A Spark full of Hope (War or Love 3)

Chapter 2: We are not alone

Luckily I can get off at the next station, then I don't have to feel so uncomfortable about the strange man anymore. When the tram stops, I get off, but the man also wants to get off, so I let him off in front of me. He shows no reaction and walks towards the train station. Great, it goes exactly where I need to go! I try to blend back into the crowd and look at the board to calculate where my train is, when it's coming and what time it is. I have two minutes and don't have to go far. I'll be on my way immediately. I go extra far back, hoping whoever is checking the cards isn't checking me.

I stop and look around a bit, but I'm a little afraid that someone will see that I'm a Countryhuman. In the past few years, all trust and positive attitudes towards Countryhuman have completely disappeared. Everyone hates Countryhumans or is afraid of us, even though we are the most human like of all living beings. That's why my brother and I have to hide all the time and also because Britain is after every Countryhuman. But I don't know why. We haven't done anything. The train stops at the station and I slowly get on with the basket.

I sat down in the penultimate wagon. There are few people back here. I sit on a bench and wait while looking out the window and watching the world go by. I watch the houses, factories, trees and fields. Is it just me or does everything seem greyish? I look around the wagon a little. Everything is greyish here too. I gently and carefully pull my sleeve up a little to be able to see my skin. I'm not grey, I'm bright red in colour. If I take a closer look at my wrist, I can see the blue veins leading to my hand. I look out the window again. Why do I only see the mountains blurred?

I've had this for two years now and I'm pretty sure I haven't had it before and it's only getting worse. But what can I do? I can't go to a doctor. Even if I went blind, I couldn't do anything. I hope that won't happen. I take the basket because the train is just stopping. Then I get up and get out with some other people. I go back to the broken fence and crawl through. I'm walking down the street, but then I see this man I saw earlier on the tram a few meters in front of me. Why is he here? Should I follow him? Better not, I have to go to my brother.

I continue going along the road to the forest. He's still in front of me. After 4 years does anyone want to see if anyone lives near the blown up house or see if there are any remains of my family there which are pretty much non existent as I took everything I could from the house and in the cave hidden in case I find my family again or I'm too homesick. He stops at the destroyed house and looks at it sadly. Strange guy. I bring the basket deeper into the forest, because I still want to watch the man a little longer. I'm watching him, but I'm also ready to run away if he sees me.

He kneels in front of the former house and looks very sad. He puts his right hand to his face and strokes his left cheek as if imagining someone else doing it to him. But why in front of the house where my family and I lived? The man pricks his lips as if he is trying to kiss someone. Then he gets up again and takes a small metal box and a pistol out of his pocket. He takes off his jacket. Maybe I'll just stop staring at this weird guy. I'm making my way back to the basket when I hear the man say something.

However, I can't understand what he's saying and turn around to find out if he saw me. He has no more hair, the false hair is on the street. His hands are red? And he doesn't have a nose either, because it's on the ground. Tears run down his face, taking the paint with them, red streaks running down his face. His facial expression is desperate, scared, sad and angry, but he still looks very determined. He takes something out of the dark metal box and throws the box to the ground, not only severely deforming it but also destroying pieces from the street.

He puts that from the box on his finger and after he takes his hand away I see a beautiful gold ring. He looks at the ring one more time before he puts his hand with the ring to his heart and whispers something. He raises the gun up to his face with his other hand and looks at it sideways. Then I see his hand shaking and he gets a little scared. What is he up to? "It's all my fault! I couldn't protect you!", he says before putting the end of the gun to the side of his head. His whole body is shaking and he is crying even more. He's clearly scared.

"Now I can only hope to meet you in heaven, although I'm more than sure I'll end up in hell.", he says. Only now do I understand the situation again. I have to go to him! Otherwise he will kill himself! I run to him. He doesn't even seem to notice me. When I get to him, I push his hand up with the gun, but he pulls the trigger. You can hear your loud bang and shortly afterwards the man screams, as if something had hurt him. Then the man pushes me away so that I land on the ground. "ARG!" comes from him. At least he's not dead. "WHY DID YOU DO THIS!!", he yells at me.

He grabs my shoulders and pushes me onto the gray road. He yells at me again: "I LOST EVERYTHING AND MANAGED TO COME HERE AND THEN YOU WILL SAVE MY WORTHLESS COMPLETELY DESTROYED LIFE?!!!" Why is he so strong? I feel like he's breaking my bones with his power. I don't know what was wrong with me either, I just felt like I had to save his life. He raises one of his arms and is about to hit me when I remember why he might have red skin: "You're a Countryhuman too, aren't you?" He freezes.

I remove my scarf with my free hand, letting him see my red skin. Either he's going to hit me harder now or he's going to let me go. He also takes his other hand away and wipes his face before reaching out to the hat I'm wearing and taking it off, giving me a better view of his face. He still does look familiar to me but, I cann't say who he is. But he whispers my name: "Galanian Eurasian Union? My little angel?" My parents always called me 'angel'. He looks at me happily. Could it be that it's papa? He wraps his arms around me and hugs me tightly. Is it really papa?

I hug him and he hugs me tightly too. I hear him start crying even more. I still can't believe it's dad hugging me right now. I snuggle into him as I slowly begin to cry. He begins to sniffle a little. "My angel.", he whispers. He kisses my cheek gently as he continues to snuggle up to me. After a few minutes, he slowly lets go of me. He kisses my forehead and he says quietly: "You've grown so much." Then he wipes away his tears even more, blurring the color even more, from which I can also see his symbol. I sit down.

He sits down and I hug him again and snuggle into him. "Papa!", I whisper. I relax a little more. "Where's your mama?", he asks. "I don't know. The last time I saw him, he disappeared underwater. But I took good care of my little brother, even when you were away.", I reply. He asks: "Libertasland is alive?" I answer the question with: "Yes, he is in our hiding place." "I was told you were all killed.", says papa, "But now I know he lied." "Papa, please don't just disappear like that ever again!", I demand of him. "I will never disappear again.

I promise!", he promises before kissing my cheek briefly. "Can I see my son?", he asks me. I reply: "Yes, but he'll probably panic about you at first because-" He cuts me off and formulates my answer as a question: "-because he can't remember me?" "Exactly!", I reply. He stands up slowly and offers me his hands, which he uses to pull me up. I hug him briefly again and kiss him on his cheek too, which makes me smile broadly at him. I still can't believe my father is standing in front of me. We collect everything from his disguise and mine, then I get the basket and we go through the forest together.

I tell him about taking care of my little brother on our way to the hideout. Then I crawl in and take the basket with me behind me. I hope papa fits in here. I set the basket down in the main room before removing the clothes from papa and putting them aside. Then I grab papa under his arms and pull him to me. I manage to pull him in. "I guess I'm a bit wide for this entrance.", he says. I giggle briefly before whispering, "Wait here for me." I walk down one of the paths, deeper into our hiding place. At some point I'm at our sleeping place, where my little brother is hiding under a blanket.

"Brother there isn't a monster out there.", I giggle. "You know I'm always scared when I hear someone at the entrance.", he reminds me. "I've found papa! He's standing by the entrance right now.", I inform him enthusiastically. "Papa has disappeared, hasn't he?", he asks. I repeat: "He is here and you can finally get to know him." Then I take the blanket away from him and pull him with me. He says: "Sister, I'm scared." "Don't be afraid he won't hurt you.", I assure him. I pull my brother into the room where papa is sitting. He looks over at us before trying to get my brother, who is still very scared, to come to him: "Son come to your papa."

Papa spreads his arms for a hug. My little brother looks around the room. I walk closer to papa. "Brother, don't be afraid.", I repeat. Slowly Libertasland comes closer to me and asks confused: "Where is he?" "Right here!", I tell him while pointing to where papa is. My brother walks up to him and then through him which makes papa disappear. Where did he go? "Sister he is not here. We are alone.", my Libertasland. I object: "No! He was here! Right here!" I look at the disguise, but there's only mine. "You're dreaming again.", he says. "I was so sure he was here.", I repeat, looking down at the disguise.