I was walking home with my two best friends. School had been grueling. Math test, then essay, and a pop quiz. Me, I was tired from swim practice and couldn't wait to crash on the couch to watch the news.
The biggest thing right now was some terrorist attack in California.
Kim was drenched in sweat from soccer, and Skye was hot from lacrosse.
They were walking home in their uniforms, while I had a pair of very wet shorts on over my Speedo.
Very sporty friends.
We were laughing and giggling over some of the latest gossip. Some squinty-eyed freshman claimed she'd kissed Justin Bieber. Sure.
Kim had just been telling us this particular squinty eyed girl had also claimed to have been related to the queen.
I turned around after I heard a muffled thump. Kim wasn't behind me any more.
"Wait, where's Kim?" I asked.
Skye turned around. "Where'd she go? She was telling us about that silly freshman.." she paused.
"Kim!"
I heard a scream.
I turned around to see Kim floating in midair, struggling and wrirthing and screaming her head off. Her blue eyes were wide with fear.
Skye hadn't even turned around.
I didn't have time to think if she were deaf or not, I only had time for the girl dangling ten feet above the ground.
I started running towards Kim. I launched into the air, grabbing her feet. I was dangling a foot or two above the ground now, unable to pull her down.
"Kim!" I shrieked.
"Liv! Let go!" she cried. "Leave!"
Suddenly we were both being pulled up, and Kim's head dissapeared.
"Kim!"
Suddenly I was being dragged by a pair of hands. I banged onto something. I think Kim's foot.
I felt dizzy. And sick. What was happening? Where was I?
Everything was moving too fast.
All I could see was a gray metal floor. I closed my eyes. This was a dream. This was a dream.
I could hear someone standing above me. "No, no, no. This can't be happening. " Then they groaned and I felt the floor beneath me lurch and then I was moving.
I blacked out.
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I woke up.
I was stiff. My neck hurt and my back was sore. It took me a minute to realize that I was no longer on the floor. I was on a very lumpy matress. It took me another few minutes for me to realize that my eyes were closed.
I opened them up to a very dark room, lit only by a very grimy window set high up on the concrete walls. It looked out on grass, and was far too high for me to reach.
The floor was also concrete, with a little rusted drain in the center. The bed was a foldable cot with rusty metal bars holding it up and a very thin sheet ridden with holes covering the matress.
There was only one door, a large metal thing two or three feet taller than me.
I stood up to go pound on it.
"Let me out!" My hand banged against the metal, and I gasped. It hurt. Like I'd almost broken it.
I moved away from the door, hoping someone outside had heard me.
After a few very quiet minutes, I decided no one was coming. I walked over to go inspect the window.
It was a dirty thing. There was little pieces of dirt and dust clinging to it. Cobwebs covered one corner, and a few dead bugs were laying on the sill outside.
Gross, but the only way out of this room.
The window was about a foot above my head. A tall girl might have been able to reach it, but I was only five foot two.
I walked over to the cot. It was the only thing in the room. I looked around for a bucket or something that might have been left in the room for me to go to the bathroom in, but I had a feeling there was a reason there was a drain in the floor.
I looked at the cot. The frame was bolted down to the floor, but the matress came off. I balled it up and dragged it over to sit under the window.
Then I stood on it. It was a little wobbly under me at first, but I steadied myself and saw I could reach the sill of the window.
My fingers just barely brushed against the glass. I looked down again. I was still wearing my bathing suit, my shorts, and one flip flop. The other had fallen off in the scuffle.
I got off the lump of matress and pulled off my shorts. I wrapped them around my hand then climbed back up. I grabbed at the sill and hoisted myself up. It was only about a foot and a half tall and two feet wide, but I managed to cram myself in.
I clenched my teeth together and prayed that there was no one outside.
Then I hit the window.
Glass shattered around my hand. Now there was a large hole in the window. I put my arms through and dug into the dirt outside.
I hoisted myself out gingerly, careful of the glass below and above me.
Now I was crouching in the grass. I stood up, kicking off my flip flop.
Then I ran.
There was grass for about two miles, but then there was a strip of trees I could hide in.
I ran so hard it hurt, even though I could only have been running about fifteen minutes by the time I reached the treeline. It was harder to run over uneven terrain with no shoes on.
I quickly slipped into the shade of the trees. Five feet in, I discovered a fence. I quickly scaled it and landed on the other side.
That's when I started to feel weird. My stomach hurt and so did my back. I lay down on the ground. I felt horrible.
Suddenly a horrible, lurching pain ran through me, and I felt all the bones in my body start to shift. It hurt. So bad. I was biting the inside of my mouth to keep from screaming.
And then suddenly it was gone, as quickly as it came.
Confused, I looked around, and realized I couldn't look right. Everything was strange, like I was looking from two different sides of my head. It hurt. But I knew I wasn't looking from the sides of my head, since that was plain ridiculous.
I started to stand up, still feeling weird. Then I looked down. And saw hooves.
I felt faint, and I folded my now-alien legs under me.
I just lay there. This must be a dream, I thought. A creepy dream.
I went to sleep, a whisper of a name I used to know caressed into my ear.
Liv.
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I woke in a bed. It was white, with a stainless steel frame and sheets. It was bolted down to the floor like the first bed, but this one was clean and actually looked white. I tried to get up, but paused, a horrible pain flitting through my stomach. I wanted to double up, but I lay back down, waiting for the core of pain in my stomach to disperse.
A bit horrified, I decided to use my eyes to survey my surroundings.
There were four other beds in the room, all of them occupied. Five other girls lay softly moaning in pain.
I tried sitting up. It hurt like heck, but I had to see where I was.
The other four girls were a bit pretty, but were the strangest bunch I'd ever seen.
The first girl had firey orange hair. Her face was bruised and scratched, like she had been captured and had fought. Hard.
The second girl had long brown hair that hung pin straight, and also had bangs. Her face was contorted in pain, but she didn't look as though she'd struggled.
The third girl had dirty blond hair, which was cut short and fell in her eyes. She looked calm and perfectly fine.
The last girl had bleach blond hair with bright green tips. She had sort of pretty features, but had a bit of a square jaw.
Looking for something in the room, I saw a door. Clutching my stomach, I limped over to the door. I groaned as my abdomen seemed to burn.
I pushed against it, but realized it was locked. Gasping, I sunk to the ground. The pain overtook me, and I blacked out yet again.
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I woke in someone's arms. I was being carried somewhere.
Summoning my wits, I elbowed them. Hard.
Sputtering, they dropped me, right on my bottom. Ignoring my pain, I scrambled up, then grabbed my stomach. Pain like I couldn't believe ripped through me. Crying, I sank onto the ground. I noticed it was plain linolium.
Where on earth was I?
I twisted around to see who had been carrying me, and sucked in a breath of shock.