Brink wakes me up the next day with his voice alone. He must have entered my room at his own will. "Good morning, Aurora. Did you sleep well?"
I sit up and stretch out my back. The suit I wear pulls in every wrong way, that no matter what I do, I'm always slightly uncomfortable. "Yeah, what about you?"
He grits his teeth in hesitation, as though the question took him by surprise. "I don't--we don't sleep. Not naturally, anyway. We are able to, we just don't. Our bodies run much more efficiently the further we peak, giving it less reason to sleep for hours and hours."
Peak--there's that word again. It instantly give me the sense that I don't belong. That I can't be one of them when I don't act or do the same things as they do. I sleep. They don't. They have powers. I don't.
"Is something wrong with me?"
Brink walks over and plunk down on the edge of my bed. "Allow time for your body to adjust. It will eventually. Right now, it's putting up its defenses, but soon you will be free to be you." He leans in and kisses me quick, giving me some amount of reassurance, but not much. He then tilts his head up and locks his eyes on the camera in the corner of the room. "Damn it," he curses under his breath.
"What?" I say automatically.
He stands with his back to the camera and speaks. "I kissed you, but I should have been more cautious. Now I have to go to the Surveillance Room and delete the recording again." His eyebrows knit together. "Why do you have to be so lovable?"
I bit my lower lip to fight off my upcoming blush. "Sorry?"
Brink tucks a piece of red hair behind my ear. "Don't apologize."
"Have you had to delete any recordings before?"
"Too many," he admits, brushing his hand against mine before fleeing from the room.
I don't know if I should wait for his return or venture out on my own. For starters, I wouldn't know what to do. The majority of my time so far has been with Brink in his sector, and there isn't much around except for the lab--which is restricted, the Surveillance Room--restricted, and a few other rooms with no windows--also restricted.
Eventually, I choose to step out into the corridor, only to be interrupted by a female Programmable. She carries a white case in one hand and completely freezes when I'm in her sight, like I've screwed up her trail. Then she speaks. "I must assist you with your health and provide you with your schedule. Please proceed to your room."
"Well I wasn't headed back, but..."
"Response not recognized."
I just do what she says and retreat back into my red room. I sit on the edge of the mattress as she undoes her case and sets it beside me. Inside are red vials of liquid in neat rows, and next to them is a syringe, which she picks up first.
"Your arm, please." Her freaky, beautiful eyes stare too long at me without blinking. I give her my arm so she looks away, and tense up before the needle pricks my wrist. A sound emerges from my throat out of pain, but it doesn't hurt for more than a few seconds.
After I receive the health serum, she moves her hand over a device in which she shoots into my brain. That really freaks me out. Weirder yet, times, places, and events start exploding inside my head.
She leaves without a goodbye, leaving me overwhelmed and chock full of data.
First on my list of events is training, this time with Stella--the girl who really had a liking for me the other day. It'll be exciting to spend an extended amount of time with someone other than Brink. I wonder what we'll do. Will it be a typical training session, only with Stella as my coach?
I have two minutes before a Programmable barges in to escort me, according to my schedule, so I wait in my room.
A doorbell-like sound rings and I flinch. "Hello, Aurora! It's Stella! Whenever you're ready, come out and join me. I'll take you instead of some crumby robot."
I grin to myself and swing open my door without thinking twice. There she stands, so obviously discolored next to my red walls. She steps inside and beams as she glances around at the space I call my room. "Don't I look ravishing in here? Red looks so gorgeous with my green, doesn't it?" she cheers. "Oh, I can't wait to spend some time with you! Let's go!" She practically yanks me down the hallway toward the black room with the steep ceilings.
Stella talks so much that I have no room for words, but I don't mind at all. I'm not even sure what half of the things she says means, but I encouragingly nod nonetheless. She pumps me up without trying, and I like that about her. It's comforting--and distracting.
The doors to the Training Center glide open and we walk in together like best friends, chatting away like we've known each other for years. For all I know, we have. "Okay, time to cut to the chase. You're going to hate me, but you still have to do your running drill."
I pause. "Did I hate that drill or something?" I didn't mind it yesterday. In fact, it sort of gave me a huge dose of adrenaline, which was awesome.
"Oh, I just assumed—never mind. We should get started."
I run on the track back and forth a few times. It's pretty boring, and it just wears me out. "I want to fall over."
"Come on, it wasn't that bad!" Stella claims. "Now, I begged Brink to train with you first, so we should probably actually do work, or he'll never let me train with you again," she says light-heartedly. "Since we all have special talents, we expose them to each other when we train together. Lucky for you, mine doesn't involve inflicting pain on you. Not necessarily."
I chuckle uneasily. Does someone else's talent involve intense pain? Xena, I bet. Gosh, and if what Zeriah said was true, that she hates me...
"Brink told me you can manipulate emotion," I blurt.
She crosses her arms to pout, but smiles as she does. "No fair, he told you! Now I don't get to let you guess. Ah well, yes, he's right. Emotions are what I do best! I'm not exactly sure how I ended up with a power like this. I prayed for invisibility," she jokes. "Alright. Let's start with something simple. All we have to do is talk to each other, so it's super easy and fun to train with me, if I do say so myself. If you can detect it, tell me."
"Detect what?"
For a moment, she's puzzled. "Oh, uh, how do I explain this? In your mind, try to tell me whether or not you can tell I'm messing with you."
I grimace. "Won't it be obvious? You just told me you were going to do it." I laugh, wondering how her plan would ever work.
"I suppose we'll find out. Come on, come on. Let's begin! Hmm, what should we talk about? How about Brink? Keep in mind, there are no cameras in here, so you may speak freely. It's just me and the Programmables. Now, is he being nice to you?"
I grimace at the random question. "Yes, he's been wonderful."
"It's Brink, he can't be too wonderful. Has he been showing you his soft side? I hear he can be super sweet."
I shrug, knowing that our relationship must be kept a secret.
"Oh come on, I've seen him look at you!" she squeaks like a mouse.
My mouth pops open in defense. "What? No, we have nothing like that going on."
She raises a brow and I notice how glittery her eyes are. They sparkle like a bed of stars. Something about the way she looks at me is so inviting, so innocent. I feel I could confide in her for anything, and she wouldn't tell a soul. Her grin widens and I sense my brain softening up.
"Okay, okay. We're together. I think he really likes me, Stella, I do. But I just can't seem to accept it for some reason. I think I like him. I mean, the old me must've right? Otherwise, why else would he tell I'm his girlfriend? My memory hasn't been up to par lately, and I can't remember a single thing about him. I didn't even know his name the other day. I...I..." My mind sharpens. I refocus my eyes and narrow them as I begin to grasp what I just spurted out. What have I done? Brink told me not to say a word to anyone. "I can't believe I said that!" I squeal. "I'm dead, I'm so dead."
She chuckles. "That, my friend, is the power of emotion. I made you trust me! Sucks to not even realize your brain is being tampered with, doesn't it? I wasn't trying too hard to disguise myself either. How did it feel?"
"Uh...I felt drunk, in a way, like my perception of reality was gone and that I was kind of on the outside looking in...I don't know, it felt strange. I could tell something was happening, but I certainly couldn't make it stop."
Stella nods like she understands. "Good, it should feel like that, I guess. It's never happened to me!" She chuckles. "All tampering aside, are you okay?"
What exactly does she mean? "With the whole Brink thing?"
She waits, giving me the green light to continue--no pun intended.
"I'll be fine," I say.
"Very well, moving on. Now, let's see if you can build some defense by the end of training. What should our next topic be?"
~
Confessing the Brink thing to Stella surprisingly made me feel better about the entire situation. Getting my internal thoughts external, allowed me to make them real and act upon them. I will go along with Brink and I's relationship because I just want to feel normal again, but I will tread cautiously. Discomfort is still present, on my side of the fence anyway.
That night, I sleep again. I never thought twice about going to bed until Brink told me that no one else in the compound does. As much as I appear to be one of the Five on the outside, my interior sings a different tune. Why?
~
"I have something to show you today," Brink says to me the next morning.
I smile suggestively as he beckons me out of the room, but frown when he neither returns a smile nor takes my hand into his. Something's up.
"Through here," he instructs, showing me to the room labeled with an "H." I've grown accustomed to the representations on the doors, and am aware that H stands for Holding Room, which Brink told me is meant for captured enemies or interrogations.
Have they caught one of Nazareth's people? Their leader--Kai?
Before we enter, Brink stops me and points down the hall, where Stella comes skipping down, her grace so delightful that I'm jealous as she makes her way over. Her presence puzzles me, causing more uncertainty to rise. Is she here to to use her power if need be?
Someone just open the door already.
She greets me with a smile so bright that I can't help but return one. "How are you this morning, Aurora?" She takes my hands eagerly and squeals like an ecstatic child who's just opened a present. Is she exhilarated because of what's behind the door, or is it simply her natural happiness seeping out? Either way, I attempt to be enthusiastic back.
"Ready?" I hear Brink ask, though I don't know if it's to me or Stella; I choose to nod my head in response, despite my nervousness swelling up inside. What could he possibly want to show me?
I watch Brink sneak a side glance at Stella before beginning the security measures to open the door. My nerves are on fire by the time he successfully enters the correct codes. When he's finished, he pops it open and steps in first. Then Stella. I'm last--but am hit the hardest with who's inside.
"Travis?"