How to Catch a Beauty
I woke up, realizing I was suspended in a net hundreds of feet above the ground.
Alarming, no? Down below, I could barely make out a courtyard we were so high up. It was lined with trees, sprawled pathways, and a glamorous fountain was positioned in the center. However, an abyss of darkness surrounded the entire courtyard. How did I get here?
Rather, how did we get here? There were multiple nets in the air, each containing a captured woman. I looked at the others- some still unconscious (so we must have been drugged), some starting to wake up. I recognized most of the women as they were, to my surprise, Victoria Secret models. But nearest to me was Rachel Bilson, also trapped in a net. Then, of course, there was me.
All of us were wearing similar long, white, silk slips. So as I watched these beautiful women wake up from a drugged-induced sleep, struggling to stretch their long limbs, I was reminded of a princess asleep for centuries until awoken by her first love’s kiss. But I doubted this was going to end that way.
Unbelievably, no one screamed when we realized we were ensnared at a height that would surely kill us if we fell. We all started shouting to each other:
“What happened?”
“Where are we?”
“Who would do this?!”
Amid our questioning, a loud CLICK echoed far above us. There was only a brief pause before we all started to fall.
The only racing, and panic-driven thought going through my head was “CLIMB, CLIMB, CLIMB”. Through the net I grabbed the slack rope and tried to climb up as much as possible. When I heard the CLICK echo above us again, I twisted the rope around my hands and held on, eyes squeezed shut, praying this wasn’t it.
My body jerked wildly, and I opened my eyes when I realized I didn’t splatter all over the ground. Others weren’t so fortunate. More than a few of us had the same thought of climbing up the rope, and even if others did, some didn’t climb high enough, quick enough. The ropes attached to the nets tightened and started pulling us up again. A few minutes later we were once again suspended in the air, with the exception of the women that were probably stuck to the ground below us. I noticed Rachel was still alive. But we stayed silent - absorbing current events. It wasn’t much longer until we heard the CLICK above us again.
“CLIMB, CLIMB, CLIMB.”
A few of us made it, others didn’t. This dropping of the nets proceeded to happen several times until there were only two woman left: Me and Rachel.
At this point, our nets slowly descended down to the courtyard. An older, playboy-looking gentleman walked up and beckoned us to follow him. Ecstatic to leave, but wary of the stranger, Rachel and I followed him to a room surrounded by padded walls and floors. There were two mirrors leaning against a wall, reaching all the way up to the ceiling. When we looked back at the man, he gestured toward a rack of beautiful gowns as though telling us to try them on. Then he walked away and left the room.
I went to the rack, and put on a red beaded gown. It was stunning. When I looked in the mirror, I was shocked to see Anne Hathaway looking back at me. Rachel ran up to me,
“We need to escape. We might not have any other chance.”
“Oh… I don’t know…. something doesn’t feel right. What if he catches us and puts us back up into those nets? Let’s just try on these pretty dresses.”
“No way! I’m leaving!”
And Rachel Bilson ran out of the room. I was trying on my third dress when I heard a scream outside. I tore off the bottom of the long dress, and ran for the door. Now it was time.