Everyone Else Has a System

"Can we come in?" Irene asked a bit awkwardly about her situation. Irene then finally traces her line of sight in which Linda was looking at and realising what she was doing, Irene kind of made a slightly horrified face before hurriedly leaving my arm and taking a few steps away from me as she looked at her hands before looking at me.

"I.. uh… I.." she looked like she wanted to speak something but she couldn\'t before I just chuckled and then spoke,"let\'s go in," and moved inside Linda\'s house under their constant gaze.

\'Seems like Irene didn\'t realise what she was doing,\' I thought as I turned to them before speaking,"you guys are gonna stand there forever or something?" and they snap out of their daze before moving inside as Linda closes the door behind her and I walk towards what I thought was the living room.

It was a small room with the kitchen connected to it on one side with a single sofa and the floor space left a bit open. The space probably also served as a dining area, given how small this place was.

I saw two more doors. Out of them, one was probably the main bedroom, while the other was the bathroom.

"So… Can you tell me what is going on here?" Linda spoke as she was staring at Irene and Irene, a bit awkward for a few moments, then turns a little serious before speaking,

"Linda…" and then a smile blossoms on her face as she speaks,"... I think I can continue in the Academy."

Her smile was pure and innocent with pure bliss and joy in them as she chuckled a little at her words before straight away jumping to hug Linda, who was both confused yet happy as she tried to speak,

"What… What do you mean by that? What happened?!"

Linda looked equally happy with what she heard and Irene then takes a step back and held Linda\'s shoulders with her hands as she smiled and answered,

"He knows… he knows about the answers that I have been trying to find all my life."

She points at me as she is speaking and Linda turns to look at me, once again gazing at me with surprise on her face. Then, perhaps she recalls what happened before with Mark Leeway and all, she makes a slightly worried and horrified face before turning at Irene and speaking,

"Sweety… are you sure about him? You know how it is, right?"

\'Oi! Oi! What are you whispering to her about me?\' I looked at Linda, with my eyes narrowed but didn\'t speak anything. I waited for Irene\'s response, which came shortly after Linda\'s question,

"I know he is a devil, a freak I should never mingle with. Try to stay as far away as possible. He is dangerous and getting mixed with him will only put my life in danger and once I get involved, I might never be able to get out of it but ...."

I almost stood up as I wanted to ask why the heck is she spewing nonsense about me? I mean all that is true, but still; it is not something you should just say because you want to… that too in front of me.

".... if that is all I am risking, in return for what I have wanted all my life, I think it is fine. Don\'t you agree, Linda?" Irene completed her sentence, and I just stood there with words almost at the tip of my tongue, but I didn\'t speak anything.

Linda turned to me, with doubts still filled in her eyes, but in the end she just sighed before speaking,"if you have made up your mind on that… I guess there is little we can do about it."

Linda then turned to me again before speaking,

"That apart. Why is this freak in my house right now?"

\'Now, she is openly cursing me.\' I just looked at them, getting more and more frank with me, literally knowing how scary I can be.

"He asked to come, and I thought if he wanted to reach you, I most probably couldn\'t have stopped him, so I decided to bring him along with me," Irene said with an innocent smile that sent chills down my spine…

Linda then turned to me as she asked,"well… I guess I have a lot of questions to ask you, but first let\'s start with the most basic one. Why did you want to see me?"

I saw her expression carefully and saw that she didn\'t have any fear in her eyes. For some reason, it felt off, so I directly asked,"you aren\'t afraid of me?"

"Hmmm… well… To be honest, is there a point?" She asked as she moved towards the corner where a bean bag was and sat on it before picking up something that looked like a toy and started playing with it as she continued,"I mean… if you wanted to kill me. Would I still be alive?"

Hearing her words, I kind of questioned if I had heard this statement before but couldn\'t really recall, so I just let that thought go.

"I guess that is one way to look at things," I said as I looked directly in her eyes, which were still focused on the toy in her hands. She then saw me looking at her and asked me again,

"So… why did you want to see me?"

I then looked at her and inquired, directly getting to the point,

"How are things going on at the Academy?"