War Within Us

chapter 3 . a not so pleasant visitor

After eating few biscuit and cookies, I stopped myself. I was not the one to lose herself and eat a lot of junk food. That role also belonged to Esther.

I brushed my teeth and collected all the trash that was thrown around last night.

I was making coffee when I heard Esther scream. I was way too calm for a person whose house was full of screams.

I realized that after living for a while with Esther, I could distinguish her fear scream from her shock scream.

After a short moment, she appeared on the door way, her hair was in a mess and I could see she drooled all night by the residue it left around her mouth.

"Did I just had a crazy dream about 4 soldiers coming in our house? Or all of that was real, like real real."

I just laughed at her shocked face and said "Real real".

Suddenly her face was filled with despair. "So I made that stupid vacuum joke?? To those.. big guys??"

I put my elbows on the counter and rested my face on my palms.

"I mean, I wouldn't particularly call them big but other than that, yeah, you made that joke in a really awkward situation." Seeing her suffer from embarrasment was one of the things that entertained me in this place.

Before she could utter another word, I quickly added, " And it was real real."

I watched as life drained from her face. She opened her mouth but nothing came out. I continued to talk.

"Just think about the bright side of this mess. What are the changes of us meeting with them again? They are in the far north part of the city. We are just volunteer individuals to manage this village that is a small part of Kaden. They were probably just passing by. So don't worry. Your weird joke will be forgotten approximately in hours."

Suddenly, her mood changed again. She started to look sad.

"Now, that makes me sad. I wanted to leave an impression even though it was a bad one."

After I heard the water boil on full force, I got up from my seat.

"You can be really weird, you know that right?"

I put warmed up milk to my coffee with a teaspoon of sugar in one cup, I did the same thing expect this time, I put two teaspoon sugar for Esther's coffee.

"Whatever. Have you heard from Lee? He said he would be back quickly after he got what we needed."

"I don't know. They probably stopped him on his way. He'll be back. Did you call the suppliers for the tools I need?"

"I did it yesterday. They are supposed to send them today. I'll go check the office to see if they arrived. Do you have any patient today?" It became our normal pretty fast to ask about each other's day. It made everything more normal.

"Yeah, I have few I need to check but after that, I'm free. I can help you with your stuff if you'd like." It was nice to have someone look out for you, that was for sure.

Kaden - Village X - few weeks later

Finally, home. 

i desperately need something cold to drink, was my only thought as I walked home.

I knew I couldn't have a cold shower since it was already past 3 but I could find something to drink.

People that lived here make this beverage by boiling different fruits and cooling it down by keeping it in the river for 3 days. After that, the juice can stay cold for almost a day. Even though rebels don't like it when they help us, villagers sometimes share what they have with us which I appreciate a lot.

Seeing my small house made me so happy in that moment that I almost tripped on a small rock. I got home, changed into something comfortable and got into the kitchen.

Lee still had lessons so he wouldn't be back until much later and Esther's schedule all depended on how many patients she had, she could be back anytime so I prepared something to eat for all of us. Fried rice was something I learned from Lee which he learned from his mom before coming here. It was a dish that was easy, quick and tasty. Cooked rice and some butter. After that I basically put whatever we had at hand.

Each of us had our own bowls and utensils. Since we never had any guests, we only kept one back up set that had a bowl, spoon and a fork.

I got my bowl and spoon, filled my bowl with hot rice and got myself the cold drink that our lovely neighbours gave and sat on the couch. My cooking was not the best but with a little bit of salt, everything would be just right.

Just when the sun started to set ever so slowly, I heard a noise from Lee's window which was in the far back side of the house. It kinda sounded like someone falling.

Even though I froze in place for a second, I decided to ignore it and kept on eating. I figured one of the kids kicked something in the street.

But the noises didn't stop or go away. Instead, they came back as knocks on the window. It sounded as if the person was punching the window. I thought about the possibility of this being another rebel mocking. Before someone broke the window, I had to do something.

In the settlement meetings between their leaders and UN, rebels were warned about not harming volunteers so I was confident that I could scare them away by reminding them that.

I got the baseball bat that Lee so kindly brought with him and started to walk towards Lee's room.

From the entrance of the room, I could see a bloody hand, trying to reach out. That made me more confident since I now knew that he was injured and I had the advantage. I was still careful as I walked to the window and opened it slightly.

I heard heavy breathing and a pained groan. I tilted my head and saw a man whose shoulder was covered in blood.

"Face me slowly, I have a gun." I tried with my best 'tough' voice.

He continued to breath heavily.

"Co--." a full word only came after few repetitive coughs. "Coffee."

*-*

(2019) Hello there. I hope you liked the chapter. I'm still trying to clear the storyline in my head. I kind of have a general idea but little filler events are still undecided. If you have any scene or idea, be sure to share with me. What do you think will happen next? (2020) A little bit of a cliffhanger, how you like that. I once again edited this chapter quite a lot. I'd love to see your guesses. 

Question of the part: Do you have any homework or job related tasks you have to do at the moment? Are you avoiding them like I usually do or are you free?

Love you all and see you next time. Peace -ONM