While I shoveclothes and shoes into a suitcase, I realize I don’t even know what I’m going to need for this adventure. Do I need heels and a nice dress, or should I just take sensible clothes?
Will my clothes be out of fashion?
Is there even fashion?
My stomach tightens and my eyes burn. Am I homesick before I’ve even left?
There are a thousand reasons I shouldn’t go, and just as many to leave. How do I know if I’m doing the right thing?
It was easy when the adrenaline was pumping, but now I’m kind of cold and scared. Either way, my future is uncertain. I pick up my phone, almost out of habit, to text Gabby even though it’s two in the morning and she won’t see it until she wakes up.
And I know what she’ll tell me even if she does pick up.
“Take the chance! Get out of here. Have fun and make a difference.”
We thought that’s what we were doing when we moved from the small town we’d grown up in, to the city. But it’s easy to be lost in a city.
And if it’s easy to be lost in a city, it will be even easier in a galaxy.
Thistle steps into the doorway, his skin gleaming as though it has a metallic sheen. “I have gathered the tech, and evidence, and I am ready to run the biological clean.” He pauses, as though he knows I am not ready. “You are having doubts.”
I shake my head. “Not exactly. Fear?”
“Leaving your home world is always terrifying. Ask anyone.”
A laugh bubbles out. “Usually I’d ask my best friend, but she’s never left this world either.”
“You will still be able to talk to her.”
“And what do I tell her?” It won’t be the same. And I don’t want to be something she holds on to when I’m not coming back. That’s cruel. I’ll make new friends, but we escaped from our small town together. We’ve been a team. “She’ll worry about me and report me missing.”
“We cannot bring her.”
“I know.” Leaving home at eighteen hadn’t been this hard. We’d known it was leave, or be trapped forever. Staying means I’ll live under a cloud of suspicion or be in prison. Neither of which will do anything for my career.
I sigh. “I’m packed. I think.” As an afterthought, I throw in all the gold jewelry Doug bought me. “Is gold worth anything?”
“That depends on the world, and sometimes the culture, as some planets have more than one species cohabiting and ruling. You will need a translator implant.”
My eyebrows lift. “Then how am I understanding you?”
“We learned English.”
“Ah.” And I won’t have time to learn all the languages. No one did. “What happens after the biological clean?”
“We can sleep. In the ship.”
“We could sleep here and clean in the morning.” This bed is comfortable, but it’s the one I shared with Doug. Every time I think of him, I remember the way he looked without the human skin.
“It is easier to move around at night, and there is less chance of the ship being seen.”
I force out a breath and stand up. “Okay then.”
I take a last look around. I’m not sure my passport and birth certificate will mean much, but I have them anyway. I don’t think there’s anything here that I will need. Anyone who investigates Doug’s disappearance will assume I was involved and am on the run. Gabby will assume he killed me. Maybe the police will also assume he killed me and he is on the run?
“Ready?” Thistle holds out his hand.
“You swear you won’t abandon me?”
