Find A Way Out

Chapter 6 - Surprise

I was happy in knowing that if I ever needed to, I could get a message to Austin. I even didn't mind doing my work today (some essay about a poem). Jaquelin made the morning better by giving me the cupcake that I had missed the other day. It was the most delicious thing I had even eaten. (Which isn't necessarily hard, seeing as most of the food here is unbearably plain and bland...)

A noise came from Jaquelin's computer. An email. She opened it up and read it. I heard her sigh.

"I'm so sorry Zina, but your lesson is being cut short. Randson wants you in the test room..."

My heart dropped. I nodded sadly. I packed away my things and Jaquelin helped. We left the room and she locked the door. She walked with me to the room, which was the large one where I had first met Austin.

We went our separate ways once we got there, me being led the room itself, and her going into the observation room. The feeling in the back of my head had been going off, but stopped after a minute. I didn't understand. I began panicking a bit, when-

"ZINA!" Someone excitedly shouted as they pounced on me from behind. I didn't have time to react. I looked up at them after we had both fallen. A smile grew on both our faces.

"Oops, surprise!" Said Austin, smiling down at me. We were both laughing now.

He got up, then helped me up.

"Now it makes sense as to why the warning stopped," I said smiling. He looked at me.

"What?" He was confused.

"Oh," I rubbed the back of my neck, finding the right words. "You see, my power, the warning signal in my head thing, had been going off, but must've stopped when you were near, like what happened the first time I met you. I think it's because I know there's no way you'd ever hurt me, like I fully trust you and I feel safe around you and, yeah..." I told him, shrugging a bit and muttering near the end, looking at my feet.

He stared at me. "Woah..." he whispered. "Um sorry....?"

I smiled at him. "Nah dude you don't need to be sorry! It's just how my power works."

"Oh. Well in that case, it's sweet."

I giggled a bit. Then remembered what Jaquelin had told me earlier. "Oh! Austin, my tutor is your tutor's wife!" I whisper-shouted.

"I know! Alex told me this morning!" He replied in the same tone.

I beamed, and hugged him. He stood for a minute, surprised, then hugged me back.

"I didn't think I was going to see you for a long time," I told him, hugging him tighter.

He rubbed my back. "I know.. me too... but we're here, and this is good."

When Alex entered the room, he was confused but happy to see his wife already there, looking through the window.

"Jaquelin, what are you doing here?" He asked, walking up to her. She turned around, and gasped. A smile made its way onto her face.

"I was given an email that Zina had to be here- let me guess you got one for Austin?" She said excitedly, taking his hand.

"Yeah.." The man looked out the window, and smiled at the sight of his student walking up slowly behind the girl. "Hey, look," he told his wife fondly.

The couple watched as the boy jumped on the girl, and as they began laughing, and after a moment, how they hugged each other. Both couples were happy at what had unfolded from the ominous email. Jaquelin rested her head on her husband's shoulder.

The moment was sadly short lived.

"Well, it's good to see you both made it." Said an unfortunately familiar voice that made Jaquelin practically jump from her position. Both turned to see the man who had emailed them.

You could hear Randson's boots hit the floor as he strided over to the window. Jaquelin and Alex glanced at each other when he looked in the arena.

"Aw would you look at that." There was something sinister about the way he said it though, almost as if he was still thinking of a million ways to use their closeness for his own gain.

I felt my danger warning go off, and I froze. I held onto Austin's t-shirt tight.

"Zina, what's wrong?" He asked, looking down at me.

I looked up at the window. Beside Jaquelin and a man who I assumed to be her husband, was Randson. My breathing quickened a bit.

Austin followed my gaze. He stood straighter, rubbed my back gently, and then let go of me slightly. He turned his body to face the window side of the arena and stood in front of me protectively. He put one arm behind him so that I could hold his hand. I did.

"It's okay.." he said quietly, squeezing my hand. The way we were standing, you could barely see me behind his taller frame, meaning he didn't have to use his ability.

"What do you want Randson?" Austin called, looking up towards the viewing window.

We watched as the adults spoke to each other. The comms weren't turned on, we couldn't hear them. Our tutors looked slightly concerned, whereas Randson had his usual menacing smirk with a hint of irritation. The two stopped talking and Randson looked out at us. He turned on the comms.

"We are going to test both of your abilities today. How this is going to be different, is that you will both help each other develop your abilities. If this works, you will have more of these sessions. If you don't put in any effort, well... you two are smart enough to figure that out. Understood?"

After glaring for a second, Austin looked behind at me. His eyes held concern.

"Don't keep me waiting.." We heard Randson warn.

For once, I didn't feel a strong warning in my head. There was still a bit, but not as much as there normally was with Randson. I nodded to Austin. He looked at Randson again. "We understand, Sir."

"Good. Let's get to work."