Betrothed Episode One by Odette C. Bell

requested, sir.” The security officer tried
to snap a salute, but it was hasty and he dropped his hand
fast.
    “ Of course.” I didn’t rush out of the room. Instead I turned
and pointed to Miranda. “Take her to a room. A secure room,” I
added.
    The
security officer jerked his gaze over to Miranda. “We can put her
in the holding cell.”
    “ No,” I snapped quickly, “she’s not a prisoner. She needs
protection. I want her on one of the upper levels, and I want a
guard outside her door. Got it?”
    The
security officer nodded.
    I turned
back to Miranda.
    She
wasn’t looking at me. Instead her head was turned towards the view,
her eyebrows pressed low over her searching gaze.
    For a
few seconds I watched nervously.
    Something had changed in the past few minutes. When I’d first
brought this woman in, I’d wanted to dismiss her story.
    Now I
was more determined than ever to find out what was going
on.
    As soon
as I was back, I would find out everything I could about
her.
    I
hurried out of the room, pausing at the threshold of the door to
glance back at her one last time.
    I’d never seen someone look more conflicted. She brought a
hand up and placed it over the left side of her face as she stared
with peaked eyebrows and worry filled eyes at the city below
her.
    Then,
almost with a violent twitch, her gaze shifted and locked onto the
tallest tower of the horizon. The Illuminate pillar.
    I forced
myself to turn and leave.
    I would
solve this on my return.
     

Chapter 9
    Anna Carter
    I was
taken to a room. Not a cell, a room. And it had a real view of the
city. As I pressed my fingers over the window sill, I could tell it
wasn’t a hologram.
    When the doors closed behind me and I was alone, I let out
the loudest of sighs.
    It
didn’t change how nervous I felt.
    I
clamped a hand onto my stomach, and then one onto my chest. Seconds
later, my hand moved of its own accord and clamped onto the left
side of my face.
    Energy
was building up behind my eye.
    Energy.
    This
wasn’t paranoia talking, it wasn’t my adrenaline addled mind making
up stories.
    I could
feel some kind of force building up in my face.
    I knew I
should turn around, go to the door, and ask for a doctor, but I
didn’t.
    I stood
there, staring at the view, shaking.
    That
terrorist attack hadn’t been a terrorist attack at all. I was sure
– 100% certain – that the so-called hospital I’d been held in for
the past week had been destroyed to cover-up my captor’s
tracks.
    I rocked
back and forth on my feet, finding it harder and harder to
breathe.
    I needed
to turn to somebody, but there was no one to turn to.
    All I
could do was stand here and look at that view.
    My eyes, seemingly of their own accord, were drawn to one
single tower on the horizon. Tall, and built like a pillar,
illuminated with blue and white strips of light down its entire length, it
was a commanding sight. But that didn’t account for my attraction
to it. My eyes locked onto it as if they had a magnetic connection
to the metal monolith.
    That
tower, or someone or something in it, was the only thing that could
help me now.
    I jammed a finger into my mouth as I thought that. Because I
didn’t know why I had thought it. The notion had entered my mind
beyond my conscious control.
    The pressure behind my eye built until it felt like there was
a hurricane lodged in my skull.
    Suddenly
I couldn’t breathe. There was something wrong with my chest. It
felt like I’d swallowed ice.
    I pushed
a hand into my sternum, trying to massage away that growing
tension.
    It
wouldn’t work.
    My
breathing shortened into sharp, frantic pants.
    “ What’s going on?” I had time to wheeze before a wave of
weakness hit me. I stumbled, hand fumbling against the table beside
me and knocking everything off as I fell to the floor. I hit my
side with a sharp thump.
    I couldn’t scream. I tried, but that growing cold spread
further and further through my chest until it felt like I’d