The time I spent with my parents flew away so quickly that it seemed like no time had passed at all between the phone call and waving them away. Once I had seen the resident nurse, a man who seemed hideously overqualified, I walked through the school with them, barely stopping to look at the classrooms and facilities, I noted that everything was high tech and brand spanking new but my attention was on my parents, I wasn't letting what might be the last time I saw them go. I did notice however that we stayed very much away from certain areas, we avoided a staircase leading down to some kind of basement like it was infected with the plague and skipped out random rooms on our visit.
The school was enormous, but the place that stood out to me among all of it was the gym. It was full to bursting with self defence kit, stuff I would have killed to be able to train with, even I couldn't keep a smile off my face at the simulators and animatronic dummies, I was itching to try them out. But I quickly remembered my place and a scowl etched itself onto my face when I noticed Redbridge looking.
My parent fell in love with the place, signing the contracts with ease before saying a teary goodbye, promising to see me at the end of the week.
"I love you sweetie, have fun. But remember, don't feel pressured to stay, if you don't like it or you're not comfortable then you leave. No questions asked. All I ask is that you try it and see how it goes."
And then they were gone.
And I was dragged straight back into the conference room and plonked down right next to James. He grunted in acknowledgement, already looking like someone had socked him in the balls and I sighed, knowing this couldn't be good.
"Welcome to the Itus Institute Alycia. As I'm sure you've guessed already, we are not simply a school, we are an institute designed solely for the purpose of spotting talent and training and producing-"
"Spies?" I cut in, revelling slightly at the look of annoyance on Redbridge's face as I ruint his speech "Yeah, I gathered that much. There's no way you'd have gotten my information so soon without a genuine clean connection to the government and their databases. Your hired help look military, very clean cut and freshly shaven and they actually follow orders, not the kind of goons usually hired by typically less respected organisations, they're government issue, as are the guns in their pockets."
I could practically feel James's eyes rolling next to me. But I ignored it, choosing instead to glare at the man and ask jauntily "So what now? I clearly don't want to be here and neither does Jamesy boy, what are you making him do?"
Redbridge sighed deeply, looking ten years older as he slowly sat down. "Your desire to be anywhere but here had produced a problem. You are far to valuable to go to waste and far to intelligent and good at escaping," his eyes flickered to James who scowled harder "to be kept against your will. Luckily, James here has something to prove to us, having let you escape repeatedly, he needs to show us that he can handle an asset and you need to be... handled."
I had to restrain myself from punching the guard as they slid the metal cuff around my wrist, knowing I'd only be restrained using less amiable methods if I did so. Nevertheless, I couldn't stop my jaw clenching or my hands forming tight fists as the other cuff was attached to James' wrist.
"Until we are sure you are safe and do not pose a threat you will be spending a lot of time with Mr Carter here and don't even talk to me about toilet and shower breaks. I don't care how you sort it but the handcuffs stay on." he threw a key across the table and it landed between me and James. Neither of us moved to pick it up, our arms stuff and our jaws clenched. "Your room key." Redbridge said as he passed by us, "Enjoy."
And then he was gone.
................................................................
It took us at least ten minutes to even move, I think we were both trying to get our tempers under control, focusing on breathing and nothing else but eventually I reached out my hand and picked up the key, watching James' shoulders slump as he let out a deep breath and massaged his forehead. I felt a pang of guilt for the kid, I had kind of messed everything up for him since the moment I arrived. But it wasn't enough for me to let him sit around moping all night.
I stood up, dragging his left arm up with my right as I did so and said "Well come on, I don't have a clue where anything is in this hell hole so you'll have to lead."
He stared straight ahead, looking as though he was contemplating doing something dark before he rose to his feet, pushing past me before practically dragging me out of the door with the handcuffs. He strode purposefully after checking the number on the key towards the left hand side of the building and brought us into a lift after giving the stairs a contemptuous look. I couldn't blame him, the stairs would have been hell without having to deal with handcuffs in the equation. He silently pressed the six button and we were soon walking down an ornate corridor and unlocking a large wooden door.
"The rooms for two people are bigger." he grumbled, the first time I had heard him speak in a good while. "They're usually reserved for special cases though." and I was led into a beautiful room with lush red carpet and grey, silky looking walls. It was similar to the dorm room I had woken up in but twice the size and reversed down the middle. There were two single beds, one on each side of the room and a massive window looking out into the garden. There was also a door on the left that was open to reveal a bathroom that seemed a bit too extravagant for students.
"Right," I said "We're going to have to move the beds close together, that or chop our arms off."
"The beds don't move. They're nailed into the floor."
I looked at him in absolute horror.
"Seriously?" I turned my gaze to the size of the bed, "But how do we-?"
James cut me off by dragging me towards two suitcases I had previously overlooked that were positioned next to the window. They were both a deep red and we unzipped them to discover uniforms and pyjamas and all other essentials. I gauged that the one I had opened belonged to James since there were a few more personal items in it, mine were all at home, and I leant across him to pull out a pair of pyjama shorts and a vest top before looking around for a solution to the overwhelming problem I was beginning to see.
"They've given us clothes which button up the side." James said and I saw that it was true, it enabled us to actually put the clothes on whilst wearing the stupid handcuffs. It still didn't solve the problem of changing though.
I sighed, "There's no point in being shy now I guess, you're going to have to help me cut off this shirt anyway so I can get the damn thing off with the handcuffs still on. You got a knife or some scissors in here?" I said, gesturing towards the suitcase and he just reached over and pulled out a small pocket knife before pulling me to my feet. Carefully, he took hold of the t-shirt by the sleeve and slid the knife in just under my arm before starting to slice through the side, evidently trying to make it as easy to mend as possible. Huh, maybe he felt as guilty about my situation as I did about his. He took care to avert his eyes as I pulled the remnants of my shirt off and began to try to button the vest top up myself.
It was difficult however to do it myself and after several minutes of struggling I sighed and said "Dude, you're going to have to help me with this thing, I can't get my head around the buttons."
James bit his lip before turning to me, looking only at the buttons as refusing to make eye contact as he went about the process himself. I used my free hand to undo the button on my jeans and pull down the zipper. From the corner of my eye I saw James swallow and rolled my eyes, shimmey-Ing the jeans down my legs before stepping into the shorts and turning my attention to James who had just finished with the tricky little buttons.
I leant over and took the knife out of his pocket before pulling at the collar of his t-shirt and quickly slicing the knife down it, pulling one arm free and then slashing at the t-shirt until it no longer hung from the handcuff chain. I then leant down, keeping my right arm in the air to allow James to move himself while I pulled out some pyjama bottoms and a strange looking vest that buttoned at the side. I handed him the bottoms, looking the other way before turning and sliding the vest over one arm, across his chest and buttoning it at his shoulder and down his side underneath his arm keeping my eyes away from his body so as not to make him any more uncomfortable.
"So... sleeping arrangements?" I asked hopefully, wondering if the nailed to the floor thing had been a joke but James just looked at me gravely.
"We're going to have to squeeze."
He had to be joking.
................................................................
He wasn't joking.
We took the right hand bed and I slowly lowered myself onto my side, pressed against the wall as James slid down onto the bed. He was much bigger than me though and I ended up practically on top of him in our attempts to find a comfortable position.
I sighed after a few minutes of silent struggling. "Look it's going to be awkward whatever we do, can we at least get comfortable?"
At this point I was holding myself above James as he tried to shuffle towards the edge of the small bed without falling off. He stopped moving and looked at me with resignation before sighing himself and abruptly pulling me down onto his chest and reaching down to pull a thin blanket around us. I curled around him, settling into his side and lying my upper body on his chest with my right arm next to my head and his arm.
With the exhausting couple of days I had had it wasn't long before I was sound asleep.