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Before I could get out a word, she wound her arm through mine and gripped me tightly. She spun me toward a hallway that didn’t lead to my room but elsewhere in the prison.
“Come on!” she said. “There’s something I want you to see.”
“Harper…”
She smiled up at me, so warm, so caring, so gorgeous.
I didn’t have the heart to let her down.
“Lead the way,” I said.
I shot a furtive glance over my shoulder in the direction of the stairs to Krial’s apartment and was relieved not to find Annas staring back at me.
Annas didn’t let things like this slide and would take it upon herself to get back at me. I was certain of that. She could make Krial’s soul look pristine white in comparison.
I let Harper lead me down the seemingly infinite hallways, my mind focused on my problem of how to keep Harper safe without also having to give her up.
The hallways became busier with foot traffic as we took a corner and approached a large open room with a huge glass front that looked out on the surrounding alien landscape.
It was red and orange with faint hues of yellow, a violent and harsh arid desert. Jagged mountains jabbed at the sky like bodkin needles and another prison building—or maybe it was the same we were now standing in—arched around from the left.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” Harper said, beaming broadly.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
“Yes, it is.”
Harper caught me looking at her, smiled, and pulled her eyes from me shyly. I didn’t think I’d ever seen that look on her face before.
We stood before the thick window and gazed out. There were other prisoners, all staring at us, jealous I had such a beauty on my arm.
A couple tried to catch Harper’s eye but she never took them off me or the landscape sprawled before us.
“What’s your homeworld like?” Harper said.
“Homeworld? I don’t know. I’ve never been there.”
“You lived on a colony?”
“No.”
“Then where did you live?”
“On a ship, mostly. Sailing through space from one system to another.”
“Oh.”
She seemed disappointed by my revelation. It wasn’t that uncommon in this day and age. Krial always had something for us to do.
“What about your homeworld?” I said. “Earth. Does it look like this?”
“No. Well, parts of it do. The deserts. But it’s not red. It’s yellow. And we don’t have mountains like these on Earth. At least, I don’t think we do. Most of Earth is covered with water, the rest of it is land. There’s ice at the north and south poles.”
“You must miss it.”
“Yes,” Harper said with a hint of melancholy. “I never realized how much home meant to me before I was abducted.”
“Do you think you’ll ever get back?” I wanted to ask, but I didn’t. I already knew what the likely answer was. A resounding “No.”
