Dead girls don't date Princes

POV: Georgia

So, I died.

I was expecting a light of some sort.

Granted, I wasn’t religious, but you kinda believe something is out there. I mean, how can you not? And seeing as I was still aware of everything and my memory was intact, the worms couldn’t be eating me.

Unless I’d pulled the wrong string. Bought the wrong ticket.

The blackness was absolute.

I didn’t feel weightless either.

Should I shout for help?

Maybe not.

Couldn’t stay in the dark forever, though.

Ok-ay.

Maybe my death was unexpected, and they weren’t ready for me. I had died rather suddenly—a single shot to the head and, poof.

Cautiously, I probed the side of my head where the bullet had gone in, but there was no hole or depression, nothing sticky running down my face.

I took a step forward, and the heels of my boots clicked on the floor, which meant it was solid.

What to do, what to do…

Bending down, I touched the floor. It felt like marble.

Every direction I turned offered the same void.

I listened, but there was no sound.

It couldn’t be, could it? Hell?

A shiver ran through me.

Maybe demons were waiting to feast on my entrails?

I rolled my eyes. Those were ‘seen too many horror movies’ thoughts.

Unzipping my boots, I pulled them off and left them on the floor. Picking a direction, I slid noiselessly along the marble.

If I can’t see them, they can’t see me.

I almost giggled at my ostrich mentality.

Indistinct voices echoed and I dropped flat, thankful for my penchant for black clothing. I even dyed my hair black and became an undercover blonde.

A door opened, light spilling into the room. A small booth lit up against the wall, not too far away. It was painted black, with glass panels running from halfway up the walls to the ceiling.

They looked like ordinary humans, one male and one female.

“Twenty-six alarms!” the woman exclaimed. “This console is a piece of shit. Correction, the whole floor is. What do we do now?”

“Just void them. I’m not checking each one,” the man advised.

“Are we expecting anyone?”

“Nah, only tomorrow. A car thief. Gunshot to the head.”

“Those are the worst. Stop that…” the woman giggled, and I cautiously raised my head.

I couldn’t really see much, but he was kissing her neck, his arms wrapped around her. I glanced at the door they had come through. It hadn’t shut automatically, not completely ajar but not fully closed.

That was my escape.

They were only expecting me tomorrow.

Slowly leopard-crawling, and staying out of the circle of light, I made my way towards the door. Sounds of sex rang though the space, and while they were in the throes of ecstasy, I slipped unnoticed into a wide, tunnel-like corridor, its walls gleaming white.

The black clothing did nothing for me here and I felt horribly conspicuous. If anyone came along, I’d stand out like a beacon.

The tunnel appeared completely empty.

I debated which way to go.

Left or right?

As a left-hander, I typically chose left.

I walked, then skipped, then ran, but there seemed to be no end to the tunnel.

The lights dimmed and slowly turned off. I slowed.

I’d been wrong.

The tunnel wasn’t empty at all. The doors were so well concealed I’d barely noticed their outlines until thin strips of light seeped around their edges, revealing one doorway after another.

How did the doors open, and what lay beyond them? Should I wait for someone to come out?

I slid to the ground between two doors and idly wondered whether I still needed sustenance.

So far, I didn’t feel hungry or thirsty. Neither hot nor cold. I pinched my cheek. It felt normal and it hurt. No idea how this was possible, and whether I was dead or alive remained to be seen.

I looked at the door opposite me. How did you open a door without a handle?

Patting the side pocket of my anorak, I hauled out my phone to see if it still worked here. To my disappointment, it hadn’t survived my death—or whatever this was.

I checked my other pockets and found my Leatherman Skeletool. Never leave home without it.

That might work.

I unfolded the blade and crouched in front of the nearest door. Bracing one hand against it, I worked the tip into the narrow gap between the frame and the door.

I leaned harder, trying to force the blade deeper.

Beneath my palm, something started glowing.

I glanced down. A pale handprint had appeared beneath my fingers, but my hand wasn’t quite aligned with it. I shifted it slightly until it covered the glowing outline.

Click.

The door slid silently sideways.

Heat washed over me.

Not the pleasant summer kind. This felt like opening an oven. Dense ferns stretched into the sky, and somewhere, something roared. Lava spouted from a volcano in the distance.

The ground trembled.

A long neck rose above the treetops, followed by a creature so enormous my brain refused to process it.

Well... dinosaurs hadn’t gone extinct after all.

“Nope.”

I shoved my hand over the glowing print, but the door remained open. The dinosaur swung its head in my direction.

“Shit. Close, dammit.”

The head came even closer and I stepped back until I hit the opposite wall, hoping its head wouldn’t fit through the door.

The door slid closed and I heaved a sigh of relief. Close call. If every door led somewhere different, I’d need some way of telling them apart.

I scratched a small X into the frame.

Choosing a door at random, I placed my palm against it and waited for it to click open.

An icy wind punched me in the face.

Snow swirled over a landscape of jagged peaks. A white beast with six legs bounded across the frozen plain, its howl echoing through the mountains.

“Eh, nope.”

I hurried backwards, not waiting to see whether it had spotted me. The door slid closed with a click.

“Phew. Now I get it.”

The door only closed when you moved away from it. I scratched another X into the frame.

The third handprint glowed beneath my palm.

Click.

The door opened onto a forest—but not one from our world. No. This forest was alive with lights and drifting sparks.

The leaves themselves seemed edged in silver.

The place gave me Avatar vibes.

Was this paradise?

Had I beaten the system?

Moving farther in, the door slid shut behind me. For a moment, I felt a pang. From this side, there wasn’t even an outline to hint a door had ever existed.

But I wasn’t born yesterday.

I unfolded the blade and scratched my name into the grass-green surface.

Georgia was here.

The letters glowed bright white against the green.

Perfect.

If I ever needed to get out, this was my marker.

Taking a deep breath, I walked into the forest. Just those few steps, and all of a sudden I could smell the earth and the trees. Scents unlike anything I’d ever smelled back home.

I could taste freedom on my tongue. This was a real adventure, and I couldn’t stop smiling at my good fortune.

A large tree caught my attention. The trunk split in two, forming a hollow bole between them. Each half spiralled towards the sky, twisting with beautiful symmetry and providing a canopy to shelter underneath.

I wandered over, intending to sit for a while and simply commune with nature.

Something moved. A head popped up from behind the bole.

Head wasn’t the right word.

The creature looked as though the tree had grown a face. Bark formed its skin, moss sprouted from its head like unruly hair, and twig-like horns jutted from either side. Two luminous brown eyes regarded me with open curiosity.

“Well,” it muttered. “You’re an ugly little thing.”

Before I could answer, it let out a sharp whistle.

Three more appeared from the undergrowth.

“Careful,” the first one barked. “Don’t damage it. Never seen one like this before.”

A coarse sack dropped over my head.

“Oi!”

“We’ll get a fortune for this one.”

The sack was lifted and I screamed in outrage.

“Don’t know about that. It’s a bit light. Not much meat.”

“Put me down! I’m not food.”

The sack was dropped, and I suppressed a yelp at the hard landing.

“It speaks.”

“Then we’ll sell it at the market. It might make a good pet.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. And here I thought this was paradise.

“I am not a pet,” I said, but the sack left the ground and we started moving.

I banged against its legs with every step. At least, I assumed they were legs.

The sack was stifling, and it was a tight squeeze. It took me ages to fish my Leatherman out of my pocket, but once I had it, I started cutting through the sack between my legs.

Light streamed through the slit, and I caught sight of the ground. A moment later, I dropped unceremoniously onto the forest floor.

“Haja!” the creature shouted, turning around.

Hefting the knife, I warned, “Come near me and you will breathe your last.”

A tense silence followed, but then they burst out laughing, the sound rough and grating.

I widened my stance. My kickboxing lessons were about to pay off. It wasn’t the first time I’d fought off someone who’d tried to grab me.

But they jumped me from behind. There were more of them now—a whole damn herd. A minute later I was back in a sack, though I still had my knife. Strange they hadn’t taken that.