Hanna looked around the parking lot. Cars waiting to park, men and women flocking in and out, pushing carts. So. Many. People.
Expected, on a sunny Saturday morning at the supermarket.
She took a long, fortifying breath. She hated the crowd on a good day, but when being in the house got too comfortable, when losing herself in one of the books she edited became all she wanted to do, she knew she had to go out and face other human beings.
“You all right?” Luke asked her, grabbing a cart from the cart line.
Was she?
Her body had almost completely recovered, only her arm still hurt.
Her heart? Not even close.
“I hate this place,” she muttered.
“Yeah, it shows.” He smacked a noisy kiss on her forehead. “But we gotta eat.”
She rolled her eyes, but allowed some of his hopeful, upbeat attitude to rub on her.
They entered the store. People scattered around, the cashier’s chimes, footsteps, laughters, clatter and rustling. Where would she run if the Purists attacked now? How would she protect Luke? She could shield him if she were a big animal, but a swan? Nothing she could do. Walls started closing on her, every noise a scratch on her exposed nerves.
His voice cut in and quiet everything else. “Hey.”
He stopped her, took her face in his strong hands. “Look at me. That’s it. It’s all good. You hear me? All good.” And in the produce section, surrounded by colorful fruit and vegetables, his lips brushed hers, slow and sweet, resetting the world and her reality.
“Sorry,” she said. “It’s just…”
“Yeah. Come on, let’s go find food. And whipped cream. We need whipped cream in our lives.”
They resumed their shopping, her heart a little less afraid.
No way anyone knew about her. Them, walking freely in the shop proved it. Cops showed up with Court orders, ask for doctors’ documents, then start an investigation that would end up with both, she and Luke, losing everything.
Her job as editor. His position as chief with the fire department.
All of it.
For now, the only one suspicious was Abraham and while he was a dangerous man, even he needed more to out her.
It’s okay, she repeated over and over.
“I was thinking,” Luke said, putting two cans of beans in the cart. “I can take some time off.” He walked on. “We can get away for a long weekend. How’s your schedule?”
“I’m almost done with a manuscript. I can take a breather after it. The author said she’s in no hurry.” She quickly scanned the cookies in front of her, decided for an old-fashioned chocolate chip. And then she slid into his arms. “I’d love leaving, even for just a few days.”
“Then we’ll make it happen. So,” he said as they moved on. “Fish BBQ?”
For the first time in the past twenty-four hours, she smiled and meant it. “How can I say no?”
They finished grocery shopping, made their way back to the car, loaded it with bags, the chit chat never winding down. They threw in areas they would like to visit, both agreeing on heat and ocean breeze, but didn’t come together for a specific place. “We will write down two places each, and draw,” she proposed.
“Deal,” Luke agreed, closing the trunk with a thud.
“Look who’s here on this beautiful morning.”
Hannah’s blood iced over. “Mr. Lewis.”
“Oh, come on now, I told you to call me Abraham.” Acting like her very best friend, he smacked a pat on her hurt arm.
She flinched, and his eyes lit with understanding, as if he finally got his hands on the missing pieces of a puzzle. “Did you get hurt, miss Hannah?”
Panic spurred her heart into a neck-breaking run, her sweat cold on her forehead. No way out.
He knew.
“She twisted her arm working out,” Luke said, easy as they can be. But in his voice, she heard terror.
A brave man who would not think twice before jumping in an open fire stood, terrified, before a bully holding the truth against them.
Dread changed colors, from a hopeless black to a raging red. “Nothing bad, anyway,” she said, finding her spine.
“What a shame,” Abraham said low, studying her, his eyes roaming on her body. Those eyes on her disgusted her, but she’ll take it over backing down.
“If you’ll excuse us,” she said, “we have to go.”
“Sure.” He stepped aside. “I’ll be in touch.”
She was on his face in the next second, smelled the stench of cheap beer on his breath. But she hissed, “Do. That.”
Abraham left, with a sneer and rightful murder in his eyes.
She and Luke got in the car, sat, but he didn’t start it, and no one spoke for a long minute. She had no clue about his train of thoughts, but sure she knew about hers.
Fight. Fight until she was dead or free.
The drone of her rage covered the rumble of the pain of what she had to do, to say. She would fight, but she would not drag Luke, her kind, sweet Luke, in the mud with her. No way he would lose all for her war.
She was a swan, and swans mated for life. He’d been her first and will be her last. Surrender her love, her future, for his happiness didn’t seem like a big deal. Her heart would still be his, that was beyond any doubt, and her conscience could rest peacefully, knowing why she hurt him like she was about to do. “Luke.”
He looked at her. “Marry me, Hannah.”
It worked as an icy shower, a freezing waterfall extinguishing not only her anger, but all her thoughts. “What?”
“You were about to dump me, weren’t you?”
“I… how…”
He swatted at the air. “Oh, please. It’s been on your mind since last night, if not before that.”
“But…”
“We’re not doing that. The breaking up.” He started the engine. “What we’re doing is, we’re gonna get married. And then we find a way to fight. Or the other way around. We’ll see what’s best.”
“Luke-”
“No.” Determination burned in his sweet brown eyes. “I know you mean well, but butt out. Who I love, who I fight with and for? That’s my business and no one else’s. Not even yours. Unless,” he said, his voice breaking for an infinitesimal, enormous instant. “Unless you don’t love me anymore, or enough, to share with me whatever we’ll find on the other side. Because there will be another side.”
“How can you even say that?”
“Because you were about to dump me.”
She looked at her hands, unsure what to say, what to feel. She went with her heart. “I love you. And I’m scared. For us, for you.” She took a long breath, shook her head. “He has his eyes on us. Abraham. He’ll make it his mission to prove I’m an Other. What are we going to do when the state asks for blood tests? Maybe scans? My parents burned them all as soon as the swan showed and that in itself is proof of my guilt.”
“You have no guilt.”
She scoffed. “I, an abomination, exist. I don’t even deserve to live.”
Luke exited the parking lot. “We need to find a way, and we will.”
“I don’t think you mean we turn into vigilantes and take down one Purist at the time until we’re left alone.”
When he didn’t answer, she chuckled out of disbelief. “Oh my god, Luke. Seriously?”
He simply twitched his head on the side. “That’s pretty much what they’ve been doing with you from the beginning, so…. Karma?”
“There’s nothing more removed from you than a murderer. I appreciate the sentiment, though.”
Such levity, she mused, in what could be the beginning of the end. But being discovered, at least by one person, had cut the last thread of fear.
The nightmare had turned into reality, and now they had to decide how to face the music. Dance, or leave the party.
She followed the landscape, a bent and a bump. The trees changed into their fall colors, cabins scattered here and there. Home. Why should they leave this place, this life they built? They hurt no one, did nothing wrong. “I shouldn’t pay taxes.”
Luke glanced at her. “Okay. I think?”
“I mean, I pay like any other person but have none of the same protection. The police are ready to get me at any moment, should I be recognized as an Other. I can’t use public higher education because I’d be stripped of it, so why bother? I pay for an insurance I can’t use because I’d get ousted if a doctor gets his hands on me, so it’s just for show. I can’t even marry, because if I get caught…” She shook her head. “At least I should get a discount.”
He turned onto the back road leading to their home. “When you put it that way, yes. You should.”
“Again, thanks for the support.”
They unloaded the grocery in silence, both lost in their thoughts. Until Luke grabbed her arm. “I got it.”
“What?”
“How we can start a war.”
“I didn’t realize we were trying.”
“We’re not, but if we want to fight, and we do, don’t you think others will tag along? It can’t be only you and I the ones fed up.”
“Possibly.” And wouldn’t that be something?
“We’ll lawyer up. We’ll go against the ban on marriages.”
She saw where he was going, and she liked it. A laughed laced with hysteria bubbled up. “You want to sue the State?”
“I want to sue the State. They want to be bitches with you? Okay. But what about me? I can’t marry who I want. It must be against something.”
She pulled a chair close, sat. “There will be consequences.”
“We’ll face them.” He knelt in front of her, his hands on her knees. “You’re friends with the lawyer in town.”
Not friends, as claimed none. Friendship required honesty, and she didn’t have that luxury. Nora got closer than others, though. “Nora.”
“Let’s chat with her.”
“You want to trust her this much?”
He shrugged. “At this point, I don’t care. If we start this, we have to be all in because it’s going to be a disaster. What do you say?”
She should have thought it through longer. After a lifetime of hiding and running, she should be used to play defense. And yet, her answer was immediate. “I need to make a call.”