Secret Academy - Deuteronomy

III: Disappearances

“Are we ready?”

It was a girl’s voice: melodious and gentle.

Jasper, wearing a black suit with a plaid red-and-black tie, sat at the back of a black limousine with two other men in suits and sunglasses. It was a cloudy day and he wanted to laugh at their silliness - but he didn’t feel funny. In fact, he didn’t feel anything at all that day. He was an empty shell.

The man to his left merely nodded. He was able to glimpse someone short, with black hair, sitting at the front seat before the driver’s window closed and the engine started.

He felt trapped – he was sure now that there was no way to escape the fate that awaited him.  

The two big men sat on either side of him, cold and quiet. As the limousine drove off, he saw that the windows were blackened to see nothing of the outside. He sighed and looked ahead instead.

To wile away boredom, he tried to remember what had happened in the last two days.

Forty-eight hours ago at the hospital, Lisa and him listened and tried to understand his father’s peculiar confession. He left out a lot of detail - since Lisa was there - but as soon as she went home, his father cried again and explained further.

“You…sold me…?”

His father had shook his head and looked severely hurt.

“No, no, no! Not at all, Jasper! It was…a deal – a bargain! For your mother!”

“Mom…” was all Jasper could mutter. It was still too complicated for him.

“Son…my beloved son…they could save your mother! And you will be well provided for, I was promised that! It’s just that -” he was looking for the right words to say, but Jasper knew.

“…I won’t be seeing my parents again…” he finished for him.

His father didn’t try to explain more after that, but stayed with him all night and never slept. The nurse came in the middle of the night to give him a strange red pill, which made him fall asleep instantly. The next morning, he felt inexplicably well and healthy. His stitches didn’t bother him, and his mind was clear.

As they were eating breakfast together, two burly men in black suits came in with a much younger man. His father greeted him immediately and Jasper wondered what authority he held that made his father jump up in fear. It was his experience that Eugene McCurdy hardly bowed down to anyone. His father was ordered away, and the two men escorted him outside.

The man looked to be in his late twenties: with thick, brown hair and sharp gray eyes that seemed to take in everything. He approached Jasper, still sitting in bed, and smiled at him. But there was no warmth in that smile.

“Good morning, Jasper. How are you feeling?” his voice was deep.

“I-I’m fine” he locked eyes with him.

“I believe your father has explained the details of our agreement? I won’t expect you to understand it at first though…”

When Jasper didn’t reply, he continued to talk as he paced the room, his hands behind him.

“You won’t be going to your school of choice, Jasper. You’ll be joining an elite group of students, in different age levels, inside a special academy. I’m afraid you don’t have a choice in this matter. Your father and I have decided this last night”

It was an order, not an explanation. The man’s eyes assessed Jasper’s scowling face.

Jasper felt angry but he thought for a minute. This was clearly not a time to spit out insults.