The Prior

POV: Belle Watson

Elliot walks away and Cass sighs. I’m thankful for Cass’s presence. Any longer listening to Max and I’d go crazy.

“How’d you sleep? In a real bed?” Max grumbles more. God, I wish he’d just shut the hell up.

“It was a real bed. But, afterall, it was a a real bed with Elliot in it. So...” she says, laughing. I find myself staring at her. She laughs so effortlessly.

“Well, we slept on the ground so don’t be complaining,” Max growls some more. Cass’s demeanor changes quickly. Here we go. I have to say something, but what?

I clear my throat, “Cass, um, can I talk to you over there?”

Her face softens once more, she nods. I exhale. We both stand up off the ground and walk towards another alleyway. She tucks her hair behind her ears.

“What’s up?” she says, making heavy eye contact with me. I lean against the wall behind me. What is up? What am I supposed to say here?

“I think I’m having period cramps. What’s the protocol for that?” I lie. Her brows furrow. I bite my lip, maybe this wasn’t the best distraction. Too late.

“I’m not sure, sweetheart. Are you bleeding or just think you may soon?” she asks. Okay, here’s an out.

I nod, “Soon.”

Her eyes dart back and forth, as if looking around for something. After a moment of silence, she speaks again, “I think they used washcloths back then, but I’ll find that out. And, I’ll make sure you have what you need. If it comes sooner rather than later, let me know.”

I maintain eye contact with her. She smiles and places her hand gently on my back, guiding me out of the alleyway. We return to the space where Max sits, fiddling with something in the grass. Cass asks about our day yesterday.

“We walked around and talked. Nothing much special,” I answer. The three of us sit around and talk for a while. My distraction, no matter how awkward, worked evidently. Max and Cass remain friendly the entire conversation. Our conversation passes the time away, as we wait for Elliot to come back. But, he doesn’t, because half-way into our conversation about the time Cass almost died on a rollercoaster, I black out. And, then I wake up in the middle of the woods.

I sit up, from the dirt, looking around us. These woods don’t look much different from the last ones. Is this my life now?

Max and Cass gather around the paper. Elliot lies on his back, still knocked out from the year change.

“So, where are we?” I ask, approaching them.

“1800. There’s some sort of mass hanging today. Slaves, I think. We have to stop it,” Max explains.

“And once again, I can’t help,” I mutter, frustrated with the combination of everything.

“Why not?” Cass blurts.

“Because I’m black? And Hispanic? I don’t think I’ll be able to help until at least 1950,” I elaborate.

“You’re also sixteen,” Elliot adds, having woken up.

I sigh, “Whatever. Just tell me how I can stay out of the way.”

The adults seem to ignore my comments. I don’t understand why I’m here. What can I even do? This is so frustrating. I want to scream or rip my hair out.

“Well, the first step is to find the town,” Max states. And so, we set off, again, out of the woods. I glance around at the others. I need to find something, someone, to be interested in. I can’t take all this uninvolvement. I need to feel useful.

“So, has anyone got any special talents? I don’t really know how this is going to work,” Cass asks.

“Sorry, got nothing,” Max says.

“We already decided how useless I am,” I mutter, probably too quiet for the others to have heard me.

“Hey, look, it’s the town!” Cass exclaims, distracted from her own question. I look around. It’s an average-sized town, nothing special. Nothing interesting,

“I’ve got a plan, you and me, Max,” Elliot says and they begin to walk towards the town. Cass takes a step to follow them, then freezes as they trot away without us.

“Oh, well bye then!” Cass shouts, frustration clearly in her voice. I hear the boys laugh. She turns around and rolls her eyes. I sit back with Cass while Elliot and Max work some magic with the apparent town crier.

“You know, this is going to be a whole lot more fun when the patriarchy dies down a little,” she says to me. I nod in agreement, but don’t actually reply.

“You’re quiet,” she says after a moment.

“Not usually. I’m just kinda homesick,” I spill. She gives me a soft smile. Her blonde hair waves in the wind. She’s so pretty. I wish I looked like her.

“Me too, Belle. Me too,” she says before extending her arm and pulling me into a hug. I feel safe with her, at least. “Tell me about your family. Or whatever you miss,” she requests.

“I really miss my friends. My family’s great, but my dad’s always so busy. I want to see my best friend again. My dog. Everything,” I say. There’s this feeling, it’s horrible. That moment when there’s a lump in your throat and it feels like you’re suffocating. Right as you’re holding in your tears? Yeah, that. Just in time to catch me in a vulnerable place, Elliot and Max walk back up the hill towards us. I try my best to shove it all down.

“Soooooo...” Max says, energetically, “We found out the time of the execution and where the slaves are held!” Elliot’s quiet; he looks at me curiously.

“That’s good. So, what are we going to do?” Cass asks. I still lean on her shoulder.

“I mean, they’re slaves, they’re going to want to revolt. They’re going to die anyway. I think we just need to put the idea in their heads and they’ll go along with it,” Max suggests.

“So we’ll just kill a bunch of people?” Cass contradicts.

“I mean, yes, but the instructions never say we can’t,” Max continues. I feel kind of spooked. I glance over at Cass, hoping that she’s just as stunned by the casual discussion of death as I am. But, instead, she just nods solemnly. What did I get myself into? Why am I here?

“Let’s go have a chat with them and see.”

“All of us?” Cass asks.

“Well, someone has to distract the guard and the rest of us can go in,” Max says. She gently moves me off her shoulder, using her arms to push herself up. Then, she extends her hand. I take it and stand up myself.

“Let’s go,” Elliot says. We walk in a mass toward the cells. I walk silently next to Elliot. He matches my pace, which is a lot slower than Cass and Max’s, who walk a couple strides ahead.

“You okay?” he asks, quietly as if not to let the others hear.

“I’m fine,” I respond.

“I have a sister and a 7-year old girl. I know that doesn’t mean you’re fine. What’s going on?” he asks earnestly.

“Just homesick, that’s all. Don’t worry about it,” I say, mildly annoyed by his persistence. I already told Cass; isn’t that enough for the universe?

“I’m always here to talk if you want,” he says, patting me on the back, as if I was a dog or something. We find the cell, with a singular guard. He’s a pretty burly man, but alone so that’s good.

“What are we going to do?” I ask, eager to be involved however I can be.

“We could just shoot him,” Max suggests.

“No!” Cass and Elliot say in unison. I sigh in relief. I’m so not prepared for this.

“Someone just needs to distract him,” Elliot says.

“I can do that. Unless someone has a better plan. I mean, Belle, you need to talk to the prisoners because if we’re honest here, they’ll listen to you best and you two guys have guns which might be necessary. That leaves me. And I have an idea,” Cass rambles. A pit sinks in my stomach. That’s why I’m here. This is the one and only time I will ever be useful.

Interrupting my thoughts, “What’s this idea?” Max says, arms crossed.

“Honey trap. Or something! It’s fine I’ve got this. Done it once before,” Cass says before walking over to the guard. I have absolutely no idea what that means. She gets a 3 minutes headstart prior to us sneaking into the prison house.

“Elliot, watch the door,” Max orders. I freeze, expecting him to talk back

“Already am,” he says, calmer than I anticipated. The dark dungeonesque cell smells musty. As we approach the holding cells, the scent of urine and body odor accompany the mustiness. We approach first cell, a haggle of men starting at us through the bars. I take a deep breath.

“You’re the ones getting hanged today?” I ask. My wording was weird. Imagine asking a bunch of muscular men if they’re the ones getting hanged… I messed up. I think.

A taller man emerges from the mass of people, “Yeah, but who are y’all and why do you ask? Everybody in this town knows what’s goin’ down today,” he says in a unique dialect. My face starts to feel hot. I strain my eyes to focus on him. He’s just a man. Just like us.

“We aren’t from around here,” Max clarifies, his deep voice echoing through the chamber.

“Okay?”

“Look, if you put up a fight, you’re probably going to get away with it. There’s 25 of you,” Max continues, this time, in a hushed whisper.

“You’re acting like we never thought about that. Those white men got guns.”

Max pats the wide of his waist softly, “I’ve got one too. So does my friend, over there watching the door. We will help you.” Several other men come closer to the bars of the jail cell, taking a good look at Max and I. The pungent smell hot breath makes my nostrils flare. The crowd clamors, talking amongst themselves for a several moments. I hold eye contact with Max. He quietly mouths, Good job.

“You gotta deal. But, how am I supposed to know you’re actually going to help us? How do we know you’re not just a white man who wants to see a bunch of us get shot? Plus, you obviously got a slave. Just ’cause you’re letting her talk don’t mean nothing.” he says. My eyes widen at the world slave. Max gets closer to the cell and holds one of the bars. His sudden movement jolts me awake and I focus back on the situation at hand.

“She isn’t my slave. She’s a friend of mine. Look, there are a lot of things that I can’t tell you, but I promise you that I will help you. Even if I told you why, you wouldn’t believe us,” Max says, just before contemplating about it for a moment, “You know what, I will tell you!” I suck in a breath. Tell them what?

“You’ll think I’m a lunatic, but I’m from the future. And let me tell you, things get better. Slavery is abolished; black and white people are friends. We even had a black president of the United States. So, yeah, things get better, I swear.” The cell erupts into madness, until finally the man we’d been talking to settled everything down.

“Okay, cracker. We’ll go for it,” he says. I smile up to him. That felt way too easy. Something tells me that this isn’t going to go right. But, I allow myself to celebrate anyway.

“High-five?” I ask, putting my arm up.

“Hell yeah, Belle, hell yeah,” Max says. We walk towards the barn doors, where Elliot stands, staring at Cass and the guard.

“What the fuck is Cassidy doing?” Max says.

“Oh my god,” I mutter, glancing up at my new friend.

Elliot chuckles, “Yeah, I mean it distracted him.”

I watch her: she’s dancing with him. He spins her around a little bit, but he also kisses her quite a bit. That must be what ‘honey trap’ meant, I guess.

“Let’s get out of here before he sees us,” Elliot says. We climb off the hill as Cass sees us and then says her goodbyes to the man. Once she’s caught up to us she looks at us,

“Lemme puke real fast,” she mutters, scrunching up her face in disgust.

“You didn’t have to do that! I could’ve... I don’t know! Done literally anything else!” Elliot says, talking with his hands. He runs his hands though his hair, as if this stressed him out. Interesting.

“It’s fine. I’m fine. Over it, I just had to complain,” she says. He raises an eyebrow at her before continuing on about our progress. We walk around and make a plan for the next hour or so while we wait for the execution itself. We catch Elliot and Cass up on the slave encounter. Elliot and Cass have two very different reactions.

“You did what?” Elliot spits at us.

Cass, in contract, laughs, “I cannot believe you told them about Obama! They have to think you’re crazy!” her smile is contagious. I feel it on my own face.

Elliot clears his throat, “You cannot do that. Telling people you’re a time-traveller is a certain way to fuck up the fabric of time!”

Cass’s smile falls, “Ok. We know for next time,” she deescalates. Elliot glances at her, blushing. Embarrassed of his temper?

Max jumps in, “Gosh, I love your voice. It’s so soothing.”.

Cass gives him a weird look, “Uh, thanks Max.”

We arrive at the center of town, where we make a final game plan.