She was standing in a sea of eyes, every single one of which was staring at her. Their mouths were moving, too, but she couldn’t hear what they were saying. She wished they would look away. She wanted to be alone, at home, in her bed. She wanted to sleep so she could wake up from this nightmare.

A shrill bark cut through the dull thumping in her ears. A pink-blue bullet was charging through the crowd.

“Tadpole!” She picked him up and hugged him to her chest, threaded her fingers into his fur. The warmth was comforting, but it also made everything terrifyingly real.

Rig had said something that had made her jump to her feet and run, run down the hill and into the square surrounded by pulsing purple houses and the sea of eyes. “I’ll do it”, she had shouted, and jumped onto the podium, almost knocking over the old man who was standing there.

He was still standing here, next to her, staring at her. He looked exactly how she felt – as though he had just run headfirst into a wall. “We will never forget your noble sacrifice”, he rumbled.

“No! Wait!”

Another figure came running through the square. When he joined her on the podium, she felt the ground wobble beneath her feet. He put an arm around her shoulder, steadying her. “Rig…” she said weakly, but he did not pay her any attention, did not even look at her, and instead turned to the man with the deep voice.

“Look, Gurgle, there’s been a mistake”, he panted, clutching his ribs with his free hand. "She’s a switcher, fresh from the tunnel. She’s only been here a few hours and she’s clearly suffering from world shock. She doesn’t know what she’s doing.”

The man called Gurgle shook his head. “She agreed, loud and clear. Whether she knew the background is irrelevant, her ignorance will not protect her.” He had stopped looking at Lauren and was staring at the planks of wood beneath his feet as though they were the most interesting thing in the world.

“You can’t be serious.” Rig’s fingers dug into Lauren’s arm. “She shouldn’t even be here. You can’t expect her to do a job that none of us –” He stopped. “Look, why don’t I take her back and we forget this ever happened?”

The man, Gurgle, finally looked up. “I’m sorry, Rig.” He looked uncomfortable but determined. “I’m sorry it has to be someone you know. But you need to look at the bigger picture. She has broken the taboo. Her failure will spur others into action. She will be remembered.”

Rig stamped his foot. “This is insane!”

Tadpole yelped, and Lauren realised that she was squeezing him like a boa constrictor. She loosened her grip. He wriggled free and disappeared into the throng.

“Tadpole!” She couldn’t lose him. Not after everything that had happened. She jumped down from the platform and ran after the little dog. The crowd parted, shrinking away from her as though she had some highly contagious disease she might pass on to them. At the edge of the square, a pink-blue streak disappeared down the street. She followed it, finally catching up with Tadpole in a narrow alleyway.

“There you are.” She sat on a doorstep and pulled him into her lap.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Footsteps echoed off the walls around her. A second later, Rig appeared at the mouth of the alley.

“What did that man mean”, she asked, fighting to keep her voice steady, “when he said that I will be remembered?”

Rig sat down beside her and looked at his feet. “For Chloe’s sake, Lauren”, he muttered. “Why did you have to go down there?”

“What did he mean?” Her voice sounded shrill in her own ears.

Rig pinched the bridge of his nose. “You don’t understand.” He looked pale, pained. “Gurgle has been making that job offer for months. Ever since the Jewels were first stolen. No one has taken him up on it. He hopes…” Rig closed his eyes. “He hopes that once you’ve tried, others will follow in your footsteps.”

“I want to go home.” The words came unbidden, without conscious thought. But as soon as she had spoken them, she knew they were true. The office might be soul-destroying, but at least people didn’t expect her to go off on some dangerous mission that no one else wanted to do.

Eyes still closed, Rig shook his head. “You can’t.”

“What do you mean I can’t?” She was on her feet again. Tadpole jumped off her lap just in time.

Rig grimaced as though in pain. “You have to stay here and do this. Retrieve the Jewels. You’re bound to the mission until you complete it…” His eyes snapped open. “…or die in the attempt.”

An icy claw gripped her heart, her torso, her entire body. She stared at Rig, who seemed to be struggling to hold her gaze, but did not waver. A range of expressions flitted across his face. Finally, he managed a weak smile. “Look, Lauren, they might not think you can do this… but they’re wrong! I will help you, I will stay with you and we will take the Jewels back! We need them, and we…”

His voice faded against the ringing in her ears. The edge of her vision pulsed red.

Rig gripped her arm. His smile had turned strangely rigid, like a skull’s. “Lauren, I know you can do this! You are… you are incredible, what you did to the snail… I have never seen anyone do that sort of thing on their first day. Once you get the right training... We will go to the Palace straight away, and then…”

But the ringing was now so loud that it drained out all other sounds, and a single thought consumed Lauren’s head. Out. She needed to get out of this place as quickly as possible.

She shook free from Rig’s grasp and jumped to her feet. Grabbing Tadpole, she ran down the alleyway and turned into the main road.

“Lauren!”

But she did not turn around. The market square was still packed, so she ran in the opposite direction, into the centre of the town.

“LAUREN!”

Rig was behind her, closing in. No, she could not let him follow her, he was with them, he wanted her to die trying to get the Jewels, whatever they were, so that others would follow her example…

She scanned around for a weapon. A loose slab lay on the cobblestones at the edge of the road. Lauren focused on it and sent it flying over her shoulder, not turning to look, but guessing Rig’s location by the sound of his footsteps…

A crashing sound of rock on rock. In spite of herself, she turned around and saw the slab crash into the wall. Rig was staring at it, mouth open in shock. “LAUREN! WHAT THE HELL –?”

She needed to stop him. Still running, half glancing over her shoulder, she concentrated on the thick vines that grew down the wall beside her. The brambles shot forward and ensnared Rig, pinning him to the wall, squeezing…

With visible effort, Rig snapped the branches and tore himself free. “STOP! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!”

Lauren felt a tugging sensation in her back. He was slowing her down, halting her… her vision blurred as the wave of scalding panic in her head crashed with a deafening roar, and somehow it rushed out of and into the street behind her, tearing down the final stretch of the wall which collapsed into the road, blocking Rig’s path.

She turned left into the newly created gap and ran through a stretch of yard into a backroad lined by tall buildings on either side. A few houses down, a door opened and people walked out. No… they wanted to kill her… But there were too many… Hide.

She ducked into the nearest doorway, slammed into the door which opened with a click of the lock, and ran through a gloomy hallway into an even darker room. Without warning, one of the wooden ceiling beams came loose and shot forward, hitting her square across the right temple. She stumbled sideways and just managed to pull herself into a large wardrobe before the world turned black before her eyes.