The Red Nights

Before she walked down the stairs to leave the house, Natasha decided to pass by Matteo's room which was now temporarily the room of Dana, to check how she was doing. It was not like she was scared that she escaped or at least she tried to, she just thought it would be good do so as she intended to leave without averting her .

Thanks to their discussion of yesterday night , they were close enough for her to know that she would never attempt to run away. Even though Dana didn't confess to her the reason why she needed Jamal to save neither from what did he have to protect her, she shared a lot with her, for example her social complex which caused her to lose the control of her emotions when she was involved in a too stressful situation.

She confessed that in spite of her miserable childhood with neither family nor friends she managed to survive without diving into the criminality or the evil in general. Contrary to Matteo, who was firstly raised in a orphanage and ran away to go working for some companies and stores, Dana didn't get that luck. At her very young age she was abandoned not in a orphanage but in the streets and she quickly forgot the names and faces of those who threw her away.

To survive she firstly started to panhandle for money to the passersby in the streets of Short-river or just for food in the few restaurants which didn't use to drive her out by throwing soiled water on her . When she grew up few years later she decided to get a job, but she was not good enough to enroll in a.d.u.l.t jobs as she didn't know reading or writing, instead she applied for housework and she succeeded to get one in a rich family house where she worked until she was nine .

When she reached that age , something awful happened to her what forced her to run away from the rich family she used to serve . Even though it was a very dreadful memory, Dana agreed to share it with Natasha, she confessed to her that when she was working in the house of the rich family, she even forgot the name deliberately, the father of this family try to **** her regardless that she was very young, nearly at the same age as his own daughter.

She struggled to beat him back and she fortunately managed to run away, when she went to see the police and talked to them about what the rich guy attempted to do to her they simply turned her down and preferred to believe in his version instead, he told them that she was lying, that all what she said she invented it to blackmail them and obtain money from them. She shouted, screamed and even cried that they were the ones who were lying but none of them would believe in a poor orphan girl instead of big and rich man , so she just run away again to return leaving in the street.

One week later while she was cadging a woman of about 25 to 30 approached her and sat down just beside her. She didn't introduce herself to Dana , she directly told her that she heard rumors about the young girl and she wanted to know the truth. Dana explained to her that despite all what the other were saying on her, the rich man really attempted to **** her , she said that it would be one week since she was starving to death , that no one accepted to give her some food because they were all convinced that she was just a s.l.u.t and a liar .

When Dana finished her story the woman told her that she was believing her and from there she promised to take care of her. Dana knew that she shouldn't trust anyone anymore but she was too hungry to turn her down so she followed her. It turned out that the woman was teaching martial arts in a dojo which was also her home , she ordered her to stay hidden in the other rooms the morning while she would teach to youngsters of the city who were registered and then after the courses it would be her turn . Dana understood that if someone saw her in her dojo she would give a bad publicity and would mess up her business, so she obeyed without complaining.

She lived a peaceful life with her without no problem even though she never left her house . The woman did not only teach her how to fight but also how to write and read and all the stuffs people learned at school. She enjoyed this life with but it didn't last because in the night of the tragedy that kind woman, who so gently took care of her, disappeared with so many other people.

Her loss really kept hurting her even after two years but Dana was still able to find the strength she needed to move on every day .

Natasha figured out that it was painful for her to tell about the story of her childhood what didn't miss to move her even more and to enhance and to strengthen her sympathy for Dana . When she asked her for the name of that woman who raised her , she refused to respond, not she didn't want to reveal it to her but it's just that she was not ready to pronounce her name one more time, so Natasha didn't insist instead she asked how she obtained the name of Dana if she was all alone since her youngest age and she revealed with a smile of pride that she found it and named herself.

Natasha intended to share with her some slices of her life too but she was too sleepy, so she reported it to another day and they went up to go sleeping.

Now she was in front of her door and was struggling to open it the most silently possible to not wake her up, when she saw that she had enough space she inserted her head but she saw that the inside of the room was completely dark, [ so she sleeps in the dark with no any light on ] Natasha noted. To not disturb her , she closed back slowly the door and walked down the stairs, she passed by the kitchen, took two fruits and went on to leave the house by the back , the garage.

At the moment she was about to open the gate she heard some noises coming from behind her, she sighed and said " I thought you understood that you are not allowed to go out until today night or tomorrow morning? " then she turned to see Dana coming out from her hideout.

" I didn't plan to escape " she said " I just wanted to know where are you going and to do what "

" Even for that reason or anything else, you're not allowed to get out " Natasha refused, the girl tried again with cute and supplicant eyes but the answer was still the same. " come on, I won't disturb anyone, just a spot where I can observe . I just got one day to be with you and don't want to waste it by looking at the walls all along the day " she stared at her until Natasha gave up " OK you're coming " and Dana jumped on her , hugging her tight go thank them .

So they headed together to the barrier and on the road Natasha explained to her about how they built it to protect them from the outlaws more detailed as she only had one unclear version of the story, she also talked about how Jamal used to wake very early at the morning, just like they did , to go inspect the barrier and chase after those who succeeded to cross it. During the previous night she had the time to reveal to Dana that Jamal left the city for one week as she became too suspicious because of the call but although she didn't tell her the reason of that mission she wanted to let her know that she was the one who was replacing Jamal with his daily tasks so she profited of that occasion to do so .

Once they arrived Natasha taught her the different steps of the patrol; the inspection of the barrier, the report if they found traces of someone who crossed, the reactivation of the security system and the chase of the outlaws along the city . She didn't detail the last part as she had done with the others as she could guess what they really had to do during it .

That day too there was no problem . Natasha could still not talk with Dana about the real situation they were confronted, neither about her powers, she just told her that lately the number of outlaws who crossed the barrier diminished dramatically that was why she accepted to bring her. There was no risk of danger.

When she told her about her training of the sword the young insisted to join her as it was one of the many martial arts she had been taught by her benefactor, she didn't expect to be as good as Natasha but she assured that she could be a great help and like that she would train as well . She accepted and when they were at the control post, she looked for the wooden sword Jamal used the last time, fortunately she found two of them so she didn't have to a wooden stick for the training. They stayed there, crossing the woods until the time came to leave, as she said Dana was a great help as she learned new moves from her and concerning Dana, she was just happy for having find someone with whom she could be almost totally at ease .

They returned home where Natasha quickly prepared to go teaching to the youngsters how to protect themselves. Once again she decided to not take a shower as she intended to go sweating further. Now Dana accepted to quietly at home without complaining, she even decided to cook for them by waiting for Natasha to come back.