The Red Nights

" If you want to ask her why does she want to meet , it's useless she will not answer... I've already tried " Matteo said to avert them .

But he couldn't discourage Lina " that is the problem with most of men, you are a way too brutal and hasty , you have to find the best way to obtain answers without pushing her " she explained to him. She grabbed Dana's hand and led her to the sofa , after sitting down she said to her " from which town do you come? "

Matteo was wondering how would she react and he was surprised to see that it was with her serious side she responded to Lina " Short-river " with her serious tone . Lately he made the theory that her personality changed depending on the situation she was for example when she was confronted by too stressful circ.u.mstances she tended to wear her emotional face . But here she was on the middle of an interrogatory, facing two women she didn't even know yet it was her serene side which was talking, [ what the meaning of that? Does this mean that my supposition goes wrong? If it's that, so how does it proceed] Matteo was struggling as hard as he could in his corner to try to decipher the secret of her changes of personality knowing she affirmed that she was not on any kind attempted of schizophrenia or any kind of psychological disease and Matteo believed her.

Meanwhile Lina was keeping on with her questions " What is your full name? " , Dana bit her lip and responded but the irritation could be noted in her voice as it was low and raw, " My name is Dana, only Dana " she said.

" So you are an orphan " Lina said forgetting that it could annoy her, but Natasha had the time to notice her mistake so she quickly came to save the ball before Dana turned mad, she added " she meant that you are an orphan too just like Matteo and... " she suddenly smothered the end of her sentence. It seemed that Dana didn't care about it , she turned to Matteo " so you're then an orphan as well "

" You noticed it when I introduced myself to you, right? "

" Yeah it was back from there I started to be suspicious about it " she acknowledged .

" All the members of your gang are in the same case as you ? " Matteo asked.

" You have a gang? " Lina asked completely astonished, she looked at Dana then at Matteo and again at Dana. " Wait! Someone hired you to come kill Jamal ? " Natasha said a little bit worried . Lina turned an angry look at Matteo " you little ingrate, did you betrayed us ? "

Both Natasha and Lina went on their accusations, Dana started to panic , stuttering wildly to try expressing herself and Matteo knew that he didn't have other choice but to intervene. He clapped frenetically on his hands to while he was shouting at the girls to cool down , after many seconds the silence finally came back in the office. they all turned to him , Natasha crossed her arms, Dana tied her fists and tensed her shoulders and even though she didn't gaze at him with a bad look on her eyes Matteo could sense that she was a little angry at him , [ what is apprehensible] he acknowledged.

" I need explanation " Lina said with her hands on each side of her h.i.p.s .

" It's not a real gang of bandits " Matteo cleared up the misunderstanding " in my ex-homecity it was not unusual to see some bands like hers " .

" Yeah it's true, when the wave of crimes rose up it was the only way we found to protect ourselves. Everybody knows that more we are many , stronger we will be " Dana added.

Lina nodded as she was satisfied by the answer, but she had one more question remaining in her mind, she asked to Matteo " you were in a... gang as well? " . The latter chuckled and said " I was smart enough to survive by myself " .

" snooty " Natasha muttered between her teeth.

" Well " Lina sighed, she turned to Dana " we have played enough, I will ask you a question and you will answer otherwise there will be a big problem ".

Just by looking at her eyes Matteo felt that she was not joking, he stepped forward toward her to try to calm the situation a bit " well, let's relax, I already told that she was clean there is no need to take such drastic measures " he said to her. He saw her hands loosen and he thought that at least he achieved to avoid the situation being too serious.

However when he got enough close to her, Lina reached the base of his neck on his right side with her hand in quick move, so fast that he didn't get the time to react even for a jiffy, she pinched him hardly on a specific point of his neck and he fell down on his b.u.t.t. He lost the control of his legs, then his arms when he was on the floor and few seconds later he realized that he couldn't even talk, he could just attend to what would happen in this room his back leaning on the foot of the sofa.

He saw Natasha slowly walking toward Dana like a lion walking toward its prey when it was sure it couldn't escape from it . But it seemed like the prey had more guts than it could be thought. Dana stood straight before the two women her fists tied and her eyes completely focused, she didn't intend to fell without fighting. [ She told me that she knows fighting since her young age ] Matteo recalled [ but it won't be enough to face Natasha though, she is Jamal's best student, it's as to say that she will facing a real monster ] .

Matteo couldn't warn and where she was, she couldn't got it as she was all confident in her own capacity to defeat the two girls who were facing her. He tried with all his willpower to move but it was in vain, even the effort he put to stir his tongue or just screaming to stop was unsuccessful . He was totally paralyzed. [ what has she done to me? ] he asked desperately to himself while the spectacle was still going on.

" Don't try to resist, we just need answer. Give it to us and we will gladly let you go, refuse and the sequence of the interrogation will be less friendly " Lina said by making little gestures of her hands .

" And if my answer doesn't please you? " Dana asked, from time to time she was glancing at Matteo and Lina caught it , she took a look at him and said " don't worry he is totally fine, just he can't move anymore for the thirty next minutes. And about your previous question, it's simple " she lifted up toward the little girl cold eyes, so scary that she was petrified for seconds before she was able to feel back her body which was shaking when she spoke the end of her sentence " you will not leave this place ".

In the panic she was, she waited for her to ask her question, she directly ran as fast as she could in her direction. She jumped and threw a high kick toward her face [ I will knock her out first and then I will take down the other girl ] she said to herself, she thought she was fast enough to do it so as she planned however her attack didn't reach her target. Lina didn't winked, even though she saw clear through her onslaught she didn't make a move to dodge it or just countering it because she knew that it would never hit her.

Indeed Dana's foot was blocked, when it was at 15 centimeters of Lina's face, by Natasha's heel . She quickly jumped back and raised her guard high, [ I was too fast to be caught, only a master in martial art could stop my kick so easily ] she thought while she was staring now at Natasha [ I couldn't even see her coming, how did she do that ] . The latter walked to stand in front of Lina between her and Dana . " Looks like you chose to die without even giving yourself a chance to survive by answering one simple question " Natasha said to her " OK then let's offer you a proper death ".

Dana was now reluctant to charge in first, she thought that it would be wiser to wait for her to come like that she would be able to observe very well her moves and then prepared to counter. As she wanted, Natasha took the lead and walked toward her , she faked a move to punch her with his right hand and when she squatted to try to dodge it she lifted her leg and violently kicked the poor guy.

Dana turned mad and charged her. She used against Natasha all the techniques she knew; jab , hook, overhand, cross, she even made some combinations of front kicks, back and side kicks. She put all her strength in those attacks and combinations however they far to be enough to wound Natasha. She shirked every single punch and blocked all the kicks thrown to her and at the end she was remaining straight in front of Dana who was bowing leaning her hands on her her knees to take a breath as she was completely tired and breathless.

" How can... it be... possible ? " she asked between the respirations .

Natasha reached her, she waited 1 minute for her breathing to become a little normal and when she unbent herself to try to choke Natasha's neck, she grabbed the highest part of her arm , put one leg before her, turned around and with a judo take, she threw her on the floor. She then sat over her , blocked her left arm with her left hand, her right arm with her right leg and grabbing tight her neck with her right hand, making her enable to move. She struggled and resisted with the rest of her strength before giving [ it's in vain, they won ] she acknowledged.

Then Lina stepped toward her while clapping her hands, " well, it was a great fight even though from the beginning you didn't have a slight chance to win " she stopped and looked straight into her eyes " I will give you a last chance before she decide to kill you. If you agree try to nod and don't forget it's your last chance " .

Tears started to flow out from her eyes and run along her cheeks, Dana realized that she lost and had no other choice but to accept the conditions of her two jailers. She slowly nodded, hoping that she could be able to satisfy them in order to spare her life . " Well , so I will now ask you the question you refuse to listen lately, ready? "