The Red Nights

They were rolling as fast as they could when they reached the core of the city. As each of them knew already their targets they got separated without saying a single word to each other. Even though it was her first time she went on patrol for protecting her city, and even though she was living the moment she has been waiting for so long, Natasha was calm , lucid and was thinking quietly about her coming fight.

It was not that she was not excited - of course she was . However during her special trainings with Jamal, to learn how to control her super strength and suppress her aggressivity , he emphasized more on the importance of staying calm . He showed her how to ignore , during a face-to-face fight, the opponent's speech when he want to provoke her , how to analyze carefully her options when she's on a presumed desperate situation and one of the most important how to prepare herself for a battle.

All these lessons, she memorized them in many rude ways, that was why she was so serene . At that moment Natasha was wondering the different options she would have when she would face her target . She knew that Edna had a weapon, so Natasha was sure that she would have it on hand ready to fight when she would arrive [ if I come there surprisingly she may panic and hurt someone innocent, so I should forget about that option] she thought [ I must be discovered in order to catch her attention on me . When it comes into an one-on-one fight she would not have even a single chance to win over me ] .

She finished elaborating her plan at the moment she reached Nadine's house, as she expected the door was broken so it meant that Edna was already in , but if she followed the safety instructions carefully Nadine might not be in extreme danger yet .

Natasha turned off the bike and entered into the house without no hurrying and analyzed what was going on , just like Jamal tought her " You should avoid putting your emotions in the fight, even if you think the person might die if you don't quickly react " he repeated to her " It's your brain instead of your body which must take action. Indeed your have to come out with a plan very quickly in order to react faster, a plan which may save the people without hurting yourself and neutralize the aggressors at the same time ."

That was what she did , if she had run into the house so recklessly, the aggressor might attack her by surprise or she might get into a trap. When she reached the main room there was no one and even not a single sign of fighting and then she heard some noises and screams coming from above . She concluded that Nadine greatly followed the instructions and locked herself in her room .

Natasha went up and stopped when she saw the woman in the opposite of the hallway screaming and beating furiously the door . " Come out ! You little bitch , I will make you regret stealing my man ! I will hurt you as much as you hurt me. Open this f.u.c.k.i.n.g door! " . In the other side of the door , Nadine was crying and screaming Edna to get out of her house.

Even though the door was not ready to break , Natasha had to react ,so as she planned before, she screamed and caught her attention " Hey crazy granny ! " . Edna turned her head and became angrier when she saw Natasha " Oh ! Another bitch who came to try saving you , oh so cute . Just wait Nadine I go take down this ugly friend of yours and I come back to finish you ".

Natasha observed quietly, Edna had the knife in her right hand and the hallway was a bit too tight to expect fighting freely [ but since she doesn't know how to use a knife, it must not be so difficult to defeat her, it must be even easier]. As she thought, Edna was only aggressive and didn't have a clue about how to fight. She ran toward her on holding high her weapon and screaming, Natasha just grabbed the hand with the knife , turned and with a judo take she threw her down on the floor , Edna hit her head hard on the ground and lost consciousness. [ For a first day of work it was not so bad though] Natasha thought .

She reached Nadine's door and said with a low voice " It finished Nadine you can open your door now " , few seconds later Nadine opened slowly her door looked at Natasha and then at Edna who was laying unconscious on the floor and suddenly hugged her . " Oh god! Thank you... thank you so much " Nadine cried " I have thought I might die... I thought no one would came at time since I gave the alert too late ... I was so scared when she came knocking at my door " .

" It OK now, you can stop being scared now. it's all done " Natacha tried to console her .

After she came back from her fear , Nadine started to get the situation " Oh it is you Nat'! I didn't know that you started helping Jamal . Since when do you patrol with him ? "

" Ah no , I just started to day there were two more people who crossed this morning, so he asked me to help him out "

" Fortunately. People figured out that it started becoming too much for him ."

[ just like he said himself ] Natasha thought . She gazed at this woman on the floor and asked Nadine to bring a long string or whatever piece of clothes to tie her . She left in her room and came back few minutes later with two long scarfs , she gave it to Natasha .

" All right, I may leave now ." Said Natasha when she finished tying Edna on the back of her motorbike " call me if you need anything ". Nadine smiled " no it gonna be okay now , thank you for coming saving me " . Natasha got up on her bike, turned it on but before she left Nadine asked her " You're not going to judge me " she put her eyes on hers " you're not going to ask me why I slept with a married man, it's not like you don't know the story about me and Edna's husband "

" To tell you the truth, I don't care about what you have done or not . Who I'm to judge you for your actions as if I was better than you . " she paused " I just want to know one thing. Do you regret? " .

" Yes , I do regret, being involved in an affair was the worst thing I have ever done " she said with a sad smile.

[ I knew it, my feelings for Jamal will never be rightful. I should just stop loving him since he will never love me back] Natasha thought before Nadine added " but it is not so simple to stop loving someone, though ". It surprised Natasha, and she was even scared that she could have read in her thoughts. " I should go now, see you Nadine " she said before leaving. She rolled for five minutes before she received a message from Jamal where he was telling her to bring the criminal in a certain abandoned factory. [ he didn't even ask me if I achieved my mission to catch her , who would have known that he has such confidence in me] she thought with a large smile on her face.

•••

Jamal was near the gate of the factory, the venue where he had the habit to end up his task. When he saw Natasha on her motorbike coming toward him , he also noticed when she was nearer that Edna was tied on it like he did with the two others even though he found some difficulties to put two unconscious bodies on a motorbike.

" I see you didn't find difficulties to defeat those guys " Natasha said when she was getting off her motorbike.

" Yes it's true, it was harder to bring them here than take them down and you how was your first opponent? " Jamal asked.

Although she could tell him in brief what happened, Natasha preferred to relate all the mission with all the details while they were borrowing the criminals within the factory. She didn't realize how much she was excited before she started her narration, even Jamal could not help but laughing loudly when she explained how she kicked Edna's a.s.s . " And how was it for you? " she said when she finally finished her speech.

" I did well I guess, no one was hurt it is the essential " He responded.

" What is that? Recount it correctly, put onto it some energy " Natasha protested.

" It's been very long time since I began this job, I'm not so excited anymore and ... "

" I don't care ." she cut him " it's my first day and I don't want you to mess up my excitement. I avoid Nadine to be killed by that sorceress, I deserve a better story " she pouted. Then Jamal gave up and started to relate all what happened since they got separated .

Since his targets were two ,he thought that he had to find a way to gather them on a same place. He found the first one on a corner , he was intending to climb the wall of the building on his side . Jamal didn't even try to understand his intentions why he wanted to climb since he could break the door and he speeded up . He approached the man and with his right hand he grabbed his col and rolled like that around the quarter until he found the second one .

The latter was about to achieve breaking the door of a random house . At the moment he was intending to give the last hit ,but with a sight to his left side he saw the shape of a man on a motorbike who was dragging down an odd bag . As long as the shape was approaching it became more clear that the odd stuff ,was not a bag but the body of someone what the man on the bike was dragging. He made a move to try to run away but Jamal was faster, as he was closer he threw the wounded first aggressor onto the second one and they fell down on the ground hardly.

As they were deeply unconscious Jamal managed to tie them on the motorbike, while he was struggling to attach them a girl of about 16 years old came out from the house was targeted before , she approached him and without saying anything she helped him out . When they finally finished, Jamal turned to her " thank you for the help and don't worry we will send someone to come fixing your door ". The girl did not respond instead she bowed respectfully her head and walked back to her home . [ It was a weird scene though] Jamal thought, then got up on his vehicle and headed for the factory and sent to Natasha a message to meet him there .

" Woah! Amazing " Natasha was impressed " You must teach how making some stuff like that with a motorbike or whatever vehicle " . Maybe one day. Natasha turned her attention to the three criminals " And now what will we do with them? At the dojo we always wanted to see the jail where you confined all those who dare crossing the barrier ". After she asked that , Jamal's eyes became cloudy. " Do you remember when I told you that you will have to make a choice, it's the moment. Now take your knife in your hand . "

Natasha started to understand what Jamal's job really consisted to. She took the knife and held it tight even though her hand was shaking wildly. " Edna was about to kill a woman, these two disgusting men were intending to **** some gullible girls. According to the laws I elaborated in order to protect everyone in this town, they must die. " Natasha has already got what was his point but she still asked " What do I have to do? "

" Make a choice. Whether you kill and join me on my duty of protecting our city or you refuse , leave me here and you will never come again telling me to let join in my patrols " Jamal responded with a very serious tone.

At that moment Natasha understood why he was so reluctant to let her or the join him , why he always had that sadness in his eyes when people thanked him every day, the pain he constantly felt as he never found someone to share with what he lived every day, waking up every morning and telling himself " let's go stain these hands of mine again, he was so lonely and yet no one could see it . She held the knife tighter [ I have to bear it with , it my role to walk him within this road covered by corpses . Instead of his love which I will probably never have, I will share his pain . Since this day , this moment I will be his pillar] she strongly decided, with all her determination while she was slowly walking toward the three criminals she said " Don't worry I will walk with you through this road of death , I will never leave you " and then she thrusted without no hesitation her knife into Edna's heart and then she removed it and repeated the same action to the two other guys.

Jamal sensed that he was about to cry , tears appeared on his eyes, he couldn't believe that he forced a young girl to take the lives of three . But more than that what it really moved him was the words Natasha told him , they were the words he always wanted to be told, even if he never acknowledged it he was desperately looking for someone to accept him and to walk wherever he goes, he was so grateful. " Thank you... thank you very much " he did stop saying, Natasha dropped the knife , reached him and hugged him " It's okay now, you're no more alone " .

They stayed like that for a moment , then they came back from their emotions and decided to finish off the criminals by burning them. When they turned to them, they witnessed a phenomenon that would definitely be inscribed in their minds, the dead bodies of the two guys started to move, they could see some black veins went up along their necks . The two guys when they stood up had their eyes completely white , they were looking like two tiny pits full of milk .

" What the f.u.c.k is that ? " Natasha said completely astonished " it usually happened during your patrols? ".

" No , I have never seen such a scene like this before , but get ready, I have the feeling that we will have to fight them ".