Inspirational quote: Wear your tragedies as armour, not shackles.

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Kieran and Esperanza high fived each other, Dr Kozak watching them in the background as they tried to escape.

"So can we finally start our first mission now?" Kieran asked, walking up to the door where Dr Kozak zapped it again.

"And where do you think you're going?" He snapped back, watching Kieran all the way, totally avoiding his question.

"DIE ANNA INCORPORATED to get that trophy back for you," Kieran answered back, pulling at the door, forgetting the fact completely that Dr Kozak had just zapped it.

"Oh no no no, the mission doesn't start now," Dr Kozak answered, making both of them groan out loud.

"Seriously Dr Kozak? When does it start then?" Esperanza asked, annoyed.

"After you guys sleep."

"Sleep?" Kieran repeated, looking at Dr Kozak now. "Why do we need to sleep?"

Dr Kozak sighed in frustration before saying anything else.

"Missions always take place at night, no matter what. This is because we've got so much stuff going on in the morning that if I were to give you two a mission, you'd probably be really tired, plus the chances of you guys dying increases. Also, I need to drive you to DIE ANNA INCORPORATED and I'm really tired so... Yeah. Y'all need to sleep."

Dr Kozak was once again deeply examining his fingernails before Kieran eventually decided to say something.

"But isn't the death rate higher and night because we can't see anything?" Kieran asked thoughtfully, where Dr Kozak just stared at him in annoyance before muttering the words 'shut up, don't correct me'.

Dr Kozak then unlocked the door without even having to get up, and as soon as that had happened, Kieran and Esperanza found themselves leaving Dr Kozak's laboratory once and for all.

For some reason, Kieran was ahead of them, and stopped walking so quickly when Dr Kozak had called his name for everyone to hear.

"Where do you think you're going, Kieran?" He asked.

"My room of course. Where do you think?"

Neither of them had said anything. They had reached room 36,162 via Dr Kozak's teleporter in fifteen seconds, where Dr Kozak used a golden key to unlock the door.

Esperanza didn't really understand why they had to do their mission at night, after all, no one could really see anything at night, and most accidents had happened around that time anyway. It just didn't make any sense to her, really.

"This isn't my room!" Kieran realised, as soon as the three of them had headed inside.

This room was way different and stupendous to Kieran's original room. On one side (the room was split into two), everything was practically purple, whilst on the other side, everything was practically yellow.

There wasn't much to say about this room except the fact that.

It.

Looked.

Absolutely.

Mesmerising!

"Neither of you two have rooms," Dr Kozak told them, trailing off theatrically. "Because you and Esperanza will be sharing rooms from now on."

Esperanza and Kieran groaned simultaneously immediately once Dr Kozak had said that.

"But we're different genders-"

"Doesn't matter," Dr Kozak interrupted, raising up his hand. "The room isn't split up into two for no reason. Let's be realistic guys."

He pushed both of them into the room, and then closed it before saying anything else.

"I based it off of your favourite colours. Esperanza, yours is the purple side on the left, Kieran, yours is the yellow one on the right. My right, not yours."

"My favourite colour isn't purple..."

"....And mine isn't yellow, sir," Kieran and Esperanza were both glaring at him confusingly now, where Dr Kozak just rolled his eyes in disbelief and pushed them off into the different coloured sections of their rooms.

"Yeah well, it's too late, I've already got someone to write your names on the walls for you."

Kieran looked at him, then at his misspelt name on the wall.

"Er, Dr Kozak, mine says 'Key-Run'.."

"Yeah and mine says 'Esp-pear-run-zah'," Esperanza added, looking really confused. "If I didn't know any better, I think that the person who wrote our names spelt both of them wrong."

"Well, don't blame me, the person that made it had dyslexia, amnesia, was half blind and was deaf, so when I told them how to spell your names, they couldn't listen to me. I didn't know this of course, till after."

"Whoa..." Kieran's eyes widened. "How do they live?"

"They're dead, Kieran. Was really young as well, seventy three." Dr Kozak headed for the door, about to shut it behind him before remembering that he had to say something else.

"Guys. You better sleep, like, right now," He whispered, checking his watch.

"What time are you waking us up?" Esperanza demanded, getting herself into bed at the same time as Kieran.

"Oh. That's for me to know," Dr Kozak told them, walking away, and shutting the door slowly. "And for you to find out."

*******

Kieran and Esperanza had woken up four hours later the same day by Dr Kozak walking into their room blowing an air horn and smashing some drum cymbals as well.

"Wake up guys!" He shouted, smashing the cymbals really close to Esperanza's and Kieran's ear.

Kieran was so annoyed that he fell over, Esperanza hitting her head on the wall and collapsing right on top of him.

And it wasn't the cymbals that had done that. Or the air horn. Dr Kozak had sent a bunch of fake polystyrene wasps flying right at both of their faces once again.

"Jesus! Must you always wake us up in such unpredictable and hazardous ways?" Kieran echoed, standing up.

Dr Kozak just smiled at him.

"No. I do that for fun. Anyway. Off you guys go. Go to my laboratory downstairs, both of you."

Kieran did just that whilst Esperanza in the meantime just remained at her bed, looking down at her fingers, playing with them and frowning.

Dr Kozak was about to leave but then noticing that Esperanza hadn't left with Kieran, turned back to her, looking at her with a rather solemn look on his face.

"You alright, kid?"

Esperanza nodded very vigorously, looking like she was about to cry but didn't, telling Dr Kozak that she'd be there in a minute.

"I mean.. Are you sure you're alright? You can talk to me if you want to."

Esperanza shook her head and escorted him, Dr Kozak just staring at her, before leaving her once and for all.

Without his teleporter, Dr Kozak would have arrived at his laboratory in about five minutes, and with, about thirty seconds.

Luckily, he had it on him this time, so thirty seconds later and he was in there, along with Kieran and Agent Astera.

"Ah. There you are. What took you guys so long?" Astera snapped, continuously walking around in circles, checking her watch.

"Guys. There's something wrong with Esperanza," Dr Kozak told them, making both of them stop what they were doing.

"What?" Kieran and Astera demanded at the same time, intently looking at him.

"I'm not sure. I never really had time to ask her," Dr Kozak told them. "I mean, usually she's all smiley and bubbly but when I saw her, it was like she shut down completely."

"Well why don't you try talking to her, then?" Kieran suggested, a little bit angrily.

"She doesn't want to talk about it," Dr Kozak replied, sighing in the process as he said that as well. "I tried talking to her but she physically shooed me away out of her room."

"'Her'?"

Dr Kozak just glanced at him, reading his mind, then rolling his eyes again.

"Fine. The room. That you guys share. Happy now? Jeez Louise. You're so petty, Kieran. Honestly."

Kieran nodded but then scowled at the last bit of Dr Kozak's sentence. Dr Kozak was about to say something but then stifled it once his watch had beeped, indicating that a minute was over and Anastasia had to come down now.

But she didn't.

And it stayed like that for about five minutes.

"Guys. We need to go," Astera shouted, checking her watch, and anxiously walking around in mini circles again.

"Yeah. We could. But one problem? Where the heck is Esperanza?!" Dr Kozak screamed back.

"You'll have to go and find her, Demetrius," Astera told Dr Kozak, where Dr Kozak froze, looking at both Astera and Kieran blankly.

"Why me?"

No one had replied, at least physically, anyway. Kieran just thought something that Dr Kozak read.

Because you realised that she was in a bad mood in the first place, if you hadn't, someone else would have told us that she was upset, but we didn't.

Kieran stopped thinking things once he caught Dr Kozak staring at him blankly.

Or maybe because neither me and Astera are good at talking to people, and you are, so...

Dr Kozak just looked at him in irritation, then at Agent Astera again.

"Okay. Fine, I'll go talk to Esperanza if it makes you two so happy," he muttered, leaving his laboratory and heading off all the way up to Kieran and Esperanza's room, mainly to rant at her for wasting everyone's time.

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Moral of chapter: Don't trust Dr Kozak when it comes to decorating rooms!