Flux (NaNoWriMo 2014)

Chapter Four: Consequences

Collin

"Maybe if we just leave quietly enough, she'll forget that we were ever here..."

"I doubt that... Stas isn't stupid." Aubrey whispered softly.

"Well... there's still hope!" I whispered back as energetically as possible.

Being in trouble kind of sucks. As you could've probably have expected Stas wasn't happy that we were trying to improve our skills in the middle of the night "without" supervision.

"Neil and Erin were just with us. They just dropped a few levels to have a private conversation."

"You should've stayed put until they came back then, instead of taking it upon yourself to risk your and Aubrey's life. Especially given that you landed in a restricted area."

"Level One was not restricted last time I went inside two days ago!"

"Well it was today. You better cut down the attitude young man, don't get yourself in more trouble than you already are in."

I had been unsuccessful in convincing Stas to turn an eye on the situation and just let us keep practicing. The woman seemed to be way too uptight to be able to have a beneficial negotiation with, so I eventually gave up once she took us to her office in the 15th level of the Main Hall. After a few minutes of giving us the death stare, she got a call down to one of the lower chambers by security.

I sighed away my frustration, negative thoughts just brought down my mojo.

Stas's office was smaller than one would think. The circular chamber was illuminated by a single light and split in half by a desk that extended through the middle of it. On the side we were sitting on, our two chairs stood in the middle of an otherwise empty space. Her side of the chamber however, was packed with a copious amount of shelves, both made out of rocks and wood. The shelves contained what I assumed to be record books for how the colony had been formed, it wasn't a topic that people talked much about, considering the fact that it had only occurred a few cycles before I arrived.

Aubrey whimpered next to me.

"What's wrong?" I asked switching my attention from furniture to her teary eyes.

"It's all my fault Collin. If I hadn't been such a coward, Erin wouldn't have been taken aside by Neil to talk and we would not have gotten in trouble. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry."

"Okay, first of all chill." I lightly covered her mouth with my hand. "That's absolutely ridiculous. We're not sure if their conversation was about you, and it was my idea to jump down, so if anyone here should take the blame it's me."

"But you were jus-" She took my hand off her mouth cautiously.

"No 'buts', that's the truth and you'd have a better time sleeping if you believe so yourself." I interrupted by shutting her mouth again.

After some initial resistance, she ran her sleeve on her face to dry the tears, took a deep breath through her nose and nodded.

"Ready to stop feeling bad?" I asked.

Another nod.

I took my hand off and wiped her saliva on her shirt before standing up. I stretched my back, then proceed to jump over Stas's desk into the other side of the office. Aubrey twitched her eye in mortification as began running my fingers on the rims of some of her record books. She nearly squealed when I pulled a file out.

"W-what are you doing? If she comes in, she will murder you." Aubrey began.

"Let's hope she doesn't come in then. It would be a shame to see my beautiful face get obliterated by her." I cut her off by lifting the book to cover my face. It feels much better to make a bad decision when you don't feel the pressure of having your motives questioned.