Arsen glanced at her with her unsure tone. As a member of the richer class, of course he would have more experience with Readers than she would. He has forgotten about that. He tried to assure her with his eyes that it would be okay.
Alexa met his eyes and could tell he was attempting to assure her. She was still unnerved at the idea, but she did seem to relax and accept the idea a bit more easily. She would just have to figure out a way to keep the Reader from snooping around in her head.
"I take it that you two are willing?" The man asked.
Arsen nodded. "Yes. We are."
Alexa hesitated for a moment before nodding as well, "Yep. We'll do it."
The man nodded. "It will only take a few minutes. I hope you aren't looking to return to your apartment anytime soon? Because there will be an initiation that you'd have to go through."
"We aren't," Alexa responded before muttering under her breath, "No como si nos queremos a ningún lado para ir de todos modos."
Arsen didn't know what she said, but from her tone, she was being sarcastic. His lips curved into a slight smile, and then he turned to the man. "We're ready to do whatever it takes."
The man gave a slight motion with his hand, and a man appeared out of nowhere. Another Thief, most likely.
"You heard?" He asked. The other man nodded. "Good. Let them know that we have new recruits. Just like she predicted."
The Thief nodded and vanished.
Her? Arsen wondered, but he didn't say it out loud.
"Who would like to go first?" The man asked.
Arsen glanced at Alexa. "I can," he said.
Alexa tensed at the sight of the other Thief. She hadn't felt them in the room and that scared her. However, she took in the new information and met Arsen's eyes as he said he would go first. Thank dios for that.
The man stood and walked over to Arsen, resting his hands on either side of his head. With a startled stiffening of his back, Arsen felt himself falling, although it was only in his head. He was spinning, dizzy, while hisses and whispers filled his head… and then suddenly he was back in the room, blinking, startled.
The man moved over to Alexa and repeated the process.
Alexa froze as the sensation came over her. Her breathing quickened, and she couldn't remind herself that this was all in her head. When the man finished she was almost in a full-blown panic and she couldn't seem to calm herself down. Mierda.
Arsen noticed her state and stood up, moving over to her and placing his hands on her shoulders. "Hey," he said quietly. "Calm down. You're okay. It was just in your head." Privately, though, he felt like the sensation was really unecessary and stupid.
Alexa partially jumped at the touch his words going in one ear and out the other. But she did recognize the fact that he was in front of her and she wasn't falling. She was standing and Arsen was in front of her. That was all it took for her to quickly mask the panic that was still overwhelming her body. She gave him a slight nod rather than speaking.
Arsen understood. He had the vague idea that he had felt that before, the feeling of a Runner in his head, but he couldn't remember when, or why. It was just a gut feeling he had. But he shook it off for now. "May we go now?" He asked.
The man nodded. "We'll contact you if we need you. For now, we'll have someone pretend to be you, so that it directs the System's attention from you."
Alexa gave another small nod to what he said. That, that made sense. She just hoped her family wasn't too affected by her decision.
Arsen led Alexa out. "I guess we go back to the hotel," he said, rubbing the back of his neck and shaking his head. "That was… an experience."
"Yeah," Alexa finally said keeping her composure together. At least her voice didn't shake, the panic seemed to have passed over her.
They started to walk back the way they had come, and Arsen wasn't sure how to break the silence. He didn't want to think about what had just happened. It was probably the right decision, but it felt stupid.
Alexa didn't know what to say. She didn't want to think about what just happened, so she just stayed silent on the way back. She took a deep breath and let out an audible sigh.
"You okay?" Arsen asked carefully. He wasn't sure if she was in a good enough mood to talk politely to him, so hewas careful with how he spoke.
"A man just rifled through mi cabesa," Alexa told him with a tired snap. She could feel herself shake from the memory of it beneath the surface of her skin, "Do you think I'm okay?"
"No," Arsen said quietly, restraining himself from snapping back at her. Her anger wasn't directed at him, but at the Runner who did this. She just needed to let off some steam. "That was a dumb question. I'm sorry."
"Yo se," Alexa responded sighing again as she brought her hands up to her face. She did a slow rubbing motion trying to get rid of the feeling creeping back, "Dios I hated that."
Arsen mostly knew what she was saying. "Yeah. Me too. I can never get used to the feeling of Runners messing with my mind. I mean, at least you know that you're having something altered in your mind, instead of not knowing for sure if you're even the person you thought you were."
"Is that from experience?" Alexa glanced over at him letting her hands fall back to her side before shoving them into her pockets. She felt herself slowly relax once she had done that.
"I-" Arsen tilted his head and tried to remember, but it made his brain hurt and gave him a headache, so he stopped. "I'm not actually sure."