The Red Nights

4- Secrets

" Yeah, I'm coming... just give me a few minutes " Natasha shouted while someone was knocking on the door of her house. At that time, she was naked with only her underwear on her, just as usual when she is alone in her home, so she quickly took a big T-shirt which was laying on a chair in her room and came out of her room. She wore it on her way when she was going down the stairs and then came to open the door to the mysterious visitor.

" Hi, Natasha! " Jamal said when she finally opened the door.

Suddenly, she felt very embarrassed to the point that even her cheeks turned a little bit red. She thought she would have wanted her first reflex to be to run away upstairs and hide in her bed, because she thought that she was not correctly dressed, especially to see him, just only a T-shirt which stopped just above her knees. " No, it can't be true, why would he have to come here only the day I'm dressed like this? " Natasha thought while clenching her teeth, " I look totally ridiculous ".

" Hi, Jamal! What is going on? You should have warned me that you would come, " Natasha gathered all of her strength to smile and reply while trying her hardest to hide her embarrassment.

" Oh excuse me to disturb you, I know you must be tired due to the fight training and the school. But please hear me out I'm not gonna be long, I have a request to ask you ". He pushed the boy forward and immediately started introducing him, " He is Matteo, one of the children refugees who came today." He paused and looked at her with eyes seeming to beg her, " I would want him to stay with you if you don't mind ".

There was a short moment of silence as she was surprised by his weird request, " Why here? I thought Lina made a plan to give a place to every one of them, " Natasha finally asked with a low voice as she didn't want to seem rude.

" Yeah, you're right... but here it is different, " he took a glance down at Matteo and patted his shoulder before he added, " the truth is that this little guy seems to have been traumatized more than the others, and he doesn't want to share with me or even let me help him so I thought maybe if you accepted him to stay with you, you could help him to get rid of his traumas," he said with his most imploring face, " Please, you know that my home is not very ideal, and also you are very good with children ".

" He doesn't look like a child though, he must be just four or five years younger than me " Natasha made the remark while analyzing the boy head to toe.

" Yeah you're right " Jamal acknowledged, he turned to Matteo and said, " But the real reason I entrust him to you is that I have the feeling that there are some important secrets he's hiding from us, am I right? "

Matteo didn't respond but just turned his stare away, unintentionally proving to them that he was, indeed, hiding something. " You know I have an eye for those things, I'm almost never wrong, and I fear it may turn into a real serious thing if he keeps hiding them, you see? "

Natasha didn't say anything for a while. She could hardly refuse anything from Jamal, and she felt that he was very serious about Matteo's secret.

She remembered that he was rarely wrong when it comes to someone's secrets. Some months before when Natasha started to notice that something was happening to her and started to feel scared about it Jamal was the only one to notice that, he immediately saw that something was wrong with her even if he didn't know what. He approached her, tried to convince her to share with him in order for him to help her back, and even when she was keeping refusing to reveal to him, she recalled that he didn't give up on her and he was very patient until she finally gave in and told him everything.

What happened to her months ago was that she somehow evolved and got abnormal abilities. Before she learned to control herself, sometimes she could become very strong with incredible physical capacities but when it was happening she could also feel a rise of aggressivity. When she finally confessed to Jamal she was happy to find that instead of judging her or being afraid of her, he was very kind and always told her to not worry because he would always be there to help her go through whatever she was facing. For many times he was by her side, helping her to control herself and when that stage of her seemed to come more and more frequently, she could manage to suppress her aggressivity and even learn how to use correctly her new abilities.

Remembering that the answer to his request became totally obvious, " OK I accept, " she finally responded. Jamal smiled and wanted to thank her when she suddenly raised her forefinger in front of his face, " however there will be one condition, to let me accompany you on your patrol of tomorrow morning ".

" No! " Jamal responded immediately.

" Why not? " she started complaining, " It is not like I'm not able to protect myself and if you remember correctly, of all your students I'm the strongest one ".

" Being the strongest does not mean that you are strong enough, it's too dangerous and with the arrival of the new citizens, I'm pretty sure that they will be more agitated. I'm sorry but no, you can't go with me ".

" It's another reason for me to come with you, it will be too much for you alone, " replied Natasha as insistent as ever.

" No I refuse, it's too risky ".

For a while she didn't reply anything, she gazed at him for a few seconds then she realized that she couldn't help but only accept the fact that he will never make a step of pushing anyone he cares about, not only her, in the center danger.

She was on the way to giving up and still allowing Matteo to stay with her anyway when the latter suddenly said " She should come with you ".

" Huh? Why? " Not only Jamal but Natasha, too, was surprised by his intervention, leading them to directly question him about his reasons for saying that to her favor, but Matteo didn't respond.

The truth was that he, himself, didn't even know why did he say what he said. Remembering that he had made a promise to himself a long time before to never reveal his secret to anyone because he was sure or rather he was scared that he would be rejected and not forgetting that there was a probability for him to be killed, regardless of whether he said the truth or not, thus, he started to have some doubts. However, for some unknown reasons, he couldn't stop himself from thinking that maybe these two might be different, maybe he could trust them, if not why did he say that? He even found himself hoping that it was true.

Natasha was still surprised that this boy took her side and was wondering what would be the reason for him to defend her. She even got the feeling that it was crucial for her to go to the patrol. Thus, she said, " It doesn't matter why, I have to come, just know that I have to, please say yes".

Jamal looked at her and then turned his attention to Matteo who was still quiet. He thought for a long moment and he finally nodded but he didn't miss to show that even if he let her come with him, he did not totally agree with that decision though. " Make sure to prepare yourself, I will call you to tell you the place we will meet ".

" Got it! " she responded enthusiastically.

" You two must be there early at dawn," said Matteo surprising them again. Jamal wanted to ask him more details about why he told them that but he has not had the time to, Matteo quickly pressed himself inside Natasha's house without giving them more explanations.

After he left, Jamal and Natasha stayed there a little while looking at each other a bit confused. Then Jamal made a move to leave when Natasha stopped him by grabbing his wrist, and she asked him, with her sweet voice, " You're not mad, are you? I mean, I know that you want to protect me and the rest of us but- ".

" I'm not mad " Jamal cut her, he hesitated a little before he sighed and admitted, " I knew for a long time before this that I could not hold you indefinitely, I knew that sooner or later I would be forced to let you fight, it was only a question of time ".

Natasha had a slight smile on her face. She was happy that Jamal acknowledged her, that he didn't consider her as a child anymore, and trusted her to defend StainFall together.

At that moment, she was still holding his wrist and for a moment she didn't want to let go, until he finally said, " I will ask you to get the most information you can from Matteo, I have the feeling that he did not suggest you come for no reason, I'm counting on you ".

Natasha withdrew her and nodded, " I will try my best, goodbye and see you tomorrow ".

Jamal left for his girlfriend's place while Natasha closed and locked her door. When she came to the living room, she saw Matteo on a sofa waiting for her.

" You want to start interrogating me now or do you want to wait until tomorrow. I think it's a bit late but I don't mind answering your questions. So firstly, I'm not the kind of guy who is on older girls so you don't have to worry I will not try to come at you in the middle of the night knocking at your door or anything else, I ensure that I'm not gay either, it's just that I like when girls are at least the same age as me. You can also forget about any romantic scenario between us such as developing special feelings for each other just because we're living together and we see each other every day, it's not possible for me and I already noticed that you are in love with your teacher. Thirdly... "

" Stop! " Natasha shouted very loudly, for a moment she couldn't say anything as she was very confused the only thing she could think at that moment was that he wasn't as traumatized as Jamal was thinking. " What is the problem with you? " she finally said.

" Hum, I see, " Matteo scanned her from head to toe while rubbing his chin, " so your first reflex is not to deny that you love your teacher who has already a girlfriend who, by the way, is by far sexier than you, like I have thought, " he paused, " interesting... ".

" Excuse me?! " Natasha's face turned red, but hard to determine if she was mad or just embarrassed.

" No, I'm not saying that you have no sex appeal, the style of the big T-shirt as a pajama has also its charm, but his girlfriend, Lina, right? She is just more- ".

" Now shut up! " She shouted again. She went out to the kitchen, took a bottle of water, and finished it at once, the usual thing she did when she wanted to calm herself down, and then she returned back to the living room. " Well, since you're in my house you have to obey my rules, first of all, I forbid you to ever talk again about my sentimental relationships with Jamal and if you dare to tell him or anyone else or raise any comment about that I swear to god that I will destroy you, okay? " she clenched her fist, while she said that with the killer's eyes, as an illustrative action.

It worked since Matteo looked scared, in his mind he believed that she could be able to kill him in one shot, so he just nodded to show his agreement. " And for the rest of the rules? " he said timidly with a little voice.

" Well, I will tell them to you progressively during the time you are here. Now you seem to be very talkative, tell me why you didn't tell Jamal the truth you're hiding from him. You showed that you're good to observe people so you must have seen how much he is trustworthy, right? "

Matteo bowed his head " Yeah, I saw it but the problem is that I can't bring myself to trust him for the only reason that he is too dangerous. Despite being very kind I can somehow feel how much he is strong... he is so terrifying that it is difficult for me to trust him or confess to him all that I know. "

Natasha didn't know what to think about that, she of course knew that Jamal was strong but she never saw him as a terrifying person, she could also hardly consider him as a terrifying person just because his strength is exceptional. She just replied, " Well, so you can share with me because I look weak, don't I? "

" No no no that is not what I'm saying, of course, you're strong as well and terrifying too in your own way, I can testify that " he lowered his voice in the last phrase seeing that she was getting mad he quickly added, " BUT, Jamal is stronger and more terrifying than you can imagine, even for me it's difficult to estimate how much he is ".

" By the way, what are you exactly? How can you see all these details of someone's personality? " Natasha found that strange and couldn't help but asked.

" Oh ... it's like ... you see " Matteo clearly had difficulty finding the right words ", I'm somehow a little bit different from the rest of the people, " he simply said paused "Just like you are, I guess ".

It was at that moment Natasha understood what Jamal meant when he said that it may have some people like her, until that moment she had understood people with the exact same capacities, but then Matteo clarified the situation.

" How? How can you know about it " she could imagine that it might be due to his abilities which permitted him to whether read in her mind just like heroes in comics or movies but she had the feeling that it was not that simple.

" Jamal said before that he would bring me to someone who used to be as uncommunicative as I am. I can conceive that he is good to find out whether someone is special or not, in the same way, he found out that you were different he did the same with me ".

Just as she thought it was not exceptional abilities, just his observation skills. " I could have been just someone who is used to being apart and he came to help me by being more friendly, how could you know that I was special in the sense that I have supernatural capacities? "

" Because I was not the only one from the crowd of refugees who were apart and looked desperate, however, he came only at me and directly noticed that I was hiding something important like he did with you, didn't he? "

That was true, Natasha could not do anything but acknowledged that, for someone young like him to be this perspicacious, Matteo was really a genius. " I wouldn't mind telling you more but I'm a little bit exhausted, may you allow me to have a rest, " He said. 

" Yeah, of course, go up with me. This house has three bedrooms, I already use one so you can choose between the two remaining bedrooms ". Then they went up Matteo chose a room and went to sleep directly. "The long journey to come here must have been tiresome, " Natasha commented with a small smile. She reached her room too and started preparing herself mentally for the coming patrol even though it was quite difficult with the revelations Matteo said to her.