The Red Nights

That day was the day where everything would be decided and Lina opened up her eyes this morning with that state of mind. She stroked the empty part of her bed , trying to remember the warmth of the man who used to occupy it and she slowly left it before she started to depress [ it's just one day since he left, stop acting like a junkie ] she said to herself while she headed to the bathroom [ today is an important day so interdiction for your morale to be down ] .

After her shower, she returned back into the restroom, she picked up appropriate clothes for the event and went down to the livingroom. On the coffee table, surrounded by the three couches and the television on its pedestal, were laying a little stack of papers in where were written many versions of her speech. At the end they finally achieved to find one which satisfied her , it was the only one separated from the pile of papers . Lina stepped toward the table, she picked it and spread herself on the couch in front of the television.

It was the third time she finished rereading the text she envisaged to perform and she had already gotten rid of the ones rejected when Matteo opened the principal door and came in the house , he was all sweaty and the tiredness could be read through the dark circles around his eyes. In his right hand he had a paintbrush and his left hand carried a little bucket of glue he made himself.

He set them down and stepped toward the closest sofa by drawing his feet and by dangling his arms. When she saw him passing the door, she laid down the paper on the table , crossed her legs and started staring at him. And as he was slowly walking her smile was stretching proportionately . When he reached the couch and could finally flop down it Lina couldn't hold on laughing, Matteo turned to her with reproachful sights.

" You're happy to see me suffering ? Are you such heartless? " he complained wearily.

" Excuse me , but your face ... it's just too hilarious " she replied still trying to stop laughing. She took some minutes to calm herself a bit and meanwhile Matteo recovered enough strength to turn and sit conveniently .

She threw a long sigh of satisfaction " I suppose you have done the duty that I have given you "

" You bet " Matteo replied, still a little upset " all the posters were successfully hung in all the corners of this city but I'm still thinking you order that just to torture me, I don't even see the sense of all that. Why couldn't I have looked for the venue for spreading after the announcements in one time, instead of doing it in two times like I did "

In fact, yesterday night Lina didn't let him sleep. They both stayed awake to work on her discourse and to prepare the new posters which were containing the venue for the big announcement once they had done with the first part , until very late at night. But when the poor Matteo was going up to rest on his bed , Lina ordered him to wake up early in the morning to go spreading all the notices they made , they argued a little while, Matteo shouted at her telling her that he was too exhausted that he couldn't do that but the final she won again and as a good employee he fulfilled his duty .

" It was necessary to attract the attention of the citizens " Lina explained to him " if it was only one notice, perhaps there would be some of them who would have overlooked it. However when we spread it in two parts , they will get a feeling of urgency and they will come in totality " .

" Bullshit " Matteo cursed lazily " I'm sure there wouldn't have made any difference . Well, I'm too exhausted to debate with you I'm going up to have some sleep ".

Lina wanted to tease him a little more but she saw that it would be a bit too much , so she let him go, [ the announcement will be within three hours minimum, he deserves some sleep until there ] she thought.

She then decided to go visiting Natasha, she checked the clock [ at that time she already finished patrolling, so she must be at the dojo ] she deduced, she stood, took the key to her car and left the house.

She arrived there 20 minutes later, got out from the car , walked until she reached the opened door and stopped there to stare at the little crowd moving and executing a lot of movement energetically. Her sights traveled all along the gymnasium before she could see her friend, she tried to sneak in and surprise her , she was from behind concentrated on two little boys who were simulating a fight, so she couldn't see her.

When they saw her passing, the students stopped one after another what they were doing to observe her, [ they will mess it up ] she thought, she made some silent gestures to order them to return to their stuffs and not mind her but they couldn't do so as they really wanted to know what will happen. She still went on her way until she was at two steps from Natasha. She smiled, raised her hand up in the air and straightened it up as if she was about to break some wooden planks .

Natasha who wants watching after the two boys in front of her, started to feel that something went wrong, she lifted her head and took a look at the others and saw that they were all immobile staring at her. When she turned around she saw Lina her hand high in the air with a large smile shouting at her " too late surprise attack! " , she dropped her hand toward the base of her neck but Natasha's reflexes were too sharp. She grabbed her it before she attained her, pulled it in a circular motion and threw her down hardly on the rug .

She sighed and by a swing of her hand she adjusted back her hair while Lina was m.o.a.ning on the floor and everyone around them was laughing. She looked down at her with a smile " if I knew it would be so satisfying I would have done it earlier " she said proudly. She lent her a hand and helped her to stand back on her feet " how can you dare doing something like humiliating me , the ruler of this city, around all these brats " she started complaining " I promise to put you in jail " she swore while around them the laughs became louder.

" Shut up damn brats, move your sweaty butts away from me " she shouted at the youngsters who were staring joyfully at them. Karen stepped out from the crowd and ran toward Lina's arms who bent to catch and greet her " how are you my little princess ? "

" I missed you " she said .

" Yeah I know but I had a lot of work to do " Lina told her .

" Seems like Nat' can finally unleash her furor over you when Jamal is not around " said a teenager among the crowd.

" Shut up your mouth Clay... wait ! " she suddenly turned to Natasha " how can they... you told them ? " she asked anxiously.

Natasha nodded, a little desolate " sorry but I couldn't just close my mouth , they had to know. Keep it secret would just have led to other problems "

" The problems will be people getting into panic because they heard that he left the city " Lina replied by raising her tone . The little girl at her feet pulled her sleeve and told her " you don't need to get mad, you know we all understand that he had something important to do, Nat' explained it to us and we are not worried because she said that she will protect us as he did ".

Seeing the cute face of Karen made Lina calm down at once " I'm not talking about you only, there are a lot of people who may not be as courageous as you are " she said while she was lifting her head to look at everyone " they need to feel safe after all what happened and even if Natasha is largely qualified to fulfill the role these people may not agree to entrust her their confidence ".

" So we just have to keep it secret " said a teenager " until now none of us said anything to anyone ".

" Yeah it's true " another one added " I don't think Natasha was wrong to tell us the truth but if you are worried that it would be a catastrophic if we spread the information we just have to promise you that we won't tell it to anyone else ".

Seeing that everyone was approving the idea, Lina took a look at Natasha who was proudly nodding before she sighed and said " anyway what it's done is done, I don't have any other choice but to trust you " she lifted up her pinky in the air and said " so everyone form a line and come to swear me one by one ".

" You can be serious, you really want each of us promising you with the little finger ? " the boy named Martin asked jokingly.

" You bet I do " Lina responded seriously " come on, hurry up I don't have your time ".

They looked at each other, then they gazed at Natasha with their eyes like to say " is she really serious " and she silently and slowly nodded. They obeyed so and made a line where one by one they all stepped forward to swear starting by Karen who was the most close to Lina , even Natasha had to do it too .

•••

" Want me to drive you to your home? " Lina proposed to Natasha when they were coming out from the gymnasium.

" Don't you have a lot of things to prepare for today ? " She asked back.

" I have already spent my entire night in those preparations " she growled " I'm tired and bored let's go to your home hanging out until the time of the announcement " she proposed

Natasha stepped back suspicious , she narrowed her eyes and said " if you planned to come harassing me s.e.x.u.a.lly again, I would prefer to go back alone "

" Come on, I know you love that when I touch you " Natasha stepped back again " okay okay you win, I promise I won't try anything. So you allow me to come? "

" Yeah okay, now we can go " she finally accepted.

So they returned back together, at the moment they arrived Natasha ran up to go to the bathroom getting rid of her awful smell while Lina slowly walked into the livingroom to wait for her. Before she had a seat, she smelled a sweet aroma coming from the kitchen, so she went to check what was it .

There she found Dana with an apron in front of the stove totally focused on the pot and the pan and Lina started to guess what she was cooking and regarding the smell which was coming out it promised to be delicious . She leaned on the edge of the door, staring at her and decided to not disturb her. Dana lifted a the cover of the pan and started to put in a lot of ingredients and spices that Lina didn't even know Natasha had them in her kitchen , she stir it all for some minutes and closed back.

Minutes later she turned off the stove as it was finally ready , she intended to take some plates to stock the food so she turned her head and jumped when she saw Lina " excuse me I didn't want to scare you " she apologized . At that moment Natasha was coming in to join them " what's wrong? " , Lina turned to her and said " why didn't you tell she was such a good cook, if I knew it earlier I would have chosen her instead of the other grouchy boy " .

" So that is how you thank me after I exhausted myself to do your own job " said Matteo who was just behind Natasha, he slowly moved to face Lina his eyes still tired " I will remember that " the he stepped to go help Dana to serve the food. Natasha stared at her with satisfied smile " I told you to learn watching out your mouth , you see the result " , " shut up " the latter growled " I got it, I will go apologize later , let's go " . They sat down together around the table full of delicious meals and they started eating and discussing joyfully.

•••

" You're ready? " Matteo asked to Lina before the penetrated the square, she was waiting beside her car with Natasha as she said that people must all be there before she entered" Dana has verified the interior and she said that the square literally overfilled, there are more people than you estimated, we had to adjust a lot for people to find a place but there are still who are obligated to stay up "

" Well it's positive if there are a lot of people " Lina rationalized, they decided then to put a step forward toward the square " did you prepare some spotlights in case ? Because I think the sun will be gone within less than one hour " she asked to him while she was checking the sky " yeah don't worry, we already have all what we would need " he put the curtain away and said " now it's your turn to convince them ".

She walked alone toward the stage while all eyes were on her, she went up, reached the microphone and gazed at the huge amount of people present in the square. " Good evening everybody " she started by shaking her hand to accompany " well, I'm sure you all want to know the reason why we invited you here today, but firstly let me introduce myself to our new citizens, neighbors and friends. My name is Lina Lavard and I'm the mayor of Stainfall city . Subsequently, let me carry on by, it will be 2 years since that tragic and horrible night that we are still suffering from until now. "

" Everyone without any exception lost someone or something dear to them which left deep and painful scars into our hearts and as if it didn't suffice we also experienced the waves of criminality which resulted to enhance our trauma even more. I know it hurts to talk and recall about those experiences but you must keep in mind that if we are still here together it's because we are stronger than we could think, many have chosen the way of the suicide and others chose the way of the wickedness , but for us we are still here with all consciousness trying to go forward. They tried to take our lives to destroy our minds by violating and injuring our bodies but after all that we are still here. For 2 years, my friends and I worked hardly to save and protect our people and thanks to them and their efforts we managed to save our city as well. But now we've arrived at the important point of my speech. My dear new citizens you left your goods, houses and your hometowns to seek for security in here and I would say that it was with a great p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e we welcomed you " she paused, glanced at them then she resumed " some of your companions, of your mates stayed to fight against those who wanted to harm you and take back the lands they wanted to steal from you, but after that what will happen when they succeed? You may go back to your hometowns and your houses full of bad memories because you may took your goods back you cannot come back to your ancient life. What I'm proposing you it's to stay here too contribute to the rebuilding of this city your new city in order to restart a new life, together " she stopped.

On a first time the public was all quiet, then a old woman stood up and looked at Lina on the stage " are you telling us to abandon all we have left to contribute on the building of your utopia? " and some voices raised on a general agreement, another man stood " as you've said there are many of our acquaintances who stayed there to fight for us... others who died for us and you would want us to ignore their sacrifices to live peacefully the dream lives you've promised to us ?" from there complaints started to become louder and louder but Lina stayed calm , she waited few minutes before she clapped on her hands to bring back the calm .

" Maybe I wasn't very clear, this offer is not compulsory for you to accept it, I'm talking to those who would want to start a new life with us here . But let me tell you something when you came here your hometowns were running out of food, the little provisions remaining served to feed the fighters, when the war is over the infrastructures would be all destroyed without that you return back into the stone age and you may starve with only your nightmares to accompany you . So I will say it again it's not compulsory for you to accept but those who would want to join us they can fulfill their CV at the city hall by now until tomorrow, my people are all agree to cooperate in your integration in the society, that was all I wanted to discuss with you and thank you very much for your presence, goodbye " she said that and went down from the stage letting the crowd totally stunned " .

" It was looking more like an ultimatum rather than a proposition " Natasha told when she was coming.

" I tried to explain them gently but those guys are so dumb " she stretched herself, sighed and said " well I'm tired let's go home waiting for my lover to call me , for the candidacies I will check them tomorrow ".

" OK I don't see any objections, let's go " Natasha replied.

They were about to leave in their car when Dana ran toward them while shouting to wait , she arrived a little out of breath " can I come with you... no I mean know I'm just a stranger I don't have a right to ask that ... but at least can you allow me to work for you ? I may not qualified for office works but I can do a lot of other things... so please ? "

The two women looked at each other then turned to Dana " move your stuffs out to my house tomorrow and I want you to bring your crew and other youngsters to our fighting trainings, alright? " Natasha asked. The girl showed a large smile and nodded before she turned to Matteo " thank you " then she ran away.

" Does that mean that I will live you until Jamal comes back? " he asked stoic to Lina who nodded to him " but see the good of the things I can coach you in your quest to catch Dana's heart , the boy went up in the car without replying " let's go home I heard enough "