I can feel the cold chilly snap of the air's temperature around me, it gnawing at my muscles and bones. I don't know what time it is, how long till morning, when I will be let out. Will Avery be looking for me? Are my friends looking for me?!
I feel my tears sliding down my face and meeting my knees. It's so cold and I curl up more to try and stay warm. My clothing and my thin blanket doesn't keep me as warm as it should. I look at my hands, seeing the scratches and dried blood all over them from pounding and scratching at the door for hours at one point.
It was a stupid idea for an escape attempt out of sheer desperation.
Then I hear the sound of a door being thrown opened but it's not my own. "Get her out of here."
"No, no, no! What about her?! WHAT ABOUT HER TOO?!"
I hear a series of screams that vanish. They sound like they only get fainter.
"Oh, stop hanging onto the walls!"
That sounds just like Avery! "Valerieeeee!"
I jump up from my 'bed', swinging my legs to the floor, my raven hair cascading down my face to frame it. That was Avery, no!
Then my door swings open and in walks Rain. "Good... Morning, Valerie. How did you sleep?"
It seems like she wants nothing to do with me. How does she want me to even respond this? What does she even expect me to say?!
"Valerie!" I hear her growl, scaring me, making me a jolt a little bit in fright.
"Uh, it, it's cold in here, I couldn't sleep." I stammer.
"That's to be expected. I see you've been crying."
"What? Me, crying? No wayyyyy..." I lie
"I'm not stupid, but, heh, you've suffered." She taunts, pointing to my injured hands.
"Can you just go away, if all your here to do is taunt me?"
"You want me to leave? Fine. I'll just leave you in here then for being rude to me. Doesn't affect my day what so ever!"
And she starts to leave, closing the door behind her. I jump to my feet and pound on the door. "No, no, no, no! Please don't do that! My friends will be worried around me!"
I can feel fresh tears, falling down my face. "Fine, but move away from the door or YOU will get hit in the head by it. I step back to let her open it again. "What are we going to do with you, Valerie?" She huffs with her hands on her hips. I see a loose strand of her pure white hair with a few aqua blue and light green streaks fall into her face and she blows it with her lips, then quickly tucks it behind her ear, flawlessly.
"Rain-" but she doesn't give me a chance to finish, before grabbing my wrist and pulling me out. "That hurts!" I cry.
"That's the point, now shut up!"
I wince at the pain. "You don't have to do this! Why don't you guys just let me and my friends go and we can be on our way. Out of your hair!"
"Nope. Not fun for us if we did that, Valerie."
"Ugh, you're so-"
"So, what?" And I feel her go behind me, taking my both my wrists in hers, pulling them up to hurt me. "Stop!"
"Just keep walking. The sooner I drop you off back at the city center, I can go about starting my day. Your lucky, my Husband has decided to let you and your team off, for a couple days to 'recover' as you've been all slacking the last couple of days. Seems like you're not cut out for fun & games, but I'd like it if you were.
I expect better later. Oh, and no helping others who aren't on your team.
Finally, Rain brings me to the boarding house and she lets go, shoving me to the floor a few apartments down from my apartment. I feel carpet burn. "Your pathetic, Valerie. Can't even stay on your own two feet. I wonder what Solayo ever saw in you for you to gain a place in his class.
Anyway, you won't be going home by any means. Your family *may* have a chance if were feeling generous at any stage, but you? Haha, no. Two left feet. Sorry, no mercy, babe."
And she walks away, leaving me. I see one of the other Guards stepping to block the corridor after Rain has left. I pick myself up. "Why?"
"You don't compete do a job, participate in their games, but aren't disqualified? Your stay here."
"But what are we to do about food???"
"Owen or someone will bring something up for you and your friends. Now shove off!"
I sigh and walk to the end of the corridor where me and my Friends are staying, slowly turning the handle and pushing the door open. I hear the sound of something hitting the floor and I feel two arms wrap around my neck. "Valerie!"
It's Kelsey, she's crying. "Kelsey, I-I-"
She's sobbing, softly into my shoulder and neck. "Where we you?" Louis asks, who's holding a drawing pad in his hands. "I second that, hmph!" I hear Cloud scoff.
I feel myself shaking and seize my arms around Kelsey tighter to deepen the hug. "Oh, Core! Louis! She's crying, we made her cry..." I hear Cloud stammer.
"Valerie, are you okay? Tell us what happened to you." I hear Louis ask.
"Valerie, I-I was so worried about you! You got knocked out by Shelby and were taken by this community's sadistic and psychopathic leaders and didn't return. What happened? They took Avery as well, she gave Security a good fight." Kelsey asks me, stepping back. Hands still on the side of my arms though.
"K-Kelsey, I-I-" I stammer, before feeling dizzy all of a sudden and loosing balance on my feet and nearly crashing to the floor, but she has me though thank goodness before everything goes dark for me.
---
I feel a pair of cold hands running themselves across my forehead. They are crisp, but gentle.
"How is she?"
"She's goanna wake up, right?!"
I know those voices. It's Louis and Kelsey. I shift my body and can feel a giant pillow behind my head. My guess is they moved me to my bed?
"She'll be fine. She... Just seems like she's been through the ringer is my guess, but bare in mind that I'm no doctor. I'm just a teachers aid and I have only minimal first aid training."
And that's Cloud voice. "Agh! Why can't we ever catch a break?!" I hear Kelsey grumping.
"Why can't I catch a break?" I mumble. "Valerie!" I hear my friends shout. I open my eyes, but the harsh light hurts and I wince. I bring my hand to cover my eyes, but I feel a hand bring it back down the pillow. They are gentle, but kind of strong about it.
"Don't try to move, Valerie." I hear Louis say. "What happened?" Kelsey asks me. I try to sit up a it, but I'm unsuccessful and just slump back down on the bed. I finally open my eyes to see Cloud above me. "Was that you?" I ask. He nods. "We should see if we can get a doctor up here from the Hospital. She doesn't look okay." I hear Louis state.
"Doctor? Doctor?! You think they are going to bring a doctor up here if we ask? No way in hell, Louis!" I hear Kelsey yell.
"Well, it was just a thought." Louis fires back with, both of them beginning to figjt.
"Oh, will you two shut up?!" I hear Cloud snap over the top of them. "We may not have a doctor, but we do have me!"
"True, true. You're right." I hear Louis answer. "Okay, fine." I hear Kelsey say, crossing her arms and I see her sit down on the bed next to mine alongside Louis. He wraps his arms around her. "Why did this sort of thing happen to us? We don't deserve this." I hear Kelsey whimper.
"That's magic for you..." Louis replies, letting out a sigh. "And maybe I don't wanna be magical. Our powers removed might have been a gift. If we get them back ever and go back home, I'll pray to the Core to strip me of them and give me a normal, human life." Kelsey tells him.
"Well, whatever you decide for the long term, Kelsey... We've been selfish." Cloud, butt's in with. "What do you mean?" She questions.
"Oh for god sake! Look at her! Look at, Valerie! She's too unwell to go on!" Cloud snaps.
"What happened to you Valerie last night?" Louis asks me.
"H-he, th-they, ah!" I wince in pain. "Did they hurt you?" Cloud asks me with puppy dog eyes that are actually full of concern for me.
I nod my head. "Not just me." I choke. "Not just you?" Cloud repeats. I nod.
"Avery."
"Oh, god." I hear Kelsey say, bringing her hands to her mouth. "Okay, I think we really need a plan here. We need to be smart with whatever it is we do next." Louis says.
"Just get me out of here! I don't care what we do next!" I cry out, feeling my heavy limbs.
"Okay, we'll do that." Cloud says looking down and rubbing my forehead like a Dad would. "It's goanna be okay, Valerie."
"He's right. We're your friends." I hear Cloud say. "I'm not giving up on you, Valerie. You've always be there when I've needed you actually, helping me out with class and it's about time I repaid the debt somehow!" Kelsey smiles.
"T-thank you." I choke out.
"So, what do we want to do?" Cloud questions.
"My guess is we need to escape obviously..." Louis trails off.
"Hey! We can do that, but go where? If you haven't noticed, Louis we don't have a Core access terminal to get back home and were in the middle of a snowy woods terrain! If we go out there with Valerie in this condition? She won't survive the night!" Kelsey yells.
"And if we stay here, she'll only get worse!" Louis yells back to her.
"Hey, come on now! You both are better than this!" Ivor intervenes. "You guys are the new generation of where we came from still. Now, I know it's not easy, but you guys can't give up! I've seen with my own two eyes what you're capable off!" Cloud smiles, clapping his hands.
I see them exchange glances. "You're right, I'm sorry." They say to each-other. "Finally. Now we're getting somewhere!" Cloud smiles, again.
"We need to get back up to the gateway we were in. There's other star-gates to go through. Maybe one leads back home? We'd have to put all our effort into hoping into each one though." I groan.
"Valerie, I think you should stop straining yourself. You've done enough. Leave this to us." Cloud says gently, rubbing my head again.
"Well, there must be a way back up. The people here, running this place. Harriet was it? She was up there when she pushed us in here, so there must be a way back up." I hear Louis suggest.
"Yeah! You're right! Umm, let's see, let's see. Maybe if we could get our hands on some rope and a hook we could try and throw it up onto the platform we were originally on, perhaps?" I hear Kelsey suggest. It's a long shot, but gates have edges."
"Yeah, good plan! Just how do we get our hands on that stuff without arousing suspicion?" Louis responds.
"Good point, Louis. Ummm... maybe there is a set of stairs or a passage up there from the head of these 'games' side?" Kelsey follows with.
"Let's just leave it to these two, hey?" Cloud whispers in my ear, still rubbing my head. I pull the blanket up around me a bit and I feel him tuck me in. "It's going to be okay."
I nod, feeling tired. "You take a nap. You've earned it."
"Bed-sheets." I mumble. "What?" Cloud questions me.
"If we can't ahold of rope, it's always another possibility." And then I feel myself drift off to sleep.
---
"Valerie."
"Valerie, wake up."
"Eh?" I let slip, rolling over onto my side to see Cloud. He helped me to sit up and I saw I was still on my bed, where I had been left. "Have a good sleep?"
"I don't want to anyone hurt me!"
"You're okay here, no one's going to hurt you."
"I don't want anyone to hurt me!" I scream, pushing Cloud away from me. I see my action startle Louis and Kelsey who leap up from their beds. They must have been resting. "Woah, woah, woah! Calm down!" I hear a voice I don't recognize. I turn around to see who.
"Harriet." I growl. She puts her hands up. "Hey, hey, hey. It's okay. You're okay. We can talk can't we?"
Cloud turns away his head, looking visbly uncomfortable. She's so diffrent from what we were told about her by Cloud. Why didn't her soul reincarnate into another identity?
And then I feel something hit me smack bang, Avery. She's a older version of Avery who was the Princesses, Girlfriend's friend!
I've never really stopped to talk to the older generation who were the last to ender the reign of the Princesses Mother, but I've seen photos. Avery was about 25 years old, but in this world she looks as if she's 29 or so.
Why didn't her own soul transition also? I meet Cloud's eyes. He knows, he actually knows! Do Kelsey & Louis not recognize Harriet much or Avery at all?
"Valerie." I heart Harriet snap, raising her voice a little, breaking me out of my thoughts. No matter who Harriet was before, she's no longer a good person now. Not in this world at-least...
"No! You are responsible for us all ending up here and being trapped here! Your worse than every one of your friends!"
I raise my fists to fight her when I feel someone grab my wrists together and put me under their arm pit to stop me. This way, it was impossible to fight. All I could do was struggle.
"Let go!" I shouted seeing Ivor sitting on the floor so it's not him. "Who are you?!" I yell.
"I'll let you go, if you calm down."
"Fine!" And I feel some gently drop me onto my bed, stomach and face first. I take a deep breath and then sit up to see who it was. "Owen?!" I gasp seeing him here. "Good Afternoon, Valerie"
"Afternoon, but I-"
"It's lunch time... Harriet and I brought you and your friends lunch."
I feel anger bubbling inside me and lay back down. "Get out of Our room. I don't want either of you anywhere near me or my friends!"
"Well, I am sorry you feel that way. I do hope with time you will forgive us though."
I say nothing. "Let's just go, Owen. Enjoy lunch, you guys..." I hear Harper say and she leaves with Owen. When they are gone I sit up. "Valerie,what was that?!" I hear Kelsey yell. "Hey! Don't take it out on her!" Louis yells back, going up to Kelsey.
"Dear God, you both are at it again!" I hear Cloud grumble, standing up. He grabs a plate with some sandwiches and a cup of water for me. "You should eat. Get your strength back up, Valerie."
I eat the food, ignoring a pain in my stomach and Cloud eats his. Eventually Louis and Kelsey calm down and eat theirs. After lunch, Louis stacks our plates and cups on one of the dressers in the room. "Um, so, Valerie..." I hear Kelsey whisper.
"Yes?" I respond.
"We have a plan..."
"Okay..."
"We were given sheets to change our beds with and they said with the old ones to pop it down the laundry shoot. We've changed our beds and yours... we tied all the sheets together to make a rope like you suggested. We managed to make some kind of grappling hook out of bending cuterly and some other stiff we found around the boarding house...
Don't ask how..."
I hear Louis snicker and a small smile presents it's self on Kelsey's face. "We will back in the Hallway and can go into the other star-gates. Better than starving in the hallway and I guess sometime risks need to be taken.
What do you think of the plan? We'll be safe there and alive... During that time we can get help to figure out if there is another star-gate for our home. What do you think?" Louis questions.
"It's fine. Just how do we get out of our sleeping quarters?"
"Well, uh... We can go down the laundry shoot? No one will be doing anything wherever that ends up during the night."
"What do you think of Louis's plan, Valerie?" I hear Kelsey question.
"No, Kelsey. It's your plan too." Louis tells her. "It's fine, it's fine. Can I go back to sleep now? I'm tired." I tell them, feeling myself dosing off again.
"Sure, and we'll be right here, Valerie." I hear Cloud tell me before I dose off again.
---
"Valerie, wake up. It's 1 a.m. You slept throughout the whole day."
I feel someone shaking my knee and I open my eyes to see it's Kelsey. "We need to go, now."
She helps me out of bed. I can feel how much pain my bodies in. "Kelsey, my body hurts alot."
"Want me to carry her?" I hear Cloud ask.
"That will slow you down and her on your back might mean you and her are more easily seen, not to mention vulnerable." Louis steps in with.
"True, but I could carry her bridal style if need be? She's in no condition for escaping really."
"We don't have that sort of time, Cloud right now!" I hear Kelsey respond.
"Come on, Valerie."
Kelsey brings me over to Louis and we swap the clothes I'm wearing for a long shirt, long pants, thick socks, snow boots and a hoodie, plus scarf and beanie. It's embarrassing my friends have to help me dress, but I can barely move my sore limbs. Louis has a bag on his back. I can see the bed sheets hanging out the top a little. I see Cloud pocket the home-made grapple hook. I have no idea how Louis and Kelsey managed that, but if I they think it will work... Then I believe in them!
After this, Kelsey slowly opens the door, looking out. "Coasts clear."
And he goes first. Kelsey is holding my hand in hers. We go together and Cloud. follows. As we are sneaking through the hallway, Louis steps on a creaky floor board.
We all gulp and freeze to see if any Guards come or if any teams wake up. We see we are right in-front of Samantha's team's room.
After a few seconds, we proceed to keep going and make it to the edge of our community and break a hole in the fence. I'm glad it's not electrified.
"It's too quiet, Louis." I hear Kelsey whisper. "I know, I know. I don't like it either." Louis responds. "Shh, both of you." Cloud whispers.
'If we were being watched we would not have made it this far."
"Or they know what we are up too and are up waiting to ambush last minute after we've developed a false sense of security." Louis snaps with quietly. "Let's just keep going!" Kelsey says quietly and she pulls me along. Louis puts his bag on the ground carefully and pulls out the bed sheets tied together. Cloud hands him the grapple. I can see the edges of them have been sharpened which means a great chance of them digging into the ledge up above.
He swings it in a circle ready to throw it up into the star-gate which should send it through to the other side. Kelsey places me in-front of her, but keeps her hands on my shoulders. Cloud to the side of us. All of us ready to start climbing up the bed sheets.
Next minute I hear a small 'dink' and we see a small flash of light come through the sky above and I see Louis has managed to do it. He gives the bed sheets a tug to make sure it's sturdy.
"Valerie, you go first." Kelsey whispers. Louis hands the end to me. "Why, me?" I ask.
"Because if we get caught, at least you will escape." Kelsey answers. I take the rope and start pulling myself up carefully. Kelsey goes next and she helps shove me up it a little, then Louis, followed by Cloud. As were climbing, but before we really get into the portal, I hear a whistle and we all freeze and look down. A torch light appears walking through the area. "Sh-" I hear Cloud say, but stops himself.
A person comes into view. They have a serial killers mask on. Or course! "It's Shelby!" I hear Kelsey gasp while doing it quietly. "She patrolling?" Louis whispers. "Maybe." Cloud grumps from down below all of us. Our hearts beat strongly together, praying she doesn't look up.
After what feels like forever, she leaves the room. We continue climbing and we make it almost to the top tier when I hear a 'riiiiiiipppp' sound. "I don't like the sound of that!" I hear Louis says. "Me, neither..." Kelsey responds. I look up and see the rope is breaking from this much weight on it at one time.
"Can we jump for it? Portals defy logic and gravity." Kelsey questions. "Maybe!" Louis esponds. "Right, Valerie, we need you to jump as far as you can!" They tell me together. I try and I feel my hands grasp the edge of the ledge. "I'm on it!" I whisper down to them. "But I'm slipping!"
I try and pull myself up, but can feel the last of my strength quickly leaving me alongside the rim of the gate being slippery. I hear a sound and I see Kelsey land beside me on the ledge. Next minute it's Louis and finally Cloud. I hear a 'dink' sound and the grapple falls to the ground along with the bed sheets making a muted 'dink' sound. "At least were up." Kelsey says and I see her and Louis climb out of the portal, balancing on the edge of the star-gate's rim.
They each have a hand out. "Valerie." Kelsey says. I take hers and then Louis grabs my other hand. They pull me up and next they help Cloud.
"We've done it!" I say, smiling. "We have." Louis responds. "We make a pretty good team if I do say so myself!" Kelsey speaks with a grin. "See? You three underestimate yourselves!" Cloud whispers.
We start walking and see the stairs we came up. I begin to head towards it when I feel a force tugging on me. "What?!" I scream out loud to see Cloud struggling similar to me. "Valerie!" I hear Louis and Cloud scream. Cloud somehow breaks free and runs over to me, wrapping his arm around me.
Then I see Louis and Kelsey thrown like rag dolls back the way we came. I can see their shock and pained expressions as they fall slowly.
"Valerie, we need to go! Now!" Ivor tells me. "What about them?!" I cry "We can't think of that right now!" And Cloud starts pushing me down the stairs when we hear a loud 'tha-whoomp!' sound a viewing screen appears in front of us.
We see Kelsey and Louis have landed on each-other below, but are live. They look bruised though. "Cloud, they're not moving!"
"Valerie!" He grumbles, trying to get me to continue.
And then I feel a force tug both of us back strongly to the broken rim, threatening to toss us like our friends were so we'll meet the same fate. Cloud and I share a look, deciding controlling our destiny is better than letting someone else control it.
He places a hand on my shoulder, stretches his other arm out and I stretch both of mine, feeling a wind sweep through our hair, tugging at our clothes still and nipping our skin.
Then let ourselves fall back. We make it back rather quickly and hit the ground, but not injured completely. Feels like were floating a bit, saved by someone's powers. I start to black out though, but not before hearing some scary words.
"We heard the rim crack." It's Shelby.
Crap, we've been caught! Is my final thought before I black out. I feel my head hit Cloud's face which is what knocks me out I think. I hope his okay...
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