Countdowns...

     There are few things in this world that I enjoy more than a countdown.  Fifteen minutes till the end of work, ten minutes till the end of the game, four more days until that book or movie you want to see comes out.  You get my drift.  Countdowns can be marvelous, wonderful, stupendous...or they can be positively frightening!  Skyla and Jey have a countdown of their own in Metamorphosis.  I can't say that it's exciting, but it will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat.  Let's take a peek!


                                        Skyla

He gently takes my arm and examines the small screen on the back of my cuff.  “Seventy two,” Jey mumbles under his breath.  Whipping me around, he locks eyes with me.  “Skyla, now you check mine,” he pleads urgently.  “Tell me what it says.”

“Seventy two,” I answer after examining his cuff.  “It says seventy two.  What does that mean?”

Another loud beep sounds through the air and I search frantically for the noise.  Slowly, realization dawns on me.  The beeping is coming from our tracker cuffs.  Grabbing Jey’s arm roughly, I glance at the tracker again.  The numbers are moving now.  Seventy-one fifty-nine and forty…thirty-nine…thirty-eight.  Green digits flash by at a staggering pace. 

“The numbers are moving now.”

Jey rubs his hands over his face.  “They’re counting," he states, his voice strangely void of emotion. 

A nervous ache spreads across my chest.  “What are they counting?  Who are they, Jey?”

Jey scrunches his face together and punches the air angrily.  “The stupid System!  Who else?”

My stomach drops.  “But we’re gone from there.  We’re not in the System anymore,” I reason.

“I tried to tell you,” Jey says, turning to face me.  He smiles sadly, his eyes lacking their usual luster.  “We’re not in the Nothing.  Not yet.  We’re in a Sip training facility and apparently, we’ve only got seventy-two hours till…”

“Till what, Jey?” I whisper, afraid of what his answer will be.

Jey doesn’t speak.  He just pops his hands open and makes a booming noise.  My stomach lurches at the display. 

“No,” I gasp.  “You can’t be serious.”  I suck in air, shallow and fast.  “Why didn’t they just kill us before then?”

Jey shakes his head.  “You don’t get it yet?  That would be too easy.  Don’t you know how the System works by now?  They thought they couldn’t use us in the Guild, so now, we are target practice.”

“I don’t understand.”

“This whole island is one big hunting ground for the Sips,” Jey pauses, “and we just became the prey.”

     Wow!  That's a scary conclusion to come to but, did we really expect less from the System?  I sure hope Skyla and Jey can figure a way out of this particular countdown.  See you guys next week.  Happy Reading!!


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