The Red Nights

Lowering her sight Carla could see that she, too, was shaking, she could even feel all her hairs slowly erect due to the fear and the anxiety which could unconsciously activate her power. At that moment she knew that she had to quickly calm down otherwise Volga would see that and would consequently discover her about her power, but when she was thinking about what just happened she couldn't help but release her emotions. Soon the fear and anxiety left the place to rage and anger, her mentor had betrayed them, the man she trusted the most, so much that she could even sacrifice her life for him, had just stabbed in the back of the whole army by killing its leader.

" Quickly, we should quickly go help him " she said while putting a step forward. Volga raised her arm in front her before she could go anywhere, " You promised me that you won't panic and that you will stay calm no matter what happens " she said without turning her head to look at her.

" But, if we don't do anything quickly he may die " she replied while tightening her fists, her legs were shaking and she felt her heart racing, but Volga was silent. Carla stared at her trying to guess what could be happening inside her head to stay calm after just having seen her friend get shot.

As her anxiety was increasing her hairs became so hard and straight that, on the outside, it was as if sharp spikes were sticked on her back.

" Jamal knew it " Volga finally said after what Carla had felt as an hour of silence. She was still staring at the foot of the parking away where Jamal had fallen as if she was waiting for something to happen. In Carla's ears, Volga's voice seemed to come from afar, she had to concentrate very much to understand what she said while repressing all her negative emotions to be able to articulate a reply, " what... what did you say? ".

As they were talking Carla could feel her heartbeats slowing gradually while her hairs started to lose their hardness and slowly falling down on her back.

" I said that Jamal knew that Nelson would do that " Volga repeated in a calm voice that Carla hadn't noticed before, " our secret conversation... as you said, it was about this. He told me that Konny would ask Nelson to kill him and that he would accept ".

" But why would she do that? We are here to help her after all. " Carla asked as the story started to become more and more confusing. " I asked myself the same question and the answer seems quite obvious. Because she may not be whom she pretends to be " Volga responded.

Carla frowned, " What does it mean? "

" It's difficult to explain, but patience, it may soon be clear " she just said.

[ That does not help me much ] Carla thought but didn't say it loud. " But why Nelson had accepted to betray us like this? " she said instead.

" I couldn't answer that question and Jamal either, maybe... " she shook her head before she could finish, as if she wanted to get rid of some bad thoughts. But she didn't have to complete her sentence for Carla to understand what she was about to say, [ Konny used Sania to convince him ].

" That bitch! " she couldn't help but to curse, hopefully it seemed that Volga didn't hear that. " But if Jamal already knew that why did he let him... why didn't try stop him or at least fight back ".

Volga sighed " he said that if we want to get the materials necessary to solve that mystery we had to let Nelson do it... and he made me promise that no matter what I shouldn't do anything to stop him ". Carla, then, understood that her anger was not comparable to what Volga was feeling, she knew from the beginning what was about to happen but she couldn't do anything. [ She must feel completely powerless ] she realized, [ she must hold herself with all her might to not run to help him, to verify if there is a drop of life in him, if there is a small chance for him to survive. But she can't. All she can do is staying here watching ], she clenched her teeth [ her frustration must be way greater than mine ].

Carla finally stepped back, she leaned over and remained silent while observing at the same direction as Volga. Quickly they saw two people, one man and a woman, running toward where Jamal had fallen. The woman help her friend to carry Jamal on his back and they started running toward where they came. " Shouldn't we stop them? " Carla asked as they were about to lose sight of them, Volga shook her head negatively and said " let's follow them instead, I'm confident that we will get more informations this way ".

The two women paid attention to not get too closer to the people carrying Jamal and moreover they would carefully hide in some good places where the potential enemies, watching the streets from the windows of the buildings around, would not be able to catch a glimpse of them.

After a long walk they finally stopped at the foot of a high building, probably one of the highest in the whole quarter. Volga and Carla found a place to hide and at the same time observing what was going on. They saw the woman stepping toward the entrance, a glass door, she knocked on it many times following a particular rhythm, probably a secret Volga guessed and a moment later the door was open. A man came out, he said something while pointing to Jamal, Volga could understand that he was asking some explanations about him, the woman responded and it seemed like she had good reasons because the guard nodded and let them enter.

When the guard closed the door behind them Volga turned to Carla and told with her eyes full of determination " we have to find a way to enter in ". They both started to observe the building carefully looking for a way to penetrate it but they couldn't find any. There were two entrances, the one in front of them and probably another behind, the windows were sealed and way too high to be attained, the walls were too smooth to try to climb and even if they could they would probably get noticed.

Suddenly Carla got an idea, " I have a plan " she said to Volga, the latter turned head " really? " she said full of expectation. " Yeah, let's directly pass by the entrance " she responded. Volga released a sigh of disappointment and was about to continue inspect the building when Carla grabbed her arm, " hold on hold on hold on, don't get disappointed so soon and let me explain myself first ", she leaned forward toward Volga's ear and exposed her plan.

Soon they were running toward the entrance, Carla had noticed that on that side of the building they didn't risk to be seen by anyone. They both went to stand in front of the walls, at the both sides next to the door to avoid being exposed by the transparency of the glass door. Volga nodded at her as to tell her to do it, earlier Carla had revealed to her that she had memorized the secret code the woman had used to open the door. Volga was quite surprised and was even worried that she may have got it wrong but the young woman ensured her that it was the good code and at the end Volga decided to trust her.

She knocked at the door while following the rhythm she remembered the young woman of earlier had used, after they waited silently for a short while, the suspense of the wait was heavy but the guard finally opened the door. " Who the hell is there? " he shouted while he was pushing the door. Volga, who was then just next to him, punched him hard on his chin and before he realized anything he fell unconscious on the ground. Carla helped her to pull him inside, they tied him down and locked him in a locker.

" Now what do we do? " Carla asked Volga in a low to not take the risk to be heard, the latter was inspecting the surrounding, there were stairs leading up at two meters ahead of them and straight ahead was a dark hallway. The building was surely used to be residence for people so Volga could guess that upstairs were the apartments. " We have to find where did they bring Jamal " she responded in a low voice too.

" And how are we supposed to find him? "

" We could wait for this guy to wake up and torture him so we can get the information we want. But. We don't have time and I'm not in the mood to torture anyone " she responded casually, she thought a little bit and said " until here we can suppose that this building is actually their HQ, what means that those guys of earlier were borrowing Jamal to their boss ".

" So we just have to figure out where is their boss, huh ? " Carla directly understood, she immediately gave a suggestion " let's go up, usually people with power love staying in high places, maybe because of their egos ".

" That is a reasonable proposition but I don't think it's the right answer ", she raised a finger before Carla " Remember, Konny has said that Phil was the kind of very cautious man, the kind of person that prefers not to be the center of the attention so do you think this kind of person would want to show off by placing his personal residence on the top of the building? "

The young woman thought and shook her head negatively, " I don't think so too " Volga confirmed " this kind of person would definitely choose to stay... in the underground ". She looked at Carla and the latter nodded at her and as they were about to go on their way Volga gave her another instruction, " this place must be full of guards so let's be careful. Guns are prohibited, we don't want to be noticed so use them only when it's a matter of life or death, otherwise use your b.a.r.e hands ".

Then they walked straight toward the hallway. They were both not familiar with that kind of residence so they couldn't know directly how to accede to the cave. At a moment they ran into a guard, Carla reacted as fast as Volga as if they had been training that move from long ago, the former pulled him and blocked his arms while the latter punched him hard on his belly just below his c.h.e.s.t what blocked his respiration and made him lose consciousness.

After they tied him and hid him somewhere, they walked back to where he seemed to come from and they finally found the way leading to the cave. They went down the stairs, they were quite dark and only lit by a weak light coming from downstairs. As they were reaching the bottom they could hear people arguing. They quickly went hiding themselves behind a pillar before getting noticed, they bent slightly at each side of the pillar so that they could have a vision of what was happening.

"... I saw them with my own eyes, they betrayed him and shot on him. You can even ask Wallace he was with me when it's happened ", the one who was talking was the young woman they saw earlier, she seemed talking to someone sitting on a sofa but as the pillar, Volga and Carla were hiding behind, was directly facing her they could not see the person sitting before. As they were close now they could distinguish the traits of her appearance, she had a brown skin like Jamal but less dark with brown hairs reaching the the middle of her neck, she was wearing black trousers with a khaki shirt and military boots. The Wallace, she was pointing, was a red-haired man who seemed older than her and slightly taller than her and was wearing a dark blue suit.

" Yeah that's true boss " he confirmed while nodding.

" But in fact I don't care who shot on whom, my problem is that why did you bring that dead body here and took the risk to expose us? What if one of Konny's men had followed you? You would have put all of us in great danger! " Phil replied slightly angry.

" He's not dead, just a little injured " the woman replied in a low voice " and only here we can get the materials necessary to treat him ".

When she heard that Carla could feel a breeze of happiness and relief gently stroking her heart, she couldn't help but smiling at that news that Jamal may not be dead. And she didn't have to turn her head to know that Volga was feeling the same thing.

" Weren't you the one who told me that he got shot on his c.h.e.s.t at close range? And now you're telling me that he is still alive ".

" Yes da... boss, when we went to take him we saw that he was wearing a bulletproof jacket, it's most probably the 3 meters fall which has injured him " she explained.

Phil stayed quiet for a moment and then he suddenly opened his eyes with an expression of terror, " Oh God no, it's a trap! " he shouted, he jumped out from the sofa and drew his revolver, " that's what they wanted to bring him in so they can attack us. Oh God, what did you do? we're all doomed, quickly go send someone to finish that son of bitch! ".

The woman went in front of him while raising her hands in the air, " dad please calm down, it's not a trap, he had indeed been betrayed by Konny's men and when he will heal he will definitely help us to get our revenge on her ".

" For God's sake, Pam, can you stop being so naive for one second " he replied no convinced at all " obey to me, I'm just trying to fix all the problems you have brought upon us ".

Tears started to roll on Pam's cheeks, what surprised everyone in the room even Phil. " What can you never trust me, I just made one mistake and since then you're treating me like your enemy. I was right when I suggested you to ask help to the neighbor cities, I was right when I told you to send our townspeople to Stainfall and evacuate them from any possible danger and even when you were doubting it was I who untrusted them our townspeople and I did it all by myself but still you can't trust me. Why? Why? What should I do for you to see me as your daughter once again? "

The revolver was shaking in Phil's hand, he couldn't know what to reply. A voice, familiar to Volga and Carla, came to break the silence " you should believe more in your daughter, mister Mickelson. Because thanks to her you have now a hope to win over Konny " Jamal said while slowly walking toward him, Both Pam and Wallace stepped aside to let him pass and he went stand in front him.

" Who... who are you? " Phil articulated.

" Jamal Sabani " Pam answered with a voice broken by the emotion, she said that while wiping out the tears on her face. " But how did you manage to leave your bed, the shock was so violent that you should not even be awake? "

" Anything will soon be explained but firstly... " he turned his attention to the pillar behind which his two friends were hidden, " it's alright, you can come out " he said to them. The two women slowly left their hideout and walked toward the gathering.

Phil raised his gun to aim at them, " you see, it's exactly as I told you ". Jamal put gently his hand on the revolver and slowly pushed it down, " it's okay they are with me " he said gently.

When they were enough close Volga jumped on his neck to hug him " don't ever something like this again. Never. I really thought you were dead at a moment " she whispered.

" I know but I had to, and I told you that all things will be fine, didn't I? So you should not have been so worried? " he replied. She slowly released him. Carla was standing timidly near them, not daring to hug as Volga did, maybe she considered that they were not enough close friends to do such things yet. Jamal extended his arm and patted her head " you did a great job, as usual, thanks " he praised her.

He took a deep breath, stared at the little audience around him and he smiled " well, shall we proceed to the explanations? "