Next they had Programming. Nervous excitement, dread and fear were mixed in Anna's stomach as she took her seat. Her dreadlocked hair fell in front of her face and she sat as far away as possible but most seats were taken. Blackburn came in and immediately the chattering stopped. The keen faces couldn't stop looking at him, to see what he was like after being stranded for so long. Anna was used to the stares, whispers and impertinent questions but Blackburn quelled any thought of asking about the past year with a look. "Right." His voice loud. "As you know I have been away for… some time. So I am assuming that you all have been working hard at programming, considering how important it is, and are now better than the last time I taught you miserable bunch." The silence was deafening. He didn't seem annoyed, he had a smile on but Anna noted the tightening around the eyes as he glared at them, meaning he was furious. "Well I have been looking at the horrible excuse for work you lot have been doing and I have to say I am desperately hoping this is some awful joke. Because I tell myself there can be no way that some people I have meticulously taught, incompetent as they were, would have actually decreased in knowledge in that amount of time!" He sounded angry. Genuinely angry. Anna felt he must truly have cared about the students learning to defend themselves from malicious viruses.

Anna was well used to such rants, having sat through many of these on Stow. She knew that he would repeat it another day and remembered the dread that had filled her whenever he'd begun such a tirade. Like three months into their stay at Stow when she'd been skinning a creature and he'd advanced on her, smiling his dangerous grin. "So I thought that was just hilarious girl, a really beautiful trick!" Anna had shrunk back and cast her eyes on her work, carefully fitting the knife under the skin, tense and worried. Blackburn had carried on regardless. "Yes I really loved that, pant-wettingly funny. I ask you to make sure the shelter tonight is half decent so we won't be soaked and cold, and you put the leaves on the top just two layers thick. I ask myself, why would this girl only put two layers on a shelter due to get blasted by a firehose worth of water and the only conclusion I can come up with is that you are thick as two short planks!" He had grabbed her arm to pull her towards him and forced her to look at him. "Can you not do anything woman!" he'd griped, glaring at her whilst she frantically tried to make herself smaller and pull away. "Sorry Sir, I tried – I went to get more leaves but then you found the animal so I had to skin it" she'd pleaded, hating her voice, desperately trying to calm him down, feeling like an idiot. "I'll put more on. Once I've skinned this. Sir." On one such occasion she'd actually found herself snapping at him to "calm down" at which point he'd gripped the back of her neck painfully hard until she'd apologised. That had been rather unusual though. He wanted respect and he wasn't averse to violence but he didn't use it unless he felt it was necessary.

He also had absolutely no problem with humiliation. She remembered him forcing Tom into believing he was a dog for a while before Stow making him believe he was in love with the podium. He had given Tom's neural processor a virus which made him believe he was of canine origin. Such attacks were one of the reasons that Blackburn was so keen on them protecting themselves. He also had no gripes about embarrassing her on occasion, indeed he seemed to relish it. He'd taken great pleasure in watching her try to figure out a way to open a coconut or observe her picking up hot berries when they scattered to the floor. She'd tripped up so much on the island she'd lost count and he'd stopped looking, just called for her to hurry up.

He spent the lesson teaching and discovering (and correcting) what they'd been 'taught' by the 'experts' But Anna knew him better than anyone. His forehead was slightly furrowed, eyes narrowed in concentration, muscles tense which she knew was a sign of stress. He was worried about something. He asked people questions but did not ask her. Anna determinedly ignored him, trying to stay under his radar. She snorted when she realised that was exactly what she'd tried to do all that time ago. Like that had worked! But she focussed on the lesson as she did not want to be in danger of being victim to a virus. "Class dismissed." Relieved Anna got up with the others, to head to lunch but was interrupted by his voice: "Not so fast Faeilr! Faeilr, a word." Whispered mutterings were sprinkled around the room like droplets as the students swapped rumours and exchanged looks. But one by one they disappeared through the door, through which Anna desperately wanted to walk, until she and Blackburn were totally alone. She shuffled to his desk and he crossed to stand next to her on the same side, leaning on the dark panelled wood.

She looked at him expectantly but he didn't speak at first, just tapped the desk in an irritating rhythm. He was silent for a minute or so, then looked at her and began to speak. "Right, Faeilr, how you getting on?" Mutely she examined the question. Why would he ask that? Seriously – why did he care and what on earth did he expect? In the end she scowled and replied "I'm fine." Arching his eyebrow in a disbelieving manner he drew breath. "What have they asked you? What have you said?"
"They asked where I was. How I survived. What it was like." She glared at him, hatred pouring through her veins. "Don't worry though, I didn't spill your little secrets, didn't give any details. So don't get your knickers in a twist!" Anna's tone was mocking, cruel and harsh to match his gruff voice. The tip of his mouth shifted up. "Watch your tone girl" he threatened. "Your processer is back online. You remember what we agreed? No census machines, no details." Anna snorted.
"Agreed, sure that's a pretty way of putting it." Her Professor pressed his mouth into a line and started tapping again. "Will you stop that?" Anna snarled in frustration, rage filling her every pore. He was sat there, acting like it was all fine. He was acting like nothing had happened and like he hadn't slept by her side for a year, forced her to live with him, adhere to what he wanted. It was lunchtime and her stomach rumbled. Blackburn ignored it: they were used to hunger.

"Listen to me Anna, your counselling session is this afternoon. She is going to want to worm her way into your head. You are going to have to be very careful with what you say. Pretend to cooperate but stick to the story." He fixed her with a cold stare, two dark pits of unknown potential and capability. "You let anything slip, let her think anything is wrong and I can promise you, you will regret it. I will make your life hell."
Anna flipped. "Make my life hell? Seriously? Like it isn't already? You utter imbecile, you twisted, evil monster!" She started swearing at him, screaming out expletives, quivering with rage. "You really think you can use that as a threat? My life wasn't great beforehand as you well know, but then I get to find out exactly what you are capable of James." She spat. "You tied me up, you threatened me, and you've seen me naked! Held me against my will! Please do tell me how you can go worse! I'd love to know." She launched herself at him, yelling as her fists pounded flesh, nails scraping, kicking. She slapped his arm away and used the heel of her hand to hit as it was more effective than knuckles, jabbing at him hard and fast. She swung her elbow to his side, catching his wrist, and wriggled to escape from his grasp as he naturally defended himself and then began attacking. Anna was panting now whilst Blackburn gripped her arms and bodily tripped her up so she fell to the ground. The breath was knocked out of her as she was slammed down and he straddled her waist, pinning her down. His face in her's he spoke: "I know what this is about, of course I do."
She snarled, struggling. "Know what this is about! What do you think this is about? Homework?" Suddenly he pressed his face to her's, glaring down at her. She was pinned underneath him, struggling uselessly. Then, to her horror, his hand closed round her throat. It was the most uncomfortable, terrifying sensation she'd ever experienced. It was like being tickled but unable to get away. He squeezed hard, then loosened the pressure, keeping it relatively steady. "Listen here girl." His voice was deadly quiet. "You had better listen up because I won't repeat this. You are in danger. Big danger. From me." Anna struggled to breath, patting at his hand, wriggling desperately. "So you stick to the plan or I'll make you wish I'd done you on Stow." The way he said 'done you' left her with little doubt of what he meant, murder. "Now I've been looking into who was responsible for that unplanned sabbatical and it seems someone had decided to get me out of the way. I am still trying to figure out why and what damage was done whilst I was gone but I intend to find out."

Anna grabbed his little finger which was gripped around her neck and pulled it back, forcing him to let go of her throat to prevent his finger being snapped. She released him but he didn't continue his struggle. Instead he looked at her for a moment, both breathing heavily. "You know what you're gonna say at your session then? You gonna be smart and keep zip?" Anna nodded and he regarded her for a moment as if scrutinising her honesty. Suddenly he released her, getting off her and pulling her to her feet. "Thatta girl!"

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I am just gonna keep asking for reviews... just fyi