𝐉𝐀𝐃𝐄 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 // 𝐒𝐏𝐘 𝐱 𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐘

Chapter 3

"No! I don't wanna!" Anya's cries woke Kei up from her slumber. The six-year old yawned, refreshed from her one rare night of undisturbed, dreamless sleep.

Contrary to Anya, with her endless optimism, Kei often found herself being plagued by nightmares. A show of how differently they viewed the world, Kei reflected.

"Shhhh, your sister's sleeping," Loid quietly berated Anya before continuing in a strict tone, "I need to know if you have sufficient intellectual capacity for the entrance exam."

"I don't need to study! I'll read the answers from..." she trailed off.

...other kids' minds, Kei finished for her

"You plan to cheat your way through? You realize that if you don't pass..."

... My mission will fail.

Silence overtook the room as the two faced off.

Kei took this moment to announce her presence, opening the door to the living room with a loud thud, "Anya, just study already. We can do it together, okay?"

"Yes, listen to your sister. The two of you finish this sheet and I will be back."

Anya perked up at this.

"You're staying here today!" Loid quickly whipped around to stop her, "And that's final!

Stay home and behave!"

...

Of course, with Anya being Anya, she'd find a way to make a whole scene out of this.

"Hey!"

"I told you to stay put!"

"Ha! Did you think I wouldn't see you there?"

"Got you!"

"Got you"

"!!!!"

By the time Loid was finally able to leave, he ended up having to trap Anya inside by barricading the front door.

Anya got tired of studying within the first quarter of an hour. And so, she lay on the sofa pouting. I'm soooo bored.

Kei paid her no heed. She simply continued to read her book. She had finished her own worksheet a while ago.

And since Anya didn't seem to be planning on doing hers any time soon, Kei had given up and just gone back to her book. It was a delightful story.

I thought living with a spy would be cooler. I wanna disarm bombs and stuff. Anya stared at the ceiling completely bored out of her mind.

A mischievous twinkle lit up Anya's eyes and she grinned remembering the locked away spy tools belonging to Loid.

Combination is 6, 1, 1, 0...

Kei probably should have realized the moment Anya's thoughts began to bounce with renewed excitement but to be fair, her book was really, really, really delightful.

Anya rummaged through the case finding what looked like to her a spy radio. Humming to herself, she tapped away at the random keys.

"Boss, we're intercepting some kinda weird transmission!" A man at the desk shouted.

"Coded with the west's cipher?!"

"No, it's just plain text!

Says, uh... T-W-I-L-I-G-H-T-H-E-R-E."

"Twilight here?!"

"This is the frequency used by western intelligence. It might really be him!

There's more! "CATCH ME IF YOU CAN.""

"Find the source of that transmission! I'm gonna kill him!" the red faced man quivered out with barely restrained fury.

Satisfied, Anya leaned back. Only to be met by a set of angry gray eyes. Uh oh. Scary Kei is back.

"You!" Kei's fingers began to fly through the signs at a speed truly to marvel at, "How come the moment I take my eyes off you, you are always getting up to another trouble?! Anya... I am disappointed in you. I thought you would know better than to mess with the spy things! Don't you know how dangerous it might ha-"

She cut herself off, taking a deep breath. She then took a moment to observe the state of the room. It was a mess. Taking another calming breath, she moved to pick up one of the scattered items.

Anya scrambled to follow, having caught her train of thought. (Get it?)

"Anya, we have to hide our powers too. If he finds out we can read minds... we'll have to run away." Kei slowed down and carefully signed out each word. As the last item was put back in its rightful place.

Girls, you cannot tell anyone about your power. You understand that, right?

Anyway, it's study time now.

But we were playing!

Playing doesn't matter. Fun is not your purpose. You need to learn how to use your power to help bring about world peace.

We don't have time for tears.

You're not here to play. You're here to study.

Anya sniffed, her eyes welling up at that all too familiar memory. A memory that would forever haunt the children. For as much as they ran, they could never forget where they had come from. Kei sighed softly.

For a few minutes there was silence.

Then, a loud bang rang through the house. And the last thing Kei saw was the man creeping up behind Anya before darkness claimed her.