VICTORIA'S POV

"Victoria, wake up."

I just fell asleep.

"Five more minutes Nessa," I whined.

"Victoria!"

Wait, that isn't Nessa.

I opened my eyes and all I could see was black. I blinked and noticed that someone was standing in my line of view wearing black. This person was male.

Xeris!

I looked up and confirmed my suspicions. He stepped back and I sat up. I tried to rub the sleep out of my eyes with my palms before looking at him properly. He wore a black long-sleeved shirt and black pants with accompanying trainers. I must admit, this was a good sight to wake up to. This clothing fit him perfectly. It showed of his lean and toned upper body. I could tell that his legs were just as toned. He wasn't too bulky either, just right.

"What time is it? It feels like I just lay down."

I stretched a little and felt an ache on my entire left side.

"5 AM," he said.

"Isn't that a little too early to be awake? And I thought time worked differently in space." I have yawned a little, not making any move to get out of bed.

"You thought wrong. We follow Thanzorian time."

"That's what I meant. Don't you Thanzorians have like, more hours in the day or something?"

"We have the same number of hours in the day as Earth. I shall answer no more questions until it is time to. Now get up and go shower. Morning meal time begins in thirty minutes. You should be in the kitchen and in your training attire by then."

Why do I not like the sound of that? Oh, that's right, he said training, which requires more movement and sweating than necessary.

"Am I a part of your army now? Is that why you abducted so many girls? So we could fight off an enemy on your behalf because you're too scared?" I regretted saying those mocking words as soon as they left my mouth.

I could literally feel his anger. "You think we would stoop so low as to use helpless teenage girls to fight off a non-existent enemy on our behalf? We are not Earthians! We are Thanzorians! And Thanzorians do not use or cower behind others. Now get up and go shower! You can keep your nonsense to yourself." I recoiled from him.

He hadn't shouted, but his voice was raised and filled with rage. It was scary. Somehow, I knew that he would be getting angry with me a lot.

If I wasn't being trained to be part of an army, what the hell was I training for?

He stormed out of the apartment and left me sitting there. I knew I had to get moving if I didn't want to face his wrath again. I got up and got into the bathroom quicker than I thought I could. I went to my sink and took a vial of teeth cleaning fluid.

Seriously, they have all this amazing stuff and yet they can't come up with better names for them?

I gurgled it and swirled it around in my mouth. I thought it would feel and taste like mouthwash, but it just tasted and felt like bubbly, minty water. I took longer than I normally would with normal mouthwash because I wasn't sure if it was working. After having it in my mouth for as long as I could without wasting too much of the half hour I was given, I spat it out. It came out a different colour from when I put it into my mouth. It was slightly green before I put it in my mouth, but it came out brown.

I guess that means it worked...right?

I had no time to think about it. As I was about to undress, I remembered that there were no towels. I quickly rushed to the closet and went to the last drawer from the door and grabbed my training attire. They all looked the same so I just grabbed the first thing my hands came into contact with. I rushed back to the bathroom and was in and out of the shower in record time.

You've got to love driers.

I picked up the training attire and saw it was similar to his. It had a black long-sleeved shirt that clung to my skin. It felt kind of rubbery, but soft like cotton. It was padded in the front where my breasts were and gave them support too.

At least my boobs won't be on full display in this.

I remembered the sleep attire had no such modesty. I slept on my side facing away from him the whole night because of that. My left side still ached.

I moved to put on the bottoms. I expected them to be loose fitting like his, but no, they just had to be tight, like the shirt.

Awesome, now he'll see how fat I really am.

At least the other clothes I had been given didn't show every contour of my body. This attire put everything on display. I inhaled deeply and thought, it doesn't matter what he thinks.

I undid one braid, brushed my hair and redid it. I did the same for the other side. When I was satisfied with my work, I picked up my sleep attire off the floor and walked to the closet. I folded them up and put them on the cushion in the middle of the room.

Where did my dress from yesterday go?

I brushed it from my mind and walked to where the shoes were. I pulled out a pair of trainers and sat on the end of the cushion facing the mirror to put them on. They had no laces, but my foot slipped into them easily enough. It was strange, I felt them reduce in size until the fit my foot perfectly. I stood up and looked at my reflection.

I look like an elephant. If elephants were black that is.

I sighed. "No point in prolonging this," I said to myself. This was who I was, overweight. Well, it all depended on whether you considered two hundred and fifty pounds as overweight. But then again, the last time I dared step on a scale was over a year ago. And I'd done quite a lot of chewing and swallowing since then. To make matters worse, I was tall.

In short, I was huge.

I wonder how his back is still ok after lifting me off the floor and carrying me yesterday.

I walked out of the closet and into the kitchen. He hadn't returned yet. I wondered how much time had passed. There were no clocks or watches around. So I just sat on the stool and waited. As I waited, with nothing else to do, his outburst came to mind.

'We are not Earthians'.

Are we that bad? Why come to Earth at all then? Why go through the trouble of abducting us? And who says 'Earthians'?

Weirdo!

My internal clock told me I had been sitting for about three to five minutes (it was not a very accurate clock) before he walked back into the apartment. I didn't turn around and just faced forward. He was doing something behind me. Obviously ordering food. He sat down and set our trays in front of us. He didn't say anything so I decided not to talk either. I finished before him and waited. Once he was done, he placed the dishes in the disposal latch. He walked past me and just before he disappeared from sight, "Follow me."

I rolled my eyes but still stood up and followed him. We walked past the sitting area and I expected us to go through the medical room, but we used a different door. This door lead into a hallway. The left end looked like a dead end, but I was sure that was another door. The right continued around a turn. That is where we headed. He turned to the left and I was short of jogging trying to keep up with him. His legs were too long.

I turned around the corner and found that he was gone.

Where did he go?

I just stood there because I didn't know what else to do. I still wasn't able to tell where the doors were.

I'll just wait for him to come back.

I was starting to wonder whether he would come back or just leave me there, when a door opened on the right. He stepped out. "Are you going to keep admiring the walls or come in?" He didn't wait for my answer and headed back in.

Oh, I don't know; I think I'll admire the paint job a bit longer. This shade of grey is captivating!

I huffed and walked to the door. It opened and I stepped into the room. I was vaguely aware of my eyes widening.

This room was huge. Larger than any gym I'd ever seen.

Take note, all gyms I'd seen were behind a screen... my television screen, save for the school gym that is.

The room was split in half by glass doors. The half of the gym I was standing in was full of equipment. I didn't even know what any of the stuff here was meant for, let alone what they were called, but they looked painful. The other half of the gym was just an open space. But the floor looked different. My eyes swept over the equipment again.

This doesn't look good. I've never worked out a day in my life; and gym class didn't count.

I walked a little further into the room and spotted him on the left, where the larger equipment in the room was. He was adjusting something on some kind of monitor on the wall. I stayed well out of his way. There were two handrails protruding from the wall next to where he was standing. The wall between these rails is covered in glass. I notice the floor between the rails was also different. It was the same colour as the rest of the floor, but I could tell that it was made of a different material.

I already felt queasy.

He turned around and told me to stand between the handrails.

"Why?"

"Just get on."

"I thought you would answer all my questions." I crossed my arms.

"There is a time and place for everything. This is not it. In this room, your only duty is to do what I tell you to do, no questions asked. In this room, I am your master."

Master? I don't think so.

"And what happens if I don't?"

"If you do not follow my orders, you forfeit all privileges granted to you. No regular meals, no baths, no change of clothing, no comfort, nothing. Are you willing to give that all up? Are you willing to be locked up in a dark and cold dungeon for an indefinite period of time? Is that what you'd rather chose?"

He can't be serious.

But his face said otherwise.

No food?

I did as he asked and walked between the rails.

"What now?"

He gave me these weird glasses and I wore them. They wrapped tightly around my head and the glass in front of me changed and showed me a forest. I turned around and all I could see were trees. Suddenly the floor beneath me started moving. I had to start walking or else I would fall.

This must be some sort of treadmill.

"What you see are the forests of Thanzor. You have to keep moving if you want to avoid pain."

"What do you mean pain?" I turned my head in the direction his voice was coming from and stopped moving. Then it hit me.

I'd never been electrocuted before, but I was sure that this is what it must feel like. It started in my feet and travelled up my body. I couldn't move because the pain was unbearable. I grit my teeth as hard as I could, praying for it to end. I was consumed by pain. All I knew in this moment was pain. Then his voice got through to me, "Move!" he shouted.

How did he expect me to move with all this pain?

"You need to move if you want the pain to stop! That's the only way it will stop!"

As hard as it was, I lifted my foot, then the other and started walking again. As soon as I did, the pain subsided like it never existed. I was panting, with sweat dripping down my face and back. I moved to take the glasses off my face but he stopped me, "That too will trigger it."

"Why are you torturing me?" I almost wept, but I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing me fall apart. I would never give anyone that satisfaction. I would never let anyone think they had defeated me.

"This is not meant as a torture device."

"Really? Sure feels that way."

"This is all for your own good."

"And why do you care about that?"

He ignored my question and must have done something because I had to start jogging so as not to fall off. The trees I saw started moving faster past me. The path before me was winding its way through the trees. The trees looked just like those on Earth, but then again, I wasn't exactly a tree expert. What I thought was a regular treadmill turned out to be some advanced type of torture device. I not only had to concentrate on moving, but the treadmill changed just as the floor of the forest did. That meant there were lots of ups and downs in my jog.

I had to jog even faster.

Bastard!

"How long do I have to keep this up for?" I was panting.

Physical exercise was not for everyone.

"Are you going to ignore me? Are you even there?"

Great, he left me on this torture device with no way of getting off. I couldn't even enjoy the scenery. I steadied myself using the handrails to keep myself upright.

It's official, they are trying to kill me. I'm going to die. They're experimenting on me, trying to see how long I can last.

Well I'll show them, they're not going to get rid of me that easily. I am going to keep breathing. I will not go down so easily. I can't go down like this. My life can't just end like this. I haven't done anything for myself yet. No, I can't die. I won't die.

I managed to encourage myself to keep going. That, and the reminder of the pain I experienced.

I don't want to experience that again.

I don't know how long I had been running. It felt like I'd been running forever. My hands were shaking with the effort to keep me up. I had long since exceeded my limit. I didn't know how long I could keep this up. But I had to. I just had to.

I could feel the sweat oozing out of every pore of my body. I was sweating in places I didn't know I could. Strangely though, I didn't feel as hot as I knew I should. Only my hands and face did. It must be the training attire.

When will this end?

I didn't have enough energy to ask. I didn't have enough energy to speak. What if he wasn't there? It would have been wasted energy. I started getting light headed. I couldn't feel my legs hitting the floor anymore. Soon I became numb. The only thing I was aware of was my laboured breathing. It put me in some sort of trance.

In and out, in and out...