Identified: The Maya Price Story

Part Two: Chapter Four (2)

She was back in the room with the overabundance of cushions. Though they had seemed strange and cold before, Maya now found the cushions welcoming and comforting. She buried her face in a magenta pillow with tassels on each corner and willed herself not to replay the scene over and over in her head.

When they had jumped, Maya, Victoria and the half-conscious onyx disappeared into a black tunnel, with little slivers of light here and there. But they were only in the tunnel for what seemed like a moment before Victoria pulled Maya into one of the slivers of light and the three tumbled to the ground. When they landed Maya didn't have much time to look around, but it looked as if they had jumped back in time to a dilapidated prep school campus from the fifties. Following Victoria's guidance, Maya ran through the corridors of the immense brick building. Several shifters poked their heads out of what seemed like dorm rooms and whispered to each other in low voices about the scene unfolding in front of them. The onyx in Maya's and Victoria's arms had barely been breathing when a very round woman with a kind face met them at one of the intersections of endless corridors. She had been pushing an empty wheelchair, as if she were expecting them. Victoria gave orders in English for the man to be taken to the hospital wing and to be treated. The kind-faced woman had lowered the onyx gently into the wheelchair and then pushed him away. Victoria turned to Maya, a grim look on her face, and then observed the curious faces watching them from behind half-opened doors. "Follow me," she commanded Maya and began to walk rapidly in the opposite direction from where they had entered the building. Maya felt like she was in a maze. They passed another ten doors and Victoria threw open the eleventh, depositing Maya inside. "Do not move," she said in a fierce voice and then locked the door behind her.

Feeling hideously dizzy, Maya she rolled onto her right side and curled into a ball. Never in her life had she seen anything as horrifying as the little old man being forced to eat the earth on which he lay and nearly choke to death on dirt. And Victoria! She had sat there, immobile, not reacting until the last minute. Maya suddenly felt an overpowering sense of helplessness and the desperate urge to return to Diamond. She remembered Pete, lying in the hospital somewhere, and lump rose in her throat.

The door opened and Victoria entered the room. Her demeanor was calm once again and she sat next to Maya on the floor this time rather than choosing a chair. "I apologize for what happened," she began. "It was not supposed to go that far."

Despite her overwhelming dizziness, Maya stood and walked away from the pale woman and over to the nearest wall. Maya didn't like confrontation, but the situation called for it. Determined not to turn around, Maya told Victoria in the coldest voice she could muster: "I want to go back to Diamond. You told me I could, and I want to go. But first, I need to know, what did you intend for me to learn from that experience?"

"Again, I am sorry." Victoria sounded sincerely apologetic, almost anguished. "I did not realize that particular shifter was as proficient as manipulating earth as she was." She paused to clear her throat. "I am also not as powerful as what is typical for me when I am close to Leonas." She smiled bitterly. "But, then again, he's not as powerful when he's around me either."

Maya whirled around. "That's what shifters can do?! Like what that woman did to that poor old man?!? Use dirt and grass and other stuff like that to hurt people?!" she asked incredulously, yelling. "If that's what they can do what makes you think I want any part of it?"

Victoria stood and looked Maya directly in the eye. "Because, that is what they are being forced to do."

The pair stood in silence for several minutes, each stubborn enough not to break her stare.