The alarm clock ringed in a highly pitched tone the morning after, at six in the morning.
My eyes opened quickly and I pushed away the covers, dragging away the sleep left in my body as I did.
There was no room for being lazy at this place.
"Very well, we might as well get this over with quickly." I yawned and stretched out in the sheets.
I got up from the bed and went to my wardrobe.
At least I didn't have to think about what to wear, since everything looked alike.
Quickly I started dressing as I fought back every thought that wanted to take over my mind.
I had to clear my head so that the trip inside of the Animus would be as pain free as possible.
With strong feelings inside of this body before going inside of a new one, only makes the journey harder than usual.
By the time I was dressed I already felt like an emotionless shell.
I looked myself in the mirror as I brought up my long black hair in a ponytail, and flinched by what I saw looking back.
Even my skin looked gray, and sunk in.
Truth was that even without moving for three weeks every month, I still didn't gain weight.
The poor food they got us here while we were in the Animus, surely didn't satisfy our bodies.
I saw the way newcomers looked, with tanned skins and clear eyes, their hair glowing. But already after a week they started to look like everybody else in here.
We all signed a contract before entering this building, a contract binding us to the Templars rules and making it lethal for us to step outside against their commands.
The only time we had the sun in our faces, the wind in our hair was when we were inside of the Animus, and even then it wasn't our own body that could feel it.
When I finally managed to fit my hair up in a ponytail I grabbed the key card from the bed and went to the door.
I shot a last glance on the room, even though I hated it, it was the only home and place for myself that I had.
Then I opened the door and walked away.
The other 49 employees seemed to have woken up the same time as I, and we nodded towards one another as we all walked towards the elevators or the stairs.
I figured that waiting for the elevator wasn't something that I wanted to do, so instead I walked towards the stairs next to the elevators.
Even walking felt amazing to do, while I still could inside of my own body.
"Twelve!" A girl shouted, I stopped quickly before stepping down the stairs and turned around, causing people to shoot me annoyed stares as they had to walk by me.
A girl at seventeen hurried down the corridor towards me, waving her hand and trying to catch my attention.
She had been here for a month, yet still she had managed to keep the light in her big blue eyes.
It had been my job to show her around, the day she appeared here.
Apparently our ancestors had stumbled across one another and in some way we were relatives.
Although her blond beautiful hair and blue eyes didn't exactly make her look like a Cortado, but who was I to judge.
I couldn't help but to smile at the way how older employees looked at her like she was insane.
She managed to make me smile, which was quite hard to do.
I still hadn't manage to learn her name, was it Lilly? Sandy? Perhaps Mandy?
She came to halt beside me and smiled widely.
"Oh Melanie aren't you excited?" She smiled as we started walking down the stairs.
"Not really." I murmured.
"Figures, since you've done this so many times. But for me it's only the second time! Can you believe it? I hope they give me something cool, you know, like the life of an important and highly feared assassin.
I want something trying, something where I have to use everything they've learned me." She kept on talking in a very fast tempo as we went down the other half set of stairs. Luckily for me she didn't wait for an answer.
Others passed us quickly down the stairs as we came in to the big room for dinner, breakfast and lunch.
It smelled like Oatmeal mixed with sugar, milk and cinnamon, I sighed.
Christmas must be close in the outside world.
I sighed once again, I couldn't remember a real Christmas in my life, not even during my years as an orphan.
"Look, there's Subject Thirteen." The girl said in my ear as we walked towards the line waiting for workers to pile up food on plates for us.
The girl was right, Lionel stood next to Joanne, a girl who'd been here for five years, they both looked up as they heard the new girls' voice and smiled towards us.
I smiled vaguely as I stopped beside Lionel, glad to be with him for as long as possible.
"Good morning Melanie. Susan." He nodded towards the new girl and I finally remembered her name.
"How was your night?" I asked him as I took a plate and a spoon from the bench in front of us.
Lionel smiled, he knew I was thinking about our time outside our rooms the night before.
"Good and yours? Did you get some sleep?" He asked.
I nodded, smiling as well as the line moved slowly forward.
If Susan and Joanne noticed our weird smiles, they didn't mention it.
"What time is the meeting today?" Joanne asked us, even though she only looked at Lionel.
"At five, we'll be inside the Animus by six at the least." Susan answered expectantly.
"Great." Joanne said, smiling shortly towards Susan.
I suspected that Joanne had a thing for Lionel, but it didn't bother me. Lionel caught many girls' attention sometimes, yet I didn't quite understand why.
And the idea of hoping for a romance with someone inside of these walls is foolish.
We get a week once in a month together with one another here, that isn't exactly enough time for a love affair to break out, at least not in my opinion.
We meet so many people during our lives, because of the animus, some even spend enough time with people in the past that they tend to fall in love with them.
That's the most self-destructive thing to do, because you know the person is dead, and the feelings you feel are probably just the things that your ancestor felt, you're feelings are therefore not real.
Love, I thought and sighed, such a stupid and ignorant feeling.
The line moved forward once again and Joanne got her plate filled.
"I'll go get a table for us." She said and started walking away.
"Someone's got a thing for Lionel." Susan teased. Lionel looked up from his plate at this and lifted his eyebrows.
The way he looked so surprised made me and Susan laugh loudly.
"What? Who?" He looked confused.
Susan was about to answer but I stopped her by lifting my hand.
I laughed shortly once again and met Lionel's eyes.
"No one. Just go sit down and eat your breakfast." I said smiling.
He gave us a last confused glance before picking up his plate and walking after Joanne.
"Susan!" I laughed quietly. "If he finds out he'll never talk to Joanne!" I said.
I knew what used to happen with Lionel when girls started showing interest in him.
He got grumpy and told them to back off, afterwards I usually tried getting out of him why he became like that, but I never got a real answer.
"How do you know? Maybe he feels something for her?" She said, I was about to answer when I remembered that I actually never asked Lionel about what he felt for her.
I shook my head, thinking about feelings was a waste of time.
"Yeah you're probably right." I simply said and took my plate to walk over to their table.
People nodded in greeting towards me as I passed them, all of them with faces showing no emotions what so ever.
People usually smiled while being here, you could hear laughter and conversations all the time.
Most of them were happy and proud of being here.
But today everyone knew what was coming, and they were trying to prepare themselves the best they could.
I could feel the tension in the air as I walked towards the table Joanne had picked out for us.
I sat down next to Lionel and looked around the room, took in the room and the people inside of it before turning to my plate.
It was a reflex, to always check my surroundings before going off guard, a work injury from too much time spent inside of the animus as assassins out in the wild.
"I haven't been this excited for a mission before." Joanne said, I shot a confused glance at her before turning my focus on eating.
"Why?" Lionel said, Susan sat down beside me and started eating greedily.
"I don't know, it just feels like this time it will be different, I'm going to get back with some interesting news, I'm sure of it." Joanne said cheerfully.
"I hope I will too." Susan said with food in her mouth.
"Newcomers never get the important missions." Joanne said shortly.
I shook my head, for once I actually got mad. Why did Joanne feel the need to pick on Susan, what had she ever done?
"Why not?" Susan said disappointed.
"Not experienced enough." Joanne said coldly.
Susan turned her gaze down to her plate. I was shocked by the way Joanne was towards Susan.
"Maybe I'll prove you wrong." Susan murmured, I could see by the look on her face that Joanne had hurt her. I was very keen on looking after the ones I liked, especially the ones that turned out to be related to me, this was something I had picked up from my ancestors.
And to me, what Joanne did to Susan's self-confidence by practically saying that she wasn't good enough, was not Ok with me.
"Doubt it." Joanne said, to which I answered by slamming my fist against the table. Enough was enough, and someone had to tell Joanne that she had stepped over the line.
Susan jumped and Joanne dropped her spoon. Milk splashed up on her face as she did.
"Joanne, please! You very well know that taking time to be ignorant is a waste! Feelings only make the journey in the animus harder, and you of all should know that by now. Stop being so childish and eat!" I spat out before I could stop myself.
Lionel's mouth dropped at this, I looked down on my plate and focused to try to push the anger away.
Oh god, I thought to myself. That was the first time I ever snapped at someone.
I usually got mad, extremely easy, but never did I tell anyone that I was.
The others turned quiet and I could hear others sitting close to our table tune out. Their eyes felt like they could burn my skin in any minute. I had got myself some attention, which was something I didn't like and didn't need.
"You've got a little milk on your cheek." Lionel said to Joanne, I saw her cheeks getting red as she flipped away Lionel's hand and stood up straight.
"I will go now." She said, apparently furious and embarrassed.
"Do so." I said coldly, and Joanne walked away with angry steps, her hands turned into fists.
"You didn't have to do that." Susan said, laughing embarrassed by the thought of having to be protected.
It was a feeling that our ancestors would have been disappointed about.
It was something though about Susan that made me want to protect her, she was in some way a relative, relatives protect each other, or so I've at least heard.
"I know. But someone had to do it." I said, I looked up in Susan's face and she gave me a thankful little smile.
Maybe, I thought to myself as I returned the smile, maybe things won't be so hard when I get back from the trip in the animus, not with Susan and Lionel there.
I should have remembered that to hope for a better life for myself was and still is foolish.