Is this Heaven?
No, there's no way.
In no story Tempest ever heard was Heaven described as cold and metallic.
Tempest's head throbbed, and her limbs vibrated like she was sitting in one of those pay-to-use massage chairs she'd always bypassed when she was in the mall.
She struggled to open her eyes. She quickly squeezed her eyes shut just as fast. The light was so bright it was as if the rays would burn right through her retinas.
It took Tempest a few seconds, her breath coming in rapid pants. She squinted her eyes and tried to open them a little at a time.
The room she was in looked exactly how it felt. Metallic. Hard. But still somehow extraordinarily advanced.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" The words grated against Tempest's raw vocal cords.
A trilling sound, something Tempest was sure she must have heard on the Discovery Channel at some point, filtered in from somewhere in the distance.
Tempest tried to turn her head in the direction of the sound, but her neck was stiff. In fact, her entire body was stiff. She couldn't move.
"Oh no. Please…someone help!" Tempest put more oomph in her voice.
The trilling sound in the background got closer, and then…then panic ensued.
Tempest screamed as loud as she could. The force of the sound rattled her bones. Her eyes opened so wide, it felt like the canthus ripped apart.
The screaming lasted a long while as several people… no, she couldn't call them people; beings, stood over her and looked down on her like she was an interesting art exhibit.
Tempest didn't stop screaming even when her throat stopped emitting any sounds. The beings around her didn't seem to be fazed. They all stood there and stared at her with unblinking eyes. They stared so long that it made Tempest feel a little foolish for screaming.
But what else would she be expected to do? After all, it's not every day she was face-to-face with a group of aliens.
"Please, let me up. I can't move. Please." She begged.
The beings around her finally blinked and looked from her to share a confused look between themselves before looking back down on her.
Tempest whimpered when a being with a tri-fingered hand reached toward her and swiped a space just below her elbow. It didn't touch her, but Tempest gagged just from the proximity.
A dull ping sounded, and all at once a pressure Tempest didn't realize was imprisoning her released, and she was able to move her body. She took a deep breath before she rushed to jump off the hard table she'd been lying on.
Her knees buckled, and she fell to the ground before she ever had a chance to get her footing. There was a dull ache in her muscles as if she'd just come from a long workout.
Tempest wasn't focused on the ache, though; instead, she was focused on the ground. She pressed her hand against the floor and applied a little more pressure.
It felt like it was steel, but it moved under her touch. Not much, just enough. It cradled her hand, the material slightly pushed between her fingers.
Around her fingers, an illuminated translucent color bloomed outward. Tempest couldn't figure out how it was possible.
A foot clothed in a strange light blue fabric slid into Tempest's view. She sucked in a trembling breath as her eyes slowly trailed up. The leg attached to the foot seemed to go on and on. The person standing close to her was too tall. Much too tall to be considered a human.
The synapses in her brain fired, but she couldn't rationalize what she was seeing. Especially when her gaze found its way to the being's pelvic area.
She couldn't be certain, but from what she could see, there were two bulges where there should be one.
Tempest blinked a few times before she forced her gaze to continue upward. His torso was covered in a darker blue material. It wrapped around his abdomen and was open at the chest. Right in the middle where the breastbone should have been were several black spikes.
Finally Tempest looked up into the face of the man, if she could call this being that at all. His eyes were frontways. But they were a little too far apart. Scales lined the side of his face and his chin where there should be a beard. His nose looked humanoid, but almost immediately Tempest realized that there was a flap of skin in each of his nostrils that snapped shut after every breath he took.
His mouth was pressed together, lips plump and tinged red as if he had on a cherry-colored lipstick.
Everything about the person in front of her was wrong, and when she turned her head to view the other people surrounding them, Tempest realized they were just as peculiar. There were seven beings in the room with her; none of them looked the same, though they did have a few similarities.
"Stay away from me." Tempest whined as she fell on her butt and tried to scoot back.
She moved away, but the table she'd jumped from was directly behind her. There wasn't anywhere for her to go.
It took all of Tempest's will to keep as calm as she was. Her hands trembled, and sweat dripped down her back as she looked between the group of people standing around her. Alien eyes observed her while she fought to keep breathing.
Seconds later, an alien with two small horns tilted his head, and Tempest watched as he pursed his lips; the same trilling sound she'd heard earlier vibrated from his lips.
It was the straw that broke the camel's back. Like the snap of a whip, the last of Tempest's self-control shattered.
"No! Get away from me!" She screamed and pushed herself to her feet before she used the last of her strength to barrel through the group of them. As she raced out of the large holding area. It briefly registered in Tempest that none of them tried to stop her. There was simply a round of soft grunts that puffed out of their mouths as she pushed through them.
Tempest had no idea where she was going. Still she forced her legs to continue pumping, propelling her forward. The translucent rainbow glow that she noticed earlier pulsed from the ground with each step.
If she wasn't so petrified, she'd have realized just how beautiful her surroundings were.
Tempest followed the only route she could. The walls weren't straight up and down like she was used to. Instead they were curved like the whole structure was one big oval. Light illuminated nearly every surface, and Tempest worried that maybe she was just running in circles.
She looked behind herself and realized that she wasn't even being chased. Tempest didn't know whether that was a good or a bad thing. Why did they bring her here if they didn't care to keep her?
Her lungs screamed in her chest, and her legs threatened to give out once again as she continued running for her life.
Slowly, Tempest realized that she was starting to get warmer. Not because of her exertion but because of something external. It was almost as if she were getting closer to a heater.
Maybe it was the surface?
She could be in an underground bunker somewhere.
"I just need to get out of here. Once I get out of here, I'll forget all about this." Tempest rationalized with herself. She was sure that she wouldn't be telling this story to anyone if she were lucky enough to get out of here. Honestly, who would believe her if she did.
The heat started to get oppressive, but Tempest refused to give up. She rounded a deep curve and nearly cried in relief when she saw a large window. Outside was dark, but she could see some streetlights.
Tempest pushed herself to go faster. She wanted out of here as soon as possible.
Her heart dropped to her feet as she got closer. There was no way that she could be seeing what it seemed like she was seeing. The nearer she got to the window and the larger the objects outside of it got, the more Tempest realized that she wasn't looking at anything she should be seeing in real life.
"No, no, no. What is this? It's impossible." Tempest skidded to a stop in front of the window. She pinched herself over and over. "Wake up. Wake up, Tempest!" She urged herself.
When the pinching did nothing to wake her from what she was sure was a nightmare. She sucked in a deep breath, her mouth gaping open as she examined what was outside the window.
She wasn't on earth. Hell, she didn't even think that she was in the right galaxy.
Outside the window was a sea of stars, vibrant and twinkling, so large it seemed as if Tempest would be able to touch them if she reached out. A blue and purple planet that had collided with a smaller gray planet at some point in the past. Scattered pieces of the large rock hovered close to the two collided planets.
There was what she thought was a moon off to her right and another off to her left. If that wasn't shocking enough, the two large burning suns in the distance were enough to solidify the fact that Tempest truly wasn't on Earth.
Tempest's eyes blurred, and she felt the intense pressure in her chest thanks to the breath she had been holding.
She blinked again, but this time instead of her focusing on the foreign galaxy in the window, she focused on the reflection in the window. She recognized herself, and right next to her was the alien she'd seen earlier with the horns protruding out of his head.
They had chased her. Tempest didn't even realize that he was so close. The shock of everything finally pushed her over the tipping point.
Her voice erupted out of her mouth in a glass-breaking screech.
The alien beside her sighed as if he were truly unimpressed by her antics.
Tempest didn't even attempt to move when she watched through the reflection as the alien lifted something silver and metallic and pressed it to her neck.
A sharp pinch silenced her before darkness quickly stole her sight.
Tempest felt her body falling backward; maybe this time when she woke, she would be rid of this nightmare.
Relief flooded her body as hope blossomed in her spirit.
She'd wake, and everything would be back to normal.
It had to be.