# Chapter One: Displacement
"Oh my god! Is that the new Madame Tussauds bag?"
"You bet it is! I got it for my birthday!"
"So lucky... I wanted one too, but my mother is still angry with me. I mean, what was I supposed to do..."
The chatter washed over Larissa like background noise. Around her, students in pristine white uniforms embellished with golden flowers gossiped about purchases and parties, their voices bright with the carelessness of wealth. She kept her eyes on her book, one hand absently turning pages while the other rested on her stomach.
The hunger gnawed at her again. She'd skipped breakfast.
With a quiet sigh, she closed the book and reached for her bag, fishing out her wallet. The chair scraped against the floor as she stood.
"Hey Larissa, where are you going?"
She glanced back. Matt Boland leaned against his desk, his blonde hair catching the morning light streaming through the windows. Average in every way except his persistence in being her friend.
"Snack," she said, already turning toward the door.
"Want me to come with—"
But she was already gone, slipping into the hallway before he could finish. The corridor stretched wide before her, filled with students drifting between classrooms. Thirty minutes until first period. Plenty of time.
She'd taken three steps when the world *lurched*.
The floor buckled beneath her feet. White light exploded across her vision, searing and absolute. She tried to scream, but the light swallowed sound itself. Her body felt weightless, then impossibly heavy, then—
*Nothing.*
---
Cold water slapped her face.
Larissa gasped, her eyes flying open. Sky—impossibly blue—spun above her. Her body rocked violently, and she grabbed at rough wood beneath her palms. A canoe. She was in a *canoe*, and the world was roaring.
White water churned around her, the river a living thing that bucked and twisted. She tried to sit up, but the current threw her sideways. Ahead, a massive boulder jutted from the water like a black tooth.
"No—!"
The impact shattered the canoe. Wood exploded around her, splinters driving into her arms, her legs, her face. Pain bloomed hot and immediate. The current dragged her under, and for one terrible moment she couldn't tell which way was up. Then her hand found stone—rough, solid—and she hauled herself onto the boulder with a desperate strength she didn't know she had.
She lay there, gasping, her uniform soaked and torn. Blood mixed with river water, running down her arms in pink rivulets. Slowly, shaking, she pushed herself upright and looked at the damage.
Splinters. Dozens of them, some as long as her finger, embedded in her skin. Her hands trembled as she gripped the first one.
*Pull.*
"Ah—!" The splinter came free, bringing fresh blood with it. She dropped it into the water and reached for the next one. Then the next. Each one a small agony that made her vision blur.
*Don't stop. Don't think. Just pull.*
By the time she'd removed the last one, her hands were slick with blood and her breath came in ragged sobs. She pressed her palms against her eyes, trying to steady herself. Trying to *think*.
The hallway. She'd been in the hallway. Then light, then... this.
She forced herself to look around. Water stretched in every direction, impossibly vast. No banks. No shore. Just water and debris—shattered planks, torn canvas, what might have been part of a ship's mast drifting past on the current. The river was so wide it might as well have been an ocean.
"This isn't real," she whispered. "This can't be—"
**PROVE THAT YOU ARE WORTHY.**
The voice crashed through her mind like thunder, neither male nor female, coming from everywhere and nowhere. Larissa clapped her hands over her ears, but it made no difference. The voice wasn't sound—it was *presence*, pressing against the inside of her skull.
"Who—what—" Her voice cracked. "Where am I?"
Silence answered her. Just the rush of water and her own ragged breathing.
She waited, but the voice didn't return. Around her, the river continued its relentless flow, carrying debris past her boulder. The sun beat down, already making her damp uniform steam. Her throat felt like sandpaper.
*Think. You can think. Process this.*
She was somewhere impossible. A river that couldn't exist. A voice that spoke in her mind. Either she was drugged, dying, or... something else. Something worse.
An hour passed. Then another. The sun climbed higher, merciless. Larissa's lips cracked. Her tongue felt swollen. She cupped water in her hands and drank—it was fresh, at least—but it did nothing for the hunger clawing at her stomach.
"Help!" Her voice came out hoarse. "Someone! Anyone!"
The river swallowed her words.
*I'm going to die here. On this rock. Alone.*
The thought settled over her like a shroud. No one knew where she was. No one could find her. She'd simply... disappeared. Her parents would search. Matt would ask questions. But they'd never find her because she wasn't *anywhere* they could reach.
"No." She said it aloud, forcing strength into her voice. "No, I'm not dying here."
She stood on shaking legs and scanned the water. There—a large section of decking, probably from one of the shattered ships, drifting closer. If there were ships, there had to be people. Settlements. *Land.*
She waited, timing the debris's approach. Her muscles coiled.
*Jump.*
She leaped, arms outstretched. For one horrible moment she thought she'd misjudged, that she'd plunge into the current and be swept away. Then her hands found wood and she dragged herself onto the makeshift raft, gasping.
The current seized her immediately, pulling her downstream. She flattened herself against the wood, fingers digging into gaps between planks. The river was calmer here, but still strong enough to flip her raft if she moved wrong.
*Just hold on. Just survive.*
The sun began its descent, painting the water gold and red. Larissa's arms burned from gripping the wood. Her wounds throbbed. But she held on, because the alternative was drowning, and she refused to let this impossible place kill her.
*Prove that you are worthy.*
The voice echoed in her memory. Worthy of what? Survival? Rescue? Or was this some kind of test, some cosmic joke at her expense?
"I just wanted a snack," she muttered, and the absurdity of it—the sheer mundane stupidity of her last normal thought—made her laugh. The sound came out broken, edging toward hysteria, and she bit it back.
*Don't break. Not yet.*
Night rose, full and silver, turning the river into liquid light. Larissa's eyes drifted closed despite her fear. Exhaustion was a weight she couldn't fight anymore.
She dreamed of the classroom, of Matt's voice calling her name, of the canteen she'd never reached.
---
Heat woke her.
Larissa groaned, her body one massive ache. The sun was already high, beating down on her exposed skin. She crawled to the edge of her raft and drank like an animal, cupping water to her mouth in desperate handfuls.
When she finally looked up, her heart stopped.
Walls. Black as obsidian, rising from the water like cliffs. Ships—dozens of them—clustered near a massive golden gate that gleamed in the sunlight. Flags she didn't recognize snapped in the wind. People moved along the walls, tiny as ants from this distance.
*Civilization.*
The word burst from her throat as a scream: "LAND!"
She waved her arms frantically, not caring if anyone could see her yet. She was alive. She'd survived. And whatever this place was, whatever had brought her here, she was going to find answers.
The current carried her steadily toward the golden gate, and Larissa allowed herself—just for a moment—to hope.