ALBA I

V

Eva wakes up suddenly, looks at the window, gets up, sleepy, in the middle of the darkness and goes to stand by it.
She opens the window, feeling the cold of the night hitting her face, and once again has the sensation of being watched. Restless, she looks at the deserted street, seeing no one. She starts to close the window when she notices that the camera on the pole in front of her room is not facing the street, but rather her, Eva stares at the camera for a few seconds and watches it slowly return to its original position.
She closes the window, perplexed, and lies down again, wondering what it means, turning over and over in bed until she falls asleep.
At dawn, Eva is still asleep when in the middle of her dreams a metallic but soft voice appears.

"Alba is beautiful, Alba is the future, you are the future of Alba, together we are perfect, keep the harmony of Alba, the paradise of the world."

Already awake, she gets up and puts her wrist through a display on the wall, which has a speaker and a screen above it. After the device confirms Eva's identity, the repetitive voice stops and on the wall display appears the message: 'Good morning Eva'.
After being fixed up, Eva walks down the stairs and stops at the last step looking at the last picture, her mother peeks out from the kitchen.

-I miss him too, honey.
-Yes... But Eva's yes is no longer sad, because now that she knows that her father has run away, she also knows that she might see him again.
Just like the other days, Eva has breakfast with her mother.

-So, and that Alpha, what's his name?
-Gabriel. Eva answers quickly, not wanting to prolong the conversation.
-Hum... I'm so happy for you daughter.
-Why?
-So, Gabriel introduced himself to you, you have a chance to be his chosen one.
-Hmmm, I don't know mom.
-Oh daughter, of course that's it. Why would an Alpha interact with a citizen? Sara smiles thinking about her daughter's naivety.
-Yes, you must be right. Eva answers quickly afraid that her mother will realize that something is wrong.

At the end of breakfast Eva bids her mother goodbye with loud kisses and rushes off to school. Sara giggles, thinking, and with some reason, that the hurry is due to the desire to see Gabriel.
When she arrives at Petra's door, Eva sees her serious friend looking at her.

-You look very happy today... What happened yesterday? Petra sounds suspicious.
-Nothing much. I made a new friend.
-Yes... Fool me...

Eva decides not to answer, mainly because she doesn't know what excuse to make up, and decides to talk to Gabriel about it.
When they arrive at school Eva feels invaded by a sadness for not seeing him anywhere, wondering if he doesn't care about her anymore.

-No need to look for him... Says Petra seeing her friend's sad face.
-Looking for who? Eva tries to sound as innocent as possible.
-Your Alpha.
-He's not mine... She says, feeling even sadder for saying this sentence out loud.
-Look. Petra says pointing to the second floor. -The windows are closed. They're not coming to school today.
-Oh, right... Eva replies faintly.

Gabriel gets up late that day, he has been watching the monitors all night, for the rest of the week he is in charge of monitoring the Citizens' Quarter during the night, and he took the opportunity to watch Eva once again. He discovered the escapades she makes during the night after curfew. That night, he was happy to see that Eva did not leave the house, and watched her sleep peacefully. When he saw her get up and go to the window he felt a warmth grow inside him, and when she fixed the camera he lost himself in her gaze, which seemed to be watching him.
He found himself smiling at the monitor, but quickly came to his senses and directed the camera in the right direction.