Chapter Nine

ANNALEE

Have you ever imagined what it would be like if people spoke the way movie trailers sound?

Dying was the easy part. Breaking my promise to Kyle? That was going to be hard.

None of it was true, but it sounded good, at least. I don't know what I was thinking, but part of me thought I would be above the law, or they wouldn't catch me with my phone. Maybe they would give me a special off-worlder's dispensation.

I didn't get any mercy, and now I was going to die. In retrospect, all of my decisions seemed bad. Coming to this planet, keeping the phone, marrying Jesse, and dragging him into this nonsense.

Becoming a teacher wasn't that important. I did good work with those three-year-olds. Kyle loved me...if he still remembered Miss Annalee. Maybe he had forgotten me by now, and I had risked my life to keep an empty promise to him.

Strangely, I didn't regret it, not even now in the middle of a disaster. I looked around and saw sympathy in some eyes but disgust in others. One thing I didn't see was a single face in the crowd that looked like they might help me. That included my new husband's. I stepped forward and held my hands out together, not looking at anyone and trying to be brave.

Someone spoke. "Sir, she's new to Yordbrook. She doesn't understand our ways." It was Mrs. Boyko. She was defending me, bless her heart.

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse," the Bureau man said curtly.

Before they pushed me into the cart, I heard Jesse's deep voice ring out across the yard.

"May I say good-bye?"

"Who is speaking?"

"I am," Jesse said calmly. "She's my wife."

"Be brief," the Bureau man said, stepping away to converse with his companion. I didn't turn to Jesse. Instead, I listened to his footsteps as he approached.

I thought about how he had made me feel last night and our aborted year together. I wasn't planning on staying longer than that.

When Jesse walked around and put his hand under my chin, making me lift my head and meet his eyes, I wondered if I might change my mind before the year was up.

He didn't hesitate but leaned in and kissed me slowly, deeply, as if he were learning my lips by heart and storing up the feeling to remember me by when I wouldn't be here anymore. It was hard to believe that he was the same grumpy man I married yesterday.

I lost myself in him as he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me tightly against him. As his lips brushed my ear, I heard him whisper only four words, but they gave me hope.

"Be ready. Don't sleep."

I held my breath as he stepped back. There wasn't an indication on his face that he had said anything to me.

"I will see you on the other side of death," he said, loudly enough for the crowd to hear. There was the sound of a woman's muffled sobbing.

He whispered, "It's something we say when we think we're seeing someone for the last time."

I nodded, unable to speak. Jesse backed away as one of the Bureau men came around and shoved me roughly into the cart.

"The execution will take place in two days." He smiled cruelly at Jesse. "You're welcome to come and watch her die. It serves you right for marrying an off-worlder."

I saw Jesse's lips tighten, but he didn't say anything. The Bureau terrified all the natives here. I didn't blame them. I was intimidated myself.

But Jesse had implied he would try to come and save me. I couldn't imagine Jesse the farmer rescuing me. Hadn't that been what he meant? I didn't know for certain, but I clung to the small hope and infinitesimal amount of comfort it gave me.

As my cart bumped and bounced down the road, I started to cry. How had I ended up here? Would my grand adventure end tragically? I would have to wait and see what kind of an alien I had married.

As if things weren't bad enough, now it was raining.

I still wore the long blue dress given to me when I arrived at the planet. It went all the way down to my toes and was long-sleeved, covering me completely. Right now, I was thankful it had a hood. I drew it to my face as the rain drizzled down on me. It had been pouring for hours. Pulling it closer didn't really make a difference. The water had soaked through my clothes, and I was shivering with cold, but doing something proactive made me feel better.

There weren't many things I could do to comfort myself. I wrapped my arms around my middle and huddled against the side of the cart, hoping the day would end peacefully with a washroom. I would kill for a chance to relieve myself.

The jolting of the cart had rattled my head all day long. I lost my glasses somewhere in the mud, and I wanted to get out and dry myself. I wasn't anxious to go to sleep. If I didn't escape or get busted out by someone, I would have the opportunity to sleep forever starting tomorrow. The thought gave me chills.

Abruptly the cart stopped. A Bureau man came down and unhitched the back of the wagon, pulling it out roughly.

"Get down," he said, jerking me off the back of the cart without warning. My legs had fallen asleep. They buckled under me, but I managed to stand my ground after a slight sway. I didn't want to collapse and show weakness in front of these men. "We're staying here tonight."

"I need to use the restroom," I said. "And change into dry clothes."

He snorted at the audacity of a woman asking for what she needed, but he reluctantly brought me to a small building on the side of the main one. It appeared we were at an inn, but a more desolate and less prosperous one than the inn near Jesse's home.

I went to the privy and discovered another problem. It was difficult to relieve myself when my hands tied in front of me. The guards refused to untie me when I went in, so I was forced to be creative, especially considering my dress and various layers of underclothes.

I managed to do my business and get my hands washed in the basin. I even managed to put all of my clothing back in its proper place and get back out without asking for help. My reward at the end was a stern-faced man shaking his head at me as I emerged.

I ignored him and followed in silence as he made his way around the puddles and moved toward the primary building of the inn. He brought me to a small room with no bed or furniture of any kind. It might have been a storage room before its present use as a cell. There were no windows.

It wasn't a modern jail cell, but I knew it would keep me confined as well as the highest security prison on Earth. I hesitated in the doorway. The Bureau man gave me a hard push. I fell, twisting to avoid landing on my hands and possibly breaking a bone. I didn't need to add that to my list of problems. Instead, I took a hard hit on my hip, and my head smashed into the floor.

I lay stunned for a moment before I could sit up. I held my head, trying to remove the dizziness. Once I felt well enough to stand, the door had been shut and locked for a long time.

There wasn't a way out of the small room. Aside from the door, there was no opening other than a vent, which was so high off the ground that I couldn't see where it went. The door was made of solid wood. I threw my body against it, trying to force it open, but I didn't weigh enough. It wasn't going anywhere, and picking the lock was beyond my abilities.

I felt like I should do something but there wasn't anything to do, so I sat down and waited. After a few minutes, I stood up and started to pace. The day stretched into the night and soon I was in total darkness.

I hadn't done much all day, but I felt dead on my feet. I hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. Jesse had kept me busy doing anything but sleeping. I didn't dare sleep now, though, since Jesse had told me to stay alert.

My eyelids were terribly heavy. To keep myself awake, I walked up and down in the room and talked to myself. I recited the multiplication tables. I sang every song I could remember. I tried to avoid certain thoughts. Things like Jesse never coming, and that if I fell asleep, I might never wake up.

I felt sick to my stomach without eating any food all day. Someone had put some water into my cell at some point during the day, but it was no substitute for the delicious bread they made here that's like nothing I had ever tasted on Earth.

I had eaten many loaves of it since my arrival on Yordbrook. Surprisingly, I hadn't gained a lot of weight, but Porter said they used a different type of grain for bread here. Apparently it both tasted great and had fewer calories.

Finally, I felt so tired that I leaned against the wall and tapped out a rhythm with my hand to keep myself awake. If I sat down, I would certainly fall asleep.

I tapped on the wall. Tap, tap, tap-ta, tap-ta, tap. Over and over, until a rustle inside the room made me stop.

What was that? Were there rats at this inn? On our way to Jesse's home, Porter had sometimes made us press on late into the night to reach the best inns. We often would pass by two or three because he said their service was subpar.

When I asked him about it, he explained he meant they watered down the wine, used the same sheets for multiple guests, and had cellars full of rats that ran wild through the building at night while the unsuspecting guests snored away.

This place had not looked prosperous, and I wouldn't be surprised if it were infested. The thought of being trapped in the dark with an unknown number of rats was as terrifying as anything I had encountered so far, including the thought of my death tomorrow. The rodents were with me right now.

I held my breath, listening attentively for another rustle or the feeling of something running over my shoe. It was hard to hear anything because blood was rushing through my ears. At least I no longer felt sleepy. Then I heard it.

Tap, tap, tap-ta, tap-ta, tap.

And again after a moment.

Tap, tap, tap-ta, tap-ta, tap.

It was the same rhythm I had been tapping on the wall. I froze for a moment, but when it came again, I was ready and tapped it back.

Someone was here. I hoped it was Jesse.