Sitting in a CIA safe house, it dawned over April that her cousin, Sydney, was right. This wasn't going to be over soon. They were not going to let April go back to her life until the CIA figured out exactly why the Covenant wanted her.
According to Sydney, no one wanted the Covenant after them. Sydney had briefly explained to April the "relationship" that she has with them. The organization had held her for two years under the alias of Julia Thorne. That seemed like an interesting story, but the way Sydney told her what had happened to her, didn't entice April to pry. There was a feeling that Sydney had hardly any idea what happened to her. The look on Sydney scared April.
It was obvious to anyone that there were stark contrasts between April and Sydney. Sydney had chosen to be apart of the spy world, whereas April wanted nothing to do with it. But now, they were both entrenched it in. There never was a way out. Over the past five years Sydney had hardened. Her features became almost strained, like it took a lot out of her to smile. April was soft. She was innocent, with hardly a stain in her life, except for the ones recently discovered. But it seemed that Sydney had lost her innocence and purity. Sure she still had her morals, but if push came to shove they could be compromised. As apparent to everyone, April would never compromise what she felt. That was the endearing quality of her.
"What am I doing here?" April asked herself as she sprawled out on the bed that she had been given to rest in. She was trying to read Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice for the fourth time, but the story of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy was not keeping her mind off where she was.
She was in Los Angeles. Not New York, not South Africa, but Los Angeles. It's not that she disliked Los Angeles, but she would much rather not be here under forced conditions. She wanted out, but that didn't seem to be an option. This wasn't that much different from her earlier predicament of being held, against her will (at least that what April liked to tell herself) under Julian Sark.
Sure it had not been her best experience, but nevertheless, restlessness had woken up inside of her. She couldn't stand to sit in that room anymore. There was a television and a CD player, but she didn't want to do any of those things. She needed to get out.
With her resolve, she walked out into the living room where there was Eric Weiss and Michael Vaughn playing a video game of some sort. They had not noticed that she had entered the room.
"Hey," she said softly.
At her voice, the two men turned around instantly. "Hey April, what's up? Do you need something?" Vaughn asked.
"Um, I was wondering if I could get some fresh air or something. I can't be inside anymore." April felt the walls close around her. She never thought she was claustrophobic, but after this experience she seemed to be.
Vaughn and Weiss looked at each other wearily. They were under strict order to not let her out of the house. "Let us see what we can do," Vaughn responded. He stood up off of the couch and went to the security room to check with his boss.
Eric Weiss gave April an encouraging smile. He knew that this whole thing was scary for April. "How have you been?" As soon as he said this, he wanted to retreat into a small room with no lights and have Chinese water torture performed on him.
"I've had better days, but this isn't so bad," she shrugged.
"Yeah."
"What game are you playing?" I might as well make small talk.
"Need for Speed Underground. It's a racing game."
"Cool," she replied simply.
"Do you want to play?" Weiss offered.
"Sure."
April sat down on the couch next to Weiss. She picked up the controller that Vaughn had been holding. It was still warm and sticky.
"Okay you are the car on the top of the screen and I am the car on the bottom of the screen. You press the square button to put the gas on and the triangle button to brake."
"Got it," April affirmed. She never had played a video game before. Having no brother or any siblings for that matter had deprived her of the electronic game industry.
"Once I press start, the race will commence," he said with a sports announcer's voice. "Now." He pressed the button.
April pressed the square button and the car on the top of the screen began to move on the streets of San Francisco. This was fun. A smile spread across her face. It was the first time in a long time that she had smiled. The vehicle weaved in and out of traffic and was beating Eric's car by at least half of a lap.
She crossed the finish line ahead of Eric's car. She liked winning. "Well, good game." She put her hand out to be shaken.
"Not yet. We're playing best out of a three. Currently you may be up by one round, but we still have two more to go and I can sweep the last two."
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"Yes."
"Okay, then let's go," April encouraged.
Vaughn walked back in the room and found that April had taken his spot on the couch and was racing Weiss in the game. He saw that she was smiling. He had not seen her do that since she was under his care. April beat Weiss. Well, that wasn't something new. For the past hour he had been kicking some serious ass against Weiss and he was happy to see that April had found the task easy herself.
Vaughn coughed in order to get Weiss and April's attention. He noticed that immediately Eric pressed the pause button. The two figures on the couch both turned around.
"Sydney and Dixon both said that it would be alright if you got to go out for two hours as long as Weiss and I were with you."
April stood up off the couch once she heard the good news. "Great, umm, where exactly would we go?"
"Well for security reasons I think we should try to stick to some place near here. We could go for a walk or something," Vaughn suggested.
"I'm more a running type of girl, do you think we could go running or something?"
"Yeah, that sounds good, how about you Weiss?"
"Sure," Weiss got up off the couch. "Vaughn and I just need change."
"Yeah, I do too." April turned and went into the bedroom that she had been given and changed into workout clothes, ready to run.
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Sorry everyone for the wait. This is more of a transitional chapter, but I promise that the next chapter will be filled with action! I have finals next week, which means half days, which translates to being able to write. Thanks for all the reviews and I really appreciate your support!