Beyond

ᑕᕼᗩᑭ丅ᗴᖇ SᎥ᙭丅ᗴᗴᑎ

𝓔𝔁𝓹𝓵𝓪𝓷𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷 ✶༄ ‧₊˚

She tapped her fingers absentmindedly on the table in front of her as the professor drawled on about how to read security footage. Sylvia scoffed in her head. Don't you look at pre-recorded videos and see what's on them?

Leo looked at her sideways as if he knew what she was thinking. It wasn't like he disagreed with her. Reading security footage was relatively easy. But that was just one of the many things a watch leader had to learn.

The professor had made it abundantly clear that being a watch leader was the most challenging job because they needed to know basic knowledge about every other position on the Stargazer.

He found it strange that all of the people picked for 'Project Stargazer' happened to be somewhat intelligent, and all seemed in pretty good shape, physically. Was it possible that the ones chosen weren't at random? Was there a reason for every one of them to be there? He zoned out, thinking about who could've possibly planned all of this elaborate enough to seem like there wasn't an alternative purpose for the recruits.

He caught random words from the lesson as he faded in and out of his thoughts. He was still thinking about random things when Sylvia gave him a hard shove, almost knocking him off his uncomfortable white chair.

"What do you want? God!" He yelled, propping his hand on the floor to keep himself from falling onto the overly shiny wooden floor.

"The 'lesson' ended like fifteen minutes ago; you were like staring off into the distance, probably thinking about food or something." She scoffed and stood up casually as if she didn't just practically shove him onto the floor.

"No, I'm not thinking about food," He said, dusting himself off and standing before Sylvia. "I- you know what, never mind."

She raised an eyebrow and gave him a questioning look. "What's up? Hiding something important, are we?" He shook his hand and turned around, starting toward the door, when he felt a firm grip on his wrist, it was Sylvia.

"What?" He said, annoyed when she had been staring at him for a decent ten seconds.

"I want to know what you were so focused on during the lesson because there's no way your that interested in reading heat signatures!" She said, glaring at him in annoyance.

"It was nothing!? Why are you getting so aggravated over nothing!?" He tore his arm out of her grasp and raised his voice slightly.

"Because it's obviously not nothing if you're getting so defensive!" She shouted, her tone showing that she wasn't messing around. Leo just rubbed his arm and stood there, clenching his jaw as he glared at her. She threw her hands up exasperatedly and shoved past him. "Whatever, keep your secrets. I couldn't care less!"

She stormed down the hall, and Leo went after her, thinking about their conversation. How did it escalate so quickly? It wasn't that big of a deal regarding what Leo was thinking about, and he was just worried that if he told her, she would think he was stupid.

Strangely there were many arguments among the recruits. It was so tense. Most likely, because they were forced to adjust so quickly to a new life, nobody had the chance just to sit down and think about the crazy events of the past few days.

The energy in the lunch yard was interesting, to say the least. Most of the pairs were hanging around other people with the exact schedules as theirs. Save for Sophia, Eddie, Willow, and Bruce.

Willow and Sophia were already close friends; unsurprisingly, Eddie and Bruce got along.

Bruce was a very reserved person. The few words he spoke always had meaning and relativity to them. Eddie was quite the opposite, constantly talking and very outgoing. The two of them got along nicely. Eddie would talk endlessly, and Bruce would contribute a few words here and there.

Sylvia stalked out to the lunch yard and spotted just the person she was looking for. Kiana Graves.

"Ki!" She shouted, waving the blonde down. She looked up and grinned before walking over toward her.

"First of all, kind of offended that you didn't come to see me on the first day. Second, how are you girl!?"

Sylvia grinned and replied. "I'm also offended that you didn't come to see me!" She said in a mocking tone. "I'm doing relatively good, considering the circumstances."

Kiana nodded and bit the inside of her cheek. "This has been pretty weird like we barely have any time to even think about what happened. We're literally expected to comply without a second thought, and it's annoying."

"I couldn't agree more," Sylvia said, about to start on her second thought when Leo came rushing through the doors, flushed and sweaty. "What the heck?" Sylvia muttered skeptically. Leo's frantic eyes searched the yard before landing on Sylvia.

She excused herself from Kiana and walked over toward Leo. "What's wrong with you?" She said, masking her curiosity with a hint of sarcasm.

"I- The-" He paused and panted for breath, struggling to formulate what he was trying to say.

"Okay, okay. . ." Sylvia said, guiding him over to the shade near the engineers and medics. "You're okay. . . you're fine," Sylvia muttered breathily, sitting down and pulling him down across from her.

"What happened?" She asked firmly, gripping his shoulders in an attempt to ground him.

He sputtered out a flow of unintelligible words through heavy breaths. Sylvia shushed him and spoke calmly. "If you're going to tell me what happened, you need to calm down. Control your breathing."

She sent a worried glance toward the medics, and Willow seemed ready to help at any given moment.

The four watched Sylvia and Leo with a glint of curiosity in their eyes, accompanied by an equally strong flash of worry.

After Sylvia finally got her fellow watch leader to breathe steadily, she asked him to calmly tell her what had happened.

He took a deep breath and stared down at his fingers, fidgeting with the bottom hem of his shirt. He sighed and looked Sylvia in the eye, her brown irises swirling with a mixture of emotions he could not name.

"I think I know who planned this."