Hidden Paradise

THIS DID NOT AGE WELL

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY POSSIBLY GONE?" Amaris panics as soon as she realizes that her friends were probably not going to arrive soon.

"I think they meant that they probably arrived someplace else just not on Paraiso's main Island" Alex holds her shoulder and forces her to sit down. The two already arrived together 30 minutes ago and woke up in a room that seemed to form a classroom. The chairs were perfectly aligned with 4 huge glass windows on the side and with sky blue that painted the whole room. It was like something from a fairytale. The sign that read "PARAISO" was hung across the room.

"Look, maybe they're just lost okay?" Alex kept opening cabinets from all over the place "What are you even looking for? And shouldn't there be someone to like, guide us?" Alex still kept opening the cabinets, not knowing what else to do. A huge jar of choco balls caught his attention as he took it with him and finally sat next to Amaris.

Of course he was worried too but he wasn't the type to panic out loud. Instead, he keep trying to open the jar. "Are you serious right now? How would we even know if thats not expired or something?" Alex ignored her as he tried his best and strength to open it up.

"Just give it" Amaris took it from his hands easily and opened it without any struggle. "Your hands were wet" she hands it over. Alex didn't seem to pleased about what she did but took the jar anyways.

A knock on the door distracted the two as Amaris went over to open it. A fit lady in a red dress came in, her brown hair with blonde strikes were in a low bun as she entered the room. She looked so elegant and beautiful in their eyes.

"Uhm...who..are you?" Amaris asked while sitting next to Alex again. "Well dear, my name is Elena and you guys are assigned on my team for your first mission" she explains in a soft yet clear voice. "I'm Amaris and this is Alex" Alex shyly waves at her "But weren't we assigned to that uhm medieval soldier looking guy?" Amaris lets out a nervous laugh.

"I am that medieval soldier that picked you up from your Island earlier" Elena tried not to laugh at them. Both Amaris and Alex were to stunned to speak. "But, didn't you sound like a guy and like, what? How?" Alex became more curious as Elena gives them a smile.

"I came from a planet of time shifters. Which meant, I can become anyone or anything from any time. Even if those kind are already extinct"

"Like Dinosaurs?"

"Dinosaurs aren't extinct yet"

"Okay, sure. But what about our friends? I don't think they're here" Amaris' voice sounded worried as she looked at Elena. "Unfortunately, we have no news about them at this moment" Elena sighs as she looks at their discourage faces. "But don't worry, the Headquarters already got alerted by the situation a few minutes ago and they've already sent 3 rescue boats. Your friends should be okay" Elena gives them a smile as she tries to cheer them up.

Another knock from the door came. "Excuse me" three girls stood by the door. "Ah, yes. Come in" Elena motions for them as they stood next to her. "These are my team's most trusted people. And they, will be guiding you around the place since I'll be attending a meeting, alright?" They both simply nod as they watched Elena exit the room.

"Hi, I'm Marie" One of them approaches first and held out her hand. Marie had a dark colored hair with blue stripes in low buns in both sides. "I'm Amaris and-..."

"I'm Alex" he interrupts her as they took turns in shaking her hands. "These are my friends, Hope and Chelsea" the two girls behind wave at them. "This one is Hope, and this one is Chelsea" she directly points at them. Hope was slightly taller than the rest and her long hair looked soft. While Chelsea was slightly shorter than Marie and held a cold expression.

"Come on, the others are waiting for you outside" Marie skips ahead. Amaris and Alex looks at each other, unsure of what to do. "I mean, we don't have any choice" Alex says before closing the door.

Since the two woke up directly on the room, the walk on the hallway seemed to creep them out. Only a few candles were lit up with visible skulls of any kind being hanged up on the walls. The glass windows were huge that it was a few feet away from the ground and almost reached the ceiling, but it was tinted.

Alex slightly nudges Amaris which earned him a glare from her. He slightly moves his head as if to motion her to ask. She quickly shakes her head but he kept bothering her again. "Do it" his eyes speak before earning another glare from her.

"Uhm...where, are we going?" Amaris had the courage to ask

"I've mentioned earlier that we're going to meet the rest on the team. We'll be going outside" Marie's voice sounded dead as they continued to walk. Amaris glares at Alex one more time before keeping a bit distance away from him. No one dared to utter a word after that while the two curiously looked around

They continued to walk forward until a wooden gate stood before them. They all stopped walking which got the two confused again as Marie stepped forward and knocked three times on the door before pushing it open.

Amaris tugs a bit on Alex's shirt as he bends a bit. "It's probably like that ghost myth" she whispers "the one where you should knock before entering cause you might disturb some ghosts?" Amaris nods in confirmation. Marie glances at them and they immediately took it as a sign to stop talking.

"Now" Marie claps her hands as she turns around with a smile on her face "Shall we meet the others?" She asks delightfully. The way her voice switches along with her expression surprised the two once again. "Yeah...sure, let's go" Amaris lets out an awkward smile, trying to catch up with her vibe.

"Dinner's going to be ready in a few minutes" Hope's voice sounded small as she smiles at them after.

The place was filled with unique people. Markings were visible on some people's bodies; some glowed while some were very detailed. "The size of those marking determine how many light years you're far away from your sun" Amaris thought as she looked at them. "And it's always our sun that's the center, huh"

"Hey! You guys must be the new ones, right?" Another girl approaches them with a huge smile on her face. "What should I call you guys?"

"I'm Amaris King"

"Alex Cash" they both held their hands out as the girl stares at the with visible confusion on her face. "Uhm..Kira. Just Kira no fancy last names" she holds her hands out too as they took turns shaking it.

Kira looked at her hand with amusement after they shook it. "So" she looks at their body "I guess you guys are from the Milky way, huh? Judging from your body" Chelsea steps in front of Kira as she blocks them " I think you should learn how to respect their privacy, don't you think so?" her voice sounded threatening as Kira steps back a bit. "Sorry" she mumbles.

"Now, I think you guys should go ahead and get some light snacks from the table while waiting for tonight's dinner" Hope slightly pushes them over to the table and leaves them for themselves.

"I...have a lot of unanswered questions" Alex turns around but before he could walk away, Amaris held unto his shirt and pulls him back. "Leave them unanswered, we'll ask them later one when they don't seem much annoyed" She hands him a small plate and a cup of juice as they start on snacking.

An arrow flew straight across the grass field as fire started to spread around it. "A fire attack" Marie mumbles. "Everyone IT'S A FIRE ATTACK" she yells at them and started to gather everyone else who didn't have a weapon. Fire arrows kept coming faster one by one after she announced it.

"What's going on?" Marie pulls both Amaris and Alex behind a tower as she kept her guard high. "Obviously an attack" Alex answers it for her "I know. But how can we help?" Amaris looks at Marie as she gets a bunch of arrows and a bow from the side. "Well, start by stop arguing and can you guys aim?" she looks at them hopefully.

"I can try" They both said in unison "Well, go get a bow and an arrow and try not to get yourself killed too" she instructs them as she got closer and closer to the attackers to shoot.

"Should we?" Alex looks at Amaris but she already got a bow an enough arrows to start shooting. "Can you even shoot?" Alex sat behind her as he gets himself a pair too.

"No but we can just try and use math on this, right?" Amaris lets go of the string as it perfectly hits the neck of an attacker. "Well, I guess we can" Alex said before leaving her back and going beside Marie to get a closer shot.

Yet, no matter how many times they do a perfect shot and hit them, the fire arrows kept increasing and increasing. "The others are already safe. Go get Amaris and try to safety go back inside. I'll instruct the others to fall back afterwards" Marie instructs Alex.

"Come on" Alex taps on Amaris' shoulder as she fires another shot. "Marie told me that we should go back inside. The fire arrows aren't decreasing so come" he holds unto her arms and pulls her away as they both stood up. "Does this mean we have to protect ourselves while running?" Amaris grabs more arrows as they carefully try to plan things out.

"Go on! I'll cover", Marie yells at them and motions them to hurry up. "Well, if we die, then, we die, anyways" Alex whispers, before they start running. They kept running and running without minding the arrows that were shooting at their sides, knowing that Marie promised to cover for them. The gate started to slowly open wide as they approached it with Hope and a few more waiting for them too.

"Just run as fast as you can" Amaris thinks as she closes her eyes and begins running much faster. Alex's life flashed before his eyes, all he could see was a bright light ahead of him. He shut his eyes tighter and ran as fast as his body could. A hand grabs his as he stops. "You're here....it's alright" he nods his head and looks at the field. Amaris was running towards them, eyes shut tight.

"Hey" Alex grabs her arms as she opened her eyes. "We're here", he sounded breathy. As he pulls her into a hug "We're here. We're finally safe" he hugs her as if comforting himself. "We're safe" he says.

"We're safe" he repeats while caressing Amaris' hair for comfort. Both of their hearts were beating loudly both from fear and from the running. "We could have died..." Amaris mumbled under her breath.

"We could have died". She looks at Alex, her eyes filled with regret and horrified. Amaris felt awful crying back then, and now she regrets dragging her friends. "But we didn't...we didn't" Alex closes his eyes and continues to hold Amaris close to him as comfort.

"Listen, we have to be brave here, alright?" He holds both of her shoulders and looks into her eyes "We have to survive here." Amaris simply nods her head in silence while trying not to cry and shed tears.

"It's fine, we're going to be okay...it's fine..." Alex tells her what he wanted to hear.