Character Select: Katya

Katya opened her eyes to find an unfamiliar ceiling. She had no recollection of how she’d gotten here. The bed creaked as she raised herself up against the headboard. She looked around the room and still found nothing familiar. The room was fairly bare with just a dresser, a mirror, a desk, and a bed. There was a slight vibration radiating through the walls and floors, it made her think she was on a ship of some kind, and that thought in turn brought forth a bout of nausea. She’d taken a sailing coarse when she was little but got knocked overboard via the metal boom straight to the forehead, she’d gotten a severe concussion and a lifelong fear of sailing. Katya moved to get up when she heard a noise to her right. Someone had been peeping in and quickly closed the door as she turned to look.

There was the sound of someone falling and hitting a wall and then some banging, and then silence. Katya swung her legs to the floor, she was wearing the same clothes she’d had on…before… before what? There were large gaps in her memory. The doorhandle started to jiggle and a small hand attached to a small body, with a bright purple head of hair on top entered.

“You’re awake?”

“I think so.”

“You’re not going to fight us are you? I’m warning you, my sister is one of our strongest. You won’t step one foot out of here before she slices it off.”

“Why would I want to fight?”

“OPAL!” A voice yelled offscreen from down the hall. “Are you loitering outside the guest room again!”

“She’s awake!”

The purple hair girl called Opal was now fully in the room. The aforementioned sister with slightly less purple hair hurried into the room.

“You’re awake!”

“She’s awake.”

“I’m awake.”

They stewed in awkward silence, “So,” the sister moved closer determined to break the silence, “Are you okay? Do you know who you are?”

“Katya, and I feel mostly fine. How did I get here?”

A shade of trouble struck the non-purple one’s face, “That’s a bit of an issue. I’d hoped that you’d be able to answer that question to be honest.”

“I told you, she fell from the sky, like the artifacts.”

“People don’t fall from the sky, you know that.”

“It’s just what I saw, don’t shoot the messenger.”

The non-purple one turned her attention back to Katya, “I’m sorry about the ruckus, I’m Everest, and this is my precious little sister Opal.” She said the word precious with a slight edge of sarcasm, but clearly in jesting sort of way. They acted like proper siblings, and it made Katya grimace instinctively.

“Is something wrong?”

“No. I don’t know. Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine. You’re still a little out of it, I’ll bet. Why don’t you lay back down and rest some more. There will be time to talk a bit later.” She grabs Opal and begins to shuffle out the door before glancing at the side table next to the bed. “Oh! There was one more thing. There was a note tied to your wrist, I put it in the side table, it was in a foreign language so we couldn’t read it. I’ll leave you to it.”

Everest and Opal exit the room.

Katya slowly rose to her feet. They were heavier than she remembered and tingled like she’d fallen asleep on them. She slowly made her way to the mirror. She looked mostly as she remembered. Her face wasn’t foreign to her, though she felt like she might be a few inches taller and her arms were a bit more toned than she remembered. Katya took off her shirt and stood in shock. She had a six-pack, and it could have been her imagination, but her breasts looked very slightly larger. Aside from the muscle everything else looked familiar from her short blonde hair to her square jaw to her…red eyes. She definitely didn’t have red eyes before. She spent some time staring at herself in the mirror. The more she stared, the more differences she found. There were freckles in the wrong places, her nose was slightly smaller and pointier, her feet were flatter, her hair used to have a bit of gradient to it, the list goes on. After almost ten minutes she came to the conclusion that this was not her body. It’s like how some actors look like other actors but you know they could never pass for relatives despite their resemblance. This was a body that looked exactly like Katya’s but there were so many small differences that she knew this wasn’t hers both in how it looked and felt.

Katya’s memories were hazy but she knew that she wasn’t an outdoorsy person, quite the opposite. She stayed indoors most of the time and although she wasn’t even close to overweight, she wasn’t exactly a stick-thin model either. In addition, she had an accident when she was young which had left scarring on her left shoulder. It was now gone. All of this further supported her theory.

It’s was strange that she knew all of this about herself but most of the actual events that took place in her life were gone. She sighed and sat back on the bed. She closed her eyes and attempted to collect herself. The sheets were made from rough wool that tickled her skin, and wind whistled in from a hole in the wall somewhere. There were so many little details that told her this wasn’t a dream and yet calling it reality didn’t quite sit right with her. Opal and Everest seemed like nice girls, they also seemed alive, but were they? Could this be a dream? Every one of her senses was telling her this was not a dream. If it’s not a dream and it’s not reality then what is it?

The note. Her eyes blinked open as she remembered the note. She swung around to the other side of the bed and opened the drawer. Inside were a couple of sketches of the two girls, two men, and a woman. They seemed like a nice family, maybe she’d meet them later. Beside the sketches was a golden piece of paper that reminded her of Willy Wonka’s golden tickets. On it were the words, “Play to win. He’s waiting.”

The door suddenly squeaks open. Opal tiptoes into the room. She looks both ways and puts a finger to her lips. Katya crumples up the paper and turns toward the sudden onlooker. Opal’s eyes opened wide, “Wow!” Katya wasn’t sure what was causing this reaction. She didn’t think her body was that impressive, though perhaps it was improved in some ways compared to her previous…one…. she wasn’t wearing a shirt. Katya stood up and threw a shirt at Opal. “Sorry!” That was wrong, that was the opposite of what she meant to do, Katya was the one without a shirt, the shock must have temporarily short circuited her brain she was so flustered. Katya grabbed the shirt off Opal’s face and put it on. “That’s better right? Uh, hehem,” she cleared her throat, “So, what, uh – did you need something?”

Opal shook herself out of her trance, “Yes. I’m here in secret.” She hopped up on the bed.

“Oh?” she gave the impression of a kid playing a game of pretend, this time a spy on a mission delivering top secret information.

“Yes. I’m a see’r.” She crossed her arms, now playing the authoritarian adult.

“I see, can you read my future?” Katya was enjoying this game, it was sometimes fun to humor little kids; her aunt had a kid about Opal’s age and she’d sometimes have to watch her. Katya was always against it though the memory of why wasn’t clear to her.

Opal fell into confusion, “I’m a see’r.”

“I know. Seers can see into people futures, right? They’re closer to witches than prophets if I remember correctly.”

“Do sky people not know what see’rs are?”

“Apparently not.”

Opal was slack jawed, staring like Katya had just said 2+2=42. “hmm” she collected herself then went into deep thought. After a second of hemming and hawing she once again faced Katya. She let out a sigh, “Don’t tell anyone about your level. You won’t be allowed to stay here if anyone finds out.”

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about.” Another look from Opal.

“Have you been in a coma the last five years?”

“Possibly. There’s a lot I’m blanking on right now.”

“OPAL! Are you bothering that lady again?” Everest called from another room.

“No!” She turns back to Katya, “If anyone asks, you’re level 22 like me and my sister.”

“Why is there a need to lie?” two voices asked simultaneously. Opal froze. Everest was standing in the doorway. “Well, um, uh, she’s level 1.”

“Oh.”

“Hmm”

“Yeah.

“Huh.” Everest steps into the room and closes the door. She walks up to Katya wearing a stern expression, “How?”

“How, what?”

“Don’t play dumb.”

“There are a lot of blanks in my memory so I honestly don’t know what any of this stuff about levels is about.”

Everest stares straight into Katya’s eyes then lowers her head in defeat. “You don’t know about the catastrophe five years ago?”

“No.”

“And you’re level one.” This one wasn’t really a question, more a murmured confirmation. “We’ll have to go to Luna. She might know something, the implications of a level 1 here are staggering” she began talking faster, “it’s possible that there’s a way around the level barrier, we can cut our journey that much shorter, heck maybe there isn’t any need to fight anymore at all-”

Opal tugged on her sister’s shirt, “Ms. Luna is going to throw her off, right? We can’t let her do that yet.”

Everest turns to face Opal and drops to one knee, “No, no, no one is going to do anything like that, the opposite in fact. Think about it. She’s level 1, right? So, how did she get here?”

A smile lit up Opal’s face, “Katya can stay here a bit longer then?”

“Absolutely.”

“Yay.”

“I’m a little lost right now.”

Everest smiled at Katya, “Don’t worry about it right now. Just rest a bit longer and we’ll chat over dinner. Come along, Opal.”

“Okay.” And Katya was left alone in the room once again. She laid back against her pillow. This was going to be a long night.