She sat next to him as he flipped to the first book in the New Testament and began scouring the pages until he found the 22nd chapter. She didn't miss the slight fingershake as he located the 14th verse.
"Matthew 22:14," he read aloud, "For many are...
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"Can you hear me?"
"...mhm."
"What's your name?"
"...um..."
What's my na-
Pain erupted in my head, shooting down my spine like a horrible mix of fire and ice. Images flashed too quickly behind my eyelids, each one more indecipherable than the next. It was way too much too fast.
A gasp tore from my throat. What was this? What's happening?
"Hey, calm down. Don't think too much. If you can't remember your name just stop trying to remember. The pain will go away."
"S-stop?" I did as she said, trying to shut down the urge to remember, to make the images stop pulsating. The pain ebbed away and I was able to open my eyes a moment later to find a dark form kneeling next to me. "Just breathe, it'll take a minute."
I blinked hard, praying my eyes would adjust faster than my heart. My vision came back, but my breathing...not so much. My pulse was still too high. I closed my eyes again and focused on filling my lungs.
In...then out...
In...out...
In...
It felt like a lifetime went by before my body complied, but it did eventually. My vision swam a little bit, but not nearly as bad as the first time. The figure that was kneeling by me turned out to be a girl about my age. Her eyes were dark but fiery. Her mouth was pressed in a firm line, the angles in her cheekbones deeper than they should be in the weird dim lighting. "I'm Star," she said. "And we're trapped here."
"Trapped?"
I sat up and hugged my knees to my chest, looking around. It was a small room with strange dusty walls. Three ragged pallets had been placed next to each other on the floor. I was on one, the one next to me was empty, and a third girl sat curled up on the last one, her hair hiding her face. The light came from a couple of oil lamps that burned quietly near a wooden slab that looked like an old door.
"Where are we?"
"I don't know."
Where had I been before this? Pain shot through my temple and I winced. Star noticed and shook her head. "Don't try to remember what happened. Every time I have a memory it feels like my body's being electrocuted."
Fear replaced my desire to test it out. I shivered. "How long have we been here?"
"I'm not sure."
"Why are we here?"
"No clue."
"What about that door?"
Star stared at it for a while before meeting my eyes again. She had such an intense gaze I felt like she could look straight through me and into my soul or something. "I've tried it, but it's stuck," she finally said.
