Into The Aether

Chapter Sixteen: Words Unheard

Evening set in as dusk began to envelope the fiery sky. Nikolai, Kiana and Takeo were now back in the makeshift barracks by the fire. Dempsey, on the other hand, had not shown his face since his run-in with Richtofen. Takeo sat by the table as he arranged his ammunition whilst Nikolai did the same across from him. After a few minutes, Nikolai finally spoke up.

"Where is Dempsey?" He said as if only just realising.

"Maybe he went back for round two with Richtofen", he added.

"It is no use cutting a stick when the fight is over", Takeo responded across the table as he loaded bullets into a magazine.

"Da, I should've known you would respond with that crap", Nikolai said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes.

Takeo shook his head in frustration.

Kiana was nestled in her blanket after the long day. She had been completely unaware of the exchange between the two men in the room as her mind was fixed firmly on what had transpired - with Richtofen.

"He has literally gone from wanting rid of me to now wanting to invade my personal space and 'help me' ", she thought anxiously.

So much for Dempsey, mind you. Days had gone by and Dempsey had not even started teaching her how to use a gun.

"It's clear he wants to assume a 'protector' role", she thought.

But instantly, her mind was back on Richtofen. He managed to even make teaching her creepy and weird. Everything he did was always tainted with undertones of weird - which was only funny in the game.

The thought of being one of the few people to ever be that close to him and live to tell the tale scared her. Richtofen may have been funny in the game but in reality, or whatever this universe was, he was a cold-blooded psychopath. Kiana felt a nagging pit in her stomach as it turned and twisted thinking about all the men, women and children he had maimed or killed. All the sick experiments... even those on Samantha. We never heard about what he did to her and many had speculated that maybe he was a-- was there no end to this sick bastard's perversions?!

"We don't know if that part is true", Kiana murmured as if it was any consolation and negated the atrocities he had committed.

Her stomach turned and knotted but she could not think about it anymore. She did not want to think about the fact he had invaded her personal space and made her feel polluted by his poisoned mind.

Her racing thoughts were thrown to the wayside as she was brought back into the room by Nikolai's voice. He was now standing over her with Takeo as they tried to get her attention. Kiana snapped out of her trance and looked up.

"We are going out to watch now", he said with concern in his slurred words.

"Are you okay? Maybe I leave a bottle of vodka to keep you company? It is like teddy bear to Nikolai", he added.

Kiana shuddered... Richtofen slept with a teddy bear.

"Hah, I'm okay thanks. I'm just tired and zoning out", Kiana responded as she tried to be as convincing as possible.

Takeo narrowed his eyes but Nikolai bought it.

"If you say so", Nikolai shrugged.

"We will be nearby if you need us", Takeo spoke as if reassuring her of whatever was clearly bothering her.