There was a chasm between us, a chasm neither of us dared cross. He was returning me home. What happened then between us? Would he join me now? Later? Never? Was our brief adventure over already?
I was sure he wanted to speak with me about something. It was on the tip of his tongue every time he looked at me.
Did he want to stay with me forever? Did he want to give up his smuggling ways and settle down, only didn’t know how I would respond?
It would be with a fist-thumping ‘Yes!’ if he did.
I chewed my bottom lip, biting down on the words I wished I could say, but couldn’t.
“Alice?” Nighteko said.
“Yeah?” I said.
Oh God, please let him tell me he wants to be with me forever and always. It can be my birthday and Christmas presents combined.
After a while, you get used to the ship. I couldn’t tell if we were moving or not but I could feel the dull drumbeat of the engine when it was on. I couldn’t feel it now.
“The engine’s off,” I said.
“I wanted to show you something before we return to Earth,” he said.
His tone was distant but not without warmth. It spawned a flutter of butterflies in my belly.
He led me to the flight deck. On the monitor was the sight of nothing but empty space. There were lots of twinkling stars in the far distance. It was pretty but no different what we’d seen ever since I got sucked into outer space.
“This is the last place I saw you with all your friends together,” Nighteko said.
My heart thundered in my chest. It would be a planet or a moon. He’ll have delivered them to their new masters and we could trace where they went. But I couldn’t see anything.
“Is the planet around us somewhere?” I said.
Nighteko kept his eyes on me. “Computer, give us a panoramic view of our current location.”
The monitor switched between various viewpoints. None of them showed so much as an asteroid.
“I don’t understand,” I said.
“I don’t know where your friends are now. No one does. Except for their new masters.”
My eyes burned. “No. You told me you would help me find them—”
“I told you I would take you to where I last saw them. This is that place. The first of you was delivered and I moved on to another point in space much like this one. No planets or star systems nearby. The masters picked them up, paid me, and disappeared.”
I shoved him. “You lied to me! You said you would help me find them!”
His tone was as hard as it had ever been. “I said I would show you where I last saw them. This is that place.”
“No,” I said, fisting my hair. “No.”
This was wrong, all wrong. My story wasn’t meant to end like this. I was meant to reunite with my friends. This couldn’t be right… It couldn’t be…
“I want you to take me to all the places you handed them over,” I said.
“It’s no good—”
“You have to. I don’t believe you.”
“I’m sorry. Your friends are gone.”
This wasn’t the first time he told me this. He’d told me before in the Titan village…
“Will you ever find them?” I said.
“Once you’re sold into slavery, it’s impossible.”
I’d been so focused on helping him overcome the memory of his parents I hadn’t taken notice of his words. Once you were sold, you never saw them ever again.
“You’re nothing but a smuggler!” I screamed. “I can’t trust a single thing you say! You deal with people’s lives. Lying is your job. You’re a criminal! I just… I don’t…”
I didn’t have the words. I crumpled to the floor.
My friends… I was meant to see them again. It was what I’d done all this for. I sobbed.
He just stood there. He didn’t embrace me, didn’t comfort me. I wiped my snotty nose on the back of my sleeve.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I said.
“I…” He shook his head. “I didn’t tell you because otherwise you wouldn’t have helped me recover from the sickness.”
It was what I’d feared and more.
“But since then, I’ve fallen head over heels in love with you,” he said. “I want to spend my life with you—”
His hand touched my skin and I shoved it away. “Don’t touch me.”
He was the same callous smuggler he’d been right at the start of all this. I might have changed, but he hadn’t.
I folded my arms and turned away from him. “Take me home.”
“Alice…”
I shuffled down the hallways until I reached my dingy little room. I slammed the door behind me and burst into tears.
I was heading home.
Alone.
We descended the final few miles to Earth and came to a stop beside that road where the minivan had sailed through the barrier, over the cliff edge, and down into the deep ravine below.
Shards of rented minivan lay scattered like confetti, borded with yellow police tape around the affected area. I thought of our families, how worried they would be, how upset at losing their daughters. None of them could imagine what really happened.
What would I tell them? And how would I say it?
I had no idea. I needed time to think.
If I couldn’t find my friends, could they instead find their own way back how I had? Maybe they were already back? Maybe I was the slowpoke to the party—as usual. They were much stronger and more driven than me.
At least, they used to be. I no longer felt like the same person who careened over that cliff to her doom.
If I could make it back, I was certain they could.
I was a bundle of nerves as I descended the ramp. I hesitated before I stepped on the black tarmac. A tingle slithered up my leg. It felt strange to be setting foot on another alien world.
