Natasha was strolling along the street when she caught sight of Matteo on the other side. He was passing by different stores and spots, hanging posters on them. She guessed that he must have been doing that all morning because his stack of posters, which seemed a lot thicker a few hours before, was now almost finished, it only remained a few papers in his hand.When she was about to put the first step toward him she rapidly stopped her move as a thought crossed her mind, [due to all the training I have been doing since this early morning I have sweated too much, and for sure I'm smelling like a stack of trash] she recalled [if I reach him now he won't stop making fun of me]. Indeed, these days he seemed to have finally taken his marks and became more at ease with her and the others, and since then, she noticed that he took the habit to tease her whatever it was about her look, her preferences, or even the way she was in her daily life.She was already annoyed by Lina whose favorite pa
After he finished hanging the posters, Matteo had also another task which was to prepare the venue for the speech. Lina told him before that there were two squares in the town and both of them were enough big to contain the number of people they were expecting to come, but the question remaining was which one would be the most suitable for such an event.At that moment he was heading for the second place after having already visited the first one. It was a vast court equipped with a wooden stage at one side, he thought that it was a simple spot and it would be easy to prepare it since he would only have to install the seats as, the stage was already equipped with all the materials needed and even if it had to last until the night there were some projectors already provided. He remembered that Natasha once mentioned the fact they used to organize some activity to cheer up the morale of the townspeople who were still carrying the trauma of that night, he deduced that it was the place th
"Regarding the way you're acting I can suppose you seek to meet him, don't you?" Matteo asked directly as he didn't want to waste his time.Dana sighed, "Such a rude boy, don't you know it's not good to hasten women," she waited for his reaction, and seeing it didn't have any effect she went on responding to him without further turnarounds, she coughed twice and said "yeah, it's true, I want to meet him," she acknowledged."For what reason?" he automatically replied. But this time she didn't respond, instead, she just lowered her sights on the ground and remained silent. He waited until he understood that she would definitely not answer and decided to pass and not insist too much, he looked aside, acting distracted, and asked her "are you free? Have you plans for the rest of the day?"she suddenly raised her head and looked at him confused "what?""I'm asking you if after this you have something to do after this... maybe hanging out with your gang or something?" he repeated while thro
"If you want to ask her why she wants to meet, it's useless she will not answer... I've tried already," Matteo said to avert them.But he knew that it wouldn't discourage Lina, and that was especially why he brought Dana to them."That is the problem with most men, you are way too brutal and hasty. You have to be courteous and find the best way to obtain answers without pushing her," she explained to him. She grabbed Dana's hand and led her to the sofa, after sitting down she said to her "from which town do you come?"Matteo was wondering how would she react and he was surprised to see that it was with her serious side who responded to Lina. "Short-river" Dana said with her serious tone. Lately, he made the theory that her personality changed depending on the situation she was in, for example when she was confronted by too stressful circumstances she tended to wear her emotional face. But, here, she was in the middle of an interrogatory, facing two women she didn't even know yet it wa
"Alright!" Lina exclaimed, she leaned toward Dana's face "so the question is obviously this, what are your real intentions?"She frowned as if she didn't understand what she was talking about. "Don't play dumb with us, maybe you still don't realize in which situation you are trapped," Natasha said with an annoyed tone, she was obviously tired of her turning around the bush, "look, with a single pressure of my fingers I could break your neck, so if you continue acting like you don't understand what she is saying I will rephrase it one last time for you so you better be sure to give us an answer"."You said wanting to meet Jamal, we won't ask you to give us the reason for you to see him, what we want to know, instead, is what are you looking for to do after seeing him?" she asked, the face severe.Dana's cheeks turned red and her tears restarted overflowing and running on them, she wasn't able to control her emotions anymore at the thought of how cornered she was. She managed to articul
"What have you decided about me?" Dana asked after minutes of silence, with her sights fixed on the floor, she was waiting for her sentence. Lina and Natasha looked at each other, sharing a mute conversation then they turned to the young girl, it was Natasha who took the talk as she told her, "you will live with us, more precisely with me, until the day after tomorrow".The young girl raised her head and gazed at them in surprise, "you will not kill me?""No," Lina said, "you gave us an answer without lying even though, I have to admit, your answer was weird and unclear it was enough for us, so there is no need for us to eliminate you," she paused and looked at her suspiciously for a short moment before she added, "unless... there is still something important you're hiding from us?"But she didn't reply anything and just bowed her head and Lina didn't insist. [She can't keep her secret forever anyway] she thought."Well, in her house you will find all that you will need, clothes, food
Before she walked down the stairs to leave the house, Natasha decided to pass by what used to be Matteo's room, which was now temporarily Dana's room, to check how she was doing. It was not like she was scared that she escaped or at least she tried to, she just thought it would be good to do so as she intended to leave without alerting her.Thanks to their discussion of yesterday night, they were close enough for her to know that she would never attempt to run away. Even though Dana didn't confess to her the reason why she needed Jamal to save have or what was he supposed to protect her from, she shared a lot with her. For example, she talked about her social complex which caused her to lose control of her emotions when she was involved in a too stressful situation.She confessed that despite her miserable childhood with neither family nor friends she had managed to survive without diving into criminality or evil in general. Contrary to Matteo, who was firstly raised in an orphanage a
That day was the day where everything would be decided and Lina opened up her eyes that morning with that state of mind. She stroked the empty part of her bed with a sense of nostalgia, trying to remember the warmth of the man who used to occupy that place before she slowly left the bed, [it's just one day since he left, stop acting like a crazy junkie] she said to herself while she was heading to the bathroom, [today is an important day, so interdiction for you to be down, stay focus and confident] she kept motivating herself while tapping her cheeks to wake herself up.After her shower, she returned to the bedroom, picked up appropriate clothes for the event, and went down to the living room. On the coffee table, surrounded by the three couches and the television on its pedestal, was lying a little stack of papers in which were written many versions of her speech. In the end, they finally achieved to find one which satisfied her, it was the only paper separated from the pile of pape
What was convenient was that Natasha's home was near the place of the gathering which meant that they didn't need cars to go there which, anyway, would have not been possible since the cars couldn't move due to the huge crowd present there. They just had to walk for a few minutes and they soon arrived in front of the house.Lina didn't even reach the door yet it got opened from inside. Matteo passed his head outside and took his time to stare at all the faces of each of the people before him before he opened wide the door and stepped aside to let them pass. He made an effort to keep an indescribable expression but Jamal could, without an effort, tell that at that moment he was feeling so much relieved.Carla was the first one to enter followed by Nelson, Sania, Don, Volga, and last Jamal and Lina, who was clinging to his arm and didn't want to let him go.Lina indicated to Carla the direction of Natasha's room and guided the rest of the group to the living room, she served each of the
All around him, Jamal could hear the cheers of the people who had been his allies during the last few days, battle after battle they had been putting their lives on the line for the sake of those who were not capable of protecting themselves. Every one of them probably lost a friend or someone dear during those wars and even their memories had been lost for the majority of them, though they have slowly started to recover. Jamal understood that euphoria, they couldn't contain themselves they had the conviction then that their sacrifices were not a waste.Jamal looked up at the sky, whose brightness, was one of the biggest pieces of proof that showed that indeed they had survived another night.The dawn, which was symbolizing their victory."Let me help you put her in the car," Volga proposed to Jamal while he was carrying the exhausted Natasha."Thank you," he said as he was handing her the girl in his arms."Don't say it," Volga replied while she was laying Natasha on the back seat of
Back on the Battlefield, her sword in hand Natasha could feel a new load of strength flowing in her body, and in a sense, she was convinced that it was thanks to the arrival of Jamal. Even though she didn't want to admit it, the bad thoughts on what could have happened to him had kept bugging her, she had done her best to focus on the enemies before her but it was not easy to get rid of those thoughts from her mind.That was why even surrounded by fearful adversaries animated by the only desire to kill them, she couldn't stop smiling joyfully. Having the chance to fight side by side with the man she admired the most was giving her such wonderful emotions that she would be incapable of explaining. All the worries that were invading her heart immediately vanished away by the only sight of his face.[Since he is here we have already won this war] she couldn't help but tell herself.Besides the fact that she could feel her exhaustion diminishing, she also sensed that it became easier for
Natasha slammed the door of her home after entering in a hurry.While she was running towards her room, Dana, who had been surprised by the loud noise, followed her to inquire about the situation. She stopped at the entrance of Natasha's room, which had been left wide open, and stared at her while she was changing clothes, "what is happening?"The latter glanced at her surprised but didn't pay her much more attention though. After she put on her boots, she stood up and, hopped twice before she stared at Dana. The young girl analyzed her from top to bottom and by looking at her outfit she concluded that something important happened, she frowned after she decided to not let it go."Hey, tell me what is wrong, why do you seem so pressed to go out? And by the way, where is Ja-""Listen, I really don't have time to waste," Natasha stopped her coldly, she got a thoughtful expression for a very short moment, then, she told her, "Look, stay here and wait, I'm sure Lina will come to take you t
That morning Lina woke up unusually early, she sat up slowly on the bed and stretched out enthusiastically with a joyful smile illuminated by the orange color of the sun's rays.When she turned her head she saw Natasha in the corner of the room just next to the window in a way that she was hidden from the sunlight. She was sitting on a stool while wearing a tracksuit and it seemed like she stopped all her movements when she felt Lina's gaze on her as if she had just gotten caught red-handed. She was immobile with the shoelaces in her hands while she was about to tie her shoes and didn't move at all even to raise her head when Lina asked her "What are you doing?"She lifted her head slowly and with a forced smile, she gazed away as if she was looking for a good excuse before she said with an uncertain tone " I-I... I woke up surprisingly early and I felt like going outside, you know... to do some jogging".Lina's smile faded away, and she stared at Natasha with an annoyed expression,
"Our role is quite simple but very important, we have to, first, choose the venue for the fight," Lina started to expose her plan step by step while accompanying her speech with gestures of the hands, she tried to be as clear as possible, "a place afar from the residences zone, in order to avoid that the citizens get a clue about it since we don't want to create any sort of panic"."Since I arrived in the city, I have worked along with Natasha and Matteo and we have started to look for the venue," Brad said after he rose his hand and Lina gave him the talk, "though you have already told me that we still need some more precision about the characteristics that place should have".Lina gazed at Natasha and Matteo confused, she then told them, "you both should be able to determine the best spot for the fight, so I don't understand why I have my word to say".The two people glanced at each other."Hmph!""Hmph!"They suddenly turned away as if they just came out from a quarrel.Lina stared
•••Lina hung up and walked silently toward the sofa of her office and let herself fall on it and released a long sigh, "thank God it will all soon be over," she mumbled, her face buried in the sofa.She suddenly heard the door being opened, she didn't have to turn her head to know who were the people who were entering as she directly recognized them by the rhythm of their footsteps. "You're late, I already hung up," she said after she turned slightly her head, so they could hear her voice clearly."What? You have told me you will wait for us to come," Natasha complained while putting her hands on her waist to show her disappointment."Sorry but you were taking too much time," Lina replied not sincere at all, "I have tried to hold him on as long as I could but he has his duty"."I'm sorry, it's my fault if we're late, I have the habit of not noticing the time passing when I'm with my patients," Donald apologized to Natasha while stroking the back of his head."Don't worry," Natasha qu
•••"I will try to convince them tonight but I won't promise you it will be easy. It's not something easy to believe in and even if they do it's still not certain they will accept it, after all the horrors they went through since that abominable night they may not be mentally ready for what I'm about to ask them," Jamal explained through the phone in a steady voice."You don't need all them to be in, even though it would be better if they could all accept, neither you need to tell them in detail what that mission is all about," Lina outlined, "looking at the actual situation even the 10% of the whole army will be a great help and you know that"."Yeah, I know. I will do my best," he promised.There was a short moment of silence before Lina chuckled, "but I swear, when you said that you will make it in 6 days, I didn't expect you will seriously do it. I should learn to believe more in you"."To be honest I was just trying to act cool. Those battles have been so quick but yet so complic
•••Nelson had remained silent sitting next to Sania waiting for her to tell him something however since the moment she told him to stay, she didn't open up her mouth. He couldn't stop feeling anxious due to that mysterious tension he could feel in the air at that moment while wondering what she was about to tell him. Minutes passed until he couldn't take it anymore and decided to initiate the discussion himself."If... if you want to tell me how much you loathe me you can go ahead, though I probably already know how you feel. Don't hold back I deserve whatever you will say, after all the things I have done to you".Until then Sania had her arms crossed around her knees while leaning her head on them, without saying a word or turning her head, she slowly released her left hand, and let it wander a little bit until she reached Nelson's right hand and she held it timidly."How?" she said with a little voice smothered by her forearm in front of her mouth."How... ?" Nelson repeated confu