The Dormant: The 5 Goddesses

Episode 8: The Human Ping Pong

~Poppy~

My brain was destroyed, and every second I lay in bed I felt a neuron dying. That was the intensity of the headache I had. That was the only thing I could feel when I woke up. My hand immediately grabbed the side of my head, trying to ease some of the pressure inside my smashed head. I felt a sort of dizziness made worse by a loud pounding noise at my side. I tried remembering what and where I was but could only recall running through the woods with my two friends. I was never going to drink again!

I slowly looked to the left toward the source of the loud pounding. Danielle was hammering and screaming at the door. Her face was red, and she looked so worried as she brought her fists down on it over and over while screaming at nothing. "Open this door!¨ Bang... bang... bang... ¨Open it now, let us out!" I slowly rose on my elbows. My eyes scanned the room around me. It was a nice space, painted light blue with two beds and a small table to the side. This was none of our rooms. I fell unconscious in a strange place. We didn't make it out last night.

"Let me out, fuckers!" I heard Danielle screaming and trying to open the doorknob, pulling to let herself out. Her actions snapped me back to reality. "Where are we?" I asked in a hoarse whisper, my tongue felt heavy, and my throat felt like it had been sandpapered. "Why does my head hurt? Why are you pounding that door like a crack addict and your only baggie is on the other side?" I glanced around, my eyes thoroughly scanning my surroundings. Something important was missing. No, not something, someone. Oh, f**k! "Where is Charly?" I gasped, putting a hand over my mouth, nausea traveling through my stomach. I was going to be sick.

Danielle finally heard me. Her head snapped toward me with a big smile, and she ran to my bed, plopping down beside me, her finger tracing the bump on my head. It made the bed sway and the nausea became intense. "Poppy, are you okay? How do you feel?¨ She started to scan my arms, looking for any signs of bruising. ¨You've got a nasty bump on your head." Her face had a concerned grimace as she looked back into my eyes. She was seriously worried, so I must have looked worse than I felt. "Remember when we drank that margarita pitcher at your house? Well, times two," I said, trying to explain my throbbing headache and my rolling stomach.

"Where are we?" I repeated my question, looking around. Danielle shrugged and touched her neck, flinching at the contact.

"I was running and lost you guys. When I realized it, I went back to get your asses back from them, but the cult took me." She bit her lip, looking up as she remembered what happened. "They took me to a room and started asking weird f*****g questions. Telling me a smell. Then I was knocked out. I woke up an hour ago, and you were on the other bed." The black circles under Danielle's eyes showed she hadn't had a good night either. She didn't seem as uppy as she normally was.

"Are you okay? Did they harm you?" I asked, worried about her, giving her the same treatment she gave me and scanning her for bruises with my hands.

"No, everything is where it's supposed to be, I think...¨ She checked her body for injuries. ¨What about you?"

"I think they killed some neurons," I answered, touching the cut on the side of my forehead.

She scowled when she tried to touch the angry cut on the side of my scalp, and I yelped. "Those bitches," she murmured, putting her hand down, shaking her head in utter disgust.

"And Charly?" I asked, looking around.

"Well, it was just you in here. I don't know if the cult has her or if she made it out." Another flash of concern passed through her eyes.

"What time is it?" I asked, looking for my watch, then putting my hand back down when I realized it wasn’t there.

Danielle shrugged again. "I don't know. Morning, Saturday, I guess maybe more."

I shook my head. If Charly made it out, this place would be crawling with police looking for us. "She must be here," I said, trying to convince myself she was okay.

Danielle gave me another worried look, which quickly turned into one of determination. "Come on, you're the smart one. If anyone can figure a way out, it's you. What do you need? Operation Let's Get Charly and Get Out of the Cult is starting now." I grinned and placed my feet on the floor, still worried, but at least I had one of my friends with me.

I studied the room, shuffling around while trying to find anything to pry the door open. I couldn't find a damn single thing. For a while, I sat and thought, tapping my chin. An idea soon popped into my head. I ran to the bathroom, exiting with the porcelain toilet cover in hand. " Make noise, make it sound like we need help. The moment someone comes, I'll start running to the other side of the room, I'll distract whoever comes for us.¨ Thinking, I grimaced. I hoped only one person would show up. If not, we will be in trouble. ¨Take the toilet cover and smash it on their heads, then run and get help. Don't look back until you get help. Danny. Now be as annoying as I know you can and take that door down."

Danielle squared her shoulders, grabbing the heavy object from my hand and stashing it behind the door. Then she began pounding and screaming louder than before. The door rocked against her fists. "People, we are hungry, we are scared, and we have parents. You don't want two teenagers dying from starvation on your watch. If we end up on milk cartons, it's going to be your fault. People are hungry and scared here. What's the matter with you? Hey, hey, hey, hey, open up, open up!" I covered my ears with my hands. She was as annoying as a human could be in the morning, and I was sure it could be heard all over the house.

About half an hour later, the door started to move. Danielle stood behind it, and I stood in front, waiting for the person on the other side. It opened, and a huge man entered. "By the sound in this room, I guess you girls are ready to talk."

Before I knew it, my legs darted toward him. Being small, I was successful at dodging him, racing between his legs and darting out. He turned to look at me. Danielle tiptoed behind him, the toilet cover in her hands, bringing it down on his head, dazing him. I took advantage of the moment, kicking him on the balls, making him fall on his knees with a loud curse.

We stood there for a second, watching the man grab his head and his junk, grunting, then I screamed, "Ruuuunnn!" Danielle started running, leaping over him and out of the room. I took off behind her.

We exited into a hallway, our faces looking left and right. "Left!" she screamed. We ran in that direction until we ended up at a staircase landing.

We made our way down, only to find another man running toward us. Danielle and he both stopped in their tracks, staring at each other, and then she yelled at me, turning on her heels, "Up!" He began to chase us up the stairs.

So, we went up. Trying each doorknob we encountered on our way, but they were all locked. Suddenly, a door burst open, and out came a dazed Charly. Her face turned toward us; eyes wide with shock. "Charly!" Both Danielle and I screamed at her. "What the hell?" she mumbled, looking behind Danielle.

"No time," Danielle said, grabbing her hand and tugging her along. We stopped in one last room at the end of the corridor.

Suddenly, the cult leader from yesterday came sprinting out of the room Charly had exited, his gaze falling on us.

We both stared at Charly with "Oh you lucky slut" expressions. Her face turned red. Danny decided to turn the doorknob of the room behind us. The door creaked, and we entered, slamming it shut and quickly locking it.

"Girls, open this door now!" a man said. I looked around, and Charly was beside a bookcase, Danielle had her hands on a desk.

"No!" I said, shaking my head. We were in so much deep s**t, how did an outing turn into this? I expected a rap sheet not getting kidnapped by a cult.

"I'm asking nicely. If you don't open it, I will take this door down," the voice stated calmly.

"Take it down!" Danielle answered with so much bravado. I, on the other hand, was starting to shake in fear. If they got to us, what would they do?

"Maybe we should open it," Charly suggested, arms wrapped against her chest.

"Shh, you have no say in this. You have Stockholm syndrome. You came out of the room where he was," Danielle pointed at Charly, giving her a knowing look.

"I promise we won't hurt you. You were attacked by a wild animal last night. We just want to know your names and make sure you're well, then we'll take you home," the manly deep voice tried to coax us out. Tough chance I was going to be an ostrich and make this office my house now.

"We are stuck," Danielle said, then turned to me. Yeah, that was obvious. "I can't kung fu those men. Did you see those muscles?" she whispered.

I shook my head at her while she walked to my side. Breathing, I had to think on my feet, we wouldn't be able to stay inside the room for much longer, we needed to get out, perhaps we could talk our way out of this. "Okay, we want to parlay, but if you ask us to join your cult, we must sadly decline," I shouted through the door and heard muffled laughter outside.

"Who says 'parlay'? What are you, a pirate?" Danielle raised an eyebrow at my choice of words.

"Poppy, open the door," Danielle said, shoving my arm.

"Why me?" I asked, not wanting to be the first thing they could grab. I stood my ground, massaging the spot she shoved.

"You're the smallest and the cutest. If they hurt you, it's like beating up a chihuahua." I gave her a killer look, shaking my head, and started to make my way to the door.

Before I could put my hand on the doorknob, Charly was already there, trembling and hesitant.

"Well, we won't join..." Danielle motioned to herself, then to me, "...but her..." She pointed at Charly and smirked. "She's already signing up for the cult," she finished, raising her hands and rolling her eyes.

Charly turned the doorknob, and the door swung open, revealing three men at the entrance. The cult leader stood in the middle, taking a step forward, and introduced himself and the men beside him. "I am Noah Solvermond. These are Benjamin and Liam. You may know them as the men who were chasing you around the house." Liam was holding his head and shaking his head with a smile, he was the Asian man I saw last night at the bonfire. Benjamin looked stoic, his chiseled jaw clenching in annoyance.

"So, what are your names? We don't want to refer to you as teenager one..." He glanced at Charly. "Teen two and Little Teen three." He quickly glanced at me, c*****g his head. "You with the little jokes. I may be petite, but I can still kick ass. That's Charly, Danielle, and Poppy," I answered, tapping my foot and placing my hands on my waist, annoyed.

"Can we go to the kitchen to talk? Girls first," he asked, clearing the path and motioning for us to exit into the corridor.

~Charly~

.

A man's face, a colorful snake, a baby crying, blood, a couple on a pond, Sean grinning while on top of me, more blood.

"Catalina, wake up!" I opened my eyes. It was daytime, but the room was dimmed by heavy curtains. My head was a mess from that dream—snapshots of different things. I propped myself up on the bed, looking around for the source of the voice, and saw a figure on a couch.

What happened yesterday? I tried to sort out the memories. I was with Poppy and Danielle. We were investigating the cult, the handsome cult leader talking. They saw us, so we started to run. That's all I could remember. I started counting the night's events on my fingers.

I stood up gently, tiptoeing to the figure on the couch. It was a handsome man. He was wearing a black Henley, and you could easily see the well-defined muscles of his brawny arms as his hands rested on the back of his neck.

His lips were full, and his jawline was strong. He clenched and unclenched it while he slept. I angled my head slightly, watching as a small snore escaped his lips, making me jump back, thinking he had woken up.

I continued looking at his handsome face, his perfectly straight nose, and his eyelids. They were fluttering. His right arm was tattooed to his elbow. I bit my lower lip while gazing at him.

He was mesmerizing, but even more hypnotizing was his smell. I didn't know how I could smell somebody from as far as I stood, but I could definitely smell this man. For extra measure, I bent my legs to get a little bit closer to him.

It was a mixture of rosewood and a campfire. It made me feel warm, and the only thing I wanted was to jump into his arms and bury my nose in his chest.

As I continued to wonder about him, my head slightly up, his smell invading me, the memory suddenly appeared in my brain. I gasped. "The cult leader." I took a step back.

"Pack." A female voice answered, making my head scan the room, looking for the owner. "He is a pack leader." I again started to look for the source of the sultry voice. Then I remembered where I had heard it. It was the same voice that had always been with me, but now it sounded so real, like she was talking directly into my ear.

"I am going nuts," I thought while shaking my head.

"No, you are not, Catalina." The voice shot back, which made me shift back a little further. This was scary. My condition had never been this bad.

Okay, you must stop it now. It's not real, I reminded myself, moving slowly back towards the door. As I fumbled for the doorknob, gently trying not to wake the cult leader up.

I realized I wasn't wearing my glasses. The weird thing was that I could see just fine. In fact, in such a dim room, I saw better than fine. "You didn't have anything wrong with your eyes, Catalina." The voice again resonated in my mind.

This time I knew better, so I answered in my brain. "Disembodied voice. First, it's Charly, not Catalina, and two, I've lived with my eyesight for over a decade now, so I guess I know what I am talking about."

Not expecting the voice to respond, I was shocked when it responded back, making me shake my head. "Catalina, Charly… tomato. To-ma-to, it's all the same. Your spirit is the same." The voice said sensually.

I just giggled at myself and tried to answer my thoughts. "I am going crazy, and I am arguing with a nympho-brain voice." Still laughing, I opened the door while glancing back at the sleeping figure on the couch, then turned around to the exit.

As soon as I stepped outside, just from around the corner, Danny and Poppy appeared, almost crashing into me. "Charly!" they both screamed.

"No time!" Danielle shouted, grabbing my hand and running toward the corridor's last room, heavy footsteps following us.

We turned around and started to run the other way, but the cult leader came out of the room with a look of worry. That look made my heart ache. I felt a need to walk over there and hug him. Before I could, the girls opened the door behind us, shoved me inside, and slammed it shut.

The man knocked softly on the door. "Girls, open this door now."

His voice sounded so peaceful and inviting. Physically, I had to hold myself together, my arms wrapped tightly around my chest, trying not to open the door.

"Catalina, that man will rock your world." Again, the disembodied voice started to talk. I just replied to both the voice in my head and the man. "No." While still looking around.

I heard his deep voice again. "I am asking nicely. If you don't open it, I am going to take the door down."

The voice in my head replied. "Take it down and come to us."

It resonated so high, and I couldn't make it stop, so I argued with it, tapping my foot against the floor. "Crazy voice, I am not arguing with you. Just shush it."

"Take it down," Danielle answered, standing beside Poppy.

"Maybe we should open it?" I blurted out loud. I couldn't believe I agreed with a crazy voice in my head.

"Shh, you have Stockholm syndrome; you came out of his room," Danielle said while raising an eyebrow at me. I shifted in my spot and replied.

"I don't know why I was there. I can't remember one single thing about last night; my mind just went woosh." I made a mind-exploding motion with my hands against my head.

"I promise we won't hurt you. You were attacked by an animal last night. We just want to know your names and that you are not hurt, and we will take you back home." The man said.

"We were attacked? Why don't I remember that? Do you remember, crazy voice?" I thought before shaking my head, dismissing that idea. "Now I am asking for my memories from crazy me."

"We are stuck," Danielle said, turning to Poppy, and bringing me back to reality. "I can't kung fu those guys."

The voice shot back, answering her in my head. "Catalina, you can, I don't know if it's kung fu, but you can kick their asses."

I opened my eyes, thinking back. "You've seen them. How am I supposed to do that?" Realizing I had just asked for advice once again from a disembodied voice in my head, I quickly shot back another thought. "Of course, you have seen them. You are me, so, for now, shut up voice!"

"Okay, we want to parlay, but if you ask us to join your cult, we must sadly decline," Poppy said. Danielle rolled her eyes at her. Then she asked her to open the door as the voice continued to speak to me. "Oh Catalina, you are already part of the cult, and with that man, you are going to like it." Now I was getting scared and at the same time mad at the voice. "Voice really! Okay, I am counting to three, and you are out. One, two, three."

As I was stuck in a struggle with my mind, Danny and Poppy were in a fight to see who opened the door. The voice again shouted out. "If you open the door, it's a step toward your destiny, Catalina. Open it, trust me." I relented, closing my eyes and slowly walking towards the door.

"I can't believe I am listening to a head voice." My hand slowly turned the doorknob. Behind me, Danny said. "She has already joined the cult." And for a second, I thought yes, yes, I have.

I opened the door. Someone pushed it slowly from the other side, revealing three men in front of me. The man in the middle, the one we fondly call the cult leader, was carving a hole in me with his stare, so I glanced up, meeting his eyes.

When our eyes met, I gasped at the way those gray eyes looked right into my soul. He shot a handsome smile at me and started talking. "I am Noah, this is Benjamin and Liam." He said this while motioning to his side. "You may know them as the men who were chasing you all around the house."

The voice resounded again in my head. "That man can chase you wherever he wants." If I could have rolled my eyes at it, I would have. "Voice!" I screamed inside my head while mentally tapping my foot.

He kept talking, and I was lost for words, lost inside his eyes and lips as they moved. I caught his voice again when he said, "Teenager one." He looked at me with such intensity, I almost thought I would pass out. Poppy came to the rescue. "That's Charly. This is Danielle. I am Poppy," she said. I started to feel self-conscious. I hadn't even talked once. "Can we go to the kitchen, so we can speak, girls?" I nodded and followed him. My feet went where he directed almost on their own. I would follow him wherever he is. The girls were right. I was caught, hook, line, and sinker.

We followed Noah, the most handsome man I have ever seen, to what was supposed to be the kitchen. As we reached different corridors, various women were smiling and blushing the moment he passed through. The voice started again. "He is a player, see, are you really letting those females so shamelessly flirt with your mate?"

Blushing a little, I took a deep breath and replied in my head. "Again, keep quiet, Goddammit, and mate. What do you think I am, livestock?" "No, not cattle. You are a beautiful predator. Never forget that, Catalina. Now why don't you start flirting? See if he takes your Kool-Aid." Another round of blushing started creeping through my cheeks.

"You've been listening too much to Danny…" I thought a bit about how I answered the voice, my eyes looking slightly up, and corrected my thinking. "... I've been listening too much to Danny."

The fight in my head was getting real. I wasn't paying attention; before I knew it, my feet had walked to the kitchen area. I entered fast, not really looking where I was walking, and stumbled against a chair, losing my balance.

I almost hit the floor. Noah saved me from embarrassing myself and grabbed me by the small of my back, and the heat emanating from his touch just made me shiver. For a moment, I looked into his eyes, trying to read into them. Was he feeling the same as me?

The butterflies in my stomach soon started fluttering but then died down as the voice cut my romantic moment while saying, "Probably he does. You should ask him."