Brianne heard Amy screaming in her ear as she tightened her arms around her sister in a protective manner. As the bright light slowly began to dim, Brianne could see they were in a bedroom, which didn’t make any sense to her. How could this be? She slowly removed her arms from around Amy, as she continued to look at her surroundings. Brianne gasped in surprised to see a man and women in the room with them. “What do you want?”
“Hello, my name is Allen Wiley, and this is my wife, Wendy. We are your host couple, here to help you in any way we can. The first question that is usually asked is, ‘Where am I?’ First, let me tell you, you’re not in any danger. We are here to help the two of you, if you are willing to let us. You have been transported onto our spaceship, we want Brianne to marry Luke, one of the men from our planet today, and for Amy to marry another one of our young men in a few years, when she is older, of course.”
Brianne looked at Amy and then back to the Wileys as they stood there watching them. “Is this some sort of joke? People aren’t transported through thin air like in the movies.”
“What I’m telling you is the truth.” Allen looked into her eyes.
Brianne torn her eyes away from Allen, looking over at Wendy. “We can’t marry people who we don’t know. Could you?”
Wendy smiled at Brianne. “I did.”
Brianne was stunned by Wendy’s words. “What do you mean?”
“I’m from Earth, born and raised in Kansas City.” She looked at Allen and smiled.
Allen smiled back at his wife. “Zodar suffers an epidemic every few years. The only people who are killed by this horrible disease are the native women of Zodar. The women who are from Earth or have ancestors who were Earthlings are not affected. You do have two choices, you can go with us, or go back home, it is completely up to the two of you.”
Brianne looked over at her sister to see her reaction and saw she was as stun as she was. She looked back to Allen. “Tell us more.”
“If you go back to Earth, we will put you back at the wedding ceremony where you were before we transported you, on the other hand, you can stay here, marry someone who isn’t sixty, and go live on our planet. If you go back to Earth, you will not remember ever being here, and your life would go on as if we hadn’t transported you. If the two of you want to discuss this privately, we will leave for a few minutes.”
“Yes, please.” Brianne muttered, her mouth tightened, and her expression was grim.
Allen walked over to the wall. “Before we leave, I want to show you something first.” Allen open folding doors on what looked like an ordinary television set, he pushed a button and the television came on. As the picture became clearer, the two girls realized it wasn’t an ordinary television, but instead some kind of viewing monitor.
“What you are seeing is your bridegroom and stepfather. Watch this before you make your final decision.” Allen and Wendy walked to the door, and opened it, but just before shutting the door, Allen sticks his head back in the door. “We will be right outside the door when you’re ready with your decision. Please don’t take too long to decide because we are on a strict time schedule.”
Brianne nodded acknowledging his comment. What would be best for Amy? She only wanted to protect Amy from Dirk.
The two girls look at the monitor and saw Dirk and Scott were talking together, so Brianne turns the knob to increase the volume so they can hear what is being said.
“What in the hell just happened here?” Scott asked as he quickly looked around the room.
“Why ask me? This is your house, not mine.” Dirk said as he looked at Scott.
“I wonder how they could simply disappear right before eyes. I didn’t even hear them leave.”
“Are you sure this isn’t just some kind of trick you’ve planned so you can get your hands on even more of the insurance money.” Dirk looked at Scott with an accusing look.
“We have to find those two, because unless Brianne marries you, neither one of us will gets a dime of that yearly three hundred-thousand-dollar insurance payment.”
“You think they planned this escape?”
“I know they can’t have much money with them, if they have any at all.” Scott moved over to the bar and poured two drinks, taking it over to Dirk and handed him a drink. “At first, I thought about blackmailing Brianne into marrying me and moving to another city, but I was worried that somehow Brianne would cause trouble for me if I forced her to marry me. I’m not stupid, as I know how much she hated me. I thought my idea about having you marrying her was a great one, as at least we were both getting some of the money from her father’s insurance policy. Then when Brianne suggested Amy go live with you, I thought it was a good way to get rid of Amy as well.”
Scott quickly finishes his drink, and then returned to the bar to refill his glass. “We have to find those two, as they couldn’t have gotten too far. Since Brianne is in a wedding dress, and Amy is in a prom dress, they’re bound to stand out; people are going to notice them wherever they go.”
“Scott, you never told me, but how did you find out about Robert’s insurance policy?”
Scott laughed. “One night, he and I went out drinking together. In his sozzled state, he told me about the insurance policy, just not the details, only the amount of the cash payout.”
“Do they have any family that you know of that they could have gone to?” Dirk asked, then finished his drink.
“No, Anne told me all her family was gone.”
Dirk walked to the bar. He stood there a few seconds before pouring another drink. “Maybe their father had some distant relatives living nearby.”
“That it.” Scott snapped his fingers. “I bet they have run off to some relative I’m not aware of.”
“How are we going to go about finding these relatives by Brianne’s twenty-first birthday that’s less than two weeks away.” Dirk’s voice was filled with panic.
“We will need something to coax them back to the house, but what?” Scott walked around the room. “I need something of their father’s they wouldn’t want to be without. All I have to do it find the item and then find them, the rest should be easy,” he said, as he walked towards the different bookshelves that filled the walls in the room.
He stopped in mid-step and stared at the bookshelf as where all the family pictures were usually displayed, he was shocked to see all their personal items were all gone. Wondering about their bedrooms, Scott rushed out of the room with Dirk right behind him.
“Scott, what’s wrong?” he asked as he followed him out of the room.
As Scott runs up the stairs, he calls over his shoulder. “I want to check their rooms.”
Scott threw open Brianne’s bedroom door, the door slamming against the wall as he stepped into the room. He’s shocked at what he sees in the room, actually what he didn’t see, as everything in the room was gone, it was completely empty. He leaned against the doorframe. “How did they do it?”
“Where did everything go?” Dirk asked as he came into the room. “When did they have time to do this?” he asked shaking his head.
“I don’t know. There is no way those two girls could have done this all by themselves, they must have had help.” He frowned and shook his head in bewilderment.
“Do you think Amy’s room is empty too?” Dirk asked.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“I’m sure of it.” Scott said as anger lit his face.
“Now what do we do?” Dirk asked in a boy like voice.
“How in the hell do I know. What I wonder about is what happens to all that money if they never come back. Neither of them knew about the money that I know of. Unless we find Brianne and the two of you are married before her birthday, we are out of luck of ever getting our hands on any of that money.”
“I was afraid you were going to say that.” Dirk mumbled.
Brianne turned off the monitor. “I think we have seen enough. I can’t believe it. If only Mom knew about the money in the first place, she wouldn’t have been forced to married Scott in the second place. We could be home right now and not have to worry about making this strange decision. Amy, how do you feel about marrying a stranger when you get older?” Brianne watched her sister closely for her reaction.
“It’s better than marrying some creep Scott would have picked for me. He probably would marry me off next week if there were some money in it for him. I say, let’s go for it, but you make the final decision.” Amy eyes glowed as she waited expectantly for her reply.
“Amy, I don’t want to marry Dirk, but I don’t want to marry some stranger either. From what we just saw of Scott and Dirk, they were going steal money that rightfully belonged to us. I don’t think going back to Earth is a choice for us anymore.”
“Brianne, call the Wileys back in and ask them questions before you make a final decision.”
“What question would I ask? No matter what the answers are, it won’t change anything back on Earth. If we go back, I will have to marry Dirk, and if we stay, I’ll have to marry,” Brianne waved her hand toward the door. “What’s his name. I say, as long as we are together it doesn’t matter what we do.” She said in a discouraged voice.
“If we stay, we will be free of Scott and won’t be able to force us to do anything anymore. That and we mess up his plans on getting our money,” she said with a slight smile of defiance.
Brianne smiled at her sister. “That’s a plus for staying.”
“Either way, the man you marry will be someone you don’t love. Dirk is old, but you don’t know anything about Luke yet. Maybe he is the one, the one you have dreamed about for so long, the dream man you want to crawl into bed with each night.”
Brianne looked at her sister and smiled. “Yes, the one from my dreams.” Every night for the past six months, she had been having dreams about one young man. “The handsome man, who is about six foot three and has a nice attractive athletic body on him.” Brianne smiled hungrily. “You know the kind I mean, the kind who looked as if he regularly worked out with weights. He doesn’t have long hair, tattoos, or any body piercing. The color his hair is blond, his eyes are green, and he’s clean-shaven. When I look at him, my stomach does flip-flops, and my heart starts to beat rapidly with sexually anticipation. I’m looking for Mr. Perfect, but it’s unlikely Luke will be him.” She said with disappointment. “He’s from my dreams, so there isn’t any way that Luke would be him. I guess I’m looking for someone who couldn’t possible exists.” Brianne eyes have a far-off look.
“Maybe Luke will have some of the qualities you want.” Amy helpfully told her.
“When cows can fly.”
“We’re flying.” Amy said encouragingly.
Brianne smiled at her sister. “You want to stay, don’t you?”
“I don’t want you to have to marry Dirk. From what we’ve seen, I think Scott and Dirk are up to some illegal dealings with Dad’s insurance money. I don’t trust to be near them.”
“All right, we’ll stay.” Brianne went to the door and opened it. “Mr. Wiley, we’ll go with you to your planet, but first could you tell us where all our belongings are.”
The Wileys looked pleased with her decision as they both walked back into the room, Wendy walked over to Brianne and took hold of her hand. “Don’t worry, dear. All your belongings are safe and will be back with you once you are settled on Zodar.”
“What happens now to my father’s insurance money?”
“It will be transferred to you after your wedding.”
“You can do that?” Brianne was surprised by this news.
“Yes, we have our sources that help transfers people’s money to Zodar.”
“Tell me what I need to do,” she said softly.
Wendy brought the girls two photo albums, the first one having pictures of Brianne and Amy with their family and the second album were of Luke and Austin Baker. Tammy told the girls that Luke was twenty-one and Austin, was his nineteen-year-old brother.
Brianne had been matched to marry Luke, but nothing was mentioned about Amy or Austin. The girls slowly looked at the first album, which contained their life story. The pictures brought back many memories for them, and luckily, there weren’t any pictures of Scott in their album.
They continued to the next album, this album had pictures of the two boys and their parents. Brianne was speechless when she saw the first picture of Luke, as he was indeed the man from her dreams. How could that be? Brianne looked over at Amy. “I can’t believe it, it’s him, the one from my dreams.”
“How can that be? Are you sure?” Amy studied the picture before them. “He’s cute.”
She took a quick deep breath, trying to keep anger out of her voice, as she answered. “Yes, of course I’m sure.” She managed to say. “I should know if it’s him or not.”
She looked at the Wiley’s with bafflement. “I don’t understand how it could be possible, but I have dreamed of Luke.” She looked helplessly at the couple.
Allen smiled. “When we have time, we have ways to help prepare women for marrying our men and to ensure the woman find the man attractive. One of them just happens to be putting the man into the woman’s dream.”
“Good idea.” Brianne nodded. “How does it work?”
“First, Luke’s picture is showed to you and by that he was able to tell from a computer read out of your reaction you found him attractive. If you hadn’t, he would have simply moved on to someone else, but in your case, you did find him attractive. The next step was to put him into your dreams often so you would remember him. I guess it worked.”
“Yes, it did.” Brianne looked over at her sister, Amy smiled and winked at her. Brianne blushed, as she’d told her about some of the feelings she had for this man, even saying she wouldn’t mind having sex with her dream man.
The girls continued to look at the album. Some of the pictures made the girls laugh and they could tell the brothers were as close to each other as they were. After they were done looking through the second album, Brianne closed it and laid it against her lap.
Is Amy to marry Austin?” Brianne asked Allen.
“That’s what the two brothers planned. They picked you both for their mates and they have followed your life for the past few months.”
Amy giggled, “I think Austin is kind of cute. I would be happy to marry him.”
Brianne looked at her sister with a surprised expression. “Amy, you little stinker, I’m surprised at you.” Brianne laughed when Amy gave her a dirty look. “I didn’t realize you were so boy crazy.”
“Brianne, I will be eighteen next year.” As if that explained it all. “I have you know I have liked boys for years now. Mom was just seventeen when she married Dad, and knew each other for only a few months before they were married, and their marriage was great until Dad started gambling.”
Brianne nodded in agreement. “Yes, you are right.” She turned to the Wileys. “Yes, we will marry the Baker boys, but on one condition. I would like Amy to be at least a year older before she gets married. Will that be possible?”
“Brianne!” Amy mouth was tight and grim. “I’m old enough to make that decision for myself.”
Wendy reached over to pick up the last album from Brianne, laid it down on top of the other album, and turned back to the two girls. “Amy can wait until she is twenty-one before she marries Austin, that is, if she wants to wait until then. We do ask each of you to have two children, and at least one will be a girl, which we have ways to ensure of this happening, to help repopulate our planet. Do you both agree to this?” Wendy’s eyes went back and forth between the two of them. The two girls nodded yes to the question.
“When is the wedding? When do we get to meet Luke and Austin?” Brianne asked with a slight tremor in her voice.
Wendy looked down at her watch. “The wedding is in about twenty minutes.”
“Wait a minute.” Brianne’s voice broke. “The wedding is today, are you serious?” Brianne blankly stared at Wendy.
“Yes, we’re on a tight schedule.” She put her hand lightly on Brianne’s shoulder. “Do you want to change your mind?”
“No.” She said weakly. “You just threw me for a loop there for a minute. I guess I thought the wedding was going to be later, like next week or something.” Hit with an intense moment of panic, her hands trembled as she tried to swallow the lump that suddenly was stuck in her throat.
“We have the dress your mother wore on her wedding day, thinking you would prefer it to the one you have on now.” Wendy turned to open the door of the closet, reached in and brought out their mother’s wedding dress.
Brianne’s eyes began to water as she looked at the gown in Wendy’s hand. “Thank you, I would love to wear my mother’s dress. I didn’t want to wear it for the other wedding because I felt it was more of an execution than a wedding.”
“Then if you ladies will excuse me, I will leave so you can get ready. I will be back in fifteen minutes. I’m sorry there isn’t much time, but we are on a tight schedule, as yours will be the sixteenth wedding today and there will be several more after yours.” Allen waved as he left the room.
Brianne started removing the dress as soon as the door click closed, as she couldn’t wait to remove it from her sight, as the dress made her think of Dirk. She shivered at the thought of that horrible man and their wedding night, which made her physically sick.
Within minutes of Allen leaving, Brianne was redressed in her mother’s wedding dress. “I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” she said nervously, wiping her sweaty hand on a towel.
Shortly there was a knock at the door, Wendy opened it and let her husband into the room. “Brianne is ready.” Wendy looked over at Amy. “Let’s go on ahead and get seated. You will be reunited with Brianne after the ceremony.”
Allen took hold of Brianne’s arm and smiled at her. “Wendy and I were matched this same way just two years ago this month. Now look at us, we couldn’t be happier.”
“Thank you for telling me. Just by looking at the two of you and the love you have for each other, I assumed you and Wendy had been married a lot longer. I’m not nervous about this wedding. I find it romantic in a manner of speaking and exciting, something out of a historical romance novel.” Her eyes glowed with anticipation as she smiled at Allen.
“Brianne, before we leave, I want to give you a gift.” He handed her a small jewelry box. “It’s for you to give to Luke.”
Brianne opened the box, and inside was an attractive man’s wedding ring. “Thank you, it’s lovely.” She took the ring out, slipped it on her thumb, and then set the empty box on the table.
Allen acted restless. “It’s getting late, we better be going. So, let’s get this show on the road.”