Chapter 30

On Thursday, one full week since I'd started school at The Dome, life was finally starting to feel like some version of normal.

There was no boy drama, as Tobias and Kendall were firmly in the friend zone, and enjoyed separately so they couldn't clash. Shea seemed to have recovered from the disappointment of the party and was texting me on the regular.

And I had made a sort of peace with the other mers ostracizing me. It helped that Adina was turning out to be not so horrible. In fact, she was actually kind of enjoyable to be around.

Like Tobias and Kendall, she also had to be enjoyed separately from my other friends, as there was no way I was going to try to lump her in with my phoenix and dragon friends. Not yet anyway. She may be dating a hound, but there was only so much lenience her prejudice could take. Baby steps.

Cora and Letti were presently staring daggers at both of us across the gym as I helped unwrap Adina's hands at the end of Defense. Ashlyn had used the last sparring round to attempt to flirt with Niko, so I took the opportunity to spread myself out to my only female mer friend. And honestly, it helped sparring with different people so I could learn new techniques.

"I wish they'd stop staring at me," Adina complained, turning away from the glaring guppies.

"How could they? You're friends with me now. That makes you a double traitor," I teased, but it was also probably very much the truth.

She just shook her head as she flexed her fully unwrapped hands. "Hey, I have to talk to Caesar, would you wait for me after class? I don't want to walk to the dorms alone."

My heart squeezed, but I tried not to let my pity show. I was quickly learning that mers hated to be on the receiving end of pity. Maybe that was why I wasn't the biggest fan of it, either.

"Of course. I'll just hit the showers for a quick rinse, then."

I headed into the girls' shower room, standing under the hot flowing water until everyone else left, figuring Adina might need the extra time with Caesar. When I figured it had been long enough, and I felt like I'd gotten every drop of sweat off my body, I toweled off and got dressed.

When I came back out into the gym, there was no one else in the large room. I looked all around, but I didn't see Adina or Caesar anywhere. I wondered if they could be talking in one of the smaller rooms in here, so I ventured across to those.

The door to the Simulation Room stood open. I walked past it to look inside. Surely they wouldn't be talking in there.

The room was empty, just like the rest of the gym.

I looked at the room for a moment. This was the room I'd heard mentioned with dread but knew so little about.

It didn't look all that intimidating. Nothing but a very large box with four white walls, a white ceiling, and a white floor. The white that shone on every naked surface was a stark contrast to the dark gray that covered everything else on this campus, making the room seem uncomfortably bright.

How could anyone train in this room? There was nothing here. I didn't know what I expected, but I definitely expected more than nothing. At least some wires and gear hanging from the ceiling. Otherwise, how could a simulation run?

"Doesn't look too scary, does it?" Adina asked suddenly from behind me.

I turned around to offer a witty retort, but my mouth sealed when I saw that she was flanked by Cora and Letti, and all three of them were smiling wickedly at me.

Before I could say or do anything, Letti shoved me backward into the room. I fell hard on my ass, the impact rocking me for a few seconds that I couldn't afford. When I was finally able to start scrambling to my feet, Letti slammed the door closed and it clicked with a finality that had my heart banging wildly against my chest.

"That you actually thought I would ever be friends with you is really insulting," Adina's muffled voice carried through the closed door when I reached it.

I hammered my fists against the door.

"Let me out. This isn't funny." I couldn't believe how strong and assertive my voice sounded because, on the inside, I was terrified. I wouldn't say I was claustrophobic, but I damn sure didn't want to be locked in a room.

They didn't seem to buy the authority of my tone either, snickering and completely ignoring my demands.

"What do you think, girls? I think she'll enjoy this level," Cora remarked, and I could see her moving toward the panel of buttons on the wall through the window in the door.

What level? And I wasn't hooked up to any goggles or equipment of any kind. How could a simulation possibly run?

Cora stepped back with a devilish grin on her face. "Have fun," she said with a wave, and then the three girls skipped away, laughing their heads off.

When I got out of here, I was going to actually rip their damn heads off!

"Get back here and open this fucking door!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, but they were totally out of sight now, and surely out of earshot.

They actually left! How long was I going to be stuck here? It could be a full day before anyone came back into the gym. And even then, I might have a hard time getting someone's attention.

Were they actually going to leave me in this empty room until then? I was hungry and thirsty, and just knowing the lengths of my captivity made my need to pee suddenly very urgent. No way was I going to pee in a corner.

The lights suddenly began to dim, and when I spun around to see what was happening, I might have leaked a little.

The white walls surrounding me pixelated until they were replaced by dark green shrubbery. Every inch of the room transformed like the wall was made up of millions of pixels. Tiny square by tiny square, the pixels flipped, the white floor becoming brush-covered earth beneath my feet, the ceiling turning into a star-spangled evening sky.

The boundaries of the boxy room in which I'd been standing only seconds ago were gone, and I was now stranded in the middle of a dark forest.

I panicked, my heart beating out of control and disorientation threatening my sanity. How could I really be seeing what I was seeing?

But then I remembered the purpose of this room. Simulation. Apparently, you didn't need goggles to be in a sim.

I told myself that none of this was real. It was nothing more than a projection. Albeit, an incredibly realistic projection.

The smell of pine was crisp and potent, so strong I could actually taste it in the back of my mouth. The chirping song of crickets came from all directions, which was impressive because I definitely hadn't seen any speakers before.

Despite how authentic the forest appeared, I had to still be in the room—which meant the walls and door were here somewhere. I just had to find them.

I was banging on the door just a second ago, so it had to be close by. I took a backward step behind me, in the direction I believed the door to be.

Dried leaves and pine thistles crunched under my shoes. Wow, this all seems so real. If I wasn't so shocked—and furious—I'd probably be really impressed.

I turned and reached forward, blindly feeling for the doorknob that I knew had to be in that general area, but my hands touched nothing but air.

I took another step forward. And another. And another still.

By all logic, I should have bumped into the door by now. The room was only maybe ten feet by ten feet. I put both hands in front of me and walked forward, and when my hands made no contact with the wall, I broke into a run, dodging through the trees.

How was this possible? How could I be running in the same room and not have smacked into the wall yet? It made no sense!

Could I have somehow gotten turned around and run in the wrong direction? Even if I had, I'd run at least double the distance of the width of the room. It wasn't possible that I hadn't found any of the room's boundaries. Was the floor some kind of conveyor belt?

If that was the case, then I really was stuck. I refused to give in to that possibility.

I turned around and lifted my foot to sprint in the opposite direction, hoping that I had somehow been confused and the door was the other way, that this had to be some trick of the mind, an optical illusion.

My foot caught the back of my other ankle and I tripped, flying forward to the ground. My hands rushed forward to catch myself and met the leaf-littered floor.

My heart thudded in my throat. I could feel the crumbly brush under my palms. I got to my knees and inspected my open hands. Leaf flakes and clumps of moist dirt clung to my skin. I could feel all of it. I reached for a leaf on the ground and picked it up, its stem solid between my index finger and thumb.

Anxiety building, I stumbled toward a nearby tree and slapped my hand on its trunk. Sure enough, the rough bark scraped at my sensitive skin. Is this real?

"Alright, Cora, you've had your fun," I called out, my voice echoing through the vast woods. "Let me out!"

Nothing changed. I might as well be talking to the trees.

Something whistled past the side of my head and lodged in the tree in front of me. An arrow.

"What the—?"

Then another one pierced the ground right next to my foot, narrowly missing my shoe.

"Oh, no!" I gasped. I jumped to my feet and darted deeper into the forest as a storm of arrows rained down behind me, chasing me.

The leaves, the ground, and the trees felt real. Did that mean if I got hit by one of these simulated arrows, I would feel real pain?

I didn't want to find out. My legs moved as swiftly as they could, leaping and bounding over unearthed roots and randomly placed boulders, absolutely terrified of getting struck.

"You can run, but you can't hide, little fish," a male voice called out from the darkness of the forest.

Shit!

It no longer mattered that this was all supposed to be an illusion. Those arrows seemed very real. That voice sounded very real. So that left me with only one option: Run.