And this would be Caleb and my first night here and first real night apart. He breathed deeply, his fingers digging further into my hair and dragged me against him. The assembly has spoken of propriety, of morals, of rules and regulations, ceremonies and a slew of other things that Caleb and I were supposed to be either doing or already done. When they'd seen our tattoos, marking up as mutualized significants, they had blown an old coot gasket.
So what was I to do when being placed in a position where I was being controlled and told exactly what I was going to do, with no say in the matter? Naturally, I said "Screw you, propriety."
Twelve
I turned and pressed Caleb's back into the wall, letting his arms crush me to him. When he murmured against my lips, I pulled back the barest inch to hear him.
"I said, I like you like this. You should be pissed off more often," he said low and chuckling, but he was dead serious too. I ignored Lynne and Kyle as they made their way swiftly to the room next to mine. He kissed her and she slipped inside. He grinned at us before walking to the staircase on the other end of the hall.
"Will there be lots of interruptions now that it's time for lights out?" I asked breathlessly.
"Nope." He kissed my jaw. "They'll all take the South stairwell. It's closer from the ballroom to the second floor that way."
"So…no more interruptions?" I said slyly.
Caleb pulled my lips back to his, knowing we were already breaking the rules by not being in our separate rooms at almost curfew. His hand splayed at the small of my back, bunching the fabric in his fist, the back of my dress lifting slightly. His other hand worked into my hair, like he couldn't get me close enough.
As I gripped his neck, I heard the thoughts of others right before we were interrupted. I pulled back, but Caleb pulled me behind his arm, the protectiveness wafting off of him. I wondered why, but when I looked back at the others, I saw that they were guards.
Oh no. The assembly has convened about Caleb already, and it didn’t look as if they were extending clemency any further. They were taking him to his cell.
"No," I said involuntarily.
"It's alright," Caleb said and turned to me. "It's ok. I'll figure something out."
"You always say that," I mused and smiled sadly up at him, "but it's not all figured out this time, Caleb." I took a deep breath, gnawing my bottom lip. One of the guys behind us cleared his throat and made a noise that said 'hurry up'.
I reached up and put my hands on his face, causing him to grunt with the force of my touch. We both soaked it up with ferocity. I dreaded this, but needed to be strong and put together. I needed to show Caleb that I would be ok. If he thought for one second that I was about to breakdown, he'd throw a fit to stay with me. I needed him to be calm, and I needed to slow my heartbeat.
"Let's go, Caleb," one of them barked.
Caleb looked back with a glower. "You can wait a second, Wayne, while I see to my significant. How's Michelle, by the way?"
Wayne flushed and looked away uncomfortably.
"I'm ok," I assured Caleb and pulled him back to look at me. "Just go with them. Don't hurt anybody," I said quickly.
He smirked and laughed silently. "Don't hurt anybody, huh?"
"Yeah." I straightened and smiled bravely, but he saw right through it.
"I don't know how, but I will make this ok," he promised in a hard, compelling voice and looked at me until I nodded. One of the guys tried to grab his arm and Caleb jerked his arm back. "Don't you touch me. I can walk on my own." He looked back to me. "I know right where we're going."
He kissed me sweetly on the lips, lingering and stalling.
I'll see you soon. Remember, don't leave the room without Rodney.I nodded and he went with them down the long hallway. I watched and waited. I didn't really know what I was waiting for. I knew the council wouldn't come to their rooms until later, knowing I'd want an altercation with them now.
I decided I better go into my room and just wait. Wait for what, I didn't know, but standing around the hall and looking on after Caleb was already gone wasn't helping a thing.
The door opened easily, without a creak or sound. I slipped my shoes off by the door and went into the bathroom. The white bathroom was so bright and loud with its simplicity that it almost made me mad. I didn't want to be bright, I wanted a dark room so that I could wallow, but that wasn't what I needed. I needed to be awake and sharp. So I took a hot shower, the steam drifted out into my room from the open bathroom door it was so hot.
I lathered my hair, washed my body, shaved, though it seemed silly now. I brushed my teeth, stark naked and wet. I walked back into my room still stark naked and dripping onto the fine carpet. It was my small rebellion; the only thing that seemed like it could be in my control tonight. I sat around my room, or paced rather, and thought about the next day. I wondered what was in store; more games, more dancing, more food, more of the same.
I decided I needed to start talking to the others. I needed to introduce myself properly, not only as the Visionary, but as me. They needed to see me as someone who they could talk to and approach if they had a problem. The gloom that had blanketed the palace since we got here wasn't just from our family, it seemed to emanate from everyone. And I needed to figure out why. Not to sound arrogant, but wouldn't they be happy that I was here? The Visionary? Wasn't this what they'd been waiting for?
I decided to rebel further as I put on some sleep pants and a small Metal Petals t-shirt that Caleb must've slipped into my bag. I smiled at his gesture, but quickly became stoic once more. I lifted the small keychain that Caleb had given me and rubbed it in between my fingers. Then I picked up my star bracelet and slipped it back onto my wrist, like I did every time I got out of the shower. I found my flip flops by the door and cracked it open. I had no idea where I was going, but I knew exactly what I was looking for. I just hoped that the Visionary part of me was working full blast tonight.
I opened my senses as I made my way stealthily down the hall. Truly all that was missing was Mission Impossible theme music, but if I was being honest, it was playing in my head anyway. I almost laughed at myself for being silly, but I was a new me. And I had a plan.
I could hear Lynne's thoughts as she picked out her outfit for the next day as I passed her room. She was deciding between a green dress or a pink sweater. She really wanted to wear both, but wanted to be respectable for Kyle's sake. All of the other rooms were empty.
I arrived at the stairs at the exact moment that I heard voices behind me down the hall. They weren't there yet, but would be in seconds. I swung open the heavy door and pressed my hand to the back of it to keep it from slamming. It eased to a close and I peeked down the hall to see the council finally going to their rooms. Apparently, lights out wasn't meant for them.
They were fighting. Though they had lowered their voices, I heard them each in my mind, except for Donald. They were arguing about what to do with me, my withdrawals. Donald was telling them it would be perfectly acceptable for me to visit Caleb in the cell for a few minutes every morning.
It was still so strange to me their way of thinking. Not that I believed Caleb was meant to be in a cell, but the punishment for killing someone was just that? To be put in a cell for a week and then possibly banished? Seemed a little like a grain of rice weighing up against a bag of sugar.
But I saw in their minds that they believed the law was the only way to keep peace, however inconsistent and sometime silly it seemed. They believed you couldn't teach someone not to kill by killing. Ok, it sounded logical when you said it like that, but in reality, that wasn't the way things worked. Everyone needed boundaries and if you did something wrong you needed a consequence that was a deterrent to keep you from doing it.
I realized then how my idea of a Utopian society where everyone just handled their own was an impossibility. I also realized that someone was going to have to rule. Dang it! I almost complained out loud, but kept my composure. They all separated and went to their rooms. I inched up the stairs and looked for my target.
They were so many rooms on the second floor. It was huge! Corridor after corridor, hall after hall of rooms. I heard them all behind their closed, heavy gray doors as they bustled to get ready for bed and took care of their families. I stomped my foot in frustration as I knew it was going to take a miracle to sift through everyone to find him.
And then a miracle happened. From my outburst came a few energy ribbons. They hovered in the air in front of me as if waiting to see that they had my full attention. I stared at them as they huddled into a little ball. There were only about ten of them and they started a slow trail down the hall. They left a little ethereal matter behind them in an eerie blue trail, but I looked up and was being left behind so I scrambled to catch up.
They took me down several halls to a door. I sighed in relief when I realized that Rodney was behind that door. Then I heard his thoughts…jail break? I busted through his door without knocking and gawked at him. He stared at me with surprise as he held his shirt in the air, half on, half off. He'd been dressing and me - the idiot I was - had barged in. Thank goodness it was his shirt I'd caught him with and not his pants. I quickly turned.
"Visionary?" he asked, the humor in his voice causing me to blush as I peeked back and saw him slipping the shirt on. He tucked the front into his jeans, letting his belt buckle show. It had the letters JR on it. I wondered what that meant. Jacobson Ranch?