Hate, though, was boring when you couldn’t do anything with is. It got to be so boring that Tory even turned out the lights. The voice had come to her before, in that deep dark hole that she had been trapped in only a few months before the trip to Mars.

“Maybe there’s a reason you are here, now, alone,” the voice that had sounded a lot like hers had said as she shivered in the blackness. “To teach you that you don’t have to be afraid and that you aren’t alone as you think.”

“But who are you then?” she’d wondered.

The voice had never told her. By the time Fossil and The Steal had located her, it had gone to silence, as if it was never more than a voice in her head.

It was at least an hour before she turned the lights back on, but there was nothing to hear much at all other than the sound of her own breathing and hum of the air conditioner. Oh, there was the occasional crackle from the bare light bulb overhead which she figured was probably some kind of bad wiring. Tory had worried that she might be left in darkness for her stay in here, permanently, but as time went by and the light didn’t flicker out so she figured it would keep work, at least for as long as she was stuck in the place and didn’t try to turn it off again.

Muffled voices came from somewhere behind the door. Someone was approaching? Tory jumped to the thick metal and tried to listen, her ear right up against the cold rough rusty metal. There were voices behind the door now. One male, gruff, one female, tentative. But they were all in Russian or whatever these people spoke, so she couldn’t make out what they were saying.

And then something was happening to the door, scraping, crunching, clicking. The lock had been turned, someone was opening it. Tory jumped back, glanced around, but there was nowhere to hide and make a move to run out.

The door opened, wider than expected. A thin figure slipped through, casting a shadow over her from the harsh lighting beyond. Tory put a hand over her eyes to try to get a better look who might have come in.

“Tory? That is your name?” a girl’s voice asked as the door closed and her sight readjusted.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Lowering her hand, Tory found she was looking at the face of a girl, one she recognized from the group of kids in The Hole’s classroom school. She was small for a Martian. The girl wasn’t that much taller than her and really skinny. She wouldn’t have weighed much on Earth, had to be like a feather here. And somehow her own long black hair was shiny and completely clump-free. Tory felt immediately jealous again. She probably looked like a freak now, with her hair sticking around everywhere stiffly.

And that was the one thing she was jealous of all these Martians, man, woman, kid. They had a secret that they would not share.

Then Tory noticed something more important.

The girl was also carrying a tray of food. A really welcome sight.

“That’s right. What’s your name?” Tory asked stepping forwards from the far side of the room towards the girl and the food. The girl approached her tentatively, tried a smile on her near bloodless lips. Yeah, this girl was pale too, probably hardly ever got much sun. Didn’t these Martians at least have sun lamps?

“I am Ekaterina,” her visitor said offering a tentative smile, “I thought you might appreciate some food and water. You need to eat, true? You are hungry?”

Tory nodded. Oh, yes she was.

The girl placed the tray next to Tory on the bed and sat down on the floor, cross-legged, looking up at her.

Now the food. It wasn’t much, not those wonderful packaged meals Valentine had given her, but it was better than nothing, and kind of smelled appetizing. There wasn’t much. A slice of some kind of cake or bread and a cup of water, but her rumbling stomach didn’t care.

Tory tried the spongy bread/cake. Nibbled a bit first. It was crumbly, fry, but edible, and for some reason tasted a bit like sweet corn or maybe carrots? She then took a sip of the water. It didn’t taste as bad as she expected, seemed mostly clean and only a little metallic tasting. Ekaterina simple watched silently with her big, almost unearthly large blue eyes. Did the girl have nothing else to do? Living in this hole must be exponentially worse than CU if the kids got their kicks by hanging out with prisoners.

Tory tried to imagine the girl having nice, doting parents, maybe a grandmother who would comb her long blonde hair. Someone had to.

“This is... tasty,” she said wiping crumbs from her lips, before completely devouring every last bit.

The girl nodded and smiled shyly ignoring what a slob she must look like.

“I help my mama make it,” she said.

Tory smiled back. At least Ekaterina might offer a bit of distraction from her current predicament, and she really appreciated the food. Without any way of telling time, Tory had no idea how long it had been since she ate. Mazes she was solid with. Time, not so much.

She looked back at the girl. Maybe Ekaterina could give her some clues that might help her escape. But how to tell your only potential friend you want to get as far away from her and her home as you possibly can?