Shadows Ablaze

Chapter 18- Shyah

The lab is quiet today. It has been the last couple of days. Rynn is constantly rushing around, scurrying in and out of rooms, disappearing for hours on end. She leaves me with mindless tasks to do. It's almost offensive that she thinks it will take me five hours to sort papers into folders and then arrange them in alphabetical order. But I try not to complain. At least not to her face.

This opportunity is important, and one I'm not willing to jeopardize just because I'm bored.

I swipe my phone out from my lab jacket, scrolling to Bennet's text thread. I send him a quick message.

Me: Today is going to be so slow. Hope you're day is busier than mine. Miss you.

I slip the phone back into my pocket, knowing Ben won't reply for a couple hours. He never replies right away. He's always too busy at his shadowing to answer my texts.

The door opens a couple feet away from the table I sit at. Uneven footsteps trek across the floor. I don't need to look to know it's Rynn. I know the sound of her clunky steps by now.

She's halfway across the room when she stops abruptly. My focus shifts from the paperwork, to her.

Chocolate eyes find mine, waiting only momentarily before the rest of her body seems to understand she wants to come to me. She clambers over, looking as though she might fall sideways every time she steps down onto her left foot.

"Shyah." She comes to a stop beside my workspace, surveying the piles of papers I've already completed. Before I can respond, her lips are moving. "I'd like for you to join me today."

I nod, placing the folder in my hands down on the metal table. Despite my eagerness to do something not so mundane, I also can't help but feel slightly annoyed at Rynn. She seems smart, but she's a natural-born, which makes me wonder if her brain ever fully developed. Some never do. I find a pinch growing in my forehead as I think about the fact that she's my boss. I'm working beneath a natural-born. She's bossing me around and giving me stupid things to do, as if I can't handle anything else.

Ever since the day the woman died in front of me, everyone in the lab has been cautious about what they say around me. As if they might scare me. As if I'm not sixteen—practically an adult—who can fend for herself. It drives me crazy. I'll show them they have nothing to worry about. This is my future. It's what I want.

Rynn's words float back to me, We do a lot of important work, and because of that, the information you receive and the things you learn are all very confidential... And if you remain here for four weeks, I will explain everything because you have proven yourself.

It's been two weeks since she said those words, but it makes me wonder if she'll keep her end of the deal. In two weeks time, will I know the deeper meaning of all this?

I pick up a stack of tanned folders, their frayed edges brushing against my fingertips as I cradle them in my arms. Rynn reaches down and grabs the strays I wasn't able to manage. Her patchy footsteps ring down the empty hall as I trail her, slowing my pace to match hers.

Nearly empty hall, a meek voice whispers in the back of my brain.

The memory pushes its way forward, even though I wish it would remain suppressed. I can almost hear the jiggle of the doorknob. A chill digs its nails into my spine, raising goosebumps on my arms.

I swing my head round, expecting to see a door's handle wiggling, someone behind it begging to be released. 

"You okay, Shyah?" Rynn questions, catching my eye as she stares at me from over her shoulder. We have stopped in front of a wooden door. A small plaque labeled 'Office' rests next to it. Rynn's fingers strangle a key in her palm, but they have frozen, waiting on my reply.