Caroline's Keeper

The dining hall was packed. And that's saying quite a lot for such a huge place. There had to be five-hundred people at the very least, crammed into chairs in front of the long tables.

"What are we celebrating?" Caroline asked Bastien, taking her seat.

"Celebrating?" he chuckled. "Nope, this is just your basic, everyday dinner."

Caroline looked up at him for a few moments as he stood looking down at her.

"Are you going to sit?" she asked finally.

"No. This room is for guests," he smiled widely, and Caroline had to laugh. She almost felt like she could get used to this as long as Bastien was going to be around. "Just hold tight, your dinner will be here soon." With that said, he turned and walked away.

Caroline watched Bastien walk away until she heard a voice say, "You."

She turned around to face a dark-skinned young man staring intensely at her through deep ebony eyes. "I'm sorry?" Caroline squeaked.

"We don't know you," a blonde girl to his left pointed out. "Why are you sitting with us?"

Caroline didn't know if they were purposely being rude, but they were making her feel uncomfortable. Without a word, she got up to leave, but a bony, pale hand gripped her right arm and yanked her down with surprising strength. She looked over—well, mostly up—at the tall boy to her right, who looked away suddenly and adjusted his glasses.

"Well, you can't leave now; you're already here," he muttered, and released her arm.

"Name," the black guy said.

"Caroline," she told them.

From the corner of her eye, she saw a head spin in her direction at the mention of her name. She glanced over.

"Simon?!" Caroline screamed.

The pale boy's bony hand covered her mouth. The boy spat into her ear, "No outbursts! They'll kill you!"

"Who will kill me?" she asked.

"The aliens!" he answered.

Caroline blinked, confused.

"You see everyone in this room?" the girl across from Caroline began. "We're all humans. It's hard to tell the difference because they look like us, but if you memorize all the faces in this room, you'll know who's on your side." She extended her hand suddenly. Caroline shook it. "I'm Kim."

The black guy said, "Ray," but didn't hold out his arm.

"Liam," said the lanky boy. "I guess you already know Simon." Caroline and Simon met each other's stares and nodded. "But I've never seen you here before. How come?"

"I've only been here since last night," Caroline replied.

Liam shook his head. "Impossible. We've been in space for months."

Before Caroline could argue, a waiter came past and set platefuls of food in front of everyone. Pasta, with some kind of off-white sauce. It was probably cheese, but Caroline consumed the food so quickly, she never found out just what it was. Apparently, months in space without food can do that to a person.

After she'd finished her meal, Simon asked Caroline for a pen.

"Oh, right," she retorted. "That's my number one safety precaution: always carry a pen in case you're abducted from the planet!"

"Okay, okay! Sorry!" Simon said. "Just asking!"

"It's okay," Caroline said, regretting her cocky tone. Simon never liked that about her. "What did you need it for?"

He passed a piece of paper across the table to her. She studied the seven strange yet familiar symbols on it. "It's the key sequence for my door. Do you have one?"

Caroline pulled hers out of the pocket of her hoodie and handed it to him. "What were you going to do?"

"I was going to write mine of the back of yours and yours on the back of mine."

"How would we even tell apart the doors?" she inquired.

"Well, where is yours?" he asked.

"I don't know! I've only been conscious since yesterday!" Caroline wondered how she didn't think of it when she saw that dot on the map. The speed at which it was going wasn't nearly enough to get as far as it gone in one night. How long had she been here?

"Have a nice dinner?"

Caroline gasped, and turned around to find Eivon smirking at her, a strange woman at his side, twisting a lock of strawberry blonde hair between her fingers and standing close to Eivon, much too close.

"No!" Caroline shrieked, glaring at him. "How long was I really out for?"

"Follow me and we'll talk about it," he said, and he ran off, leaving the woman behind. She frowned and placed her hands on her hips before stalking off.

All of a sudden, Caroline felt a familiar hand tighten around hers. She turned to look at Simon, who was whispering something so softly she had to read his lips to understand it.

That's her, Simon was saying. That's the woman who kidnapped me.

Then Caroline remembered Eivon and quickly got up to chase after him. She'd wanted her answers on the day she met him in the park, and, months later, she still hadn't gotten them. That was all about to change.