Perspectives

Chapter 24

Before Piper could take action on her instinct urging her to turn tail and run for the hills, Kalen's massive hand was coming down on her from above. She was plucked up from the ground like it was nothing, five powerful fingers asserting their grip on her as she was raised up before Kalen's furious glare. 

"What the fuck were you thinking! How the hell did you even get out?" There was no volume control on Kalen's words, leaving Piper wincing at the sound. If Kalen noticed or cared, he gave no indication. 

Piper struggled against Kalen's unrelenting grip--only for it to tighten even further. "Let go of me!" She bellowed, ceasing her struggling for fear it would cause Kalen to only tighten his hold on her more, and it seemed as though any tighter and it would start to seriously hurt. 

Her pleas ignored, Kalen stormed over to the dresser, wrenching open the drawer in which he had placed her in. She was hit with a rush of vertigo as Kalen lowered down to be held in front of his stomach as he peered into the drawer, in search for her route of escape. 

"You broke your way through?" Kalen exclaimed incredulously, as he lifted Piper back up in front of his face. "And then you what, climbed down somehow?" He asked, his gaze drilling into her. She opened her mouth to respond but before she could a word in, Kalen had begun ranting again. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that little escape of yours alone was, not to mention the fact that you thought it would be a good idea to take the maid's cart for a joyride!"

"Oh would you shut up for a second and let me speak!" Piper roared, meeting Kalen's intense glare with one of her own. 

While her outburst seemed to have quieted Kalen for a brief moment, he quickly recovered. "What possible excuse could you have for the idiotic stunt you just pulled?" He demanded.

"Hmm let's think, maybe it's the fact that you went to a fucking meeting literally about me without taking me!" Piper shouted bitterly. "Or maybe it's the fact that I was sick and tired of being locked in drawers by you!"

"So you go and try to get yourself seen by someone?!" Kalen shot back. 

Piper rolled her eyes. "I'm not an idiot, I obviously didn't get myself seen, did I?" She retorted. "Listen, just forget about all this, I want to know when I get to go home. Can they send me back now, or do I have to wait till tomorrow or something?" 

Something shifted in Kalen, his expression darkened and Piper could see that something was wrong. Had the council decided she couldn't leave yet? But why would they do that? What possible reason did they have for keeping her here? "Kalen, what--" Her words were cut off by the yelp that forced it's way out of her mouth as the hand holding her suddenly jerked into motion. The world was a blur as Piper found herself abruptly shoved into a dark space.

It took her only a moment to realize where she was. It was a similar experience to when she had been shoved into the pocket inside Kalen's vest the other day, but this time she was in a different pocket.

The feeling of a gigantic leg moving behind her proved her theory: she was in the side pocket of Kalen's pants. His hand remained held within the pocket, Piper still trapped tightly in his grip. "What the hell do you think you're doing, let me out now!" She screamed, trying to push against the fingers surrounding her. 

Piper received no response from Kalen. He continued to walk, his leg moving against her back with each step. She heard a door being opened. "Hey, what the fu--" Piper's words were silenced as a huge thumb suddenly pressed itself against the lower part of her face. She fought to wrench her head away from the massive digit, but the other fingers behind her gently but firmly held her head in place. "Is he seriously gagging me right now?"  Piper thought angrily. 

She was positively livid. Kalen had acted like a complete dick plenty of times in her time being there, but what he was pulling now was on a completely different level. They'd always had their arguing and jeering, but never once had Kalen physically attempted to silence her like this. 

Piper could tell they weren't in Kalen's room anymore, meaning he must be taking her somewhere. But where? And why was he just abducting her like this with no explanation? She was beginning to fill with dread. Whatever was going on couldn't be good. The council must have made some kind of awful decision that Kalen was now enacting. There was a part of her that felt kind of betrayed, though it was a stupid feeling to be having. Kalen's parents were a part of the council, as if he would go against them and his government for her sake.

"Natali, I'm going out to get something quickly." Kalen's voice rumbled from above.

A minute later the movement of Kalen's legs finally came to a stop. Piper heard electronic clicks that sounded like buttons being pressed on a machine, she then felt Kalen take two swift steps forward. Only able to guess at what the hell was going on outside the confines of the pocket, she heard Kalen say the words "clear for transport". An automated voice replied with "transporting to Elbridge Park in Callow of the Caris District" before an overwhelming tingling sensation overcame her. Her vision went completely black for a long moment before it suddenly returned, along with a heavy feeling of nauseousness and overall disorientation.

Kalen lurched into motion once again and Piper felt certain if Kalen's thumb hadn't been keeping her mouth held shut, she would surely have thrown up. 

Despite her less than perfect condition, Piper was able to recognize that they were no longer where they had been before, there was cool natural breeze reaching her from within the pocket and the sounds of birds chirping sounded from above. What she had just experienced must have been a kind of teleportation, and it apparently had some side effects. 

The sound of grass crunching beneath Kalen's feet seemed to confirm that they were indeed outdoors, meaning she was currently outside in a gigantic world, protected only by a hand and pocket around her.

Kalen's movements came to an abrupt halt, and in an instant Piper had been pulled out from Kalen's pocket. She could only take in the environment around her for a brief second before she was once again jerked into motion as Kalen's hand lowered down towards the ground. She gasped as she was unceremoniously deposited on the ground, Kalen immediately rising back up to his full height afterward. Still not recovered from the effects of the teleportation, Piper barely managed to stay on her feet. She found herself colliding with the strange tall objects surrounding her while she regained her footing. Once she had finally steadied herself, she realized the tall objects reaching past her head were individual blades of grass, and the ground beneath her was soil. 

Confused and unnerved, Piper craned her neck back to stare up at Kalen. He stood looking down at her, his expression difficult to read from where she stood on the ground. "What the hell is going on?" She couldn't keep the fear out of her voice no matter how hard she tried.

"I'm leaving you here." The statement was so simple and emotionless, yet it felt like someone had just punched her in the gut. 

"What? Kalen, if this is some kind of sick joke, it isn't funny!" Piper shouted. Her heart was hammering, her blood felt icy. He couldn't be serious.

"It's not a joke. Goodbye Piper." Piper was too lost in her own panic and distress to notice the thinly veiled anguish in Kalen's voice, or the way his voice wavered when he said her name.

"Y-you can't just leave me here! I-I have to get home, I--" But he was already walking away. 

Piper began to chase after him, but she had to shove her way through the thick forest of massive stalks of grass that surrounded her on all sides. And his steps were so huge, he covered a distance that would take her twenty minutes in three steps. Piper hissed in pain as a particularly sharp edge of a blade of grass grazed the side of her arm, but she didn't stop, she couldn't stop. "Wait! Please just stop!" She called after him, her breathing heavy. 

She let out a gasp as her foot caught against something and she was sent tumbling to the ground. She was able to catch herself with her hands, but she could tell they would be scraped from the impact. By the time she was able to scramble back up to her feet, Kalen had disappeared into the distance.

Piper fell down to her knees and sat back, her pulse pounding against her neck and her breathing ragged. Her voice was rough and strained as she screamed his name.