The Red Nights

6- The Choice

They were rolling as fast as they could when they reached the core of the city. As each of them knew already their targets they separated without saying a single word to each other. Even though it was the first time she went on patrol to protect her city, and even though she should normally feel stressed or restless as she was living the moment she has been waiting for so long, Natasha was calm, lucid, and was thinking quietly about her coming fight.

It was not like that she was not excited - of course, she was. However, during her special training with Jamal, she learn how to control her newly gained powers, such as her super strength and suppress her aggressivity, he emphasized more the importance of staying calm in whatever situation she may be confronted with. He showed her how to ignore, during a face-to-face fight, the opponents' speech when they wanted to provoke her, how to analyze carefully all her options when she's in a presumably desperate situation, and one of the most important lessons, how to prepare herself for a battle. 

All these lessons, she memorized in many harsh ways, that was why she was so serene. At that moment, Natasha was wondering about the different options she would have when she would face her target. She knew that Edna was carrying a weapon, so Natasha was sure that she would have it on hand ready to fight when she would arrive [if I arrive there suddenly, the surprise may cause her to panic and hurt someone innocent, so I should forget about that option] she thought [ I must be discovered in order to focus her attention on me. When it comes to a one-on-one fight she would not have even a single chance to win over me].

She finished elaborating her plan at the moment she reached Nadine's house, and as she expected the door was broken, so it meant that Edna was already in, but if Nadine had followed the safety instructions carefully she might not be in extreme danger yet.

Natasha turned off the bike and entered the house without hurrying and started analyzing her surrounding to have an idea of what was going on, just like Jamal thought her. " You should avoid putting too much of your emotions into the fight, even if you think the person might die if you don't quickly react " she started to remember those words he repeated to her over and over again, " It's your brain instead of your body that must take action. Indeed you have to come up with a plan very quickly in order to react faster,  a plan that may save the people without hurting yourself and neutralize the aggressors at the same time ."

That was what she did. She knew that if she had run into the house so recklessly, the aggressor might attack her by surprise or she might get into a trap. When she reached the main room there was no one and even not a single sign of fighting, that was at that moment she started to hear some noises and screams coming from above. She concluded that Nadine greatly followed the instructions and locked herself in her room.

Natasha went up and stopped when she saw the old woman in front of her on the opposite side of the hallway screaming and beating furiously the door. " Come out! You little bitch, I will make you regret stealing my man! I will hurt you as much as you hurt me. Open this fucking door! " Behind the door, Nadine was leaning on it with all her weight, using some of her furniture to prevent Edna from breaking into the room while crying and screaming at her to get out of her house.

Even though the door was not ready to break, Natasha had to act faster, she followed her plan, she screamed and agitated her arms to catch her attention. " Hey, crazy granny! " Edna turned her head and became angrier when she saw Natasha, she extended the corner of her lips on a horrible mischievous smile. " Oh! Seems like another bitch came to try saving you, oh so cute. Just wait there Nadine I will go crush this ugly friend of yours and then I come back to finish you ".

Natasha observed quietly, Edna had the knife in her right hand and the hallway was a bit too narrow to expect fighting freely, [but since she doesn't know how to use a knife, it must not be so difficult to defeat her, rather it might be even easier]. As she thought, Edna was only a mad and aggressive old woman without any clue about how to fight. She ran toward her, though with a speed Natasha didn't suspect such an old woman to have while holding high her weapon and screaming like crazy. Natasha, on the other hand, was calm and collected in her actions, she just grabbed the hand with the knife, spun around, and with a judo technique, she threw her down on the floor. Edna hit her head hard on the ground, the knife dropped somewhere on the floor and the old woman grunted painfully before she lost consciousness.

[For the first day of work it was not so bad I have to admit] Natasha sighed and thought while fixing her hair.

She reached Nadine's door and said with a low voice, " it is finished, Nadine, you can open your door now ". For the first few seconds, there was no reply, then a few moments, later Nadine slowly opened her door, passed her eye to look at Natasha, next she automatically moved her sight to Edna who was lying unconscious on the floor, and as she was finally sure that it was safe, she opened the door, she rushed outside and she jumped on Natasha's arms to hug her. " Oh God! Thank you... thank you so much " Nadine cried, " I almost thought that I was going die here... I thought no one would come on time since I gave the alert too late... I was so scared when she came knocking at my door ".

" It's OK now, you can stop being scared now. it's all done, " Natacha tried to console her while patting delicately her back.

After she came back from her fear, Nadine started to finally pull her mind together and understand the situation " Oh it is you, Nat'! I didn't know that you started helping Jamal. Since when do you patrol with him? "

" Huh? Oh no, " she waved her hand, " I just started today there were two more people who crossed the barrier, this morning, so he asked me to help him out ".

" Fortunately. People were starting to get worried as they figured out that it started becoming too much for him alone to handle, " Nadine said with a timid smile as if it was not something she was supposed to say. 

[ Just like he said himself ] Natasha made the remark in her mind. She gazed at this woman on the floor and asked Nadine to bring a long string or whatever piece of clothes to tie her. The latter nodded, rushed into her room, and came back a few minutes later with two long scarfs, she gave them to Natasha.

" Alright, I may leave now," said Natasha when she finished tying Edna on the back of her motorbike, " call me if you need anything ". Nadine smiled, " no it's gonna be okay now I guess, thank you for coming and saving me ". Natasha got up on her bike and turned it on but before she left Nadine asked her " You're not going to judge me? " she laid her eyes on hers as if she was analyzing any single change of her expression " you're not going to ask me why I slept with a married man? It's not like you don't know the story about me and Edna's husband ".

" To tell you the truth, " she shrugged, " I don't care about what you have done or not. Who am I to judge you for your actions as if I was better than you " she paused, thought a little before she asked a little hesitant, " or maybe... I would just like to know just one thing. Do you regret it? ".

She sighed a long time while nodding, " Yes, I do regret, being involved in an affair with a man obviously already taken was the worst thing I have ever done, " she said with a sad smile.

[I knew it, my feelings for Jamal will never be rightful, he already has Lina. I should just stop loving him since he will never love me back] Natasha said to herself while staring sadly at the soil before Nadine added " but it is not so simple to stop loving someone, though ". It surprised Natasha as she abruptly raised her head, she even felt briefly scared at the idea that she could have read in her thoughts. " I should go now, see you, Nadine," she said before she ran away.

She rolled for five minutes before she received a message from Jamal where he was telling her to bring the criminal to a certain abandoned factory. [He didn't even ask me if I achieved my mission to catch her, who would have known that he has such confidence in me] she thought with a large smile on her face, rejoicing by the trust he had for her.

••

Jamal was near the gate of the factory,  the venue where he had the habit to end up his task.

When he saw Natasha on her motorbike coming toward him he, at the same time, noticed when she was nearer that Edna was tied to the vehicle the same way he did with the two others even though he found some difficulties to put two unconscious bodies on a motorbike.

" I see, you didn't find difficulties to defeat those guys," Natasha said when she was getting off her motorbike.

" Well, they did do a few things that surprised me Yes it's true " Jamal shrugged with a smile after taking a glance at his prisoners, " it was harder to bring them here than take them down and you how was your first opponent? ".

Although she could tell him in brief what happened, Natasha preferred to relate all the missions with all the details while they were borrowing the criminals within the factory. She didn't realize how much she was excited before until she started her narration, even Jamal could not help but laugh loudly when she explained how she kicked Edna's ass. " And what about you? how was it for you? " she asked him when she finally finished her speech.

" I did well I guess, no one was hurt and that's is the essential " He responded casually without any more detail.

" What is that? Recount it correctly, put onto it some energy " Natasha protested while pushing him on his shoulder.

" It's been a very long time since I began this job, I'm not so excited anymore, and- "

" I don't care! " she cut him " it's my first day and I don't want you to spoil my excitement. I have avoided Nadine being killed by that sorceress so I deserve a better story! " she pouted. Then Jamal gave up and started to relate all that happened since they got separated.

Since his targets were two, he thought that he had to find a way to gather them in the same place to catch them both in one go. He found the first one on a corner, as he was intending to climb the wall of the building on his side. Jamal didn't even try to understand his intentions on why wanted to climb since he couldn't break the door anyway. He speeded up and approached the man and with his right hand, he grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him while still rolling, he dragged him like that around the quarter until he found the second one.

The latter was about to achieve breaking the door of a random house when Jamal got sight of him. He initially intended to give, what he thought would be, the last hit to completely shatter it when he, with a glance at his left side, saw the shape of a man on a motorbike who was dragging down, what he thought would be, an odd bag. As the shape was getting closer, the features of the man, as well as the weird weight, became clearer. He then finally, a bit too late, realized that the odd weight was not a bag but rather the body of someone.

He made a move to try to run away but Jamal was faster. As he was closer he suddenly stopped the motorbike which propelled the wounded first aggressor and made him fly and hit the second one, in the end, they both fell down on the ground, hard.

As they were deeply unconscious Jamal managed to tie them to the motorbike, while he was struggling to attach them a girl about 16 years old came out of the house which was targeted by the second guy, she looked at the scenery before her and without saying a single word or anything she approached him to help him out. He honestly acknowledged that he was quite surprised however, he gladly accepted her help and when they finally finished, Jamal turned to the girl to thank her and added, " oh yes, don't worry we will send someone to come fixing your door, okay ". The girl did not respond instead she bowed respectfully her head and walked back to her home.

[It was a weird scene though] Jamal had thought before he got up from his vehicle and headed for the factory and sent to Natasha a message to meet him there.

" Woah! Awesome! " Natasha declared with great excitement " You must teach me how to make some stuff like that with a motorbike or whatever vehicle! ".

" Maybe one day, " Jamal replied with no further comment. 

Natasha was half satisfied turned her attention to the three criminals and asked " so now, what do we do with them? At the dojo we always wanted to see the jail where you confined all those who dare to cross the barrier ".

After she asked that, Jamal's eyes became cloudy and she could have bet that the atmosphere became cooler. " Do you remember when I told you that you will have to make a choice at the end of the patrol? " he paused for a short moment and Natasha couldn't reply anything as she was confused before he added, " it's the moment. Now take your knife in your hand ".

At those words, Natasha immediately started to understand what Jamal's job really consisted of. She took the knife and held it tight even though her hand was shaking a lot. " Edna was about to kill a woman, these two disgusting men were intending to rape some gullible girls. According to the laws I- we elaborated, in order to ensure the safety of everyone in this town, they must die ".

Natasha had already gotten what his point but she couldn't help still asking " What do I have to do? ".

" Make a choice. Whether you kill and join me on my duty of protecting our city or you refuse and leave me here to return to your normal life, " Jamal responded with a very serious tone.

At that moment Natasha understood why he was so reluctant to let her or the join him, why he always had that sadness in his eyes when people thanked him every day, the solitude he constantly felt as he never found someone to share with him what he lived every day, waking up every morning and telling himself " let's go stain these hands of mine again ". He was so lonely and yet no one could see it.

She held the knife tighter while trying to convince herself to take, what she wanted to be, the right decision for herself, [I have to bear with it, it is my role to walk with him on this road covered by blood and corpses. Instead of his love which I will probably never have, I will share this pain and walk through this darkness with him. Since this day, this moment I will be his pillar] she gathered all of her strength of will before she finally made her decision, the glow in his eyes changed, and while she was slowly walking toward the three criminals she said " Don't worry I will walk with you through this road of death, I will never leave you alone " and then she thrust without hesitation her knife into Edna's heart and waited for short will then she removed it and repeated the same action with the two other guys.

Jamal sensed that he was about to cry, tears appeared in his eyes, he couldn't believe that he forced a young innocent girl to cross the line and take the lives of three people. But more than that what really moved him was the words Natasha told him, they were the words he always wanted to be told, it is not easy to do the job he does, and sometimes it is lonely and painful to be the judge of so many lives, it was not like it was a literal war where killing might be the only to survive or battle against a gang that deals narcotraffic where one doesn't have to think too much. Here, in his case, they're people who until a few years ago used to be normal citizens, people he would meet on the streets or run into inside restaurants, cafes, and other public areas, people for most of the time knew the faces and names, so naturally, he would get affected. And even if he never acknowledged it he was desperately looking for someone to accept him, share that solitude with him and to walk wherever he goes, he was so grateful. " Thank you... thank you very much ".

Natasha dropped the knife, reached him, and hugged him while whispering in his ear, " It's okay now, you're no more alone ".

They stayed like that for a moment before they came back from their emotions and decided to finish off the criminals by burning them. When they turned to them to carry them, they witnessed a strange phenomenon that would definitely be inscribed in their minds, the dead bodies of the two guys started to move and change. They could see some black veins running up along their necks. The two guys stood up and had their eyes turned completely white, like two tiny pits full of milk.

" What the fuck is that?! " Natasha said completely astonished, " it usually happens during your patrols?! ".

" No, I have never seen such a scene like this before, but get ready, I have the feeling that we will have to fight them ".