Like A Fairytale

Chapter 50

Lena

"What was your childhood like on Level 4?" Lena was still sitting next to Samuel and playing with his left hand. Fine scars ran across the back of his hand.

"My childhood?"

"Hm, yes. I grew up on Level 5. In a fortress, if you will." She smiled. In the meantime, the effect of the alcohol wore off. Samuel, on the other hand, had almost fallen off his chair in shock after their kiss. That was probably enough to be sober again.

Laughing, Lena had held him and had been playing with his hand ever since.

Her bodyguard looked at her nervously. After the kiss, he had wanted to apologize, but Lena did not regret the kiss. "So? Will you tell me about your childhood?"

"If you tell me about yours?" Samuel countered and looked at his hand in Lena's hands. "This is surely... Not right."

"Don't you like me?"

"I do!" Now his ears also turned red.

"Good." Lena's cheeks probably looked just as red as those of the young man in front of her. She felt a little too warm. "Then everything is right." She could imagine a future with this man much better than marrying a clone that resembled her father and uncles. "Because I like you... I think."

"What?" At last, the soldier smiled.

Lena shrugged her shoulders. "Well... We kissed. So... It's confusing, but..."

"I work for your father." Samuel withdrew his hand from her. "It's not right."

"I don't care much about what my father thinks is right."

"But I do... I shouldn't have kissed you."

"I kissed you. I think."

"I'm not so sure about that..."

"The alcohol kissed you?" she joked and reached for his hand again to hold it. "Don't worry. I like you. You like me. That's enough. Aaaaaaalso. Level 4?"

Samuel sighed. He looked out of the window. A strong wind was blowing outside. High waves crashed against the dome, but the garden in front of them showed no signs of a storm. They could hardly hear the storm; the dome kept the bad weather and the noises away from them. "Since when has it been storming?"

"I don't know." Lena also looked out of the window. The cities on the port of the government island stubbornly defied the merciless waves. Almost entirely black, greenish clouds darkened the sky. Was it raining?

"My parents live in a small residential unit. A tiny bathroom, I had to share the room with two brothers. My little sister was born when I started my military training. At fourteen. Before that, I went to a normal school. I was not a good student. At least not during my elementary school days," Samuel said. "The view from the window of my children's room was less exciting than this. I could look directly through a window of the neighboring unit. To my best friend's room. He also joined the military at 14."

"At 14?"

"About 4 years of military school, to be exact." Samuel rolled his eyes. "Stricter teaching and a strong focus on martial arts, as well as crafts. The official training began at the age of 18. I've always been very skilled and athletic, so I was accepted to military school. My parents were against it, but I already knew as a child that I wanted to be a soldier. So they let me go. Residents with an obvious mutation have a hard time gaining a good position in the military, so many choose this path. I wouldn't have had to go to military school, but it improved my chances. And I didn't have to apply there after graduating, because my achievements secured me a place. Of course, I could have refused. But I didn't want to."

"So you started the apprenticeship afterwards?"

Samuel nodded. "Reduced to one year, because I had already learned a lot at school. The regular training lasts two years."

"Two? Isn't that a bit sho..."

There was a knock at the door. Immediately, Lena let go of Samuel's hand.

It hurt.

Letting go of him hurt.

"Yes?" she exclaimed.

A maid came in. She pushed a serving trolley into the room. "Hello. I was told to bring you some tea and biscuits." The girl smiled. Lena couldn't remember having seen this girl before, but...

She frowned. "Thank you."

The maid pointed to the table. "Shall I put the tea on the table for you, or..." She looked around.

"The table, yes." Lena got up to help. Samuel immediately followed her. While Lena reached for a glass bowl full of pastries, she looked at the girl. She looked familiar to her. "Are you new?"

Samuel, meanwhile, carried the teapot to the table.

"Oh! My name is Danielle," the girl said. "I only started recently." She took a tray on which stood two cups, a milk jug, a sugar jar, and two plates, and brought it to the table. Lena followed her with the cookies.

"I hope you like it here."

"Very." Danielle deftly placed the tray on the table, almost silently. "Can I bring you something else?"

"Do you know if the perpetrator or perpetrators have already been caught?" asked Samuel. He was leaning against the wall, next to the window. A green glowing lightning struck the dome. The dome lit up light blue, and the light in Lena's room flickered briefly. Her bodyguard grimaced, but didn't budge.

Danielle, on the other hand, looked out of the window in shock. "Yikes. How scary." Then she remembered Samuel's question. "Unfortunately, I don't know anything exactly. The surveys have not yet been completed. I can't tell you more. If you want me to, I could ask. Or send someone from the security staff over?"

"No need. Thanks for the tea and pastries." Lena sat down. "Would you like a cookie?"

"No, thank you. If that's all, I have to go again." Danielle already pulled the trolley out of the room, waved once, and then closed the door behind her.

Samuel smiled. "She waved?"

"She did," Lena confirmed, just as amused. "Oh!"

"What?"

"Oh, nothing. It's okay." A lie. "Come on, sit down. We have tea. Obviously, you were taken into account." She pointed to the chair next to her, on which Samuel had sat before. A cup was waiting for him on the table.

"Is there really nothing?"

"Yes." She remembered where she had seen Danielle. Probably had seen.

The girl looked like the body in the water tank that Lena had seen in one of the labs. But if Danielle was the girl from the water tank...

What is going on here?

(c: sasi)