Journey

Lorelei

My head hurts. Strange. I would've have thought you wouldn't feel pain when you are dead. I guess not. Then I hear voices. Voices and not just in my head. They are weird voices. They don't speak our language. My eyes shoot open. The things in the room shout something in alarm. They restrain me against the hospital bed I am laying on.

They are strange looking. They glow but you can't see it very well in the light. They are blue that's for sure. They seem taller than most humans and have more defined features. One comes up to my bed and injects something in my ear.

"What the h-" I am cut off.

"Human. Do you know why you are here?" One asks.

They switched to English. Perfect English. What in the worlds?

"What is your name?" They ask.

"Lorelei," I respond shakily.

"We need to take you to the choosing now," They tell me.

"The choosing?" I ask.

"The Highest Order will decide your fate," They tell me.

I am confused. I thought I was dead. But I'm not and now they want me to wait while whatever the Highest Order may be.

They lead me through endless hallways that remind me of the ship. Pristine white.

We stop in a room that seems even whiter than the hallways. They sit me down in a chair with restraints. I am not the only person in this room. About twenty more people sit in restrained chairs. A well dressed Bright walks in front of us.

"The Highest Order is about to make his entrance. Be ready for his highness," She tells us.

Then she walks out of the room. We each have a Bright escort and they show us to bow our heads for when he enters the room. We sit like this for about two minutes before he walks in.

I don't know what I was expecting but what was before me was not what I was expecting. In front of me was a Bright that looked young. Not like child young but like adult young. His hair was wavy and it kind of reminded me of Elijah's hair.

My Bright escort undid my restraints. I don't know what would happen next. I looked around and spotted Elijah towards the back. He turned and looked at me.

"It will be okay," He mouthed.

I look forward again and my Bright escort scowled at me. A Bright escort led a young man up to the stage and the Highest Order looked him over and thought for a moment.

"Fighter," He announced.

The Bright escort led the man out of the room through a door on the other side of the room.

The next person went up. The same thing happened except this time the Highest Order announced "Test subject".

A sinking feeling hit my stomach. Fighter or Test subject. Those were my only options. I don't know which is worse. The person got dragged through another door. The sinking feeling gets larger as the more people pass. So far we have 13 fighters and 17 test subjects. Then it's my turn.

My Bright escort pulls me out of my seat and drags me to the stage with great effort. The Highest Order looks me over. He thinks for a long time. Or maybe I was just nervous.

"You are a hard one to decide Lorelei. You could be useful to this society however you might be even more entertaining to watch. So I say Fighter," He announces.

My Bright escort drags me out of the room and through the same door as the first person. I scream and kick at the Bright and they smack me.

Stupid girl," They tell me.

We walk into another room with bunk beds and 13 other people. I get handed a pack and assigned a bed. I sit on my bed and go through my pack. It contains Clothing, bandages, healing cream, and water.

"Hey Lorelei," Says a familiar voice.

I turn to see Kourtni standing next to my bunk bed.

"Hey Kourtni," I reply to her.

"I knew you would end up here. You are a natural born fighter," She tells me.

"Did they explain to you what we are doing here?" I ask.

"Basically it is a tournament. However you kill or get the other person to yield to go forward in that tournament," Kourtni explains.

"How did you get your Bright to tell you that?" I asked.

"Please, she wouldn't stop yapping about it," Kourtni says rolling her eyes.

"I can't decide whether I wanted to get Test subject or fighter," I tell Kourtni.

"Probably fighter. At least now you have a chance of not dying."

"What are you gossiping about?" Says the boy in the bunk underneath mine.

"Mind your own business soldier," Kourtni tells him.

He laughs. Kourtni kicks him. He gets up off his bed.

"I'm Fox. Nice to meet you," He says sticking his hand out for me to shake.

"Lorelei," I say shaking his hand.

I pull out a jug of the water. I take a drink and spit it out.

"What's wrong?" Kourtni asks.

"Rubbing alcohol," I say coughing.

Fox laughs at me.

"Sweetheart you got to learn the difference between the two if you want to survive," He smiles.

"I could kill you. You realize that right?" I threaten.

"I'll believe it when I see it," He tells me.

I roll my eyes. Then the last person walks in the room. It's Elijah. This proves to be a problem.