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Geri
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A red sky full of stars fills my vision, and it takes me a moment to figure out it’s because I have my eyes closed. A bright light is shining through the thin skin of my lids, and shooting stars pierce through my irises and into my skull.
Nausea wells up, and I try to turn, get up on my elbows so I don’t choke, but pain explodes across my chest.
Geri, you have a tube in your throat.
My eyes fly open. I’m in some kind of open-top glass container, immersed in some kind of red gel.
Please try not to move.
Yes, there is a tube down my throat, and it’s filling my entire airway. I can’t breathe. I writhe and struggle in the thick liquid, vainly trying to lift my hands to pull the tube out.
Above me, bent over me, is a... a... being of some kind, female judging by the bosom. The tall willowy feminine figure has blond silvery hair pulled back away from her face, a radiant complexion, large crystal-blue irises framed by lids with an elegant Asian sweep to their shape.
My eyes are the only body part I can move, and I use them to convey my desperation and horror, begging her to help me with a single expression.
She extends her long, slender arm toward me, and I arch my chin upward, out of the goo I’m marinating in, giving her clear access to the tube.
But her fingers only stroke my forehead. Please try to relax.
Relax? my mind screams at her. Are you fucking serious?
I need Sean. Where the hell is Sean? I’m running out of breath. Doesn’t she know I’m going to suffocate in here?
You can breathe, Geri.
She knows my name. How does she know my name? How is she talking without moving her lips?
I renew my struggle, my limbs completely immobile in the thick stuff, and even though I know I’m not in a position to win this battle, I don’t stop.
Sedate her.
The muscles in my throat contract around the tube as I try to scream, Noooo! I don’t want to be drugged, not in this place, trapped in goo with an alien hovering over me.
Then something hits my bloodstream like a shot of electricity. My head jerks backward into the red gelatinous sea, and I’m completely immersed in the stuff. The view above me turns a blurry red before everything fades once again to black.