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I remained frozen in the corner, watching him. There was no internal memory jog, no mental spark. I mean, he didn’t look like a serial killer or escaped prisoner or anything, so that was something. Just a regular guy. Athletic. Tan. Good looking, but not absurdly so. Nice voice. If this guy was on my side, I might be okay.
Were there sides here?
His eyes held worry as he approached the edge of the ship. “Do you remember what happened?”
I shook my head. I was afraid to tell him I didn’t recognize my own name, didn’t know what I looked like, didn’t know him. He might not take that well. If we had some sort of involved relationship, that is. I’m not sure how I knew men could be weird about stuff like that, but somehow at that moment it felt really true.
“I was afraid to move you,” he continued, oblivious to my total lack of back story. “I told you not to climb on the ship. It wasn’t stable enough.”
“I-I’m sorry,” I said. My voice croaked, and my throat felt like sandpaper. I felt as if my mouth hadn’t formed words for thousands of years.
“Can you stand? We need to get back to the castle.”
The castle?
The stranger’s eyes narrowed. “Elodie, what do you remember? Be honest. You’re safe here.”
We must be using different definitions of the wordsafe.
“Well?” he prodded.
“Nothing. I don’t remember anything.”
“What do you mean you don’t rememberanything? What’s the first thing you remember?”
“NOTHING!” I shouted. Did he need flash cards? Anxiety crowded out my ability to think and behave rationally. It felt like bugs were crawling on me. Maybe they were. I smacked at a spot on my arm. It was getting dark fast, and the wildness had clearly overtaken this place. I’m pretty sure I don’t like wildness. I thought suddenly that I should start a list of these things as they occurred to me, but I didn’t have any paper.
“What do you mean nothing?” he said.
Come on universe. I couldn’t be stuck out here with somebody smart?
“I don’t know who you are or who I am. I don’t remember anything about my life!” It came out a little more dramatic than I’d intended, as if there could be a low key way to deliver this sort of information.
“Is this one of your jokes? Because I can tell you, if it is, it’s not funny. I was scared out of my mind when you wouldn’t wake up.”
“How long was I out?”
“A few hours.”
“I t-think I need to go to a hospital.”
“That’s not an option.”
A chill slid down my spine. Maybe this guywasn’ton my side. Hell, how did I know he hadn’t beaten me over the head with a broken tree branch in the first place?
“Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t mean it that way. Let’s just get back to the castle. We have electricity there. I’ll explain it all to you when we get back.”
I stared at the hand he offered. “How do I know you won’t hurt me?”
He took a deep, measured breath which didn’t reassure me at all. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m your husband. Trevor. Everything is going to be okay.”
I flinched when he reached into his back pocket as if he might be going for a weapon. But it was just his wallet. He pulled out a long thin paper and handed it to me. It was deeply creased from being folded and kept for so long. There was barely enough light left to see, but it was a strip of photos from a photo booth. Trevor and a woman.
“She’s pretty,” I said absently, staring at the blonde girl with brilliant blue eyes.
He laughed. “There’s no conceit in your family. You’ve got it all.” Off my confused expression, he continued, “She’s you. That was our first date.”
“Oh.” I handed the strip of pictures back to him, feeling suddenly awkward.
