18
1963 Words
LAUREN MOSS
Good heavens!
She is so…
“Just don’t put yourself in trouble, Lauren,” I mutter to myself, clearly annoyed.
Annoying woman! I didn’t do anything…
Well, I showed up here and parachuted right into their mission. Or her mission, for her to be this upset with me.
But I apologized.
Why is she being so rude to me all the time?
Now I just stay in my corner, and she’s the one who comes poking at me. And look… I’m Lauren. I hate conflict, but I always end up in one.
Especially when people are unfair to me and treat me badly like this, for no apparent reason.
The elevator doors open, and I step out, finding them entering the base as well. My eyes meet Jennifer’s, who looks me up and down.
“It wasn’t today, but it could be tomorrow,” she says, making everyone look at me.
“You’re not being funny at all. Spare yourself the embarrassment,” I say, walking towards my little room, and she rolls her eyes.
I go in and close the door.
I’m going to study a bit until this series of evaluations starts. I’m confident after yesterday, but… They had the full briefing and I didn’t. But hey, I’m not completely lost anymore. I read the countless summaries I made here.
Then I started giving a lecture to the wall, which didn’t question me about anything at all.
That’s when the alarm went off.
I don’t know what kind of format these tests will have, but I’d better do well. Otherwise, I’m screwed.
There were fifteen of us here, but now we’re twelve.
I don’t know who or how many they’ll allow to stay. I just know I have to and want to stay here. I step out, lock the door, and follow the others who were leaving.
After all, upstairs something happened with my comm, and I simply didn’t hear anything.
We arrive at a floor I hadn’t been on before, and we’re directed to a room. It looks like a testing room, but a wide one, nothing like the usual ones.
There are tablets here.
There are even little nameplates for each person. Mine is right at the front. I go and sit down. An agent appears, explaining what we’ll be doing, what kind of test it is, and how to complete it. Obviously, it will be on the tablets.
The alarm sounds, and I begin the test. When I see the content, my whole body bursts with happiness because I knew most of this, and what I wasn’t sure of slowly became clear.
The all-nighter paid off.
I managed to do absolutely everything without sweating too much.
Thank God!
The test was ninety minutes long, probably because of how extensive it was, and I managed to finish before the hour mark.
I finished and submitted it.
I lift my eyes to the agent standing in front of me.
“I’m done,” I say, and she nods, taking the tablet.
“You may leave,” she says, and I walk out.
I didn’t know whether I should stay by the door or go back, but I decided to remain outside, replaying in my mind what I answered and how the test was structured.
BLAKE WRAY
“Lauren was the first to finish,” Sasha says, definitely looking at the file Moss must have submitted.
“Damn!” James exclaims, leaning in to look as well. “Ninety-nine percent.”
Interesting.
“I didn’t think she’d actually manage to study properly with the references she asked me for,” Samuel comments.
“She still has more tests to take,” I say. “Prepare her for tonight, along with another one of the trainees. They’re going into the field,” I tell them, and they exchange looks.
“Don’t you think it’s too soon for her?” Sasha asks. I don’t understand—or prefer not to interpret—that as a sign of compassion for Moss’s daughter.
“I mean… for the field,” she corrects herself.
“We don’t have much time,” I remind her, and she sighs and nods.
“So, at dawn, we’ll begin the mission,” she states.
LAUREN MOSS
A few minutes later, none other than Jennifer walks out.
Help me.
And right after her, Noah and another girl.
“You shouldn’t have rushed to be the first one to finish. You should’ve focused on doing things correctly,” Jennifer says, and I ignore her, going straight to Noah.
“How was it?” I ask, and he smiles.
I see her face turn so, so red that I honestly thought she was going to explode.
Annoying woman from hell.
“Good. Really good, to be honest,” he says, and I smile. “And you?” he asks.
“Same,” I reply. “We’ll see the results,” I say, and he nods. Apparently, we have a short break until the next evaluation.
I successfully ignored this crazy girl. I’d say obsessed, because who in their right mind enjoys stirring drama where it’s not needed?
Now she keeps staring at me like I murdered her entire family. Well, after a while, almost everyone had already left.
The day went by and, even without physical exercise, it was exhausting because the tests got more and more intense, and there were a lot of questions.
We only stopped for lunch and nothing else.
After dinner, Apia and I went to the gym. Did I want to go?
No, obviously not.
But since today we barely did anything physically, tomorrow will definitely be brutal. And I’m not the best one around here when it comes to physical performance.
Right now, I’m leaving the gym with her, completely worn out, you can’t even imagine. Very different from the cardio training I did before; this was heavy.
“Yikes, gonna die?” she asks, laughing, while I finish the water in my bottle.
“I am…” I answer, out of breath, trying to get my breathing back to normal.
“We have to do this more often so you can get used to it,” she says, and I agree while wanting to disagree.
“Yeah, that is… if I don’t wake up sore tomorrow,” I say, wiping my face with the small towel I brought.
“You won’t get more sore if you train consistently,” she says, and I roll my eyes.
“I think that’s a big lie,” I say, and she just shakes her head smiling as we reach our little houses. “See you tomorrow,” I say goodbye.
“Good night, Lau!” she says, and I go inside, locking the door.
“Help me!” I exclaim, sighing.
I go straight to the bathroom. Tonight I’m taking advantage and sleeping early, because I’ve got a backlog of sleep that only God understands.
I wash my sweaty face, undress, and step into the shower. And from two to one, Blake simply occupies my mind, and my whole body burns intensely.
“What did he mean by that?” I ask myself, trying to hide the ridiculous smile that decided to show up on my face.
I rinse the shampoo out of my hair.
He thinks I’m having some kind of thing with Noah, that’s obvious. But why did he call my attention and not Noah’s too?
“You’re creating things where there aren’t any, Lauren,” I tell myself, trying to summon the common sense that’s been missing lately. “Apparently the exes reconciled, and here you are, with foolishness in your head,” I scold myself. “You’re going to create problems if you keep this up…” I mutter.
Looking at Irika and Hailey… he’s going to look at me?
I’m becoming Miriam.
“Blake, Blake, Blake… get this man out of your head already, Lauren!” I say, annoyed with myself.
What is he?
Just a man who knows he’s extremely attractive, teases me discreetly, and is way out of my league.
I didn’t even want him to begin with. I was just curious, so there’s no reason for me to be tormented by him like this.
I finish my shower feeling calm and collected, thank God, and step out of the stall. I put on body lotion, put on my underwear, dry my hair, slip into my pajamas, and then do my skincare.
I thought about calling Miriam, but the conversation would shift to who I’m trying to get out of my head and I really need to sleep, so I just lay down and fell asleep.
“What the—” I was about to scream in terror. I literally jumped out of bed when I felt someone touching me, and in a half-turn motion, they covered my mouth when I attempted to scream.
The person whom I can’t see, is incredibly strong, and I am absolutely terrified. I struggle, but he’s already dragging me out of the room.
Before he can take me out, I manage to plant my foot on the wall to resist and use my elbow to hit him in the stomach.
He loses a bit of balance and lets go of me. I immediately run to the kitchen and grab a knife.
“Help!” I scream, panicking. My heart is seconds away from sending me straight out of this world.
I am not dreaming. This guy woke me up.
My heart is about to explode when he finally turns on the lights and removes the mask he was wearing.
It’s no one I know, but he smiles.
What the hell…
“Who are you?” I ask, nervous. “Look, I already killed someone by accident once, so it’s better if you go back where you came from. I have a knife in my hand…” I say, pointing it at him, trembling, and he smiles.
“It’s alright, this was just a test,” he says, showing his ID. He’s an agent.
“What the…,” I mutter, feeling a massive cold drop in my stomach and an overwhelming urge to throw up.
My heart is trying to crawl out through my mouth.
I exhale.
“I thought… What kind of test is this?” I ask, breathless and outraged.
“We need to go upstairs,” he says, and I stare at him, confused.
“Seriously?” I ask, and he just looks at me while I put the knife back. “One minute, I need to change,” I say, walking toward the bedroom.
When I thought I was finally going to sleep…
“We need to go now,” he insists, and oh, so impatient.
“I heard you, so at least let me wash my face,” I say, stepping into the bathroom and splashing cold water on my face, absolutely indignant.
I brush my teeth and that’s it, because I thought the man would try to drag me again. I didn’t even fix my hair or anything; I just slid my feet into my slippers and followed him outside, putting my cards into the pocket of my pajama pants.
We leave, and I don’t see anyone else at all. Wait… Are the others not being subjected to this test?
Is it just me?
The guards are here, so he’s clearly not someone trying to kidnap me. And besides, here…
That would be kind of ridiculous.
Anyways, I’m still sleepy and furious about the brutal way I was woken up.
I’m pissed. It’s the middle of the night.
“I just wanted to sleep…” I grumble, outraged, walking into the elevator, and he doesn’t even look at me.
- Writer
