Convergence - The Last Science #2.1 - In Plain Sight

B2: Chapter 12 - The Emerald City (Part II) - III

  The next few minutes were hazy and hard to follow, but Natalie never actually lost consciousness. When they cut into the side of her cheek with a knife, marking a spiraling trail up towards her ear, she could feel it. She felt every moment of it, but she could barely do more than cry in pain and try to crawl away.

  Her arms and legs didn't respond to her desperate pleas to move. They were trapped, held down by unseen force. Natalie felt like she'd been reduced to just a quivering voice inside her own skull. She could feel them doing something else to the scar, something to preserve it from the snatches of conversation she caught. She groaned and tried to get away, but they held her down easily.

  What about magic? suggested a quiet voice, sifting up to the surface of her brain. Use your magic.

  Natalie reached for it, boiling away somewhere in the core of her body. Even if her limbs couldn't do anything, so long as she could still speak she could bring forth that power. She murmured a spell, anything she could do to try and force them away.

  A tiny zap was all she managed. Door-guy felt a quick shock as his hand touched her face. He recoiled, but he was back a moment later as if nothing had happened, stopping the flow of blood down her cheek.

  The pain and the exhaustion and the haziness were too much. Natalie's eyes slid closed. She couldn't do anything else. Her body refused to respond, and she couldn't muster up the connection to magic she'd relied upon for so long. She was trapped.

  Time passed and they seemed to leave her alone. Natalie opened her eyes, trying to figure out where she was. From the light and the color of the walls, she assumed they'd moved her onto one of the mattresses. Door-guy was sitting nearby, and once he noticed she was moving, he hurried to her side.

  "Don't move around so much. You got bandages."

  Natalie reached up to touch them, and groaned involuntarily at the sharp pain. She recoiled. Door-guy looked uncomfortable.

  "Why?" she asked, trying not to cough. She knew a cough would only make her feel so much worse.

  "...told you why," he said, looking away.

  "I just wanted to go home."

  "Couldn't risk you tellin' no one."

  Natalie's senses were returning. Door-guy handed her some more of the bread from earlier, which she nibbled her way through. She didn't think for a second that he was a friend though. He was the reason she'd been blindsided.

  He's first. You know what to do.

  "I could've won," she murmured.

  "Huh?"

  "Nothing." Natalie's strength was already coming back, but she felt impatient. She felt strange. Weirdly calm, in spite of the pain and the hunger. She started wolfing down the bread heedless of how she felt. She needed energy, and food was energy... in a way. More importantly, she remembered she still had a gemstone in her pocket, in addition to the emerald on the pendant around her neck. They hadn't bothered to take it from her.

  She picked up the pendant with one hand, holding onto it tight and feeling out for the energy inside. It had enough. More than enough.

  "That's real pretty." He leaned away and grabbed her jacket, handing it over to her. "Sorry."

  She shook her head. He winced, but the bandages didn't move. They were strong enough. Natalie pulled the jacket on, warding herself away from the night chill. "I can go now, right?"