Aisha Saeed - Diana and the Journey to the Unknown

Where am I?

Diana spun in complete and total darkness. Had it been seconds since her journey began? Minutes? Months? Time had lost all meaning since shed grabbed the metal bar fragments of an Underworld cell from her nightstand. The world around her had blurred into an endless expanse of inkiness. Gone were the walls of her room in the palace at Themyscira. Her bed. The soft white rug spread across her marble floor. Gone, too, was Cylinda, whod scrambled from her guard post, racing to rescue Diana before she vanished. She had not succeeded.

Diana clenched the glimmering fragments from the cell tightly in her hands as she hurtled deeper and deeper into the inky abyss. At midnight each night, these enchanted bars had transported caged children to parts unknown. Diana had lashed at the cage with the Lasso of Truth when shed gone to the Underworld to rescue her friends. Shed managed to break a hole in the bars that was big enough for her friends, Imani and Sakina, to slip out of the enclosure and escape through Dooms Doorway to Themyscira.

Diana never imagined shed voluntarily grab on to those same bars, which shed carried home with her, to send herself straight into the clutches of evilbut no one knew where to find Zumius. And no one knew who or what he was. But with each passing day, they did know that the powers of the gods who ruled the world grew weaker and weaker because of him. Diana had decided to take the risk: to clutch the fragments when they began glimmering on her nightstand at midnightand see for herself where they took her. It was an impulsive decision, she knew. But she hoped that maybe by holding on and transporting herself, she could find the kidnapped children. Maybe then Zumius could be taken down once and for all.

But as she hurtled onward, Dianas mind filled with doubt. Were the bars, in pieces as they were, malfunctioning? Might they leave her suspended in this darkness for eternity?

Suddenly a burst of warm air wrapped around her. Heaviness pressed in from all sides, squeezing her like a vise. Then Diana began to free-fall. Her heart somersaulted as she spiraled down, down, down. Curling into a ball, she braced for impact.

With a painful thump, she landed on hard concrete. She opened her eyes, wincing, and rose to her knees. She was in a cage in a windowless room. The walls were painted maroon, with golden trusses along the ceiling. What is this place? Diana wondered. How far was she from Themyscira? Were the other children here? Was Zumius?

Inching a hand forward, she brushed her fingers against the rounded bars. They were sandlike and grainy in texture, similar to the cage shed broken her friends out of in the Underworld. Pressing her hand to her side, a touch of relief went through her: the Lasso of Truth was still attached to her belt, as was her emerald-encrusted sword. Shed helped her friends get out of a cage exactly like this once before, Diana reminded herself. Shed help herself out now.

Diana gingerly stretched her arms and legs. Her head throbbed like a drum. Her entire body ached, but, to her relief, no bones seemed broken. Craning her neck, she peered out through the bars of the cage. Most of this tiny room was taken up by the enclosure itself. She could make out the edge of a skylight above, from which moonlight shone into the otherwise windowless room. Across from her was the only door, metal and locked with seven enormous bolts.

Diana strained her ears for the sound of footsteps or any sign of life outside the door, but all was eerily silent. For now. Soon enough, someone would arrive. Maybe Zumius. Diana shivered. She needed to act fast. She had to break out of this cage. Get out that door. Leave before anyone found her. The children whod been kidnapped had to be trapped in other parts of this building. Shed heard that these children, unlike Diana herself, had special abilities. All she needed to do was reach them and help them get free. Using all their powers collectively, they could take down Zumius once and for all. There was no time to lose.

Diana gripped a bar of the cage with one hand. With the other, she reached for the lasso at her waist. She rose to her feet, ready to strike at the bar, but as her head grazed against the low ceiling of the enclosure, an alarm blared within the room. A whirring noise sounded from above. Diana winced and looked uphad she triggered this siren when her head touched the ceiling? The blare grew louder. But the whirring sound terrified her more. Dread filled her body. Shed heard that sound before: in her bedroom back on Themyscira, when the green-cloaked Targuni had tried to kidnap her. The creature had jutted out its arm and whirred with a noise much like this before launching a stream of golden powder into the air, obliterating a book into dust. The same powder had wreaked havoc on her people. It had toppled statues and pockmarked her homeland with craters. And now, with the same mechanical whirring buzzing above her head, she was trapped. Diana pressed herself against the back wall of the cage as a warm mist burst from above and sprayed down. She coughed. The room filled with the scent of mint and crushed cloves. Pinching her nose, she tried not to gag, but the smell was overwhelming. Mist dampened her hair and coated her cheeks and nose.

What is this? She wiped away the wetness with her hands.