Free The Children Who Time Lost by Marvin Amazon Page A

idiot will treat their child badly?”
    I gave her a nervous smile and kept quiet. The Lypsos seemed absentminded, but they recorded everything they heard and saw. I wasn’t about to badmouth a senior Lotto organizer, but at the same time, I felt a bit uneasy with his words, as if we were on a short leash and could lose our children at any moment. A mother doesn’t need to hear such things on a day when her whole life is about to change for the better. We reached the end of the hall a minute later and the Lypso to my left turned around. “Stand still.”
    The other Lypso walked to a white wall and placed its palm against it. The ground beneath us shook. A bright blue light was emitted from the Lypso’s hands and ran up and down the wall like light from a computer scanner would. About ten seconds later, the wall rose into the air. The ground started to tremble again. After the wall had risen five feet, I glimpsed another room with a bright white light emanating from it. It had to be the portal.
    The rising wall was out of sight a moment later and in front of us was a large sphere. It was without color and could have been a cloud of water—what a lake would look like in the air with no gravitational pull. It was so huge we couldn’t see how high it went. Beside me, Monique and Amelia no longer held my hands but squeezed theirs together. Sweat appeared on their foreheads.
    “This way, please,” the Lypsos said.
    I hesitated and glanced at the two women. This time they met my gaze. I cleared my throat and stepped forward. The Lypsos faced the sphere and walked toward it. Gale-force winds slapped my face and it felt as if I would be lifted from the floor. When the winds subsided, the Lypsos walked into the room and we followed. I saw a man and a woman near the sphere, operating some sort of control panel with red and black buttons surrounding a silver knob. Three other people stood in a corner of the room, and two fifth-generation Lypsos were in another, with the barrel of assault rifles making up part of their arms.
    The Lypsos escorting us stopped inches from the swirling sphere and turned around. “It is time. You must step through now.”
    I swallowed and felt my hands tremble. Amelia gritted her teeth and squinted. The fear on her face summed up just how I felt.
    “You must enter,” both Lypsos said in unison. “No more time can be wasted.” They edged to the left and gestured for us to go through.
    I held my hands out and exchanged glances with both women. Amelia grasped my right hand first, and then Monique did the same with my left. I stared at the sphere. It swirled at an astounding rate, remaining as clear as crystals. There was no guarantee we would come out at the other end, but these were the risks associated with the Lotto. “Let’s do this,” I shouted.
    I looked at both women, and they nodded. I faced the portal again and stepped through.

Chapter Seven

    Chapter Seven

    D arkness enveloped me. Pain tore through my stomach. It felt as if I were being pulled forward and backward at the same time. I struggled to keep my eyes open, although only blackness surrounded me. I no longer felt the warm hands of Amelia or Monique holding mine. All I felt was anxiety.
    My body glided forward, as if I were floating in space. The force pulling me backward and forward ceased, but I still couldn’t see anything or feel the warmth of the other women around me. I heard a grinding noise that seemed to happen within my head. Excruciating pain shot through my body, and I could feel sharp spasms in my back. I couldn’t understand what was happening to me, but my fear multiplied with every passing second.
    I wanted to scream but fought it. Maybe this was just normal. I didn’t want to seem like a coward. I hadn’t heard anyone else scream. The pain continued, as did the noise. The blackness, however, started to give way to a faint light. At first, it came and went like a flickering light bulb. I focused on the light