She is carried along by the crowd. Looking around she hopes she can get a glimpse of a red jacket, of jet black hair. But all she can see is a blur, speeding up, and up. She feels dizzy looking around at the colors running past her, it was like the carnival ride her father took her on once when she was little, the one where they spin you around so fast. That was always her least favorite ride. But this, this is a hundred times worse than that.

"Rush!" she calls out as loud as she can. Her screams are muffled by the fabric running past her. She tries to hold her ground, tries not to be swept along again, like a fish in a rushing current. A man pushes her as he runs past, she stumbles then regains her balance.

A woman grabs her hand, "come on!" the woman yells pulling her.

She tries to shake the woman off, "let go of me!" she screams. Tears roll down her face. The woman's grasp doesn't loosen, only tightens. Her captor drags her along. She tries to bite the woman's arm, but only knocks her teeth against a heavy bracelet.

"Come on!" the woman yells again, dragging her further into the crowd.

"Rush!" she screams. Again, silence. Her voice is raw, she relents to the woman's pulls and lets herself be dragged along.

The woman runs as fast as she can, dragging her prisoner with an iron grip. "What did you think you were doing? You could have been killed in the stampede," the woman says over the roars of the crowd.

The captive doesn't answer. Instead her tears continue to run down her sweaty face. The woman continues running.

Suddenly, the woman stops. The hostage runs into her back sending them both stumbling.

"They both seem scared, just a few drops will do," a low voice says. The voice has an accent, that can not be named. She had never heard anything like it.

"Yes sir" another voice says. This voice is higher, but has the same strange accent.

A cold metal touches soft skin. Then a second of agony and pain, before everything goes black.

________________________________________________________________________________

She opens her eyes. A bright florescent light shines down, blinding her. Using her hands, she pushes herself up into a seated position. The ground is cold, and her head hurts. Studying the room, she see's other people, in all different states. Some look like they have been up for a while, some like her are just awakening, others still are lying on the floor asleep.

"About time you woke up," a woman's voice says. Her head swivels around to see the owner of the voice. But she is punished with a sharp pain in the skull for her actions.

"Careful, your head got smashed pretty bad when they threw you onto the ground," the woman's voice warns her. "What's your name anyways?"

"Nadia," she says instantly, before reaching up to touch her head. The back of her head is sticky, and as she pulls her hand away she sees it's blood. A rich crimson blood. She screams at the sight of all of it. "I'm bleeding," she says cautiously. She doesn't remember ever bleeding  like this before. She had scabbed knees, bloody noses, and paper cuts. But never, anything like how she's bleeding now.

A vile substance rises in her mouth. But she keeps her lips clenched, determined not to throw up. "Well, Nadia, you put up quite a fight when I tried to get you out," the woman's voice tells her, she seems unaware of the pain Nadia is going through. "My name is Pippa by the way."

Nadia can't reply. She gapes at the blood on her hand. Her head swims, and she feels faint. The metallic, shiny walls, don't do much to help her headache.

A door opens. Several woman come into the room. Each has her hair tucked into a low bun. They wear the same uniform of a long, slinky dress. The dresses are dark green, navy blue, and black. It resembles a bruise to Nadia.

None of the woman talk. Their shoes don't make a noise on the hard ground. No one talks, only the heavy breathing of the people just waking up.

One of the woman comes over to Nadia. Her eyes are covered in a thick black makeup, making an awful contrast to her pale skin. Her eyes are a muddy purple.

"Who are you?" Nadia gasps shrinking away from the woman. This woman is frightening. The woman doesn't reply only touches a cold hand to Nadia's wounded head. "Get away from me!" the prisoner shouts. The woman doesn't move, she takes a vial out from her pocket.

She rubs some of the liquid from the vial on to the wounded head. She doesn't do it gently. A feeling like fire flames Nadia's whole body. Then it stops abruptly, before she even has time to scream from the pain. The woman takes one of Nadia's hands and dabs some of the potion onto a cut. The same fiery feeling burns her, but then leaves. The blood from the cut is glazed over with a dark bruise. The woman stands up then, and leaves.

"What was that?" a voice asks loudly as soon as the scary woman leave. Other people murmur, most likely wondering what happened to their injuries.

"I think they healed us", Nadia whispers to the woman she knows is beside her.

"They did," Pippa says in an awed sort of fascination.

Nadia can turn her head now and gets a better look at the woman who had led her through the crowd.

Pippa is tall, with bronze skin and thick dark hair. Her t-shirt is faded and bloody, her jeans ripped. Pippa doesn't look very much older than her.

"But, your young," Nadia says amazed.

Pippa laughs, "were you expecting some old witch?"

Nadia thinks about this, "no. I mean, I don't know what I was expecting. But probably someone more my mother's age, by the way you saved me and were talking to me."

"Well I was expecting you to be someone younger, like my little sister, by the way you were yelling and crying," Pippa tells her rolling her eyes with a smile on her face. "Who were you yelling for anyway?' she asks curiously.

Rush. Nadia's eyes tear up at the thought. She wonders what happened to him. Is he like her, lost and confused in this strange room? Or is he even alive? "My friend," she tells Pippa vaguely. She feels suddenly tired and curls up onto the hard floor to sleep.

________________________________________________________________________________

The food is bland and tasteless. When it arrived on a small shiny plate, Nadia had been excited. It looked like chicken, asparagus, and a chocolate cake. But when she ate it, it tasted like nothing. She was practically getting filled up on air. It did satisfy her hunger though.

They also received clothes. Nadia wished she could shower before putting on the clean clothing, but that wasn't an option. The bundle of clothes was only a simple gray tunic and leggings. They also received strange heeled shoes, they were uncomfortable to Nadia, so she decided to stick with her sneakers.

The bruise ladies came back and combed her hair, putting it into an intricate braid that hung down her back.

"Where were you when the strange storm came, and we ran away?" Nadia asks Pippa one day over a bland breakfast of pancakes and berries.

Her friend looks at her, "I was walking home after my shift at the movie theater. That was why I was wearing that hideous employees t-shirt. I'm glad that shirt is ruined," she says with a laugh. "What about you?"

Nadia's throat tightens, "Rush was driving me home. We had just finished bowling. Then the strange lights came, the car broke down, and everybody started running."

The door of the room opens. A man walks in. He is tall and has purple hair. But not the kind of purple hair you get after you dye your hair. His looks natural. He wears a shiny silver suit that hurts Nadia's eyes.His lips are coated in the same color of silver. His face has gems inserted in it. "Ladies," he says in an accent Nadia recognizes as the strange one the people had that gave her the shot, "you will be escorted out of your chambers and shown your new home."

The bruise ladies come in silently behind him and gesture for them to follow. Nervously, the girls stand up, exchanging wary glances. Pippa comes over and clutches Nadia's hand in her own. "I would like to stay together. I have no other friends," she whispers to Nadia. Her friend nods, she feels the same way.

Together, the group of girls walks out into a hall. One of the bruise ladies opens a door at the end. As the girls walk in they can't help but be awed. The floors are reflective silver, the floors are a mosaic made entirely out of precious stones. A gold mist floats through the room.

"Attention," a high feminine voice commands. It's accent is even stronger then the man's. Nadia lifts her head to see the scariest woman, she's ever seen. The woman's skin is a stone blue. Her eyes are huge and glittery. She has huge dark lips. The woman has no hair, but instead wears a magnificent headdress that glitters like a mirror. Her face is engraved with gold drawings. The woman's top is made out of water, that seems to stick to her. Her skirt is full, and made entirely out of metal. Her shoes are made of a thick glass.

Pippa clings tighter to Nadia. "Bow!" the woman commands. They do, all of them lower into shaky bows.

"Good," the woman says nodding her head approvingly, "my name is Queen Nimciemckirekd, and I would like to welcome you to your new home".

A large door, that reminds Nadia of a garage door lifts open. It leads to outside. Which is blue like water, and covered in a thick foggy, mist. "Welcome to Neptune," the woman says with a smile that shows she has no teeth, "I hope you will feel right at home".