𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐀𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐬

𝐭 𝐡 𝐫 𝐞 𝐞

I Dare You

By the time I make it back to my room, it's twenty minutes past the base-wide, 'lights out' call. It's a rule my father put into place so no one can do crazy shit at night. The motion sensors in the main hallways weren't enough to tell everyone to stay in their rooms. So this stupid rule activates the automatic locks on the doors in this place. I've seen people hack it and get out before- don't tell my father that.

I can't complain though, one of the only perks of being the leader's daughter is that I can get around the rules. That and I get a room that is bigger than the workers and separate from theirs too.

I took a long and hot shower cleaning every inch of my sweaty body when I came back from training. Falling onto my soft, plush bed, exhausted from the day, I let out a frustrated sigh. A part of me believes that Miles is my babysitter, hired and paid extra by my father to keep me in check. Making sure I get no ideas of leaving and starting my own life. They have to be conspiring together. Right?

Or maybe not at all, maybe he actually is my trainer because he offered to do it.

I spend the rest of my night thinking about Miles and the mission until I drift off into sleep.

---

Two days have passed. I have been doing the same thing, training, more training, and...oh! Training with Miles.

Today, when he finished up the lessons he ran off. I wondered if I did something wrong or said anything bad and he was running to tell my father. But I don't think he is like that, he might not like me but he doesn't seem like a snitch. There are a lot of snitches here and I had to learn the hard way to keep your secrets to yourself. That's what everyone does to me, so I reciprocate.

The past two days we've spent together have been strictly training, with rarely any room to ask a damn question that isn't about my assignment. But in the few moments he's telling me what a good job I'm doing I like to not be pessimistic about him and his intentions.

I walk over to the corner of the room and pick up my phone, my key card, and the weapons I carry. Next to them is his IIA key card. The idiot was in such a hurry he forgot his card- the one thing a worker should never lose. If you do, my father won't replace it, and that's not good because your ID is the token to open all the doors and get anything you need in this place.

I spend the rest of the day hoping I would run into him so I could return the card and tell him how much of a dumb ass he is. I have no such luck, so after the 'lights out' call I decide to sneak out of my room. Yes, I know it's a bad idea. But if I don't do it now it will bother me for the rest of the night.

I close my bedroom door ever so lightly, there is a hallway between mine and my father's room. At the end of the hallway is his office and at the beginning of it is the elevator, currently my destination. I look at the security camera in the corner of the hallway, remembering I deactivated it a while ago. I tiptoe to the elevator and press the silver button. The mechanical doors open and I quickly hop in and push on the sixth-floor button one too many times.

Reaching the floor, I try to recall his room number. The only reason he brought it up was due to the fact we were talking about which side of the building had the best view of the city. I find his room in the middle of the hallway- number fourteen.

I'm wearing a black hoodie that has a big enough hood to hide me from the working cameras on this floor and I was too lazy to put pants on. It was only ten o'clock, but I'd been in my pajamas for an hour before now, so I wasn't changing back into clothes.

I knock on his door and after a moment he opens it, standing in the doorframe he has red and black flannel pajama pants attached to his legs and no shirt. His abs are on full display. His dark hair is disheveled enough to tell me he was sleeping. For some reason, I can't stop staring at him.