Poseidia (3 page)

Back at
the sink, I used one of the sponges I found to scrub my face, desperate to see if the color would come off. My mouth tasted stale, so I rinsed it out and brushed my teeth with something resembling a toothbrush.

I
rummaged through the closet for different clothing, but found no alternates. Abhorring what they’d dressed me in, but with few options, I grabbed a clean one from the closet, and put it on. I waved my hand over the wall by the door and it slid open.

B
ack in the bedroom, I checked out every inch. As I approached the main door, it opened, revealing an empty hallway.

Go
, Anna, get the heck out of here. The doctors back home will fix you. Go, now, before she comes back.

T
he hallway ended in a huge circular room, housing several large tanks of neon green water in the center and a half-dozen hallways branching off it. The echo of dripping water reverberated around the empty room. An aroma of seawater, and fleeting scents of fish and seaweed, filled my nose. But the place was empty.

This is too easy.

Keeping my back to the outside wall, I snaked my way around to the far side. The first hallway was vacant also.
Doesn’t anyone work around here
? It dead-ended in a room filled with body-sized capsules, stacked on top of each other, lining the walls.

There were
at least fifty of the capsules made of some sort of thick plastic. I tiptoed over to one of them. The plastic was smoky and blocked my view of the inside, but as I ran my hand over it, the material became clear, and a body appeared through the window. I jumped, shocked.

Sleeping body or
dead body? Is it a casket?

Terrified, a
new surge of fear coursed through my body and I stumbled backward. My breathing increased to match the frantic staccato of my heart. This room was a dead end, a tomb, with no doors, windows, or anything connected other than the hallway I’d come down. I sprinted back to try another hallway, but voices stopped me in my tracks.

After they passed, a
t the end of hallway number two was another large room, filled with an in-ground pool system. Three of the pools, the size of hot tubs, were filled with steaming mud in different colors—red, black, and brown. An equal number of pools, with steaming water, not mud, sat on the far side of the room. It resembled some kind of ancient bathhouse.

My breathing slowed and I held my breath
, thinking it would help me remain unseen. I watched in horrific fascination as these strange people mingled, naked and covered in mud.
Weird rich people.

No other hallwa
ys connected to this room, so I slinked back the way I had come. My luck would run out eventually, it always did, and someone would find me. Panic clouded my mind.

Pa
ssing the room I’d woken up in, I ran down the hallway in the other direction. An open area appeared in the distance, so I dug deep and increased my speed.

Go. Get out now.
Forget what you’ve seen.

My heart hammered
loudly in my chest. Light from windows illuminated my path and gave me hope of freedom.
Yes!
Please, please be a way out.

The open area was a large circular
, domed room with five different hallways branching off it. I hesitated for a moment, unsure of which way to go.

Taking
a gamble, I sprinted to the hallway on the far left. As I ran, I craned my head back and forth, transparent walls allowing me a partial view of the outside. It was heartening to see gardens abundant with green foliage and countless varieties of flowers I’d never seen.
Maybe it’s an island of some kind.
I paused for a second to catch my breath and unconsciously touched the wall. It was soft and had a gelatinous texture.
Weirder. Just get out, now.

About midway down the hallway was a door.
Growing comfortable with the hand-wave function, I opened it without hesitation, rushed down a spiral staircase, in my haste, slipping down the last few steps. It led out into the lush garden.

T
he fragrance from the flowers was heavy and as I opened my mouth, panting, I could taste them. The aroma became intoxicating and I grew dizzy so I stopped and looked around.

White
domed buildings trimmed in gold and made of a stucco-type material surrounded the garden.
Maybe
I’m in the Mediterranean.
A strong sense of familiarity as I looked around brought on the strange déjà vu feeling again.
Maybe I’ve seen this place in a travel magazine or something. Yes, I’m sure that’s it.

Equilibrium restored
, I didn’t linger to observe the beauty of the place. I wanted out.

My heart
thundered in my chest, my ears pounded, and my breath came in short pants.
Run, run
, I told myself.
Which way now?

There has to be a road somewhere, right?
I can flag down a car and have them take me to the nearest police station.

I sprinted away from the building, and across a small meadow. It ended against a transparent wall of some sort
. My heart fell into my stomach when my eyes focused on what was beyond the wall.

Crap. Where am I?

Hundreds of fish swam behind the wall as if it was a giant aquarium.

With my arms outstretched to touch the barrier, I craned my neck straight up
for the first time, and then back. More ocean. Sea creatures swam overhead outside a dome structure, which blanketed the city.

I’m not
on an island after all. I’m under the sea.

T
rapped.

No!
This is impossible. There has to be a way out.

My hands had frozen midair inches from touching the wall. Now
, as they closed the distance, the wall reached out to me, a living glob, trying to absorb my hands.

Instantly
I snapped them back, stumbled backward, and fell to the ground. I’d officially reached meltdown level.
I’m going insane.

Correction, I’m
not going insane. I am insane.

David was right.

When I hit the ground, a laugh resonated from the foliage. On my back, I craned my head and searched the flowers for the source. A man with long dark brown hair and human skin sat off to the side, hidden in the foliage, whittling a long stick.

He’s human. Maybe he’ll help me get out of here.

“Oh thank God, please help me,” I cried. Tears of joy, relief, and terror trickled from the corners of my eyes.

His
intense espresso-brown eyes locked with mine. Scars crisscrossed his torso, visible because he wore only a short, faded maroon wrap tied around his waist.

What
kind of costume is that? Is he a caveman?

He tilted his head a fraction to the right, closed his eyes, and inhaled deeply.

“Will you help me?” I pleaded, rolling over onto my hands and knees.

“No,” he
barked, breaking his silence and returning to his chore.

“I’ve been kidnapped and my body mutilated, don’t you care? Will you call the police for me?”

He froze, squinted, and pursed his full lips. “No,” he answered again as he turned his attention back to his project. His forearm-long knife gleamed as he turned it.

The spit dried in my mouth as fear ran up my spine and settled in my throat.
Maybe I should try a gentler approach
. “What… are you doing?” I asked, while eyeing the knife.

“
Can you not see?” he huffed, his voice mangled with a heavy accent I didn’t recognize.

Forget i
t—I don’t have time to waste on this rude man.
“Will you at least tell me which way to get out of here?”

He laughed
, and then pointed up. My eyes followed the direction he indicated, to the top of the dome.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked
, exasperated.

“If you want to leave
, you’ll have to swim out of here.”

“Swim, ok
ay I can swim. I’m a pretty good swimmer.” A tiny flicker of hope built within my heart.

He laughed again, louder this time.

“Fine, don’t help me,” I snapped. I stood, dusted myself off, picked a random direction, and ran.
I don’t have time to waste. Get out of here.

I stopped several times to catch my breath.
Staying close to the dome, I moved until I was exhausted, my muscles twitching. I needed a place to hide, to rest, and to think.

T
he closest building had a sign next to the front entrance written in a foreign language. Unable to read it, I stared, as a tickle at the back of my mind told me I should know the language. I traced the strange letters with my fingers, the cold black metal smooth under my touch. Almost as if I could hear whispers coming out of a fog, the feeling I knew what it meant intensified. Strangely, I was sure I’d been here before. Shaking my head to clear the feelings, I scolded myself for becoming distracted.

What is wrong with me?

As I entered the building and my feet touched the floor, a pulse of electricity shocked me, causing me to stumble and fall. At least no one was in here to witness my clumsiness.

The floor was made of a thick, cloudy
-looking material, and a light pulsed beneath it. A tingle went up my arms and feet where they touched, and permeated my entire body. I tried to crawl out of the room, but my arms became heavy. Feeling as if every cell in my body vibrated at a high frequency, I closed my eyes and swallowed a wave of nausea.

As
I opened my eyes, peace and calm replaced my anxiety and fear. The vibrations gave me a buzz, and I felt drunk.

I regained control of my hands and feet and crawled out of the building. After a minute to gather my senses, I
got up and looked around.
What is this place? Oz? Wonderland?
Peaceful feelings from the strange place lingered.

Towering above everything else stood a
reddish metallic pyramid, up on its own little hill. Mesmerized, I walked in the direction of it, surprised no one chased me.

Oblivious to me, p
eople walked in the gardens, but I didn’t ask them for help, they were all similar to Lily—I didn’t think they would help me. As I walked, slowing my pace, I noticed no one said a word. The more intently I listened for any kind of sound, the eerie silence intensified. Could ears burst from straining? I heard nothing but the echo of light footsteps when someone passed me. No birds, no breeze, simply a vacant stillness.

Strangely, a weird
kind of outside arena with people tending to fruit trees, green mossy pools, and gardens, was on my trek to the pyramid.

Still searching for a place to hide and rest,
I tried another building, but it was locked. I moved on until I found myself at the base of the giant pyramid, seemingly in the center of the city.

F
rom the base on the hill, I looked around, appreciating the vantage point. The city surrounded the pyramid in a circular pattern. Domed buildings connected to each other by a web of transparent tunnels. Lush gardens filled with exotic flowers surrounded every structure. Glimmers of light bounced around the city from an unseen source.

This
… is heaven.

Hypnotized by the city’
s beauty, I didn’t notice anyone approach me from behind. As I turned back to face the pyramid, I came face to face with Lily, as well as the giant human man in the maroon wrap.

Crap. Run
, Anna.

I took off at full speed
, running in the opposite direction. As I turned my head to see if they followed me, I ran smack into a tree, and fell to the ground. Looking up, I saw it wasn’t a tree I’d run into. The giant human-looking man towered over me.
What is he, some pro wrestler or something?

“You should watch where you’re going,” he s
colded. He reached down, plucked me up from the ground as though I was nothing more than a rag doll, and threw me over his shoulder.

“Hey, let me go
!” I kicked and screamed as he carried me back to the woman, pounding my fists into his rock-hard flesh.
Since when do guys have six packs on their lower backs?

“
Where do you want her, Lily?” he asked, completely ignoring my protests.

“In the Healing Center,” she s
ighed.

“Put me down, you overgrown ogre,” I
roared, as I continued my pummeling of his back.

He
chuckled as he ambled back to the Healing Center. Efficiently, he returned me to the same room I’d come from, plopped me down onto the bed from which I had awakened, and then left without another word.

I crawled into the bed, and pulled the covers up to my chin
, trying to contain my fury but failing. “How could you do this to me?” I screamed at Lily, as tears streamed down my face. “You can’t keep me a prisoner.”

She
approached the bed, sat down next to me, and attempted to hold my hand. I jerked it away from her, not wanting to touch. Touching her would make it real.

“Your feelings will change. Give it time. You need to heal and learn about us.”

I shook with rage. “I don’t want to learn about you. I want to go home. David has to pay for what he did.”

“I don’t know what happened
that brought you to us, but we gave you a new life. Without us, you would be dead. Is that what you wanted?”