The Itus Institute

Chapter 6

The guards led me into a large room with a round, dark wooden table central and several chairs positioned around it. The chairs were gorgeous, made from the same dark wood as the table with a rich red fabric stitched to the back and seat to make them comfortable, this fabric was embroidered with gold stitching and tiny glittering beads that I couldn't help but run my fingers over before turning my attention over to the phone in the centre of the table. There was a green light flashing on it and my mother's phone number was on the small blue screen.

"It's ready to ring, you just need to hit dial." one of the guards muttered to Redbridge from behind me as I pulled out a chair to sit down. Redbridge have a nod before walking briskly to the other side of the table and sitting down, motioning for James and the others to do the same.

"We are ready to call your parents Alycia but before we do anything at all I want to ensure that our story is straight. There is no need to worry your parents any further,"

I didn't let him finish his sentence before I leaned over the table and hit the call button, the man stared at me in horror, rushing forwards to stop the call but he was too late, my mother had answered the phone almost immediately.

"Hello?" her voice came through the speakers, she sounded exhausted and worried, my heart let out a painful pang.

"Mum? It's me, I'm so, so sorry." I started but was immediately cut off.

"Alycia? Where are you? You've not been home for two days! Last time I saw you you were headed off for the doctors appointment." my mother was shouting but it could hear the relief clearly in her voice.

"I just got on the wrong train," I laughed, hoping she couldn't hear the tension in my voice, I could still feel everyone's ludicrous eyes on me "I got completely lost in the train station," I heard my mother begin to say something and I interrupted "yes, I know, again. But there was this loud mouth American I got stuck behind and he just completely threw me. Anyway I ended up in the middle of nowhere and my phone had just run out of battery so I got on a bus hoping it would bring me closer to civilisation. It didn't."

"Well where are you now? Are you safe?"

"I walked for ages through these fields and I found this massive boarding school, I'm there now, the head teacher has been really kind and let me use the phone and he's planning on taking me to the doctors nearby to get my arm checked out so you don't have to worry about that. I'm so sorry about all this, I'm just completely hopeless." I could hear my mum laughing on the other end, she was clearly relieved.

"Just give me a minute, I need to find your dad and let him know you're safe."

"Oh okay, but I think that the head teacher would like a word with you two when you get back."

"Ooh that'll be excellent, I need to thank him for what he's done and find out where you are so I can come and get you, stay on the line I will be back in just a tick."

I could hear her scurrying off and the faint sounds of her talking to my father. When I heard him let out a cry of joy I chuckled to myself, looking up at the people round the table who were staring incredulously, James appeared to be biting his lip to keep from saying anything.

"Right, I'm back and I've got your father."

"Hi sweetie" I heard the sound of my father's voice seep through the speakers, he was barely controlling the urge to laugh I could tell.

"Hi daddy, I've got the head teacher here so I'll just hand you two over." I nodded my head as a prompt to Redbridge who looked nothing but annoyed.

"Hello, I'm ah professor Redbridge of the Itus Institute, have you got a computer or something with internet nearby?" he started, I darted him an odd look, confused.

"Yes I've got the laptop up and running, I was hoping that something about Alycia would pop up. What was the name of the school again, the something institute?"

"Itus." Redbridge replied "I-T-U-S. We are a very prestigious academy based near South London, have you found our website yet?"

I could hear faint clicking in the background before my mother's reply came "Yes, I've just found it, gosh what a beautiful school, is it private?"

"Yes, we offer a few scholarships to very talented individuals between the age of sixteen to twenty two, that's the ages of the people at our school."

"My how wonderful, oh Andrew look at the combat training they do as an extra-curricular there, Alycia would just love that." James let out a snort and had to turn his face away from my glare. I was still getting over the fact that this place had a website, what was their motto, "Kidnapping teenage girls against their will since 1958"?

"Well, you see, the thing is I've sat down and had a conversation with young Alycia here and she has to be one of the brightest young minds I've ever come across." my heart began to sink, I could see where this was headed, "I've also had her perform a few aptitude tests while I waited for the office to dredge up a phone number for you and I have to say that I think she would be perfect for this school, I'm very interested in offering her a scholarship, letting her come to the school for free."

There was silence on the other side of the line, I bit my lip, praying that they wouldn't say what I knew they would.

"A scholarship? Wow that's fantastic," my father spoke up, excited, but his next words were careful not to get carried away "But Allie is happy at the school she's at, not to mention half way through a term there and it's a boarding school which would mean she'd be away an awful lot..."

Redbridge cut in quickly, giving me a dry look, "Our terms work differently to state schools, our first term hasn't yet started, though our students have begun to move back into their dorms, we find that new students tend to settle in remarkably well, the school is well adapted to Alycia's kind of mind. Plus, we always make an extra effort to ensure that our students can maintain contact with home. We have video links set up in dormitories so they can video chat and we pay for their transport to and from home at weekends and holidays, we are actually remarkably lenient about these things."

"I don't know..." my mother said, "this is really something that we should discuss with Alycia herself" Everyone glanced at me warily, Redbridge and James with warning in their eyes

"Okay, I'll just pass it back over to her then." I looked warily around the room before saying anything.

"Hey," I tried to sound upbeat and excited, not sure it worked but no one seemed to notice.

"Well what do you think?" my mum cried, she was clearly ecstatic. I looked at the large, angry man before me and sighed.

"I don't know, it's a lot to take in, it'd completely mess up any plans I had for university because you stay in school for so much longer, and I'd miss you guys to bits, and my friends," I paused, glancing towards James who seemed to smile in encouragement, that was the friendliest Id seen him in a while, "but it's absolutely gorgeous here, and I've looked into some of their classes, they were just great. I don't want to rush into anything but I do actually think I'd like it here." I paused, my words abandoning me completely, the thought of having to stay here made me feel physically ill, but I had no doubt that there wasn't any kind of choice, I'd be staying here regardless of what my parents thought.

I could hear my parent's excitement through the phone, "oh that's fantastic!" my mother squealed, "now of course I don't want to rush into anything but I do think that this'll be great for you, I know how bored you've been at your current school. Now if you could just pass me back to the ah, head teacher we can sort out the details."

I sat back as my parents and Redbridge finished their conversation, I was barely listening to a word they were saying and soon enough, it was all over. They were going to get a car ready to go with me, Redbridge and a couple of guards, we would arrive home, pick up my bags, collect my parents for a quick tour of the school before waving them off home...

And then I was to live in a school run by a man whose main aim in life seemed to be to hold me hostage.

Needless to say, I wasn't particularly excited.