Would they somehow guess I’d been abducted?
Unlikely. And they were going to have a very difficult time extracting that out of me.
At least this way, I wouldn’t be sent to an insane asylum. Anything had to be better than that.
My thoughts, as always, returned to him. Nighteko aboard his ship, only now he was alone, out there among the stars, forced to abduct alien species without a crew. I suppose he’d have to go out and find a new one, one that wouldn’t mutiny him for not taking child slaves.
“There’s a streak of honor in him,” Maisie had said. It felt like a lifetime ago. She was right. There was. But he’d still lied to me. How important was a streak compared to the total blackness of a man’s soul?
He lied to me because it was in his best interest. At least he followed through on one part of his promise: to bring me home.
I wondered how I would continue with my life without my friends to lean on and guide me. At least, I was now among my own species. That had to be better than whatever my friends were being put through, didn’t it?
Wherever they were.
After my medical checkup, my aunt would come pick me up. Or a taxi would take me. It would cost a ton but it would be better than hiring another car.
Another car. Would someone try to abduct me again? Would they one day in the future?
I shook my head. I couldn’t start down that line of thinking or I’d be afraid for the rest of my life.
And yet, a small part of me considered going out tonight, hoping lightning might strike twice and I’d get abducted. And maybe, just maybe, I’d bump into Nighteko again.
I shook my head of the childish fantasy. It wasn’t going to happen, no matter how much I wished it would.
I would head back home and get on with my life. One day, the last few days would seem like a dream. I would forget about that starman in the sky and find someone to love me—a human male—and we’d have a family and my career would blossom and grow. I’d become indistinguishable from any other regular human female. I mean, woman.
I instinctively reached for my wrist, to feel the chain and sense of belonging it gave me. Of course, it was gone. In the hands of a trader somewhere in the jungles of Tordal.
I imagined being back in my apartment, so small and tiny, insignificant to the great vastness of space. I’d return to writing my stories. At least I’ll have plenty of inspiration to draw from.
A knock came at the door. It startled me. The officer on duty on the front desk entered, smiling with his crooked teeth. He placed a cup of coffee on the table alongside a couple of sachets.
“I didn’t know if you like sugar and cream,” he said. “So I brought you both.”
“Thank you,” I said warmly.
“The detective said you’re hungry? There’s a delicious sandwich shop around the corner. I could get you one.”
“That would be great,” I said.
“Any favorite filling? Actually, I think I have a mini-menu somewhere…”
He dug in his pockets until he found it. He presented it as if he were performing a magic trick.
He placed it on the table before me.
And I froze.
You know those movies where it seems like it’s over but it keeps going? And then you start to get a little nervous because you sense something’s coming but you can’t figure out what it was?
That’s what this moment felt like.
I’d been sitting in that anonymous interrogation room too long, sensing something was up, sensing something bad was going to happen.
And now, it just did.
The officer cocked his head to one side, looking at me inquisitively. “Is something wrong?”
“N-No,” I said. “Nothing’s wrong. I-I’ll have… the chicken. Any of the chicken flavors. Thanks.”
I beamed at him, my hands gripping the Styrofoam coffee cup so tight it dribbled over the side and burned my hands.
I didn’t feel a thing.
“Be right back!” he said, backing out of the room and shutting the door behind him.
I listened for the sound of a lock clicking into place. There wasn’t one.
I stared ahead, not at my cup of coffee or the tabletop, but two inches above it.
From when the officer had placed the mini-menu before me.
The sleeve of his uniform rose slightly and, just below the cheap Casio watch about his wrist, I noticed something that shouldn’t have been there.
Not if he was human.
A thick band of skin wrapped around the base of his wrist.
The officer wasn’t human. He was a Changeling.
I nudged the door open. My heart thudded so hard I could feel it in my toes. I peered up and down the hallway. Rubber soles screeched on the floor as someone approached. I ducked back in the interrogation room, leaving the door open an inch.
An officer crossed the hall a little way ahead. I waited a moment to see if he would come back out again. He didn’t.
I tiptoed out and passed the open plan office the man had entered. I glanced inside and focused on the officer’s wrists. Right where they joined his hand, there was a wrinkled band of skin.
Another Changeling.
I’d come back into town to clear up any loose ends, to prevent me from having to return to this place and keep me safe, and instead, I managed to find myself in a police station full of Changelings.
It didn’t make any sense. Why would there be Changelings here? Why would there be so many? Did they have anything to do with us being abducted? That was their business, wasn’t it? Forced enslavement?
And then something
