Her Soul

5. breaking rules

"No, forget it. We are not doing that." Riaan was looking at the three of them. They were all seated in the balcony. Riaan was leaning against the rails. Kenya was on a bean bag. The other two were on the floor. It was night and they just finished having their pizza.

"Riaan. We can't afford failure right now," Jayden pointed out. After their assignment to take the soul of the Aviana girl messed up, their unit had become chaotic. They have one more chance though, but they couldn't fail it. Riaan had suggested they used the chance right away, but the other three did not agree.

"Riaan, you know very well that failed assignments will be followed by D-Room questioning. For any other, it's just an inquiry, but if you go there all old dirt about your father will be brought up. Your respect and credibility will be lost." Kenya tried to make Riaan understand.

"No Riaan you can't have a failure, not now." She sounded desperate.

The only good thing which came out of failing an assignment was to get a look at the headquarters. They would be questioned in D-Room, which was in the underground headquarters, therefore, a free trip.

"We won't fail the last chance, we are one of the best units. It would have been a normal assignment, if not for the landing in wrong place thing," Riaan explained, confident they would not fail again. What they three suggested was crazy and he was not going to agree with them.

"Buddy, but why take chance." Dash had Judy in his lap and was stroking its belly.

"Riaan, we searched this girl everywhere but did not find her. Though the death occurred, which means she was...maybe hidden." Jayden looked puzzled. The empty pizza boxes were spread in front of him, with leftover toppings.

"And the death, we don't know how it occurred. All we heard was a scream and a thud," said Dash with Judy still on his lap. They were all suggesting and voting for this foolish plan for Riaan's sake, he knew that.

"Say, we go again but don't find this girl. Then what?" Kenya gave Riaan a determined look. "All we are suggesting is, let's do a little bit of inquiry, on this death and this girl Aviana. "

Their own inquiry? Did they even hear how ludicrous it sounded? Riaan ran his hand through his hair. "Guys, one, doing our own inquiry, that's breaking rules. And two, where do you suggest we ask for information, the cops? We should not just depend on news and articles."

Dash replied, "Dude, secrets and information travel in high school faster than a bullet train. We can ask students, in fact, their story is much more reliable." Judy hopped from his lap and ran into the pizza boxes, scattering them.

"Dash get your dog away from me." Jayden moved back from the pizza boxes repelled.

Riaan did not like the mere sound of any of this. Preston, his father, once a great man took rules into his own hands and that ended in an exile for him. Ya, the Roxos still followed ancient rules like exile.

Riaan repeated it over and over in his mind. It was bad, absurd, and ridiculous. But they did have a point, he could not take a chance. If they failed the next chance also he could as well wave a big bye to all his dreams. Becoming a unit head, then a D-Room member would all become totally out of reach.

"Ok just for your sake! Basic inquiry about Aviana's whereabouts that day and the mode of death. That's all, ok?" He knew it, once the words left his mouth he was gonna regret it. Cut that, he was already regretting it. The relief was evident on the unit's face except Riaan's, who looked disturbed and unsure.

Kenya got up. "So tomorrow, two will follow Aviana, and two will ask around school about the fateful day."

Riaan still looked doubtful. He was someone who thought rules were made for a reason and he hated to break it. What if he followed his father's footsteps? Once upon a time that had been his dream, now that was his worst nightmare. "I am not sure about this. Amos had particularly said he wanted to give this assignment to a unit which follows rules."

"Riaan, it's gonna be ok," assured Kenya. "Do you want your credibility taken from you? Just because of what happened with your dad?"

Riaan noticed that Kenya kept mentioning his father, even though she was aware that was an uncomfortable topic.

He acknowledged how important the inquiry was. The need to break a few rules was a necessity.

Dash recollected something looking lost in a puzzle. "Guys! Amos told this is a pretty important assignment. This is just a normal case, isn't it?"

Riaan had not thought about that. But he felt it was strange, to mention this case as special.

"Dash! We don't want any new questions to the equation," said Kenya rolling her eyes. Her phone rang, she went inside to talk as Judy followed her.

"Dash, we need to leave. Mom and dad need us at home for something it seems," Kenya informed Dash.

Dash got up, ready to go. "Where is Judy?"

"You go first, I will bring him." Kenya went in to search for Judy. Since Jayden and Riaan shared the house, Jayden went to his room.

Riaan sat there thinking through things. He did not want to fail this assignment. There was a chance they might take him out of the unit if he did.

After what happened with his father, many older Roxos had objections with Riaan joining the unit. Later his father's friends in high positions had talked in his favor. Since his father was a D-Room member, he had friends in high places including the chief himself.

"Riaan, see you." Kenya walked out with Judy who was adamant to stay here.

"Ken," Riaan called. "I did not want to ask in front of others...Ken, I saw you distracted before the assignment."

He thought twice before he said the next line. "I think you were the one who missed the concentration Ken while traveling. That's why we landed wrong."

Riaan waited for her response. She stood there uncomfortably not knowing what to say. He was not going to blame her, he just wanted a confrontation. "Ken it's okay, mistakes happen. I just want to know if this is because of the text Mithali sent."

"What no!" She tried to keep it cool but her voice sounded panicked. "Well, um...I was not feeling good that day, a girl thing."

"Oh...then it is cool. Forget I asked anything. Bye," said Riaan awkwardly dropping the subject and not probing further.

He then inquired, "By the way, how is your arm?"

When they fell into the lake during the landing, Kenya had been hurt. There had been quite a lot of blood on her shirt.

"I am okay, there must have been a rock or something. I am good now though. Bye."

But Riaan knew it was not because of the rock. Sometimes the one who missed their concentration got hurt during the travel. The ones who tried traveling solo also suffered the same at times. It was not general though. Some can travel solo unharmed and come back in one piece, it depended. Solo travel had been banned for years now.

As Riaan laid awake in his bed, he thought about all things that could go wrong. He found his anger being directed to Aviana, subconsciously.

"Aviana," he whispered before he surrendered to sleep and he had a good dream that night where the assignment was successful and Aviana was dead. He had taken her soul as Jayden had held her.

______________________________________

🤗Thank you for reading, please don't forget to click the star button, it's equivalent to likes on youtube and could be useful for me🤗