Blooms of the Empyreal

Chapter 9: The Shadow

After several long moments of tears and energetic hugs, Mariana was able to separate herself from Philis.

“I can’t even begin to imagine what the odds of us meetin’ like this might be,” Philis said, her dark eyes sparkling. She pressed a hand to her heart, looking like she might start to cry and any moment.

Mariana knew how she felt.

“And who do we have here?” another woman asked from behind Philis.

“This is Doctor Mariana; she worked at the hospital back where I was a nurse, on Earth,” she said to the new women who had been cautiously edging closer to their teary reunion.

“Not quite Doctor yet. I guess I won’t ever be now.” A sudden rush of pain swelled inside of her as she realized the truth of her words; after all that work, she would never been Doctor anything.

The women all settled down at her table, Philis close to her swollen ankle to fuss over it. The other introduced themselves while Mariana put up with Philis’ worrying like a mother hen over her. Every single one of the ten women here were from Earth, though most were not from the US like her and Philis.

“I’m Violet,” a chipper young woman with brilliant blond hair and deep, beachy waves said, her hazel-brown eyes smiling at the table. “This is Glory, Yvettena, Minako, and Jean.” The women all nodded as they were introduced.

“It’s a pleasure. I’m Mariana. It’s nice to see some female faces; it’s a little unnerving being surrounded by guys all the time.”

Violet raised ay eyebrow. “I kind of like it. Especially the attractive guys.”

All the women twittered at that, their eyes lighting up.

Mariana chatted away with the group, but she didn’t feel the lightness that the others seemed to at meeting others from her own planet. How had she managed to forget that she’d given up her whole life without any say in it for herself? She’d thrown away her career, her home with both hands, like it didn’t matter to her.

Did it matter?

She wasn’t sure anymore.

But when she really looked around, she saw smiles on every face in the room. All of these women had been kidn*pped, and not a single one seemed to mind at all. What had the men on this planet done to them? Did no one miss their old lives, their homes, their families?

“-better than living a tiny apartment all alone though.” Philis was saying. “It’s not like there was anyone on Earth to miss me. I didn’t even have a pet.”

Violet blinked at her. “Neither did I.”

Minako nodded. “I am an orphan with no one who would miss me.”

Some of the smiles on the faces of the other Earth women started to waver as they all realized what they had in common.

“So the god that brought us here carefully picked people that no one would notice were missing.” Mariana looked down at her hands. She’d been clutching them together, and the ends had gone white from the pressure. She slowly forced her hands to relax. “I guess that’s true of everyone here. They certainly thought of everything, didn’t they.”

The shadow that passed over the table at those thoughts quickly dissipated as one of the women started a discussion about some meme they remembered from the internet. Everyone was suddenly smiling again, the memory of the very temporary change in mood disappearing.

But Mariana couldn’t shake this strange feeling that they were all somehow being manipulated.