For A Star To Fall

Chapter 3: Practice in Loving

Chapter 3

Jordan groaned and hurried to catch up to her, as she was already halfway down the corridor. His long legs ate up the distance between them, and soon he was striding next to her.

“Do you not have work to do?”

“Not really, Dr. Francis isn’t around. Anyway, I want to get to know you better.”

Emyle raised an eyebrow without saying anything. Jordan shrugged and explained, “I’m Dr. Francis’ assistant. He’s been doing lots of research lately, something about genetics, I think. But usually he just does experiments and stuff. Old grump that he is, always needs help around the lab. Annoying him is, like, super fun, ‘cause he threatens me, but usually forgets about it after.” He laughed, and Emyle did not.

After a while, Jordan’s chuckles faded off into silence and he glanced at her from time to time, till he could not bear the awkwardness anymore. “Tell me about yourself.”

She did not turn to look at him. “My name is Emyle.”

“Tell me more about yourself.”

Sighing, she said, “My name is Emyle Graymark, I’m eighteen and you irritate me.”

Jordan cocked his head. The name Graymark somehow struck him as familiar, had he heard it before? Shaking it off, he told himself that it was a common enough last name nowadays. Instead, he gave Emyle his most charismatic grin. “I have a reputation of annoying people. It is useful, at times. Are you impressed?”

“No,” she replied shortly.

He simply chuckled and said no more. They reached a turn in the corridor after a while, where Jordan stopped Emyle. “This is a floor plan of the research facility. It’s one of the biggest facilities here, so some of the more forgetful scientists need to refer to this,” he snorted slightly at this and continued. “Sometimes it stuns me how chemists with three degrees need a floor plan to find their way around a place they’ve been working and staying in for years.”

Emyle did not reply, instead she studied the floor plan, noting the numerous corridors that branched out and stretched around to form the vast facility. Somewhere, in this place, Father was being kept prisoner, for Dr. Valin would not have let him escape after the showdown at the abandoned building.

Jordan began to move away, saying, “I’m going to bring you to the cafeteria now. It’s nearly lunchtime, and every man needs his daily nourishment.”

Ignoring him, Emyle walked away and turned left at the junction, instead of setting off in the direction Jordan was headed. He stopped when he realised that she was no longer following him. “Where are you going?”

“I want to see the laboratories.”

Jordan tilted his head, and walked after her, having no choice to do otherwise. She made a few more turns at the different junctions, her stride confident and unfaltering. Soon, a thought occurred to him. “How did you know the labs were this way?”

“I looked at the floor plan.”

“You only looked at it for a minute.”

“Yes,” she glanced at him briefly, her gaze quizzical, “one whole minute.”

Jordan did another mental shrug, though he nodded on the outside. Emyle was getting more interesting by the second. He loved numbers and computer codes and fiddling with scientific equipment and solving problems. But Emyle was weird, in a good sense, like a puzzle designed to capture all of his attention, tempting him to solve it.