by Ashley West
In fact, they made it all the way outside without running into a single guard, and Sorrin found that perplexing.
His instincts told him that something wasn’t right. It was never this easy to break out of a place, and it should never have been this easy to get past the Camadors.
More than likely there was going to be some kind of trap waiting for them, the same way there had been a contingent of Camador guards waiting for him when he climbed the ladder up.
Going back down the ladder wasn't an option, so they were just going to have to try to get as low as they could and then jump for it. He decided to wait until it was clear that there was no other option before he mentioned it to Abby.
In the end, there was no trap. There was jumping, but Sorrin wrapped Abby up in his arms and managed to get them on top of a relatively flat roofed building just under the floating city. He was a bit bruised from the landing, hitting his shoulder hard, but Abby seemed to be fine, and more importantly, they were free.
It was easy work to make their way down and out of the building, and Abby looked somewhat overwhelmed to be standing on the ground again. She looked around her with wide eyes, taking in the sights, and Sorrin wondered how long it had been since she'd been captured.
Something to ask her later, perhaps. For now, they needed to move before the Camadors snapped out of whatever strange complacency they were in and decided to come after them.
"Is there somewhere we can go?" Sorrin asked. They could head back to his ship, he supposed, but that would be the first place anyone would look for them. It was better to try and blend in. To be as inconspicuous as possible until they had a plan.
Abby nodded. "Yeah. At least...I think so. I have an apartment, but it's been a while, so..." She shrugged, but there was real sadness in her face.
Sorrin understood.
"Can you take me there?" he asked.
Abby nodded again. "Follow me."
They made their way through the streets, and Sorrin noticed it was less crowded here than it had been where he'd landed. People were scarce, and he supposed that made sense, considering. If he'd been human, the last thing he'd want to do is continue to live under the floating city.
Buildings were abandoned, the people they did see looked frightened and jumpy, and Abby moved through it all with wide eyes, like she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"Is it very different?" Sorrin asked her when they had been walking for a while.
She nodded again, apparently determined that they were leaving it at that.
He wasn't going to press her to talk about it more if she didn't want to, and it seemed like she didn't want to. After being locked away for however long it had been, she probably wasn't used to life on the outside, so he let her get acclimated. As long as they kept moving, it was fine with him.
The people they passed were alarmed at the sight of him, that much was obvious and Sorrin tried to make himself seem smaller for a little while before giving that up as a bad job. There was no way he was going to look less intimidating, so he settled for looking competent. Maybe something in his bearing would show them that he was on their side and they didn't need to be afraid of him.
Judging from the way people hurried on their way, that was going to have to be a work in progress.
Abby led them to her building, which was surprisingly abandoned. She was quiet as she made her way up to the place where she had lived before all of this, seemingly surprised to see that all of her things were still there. She didn’t say anything other than a soft ‘we can stay here’, which Sorrin acknowledged with a nod and then he left her to her own devices while he settled in to think.
Chapter Six: Decide
The first thing Abby did when she got back to her apartment, strange alien warrior in tow, was cry in her bathroom. It had been five months, and somehow everything was still there. Her power still worked, the water still ran, even her cable and internet hadn’t lapsed. She didn’t know how that had happened or why it was happening, but she wasn’t going to question it too hard. Not when it made her life easier.
Everything was so familiar, even if nothing smelled the same anymore, and she had to take a minute to soak it all in. She was home.
She was home, but she wasn’t free, and that would take some dwelling on later.
The second thing she did was plug her phone into the charger. It had been months since she’d seen the screen light up or heard the welcome sound of the phone turning on, and it took a good ten minutes for her phone to process all the voicemails and text messages that had been sent over the course of her imprisonment.
Unsurprisingly, most of them were from her parents and sister, begging her to call them back, to respond to their texts, hoping for some sign that she was okay.
Abby stared down at the screen, unsure. Her first impulse was to call them, to make sure they were still okay after all this time, and to let them know that she was alright. But she hesitated. Was she alright?
Honestly, it was so hard to know.
She was home, but she wasn’t free, and the looming threat of the Camadors was just as present as it had been when she was in their clutches. Abby wasn’t foolish enough to believe that just because she was away from them, their expectations had changed. She’d been moved from the larger cell with everyone to the smaller one with just Sorrin for a reason, and she knew there was a reason that they hadn’t been stopped on their way out, too. This was what they wanted to happen. They wanted her to escape with Sorrin and to report back.
This was all such a mess.
For the most part, Sorrin was a considerate house guest. He spent the first evening staring at the wall with an intense expression on his face, and Abby let him get on with it. She didn’t know how much to trust him, yet, and she didn’t know what he would do when he found out the real reason they were stuck together. While her words to him in the cell had been genuine, she had wanted to get out of there more than anything, she couldn’t deny that she had played it up so he would help her. If he’d escaped without her, Abby didn’t want to think about what the Camadors would have done. To her, or to the planet. It was hard, knowing that the fate of the world basically rested on your shoulders.
Exhausted, Abby fell into a deep sleep early that night, leaving Sorrin to his own devices.
“To the Void with this thing!”
Abby jolted awake at the yell, heart pounding. It took her several long seconds of looking around in confusion to put together where she was, and her heart leapt and then plummeted as she remembered her predicament. A glance at her phone, still plugged in on the nightstand with the rapidly pulsing message light. But that didn’t do anything to make her feel better, and she let out a soft sigh and flopped back against the bed.
She couldn’t avoid thinking about this forever. She was going to have to—
WHAM!
Her bedroom door slammed open, interrupting her thoughts and making her jerk with surprise. Her heart raced for the second time in less than five minutes, and she looked up with wide eyes to see Sorrin standing in the doorway, dripping wet and—yep—completely naked.
“What are you doing!?” she demanded, not sure where to look. His face was a good place, probably, but for the life of her, she couldn’t make herself focus. She’d just about gotten used to his odd skin color the day before, but now she could see everything from his bulging biceps to his chiseled chest, all the way down to his abs and hip bones and— She forced herself to look away before she saw anything she didn’t want to see. (Just how low did those tattoos go, anyway…)
“Your bathing chamber is broken,” he said, folding his arms as he continued to drip on her carpets. “There is no sensor for temperature, and the spray isn’t adjustable at all. As far as I can tell, the water has to be either frozen or boiling, and that is not an effective way to get clean!”
He was ranting, and she was staring, confused and disoriented. Abby had gotten used to the monotony of being a prisoner, and this much excitement and
noise was wreaking havoc on her poor nerves.
“What are you talking about?” she asked finally.
He glared at her. “Your bathing chamber.”
“My…” It clicked in her head after several seconds of staring. “Oh. My shower? What’s wrong with it?”
“Weren’t you listening to anything I just said?”
“Honestly? No. You burst into my bedroom not wearing anything, so excuse me for being distracted.”
He arched an eyebrow at that and then looked down at himself. “My apologies.”
“It’s fine. Look, can you just…” She flapped her hands at him in a shooing motion. “Not be here right now? I’ll fix the shower for you, but I need five minutes to wake up.”
Sorrin inclined his head. “Very well.”
Abby waited until he had disappeared to let her head fall forward into her hands. Honestly, this was the most ridiculous thing that had happened to her in a long time. You know, if you didn’t count being captured and held prisoner by aliens and all that. Somehow that was different and less bizarre than having one in her home currently.
Things continued like that for the next three days. Sorrin learned the wonder of human technology, and was predictably disparaging of it, and Abby tried to figure out what she was going to do. She still hadn’t talked to anyone in her family, and there was no sign of the Camadors coming after them, though she kept having the curious feeling that she was being watched. It made her jumpy and paranoid in all the worst ways, and it made it even harder to sleep.
When she got up in the middle of the night or the early hours of the morning before the sun was even considering rising, she was somewhat comforted to see that Sorrin was also awake. Usually sitting on her couch looking annoyed and broody.
On the fourth night of this, she broke down and sat next to him on the couch, looking at the wall with him. It was the one where she’d hung her pictures when she’d moved in, and her eyes settled on a picture of her and her parents at her college graduation. It seemed like that had been forever ago at this point, and looking at it made unease settle in her stomach. She looked away.
“Why are you here alone?” she asked, needing something to say.
“Because this is my mission,” Sorrin replied simply.
“Just yours?”
He inclined his head and said nothing.
“But why?”
For a while he was silent, and Abby was sure he wasn’t going to answer her. That was fine. She was a veritable stranger, and for all they had been thrown together, he didn’t know if he could trust her, and honestly the answer was probably that he couldn’t. Abby didn’t have a plan yet, but her whole purpose here was to make sure he failed this mission.
“Because that is how it has to be,” Sorrin said finally.
There was something in his voice that made her think this was very important to him, and she didn’t want to talk about it anymore. Not being killed along with the rest of her people was important to her, and for the moment, that was what had to be the most important thing.
“Well,” she said. “I guess we’ll have to figure out how to do this, then.” She smiled thinly and got up, suddenly wanting to be as far away from this conversation as she could. “I’m going to try to go back to bed.”
He nodded, and she fled.
What she needed was a plan.
Progress had to be made if either of them were going to get closer to their goals, and she needed to be two steps ahead of him to make sure this worked in a way that wouldn't end up with the world being blown up or something.
The persistent feeling of being watched continued as the week progressed, and Abby wouldn't put it past her former captors to have bugged her apartment or her person or Sorrin or something. She drove herself crazy trying to ignore the feeling, but that was definitely one of those easier said than done sorts of things.
She was getting to know her guest better, though. For instance, she'd learned that he was always grumpy in the morning and when he wanted a drink. He was also grumpy in the afternoon and evening when he felt like they weren't doing enough. He wasn’t one for chit chat or small talk, or really even talking at all, and most of her questions about his planet and how he’d gotten to Earth were either deflected or answered with a flat look that said pretty much everything it needed to, she supposed.
Also he was shirtless a lot. He only had a few sets of clothes with him, he said, and most of them were on his ship which he hadn't had occasion to get back to, yet. So he continually washed the shirt he had with him, which meant he was often walking around showing off his abs and biceps.
Abby got a fair amount of up close looks at his tattoos, and she found herself letting her eyes trace over them, wondering what it would be like to walk that path with her fingers.
He was very attractive. She was able to admit that to herself. He probably had a whole host of women back on his planet, wherever that was, who wanted to get into bed with him. If his skill was anything like how he made it seem, then he was a talented warrior, and women were probably into that.
She was into that, if she was honest. There was something about a man who was big and strong enough that he could protect you that was just flat out hot. None of the boys she’d dated when she was in school had made her feel safe like that. Mostly they were just looking for some good times, and that had been alright for then, but now… Now she knew what fear was like and what it meant to want someone to rescue you. Abby remembered being wrapped in those muscular arms when they'd jumped down from the Camadors' floating city, and she let that feeling of safety wrap her up at night when she was dreaming about still being a captive and what might happen to her if she failed in this.
Her phone still displayed all her missed calls and messages, and she was so on the fence about what to do. Abby couldn't bring herself to delete the notifications, and she didn't know how to call her family back and let them know she was okay.
She'd feel compelled to tell them that there was something going on, and Caran Theolette's 'Tell no one' was still branded in her mind, so she didn't really want to test her on that. Honestly this was the worst.
Freaking out about it wasn't going to help, though. She knew that. Abby had never been one to let a large workload or a seemingly impossible task stand in her way. She was the sort who got things done and achieved her goals no matter what.
This would be no different.
She hoped.
Chapter Seven: Plan
"We need a plan."
Abby blinked at him, confusion written all over her features as she stepped out of her bedroom. It had been seven full days since their escape from the floating city, and nothing had been done. He'd allowed her time to recover from her ordeal, and now was the time to act. This inaction was unacceptable, and it was making him restless.
Sorrin had done his waiting, and now he wanted to move forward.
"What?" Abby rubbed her eyes and pulled her robe tighter around herself.
"A plan," Sorrin said again, speaking slowly, as if she was hard of hearing or a bit on the slow side. "We require one."
"Oh. For the Camadors. Right."
He watched as she dragged her fingers through her hair and moved into the small kitchen area. Sorrin had watched her in the mornings enough times now to know her routines well. She was going to make herself a cup of tea and three slices of toast. Once she looked more alert, she would shower and then change her clothes. And then they would sit in her home and do nothing.
Not today.
"Yes," he said, following her into the kitchen. He watched as she filled the tea kettle and then put it on the stove to heat. "For the Camadors. Unless you want them to take over your world and destroy your people, you need to help me. That was our arrangement." If he'd known she would be useless, then he would have left her in the cell.
"I know what the arrangement was, Sorrin," Abby replied, tone clipped. "I'm fully aware that you only helped me because I said I could help you." She sighed an
d pressed a hand to her forehead.
Sorrin narrowed his eyes at her. "You just said that to get out of there, didn't you?" he accused. "You didn't actually have any plan to help me."
Her head snapped up, and she narrowed her eyes right back. "Are you saying I lied to you?"
"That is what I am suggesting."
"I did not!" She snapped it vehemently. "Just because I don't know how yet, doesn't mean I never planned to help. You don't have a plan either, I'd like to point out."
She had a point, and Sorrin inclined his head, taking a step back. He was aware that he could be physically intimidating sometimes, and he didn't want her to think she was being threatened because that wasn't his goal here. Sorrin just wanted progress to be made. "My apologies, then," he said. "My statement still stands, though. We need a plan."
"I know that," she said. "You're the one who showed up here on your own thinking you could take on the might of the Camadors or whatever without backup. If you'd had a plan to begin with then you wouldn't have ended up being thrown in a cell."
Clearly she was still annoyed with him. "If I had escaped that happy fate, then you would still be in the cell," Sorrin pointed out.
Abby made a face at that. "Fine, alright. You're right." She heaved a sigh and rubbed a hand over her face before looking up at him. "What do you want to do?"
It was one of those questions that he didn't have an immediate answer to. Going running into the city again was a terrible idea. This time they might actually kill him, and he wasn't willing to risk it. But he needed information. He needed to know what they were planning and how to stop it.
"We need to find out what they want. Do you know?"
Abby fidgeted for a second and then sighed. "I don't know. I think...I think they just want Earth? They haven't made any threats, not really, and they're just holding people hostage, and I'm not sure why. Maybe for leverage, maybe for information. They never said."
