Page 2 of Bela's Bounty
Not even a little bit.
“What happened? Where are we?” The words are already out of my mouth before I think that maybe I don’t really want to know the answer.
“Well, from what we’ve been able to piece together…” the woman says as a long sigh, “it would appear that we’ve been abducted by aliens.”
I want to laugh. I manage a snort, which sends my head throbbing in time with my heartbeat.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought too,” she says dryly. Something about the way she says it, maybe it’s the dead serious tone of her voice, has me looking—really looking—over at her. The bloodless color of her full lips. The dark circles under her wide eyes. Her pinched expression. She looks terrified.
“If I hadn’t seen those ugly fuckers with my own eyes…” She’s looking away from me, staring out through the bars and slowly shaking her head. Then she looks back at me and offers a strained smile. “I’m Danielle.”
Swallowing down the bile that threatens to surge up my throat, I push up to my elbows, waiting to see what my head does. When there is no change, the pounding behind my left eye staying at a constant agonizing level, I ease myself up further so I’m sitting beside her with my back against the bars.
“Bela,” I reply, digging my fingers into the mess of curls that falls around my face and massaging my temples.
“Well, Bela, I’d say it’s nice to meet you, but…” Her arms tighten around her knees.
“Yeah,” I agree. These circumstances couldn’t be much worse.
“You okay, Bela?” It takes a moment to place the source of the new voice and finally realize another woman is across from me, separated by a row of bars—because we’re in cages.
“That’s Sasha,” Danielle tells me, waving her neatly manicured hand at the red-haired woman. “And the little one is Skylar.”
My jaw drops because…shit!I didn’t notice at first that Sasha has her arms wrapped around a kid! Well, not a little kid, but a teenager. A terrified teenager with mousy brown hair. Her face is buried against Sasha’s neck, and I can see each of her breaths hitching.
“Behind us is Nita,” Danielle continues, jerking her thumb over her shoulder, “and—what’s your name again? Shane?”
My vision swims for a moment when I turn my head to look into the cage behind us.
“It’s Shae,” a brown-haired woman snarls. Her dark eyes flash with anger, but I suspect it’s focused less at Danielle and more at our predicament.
Beside her, Nita—a Latina woman with shiny black hair—rolls her wide, dark eyes, “How do you switchShanewithShae?”
“I’ve never been good with names,” Danielle says with a shrug.
I wait for her to continue on with introductions, but when she doesn’t, I take another look at the women I’m trapped with. There are six of us all together, and we’re in some kind of hangar that’s filled with cages, each with at least one terrifying creature trapped inside.
Okay. I force myself to swallow around my dry throat. Alright, so aliens are real.
Cupping my hands over my eyes to ease some of the glare coming down from the bright ceiling lights, I dig my fingers harder into my scalp. This has to be some kind of dream. Maybe if I think of something else, I’ll wake up faster.
The sting of tears burns the backs of my eyes as childhood memories bubble up of my sister Jossi and me running wild through the neighborhood with the other kids. Of summers running through sprinklers or erupting fire hydrants. My skin used to love the sun, tanning a rich bronze while my hair bleached to streaks of golden blonde, amber, and peach, before it darkened to the brunette waves I have now.
Jossi was always the prettier one, even though we were identical twins. At least she was until addiction ravaged her, marring her flawless skin with sores and blackening her teeth. The news I’d received that afternoon should have been the worst thing anyone would ever have to deal with. Alien abduction certainly wasn’t on my radar when the police officer told me how truly sorry he was to give me the news that my sister was gone.
First Mom, now Jossi. My whole family gone, leaving me to go on all alone.
I can’t help wondering,why me?What’s so special about me that I had to be abducted? Like I wasn’t dealing with enough already?
Where is it that I fit in with whatever algorithm the aliens must have used to snatch us? How could they have known there wasn’t anyone left to miss me, to mourn me? Just a couple roommates who probably won’t even notice I’m gone until my share of the rent goes unpaid.
Each of us looks very different from one another, whether it’s skin tone or hair color. The only similarity is that we’re close in age, mid-twenties—except for Skylar.
I can’t help feeling horribly out of place next to my cellmate with my unmanicured fingernails chewed to the quick and work-callused hands. I can’t remember the last time I’ve bothered with makeup or even dressing up. What’s the point when I’m always either working or sleeping? Over the years I’ve watched my complexion grow more sallow, the circles under my eyes becoming more pronounced from the constant shift swings and lack of sun.
All those years of working hard, digging myself out of the poverty I grew up in, and look where it got me.
Abducted.
Naked and caged like an exotic animal.
Leaning against the bars, I pull my knees to my chest like Danielle and close my aching eyes. Thank god it’s just a dream. Now, if I could just wake up.
