Of Solar And Dark (2018)

11 [E]

Edward Kenning

When the stream of lights penetrate through my eyelids and pull me out of my sleep, I find that everyone else is already awake.

All around me are Solars pulling on their clothes in a hurried fashion and bending down, knotting the laces of their shoes.

"Get up, lazy head." Ellie laughs from her side of the room, quickly crossing the strings on her shoes. I widen my eyes and quickly pull on the day wear that has been freshly prepared at the end of my bed before removing the layer of clothes from the night before.

By the time I'm ready, the others are crowded around the desk and discussing almost too excitedly for me to think that the atmosphere last night was tense.

"What's up?" I slide towards them, glancing over their shoulders. There's a laptop situated along the desk and Ellie is squealing with excitement, bouncing in her seat with an energy that buzzes and fills the void of the room.

"We've got our first operation! Courtesy of Luna, as a way to congratulate us on being a complete unit!"

There are a series of numbers assigned to the file that pops up on the computer's screen and Ellie scrolls down the tab, her index finger pulling against the mouse.

"It's tonight!" The excitement that her voice contained a few moments ago twists into worry, shaky fear that pulls my gaze towards the information on the screen.

"B-but none of us are trained." Krik's voice rises above the noise as he glances at all of us, his gaze lingering on me and Luke for a beat longer than the rest.

Ellie shrugs as she continues to scan the data, "I guess this will be our first operation and our first practise, then."

"Alright, this rocks." Martha says, turning to me, "You guys already know we all operate as a team. Ellie is our Deviser and Kirk's our Techie. We don't have any Insiders since we're a new group and Scouts are pretty much rare. Most teams have more than one agent."

"I'm guessing you're the agent." I say to Martha. She gives me a pointed look as if annoyed by how long it has taken me to get it but continues.

"With the two of you just arriving, there's no way to train you up to a level of a Scout or Insider. So the two of you will be acting as agents with me."

As soon as she concludes her speech, Marth turns to Ellie, "Does this work out in favour of the plan that you're looking through?"

Ellie sighs softly as she runs a hand through her hair, almost as if the suddeness of the task had displaced a strain on her.

"It fits perfectly with the plan. The only problem that we need to resolve is to train up these guys as fast as possible."

I glance at Luke to se ethat he's looking at me in a fazed manner, as well. None of us have been here for long and we both don't understand the language they're speaking in, using terminology only familiar to the Salvation and abruptly assigning us with such heavy roles.

"Look, guys," I start hesitantly, my voice quivering, "I'm not sure about this. Luke and I don't even know what the task is or how this system even works."

The room goes too quiet and I know that it's something that I said that flipped the excitement switch, that killed the energy that was vibing within the walls.

Martha stares at the ground moodily, her lips twisted into a thin line of annoyance while Kirk purposefully places his attention on the lights that are draped along the walls. The only sound that resonates in my ears is the beat of my heart- the rhythmic flow of blood through my veins as my heart pumps, fearful that I have to face this for the rest of the day.

The silence is disturbed as Ellie leans backwards in the chair, her body slumped by an invisible weight. Her eyes are full of sadness when she speaks, "This is our chance, Edward. To show that team Eta isn't the pushover team. Don't you want to at least try?"

There's definitelt unspoken history that has happened between the three members of Eta and the older Salvation members. I can see it when Kirk tenses at the words and when Martha's head droops slightly. I can hear it in the way Ellie pleads with me, as if nothing else matters.

And I'm not someone who cuts open old wounds. I help them. I heal those wounds. I'm not the type of person who would rain on one's parade.

I ignore the waves of doubt that begin to crash over me, sweeping me away from shallow waters and plunging me into the deep end.

"Of course," I turn to give Luke my most confident stare, "We'll do whatever it takes to prove our Eta's worth."

As Martha gives a nod of approval and Ellie throws her fist in the air with a renewed burst of thrill, I can't help but feel scared of what is to come. And I get the feeling that Luke is scared, too, when I catch him staring at me with a strange look on his face.

Word Count: 889 Words

A/N: This is really short, I'll maybe work on spiking the numbers up tonight? I'm pretty close to 25K so we'll see, I guess!

Every read, vote, comment and share is appreciated! (: