I wake up, bound and gagged, a roaring sound in my ears. I blink to clear my vision. I’m bound so tightly I can’t move, so it takes me a second to realize I can’t see my legs.
No legs. No arms, either.
The revelation that I’m invisible hits me with full, horrifying force. I’m not doing this.
I didn’t bring myself here, bind and gag myself, and make myself invisible.
There’s only one other person who would.
I look around desperately, trying to gauge where I am and what my chances might be for escape, but when I finally manage to heave my body to one side—just long enough to crane my neck—I realize, with a terrifying jolt, that I’m on a plane.
And then—voices.
It’s Anderson and Nazeera.
I hear them discussing something about how we’ll be landing soon, and then, minutes later, I feel it when we touch ground.
The plane taxis for a while and it seems to take forever before the engines finally turn off.
I hear Anderson leave. Nazeera hangs back, saying something about needing to clean up. She shuts down the plane and its cameras, doesn’t acknowledge me.
Finally, I hear her footsteps getting closer to my head. She uses one foot to roll me onto my back, and then, just like that, my invisibility is gone. She stares at me for a little while longer, says nothing.
Finally, she smiles.
“Hi,” she says, removing the gag from my mouth. “How are you holding up?”
And I decide right then that I’m going to have to kill her. “Okay,” she says, “I know you’re probably upset—”
“UPSET? YOU THINK I’M UPSET?” I jerk violently against the ties. “Jesus Christ, woman, get me out of these goddamn restraints—”
“I’ll get you out of the restraints when you calm down—” “HOW CAN YOU EXPECT ME TO BE CALM?”
“I’m trying to save your life right now, so, actually, I expect a lot of things from you.”
I’m breathing hard. “Wait. What?”
She crosses her arms, stares down at me. “I’ve been trying to explain to you that there was really no other way to do this. And don’t worry,” she says. “Your friends are okay. We should be able to get them out of the asylum before any permanent damage is done.”
“What? What do you mean permanent damage?”
Nazeera sighs. “Anyway, this was the only way I could think of stealing a plane without attracting notice. I needed to track Anderson.”
“So you knew he was alive, that whole time, and you said nothing about
it.”
She raises her eyebrows. “Honestly, I thought you knew.”
“How the hell was I supposed to know?” I shout. “How was I supposed to
know anything?”
“Stop shouting,” she says. “I went to all this trouble to save your life but I swear to God I will kill you if you don’t stop shouting right now.”
“Where,” I say, “THE HELL,” I say, “ARE WE?”
And instead of killing me, she laughs. “Where do you think we are?” She shakes her head. “We’re in Oceania. We’re here to find Ella.”
