Alex Eberhardt
Alex had never been kidnapped before. It wasn't nearly as exciting as the movies made it out to be.
He came home to the smell of leftovers wafting in the hall; which was pretty standard.
His front door had been blown to pieces. That wasn't.
911 was just a call away. But as he fumbled past the menagerie of junk in his pockets grasping for his phone, two men lumbered into the hall.
They were notable only in their lack of notability. He wouldn't even give them a second glance on the street. Each of them dressed like they were going to their step-son's little league game; they fixed him with a bored look.
"This must be some kind of mistake." Alex's nervous smile twitched as he dug through pocket debris for his phone.
During life's quiet moments Alex often imagined scenarios just like this; bank robberies, burning buildings and damsels in distress. In his mind, he never hesitated. But now, facing down two men who looked like they got tired waiting in line, he tried to de-escalate.
One man reached up and the lights flickered briefly. Space warped like hot air over pavement, and a blast of force rocked across the floor. Wood splintered and split like a massive invisible ax was dragged through the ground. It hit him in the chest and the breath was evicted from him. He sailed through the air, smashing into the back wall.
Through blurred eyes, he tried to pull himself to his feet, but his body just cashed in vacation time. He wasn't going anywhere. He looked up, and between the man's legs he saw into his apartment. Peeking over the edge of the counter, he saw hazel eyes staring at him wide-eyed.
Well at least mom's ok. Alex thought as the bag went over his head and everything went dark.
****
Alex awoke to cold stone caressing his face. A puddle of drool served as his pillow. Time had snuck by, minutes turning to hours.
He lifted his head, peeling open his fatigue sealed eyes and took in the room. Hovering impossibly in front of him was a mountain-sized crystal suspended in the air by nothing but its own will. Azure light flooded from it, painting the room with an otherworldly glow.
Energy radiated off of it. It wasn't heat or vibrations. Alex wasn't sure how to describe it. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before. It was as though it released its own gravity, except instead of pulling in, it pushed out. Even as Alex tried to reach for whatever this pressure was, it began to dissipate. Like the fuzzies in the corner of your vision, as soon as you focused on them, they fled.
Alex clambered to his feet and saw that sadly, the glowing blue rock was hardly the strangest thing in the room.
Glass shaped like caskets hovered in the air; their surfaces polished and carved to uniform perfection. Within each of them was a person, hovering in its center. Whether they were dead or asleep was hard to tell.
Amidst the hundreds of ornamental prisoners, nine figures hovered in the air. Their faces were obscured, and each of them was draped in eccentricities. Some in strings of jewels, another with golden gauntlets, a third surrounded by a shimmering sphere that made it look like he was tucked behind a waterfall.
They looked bored.
Two of them were stretching, letting out small groans, a third rubbed fingers along his flank, scratching at a stubborn itch.
Alex readied himself to speak, but was silenced by one, his attention like an ocean bearing down on him. Its intent was clear.
Shut your mouth.
His teeth clacked shut before he was startled once more. A girl, a few years his junior, in her early 20's was staring at him from within her crystal. Fear swam in her eyes, but she was motionless otherwise. She hovered maybe 30 feet above him, in a collection of other young men and women. A knot in his gut tightened. She… she looked just like her. He took a step towards her, hand reaching out as though he could pull her to him.
A voice like snake-skin cut through the silence, freezing Alex.
"Is that all of them Gregorian?"
The weight of the man's gaze left him and swept over the room. Beyond his black hood, there was nothing but darkness. Nonsensical given the massive blue light shining mere feet below him. But sense or not, a wall of darkness blocked Alex's view of the man.
"Yes. Let's….let's begin." The man hedged.
There was a sound like a gong. Gravity warped. The air hummed. A shock of power blasted from the nine.
It seized Alex like the fury of a storm. His breath froze, sweat whisked off of him like the final stage of a car wash and his hair billowed.
The room held its breath.
The silence was punctured with a crash.
Crystals shattered and chaos rained down.