#AfterThat?

Responsibilities

Nitor nodded his head as if asking me to get up and I submissively got up because I had given up completely and I had gotten into enough of trouble already. That's when the devil in the back of my head started speaking.

Who is that lady?

Who is the other lady?

How did I land in that place I woke up in?

Why was I taken in?

Why me?

That is when it hit me. The urge to rebel was running through my mind. After all, I wasn't one to shut up and accept things blindly and I wasn't a person who could be convinced with such minimal and shallow expectations. I couldn't give up! I am not the kind that gives up but am the kind that makes people give up! Blood pumping three times faster than the normal rate, I said in a low voice, No, like I was talking to myself.

I repeated myself, a little louder this time," No", and Nitor turned to face me with a mingled look of surprise and disappointment. "Please, Jas please don't make me do this. Just come with me and forget all this ever happened and if you follow as I say, I'll even give you a memory erasing syrup too", he said, as if he was saying something good. My being an introvert resulted in having short term friends and Nitor was my only friend right now. At no cost would I ever want to forget these memories. Not that I did not trust him at all anymore but there could also be a minor drawback of ending up in a desert, not knowing my name or anything at all about myself.

"Nitor, I'll talk to her, please let me do it.", I pleaded with him. We stood there quibbling and begging the other to do something that we stubbornly did not want to do. Finally when the conversation began to seem ridiculously pointed, Nitor spoke with an air of conclusion, "This is really important for me Jas, I have let mother down once already and I cannot afford to do that again. I cannot put myself down in everyone's sight again. Yet again. Too many hopes and dreams riding on me..." He sounded like he was talking to himself and for some reason he had a dreamy look on his face as if he was lost.

I waved my hand in front of his face,"Are you alright?" Upon the sudden movement of my hand in front of his face he snapped from his thoughts and slightly stirred on the spot. After regaining his 'Forever Ready' posture back again, he gave me a cold, hard and long stare, his features became unreadable. Taking a strong grip on my wrist, he pulled me after him towards the door even as a desperate me did anything and everything to get out of that strong hold. If it just loosened a little bit, I would be able to give him a slip.

We entered into an elevator like platform except it wasn't a cuboidal closed box, it was just a slab with the same pattern of grooves with blue glowing through them, that I was really getting accustomed to, and it had a C- shaped groove in the corner. Nitor stretched his arm forward with his palm facing outwards and made a circular motion in the air. The elevator started moving downwards and came to a graceful halt after three levels. There was much less brightness in this part of the... building? Ship? I really don't know anything anymore. Damn, I feel so stupid and I hate it. All I want to say is it was much darker here than where I woke up. People sat and typed away at what looked like paper-thin keyboards. Five of them walked in between the rows of hard workers, supervising their every move. I knew they were hard workers because known of them even lifted their head up so much as to relieve their neck from the pressure of remaining bent for hours. I personally did not appreciate the ambience because dark rooms and computers really weren't a good combination for your eyes. Says the girl who spends three-fourth of her day holed up in her room, watching funny cat videos and hissing at any and every source of light.

There was a long whirring noise and everyone started packing up but the strange thing was that none of them turned off the devices they were working on. There were ten rows and it looked like Nitor was waiting for the supervisors as they went to each device contracting a chip from it and hence, shutting it down. Finally when it was over, three supervisors handed the chips, neatly arranged in a box, to the other two. Each of them held five boxes and walked towards the elevator, apparently bickering.

"Hey Nitor! Whatcha doing here, at data, man?" said the guy with black messy gorgeous hair. And what did he just call Nitor? Man? Man? Please. He is twelve!

"I need a favor." Nitor replied as the guy with blonde hair raised his eyebrows at me, questioningly.

The three of them stared at each other in the eye and after a few seconds, they nodded at each other like they were acknowledging the end of a conversation. Then Nitor spoke up, "Jasmine, meet Luca", the guy with black hair smiled and inclined his head forward, "and Logo", this time the guy with blonde hair and a goofy grin, smiled and I smiled back at them. "They are the heads of the Classified Database Level and they are going to drop you back home."

"But why? Why can't you?" I said taking a shot at saving a lost cause but surprisingly he answered.

"Because I don't trust myself with you."

He turned and walked away, his narrow shoulders facing me. I did not even try to run because a part of was broken and disappointed on seeing him walk away like that. I realized it was all over.

Hey readers! I know that I really let you down when I had put the story on hold for months but here I am, back with a bang! So please support and trust me this time when I say that you wont be let down ever again! Stay awesome and don't forget to tap that star if you liked this chapter!