Page 11 of Citrine

My eyes snap open as I wake up from a nightmare of blood, my mother screaming, gray blobs, and pain.

Except the pain is still here, throbbing through me and stealing my breath. I take several gasping breaths.

"Where the hell am I?" I breathe out, scanning the surroundings. This looks like an even worse nightmare.

The sun's harsh glare stings my eyes, and I squint in pain until they adjust to the sharp light. Trees stretch in a line on one side, while on the other, jagged rocks jut out like shark's teeth.

The sky, a pastel purple instead of blue, shocks me.

My throat burns as if I have swallowed acid. My head throbs with a relentless, concert-like pounding. I gasp, the air scorching my lungs, and force myself to sit up, wincing as pieces of glass dig into my skin.

I grasp a shard of glass in my thigh and yank it out, the sting barely registering as my eyes widen in shock.

Struggling, I push myself off the gritty, brown sand, my legs trembling beneath me. My head feels numb, disconnected from my surroundings, until a glass fragment catches the light, and I see my reflection.

Long, yellow hair flows over my chest. I tear my gaze away from the reflection to confirm it is there, then back to meet my reflection's eyes. They're no longer the light brown I remember; instead, they gleam back at me in a bright shade of yellow, a little darker than the unnerving hue of my new hair.

"What the hell?" The words come out as a whisper.

It's like looking at someone else's body, yet every sensation confirms it's mine.

"Why am I naked?" The question slices through the fog of confusion clouding my mind.

My entire body throbs with a dull ache. Even my nipples are sore, and my legs protest with every movement. There are deep scores across my legs and arms, throbbing in an insistent rhythm.

The trees don't look right, a too-bright sort of green with foliage of an odd texture. The sun doesn't even feel right on my skin, even the sand isn't the right color. I feel vertigo starting and my limbs are shaking.

It's all becoming too much, and I have to imagine my cape of sunshine wrapping around me so I can push through. Keep doing what needs to be done.

I grimace as I struggle to stay standing, feeling the sharp sting of the scrapes on my skin.

Leaving the ground only makes it all worse, since I'm now dizzy, but it does give me a better view. There is some sort of silver contraption, pretty much just the right size to hold a human, mangled on the rocks.

My mind races for a moment.

I'm beat the hell up and woke up right next to something that looks like King Kong picked it up and smashed it in a fit of rage.

I glance up at the sky.

Or it fell. A really long way.

"Dios," I mutter, not liking the few options left to quick deduction. Or the alien feeling of my new, yellow hair.

I move painfully over to the silver vehicle, noting the soft red padding inside, then see a touch screen. A tap brings up alien letters my mind seems to think I can read, but a moment later they disappear, and I'm left wondering if I just hallucinated.

A quick touch to my head reveals a bump, so it is quite possible.

No, I'm not. There is a lever that my mind says is marked as an emergency exit, but the letters are in the same alien language.

I try tapping on the screen again, hoping to glean some helpful information, but it's dead now. Or it never worked to begin with. A groan of frustration mixed with pain vibrates up from my stomach, which only makes my head hurt worse.

I strain to recall how I ended up here, but the memories slip through my fingers like sand. All I can grasp onto is the image of the officer's taunting face, a memory I push away with a pang of anguish.

I was supposed to be in jail, but somehow, I was kidnapped?

"I need clothes," I mutter, my breath forming a thin fog in the chilly air.

Almost instantly, a black material expands from the thin belt around my waist, wrapping around me. The sudden change startles me, and I yelp, stumbling as the fabric adjusts to my body.

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