The shrill call of my alarm woke me from a nightmare and I gasped for air as I lurched to my phone on the bedside table before it could wake my little sister. I fumbled the pickup and stared down in horror at my truncated left hand. Pinky, ring finger, and the last joint of my middle were missing. There was no pain, just a thin line of smooth scar tissue and a little less dexterity as if I hadn't gone to bed last night with all ten digits intact. It was all real then, and I started to hyperventilate as my brain caught up to my senses.
The fourth trial, I'd thought I had things figured out until the hyena type thing had come with the goblin. I'd basically fed it my hand to keep it off my throat and I shuddered at the visceral memory of the way my right thumb had popped its eyeball out of the way as I'd gouged my way to its brain pan.
Soon enough my breathing slowed down as my body dropped back out of fight or flight. Sure, I probably had some kind of PTSD and math class was going to be harder what with only counting to 7 now, but I was out of the trials. I focused on the pile of dirty laundry on the floor of my room. I was back in the real world now. Things had to get easier, right?
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The irritating buzz of a text message rattled my phone on the floor, breaking me out of a daze. Who sends texts at 600 in the morning? I was pretty sure I knew who it was before I ever swiped to unlock it.
C:
C:
Maybe I was paranoid, but for some reason talking about the trials over the phone felt dangerous. I bit the bullet and called him a I shoved my school stuff into my gym bag.
"What's up, Chris? Did you make it through the trials,? How far did you get? Imma at least..."
"Shut up, fucker. Not on the phone, come get me. "
"Cause big brother is listening? You're such a fucking tool, Chris. You jogging down to 5th or you want me to get you at your house?"
"Lock your doors and come to the ghetto. We got shit to do this morning."
I hung up before he could respond and slipped out of my room. I ghosted down the hall and stole one of my mom's power bars for breakfast, cereal was for chumps. The elevator was out again so I headed down the stairs and made it out to the curb with only about 10 minutes to spare until Trevor got there.
I spent the time on my phone scouring the internet for news of last night. For what was supposed to be a global phenomenon there wasn't a hell of a lot of information out yet.