Betrothed Episode One by Odette C. Bell Page A

turned
into a frozen wasteland.
    Just
when I thought I’d lose consciousness, something
happened.
    Something violent.
    My head
twitched back as if I’d been struck on the chin, and my temple
gashed against the hard metal leg of the table.
    Then the
darkness swelled in. It flowed into my vision like it was trying to
drown me.
    Something terrible was happening to me.
    I
started to see things. I knew I was still frozen on the floor, a
bead of blood trickling from my brow, but I couldn’t move, and I
couldn’t see the room around me.
    I saw a
different room instead.
    One
filled with people. Dressed in regal attire, they all looked
important, and they all turned their heads to stare at a raised
platform. It had an enormous window behind it, a huge constellation
dotted with vibrant shining stars visible beyond.
    Two
people stood atop the platform. One was Illuminate Hart. The other
person was irrelevant.
    All my
concentration focused on him.
    He
smiled, and I saw every movement of his lips and chin and jaw. He
stared over adoringly at the person beside him.
    But I
stared at the view behind.
    I
watched the star-studded constellation behind him morph. Suddenly
blackness cut across it, dark and violent.
    Then
something sliced out of space.
    An
enormous ship appeared.
    I didn’t
get a chance to recognize it before it started firing.
    Hart was
thrown to his knees. I watched him turn, I watched his face slacken
with fear.
    Then
blackness.
    Blackness overtook me, and it overtook him.
    The
vision ended.
    I tried to scream. I couldn’t. My body was paralyzed, and all
I could do was stare at the carpet underneath me, my face pressed
against it as the weight of my body pinned me to the
ground.
    Slowly
control returned to my limbs.
    But I
didn’t move. Not for ages. I lay there on the floor, the blood
still trickling down from the cut in my brow. My breath was uneven,
my chest heavy.
    I
couldn’t blink; I didn’t dare close my eyes. Instead they were
riveted open as if someone had stapled them.
    I could hear my breath coming in uneven, desperate gasps . It was like
listening to a broken engine trying to rev up.
    Eventually I brought up a shaking hand and pressed it into my
brow. I could feel a sticky slick of blood collect under my
nails.
    “… W-what just happened to me?”
    There
was no one to answer.
    I
pressed a hand into my chest, took a breath, and pushed myself
up.
    My hair
flopped over my face as I locked my gaze on the view through the
window.
    It
showed the horizon line, with tall buildings jutting towards the
sky.
    It did
not show that enormous purple-green constellation. It did not show
Hart’s elegant ship. It did not show a black swathe of energy
cutting across space as a vessel sliced its way towards
me.
    To
confirm that, I pushed myself to my feet and stumbled over to the
window. I pressed a hand into the tempered force-field enhanced
glass, and pressed my face against it.
    There
wasn’t a constellation in sight.
    I pushed
back from the glass and tried to breathe. It was getting easier,
and my heart wasn’t trying to rip its way out of my chest
anymore.
    I forced
a hand over my eyes and closed them briefly. When I wasn’t
assaulted by another vision, I winked an eye open.
    The room
– my room – didn’t change. It was still here around me, though
messy from where I’d staggered into the table.
    “ You … you’re just tired,” I tried to tell myself.
    It was
the weakest, most pathetic lie I’d ever tried to tell
myself.
    Something terrible was happening to me.
    I had to
tell somebody.
    I tried to push towards the door, but suddenly my limbs
locked as if concrete had been poured into the joints
again.
    I
couldn’t move.
    Because ... I couldn’t tell anybody.
    That
thought flashed through my mind as if it had been shot from a
gun.
    I
couldn’t tell anybody.
    I was in
danger.
    I had to
get to Hart.
    I tried
to push that thought back, but I couldn’t. It kept repeating in my
mind as if someone was