Warnings: Isolation, mild language, brief mentions of pain, implied torture and other serious subjects, mild language
Quick AN: Things are going to get dark for our heroine, I'm not going to lie, though I tried not to get too graphic with the heavier stuff. Just a little forewarning. I promise that things shouldn't get any darker than this chapter going forward.
Also, this is a very long chapter. Good luck!
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.
Chapter 3: Waiting for that Silver Lining
Leah sniffled, wiping her nose on her sleeve without much care. All the time she had spent washing her coat two weekends ago was in vain. It was covered in blood—not hers (how reassuring)—sweat, tears, and snot. Leah grimaced.
She really liked that coat, and now it was filthy. Who even knew if alien blood could be washed out. Dawn dish soap can do wonders for removing stains, but alien blood? Who knows.
It was likely ruined.
The thought only dampened her somber mood.
Leah didn't need a mirror to tell her that she looked like a not-so-hot mess. She could already feel her eyes getting puffy from her earlier cry; and she bet that if she had a mirror, they would be terribly red and bloodshot.
The girl silently cursed herself for her inability to control her crying. She was supposed to be tough in these types of situations, not break down the moment her captors leave her alone. What kind of woman could she even call herself?
In all fairness, it had been a rather stressful past 30 minutes or so.
Once upon a time, Leah would have laughed at the female characters on tv, the ones who would cry and tremble at the slightest hint of danger. She mocked them, saying that they were so unrealistic and that whoever came up with their character development was obviously sexist—that if she were in that sort of predicament, she would never crack as easily.
Leah could just kick her past self. That Leah only had to worry about scholarships and passing her high school classes, not about how to deal with beings that could tamper with space and create portals and abduct siblings and oh, had she mentioned that they tried to control her mind yet because she was pretty sure that happened and—
Leah rubbed her temple at her growing headache. She was so going to need therapy after this.
Who am I kidding? she thought. I'll need a room at the nearest psych hospital when I'm committed for insanity!
It wasn't like anyone would willingly believe in invisible aliens.
At this point, her tears had completely stopped. Leah wiped her hands across her cheeks.
Clearly, she was at a disadvantage. Well, at a larger disadvantage than one who was kidnapped by aliens would normally be. Or that was what Leah was assuming.
Someone really needed to write a how-to book about surviving an alien abduction. It wasn't like there was a manual for this type of situation.
Maybe that would be what she would do if she ever managed to escape and return to society. Settle down in a one-room apartment in the city, with bright colored drapes and fairy lights dangling from the ceiling, and write to her heart's content about surviving a freaking abduction by aliens who could make actual, physical portals that drag you away from your family.
That's textbook normal right there. Every person's dream: a place to live, décor, and a therapeutic hobby to cope with trauma!
The cynical and slightly manic part of her laughed.
The sensible part of her chose to ignore it.
Focus. She'd deal with that basket of crazy later.
Without her knife, she had no weapons to protect herself with. Not even her fingernails, which she realized with a start she was chewing on again. She quickly pulled her fingers away.
Her left thumb brushed over the top of her ring on her right ring finger. While Leah couldn't see it, she knew the band was gold, albeit fake gold that was fading. A diamond butterfly rested on the top of the band. Usually, it's edges reflected brightly in the sun, but in the darkness, she could only feel the familiar shape. It wasn't much, but if she punched someone with her right hand, the edges of the diamond might scratch deep enough to draw a little blood.
A sudden harsh cackle escaped from Leah's mouth. She must be truly desperate to think of using a ring as a weapon. A ring!
Then again, she was laughing at her own misfortune, which was a tad bit concerning and probably unhealthy if she thought about it. She ran her hand through her hair.
Best not think about it then.
Her hands went into her jacket pockets and she pulled out the few items that she had, being careful as to where she placed them in the darkness so she didn't lose anything.
Okay, thought Leah, rubbing her hands together to generate warmth. What do I have to work with?
Her hands brushed against some of her smaller items that she had. Long slender fingers found a couple lens wipes for her glasses that she had carried around for dealing with excessive smudges. Leah scoffed. They would be extremely helpful now that she had no glasses to clean—not.
She continued, discovering an old lip balm that she had received from a friend and setting it to the side. Her eyebrows raised slightly when she felt the plastic casing of a thin black sharpie. Leah thought she had thrown out the dead marker ages ago.
Ah, that's right. I got distracted when Mom told me that joke about a cowboy and a pair of safety scissors. Leah faintly smiled at the memory. She'd been laughing so hard, she forgot to throw it away.
Too bad it was out of ink. She put it next to the lip balm.
Grasping an object, a very familiar one, Leah tightened her grip a little.
Her family iPod had been in her mother's possession before Leah and Eve had even been born, though not by much. It was one of the earlier versions that used a touch wheel before the mass implementation of touchscreen technology.
There were over 600 songs downloaded on its drive, and over 300 of them were because of Leah's many hours of dedication downloading songs off the internet—completely legally of course, because Leah would never even think about doing something illegal, NOT AT ALL—
The only person who might have suspected anything was her mother. The woman clearly knew Leah wasn't using an Apple gift card. Still, she hadn't stopped her from doing it either. Leah had purposely chosen to interpret her mother's silence as encouragement, because what parent wouldn't be happy to save money?
Her fingers drifted over the touch wheel, and to her delight, the screen lit up.
The battery was halfway gone, the screen was dim at best, and the clock was set at the wrong time zone (again), but by golly it worked, and given the circumstances, a girl would take what she could get.
Leah pressed the iPod to her chest, thanking her lucky stars, however few there may be.
It was too bad that she didn't have any headphones though, so she couldn't use it—one of the few drawbacks the iPod had. Bluetooth technology hadn't been integrated until some years later, and the version Leah held in her hand still required some wires to listen to music.
Leah found the tiny power button, sliding it to the off position to save the old device's remaining battery. Gently, she placed it with the rest of the items she had already sorted.
With a final hurrah, she picked up her last item, potentially the only one which she could actually use to help herself.
As she pressed the home button, the screen of her phone lit up, causing her to shield her face from its intense brightness.
The LIGHT, the LIGHT—IT BURNS!
Oh, stop being so dramatic and turn the dang thing off! she scolded herself.
With the expertise of an IT professional suffering from a late-night hangover whilst wearing a blindfold, she fumbled with the screen until it finally dimmed to a reasonable level. Leah then quickly typed in her passcode.
Immediately, the girl tried to call 911, her fingers dancing across the screen hurriedly before pressing call, but her phone refused to start dialing. Groaning in frustration, she realized that she had no bars. Darn. Guess that meant she wasn't going to be getting help anytime soon. Though she had no reception or internet, she tried her other social media apps anyway, just on the off chance that something, anything, would load.
Unsurprisingly, none of them worked.
Glancing at her phone's clock, she was shocked to see that only an hour had passed. Not even 70 minutes ago, she had been sitting in the passenger side of her mother's vehicle, on her way to get the last of her sister's items from the apartment. Now look at where she was.
Well, she didn't know where she was, actually.
It was definitely a place without wi-fi though.
Momentarily, her heart clenched. Oh, what she would give to be curled up at home in her bed safe and sound with her mother and sister, blissfully unaware of the existence of aliens and portals and all things sci-fi related.
Leah shook her head, trying to shake off her thoughts. Get a grip, girl! Put on your big girl pants, get your a$$ in gear, and deal with the problem.
Her inner monologue kind of sounded like it was being said by the ugly duckling from Chicken Little. Weird.
Carefully putting everything but her phone back into her coat pockets, she turned on her phone's flashlight, taking her first look around her new room.
And boy, what a freaking disappointment that was.
Unable to see more than a foot in front of her face, Leah relied on her phone's light and the wall beside her to guide her around the edges of her prison. Even so, that still didn't stop her from bumping, tripping, and stubbing her toes into hard surfaces every five seconds.
Why couldn't Leah see what she was stepping towards while using a flashlight and the wall as a guide (besides the obvious, of course)? Well ladies and gentlemen, it's because the aliens seemed to enjoy making prisoner quarters into little torture chambers.
Everything was black. As in the wall, the ceiling, the floor—everything.
Black.
Freaking black.
After stumbling into her third obstacle, Leah grumbled, using some very colorful metaphors that would put sailors to shame.
"I couldn't have been kidnapped by wealthy, classy aliens who prefer big rooms filled with comfy beds and lovely bright colors," she muttered. "No, I just had to get poor, trashy emo aliens instead."
"Not that there's anything wrong with being emo! I just mean, who paints an entire room in only one color?" Leah said as she ran into yet another thing to somehow trip on, almost face planting on the wall. "Freaking psychopaths, that's who!"
"And why black? I already can't see in the dark when I have glasses on. This single dark color scheme is just so unnecessar—"
She went to place her hand on the wall, except where a wall SHOULD have been, there was a doorway-sized entryway.
Leah, of course not seeing this, fell straight through it before she could finish her sentence.
Cue more colorful metaphors.
By the time she was done with her excursion, Leah had discovered what appeared to be a slab-like structure guaranteed to make her back sore, an extension of the wall that came out for what she assumed was supposed to be a table of sorts, and a little bathroom connected to the main room with a something resembling a shower, a sink, and a freakishly small toilet that personally offended her.
Of course, while she could find the toilet when almost face planting earlier—and by toilet, she really meant bucket because it was insultingly small—Leah realized her captors were generous enough not to provide sheets, towels, a shower curtain, or toilet paper for their captive.
How nice of them.
Leah moved over to the hard slab-like cot in the far end of the room, tucked away in a corner, and turned off her phone, leaving her in relative darkness again. She didn't want to waste its limited battery looking at her prison. Who knew how long it would be until her abductors came back.
So, she sat down in a meditative pose and waited for something to happen.
And waited...
And waited some more.
That is how Leah quickly learned what one of the factors of being a captive that no one ever talks about—
Boredom.
xxxxx
Leah lasted two hours and 27 minutes before she lost her mind.
She had tried every pose and technique she knew to try and relax, but the slab-cot was so uncomfortable that she just felt stiff as a board no matter what. Given she couldn't see in the dark, there wasn't much of a view to enjoy either. And the worst part was her phone's battery was at 78%. The reason it was draining so fast was because she kept turning it on to check the time.
Leah knew because she'd done it at least six times in the last 10 minutes alone.
Swearing that it would be the last time she did it for at least an hour, she took a peek at her phone.
"Oh, for the love of—HOW has it only been two minutes?!" groaned Leah.
If the aliens didn't kill her, the boredom sure would.
Sighing, she leaned back on the wall, expecting her head to hit a hard, solid surface.
Instead, her head was met with a cushion-y feeling that prevented her head from hitting what should have been the solid wall. Surprised, Leah jerked forwards and whirled around.
All she could see was darkness. Wow. Thank you, Captain Obvious. That was so helpful.
Oh, hush you!
Squinting—oh yeah, like squinting is going to do anything to help you see in the dark—the young woman stared at the wall for a solid minute before tentatively placing her palm out in the direction of the surface.
When her skin met the wall, or should she say where her skin met the wall, the surface was almost...squishy? Startled, she pulled back her hand slightly for a moment, holding it midair, before she gently pressed forward on the wall again.
Don't get her wrong—Leah could still feel a solid surface that prevented her from leaving, but there was this plush layer above it. It reminded her of some beds back home, where most of the mattress would be firm, but on the top of the bed there was a soft, thin layer of cushion.
Except the cushion-y layer of her wall was more...jiggly...than plushy. Leah brought her face closer to the dark area, continuing to poke at the wall.
Yep, she thought, poking the wall with her finger once more. It's just like jello.
And if she got extremely close and squinted REALLY hard, she could almost see...were those ripples?
She could, in fact, see little ripples of what resembled light spanning from where she touched the wall.
The ripples weren't vibrant by any stretch. They were a dark blue color, not one that Leah was familiar with. However, right then, they were the only thing she could actually see, so she was actually pretty excited.
Perhaps if Leah followed the ripples, she could find the door—and if she could find the door, she could escape.
Leah certainly liked that idea.
xxxxx
It turns out trying to blindly follow hard to see ripples in a room of darkness only kills time and gets a person who can't see well a lot of bruises, as Leah found out 47 minutes later.
God, did she feel like an idiot with her face less than a foot away from the wall, squinting and poking at the surface before blindly running off to follow the ripple. She bet those aliens were laughing at her for how stupid she looked.
In the end, the ripples didn't show where a door would be, much to her disappointment. She only figured out that if she focused just enough, she could see the faintest outline of her pale hand, and that wouldn't help her to escape in this instance.
So now she was back to square one: bored captive.
Oh, lord, give me patience!
xxxxx
"It's a hard knock-life for usss.
It's a hard-knock life for ussss!
'Stead of treated,"
Bam! Bam!
"Weee get tricked!
'Stead of kisses"
The woman lifted her fist and hit the wall again. Bam! Bam!
"Weee get kicked!
It's tHe hArD-KnOck LifE~~~!"
Leah lost count of how many times she sang the song's chorus—she knew she was mixing up the lyrics and really only knew the chorus, and she really didn't care—and yet, there were no signs that anyone was coming to interrupt her likely awful singing.
So, she figured she might as well continue her private concert.
xxxxx
Gosh, at least a couple of hours must have passed by now.
The young woman had stopped her off-key singing for some time and was currently thinking of what else to do to pass the time.
Getting lost in her thoughts, she closed her eyes and drifted to her memories of home.
Comfy cotton sheets rested under her palms. Cream-colored walls surrounded her, only yielding for her double paned window facing the "backyard" of her home. The many books on the shelves of her bookcase were placed neatly and in order. Perhaps today would be the day she'd actually read one of the books in her new book pile instead of just admiring her collection.
Tiny specks of dust moved slowly through the evening sunlit air, and the smell of her mother's chocolate chip cookies wafted through the room. They were truly the best. Distantly, she heard her sister's laughter echo from the kitchen and her mother's angelic voice joining her. Leah smiled to herself, relishing the echoes of their joy.
Grrrr.
The texture of her cotton sheets and the smells of her mother's cookies faded away, and the sounds of her family's happiness vanished just as fast.
Frowning, Leah's eyes opened, and she looked down at her growling stomach.
Drat. She was hungry.
When was the last time she even ate?
Her stomach growled again.
Obviously, it had been a while—breakfast probably. And from the looks of it, it was going to be a while more before she would have her next meal, if she was getting one at all.
Had she known that she was going to be kidnapped, Leah would have eaten more than just the two cinnamon pop-tarts she had that morning. She might have even considered having lunch instead of forgetting as she usually did.
It was fine, totally FINE. All Leah needed to do was focus on something else. So simple, really.
She just had to not think about food like tasty chicken alfredo pasta, or cheesy Monterey shrimp drenched in garlic butter, or all you can eat Olive Garden breadsticks, or a big bag of McDonald's french fries mixed with loads of delicious salt or—
Grrrr!
The girl sighed. This was going to be harder than she thought.
xxxxx
"I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me. I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me. I am one with the Force and the Force is with m—who am I kidding? This obviously isn't working!" said Leah, dropping her outstretched hand so it rested by her side. She huffed in frustration.
For the last hour or so, Leah had been attempting to use various powers from sci-fi films to escape because why not? She had nothing better to do with her time, so why not try awakening a power (that she definitely did NOT have) and use it to free herself from her situation?
Best case scenario would be that she'd escape and be back home before the next day.
She refused to think about a worst case scenario.
So far, she had tried Force manipulation, a canary cry, pure physical aggression, a very crude form of kung-fu, basic manners (she even used the word 'please'), laser vision, an attempt to channel the power of either lightening or teenage angst, and an intimidation tactic that contained of her imitating Tony Stark's iconic "I am Iron Man," line at the wall.
Obviously, none of these had worked, and Leah was quickly running out of ideas.
Ooh, running? She hadn't tried that yet. Maybe she could try doing a running kick. If she could gain enough momentum, she might—
No, I am not breaking any legs today, thank you very much!
Leah let out a huff of air and sat down on the floor. How hard was it to find a freaking door and open it? Granted, usually one could see the door that they were trying to get open, but still.
This would be so much easier if I had a lightsaber, she thought, running a hand through her hair yet again. At least then she could cut a hole in the wall to free herself. Plus, she would look so freaking awesome.
Instead, she was stuck inside her new prison like a frilly-dress wearing princess from ye olden days, a stereotypical damsel-in-distress waiting for her Prince Charming or whatever to rescue her so they can ride off into the sunset.
Leah huffed.
Get real.
Prince Charming didn't exist.
The only people Leah could rely on in her rare times of need were her mother and sister, and above all, herself.
While Leah was more than willing to help her peers, friends, and even family when they struggled, they apparently did not care to extend the same courtesy when she needed it most.
The girl's resolve strengthened, her hand balling into a fist.
No. She knew better.
In no universe would a knight-in-shining-armor be coming to rescue her. She would have to rescue herself.
Leah was going to find her own way out, like any modern 21st century woman would, and she was going to get back home. She had to.
Somehow. Some way.
xxxxx
"99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer.
Take one down and pass it around, 98 bottles of beer on the wall!~~~"
Leah paused for a moment, taking in a deep breath.
"...98 bottles of beer on the wall, 98 bottles of beer..."
xxxxx
Leah had just gotten down to 7 bottles of beer while also mastering the yoga tree pose—because she had gotten bored with just singing WAY earlier—when she felt the freezing cold sensation return.
It seemed her captors had finally come to visit her.
Returning to a defensive stance, the young woman slowly backed away towards her slab—Wow, did she really just call it her slab?—in the corner and scanned the room with her eyes.
She hadn't seen or heard them enter the room through a door, which greatly disturbed her. If it hadn't been for the temperature change, then she wouldn't have even known that they were there.
That begged the question: did the aliens even need a door to enter the prison? Because if they didn't need a door, then how in the world were they getting into the room?
Leah gulped.
Did they even need the door?
The room was deathly silent, the only noises being the soft calculated breaths that Leah was making and her heartbeat pounding in her ears. It was so loud that it made her wonder if the aliens could hear her heartbeat too.
She imagined that this situation was kind of like those standoffs in old Western films, where the hero faced off against the big baddie in the ultimate showdown.
Except Leah didn't have a gun, and her opponents were invisible.
Yep. She was screwed.
Her eyes, while they could not see, were drawn to two separate parts of the room to the right of her. Instinctually, she knew that was where the little buggers were, so she kept her eyes trained on those two spots, refusing to blink or break away from the unsaid staring contest.
Apparently, the aliens were the same way, as they didn't move either.
Leah stared as long as she could. She used to own the kids on the playground when she was little, never failing to keep herself from blinking. Leah was the ultimate queen of staring contests.
But she hadn't actually participated in one since she graduated middle school, and that had been years and years and years ago.
And she was super rusty.
Sweet mercy, her eyes felt like they were on FIRE.
Forced to concede, Leah blinked rapidly, expecting the aliens to move while she was semi-distracted. Instead, not once did the aliens move from their spots to take advantage of the potential opening she had provided them.
They were just...staring at her, still as statues.
She may not have been able to see them in a physical form, but Leah knew the feeling of someone watching her all too well.
Their unwavering gazes and complete silence unnerved her.
"What do you want?" Leah sharply bit out, testing to see if they would react to her question. Much to her inner frustration, it did nothing to make her captors react at all.
They stayed silent and unmoving for close to twenty minutes, Leah constantly keeping an eye on them to make sure they didn't leave their spots and suddenly end up next to her.
Sometime in that twenty-minute period, she hesitantly sat back down on the edge of her slab-cot, still weary of her captors' lack of activity but not wanting to stay on her feet any longer than necessary.
She figured she could at least be semi-comfortable while she was creepily being stared at.
Then, they were just gone. The freezing cold sensation disappeared, and her eyes were no longer drawn to those two areas of her prison.
Leah scratched her head.
They spent all that time just looking at her but didn't bother doing anything else.
Was she perhaps part of a zoo? Maybe she was part of an exhibit and meant to be pointed and gawked at by younger aliens while the older ones read them a guide filled with fun facts about humans.
She highly doubted it.
Something in Leah's gut told her not to trust them, and Leah trusted her intuition. It, unlike many others in her life, had never lied to her, and she wasn't about to stop trusting it now.
Continuing to be weary, Leah leaned back against one of the walls of her prison and slowly rolled her tense shoulders. She may not be able to escape yet, but she might as well at least fool herself into trying to relax while waiting for the inevitable hammer to fall.
xxxxx
Leah had one rule when it came to sleeping in places outside of her home: don't.
There were several reasons why she had this rule. One was that it took her forever to fall asleep in the first place, and by the time she fell asleep, she would have to get up, so why even bother?
Another was that Leah didn't trust what people did around her while she was sleeping.
This stemmed from an event at pre-school where she had, for once, fallen asleep during naptime, only to wake up surrounded by her entire group of peers smiling and holding hands while forming a closed circle around her, chanting a song she had never heard of.
To groggy little Leah, it had looked like they were summoning a low-tier demon.
The adults in charge said that they hadn't wanted to wake her up since she never slept during naptime normally and figured she must have been very tired because she hadn't stirred with all of the noise.
Leah never fell asleep during naptime after that. Little kids could be extremely creepy.
Sleeping in a public or unknown place wasn't very safe anyways, especially for a lone young woman in the modern day. There were too many variables that made it unsafe.
To sleep, one needs to be relaxed, which is good for the body to naturally heal and replenish energy. However, if one gets too relaxed, in the event that something dangerous occurs, one might be sluggish and not react as fast to said event.
It only takes a few seconds for someone's entire world to be flipped upside down.
Which is why, when she felt the feeling of ice running down the back of her entire body, Leah gasped and jolted awake, cursing herself for being relaxed to the point of not sensing the aliens until they were RIGHT ON TOP OF HER.
Without thinking, the young woman pulled back her right fist and thrust forward, sucker-punching the alien nearest to her and sending it across the room.
"BACK OFF!" yelled Leah.
A high-pitched wailing noise echoed in the room in response. The alien left, or at least she assumed it did since her eyes were no longer drawn to the area, and the other two spots her eyes were drawn to in the room vanished along with it.
Good, she thought. They got my message.
She hoped that would keep them away for a while.
Hissing lightly, Leah gently shook the hand she punched with. Punching hurt more than what was advertised on TV. She began to massage her fingers one-by-one and make sure she didn't hurt her hand.
One of her fingers ran over her butterfly ring, and she pulled it back when it felt wet and sticky and cold.
"Oh, gross!" said Leah, keeping her fingers away from her body. "I've got alien juice on my ring. Yuck!" Despite her coat being covered in alien blood already, she refused to wipe her dirty fingers on it and make it even more filthy.
A quick venture to the bathroom section of the room was definitely in order.
xxxxx
It was when she finally came out of the bathroom area of her prison that Leah finally noticed a glowing blob resting in the general area of the extended table piece. She couldn't see what it was, but given that it was glowing, she figured she ought to investigate.
Creeping closer, some of the features of the blob got marginally clearer. While it was glowing, it still was not that bright. Its glow was close to that of the ripples of the wall, barely noticeable but there nonetheless.
However, instead of it being a dark blue, the blob was more of a dark purple color with specks of dull white scattered throughout it. And now that she was closer to it, she also noticed a cup resting beside the blob. The cup had a faint dark grey outline and was filled with a dark liquid, though she couldn't determine its exact color.
Compared to what Leah had been dealing with all day, it wasn't that threatening. Still, she wasn't about to touch something directly when she didn't know what it was.
Oh, that's right! thought Leah. Her hand dove into her pocket, rummaging around its contents before pulling out the item she was looking for.
Not bothering to take the cap off, she poked the purple blob with her dried out black marker, watching with just a hint of fascination as it wobbled like jello, jiggling back and forth from her poke.
Marker still intact, she moved it over the cup and slowly lowered it in until the top of the pen was submerged in the dark liquid. She then stirred it, finding it to have a similar consistency to orange juice when made from the can.
When she pulled the marker out, she saw that it was in one piece. That made her hypothesis about the liquid being a dissolving acid null and void.
It was probably something to eat and drink, or at least that's what the girl figured.
Guess they wouldn't want their precious prisoner to starve, thought Leah, eyeing the table items in front of her.
Part of her wanted to take the purple blob and throw it at the next alien that decided to come visit her, or just ignore its existence altogether. Goodness even knew what was in the food and beverage. For all Leah knew, the aliens could have given her poison and she would be none the wiser.
The other part of her argued that she had to eat and drink to keep up her strength, so that she could continue to fight the aliens—so that she could eventually escape when the time came.
Her stomach growled, making itself pretty clear as to where it stood on the subject.
Gazing at the substances for a couple minutes longer, she picked up the purple blob, which was more like sludge in a bowl, and the cup, bringing the two items to her slab-cot and sitting down.
Leah didn't have any utensils to eat the purple blob with, so she simply dipped her pointer finger into it and swiped a bit of the sludge off the pile. Hesitantly, she brought it up to her nose and sniffed it, but she couldn't smell anything good or bad coming off from it.
Satisfied with her observation, she brought it to her lips and tasted it.
Instantly, she experienced the flavors of blueberry, carrot, and tomato blended together with a black coffee and vinegar aftertaste.
If she had been Shaggy and Scooby-Doo, Leah was sure she would have loved this dish.
She was definitely not Shaggy or Scooby-Doo.
The combo of tastes made her feel that she was licking the underside of a Walmart shopping cart wheel. The young woman curled her lip and tried swallowing her own saliva to get rid of the awful taste left in her mouth.
Leah wasn't a fan of most of the tastes she was experiencing. She disliked blueberries, absolutely DESPISED coffee, tolerated carrots (but only if they were grilled), and was pretty neutral with vinegar as long as it was mixed with other compatible ingredients and was not consumed as a standalone product.
Honestly, the tomatoes were the only thing saving the dish from being completely inedible.
Grimacing at the rest of the dish, the girl thought about abandoning it altogether. She wasn't exactly a stick and had enough curves in all the right and wrong places, so it wasn't like she couldn't miss a meal or two and not survive. The thought was very tempting as she looked down at her current meal.
So very, very tempting.
Grrr.
Apparently, her stomach thought otherwise.
Leah sighed and decided that she should get it over with, so she scooped larger bits of the purple blob and stuffed as much of it as possible into her mouth before swallowing.
Picking up the cup, she slushed the liquid around before coming to the ever-logical conclusion that the best way to consume the liquid was to drink it like a shot.
"Cheers," she murmured to herself, surprising herself when she tipped her head backwards and downed the drink in one go. Placing the cup back on her cot, she waited for her tastebuds to kick in.
The aftertaste hit her like a truck.
When Leah had been in her early pre-teen years, puberty hadn't been her friend. She got extremely bad acne that just scarred her body and wouldn't heal nor go away. Leah's mother had taken her to a doctor to see what could be done since every skin treatment they had tried was ineffective or just made her acne worse. To fight it, Lead was prescribed pills that had kept her acne from breaking out quite as bad, though it hadn't done much to clear her skin either.
One day, she had swallowed a pill as she normally did, but the pill must not have gone down her throat. Its casing dissolved, and Leah had found herself with a sore throat as she coughed out little baby blue powder clouds for five minutes straight. The taste of the powder was metallic, toxic, and stung. It wasn't a flavor she could forget so easily.
The dark liquid reminded Leah of that flavor.
Ugh!
Leah scrunched her nose and glared at her cup. What were the aliens trying to do, give her the expired food from their refrigerator?
Those aliens ought to be glad they didn't abduct Gordon Ramsay because he certainly would have had several things to say about this particular dish.
Placing the cup back, Leah went back to picking at the purple blob of food, taking small bites and wishing she was eating Chili's cheddar bites instead. Chunks of delectable cheddar cheese wrapped in crisp breadcrumbs and seasoning salt, deep fried and dipped in a special ranch sauce, and seriously, it's heaven on Earth and nothing like this garbage—
Leah's head suddenly fell forward, and she fumbled to keep from dropping the bowl, just barely managing to keep it balanced with both of her hands. She shook her head a little, furrowing her brow.
Woah. That was weird, she thought. Her head had felt lighter than her body for a second there. It was fine now though.
Brushing it off, she went back to scooping up the awful tasting sludge with her fingers, but as she lifted her hand, another wave of lightheadedness hit her.
The bowl slipped out of her hand and crashed onto the ground, splattering the purple sludge all over her favorite boots.
"Wha...what ex-exactly..." Leah mumbled, stopping midway through her question. She couldn't force the words out of her mouth.
Her entire body from her neck down was filled with bricks, dragging her down, while her head felt as if it could fly off her shoulders at any minute. Leah's thoughts were foggy, muddy, as if she herself was walking through a murky swamp, unable to wade through the watery field before her.
What...what was going on?
Breaths came in short bursts that left her craving desperately for more, and she strained to lift her heavy lead arm, her fingers still slimed with the sludge. Either her vision was getting worse, or her hand was trembling, because all Leah could see was an intense blur.
Hey, lookie there. A lazy smile painted her face. I'm the Flash.
She rolled her fingers over each other, spreading the slime all over her hot, sweaty hand in the process. The action felt mindless—she didn't even know why she was doing it.
Every muscle in her body began to relax, her eyelids slowly blinking and growing half lidded. Why did she feel so hot and tired all of the sudden? Everyone knew she didn't take naps in public. Naps were silly. Naps were dangerous.
Only then did her brain catch up with her thoughts. Only then did she realize.
Drugged.
Leah had been drugged.
The realization did very little to help Leah as she continued to feel sleepy. She fought against it, against relaxing, against closing her eyes, against losing the last bit of control she had over her body.
Leah couldn't fall asleep—it was too dangerous to fall asleep now. If she did...if she did, she wouldn't be awake to see what the aliens wanted with her—wanted to do with her.
Rivers of fear coursed through the young woman at the very thought.
Even that couldn't snap her out of her drugged state; she was far too gone to stop the process from taking over. Leah's eyes fluttered shut and her body slumped heavily to the side, landing on the slab-cot and knocking over the empty cup she had placed there earlier.
No, no, no!
Her fingertips twitched. The harsh landing of the cup only a foot from her sounded a million miles away, muffled and soft.
As she only grew warmer, Leah realized she was in the most danger she had ever been in before, and she was helpless to stop it. The ice closed in around her, and Leah's last string of consciousness slipped from her hold, forcing her into the unknown darkness that swallowed her whole.
xxxxx
A migraine was never one of Leah's favorite wake up calls, and yet, had it not been for that migraine she woke up to, Leah never would have reached consciousness in the first place.
"Ugh, my head," she moaned. She winced slightly when her own voice made her headache worse.
The young woman brought her hand up to nurse her head as she gradually came to, her fingers helping to message the tenderness mounted in her mind. Groggily, she opened her eyes, blinking to wake herself up.
Leah tried to remember what happened before she passed out, but her brain was severely lagging.
Let's see. She had punched an alien, yep, she remembered that...washed off whatever got on her ring...something about glowing jello with white speckles—mold perhaps?—and why was she imagining the taste of vinegar and...was that coffee?
She hated coffee.
The girl's eyes flew open, and she quickly sat up, only to groan when her head continued to spin a million miles per hour.
Of course! She had been drugged. Heck, she probably still was given how sluggish she felt.
How could she have forgotten she had been drugged?
It must have been in either the food or the drink, she reasoned. Something that I would need in order to live.
Dang it, she should've known better. Letting her stomach make her decisions…what an amateur mistake.
Leah scolded herself for her own thoughtless actions while rubbing her arms. The cool air was brushing up against them and making her shiver.
It should not have taken Leah as long as it did to figure out that something was terribly wrong.
The young woman's eyes widened, and her head snapped down to look at her body, immediately regretting the action when she was hit with a wave of dizziness that made her close her eyes. However, she willed herself to move past it, wanting—no, not wanting, but needing—to see the truth herself.
When her head finally slowed to a mild spin, she re-opened her eyes, breath hitching at the sight of the pale silhouette of her body.
Leah was nude—completely and utterly nude.
Every piece of clothing she had been wearing from head-to-toe, top-to-bottom, all of the warm layers she had put on earlier—her jacket, her shirt, her jeans, her earrings and rings, even her Lilo & Stitch socks—gone.
She was lying in the middle of a floor in an alien prison.
Stark. Naked.
The startled girl brought her shaking hands up to her mouth, trying to muffle the scream that threatened to escape from it. Thousands of questions raced through her mind.
Where were her clothes? Why were her clothes gone? Why would aliens need to remove her clothes?
What did they do to her?
No matter how hard she tried, Leah couldn't remember. From the moment she had passed out to when she woke up, her mind was blank. She had no memory of what happened during that lapse of time when she was unconscious.
How long had she even been out?
It could have been minutes, it could have been hours, or maybe even days. She couldn't tell. It's not like she'd know anytime soon either. Her phone, along with the few possessions she had left, had been in her coat pocket, and her coat wasn't there, so it, along with everything else, was also long gone.
Leah couldn't just keep sitting there, on the floor, with her thoughts spiraling in all directions. She was too exposed how she was at the current moment. If she was going to get answers, she needed to get up.
Come on, get up!
With one arm covering her chest in a futile attempt to protect her modesty, Leah started to move, lifting herself from the ground and slowly getting onto her feet. Her joints ached at the movement, almost tricking her into believing she was an older woman instead of the young adult she truly was.
Just as she was about to straighten herself to her full height, a sharp stab of pain erupted from her lower abdomen, forcing Leah to cry out in agony. She bent over, her arms hugging her trembling body. Funny how she didn't feel that before because OW, THAT FRIGGING HURT!
Leah winced, still clutching her throbbing abdomen. It must have been a delayed response from whatever drug she had been given. But what exactly was wrong that was causing—
And just like that, enough of the pieces clicked together.
No clothes. Lower regions. Soreness. Pain.
Internal pain.
She brought one hand to her mouth, forcing down her urge to puke. No, she must be mistaken, she had to be.
No being could be so vile, so cruel, as to do THAT to a captive—to her, who had always been so careful, so mindful, of her actions—could they?
Shakily, Leah tentatively reached down with her other hand, hoping, praying, that she was wrong, that she was only assuming the worst and that maybe she was just overthinking, only to pull her hand back, the tips of her fingers coated with a few drops of an all too familiar sticky substance.
A substance she only could only get either if it was a certain time of the month, or in the event that...that she had been...
Oh, I'm...I'm gonna be—
The young woman hurriedly rushed towards the bathroom area, blindly reaching for the toilet bucket she knew she had been provided with, barely making it in time as she vomited, falling onto her knees. Several strands of her hair fell forward and were caught in the disgusting stream. She kept heaving and heaving until she had emptied her stomach, then continued to dry heave until her body physically couldn't anymore. Her fingers gripped the bucket hard, leaving the smallest of indents in the material, and silent tears raced down her face.
She made no effort to stop them. Inside her mind, only one question swirled around.
Why? Why? WHY?
They had already taken her family, her home, her only possessions, her freedom, away from her when they abducted her. Wasn't that enough for them? Why...why did they have to take that away from her too?
Leah sniffled, continuing to quietly cry in the confines of her bathroom, the soft echoes of her weeping bouncing off the walls and reminding her how scared and alone she truly was in this new hell.
She felt so...so violated. Exposed.
Dirty.
Just what did she do to deserve this?
It wasn't fair—none of it was! At least if she had been awake, she might've been able to fight back, try to stop them from…from...well, she should've never fallen for their trap to drug her in the first place. She should have seen it coming.
Instead, she continued to make one mistake after another.
If only she could remember. Why couldn't she remember? But Leah couldn't. She couldn't no matter how much she tried. Did Leah even want to remember, to know what happened after she lost consciousness?
Leah closed her eyes, continuing to shake from her sobs. Yes, she thought mournfully. Yes, I do. And I can't. They took that from me too.
Phantom fingers flitted all over her body, and Leah had to remind herself that it was all in her head. They weren't there. She didn't even know if they were alien fingers or if she was just imagining things to fill in the blanks in her memory. Still, she tried to rub the invasive fingers off with little success. They were everywhere at once.
The girl finally looked to the side. Through teary eyes, she thought she spotted something lying on the other side of her prison, but it was hard to tell with her vision. Abandoning her bucket, Leah made her way over to her slab-cot, only to let out a harsh laugh at what awaited her.
The aliens gave her a t-shirt.
A friggin t-shirt.
They took everything she had, everything she owned, and decided to give her a t-shirt like she was at a freaking theme park.
She lifted it, inspecting the shirt and feeling every inch of the fabric in case it too was another item set to lure her into another trap. However, she found that it was just a piece of fabric, nothing more. Other than a small symbol resting on the top left side of the shirt that Leah couldn't decipher, the rest of the shirt was a plain dark grey color. She ran a finger over the symbol, wondering what it meant.
I bet it says something like "Property of Aliens Inc," internally scoffed Leah. Wow. What a downgrade that would be if it really said that.
And would you look at that? she thought sardonically, holding the t-shirt against her body. It's just my size.
Go freaking figure.
Considering it was better than being completely naked and exposed, she threw the shirt on. The bottom came to rest just under her unmentionables, barely covering what needed to be covered to keep modest, though it didn't quite matter—clearly the aliens had seen everything. But it brought her a miniscule amount of comfort to wear something over her body again and not be nude. Not much, but a little.
At least there was one layer between her and her captors.
Not like that would stop them.
Leah curled up on the slab-cot in the corner, bringing her arms around her and rocking slightly. Her eyes were swollen. Longingly, her thoughts drifted once more towards her family. She wondered how they were doing.
Are they searching for me? the girl asked tear slipped from her eye.
Or have they forgotten me already?
Leah hoped they were looking for her, or at the very least that they were safe. She really did. Who knew if they could find her though.
But if they were looking for her, Leah knew they'd search everywhere they could.
And she would too, until the day she could finally reunite with her family.
With that thought in mind, Leah sent a silent prayer to the heavens above.
Dear Lord, help me figure out what to do so I can return to my family. Tell me what to do or send me one of your heavenly messengers. I will listen to you, heed your words, and follow your great wisdom, but I need a sign. Please.
Please, help me.
While she was hoping her prayers would be delivered to the Lord, they instead traveled much further than Leah or anyone could have anticipated.
Millions of lightyears away from where she was held captive, deep in space and hovering around a nebula, something heard her—
A box.
A little blue box.
Author's Note:
Poor Leah! Don't worry, guys—help is on the way!
Hello everybody! Guess what? I'm not dead! And don't worry, brother—I didn't forget about this lol. ;)
I had a LOT of ideas swimming in my head, and when I wrote this chapter, I realized too late that I could write a small novel from just what I had planned for the single chapter alone, so I had to do some MAJOR condensing. (I'm still learning how to measure chapters...oops!)
Tons of things have been happening in my life that also distracted me from this project, (including writer's block at the most inconvenient of times—ugh, the WORST), and I'm not sure when the next chapter will come out. However, I don't plan on giving this up, so I'll get it updated sometime, hopefully sooner than later. Please be patient with me! :)
This should be the "darkest" chapter in the story. I wanted to write a darker version of the protagonist-living-in-a-different-universe spiel. A lot of my inspiration comes from LovelyAmberLight's Reality, one of my favorite fanfics of the show. However, I have plenty of my own twists that I hope will make my story just as memorable and unique.
The next chapter will finally introduce the 9th Doctor to our story. I know what you're thinking: About TIME! I will do my very best to capture his character as it is in the show.
Thank you all so much for favoriting, following, and commenting on my story. I love seeing everyone's comments, and it warms my old ancient heart to know that people look forward to the next chapter. :)
So, until next time!
~Miss Moira
P.S. It has come to my attention that some of my sentences show up as unfinished or garbled. Turns out that when I convert my document to this website format, the program glitches and loses some of my work, making a couple of sentences wonky.
Rest assured, I'm fixing them as soon as they come to my attention. If you come across something like that, feel free to let me know! Thanks! :)