For A Star To Fall

Chapter 13: Lost Control

Chapter 13

“Well,” Jordan remarked as he moved the mouse and clicked on the red “x” button, closing the window of the media player, “that was surprising.” He turned towards Emyle, who was still staring at the laptop screen, a blank look in her gaze.

“Yes,” she said after a while, nodding slowly, “that was extremely surprising.”

There was silence after that, as the two of them sat in the same chair, most likely attempting to fully process what they had just seen in the video. Sighing inaudibly, Jordan nudged Emyle with his elbow, saying, “Hey, now would be a great time to explain what all this is about.”

She raised her head to meet his gaze, and the look in her eyes was slightly bewildered and a little resigned, which was probably in response to his curiosity. Jordan frowned a bit, usually he would not be able to sense Emyle’s emotions, much less any expression in her eyes—apart from the cool detachment that resided there most of the time, of course. Even then, her feelings would be muted and the blackness of her eyes empty and cold. Emyle tilted her head and said, “How can I explain if I do not understand the video either?”

Jordan resisted the urge to face-palm. She did not get him. He had to be more specific. Right, specific. “Okay, you’re right. Who’s Katherine?”

Leaning against the back of the chair, she replied almost robotically, her tone flat. “Katherine Rose Graymark is my mother.”

“Oh,” Jordan said, feeling rather dumb. It had been so obvious, he really should have known. Katherine had looked so much like Emyle, in stature and in appearance, even though her behaviour was an exact mirror of Aaron’s. It was apparent that he had passed down his habits and behaviour, and taught her everything that she knew now, since Emyle had told him that her mom was dead.

“Okay,” Jordan was tired of these awkward silences. “Let’s see what’s in this file here.”

Emyle nodded again, the black pools of her eyes looking rather distracted. It was as if watching that video had completely broken down the walls that she put up and now she was now exposed, letting Jordan see her emotions clearly in her eyes. This was so weird, he thought as he moved the mouse and clicked on the file that was titled with Emyle’s mom’s name. He wondered what the numbers in the brackets following the word Katherine meant. It was obviously a year—’03. Well, they would be finding out soon. The window turned blank and refreshed, allowing the contents of that particular file to fill the page. There was a Word document on the first line, Jordan read its title out loud, “Summary of Experimentation Process. Hmm, Emyle, what do you think this is?”

As usual, she did not deem his question important enough to merit an answer. Jordan followed her dark gaze to the other lines below the first one. There was a long list of more videos, each titled with a date within the year 2103. “Okay,” he said, feeling more confused than ever. “I think I’ll just open this Word doc, and see what’s inside, yeah?” He moved the mouse so that the little arrow was hovering right over the blue bar of the Word document.

Just as he was about to press down with his index finger to click on the bar, the feeling of Emyle’s slim hand covering his own stopped him. Jordan froze. Emyle grabbed his hand and lifted it before dropping it on the desk near his laptop. “What...” he began, raising his hand again, but she shook her head and swatted his hand away impatiently.

“We do not have that much time,” she told him. “It is better to see it for ourselves, rather than read about it.” Jordan threw his hands up in defeat, a gesture that said Whatever floats your boat. He crossed his arms over his chest, even though he felt quite pleased that she had used her words “ourselves”. It made him feel as if they really were working together, although she acted like she was merely tolerating him most of the time.