Alpha Kael ✔️

Chapter Seven

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Word Count: 1714

~Jada

The next day, no one spoke.

It seemed as though there was a shared understanding that we wouldn't mentioned what happened last night. Whatever the interrogation was in relation to, it included our greatest insecurities. They targeted my family. The one thing I have. Or had. Everyone else seemed just as troubled, stares glazed over, lips tight shut.

By the swollen black bruises on Aric's face the next morning, accompanied by the seeping cuts plastered over by thin strips of gauze, he has something to hide. Something that required him to be so stubborn.

"Anyone know what this training is going to entail?" Dax asks. I like Dax. He seems kind, thus far. His eyes are so gentle and warm. I hope I can trust him throughout this.

It's Ace who shrugs. "Something demeaning I'm sure."

To be honest, I have no idea what today has in store. Kael is such an enigmatic figure, whatever is going on within his mind is unknown to all of us. If it's anything like last night, I'm not sure how I'll cope. I expect physical obstacles, no physiological warfare. If that was how Kael wanted to get inside our heads, it has worked. There isn't a single one of us that isn't victim to that slight quiver of apprehensive fear.

"Well we are here for a reason right?" Aric grunts, picking the crusts off his toast. "I'm going to win, because whatever else is out there for me, it can't be worse than this."

Those are brave words coming from the one who is sporting the harshest wounds from his own stubbornness. He's in to win it, and most likely will be my biggest competitor. Despite this, I'm not worried. If I start caring about what other people are doing, I'll be doomed for failure.

"If none of us win, then two others from the different secs will. We should work together to beat them, at least," Shana proposes.

I nod in agreement, hoping the rest would catch onto her idea. No one has time to truly discuss this before Niko wanders over to collect us. It seems as if everyone is too scared to speak around our trainer as we silently walk toward the gymnasium. One of us were surely interrogated by him last night. I make some think of the Silent that I saw. The sympathy in his eyes...

Something about him is eerily familiar. I'm unsure of what it is, but it's as if I have seen those eyes before. Hopefully I'll see him again so I can figure out what's going on. Until then, I need to focus on our training.

Once inside the gymnasium, Niko lines us up, squeezing me between Ace and Dax.

I would have hated to be the victim of Niko's infliction last night. Those eyes are hardened from years of experience. He may be young, but he's seen more than any of us combined. Whatever he wanted from his victim last night, he would have gotten. And something tells me it was Aric.

"The key to being a Silent is to obtain information without it being known to the subject. This is so essential, we get this out of the way right now in order to find the weakest links to eliminate out of the competition," Niko explains.

A part of me is relieved. Spying is something I used to do a lot in the institute. Mainly on Cunningham to figure out what I could use against her. It's also a relief this isn't a physical test yet. All I can do it run fast.

"You'll be given a name of a fellow competitor and your job is to find something out about them that no one else knows," Niko explains.

For a moment, my stomach flips.