Who would have thought I’d be here? In a metal cage created specially for me. Because I was stupid enough to trust a suspicious man who claimed he could help me. Now I’m stuck in my metal prison, inside a truck.
Beside me stand three other cages, complete with three other people my age. One girl, one guy, and one unbelievably androgynous person. The girl, who has brown skin and dark eyes, meets my gaze. Her expression is unreadable; her mouth is set in a thin line that betrays no emotion. She blows a pin-straight strand of hair out of her eyes, looking away. I decided not to say anything because she looked like she might wrench her cage open and jump at me. My attention moves to the person whom I currently don’t know the gender of, taking in their ambiguous appearance. They wear glasses and have blue eyes that contrast sharply with their dark skin, and medium-length coiled hair that is magenta in the dark but probably a pastel pink in the light. They don’t look at me, or anyone for that matter. The person looks only at the ground as they sit on the metallic floor.
I turn and notice the girl staring at someone with her eyebrow raised in question. Looking over, I see a bleach-blonde boy with dark roots ogling her as if she were both a monster and a goddess. He has hazel eyes, monolid too. The tawny guy is a nervous wreck, his eyes darting between everyone in curiosity and anxiousness. Poor dude. Wonder how any of them ended up here, with me. Probably the same way…
Earlier that day
“Not again…” I mutter, staring at my hands. A small fire glows in the palm of my hand, flickering menacingly in the wind. It’s been exactly 24 hours since I woke up with my blanket covered in flames. My mom thinks I was smoking, and I didn’t attempt to correct her. Would she really believe I magically set my bed on fire? Doubt it.
Now, I’m sitting at my favorite corner of the public library with my best friend. His name is Kason and I’m hopelessly in love with him. Yeah, you heard that right. I’m queer. A something-sexual. I don’t know that part yet. Next question, please.
“So you’re saying you’re some sort of superhero? Can I be your sidekick that the audience loves more because I’m charming and irresistible?” Kason asks with a snicker. God, I hate him.
“Do you ever take anything seriously?” I groan, snuffing out the flame I had conjured up. I can’t help but smile at his joke despite the situation. See, me and Kason, we’re like paper and glue. I’m the glue; he’s the paper. It’s because we’re…hm, I forgot the metaphor. Whoops. Anyway, I’ve known him since the first year of middle school, which is a lot of time seeing as we’re a year out of high school. Once again, I’m in love with this guy. Sadly, he’s as straight as a line. A straight line. A line that is straight. He turns to me with a mischievous grin and I swear I feel my stomach squeeze. Or my liver. One of the two. Maybe both.
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“Do you know how cool this is? You’re…I don’t know, magic! And I’m your friend! That makes me magic by association!”
“It’s not that cool, Kas. What if the government tries to steal me away?” I scoff sarcastically. Oh, past me. How right you were.
The corners of his mouth quirked up. “Then I’d fight to get you back. Even if I had to sacrifice myself.” Oh, past Kason. Of course, you had to go and…
I look up and see a man staring at me. He’s frowning and his eyes watch my hands. My heart drops as I realize he had seen my weird fire powers. He stands up and walks off. Great. Awesome. Refreshing. Another problem to add to my fun little life. I feel Kason touch my hand and gasp. He stares at me in concern. “What’s wrong?” he asks.
“…Nothing.”
“If you say so, I guess.” He moves his hand away from mine, and I internally wish he hadn’t. Then again, I also wish he’d confess his undying love to me and run off into the sunset with our fingers intertwined, but that’s not happening either.
My daydreaming is cut short by the sound of a door slamming open. Light filters into the truck and…the smell of rain? Petrichor fills the air and I turn to look outside. A whole fucking jungle. The girl from earlier hisses out some curses I can only describe as Japanese. Thanks, Kas’ mom. Every time she screamed something into the phone would surely come in handy. The dark-skinned person stared at the nearest plant and sighed. And then the sound of whispering came from the last cage. The blonde boy was having what looked like a self-confidence session. Or he was praying. I dunno.
A gruff-looking man steps into view and jingles some keys. “Hiya, kiddies. Welcome to Ethoref. Or what you commonly know as Earth. Welcome.”
“Excuse me?” the girl hissed. She hisses a lot.
“You’ll walk into the jungle and find a village if you want to live. Have fun,” he continued, ignoring her. The cages suddenly float up and crash outside of the truck. I swear I see stars as my head bangs against the bars. Judging from the sound of groaning, I assume the others probably hit theirs as well. I hear locks opening but don’t move. Everything hurts too much. Soon enough, the truck drives away and we’re left here, all alone.
“Get up, pipsqueak,” a jarring voice huffs, and I woozily look up. The androgynous person stares at me expectantly. Woah, even their voice is a mystery.
“Huh…” I managed to reply.
“They said get up!” the Japanese girl shrieked, kicking at my cage. I get the message, so I step out. The enormous jungle looms behind me. Fun stuff.
“Who are you guys?” I ask, rubbing my head in the spot where it had met the metal bars.
“I’m Bandile, but you can call me Bandi,” pink hair mutters, crossing their arms. “And before you ask, it’s they/them, understand?”
I nod. Easy enough, I had already been using those. And then the girl speaks up. “Mine is Atsuko,” she said flatly.
“...Silverio.”
We all turned to the blonde boy, who was standing behind us. He’s frowning. Does this guy ever smile? “And you..?” he asks me.
I glance around at our surroundings and sigh. “My name is Dermot.” And I’m so screwed.