THREE

CONSEQUENCES

Carla yawned and closed her eyes. Whatever else her powers had done, using them had drained her. She just wanted to sleep for a week. She hugged a big mug of hot chocolate in her hands and took a sip, fully aware it wasn’t a solution to her problems. Since she didn’t have a solution to her current problems, it was a comforting alternative.

The only thing she could think of doing now was calling Parklon. He might know of a job she could do. He might at least give her a reference that didn’t mention her blowing up windows and making her former boss pee his pants.

She put the mug down on the coffee table and picked up her cell phone, trying to convince herself to make the call. The problem was that he hadn’t called her for a long time, and she didn’t even know if he still considered her a friend.

Time and distance had made them strangers. What would he say to her if she called for help after all this time?

What if he thinks I’m a loser?

She shook her head and steeled herself for the worst as she dialed his number. After exhaling a deep breath, she pressed the call button.

She held the phone close to her ear and chewed her lip while the phone rang. After four rings, it clicked. “Hi, it’s Carla…” she nervously said.

She trailed off when an electronic voice interrupted. “Parklon is not available right now. Please leave a message after the tone—Bleep!”

“Er, uh… No. Crap!” She quickly yanked the phone away from her ear and hung up. She never knew what to say on those stupid answer machines.

It dawned on her that she’d just left Parklon a message that made no sense. She was pretty certain that ‘Er, uh…? No. Crap!’ wasn’t the most appealing message to inspire him to call her back. She sighed with defeat.

Okay, being a loser isn’t the worst thing that can happen. That message is!

She put the phone back in her bag and dropped the bag on the floor near her feet. It seemed she was totally on her own with this.

Bob was off travelling the world, Parklon was somewhere in Zoola working, and her brother, Joe, was on the Citna Islands starting his first year of university. There really wasn’t anyone else she could call.

She peered around her cluttered living room, feeling terribly lonely here in Derobmi on her own. Even her mom was away at the moment, at a Dumfollobian Rights conference.

They’re all off living their own adventures, without me.

She glanced down at the magazine on her lap. It was called ‘Jello’ and had scandalous stories emblazoned across the front page, including a big red star over a picture of Krellin Foamy. She glanced at the headline.

STAR OF SOCIETY IN SAUCY SEX SCANDAL!

She had read the story. Apparently, Krellin had been seeing a Zoolaf girl, and they’d had sex.

Zoolaf girls did have a reputation for being a bit loose with their morals. Mostly, the mention of Zoola just made Carla think about Parklon.

Parklon was originally from the colony of Zoola and had returned there after his new promotion. Zoola was a colony of blue-skinned people, which was situated in the colder northern regions of the planet of Dumfollab.

The citizens of Zoola worshipped drinking and partying. Their main deity was the Budda Wiser Frog, a rotund green god with a glowing red nose. Socially, they were a rowdy lot, but their economy was stable due to the success of their largest export—beer.

In comparison, Carla’s home colony of Derobmi was predominantly green-skinned. It was south-east of Zoola and benefited from high levels of precipitation providing it with lush green landscapes, but also many rainy days. Derobmi was home to one of the largest scientific institutions in the world, and its main export was cleaning products.

Derobmi society was very prim and proper. The colony worshipped cleanliness and hygiene above all else. Cleanliness was next to godliness. In fact, in Derobmi, cleanliness was godliness.

Derobmi had changed a lot over the last year, but it still wasn’t entirely up-to-date on what was scandalous and what wasn’t. It was still obsessed with cleanliness and everything green.

Carla was not green. She was purple, and she didn’t really understand the obsession with cleaning. She didn’t even know much about the purple colony that her father was from. She was a half-breed, who didn’t really belong anywhere.

Even after saving Derobmi from a devastating disease and a murderer last year, she still didn’t really belong here.

She flipped through the pages of the magazine without really reading any of it. She didn’t even know why she’d bought it in the first place. It was mostly fiction, but when she’d seen Krellin’s face looking at her from the front cover while passing the newsstand on the way home, something had compelled her to buy it.

Krellin was her ex-boyfriend, sort of. He was quite famous in Derobmi, and he had looked so happy in the pictures. Something had seemed terribly wrong with that.

He was the bad guy. How could he be so happy when she was not? She wasn’t fool enough to think she had ever really loved him, and a very small part of her was happy for him, but she was jealous and angry too.

He looked so content, so unbelievably at peace with everything he had done in the past while she was still chasing her happiness. Why couldn’t she be content too?

She sank back into her plump armchair and stared at the wall of her apartment. Her home was small, cozy, and most importantly hers—for now anyway, but she had no idea how she was going to pay her rent this month. She loved her little apartment, but with no job and no income coming in now, there was no way she was going to be able to keep on top of the high rents in this part of town.

But it was more than that. She was restless, bored and fed up. Life was supposed to be an adventure, not a chore!

She put her feet up on the old cherry-wood coffee table and sank back in her chair, deep in thought.

She’d been glowing with triumph when she’d quit her job, but by the time she got home she realized that she had no way of paying her rent anymore, and the moment of triumph had evaporated into a feeling of dread.

She stared into her hot chocolate, looking for the answers because there had to be some way to fix all of her problems. Alas, the hot chocolate didn’t seem to know anything either.

She nearly dropped the mug when her cell phone ringtone blared out of the bag at her feet.

“I’ll never get used to that bloody noise,” she mumbled to herself as she picked up her bag and began the endless search for the phone. The ringtone blared louder, and the bag shook with its vibrations. Panic bubbled up in her throat.

Why can’t I find the bloody thing?

She finally felt the smooth plastic shape of her phone and snatched it out of her bag, just as it stopped ringing and the words ‘Missed Call’ flashed on the small screen.

“Crap!” It happened every time she tried to answer her phone. Calls ended up going to the answering machine before she found the bloody thing. She glared at her phone when ‘New Message’ popped up on the screen. It was as if it did it on purpose.

She angrily hit the speed dial button for her answering service and listened to the call. There was a lot of a static and a woman shouting her name. Next, there was a loud smashing sound, making her pull the phone away from her ear. Then the call ended.

Carla frowned at the phone when it asked her if she wanted to replay or delete the message. She pressed two to replay it.

She knew that voice. It was hoarse-sounding, but…

“Holy crap, it’s Isabella!” Carla listened more intently. Isabella was crying and shouting her name. Then it sounded as if something big was coming towards her. Then there was a loud smacking noise.

Carla frowned and worriedly called back the number. The call went straight to the answering machine.

“Lady Foam—er, Isabella, if you get this, call me back, please. It’s Carla.”

Isabella Foamy lay on the cliff top staring down at the waters below. The waves thundered against the rocks, as if swallowing Bob had given them indigestion.

Her throat was raw from screaming his name. He’d just dropped into water and had disappeared forever. She kept hoping he’d appear in the sea below gasping for air, but he never did.

She rolled over onto her back and stared up at the sky. The sun was bright and hurt her eyes. Her mind refused to function. She didn’t know what to do, and she was lost and alone out here.

He can’t be gone!

She stood up and searched the top of the cliff. There had to be a way to get down there and look for him. But it was a wild and untouched area of the jungle, and the cliff dropped straight into the waters below.

Desperate and scared, she grabbed her dusty rucksack and looked in the front pocket for her phone. When she couldn’t find it, she knelt on the ground beside the bag and began to search frantically for it.

Where is it?

The earth beneath her trembled under the impact of heavy hooves, and she could hear the thunder as they drew closer.

No!

Her fingers curled around the hard phone. She snatched it out of the rucksack and speed dialed the first number on it, Carla’s number.

Come on, come on. Pick up!

A band of bounty hunters on horseback broke through the trees. One of the hunters dismounted and made his way over to her. Isabella heard the phone click as her call was accepted.

“Carla…” She broke off when a bounty hunter grabbed her around the waist and tried to drag her back to his horse. She dropped the phone and struggled against him.

He pushed her onto the ground, and she landed on her back. He bent over her, grinning. His skin was dark orange and weathered. One of his teeth was broken at the front, and his eyes were fiery amber.

She kicked out with her foot as hard as she could and connected with his chest, sending him falling backwards. She scrambled back to her feet as two more hunters got off their horses and walked towards her. There was nowhere to run. She was already on the edge of the cliff.

She screamed when one of the hunters grabbed her by the hair and dragged her over to his horse. She wildly kicked out, trying to escape his grip. The hard, dusty ground scraped against her back, and her scalp burned in pain.

The hunter dragged her across the ground to his horse and then roughly grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her to kneel.

She faced the man she’d kicked over earlier as he got up off the ground. He came towards her and held her wrists together while he tied a rope around them, binding them tightly in front of her.

The man behind her held her shoulders down so she couldn’t move her legs or arms. She couldn’t stand or do anything. Panic bubbled in her throat as she realized she was totally defenseless. All she could do was kneel on the ground.

The hunter with broken teeth rubbed his chest and looked angry. He slapped her hard across the face and lifted his hand to do it again.

“Carla!” Isabella screamed in the direction of her fallen phone. “Help m—”

A large gloved hand covered her mouth and pulled her head back, so that she was looking up at the hunter who was standing behind her.

“Shut up. You’re pissing me off. Stop screaming or I’ll let my friend do what he wants with you,” the hunter said, nodding at the second man with the broken teeth. Then he lowered his face so it was close to hers, and she was caught in the icy stare of a pair of emotionless golden eyes.

“You’re my captive until we reach Kaens, and I’m claiming the bounty. If you do as I say, nothing will happen to you between here and there.”

He must be the leader, she realized, hearing the command in his voice.

“If you disobey me, I will collect the bounty on your corpse instead. Do you understand?”

She nodded her head. Tears streaked down her face, sinking into the gloved hand that was covering her mouth.

“You will not make a noise, and you will not try to escape. If you hurt my men, they will hurt you back ten times worse.” He intently stared at her. “Do you agree?”

She nodded again, shaking with fear.

“Good.” He took his hand away from her mouth and nodded at the hunter with a broken tooth.

She peered up at the second hunter with a frown. He punched her in the stomach, and the force of the punch knocked her onto her back, making her gasp for air. Still dazed from the blow, she felt the leader pull on the long end of the rope that was tied around her wrists. She glanced up to see him tether it to his horse’s saddle.

“Stand up. You will walk from here.” He tugged the rope, and she struggled to her feet.

She stood beside the horse, her legs shaking.

He mounted his horse, and it began a slow trot back into the jungle with her tied to the side of its saddle.

She helplessly stumbled after it.

I’m going to die here.

The sun burned down onto her shoulders through the trees. Her skin was on fire with scratches and sunburn. Her throat was dry, and her stomach grumbled with hunger. She hadn’t eaten anything for days.

The ground was uneven, causing her to trip and stumble as the jungle around her spun and blurred. Her body finally gave in. She stumbled over a rock and fell to her knees.

The horse dragged her forward, pulling her face-first into the dirt. It dragged her along the trail for a short distance before it finally stopped.

Rough hands grabbed her, and she was lifted off the trail. She fought to focus as the world blurred around her.

Her breath whooshed out as she was thrown over the leader’s horse like a sack of potatoes, and he mounted the horse, sitting behind her.

He held her down with one hand while holding the reins with the other, and they began moving down the trail again.

She felt the horse’s muscles moving under her belly, hearing its hooves pounding the earth. It was the last thing she was aware of before the darkness took her, and she passed out.

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