Day Two: Mix Up – by Elizabeth Averay
Coming to, I see…nothing. Reaching out, I can feel a smooth curved wall around me, and a flat base and top which I hit my head on trying to stand up.
I feel a sinking sensation, and hear constant groans.
What is going on??
Rubbing my sore head and neck I try to think back to how I got here.
I’d been in a dark room, not as dark as this, but dark enough not to be able to see the walls…
The room was empty, except for the steel chair bolted to the floor with me strapped in it, and for some reason a drain right next to the chair.
Two men came in. They were all in black clothing, including ski masks. They wanted to know about my twin brother, what he’d told me, how long he’d been at my place and was he showing any signs of sickness?
Not liking the man cracking his knuckles over and over while hovering so close to me I’d answered, ‘What is he meant to have told me? He’s been at my place for three hours and no sickness. Why?’
Ignoring me, they’d moved out of my line of sight. I could hear them murmuring to each other, then a hand on my shoulder made me flinch, a sharp pain in my neck registered, and then…I woke up here.
Whatever has happened it obviously leads back to my idiot brother. And me in here – it must be a mix up. A mistake.
Breathing faster than ever as the groans seem to grow louder, the small space I’m in starts to shudder.
Think, think, think. What happened when Josh appeared so suddenly at my door?
It was a stinking hot day. The aircon cranked right up. Pounding at the door, a fist slamming against it, and when I opened it there was Josh, dripping wet as if he’d just climbed out of a pool, knapsack and all.
‘Josh! What are you doing here? Do you have leave?’
He sneered as he always did when he answered, ‘No.’ Pushing past me he went into his room – at least, the room his things are kept in – and rummaged about before going straight to the bathroom; and there he stayed for almost two freaking hours.
When he finally came out he was dry, clean, and looked relaxed.
Josh then helped himself to the contents of my fridge. He ate so much I think he emptied the fridge completely! But surely I was mistaken – nobody could consume that much food in one sitting.
Glass smashed, smoke filled the place, multiple voices shouted Get down, get down, put your hands on your head!
I’d dropped to the floor, but in the smoke-choked room misjudged my distance from the table and cracked my head hard against its edge on my way down.
A particularly violent shudder brings me back to the here and now. Damn, I still have no clue what’s going on!
Feeling around myself I come across some switches. Very small ones, but switches all the same. I flip the first one on and a soft glow appears from several thin light bars over my head and under my feet.
For the first time I see my prison and I can tell you the curved walls are some kind of reinforced extra-thick glass, and… I’m not sinking, I’m FLOATING ABOVE THE EARTH.
‘Oh, shit!’
To distract myself I flip the next switch. And hear ‘Anybody fuckin’ listening?’
It’s Josh! I can hear him, maybe he’ll be able to hear me too.
‘OK, bro, what is going on? I have a right to know.’ I sound so calm, so practical.
Silence for a minute. Then, ‘Ohhhh, shiiiiit. You’re not in a space drum too, are you?’
‘Yes, I figured that much for myself, thank you. What I don’t know is “why”. Care to share?’
A guilty silence. Then, ‘Well…ummm… I took something that wasn’t mine and they want it back.’
I wait a moment, thinking. ‘Then give it back. If you tell whoever where whatever is, they must might take us home.’
Nervous giggle. ‘Well…I may have sold it on the black market. After trying a small sample myself. I don’t know what it does but I have never been so hungry in my life!’
A new voice comes over the tiny speaker next to the switches. ‘You never took the phial to your sibling’s home? You never had it in that house? When did you sell it, and where?’
Josh dithers. ‘I, um, sold it the day after I took it, at the market in the next town over. That’s where I sold it.’
A roar of rage from the speaker. Then, ‘Goodbye, Josh.’
Way ahead of me I see a ball of flame appear out of nowhere. I choke back the bile in my throat. Josh, my idiot twin, is gone forever.
Jus then I hear, ‘Uh, Josh’s twin, I’m sorry for all you’ve been through. I hope you can accept my apologies…’
That night, if looking up at the stars, you would have seen two explosions in the sky perhaps one minute apart. Everyone was told it was space junk burning up in the atmosphere…
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