LODESTAR ❥ PETER QUILL

Chapter 3

This . . . This is torture. All day I've been so tired I could've slept through metal playing through a large speaker wacked all the way up to 11, but now I'm too afraid to close my eyes.

It's not the women wrapping around Heather's small frame that's scaring her, it's not the merciless guards that's making her tremble. Rather, it's the way the shadows cling to the walls and how the cloak of darkness turns everyone into monstrosities.

Kleintje isn't here. He decided to sleep with Groot and he's technically male anyway so it makes sense for him to sleep in the room down the hall.

Okay, at this rate you're not gonna get any sleep whatsoever. So what we're going to do, Heather, is force our eyes shut and push away scary thoughts, simple.

Heather takes a deep breath and forces her eyes shut. She immediately feels vulnerable but she keeps chanting that she's fine in her head. Her mind suddenly presents her with the picture of a ghoul hovering over her sleeping body and adrenaline surges through her.

It's not possible, calm down Heather. Ghouls don't exist. Or maybe they do! If so I'm sorry to all ghouls I may have just offended. Okay, just to put my mind at rest, let me just take a little peek.

She opens her eyes a crack and sees . . . nothing. Her body drains of tension so she closes her eyes again and forces herself to think of happy thoughts only, like which song she wants to learn to play on the guitar next or which album she'll treat herself to next.

Someone shifts beside her.

Just one of the many people I'm sleeping next to, don't panic, which movie will I buy next?

A hand wraps around her bicep and as if she was drowning Heather springs up gasping for breath.

No, no, no! Light! I need light!

She quickly skirts around the sleeping women into the brighter hallway. Her heart still thuds violently in her chest but it's easier to organise her thoughts where it's less dark.

Calm down, Heather. You're being irrational, it's not going to happen again.

She grips her sides tightly as if to hold herself together and sinks slowly down the wall. Being held like that as she's vulnerable for some reason . . . caused her to relive a painful memory.

What's wrong with me?! Two vivid flashbacks in one day?

Heather absentmindedly traces her pink scar.

I wonder if Gamora caused this?

"Take her down to the showers. It'll be easier to clean up the blood down there."

Heather looks up in alarm to see Gamora being dragged away by a small group of people with a knife to her throat. She waits until they go past her before she jumps to her feet and steathily follows them. They push Gamora up against a shower wall and point their knives at her throat. Heather hides in the doorway in anguish.

What do I do? What do I do?

"Gamora, consider this a death sentence for your crimes against the galaxy."

I need to do someth-

"You dare?!" a gravelly voice booms suddenly.

Heather jumps out of her skin because the speaker is standing right beside her. The group turns around, all with the 'deer in headlights' look on their faces. Heather's heart sinks even lower as she takes in the sheer muscle mass of the man.

How do I fix this?!

"You know who I am, yes?" the newcomer asks, stepping forward, right past the unacknowledged Heather.