Curiosity

Thane smooths the old picture out and looks at the two smiling girls in the photo with slight surprise. This must be Valen's twin sister, Valerie. The two girls in the picture are holding each other with large smiles on their faces and even though they're both pretty, he can't take his eyes off Valerie.

The picture is obviously older but Valen and Valerie look... identical. Especially when he thinks back to what Valen looked like dressed up as a girl... Thane's thumb rubs over Valerie's face in the photo with conflicting emotions.

He can't help but wonder what Valerie looks like now. He gently lays the crumbled up picture back on the desk before walking back over to the bed. As he pulls the covers back, he pauses. He releases the blanket and walks back over to the crumbled picture.

He does something completely out of character... he folds the picture up and slips it into his bag before laying down in the bed with cold eyes. He doesn't know why but, he can't get the smiling face out of his head.

It looks exactly like Valen yet... it's not. Can Valen smile like that too?

~~~~~~~

After telling my parents bye, Thane and I head back to the Academy but I can't help but feel that Thane is more withdrawn. More than usual anyway... I pull out a small bag of suckers and pop one into my mouth before lightly nudging Thane.

When he turns to me, I offer the bag to him and say "Would you like one? They're pretty good." Thane looks to the bag before looking back to me with his cold blue eyes. His eyes flicker down to the sucker in my mouth before looking away and saying "I'm good, you enjoy them."

He leans back in his seat and closes his eyes as the train speeds back to the city in silence. I slightly frown before closing the bag and putting them away. After my parent's interrogation, I only managed to get three hours of sleep.

I lean my head back and close my eyes against the train's bright lights. The steady rocking of the train soon lulls me into a deep sleep as the news silently plays on the holographic screens displayed all over the train's walls.

~~~~~~~

When Thane feels something on his arm, he opens his eyes and blinks in surprise. The kid fell asleep and with the sucker still in his mouth! He thinks about nudging him awake but when he looks at his sleeping face, he can't help but find it peaceful.

He carefully reaches over with his other hand and grabs the sucker. When he pulls the sucker out, Valen licks his lips and drifts back off to sleep. Thane smirks and throws the sucker away with a shake of his head.

After a few silent minutes of watching the news, Thane finds himself turning back to look at him again. Even when they're sleeping back at the Academy, he always finds himself watching the kid sleep like some kind of creep. It ticks him off and intrigues him all at the same time.

Before he realizes, the train pulls into the station for the city. He spent the whole trip starring at the little punk sleep!

~~~~~~~~

When I feel myself being shaken, I quickly open my eyes and sit up to see that we've already reached the city! I must have been super tired... Thane plops my bag into my lap and says "Naptime's over. Let's go."

I quickly grab my bag and follow Thane off the train but as I'm walking behind him, I can't help but start looking for the sucker I fell asleep with. I check my shirt, my pants, and even my hair but I can't find it. Did I... did I eat the stick and all!?

I scratch the back of my neck as I absentmindedly follow behind Thane but when someone hits me, I stumble to the side and nearly drop my bag. Several people are yelling as I turn to see the person who ran into me running away at full speed.

Thane looks to me with a frown and asks "Are you okay?" I brush my shoulder off and nod my head as we both look back to the guy running away. Several police officers chase after him, yelling for him to stop but the guy has no intention of listening.

Thane narrows his eyes at the guy's disappearing back before saying "Let's get back to the Academy. Titus sent me a com message. Something has happened." I bite my lip and nod as the two of us quickly make our way back to the Academy.

Once back, Thane and I don't even bother dropping our bags off. We head straight to the training ground to find everyone lining up already. Thane and I drop our bags and line up with the rest as Titus nods and says "Now that we have everyone here, I have some bad news. Team three is MIA. We've tried to contact them several times but we can't get in touch with anyone."

Murmurs can be heard among the group before Titus says "I'm putting a team together that will come with me. Thane, Cruz, Troy, Conner, and Valen. You five will come with me and check on the status of team three. Gear up! The rest is dismissed."

My heart nearly stops as I struggle to understand what's just happened. Gear up? Go with him where!? Surely he doesn't mean the Void... right!?? I look around with wide eyes to see everyone breaking up.

As Thane turns around to walk away, he grabs the back of my shirt and starts dragging me away as he says "Let's go." I stumble a few times before twisting myself around and grabbing my bag. I quickly follow Thane as I whisper "What the hell is going on? Gear up? For what and where are we going?"

Thane's jaw clenches as he says "The Void"