My hangover disappeared instantly. And my vision cleared, I could focus on my attacker now.
   "The effects won't last long." My attacker shattered the bottle in her hand, dropping the shards on the wooden floor. "Eight hours tops."
   "What's your name?"
   She blinked twice. "I just broke into your flat, pointed a sword at you, and gave you something to drink, which could've been poison." She looked at me with disbelief. "And you want to know my name?"
   I shrugged. "Geez sorry then, want me to scream? Call the cops?"
   She sheathed her sword and started to walk towards my closet, flinging the door open and rummaging through my sorry excuse for clothes. "Okay, I was kidding," -she threw a shirt at me- "here, get dressed. We're going somewhere."
I scrambled to my feet, shirt in hand. "Why should I go with you?"
   She sat down on the floor, leaning on my bed with her hands behind her head. "I can kidnap you now if you want, but I like to think that asking you to come is more polite."
   I nodded. "Sure, give me five minutes." I requested, stepping into my tiny bathroom.
   Just before I shut the door, she called out, "the name's Liah, Liah Kelan."
                          ●●●

   While we were walking, Liah was mostly quiet. Her silence left me to look at her better.
   She was fairly pretty, she had chocolate colored skin, dark brown hair. She had taken off her mask before we went out of my flat, but she had put on a pair of blue contact lenses to mask her eyes. She looked pretty fit too, and she towered over me and most of the guys we passed by, who would stop and gawk at her, even if she paid no attention to them.
  We walked for about an hour before we stopped at a bustling coffee shop. It was late in the afternoon and the coffee shop was full with customers.
   Liah expertly weaved in and out of the crowd, leading me to the washroom.
   I'll admit that I'd lost sight of her a few times, but thanks to her cool jacket, I'd spot her in the crowd of coffee-deprived people.
   It was small inside the washroom, a simple ceramic sink and an old fashioned toilet.
   "Wait, is this like, Harry Potter?" I asked. If we were going to step in the bowl and flush ourselves, I might just throw up.
   Liah chuckled closing the door, sealing us in this confined space. "Of course not. First you do this," -she flicked the switch off, leaving the both of us in darkness-"and hold on!" She yelled and I could almost hear her smile as she yanked my hand to help me grasp onto the sink.
   The floor began to shake, and we plummeted downwards. My stomach flew to my throat, along with its contents.
   Time seemed to slow down as I counted to ten, trying to calm down. Even in the darkness, I was sure that I was as pale as a ghost.
   The tiny washroom lurched up. And it was over. The door clicked open and the room flooded with light.
                           ●●●

   A hand clapped me on my back, Liah's hand actually, "Here" -she handed me a bottle of water- "drink up, and I'll introduce you to my friends."
   Reluctantly, I followed after her, draining the bottled water in big gulps. Once we stopped, I threw up in the bathroom and Liah was there, shaking uncontrollably from laughter.
   I was not in the mood to meet Liah's friends.
   I followed her through an outdoor garden, filled with colorful plants and flowers that I didn't know nor cared about. I wanted to get this over with.
   I could hear faint laughter up ahead, also the clanging of metal, which was probably swords since Liah has one.
   The garden path led us to a clearing. Green grass for as far as the eye could see, and the bluest sky I've ever seen, honest. Like someone had taken a paintbrush and painted the whole sky. Pretty neat.
   Liah was still quiet, so I had the chance to think about everything. Like, why did I suddenly trust Liah? For all I know, she could be leading me to my death. She's threatened to kidnap me already, but, she did fix my hangover, and she mentioned my mom. I'd do anything to know what happened to her.
   As we walked, the sound of metal against metal grew louder, as did the laughter. And if I squinted, I could make out the outlines of three, four people. Two of them were fighting one-on-one with swords, they were talking to each other but I couldn't make out their words. The other two were playing tennis, at least that's what it looked like to me, each had a metal paddle and they took turns hitting a metal ball back and forth.
   Something was off about them, I wasn't sure. It might be the sunlight.
   As Liah and I approached them, my hunch was confirmed, it wasn't the lighting, they really had colored skin.
   One of them had aqua skin, another had pale pink color. I could see them clearly now, a boy and a girl sword fighting, and two boys, both the same shade, whacking the metal ball back and forth quickly.
   The aqua skinned boy noticed us first. He turned to wave, lowering his sword and causing his sparring partner to divert her swing and curse at him, loud.
   One of the guys playing tennis whacked it hard, and the ball went flying, his opponent ran after it. He went so far that he disappeared from my line of sight. The only assurance that managed to catch up to the ball was a loud thunk that sounded through the clearing.
   Liah waved back at them, calling for them to come closer, and the ball came whooshing back, straight at me.
   It all happened so fast, aqua boy began to run towards me, and Liah hadn't seen the ball coming and she jumped too late to catch it.
   The ball hit me. On the head. Hard.
   My knees gave way and the last thing I remember hearing was laughter, and shouting.
   Then, everything faded into black.