I repeated the code like coordinate routes, adding meaning to each of the numbers until they remained in my head.
“Memorisation complete,” I said to no one in particular, but Milosh had asked for verbal confirmation.
As soon as I spoke the words, another light appeared to display a sink. So, the entrance was through the kitchen. Good to know, because in most cases, this was also the only exit.
The sink was filled with water, a plate resting at the bottom. I knew what needed to be done and stepped towards it to drop the letter inside.
The printed paper started dropping its ink at the contact with water. I inhaled a deep breath to mark my first completed step of this long month ahead. The destruction of the letter.
I watched the ink drip and fade into the water, releasing dark hues against the inox and watched the dirty plate that looked to have been dropped in there recently, by someone who must have been too hungry to wait until all preparations were done. In that very moment, my stomach decided to grumble, reminding me that we haven’t eaten in over eighteen hours.
Something to be remedied soon, there was no better bond than sharing food.
“Now where the hell are the lights?”
Instantly, the entire room lit up.
Cool trick. I turned to examine the small kitchen. A table with two stools, a mini fridge and a cupboard with lots of cans. I wasn’t sure the food was enough to last for two, but then I also did not hold information about the subject. For all I knew, they could eat trees and I’d have to go out for two hours every other day and forage for their feed.
One step at a time. I walked out of the small room into another wad of darkness, but this time I was prepared. “Can I have some light in here too?”
In the next second, the lights were on. I was starting to like this voice control thing. Uncomfortable that an entire team had to be watching my every move, but it wasn’t so different to the screens I had to use before, where the analytics team could hear and see everything I was doing. The only difference was that these PDD people had a bird’s eye view. And more funds, clearly.
The living room was massive and filled with…gym equipment? It was not really a sitting area like I thought it would, but rather a fully functioning home gym. Okay, so the subject must really like pain.
“Is there a bedroom?”
New lights turned on in the next room to reveal a small bedroom. I walked to the new area and prepared myself to find my bags thrown around one side of the room, but instead I found a very nice and inviting double room.
With a double bed.
And my bags carefully stored to one side, next to a nightstand.
A double bed sounded amazing.
“Thank you,” I heard myself say, the words escaping my mouth on their own accord. I never had a bed this big. Never, ever, in my entire life. I grew up in bunk beds and when I finally got my own room, three years ago, they gave me a single with a worn-out mattress. I could have bought my own, but beds were expensive and delivering one to our unit, in such a remote area would have cost me a fortune. So, I made do with the military supplied one and enjoyed the privacy.
I did experience the joys of double beds on my leave, where I visited the nearby town and got invited to spend the night with some guy or another. But I only used one for sex, never sleep, preferring to leave as soon as the deed was done and my needs sated. For safety reasons.
Unable to resist the temptation, I threw myself on the mattress and splayed my body onto the massive bed, enjoying the feel of soft cotton sheets and the bounciness of a, obviously new, mattress. I could definitely get used to this. I envisioned myself sleeping here comfortably for the next thirty days while the faerie hung onto the ropes of the home gym, exercised its nocturnal energies or whatever it was that said faerie liked to do.
It felt weird not to have the subject with me already, not to know anything about them except their fae origin, but nothing about this appointment trial had been conventional so far.
I decided to make the best out of my spare time and get familiarised with the new location. I checked out the bathroom, the only room with a door which was pretty standard. A toilet, a small cupboard filled with towels and a bathtub with an incorporated shower along with shower gel, shampoo and the necessary elements. Nothing special enough to keep me interested, so I focused back on the bedroom, which I planned to fully occupy.
I unpacked and filled the wardrobe with my clothes and other garments, not leaving much space for the coming faerie. I still couldn’t believe they gave me a faerie. My first faerie. The first one in the unit if I remembered correctly. I had been trained on humans only and the faerie folklore lessons kept things to a minimum, so I truly didn’t know what to expect.
It would probably be some sort of furry creature or a winged thing that would not need clothing anyway. I placed my uniform on hangers, determined to have it on hand even in this informal setting. It was my mission to befriend and extract information, but one must not forget we were on different sides.First impressions were a priority.
I checked out some of the books in the small cupboard by the wall, all of them novels. I hadn’t read a novel since I was a teenager and even then, it was so difficult to sneak them in, that the risk of getting caught did not make it worth it. I read my fair share of romance books, which became useful later on, when I started being alone with men. Had I not learnt about sex from those books, I would have had no idea how to react when seeing a naked man.
And I also learnt that romance books were exactly what they sounded like, an escape from this life, where everything was exaggerated, and nothing was real. Because no man caressed my body like the main heroes of those novels, no man looked at me like his life depended on my smiles and no one took the time to prepare me for the sexual act. They did not even care if I found release.
So yeah…not going to touch those anytime soon.
I focused instead on food. I found the fridge stocked with cheese, meat and vegetables, so I made myself a stir fry and two sandwiches, wanting to make sure I had as much nutrition as I possibly could before starting the mission.
“Is there a clock in here?” I asked out loud, hoping that this supervised home would talk back to me or give me the information I required.