“They won’t be long enough.”
I screamed at the voice in the darkness and pressed my back to the wall.
No one else should have been in my room. Only me.
I was too late. They’d already come for me.
A Changeling stepped from the darkness and appraised my handiwork.
“What if the knots were to slip?” he said. “You’d fall to your death. And where would that get you?”
“Please,” I said between panting breaths, a cold sweat breaking out on my forehead. “Give me another chance. Please. I know I can do it. I know I can. I’ve done so well already—”
“You have failed in your mission,” the Changeling said. “You know the rules. You had until tonight to convince him. And you failed.”
“Wait,” I said. “The night isn’t over yet! I still have a few more minutes! Please!”
The creature reached into his pocket and extracted a device, a device that made my skin crawl. I curled up into a tight ball and wept.
“No!” I screamed. “No! Please! No!”
No matter how much I begged, no matter how much I pleaded, the Changeling would not bestow me any pity.
Just as he hadn’t before…
Two days earlier, I was born.
At least, it felt that way…
I bolted upright and breathed in a deep gasping mouthful of sweet oxygen as if I’d just escaped the depths of a cavernous swimming pool.
I gasped, barely managing to push the breath out before the next one came. I coughed and sputtered, hoping to shift something lodged deep in my throat. But nothing was in my throat. It had simply closed up, turning very narrow as if I’d been in a very deep state of sleep.
I slapped a hand on the nearest solid surface—a ridge wrapped around me. Was I in some sort of bath? I thought. I curled my humungous thighs over it and fell onto the hard floor.
Something pressed against my throat.
Like fingers attempting to strangle me.
I swiped at them and struck someone’s arms.
“Get away from me!” I screamed. “Get away!”
“All right, all right,” a voice said. “No need for the amateur dramatics.”
I skidded back, got to my feet, and peered at the space around me. My vision was still blurry. I could hardly make anything out, save a bunch of square floating blocks of color.
The man moved from one side of the room to the other. He wore a square block of white. A doctor’s jacket?
“You will experience some confusion and a lack of coordination,” the voice said.
He picked up a metal implement from a side table and put it back down again.
“But don’t worry,” he said. “It will pass.”
“A-Are you a d-doctor?” I said.
“Of a sort,” the man said, moving to another table.
I couldn’t help but feel a little relieved.
“What happened to me?” I said. “Where am I? What’s going on?”
The questions filtered through my mind so fast I could barely keep up.
“You’ve been through a terrible ordeal,” the man said in his deep, calming voice.
“Am I in a hospital?” I said. “Did something happen? Was I in an accident?”
“Try to think back,” the man said.
Think back…
Think back…
What did I remember?
A bright light, passing through the sky…
Our minivan careening over a cliff…
And that flying object behind us—not unidentified—we all knew what it was…
Me and my friends in the minivan, sailing over the edge, down into the ravine below…
“I was in a car accident,” I said. “We barely managed to escape… No, wait…”
The minivan didn’t strike the black rocks below. We froze in midair. It sounded impossible but it was true. Something grabbed hold of us, something inside the light. No, it was the light. It yanked us from our seats.
And then I flew at a thousand miles an hour up, up, up into the sky and…
I couldn’t remember anything else. Only waking up in this hospital.
My shoulders heaved with relief.
“I thought I was dying,” I said. “I thought I was in hell. Where am I? Are my parents here? I’d like to see them. They’ll be worried about me—”
“Don’t worry about your parents,” the man said. “I’m sure they’re fine.”
My eyes were sore and grainy. Each blink wiped my vision clear, sharpening it little by little. Then the man’s face snapped fully into focus.
Wow, I thought. He’s really handsome.
You lucked out here, girl!
No, wait…
“Has anyone ever told you you look just like George Clooney?” I said.
“I can’t say they have,” the man said with a grin.
“You do. Honestly. You look exactly the same.”
“Huh. And who is this ‘Clooney’?”
“Only one of the most famous actors in the world,” I said.
“Does it make you feel uncomfortable for me to have this appearance?”
“No, not uncomfortable. After all, he is hot. It’s just… a little unsettling.”
He nodded.
“I understand,” he said.
He looked away and then turned back to me.
My jaw dropped.
His face had changed, morphed into a man I’d never seen before. He was much older, with thinning hair.
But the smile was the same. Only now it looked strange and sinister.
Like a magic trick by a psychopath.
Suddenly, my sense of panic was rising in my chest again. I staggered into a trolley on wheels.
“Careful,” Not George Clooney said. “We wouldn’t want you to get damaged, would we?”
Damaged.
Not injured or hurt.
Damaged.
What did that even mean?
I surveyed my immediate surroundings. It was a small room, dark, and without windows. Cold and sterile. If this was a hospital, they must have shoved me in the basement.
With the metal tools on the tabletops, it looked more like a dungeon.
That’s when I noticed the pod bedside me.
Pod.
It sounded like a strange word—it was a strange word—but it described the object perfectly. It was an oblong box with a glowing white lid.
It was where I’d been sleeping before I woke up.
I felt sick.
My eyes went to the doorway and I moved for it.
Not George Clooney moved with me, waving his arms to either side to block me.
I squealed and backed away. I was dressed in a paper
