“Mia… Are you ok?”

My face turned to marble.

“Why is he standing in that room?”

“Because that’s his room.” He said, half amused.

I tried to control my language, since I didn’t want to seem disrespectful to them. At least, not anymore. Not until I figured out what was the deal with them and with me. The entire me being ‘captive’ here situation.

“Ok, let me ask you this in a different manner. Why did he assign me a room that is just next to his?”

“Oh, that. Unfortunately, I’m not the right person to give you the answer to your question.”

“Right. Because he has to tell me himself.”

“Precisely.”

“Mia, please understand. These things are really important to Alex. He is very serious about these kinds of issues and he respects others privacy quite a lot.” Andrea said.

If so, then that is a very weird way of respecting the privacy of others.

“Andrea, look. Please give me something. Anything! I’m losing my minds, honestly. I respect your way of living and the secrets that you have. But I need to know what’s going to happen with me. At the very least, tell me why he doesn’t let me call my friends. I have so many questions and next to no answers.”

“You’re misunderstanding things, Mia. No one is keeping secrets from you. At least, not the secrets that involve you, as you have all the right to know. Only that Alex wishes to be the one who tells you all these things. And we promised to respect his wish. That’s all.” Andreas said.

“I don’t think we’re going to talk to each other. At least, not after what happened and how it ended. We can’t stand one another. That, at least, is clear.”

“You two really are stubborn, aren’t you?” Andreas laughed. “He will talk to you, and you will not get mad, ok? Please. He is really busy and you have to get a little better before you are able to have these discussions.”

“Andreas is right. Meanwhile, you can meet the rest of us and… get better. Because you got me really worried, Mia.” She said, her expression proving her words to be true.

“I’m sorry, Andrea. But I really miss my friends. I need to know if they are unharmed or if they’ve found a house to live in. If they have food, water. You can’t forbid me to know these things. You just can’t.”

“Indeed.” Alexander said.

Andrea and I shuddered and shot up quickly when we heard that. Andreas, in the other hand, didn’t even blink. Did he feel him coming or did he just got used to his unexpected appearances?

“Ladies. I apologize for frightening you.”

“Alex, I can’t believe you are actually here.” Andrea said, laughing at her brother.

“Alexander Petersen in the garden. Without papers in his hands, nor the Bluetooth headset in his ear. It must be a miracle.” Andreas laughed.

Alexander rolled his eyes, but there was a trace of a smile on his face. I noticed he had dark circles under his eyes and that he looked very tired.

“The server crashed again and I need you to fix it, please. Or make it better. I have some ideas.”

“Me too, actually. I’ll head on to the lab to run some tests and we’ll see what we can do next.”

“That would be perfect, thank you. I’ll catch up with you two later. I want to talk to Mia.”

“Alright.”

Now?!

No.

No no no no.

Actually, why the fuck not? This is what I was complaining about three minutes ago.

Make up your mind, Mia.

“Take your time, bro.” Andreas said, tapping him on the shoulder. “Good night, Mia!”

“Good night, dear! I’ll see you at lunch.” Andrea said and kissed me on the forehead.

“Uh…good night.” I absently responded.

He looked at them leaving, then turned to me.

“Hi! May I?” he gestured at the bench.

“Like I have a choice.”

He sat in front of me, with his hands on the table.

“How are you feeling?” He asked.

“Never better.” I said with a flat voice.

“Then you should be thanking me, correct?”

“From the bottom of my heart.”

“Whenever you’re ready.”

My blood was boiling. Breathe in, breathe out.

“Before we get to that, though, I will answer some of the questions that I’ve heard from you, a few minutes ago.”

“SOME of my questions?”

“And tell you that I will not apologize for what happened earlier today.”

I laughed.

“I didn’t expect you to.”

He was watching me intently and I tried not to betray my anxiety.

“Do you know why I will not apologize to you?”

*Because I kicked your precious Selena’s ass and you are a merciless, arrogant tool* was my first instinct.

Be calm, Mia. Calm.

“To teach me a lesson.”

“I don’t teach lessons. I’m no one’s teacher, boss or God. We do share some values, however and one of them is respect. You broke it in the worst possible way.”

“You really like using euphemisms, don’t you?”

“Not in this situation.”

“If it wasn’t a lesson, then what was it?”

“A way to stop you. Which may have differed from a normal approach, because I chose to use your own preferred method. Violence.”

“How dare you talk to me about respect, when one of your friends attacked me like a beast, over and over again?” I snarled.

“You were the one who attacked Selena first.”

I looked away, exasperated.

“Because she was forcing me to do something I didn’t want to do. Furthermore, I was looking for my friends, who were in danger. Apparently, her method sucks too.”

I took a quick glance at him and thought I saw the trace of a smile.

“I don’t think her method was wrong. I simply think you’re hard to handle.”

“Why did your friend ‘guide’ me into your direction? I know that was his intention, don’t bother denying it.”

“I will not. You are quite right in saying that he did it on purpose.”

“Why?”

“For you to be at the right place, at the right time, to save my life. Which you did. Thank you for that.”

I was perplexed.

“To save… you?! Are you insane? We got lucky! That’s all there is to it. That guy was ten times stronger than the two of us combined.”

“Mia, you killed him in under a second.”

“Because… I don’t know how I did that, ok? When he looked at me, I saw my funeral. Literally.”

“True, for the most part. Go on.”

“Then I remember you, cutting his head off. That’s all.”

“You need to think deeper about that day. But perhaps now is not the time.”

His way of speaking was giving me a headache. Does he have an aversion to speaking plainly?

“Have you found out anything about my brother?”

“No… Not yet. Do you happen to have a picture of him? I tried to find one on the internet, but it seems that everything related to your brother’s identity has been erased.”

“Erased? No, I don’t have pictures of him.”

“Hm…this will complicate the situation, but we still have chances to find him.”

“Will you tell me if you do?”

“When I have more pieces of the puzzle, yes. I will.”

“So, you do know something. What is it? It’s my right to know.”

“I don’t know anything at this moment in time. I was simply informing you about my preferred method of acting in these circumstances.”

“Why do you want to find Karl?”

“Andrea asked me to.”

“Mhm. No other reason that may serve your own plans?”

“No.”

I knew he was hiding something, but I didn’t push it. This guy is like a rock. Worse. Won’t move, unless he wants to.

“I want to call my friends.”

“Ok. I’ll borrow you my phone.”

Huh?

“…you’re joking. What’s the catch?”

“There is no catch. All you have to do is listen to what I have to say. After that, you can choose if you want to call them or not.”

“Like there is anything that could stop me from calling them.”

“It will only take two minutes.”

“Ok. Shoot.”

“To my recent knowledge, a number of powerful individuals have just joined the Ministry of Defense in order to find anyone that shows signs of powers. The reason they invoked, was that they want to help them. Provide training and help to those who might prove to be a threat to themselves and others. The real purpose behind all of this, is to use their powers. Harness them. Brainwash them, subjugate them and then turn them into a weapon. The most powerful one this planet has seen yet.”

I was listening carefully, shocked and terrified. Yet, I’ve heard this before. Bill was right.

“What would they do such a thing? Are they scared that aliens will invade us, or what? Otherwise, I don’t see the point in gathering up that amount of power. Unthinkable.”

“We aren’t exactly sure, but I think they want war. Chaos.”

“Why?”

“To rule the world. And to always be the strongest power, in said world. This way, no one could ever take them down. A war will destabilize the global economy, create panic among the people and subjugate all the countries to a single cause. They want to monopolize the world and declare themselves rulers in perpetuity.”

“How do you know all these things?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

“Ok. So, is this why they’ve sent those goons after me?”

“I’m afraid so. You have a strong power. I know you felt it, even if you didn’t use it properly. You are only using it at a capacity of around 15%, from what we can tell.”

“Only 15%?! It felt like a heck of a lot more, given the fact that I almost killed myself and all the people around me. I can’t control it at the level I feel you’re suggesting I should be using it.”

“You can and you will. Unfortunately, given the nature of your power, you don’t have much of a choice.” He said, grimacing.

“How did you manage to control your power?”

“With practice, patience and being under a lot of pressure. You need to find a way to concentrate only on yourself and your power, then play around with it. Experiment. Let it out and get the feel of it. See how it manifests, then find the advantages it possesses. Transform whatever weak spots you find into something useful, so that your vulnerabilities will not be exposed in front of your enemies.”

It made perfect sense. Only, I didn’t think I was capable of it. The fact that he did it all by himself didn’t fill me with as much confidence as he probably thought it did. And let’s be honest, patience is definitely not my thing. At all. But then I remembered what he said about the weak spots. To transform them into something useful. Channel all of my rage into something that was actually good for me… Hmm…

I could give it a try. It’s not like I have a choice, really.

“We are facing a dangerous and overwhelming amount of power. I know you felt it too, a few times in that day.” He said, reminiscing.

“In the meeting room. You were there, with Ken.”

“Yes, I was. But that is a topic for another day.”

“No, tell me. Now. You knew, didn’t you? You didn’t come only for business, did you? You came for… I mean, I think you came for…”

“You.”

“Did you?”

“Have I not just told you that this topic is better saved for another day? Please don’t insist.”

His voice was firm, but not unkind. I was a little surprised by that.

He placed his phone on the table and pushed it towards me.

“Now you can make the call, if you still wish to do so.”

I looked at it and, in that moment, I knew what I had to do.

I looked away, with tears in my eyes, pushing back his phone. Another piece of me was ripped off and the only think I could manage to do is to just let it happen and learn to live with the emptiness. My dear Allaya… please stay alive. I’ll find you. I promise.

“Are you sure?” He asked.

“This is not the moment to be testing me!”

“Good. We’re progressing.”

“Ugh! … Fuck off!”

“I did not intend to stay any longer. Enjoy the rest of the night.”

He got up and left without another word. Always so arrogant and formal. Quiet and mysterious, like a particularly annoying shadow. I closed my eyes and tried to think clearly about the things I learned.

Even if he didn’t say it out loud, I understood that I was stuck here, for an uncertain period of time. With him and Selena. I must have done something really bad for me to deserve this.

At least I had Andrea.

I stood there for another half hour, trying my best not to think about anything. It was too much for one day. I listened to the waterfall and the sounds of nature, filling my lungs with the smell of the cherry trees. I started humming my mother’s song, while looking at the stars. The sky was clear and peaceful. Maybe one day, this world will be peaceful again. But we will have to pay the price of that and I’m afraid our lives might be the very price we’ll have to pay.

And Alexander accepted it. Even worse, he turned it into a way of living, a scope.

I didn’t care. I shouldn’t care.

Suddenly, something gently grabbed my waist, slithering its way all around it and lifted me into the air. I yelped. The force pulled me towards the house. Alexander was dandily standing on his balcony, with his hands in his jeans’ front pockets, leaning on the railing. He let me down slowly, on my own balcony, facing him.

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” I screamed.

“You could catch a cold.” He said amused.

“Oh my God! You’re unbelievable!”

I stormed into the room, slamming the door.

Very mature, Mia.

“Very mature, Mia.” I heard his voice.

UGH!!