Sleeping

Chapter Eighteen

After Nathaniel cleared my room of any remaining ice and left a few minutes later, I burst into tears. I hadn’t talked about my mom in months. At Trier, Viola had gone through a few questions and I had gone to therapy, but talking about her like that, about my mom’s personal life? That was a whole other story. It still hurt. It all still hurt so, so much.

How does anyone expect to have someone live after losing everything? My mom, my friends, my family—my entire life, down the drain. It’s happened four times—when I was first put in stasis, when I was woken up (because as much as I hate to admit it, the darkness of my stasis had become my home), when I escaped Trier (what I now know to be Area 51), and now again.

Betrayal stung like a bee.

I had only come to the realization of May being Viola last night. It was still so fresh in my mind.

To help myself focus, I decided to try and figure out exactly how May—Viola—still looks the same as she did nearly four-hundred years ago. How is she even still alive? Had she been in stasis, like me? Some kind of regenerative treatment? Or the thought I didn’t even want to consider, nonetheless speculate upon—was Viola some kind of alien? I couldn’t think about that—not now at least. I refused to wonder if my best friend had spent our whole friendship an alien. Myself being one was bad enough.

I decided to continue this train of thought later. There was no clock in the room, but I could only assume it was around lunch. I walked over to the retina scanner, putting first my right then left eyes up to it. A mechanical voice, the same one from earlier, called out, “Access denied.” Denied? I was locked in here? I tried again. Nothing. Why?

I looked around, but couldn’t see any other way out, except the window that overlooked the planet above my bed. But I was in outer space, so that obviously wouldn’t work. Then suddenly the door opened. A delayed reaction?

Then I saw who walked through. Riwsow. The door closed behind him and he walked over and sat at a couch in the small living area

“Granddaughter,” He said with a sense of regality I wasn’t accustomed to. He gave his head a slight bow, another odd gesture, in my opinion at least. “I trust you have been made comfortable, yes?”

“Up until the point I was locked in here.” I snapped. Riwsow stayed calm. Could nothing bother him?

He shut his eyes for a long second, then opened them. “Yes. I sincerely apologize for that. It was only to keep you safe—certain places of our ship are not meant for the granddaughter of the king, if partially human.” He practically spit the last word. “And you do not yet know your way around, we couldn’t have you being lost, as that would be a sore detriment to any first impression of yours.” No, not because your own granddaughter would be lost somewhere she doesn’t know and possibly get hurt—because it would look bad.

“I believe you have many questions—I will try to answer them to the best of my ability.” I sat down in the same chair from earlier.

“Yeah, I do.” I responded with a sigh. Something seemed fishy about this whole visit, like the real reason Riwsow was here definitely wasn’t to answer my questions. I decided I might as well play along for now.

“Then go ahead.”

“Well…where are my friends? I want them treated right.”

“All of the humans we took onboard are being treated with the utmost care. No harm shall come to them as long as they behave.”

“Meaning?”

“A simple set of rules has been set up. If one is broken, the according punishment will be served.”

“Fair enough.” I paused. Seeing as I’m not precisely sure what offends Isarians, I might as well say it outright.  “How old are you?”

He seemed taken aback. “Pardon?”

“In human years, I mean.” Okay, apparently that’s offensive to aliens too.

“How to put this? I don’t know.” He put on what I could only assume was his thinking face. “There was a time on Earth, a time when the world was green and new, when humans were beginning to build and communicate with one another. It was known as Greece, I believe. If I had lived on your planet, I would’ve seen its early rise.”

So here I am, sitting with a 3500-year-old alien with mind-control powers. Awesome. Suddenly uncomfortable with that thought, I changed the topic. “So, what’s the actual reason you’re here. Smalltalk doesn’t work well in this situation.” I took a deep breath.

“You’re rather…forward, I suppose.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve dealt with a lot of bullshit in my life—I don’t really have any choice.”

We were both mute for a few beats before my grandfather said, “There is some boy…a human. Dark hair, light eyes. I cannot recall his name at the moment. He wishes to speak with you.” He looked honestly disgusted.

Ashton, was my immediate thought. If it was him, I would have to explain that whole ‘arranged marriage’ that would never happen ever in a thousand years (and if I age like an Isarian after I reach my full maturity, that may be possible).

But I also knew I couldn’t avoid talking to Ashton forever, so I said, “Fine. Bring him in.”

My grandfather rose and gestured for me to follow him. Outside my door were a couple of guards. The automated sliding door closed behind us with a bang.

I walked in nervous anticipation. How do I explain this? ‘Ashton, I know we both said that we cared about each other, but not right now.’? Maybe it’s for the best. We’ve only known each other two weeks. Maybe we should take it a little slower. We’ll have all the time in the world. Just until after I get all this business sorted out. We reached the door.

 The door opened, leaving me to face Ashton. “Hey, Snow.”

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OOOOHH!!! This conversation will be...interesting and...awkward, possibly. Based on that last part, it looks like Snow has some decisions to make!! There may be some tears. And emotions. What will happen? This conversation is actually a very fateful part of the plot that I've had planned for a while now, so I'm excited to write it.

And how is Viola, erm, May, (Miola?) still alive? That'll be explained in later chapters. (Most likely nearing the end.)

Okay, so on a more non-plot-related note, I'm sorry. I haven't updated in over two weeks, and I know that as readers, that sucks. With NaNoWriMo next month, I've been doing prep and I'm going through some things in my personal life. (If you're curious, feel free to PM me or post on my message board.) I've been swamped with school too. 

As mentioned above, I'm also participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). It takes place during all of November, so there may only be one chaper next month too. Again, I'm extremely sorry for my sporadic updates. I'll try and get back on a regular schedule ASAP!!!

Thanks for reading!! :)