He stares at her neutral face, brushed by the back and forth of her hair following the breeze. Goosebumps cover her bare arms and shoulders as a gush of wind blows. She clenches her jaw not to chatter her teeth. She brings up her knees to surround them with her arms, minimizing the body heat loss in this position. He notices but doesn't make a move, something he would never have done a few days before. He'd have held her in his arms to warm her up and perhaps thought to kiss her lips. But tonight, the thoughts didn't cross his mind. 

          "I just want this all to stop and go away," he vulnerably confesses, his voice cracking because of the lump in his throat. He positions himself like Anella and hides his head in his arms. Anella contains her emotions, looking away, lifting her chin up to lose her gaze in the stars. The Universe had her find Christian Lavelle, she felt it was her duty to help him. She knew this wasn't any regular new born Controller. 

          "I know," she quietly relates, reminiscing her own experience. 

          "I should be assigned to a mental asylum and let them fix me," he mutters.

          "That'd bring more chaos to your life," she firmly answers, standing her ground. "I was in the same situation," she continues, in a softer tone. 

          He lifts his head up, biting the inside of his cheek. 

          "How did you do it? How were you able to change the way you lived just like that?" he asks, snapping his fingers on the last word. She smiles, he was starting to believe her. 

          "I chose to become who I am today because I thought that living a human life would be impossible," she pauses, lying down, forgetting the cold, letting the sky consume her contemplation. "Some proved me wrong, showing it was quite in fact possible, but it wasn't the exactly the same... I didn't want to be weak. I didn't want to be at the mercy of the randomness of the Universe. I wanted to be able to be in control."

          He listens intently to her thoughtfully tale, observing her appeased and serene expression. He wanted to be at ease, just like her. He thought it'd never be possible for him ever again to be relaxed, but she was steadily making him believe the contrary. A shiver shakes her body as she momentarily loses the control of her limbs. 

          "Let's go back in," he suggests, snapping back to reality. "You're cold."

          She nods, getting up flexibly. She leads the way back in the room and catches the blanket and pillows Christian drops down to replace in their initial position. He hops down on the chair and pushes it back under a small wooden desk. She checks the time on an analogical clock and reads one o'clock in the morning. Back inside the dim room, the bass on the flat below them makes the floor tremble. She closes the door and sits on the bed, next to where he exhaustedly flopped down onto. 

          "What am I supposed to do now?" he breathes, intensively looking into her eyes, knowing she holds the answer. She swallows discreetly at the proximity of the young man's face. His hair is somehow perfectly curled and pushed to the side. 

          "Live normally until further notice..." she shrugs. "It's a bad day, not a bad life. I'm going to take care of informing the team, and you'll have to start training sessions like all of us," she reassures

          "How will I survive college and training on the side?" 

          "Worrying isn't necessary and isn't going to help. We're going to help you, it's our job," she rationally explains. "I know it's hard to blindly trust strangers you barely know, and it's excellent to always mistrust someone at first sight. First impressions are rarely genuine," she warns. 

          He stays silent, scrutinizing her. Her chuckle startles him. 

          "You're good."

          Christian's face maintains a puzzled expression. She needs to establish a small trust between them. 

          You're going to give me an order, she unyieldingly asserts. 

          "What?" he questions, starstruck, doubting himself to have heard right what she had communicated. 

          Send me an order. I want to analyze your strength, she clarifies. 

          "How?" he nervously asks. 

          Open your mind and push through mine. 

          His eyebrows furrow, unfamiliar to the terms. 

          Just try to find out what I'm thinking, she reformulates, emptying her mind, focusing on his eyes, preparing for the intrusion.

          He turns himself to fully face her and keeps his eyes locked into her. She almost immediately feels him in her head. She tries to stand her ground, and resist but her block gives way to his effortless pushing. 

          Am I doing it? he questions. I feel something. 

          His eyes widen as he sees himself through Anella's eyes. The blood drains from his face to a pale beige. He smells his own perfume his mind is accustomed to, from Anella's nose. Anella's body temperature he feels makes his own body shiver. Anella breathes heavily, pushing him a little out her mind to not be able to see from her perspective. 

          You are calm, she sends, with as much power as she can muster, as she multitasks resisting and ordering. "Now do... what I told you," she breathlessly grunts. 

         His unexperienced mind doesn't understand why she seems to be battling something almost physically. 

          I don't know, his deep soulful voice resonates in her mind as he looks around. Lift your finger. Both of them look at her finger, starting to tremble. And she pushes him out of her mind, her breath knocked out of her lungs. She inhales deeply before clearing her dry throat. 

          "It didn't work," he disappointedly points out. 

          "Oh it sure did," she whispers, her black eyes intensively looking in his dark blue ones. "I just... hardly resisted." Her voice is quiet, not used to being out powered. She stands up. 

          "Well, you can calmly go home tonight," she announces, walking to the door. 

          "Wait! You're leaving?" he anxiously asks, jumping to his feet. 

          "Yes."

          "You can't just leave me here," he frowns, blocking the door with a firm hand, his arm above he shoulder. 

          "You know how to control people now," she sighs. "You can protect yourself for the night. As far as I know, the Paradox is still clueless to who their target is. In the morning, when we'll all be rested, our people will be watching your house from tomorrow." He noticed in her mind the exhaustion and the hunger she was hiding. 

          What happened when you called in sick for today? He suddenly inquires, lowering his head to meet her evasive eyes.  

          "Stop askin-" she cuts herself mid-sentence with a gasp as she feels him pushing into her mind.