This room had been her world for so long, Ida almost didn't remember what it was like to be anywhere else. Just four crystal walls, glowing with an inner ambient light. A hard floor she had long ago stopped feeling uncomfortable on. It was solid. It was horizontal, and when she lay on the blanket, not even as cold any more. Warmth was a wish. Food was a dream. Her hands showed the bones and tendons prominently under her skin, stick thin from too little to eat, but she half fancied they'd always been that way... after all, anything that wasn't this room was a haziness in her mind. Nothing changed here... it was too easy to let herself believe there had never been anything else. All that existed was Alkaid and the room. Four walls, a floor and ceiling, and a woman who's flesh was webbed in cracks. Time was a cycle of sleep plagued with dreams of fire and tree, broken by periods of listless study of the Room, and interrupted by visits from the only other living thing in existence, to drain her of what life she had managed to dredge up since the last time.
The break in routine was unusual, but more welcome than the other times... the times when Alkaid had come to her with that fake smile to hurt her, because she could. Because she still stubbornly, after all this time, refused to give in to her. There was no pain this time, just absence... no explanation for why or what, just suddenly gone.
It was strange, to lay there and feel energy humming through her body to a greater degree than any time she could remember. It was not a lot... but it was more than usual. For a long moment, she lay there enjoying the easing of the exhausted ache, but the longer she lay there, the more she started to wonder.
Alkaid is gone... I have energy... and she never locks this room. Escape had been an abstract concept, never fully coming together into any sort of cohesive plan, but it had never been far from her mind. This... this was a chance, more than she had ever had. There was no telling how long Alkaid would be gone... if she was going to do something, it would have to be now. Just the thought, of removing herself from Alkaid's reach, was enough to make her tremble with want.
Slowly, carefully, Ida rolled to her stomach, and began to push herself upwards. Sitting was easy... she could usually accomplish that, most days. Usually towards the tail end of the cycles. She sat for a long moment, staring at the knobs of her knees. Finally, she reached out, surprised at her ability to hold her arm up, and pressed her palm to the wall. Slowly, haltingly, she gather her legs under her, leaned into the wall... pushed herself upwards.
For the first time in longer than she could judge, Ida found herself standing upright, supported by the wall that formed a fourth side of her prison. The view was so strange from there... the feeling of doing it without Alkaid's hand around her throat a giddy sort of thing. A foot slid forward and Ida shifted her weight... moved a step with a surge of triumph. Another, and the distance between her and the door closed, and her steps got more confident. Soon, she stepped forward and let her trailing fingers leave the way as she shuffled her way to the door that only Alkaid ever passed through.
The handle was thick... it jutted out from the rough crystal surface. Cold, when she wrapped both hands around it. Her heart leaped to beat double time in her chest and finally, Ida pulled...
And the door barely budged. Thick and made of crystal... it was incredibly heavy. Heavy perhaps, even for Alkaid... but it had to be open. Panic licked at her, sending a chill down her spine. She had to open it! Alkaid was gone... she had energy, this was her chance! There would not be another... she had to do this!
Ida let out a whimper as she set herself and pulled, struggling with her weakness to budge the heavy portal. She pulled and panted as it taxed the dregs of her reserves, leaning back to let her weight and gravity aid her. Slowly, almost more so than she could handle, the door began to move. The senshi strained and struggled, pulling and tugging, as the gap grew. She could do this... she had to do this!
Sweat beaded around her hair line and her limbs shook by the time she had it open far enough for her emaciated body to pass through. She felt... cold as she squirmed through the opening, and it was a warning that she had spent more on this one simple thing than she could afford...
---
Ida didn't know how long she walked, shuffling like an old woman down the endless, echoing halls of Alkaid's tower. She had forgotten there even were halls out here... but it was slowly coming back, outside of the Room. She remembered the main hall... remembered fighting Alkaid there. Remembered... an empty house she had been brought to, by a man she had trusted and thought a friend. She remembered... cold nights with star filled skies. Warm grass and the smell of flowers. She remembered faces she had loved and the touch of hands soothed, rather than hurt. It was waking up after an endless nightmare... and her determination grew.
She suspected this would be the only chance she would get. She had to make the most of it.
Down the hall was an open door, and after she made her slow way to it, she leaned around the door jab to peer inside at a simple room. It was as crystal as the rest of this forsaken place, with a table and a far more mundane clock in the center... and there, off to the side... Ida felt her heart pound in her chest, clogging her throat as she recognized her senshi phone, kept from her this whole time. Alkaid had not destroyed it, wonder of wonders. It was the key... she felt it in her bones.
Shoving away from the door to cross the empty space came with a crazy tilting of the room and Ida stumbled, struggling to keep her balance as vertigo and nausea threatened.
Not now... please not now... Just a little more. Keep it together just a little while longer. Her knees gave out as she reached the table and she hit the ground hard, her hands grasping the edge of it to keep from spilling herself across the floor of this... study, or whatever it was. Deep breaths helped to quell the surge of sickness, pushing it down deep. Ida reached with a shaking hand to slide across the cool surface and she bit her lip when her fingers finally bumped into warmer plastic.
So close now... so close!
Clutching it in her hand, Ida forced her mind towards the weak and tenuous bond inside of her... struggled to hold onto it as her head spun, hit the button and felt a tug... and when she opened her eyes... nothing. Still the crystal room all around her, Alkaid's miasma of chaos energy rubbing the surface of her senses raw. Ida sobbed softly, feeling tears leave hot trails down her face.
She couldn't reach her planet... she didn't have the strength. There was too much clogging chaos to reach it, maybe. She was stuck, her last hope dashed, and Ida cried as despair clogged her throat.
There had to be another way... she had suffered too much, fought to hard. There had to be a way!
The phone was still solid in her hand and staring at the screen revealed the apps that had come with it, including the distress signal she had downloaded. That would do nothing, here... there was no one to hear it, and it couldn't reach Earth.
But...
Maybe a simpler S.O.S. would work...
Her hear fluttered in her chest as she pressed the contact button and saw the list of names and faces appear on the screen.
Who? Who could help her? Who could find a way, if anyone could? Who knew people, on both sides, that could be rallied? Surely there was someone out there that could find her here...
A ghost of a memory, like the gentle brush of lips, teased across her mind as her thumb hovered over one name in particular, and Ida swallowed thickly as her vision swam. Want was so thick it was choking and she pressed the name eagerly, calling up a blank message.
Suddenly, a new wash of chaos assaulted her senses and Ida's eyes flew wide, rough and terrified. She had taken too long... there was no time left. It had to be now, and it had to be quick.
Ida clutched her phone in both hands as she typed out a short message, trying to still her shaking as she punched it in. The energy signature swelled as it grew closer, threatening and dark. Ida hit the send button with a desperate press of her thumb and then she clutched her phone to her chest as she heard it softly ping...
To Hvergelmir
Help me
Ask Gehenna about Alkaid
Ask Gehenna about Alkaid
Shazari
Ping ~ Sparkle Girlfriendo
Felyn