The Sphere

Chapter 13

As she limped her way down the stairs Kelly's mind was absolutely blank. Or at least she tried to keep it that way. She wanted desperately to just find John and pummel his face in but she knew it wouldn't be easy.

    She looked up as she reached the end of her current flight. The sign above her head read: John's won.

    "Oh so no numbers? Of course not." She shook her head and opened the door to the floor. Her pace was steady as she scanned the corridor. It was silent of course with there being a lack of people in this newly developed world, But she still felt nervous with her only hearing the sound of her uneven footsteps.

    Kelly made her way to a window that covered the entire wall at one end of the hall. She looked out and instantly felt lightheaded. She was looking down and saw that John had placed her on a skyscraper. He knew that Kelly had a deathly fear of heights so it only made sense, if you're going to torture someone, attack their fears. Kelly backed away from the window but didn't back away with the information she walked over there to gather. So she bit her lip and looked back outside. She had to be over ten stories up, as this registered in her mind all she could think about was falling. Her imagination ran wild, and her body felt like she was in the air, freefalling. The longer this went on the worse she felt. Her stomach lurched and Kelly fell to her knees, her body was heaving violently as she barfed on the ground. Her skin tingled, her head was light, she couldn't stop heaving. She felt as if she would pass out.

    Her body stopped for a moment as she tried to breathe. Her hands were wrapped tightly around her core and she could feel another episode creeping up on her.

    "I can't go again, I'll definitely pass out." She spoke to herself, before she could start barfing again she punched at the wall. Her knuckles throbbed and pain shot all the way up to her elbow, but she continued punching. She had read that inducing pain during times of nausea can prevent vomiting because it distracts the body. It didn't seem to be working. She stood slowly up onto her feet and began punching harder, and harder. The pain in her knuckles increased with each punch, but finally her nausea was going away. With a final punch she stopped and leaned against the wall, taking a second to catch her breath. "No time." She muttered, and pushed herself off of the wall and started back toward the stairwell. "Endless stairs it is I guess."

She started back down the stairs. Throbbing knuckles, ankles in agony. You would think she had been fighting all day, and she pretty much injured herself. She was frustrated, and exhausted already. But she knew it was just the beginning of what she had to go through.

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    Finally bursting through the door of the lobby, Kelly emerged from the bland looking staircase into the wide opened lobby. As she looked around she saw only one wide desk that took up the back wall. To both sides of the wall were long corridors that were lined with elevators.

"I want to know how! What they don't go up past the second floor?!" She screamed angrily. She knew they were put there just to taunt her, but she was never one that knew how to contain her anger. "Gosh! What's next?"

Kelly continued scanning the lobby. Above the desk was a just a big letter J in a funny looking font. Kelly forced even more of a frown, then turned to the front of the lobby. She headed toward the front door and walked out slowly. She was happy to finally smell fresh air, in an attempt to take in, she inhaled, a long, slow, deep inhale that only backfired and caused her to gag. The air smelled awful, she couldn't place her finger on the scent, but it was terrible. How she didn't smell it from the rooftop was beyond her. But she figured it was simply because she wasn't thinking about it.

The city around her was still dark and unmoving, but it was no longer silent. She could hear whispers, faint whispers that weren't too far away.

"I refuse to be one of those stupid people that follow those voices..." She said unsure of herself. While she knew following those voices couldn't have been a good idea, she also didn't know how long she was willing to live  in fear, and uncertainty. Still she listened for where the voices were coming from and walked in the opposite direction. But the voices got louder as she walked on.

"Funny. My ears have never failed me before. Fine, other way." She made a 180⚬ turn and started walking away from the voices, again. At first they began to fade, but once she passed her starting point, the voices began getting louder again. As if she were getting closer to them. "That's impossible!" She yelled. Her strong voice echoing.

"No it's not." Someone yelled back.

Kelly froze. There was no way, no way someone could be talking to her. It wasn't Billy's voice. She looked up and saw it wasn't John talking to her again. But there was no way someone else could be talking to her.

She sat down on the curb and lowered her lead grabbing it. Her mind had to be playing tricks on her, she just desperately wanted someone else to be there. That was all, no one else was speaking to her. "Nobody else is speaking to me."

"It's pretty rude to call someone you've never met a nobody." The voice said again. It was a female voice. And it was dangerously close.

Kelly jumped to her feet and standing in front of her was a girl. She was pretty she had flawless caramel skin that shined, even in the eerie darkness, Curly jet black hair that fell to her shoulders, light brown, friendly eyes, and full lips that were curved into a slight smile. Kelly maintained her frown and looked passed the girl's amazing face. She had an amazing slim yet curvy figure. She was wearing black heels, a sky blue skirt that stopped just above her knees, and a white T-shirt that showed off the curves in her torso. Across her chest read 'John's Clothing Line.' In bold black letters.

Reading the shirt set off a red light in Kelly's mind, and before she knew it her fist was flying through the air toward the strange female. Yet it connected with nothing but air. Kelly stumbled forward surprised that this girl avoided her punch. Without turning around Kelly picked up her left leg and swung it around toward the girl's skull.

This time Kelly got to watch the girl swiftly duck below her leg. The girl stood up quickly as Kelly dropped her leg and prepared for retaliation. But the girl didn't move, she simply smiled and waved.

This set Kelly's anger blazing, she launched herself up into the air and spun around. She extended her right leg and tried kicking the girl again, to no avail. When Kelly hit the ground she ducked down and tripped the girl, finally a connection.

As the girl fell she stopped herself with her left hand and used it to push herself up into the air. She twisted and began twirling mid air. Kelly barely had time to look up before the girl's knee connected with her jaw. It was so powerful that Kelly twisted and fell on her back. The girl's momentum never slowed down as she landed with her knee roughly on Kelly's chest. Kelly coughed and gasped as she had no time to catch her breath.

The girl stopped, and Kelly looked up at her. A tear ran down from Kelly's eye. The pain she was experiencing was like none other before. She felt like a truck had hit her face. The girl  just looked down at Kelly, the smile from her face had faded and she applied more pressure to Kelly's chest.

"Please! St-" Her words were cut off and she could no longer breathe. She gasped and tapped rapidly on the knee that was driving into her chest. But the girl just stared back, and watched Kelly struggle.