A loud ringing abruptly screeched into Julia's ears, viciously waking her up and causing her to crash to the floor. She groaned, trying to pick herself up only to find the covers tangled around her limbs. Giving up for a few minutes, she flopped back onto the floor and laid there with her eyes closed.
She had spent the entire night thinking about the mission and its bizarre finale, wondering who'd been the sniper that had eliminated all the targets. It'd been the first time that a Virtus mission had an unplanned intervention to that degree, and it forced the higherups to send additional agents to collect data from the surrounding area. Contingency plans were put in place, but from the way Red's phone call had ended that night, senior management wasn't pleased.
Sighing, she ran her hands over her face, feeling even more fatigued now than when she first came home. She should have stayed awake.
"Julia? What on earth are you doing sleeping on the floor?" Her father's skeptical voice chimed from the doorway. "And why is that alarm so loud? It even woke me up." Her eyes snapped open, wrestling with her sheets before successfully escaping and turning off the alarm on her phone. She smiled sheepishly.
"Sorry, dad." She apologized, walking out of her room and heading to the bathroom. "Is mom awake?"
"I believe so. And by the smell of it, she's making blueberry pancakes." He yawned, stretching himself out before registering what he said. "Oh, hell yeah." With the most ridiculous smile on his face, he jogged down the stairs to the kitchen, whistling an uplifting tune.
Shaking her head, Julia closed the bathroom door and stripped out of her gear. The warm water poured down on her, relaxing the tense muscles on her back and legs. She sighed softly with pleasure, wishing she could stay in there forever. Instead, she finished washing out all the grime from her hair and body, wrapping herself in a towel before changing in her room.
A few minutes later, she had her uniform on and new contacts lenses in place. She sat down at the dining table with her parents, who were already eating without her.
"So...what's the occasion?" Julia asked her mother, raising an eyebrow at her. "Everyone knows that you only cook this when there's either something terribly wrong or you're celebrating. Which is it?" She was worried, fidgeting in her seat as she awaited even more derailing news—as if last night wasn't enough for her.
"I heard what happened from Amber." Her mother confessed, speaking to Julia in a soothing voice. Amber was Red's real name, but everyone at Virtus referred to her by her nickname. Julia hadn't heard her parents use her real name in a long time, and she found it refreshing.
"Oh, that..." She trailed off, taking a bite of her pancake. "I'm over it now." A lie, but she didn't want to give her parents a reason to obsess over her mental state. It felt like things just kept on piling up, and she wouldn't be surprised if they were expecting her to break under the pressure. But she'd persist, even if it meant she wouldn't sleep for quite some time. God, she was terribly exhausted.
"Are you sure, honey?" Emma asked, looking at her daughter carefully. Julia didn't trust her voice, so she nodded and smiled, eating her pancakes quickly so she wouldn't be late for school.
"Can someone drive me over?" She asked out loud, not looking at anyone in particular as she gathered her belongings. The scraping of a chair met her ears as someone got up from their seat, picking up the car keys before clearing their throat.
"I'll take you," her father announced, smiling at her as he picked up her bag. "Let's go."
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Julia spun the lock on her locker, unlocking it and shoving the books she didn't need into it. Her bag felt weightless, but she knew it wouldn't be for long. With the classes she had in the morning, it'd feel as though cinder blocks were stuffed in it by the time her lunch period came around. Groaning, she grabbed her textbooks, binders, and papers and put them inside her bag. She eyed the unnecessarily large History textbook before picking it up and lugging it in her arms. Slamming her locker door shut, she almost dropped everything when she met face to face with Zane.
YOU ARE READING
Manhunt
Teen Fiction(Previously known as Secrets and Codes) Young, agent-in-training Julia Evans finds herself being targeted by an enemy agency, throwing her into a multi-decade feud where she shouldn't belong. As time runs out, her very life hangs by a thread, where...
