Snippet #1470857

The world seemed to slow down for Kayla. She could still hear the bustle of the street to her right, was still aware of the smells that seemed to suffocate her, but it was all distant. She had found the quite place inside herself where she was safe, and if she waited here long enough, Alexander would find her and take her home. Or a policeman, or really just anyone who was normal. By the time she was aware that someone was crouching before her, the tears on her face and dried and her stomach was making in known that it was empty. The crescent shaped cuts on her arms and dried and were starting the scabbing process.

The model ignored whoever it was – she didn’t want to deal with the reality of where she was or the population that inhabited it. But the person didn’t go away – she seemed insistent on bothering Kayla. When she spoke though – calling her princess, it wasn’t the first time anyone had called her that – Kayla finally lifted her head from her arms to look. That accent was decidedly a familiar one. At the sight of the torn jeans, t-shirt, and leather jacket, Kayla flung herself forward to envelope the woman in her arms, not caring if she startled her or not. Tears brimmed in her eyes again and her bottom lip trembled, but she held them back. These were tears of relief, but she had cried enough for one day. She had found someone – okay, they had found her – who obviously didn’t belong here anymore than she did. Maybe she knew what had happened, or how to get back.

Kayla sniffed and held the other woman at arm’s length, looking her over up and down. The silver bell sat in her lap, completely forgotten. The woman was pretty, but would probably look better in a summer dress or swimsuit than the grunge look she was wearing. But, oh how happy Kayla was to see those clothes. As unfashionable as they were, she would wear them herself at the moment.

“I-I’m so glad you’re here. I thought I was alone.” She took a deep breath to steady herself, “Do you know where we are or how we got here?” It had never occurred to her that the woman might not be from Earth, or might be out to harm her in some way. This was the first familiar sign she had seen and it didn’t cross her mind to disbelieve it. In fact, she was going to follow the woman until she got home or the woman forcefully stopped her.

With a smile, she wrapped both her slender hands around the woman’s offered one, pulling herself up. She leaned against the wall, gathering strength that had fled along with her nerves, before she stood up tall and squared her shoulders. She had never been one to cry in a corner and say the world was too hard; though she had never exactly been in this situation before either. Her stomach rumbled, but at the saw time a cow from the street gave a low. In fact, there seemed to be a lot more noise coming from the road, more than there had been less than twenty minutes ago.