The Red Nights

After Sania answered the four people before her started to glance at each others with smiles of relief what made he remember that when she saw them entering in the room they'd seemed to be worried about something and the discussion which followed was so awkward and confusing for her that she couldn't help but staying quiet in her corner.

As she couldn't understand Sania preferred to ask directly, " first of all, why would you expect me to forget about you? And secondly, why does Nelson apologize like that as if he had tried to kill you ". She turned her sight on him, " did you try to kill them? " she asked him insistently.

Nelson lowered his sight and slowly bowed his head showing, without saying a word, that he was guilty. " Why?! " she shouted in surprise.

Jamal approached her slowly and with a soft voice he asked " which souvenirs do you have from these last events? "

" huh? "

" Sania, what is your latest souvenir? " he repeated.

" What are you talking about? My latest souvenir... it's when we finally arrived in our last destination " her voice became lower and as she was speaking her speech became more and more uncertain "... we met Konny, the leader of the city army and then we... then I... I... ", suddenly flashes started to bomb her, many images of mysterious situations, that happened to her were overwhelming her mind, there were so many that they gave her a headache. She immediately grabbed her head while m.o.a.ning slightly in pain.

" Are you okay? " Nelson rapidly inquired, he told her worriedly " don't push yourself too hard ".

Sania listened to her and took her time to calm herself and to pull herself together. She slowly raised her head and stared at the little crowd around her, " what the hell happened to me? " she asked them with tiredness in her voice.

They all glanced at Jamal as if to ask him silently if it's actually a good idea to tell her. Jamal finally talked after a little while " I will tell you but firstly promise me that you won't blame yourself or anyone else " he furtively glanced at Nelson " it's something that no one could have expected or fought against so easily ".

Sania would have wanted to know why was he so dramatic but she thought it was not the moment and decided to just nod and hear him out.

Jamal sighed and as he was about to talk Nelson stopped him. " Let me do it please " he said while raising a hand before Jamal, " I have more details... and I think it's my responsibility to do it "

Jamal stared at him for a moment and seeing how much he was determined he couldn't turned him down, " alright " he said while nodding at him.

And so Nelson started telling her the whole story from the moment they met with Konny until then. He didn't omit a single moment even those things he had done and was so ashamed of, around him people noticed how embarrassed he was but he anyway continued telling the story. Sometimes Jamal and Pam would intervene to give some comments or clarifications and they also let Nelson and Sania know about the other people who lost their memories after getting freed from Konny's control. They took almost one hour to tell everything to Sania and the latter remained silent during all that time, listening carefully what they were saying, even when they finished she didn't reply immediately but stayed quiet for a moment.

" Hey, are you okay? How do you feel? " Volga asked her to break the silence.

" How do I feel? " she repeated, and with an ironic tone she continued " I just learned that for these two last days I have been the puppet of a crazy woman whom we firstly thought we came to help, I betrayed you and even tried to kill you. And as if it was not enough during that time while trying to replace the love of her life who dumped her she used me as her s.e.x toy and I also served as his s.e.x toy by the way " she finished by pointing Nelson.

The latter had his eyes keep staring at the ground since he stopped talking as he couldn't face anyone, hearing her comment on him made him bite his lower lip.

" Well, I think we will leave alone for a moment the time for you to assimilate all those things " Jamal proposed, " I know it has been a very awful experience... for both of you " he completed after a short moment of hesitation, " I will not pretend that I understand so I will just tell you once again that you don't have to feel responsible for anything and that we are here for you to help you going through that ". Then he started walking toward the door and naturally the others followed him.

One by one they were leaving the room, Nelson was the last person to approach the door and at the moment he was about to step outside Sania shouted " wait ", he slowly turned around to see her sitting on the bed, her back leaning on the wall while bringing her knees to her b.r.e.a.s.ts. She seemed to have left a place next to her specially for him.

Though she didn't add anything he understood what she wanted. He closed the door behind him and walked forward to go sitting on the place she had left next to her.

•••

" What do you think? " Pam asked Jamal once they left the room.

" I don't know, it seems like the control Konny had on her was not deep enough to make her lose her memory " he simply replied without making any conclusion.

" You're right. We all noticed that once you asked her to give her latest souvenir she seemed to have immediately recalled all what happened " Carla pointed, then she added " but why that? "

" I would be logical to say that one loses a certain part of the memory depending on how long that someone has been mind controlled " Volga suggested but she immediately shook her head negatively " but it wouldn't be right since we know that Sania and Nelson got caught by the power of Konny almost in the same period ".

Everyone became silent while thinking about what she said, " maybe it's not about the duration of the mind control but rather the intensity of it " Jamal said after a moment, the women around him stared at him curiously so he developed " in fact Volga's suggestion is not totally wrong but only if we look at it in the perspective that the mind control may get stronger as the time passes but that wouldn't remove the possibility that the mind control may become strong without the need of a long period of time " he stopped to see if they could get his point so far.

" In my previous hypothesis I have said that Konny has most probably made a use of her s.e.x-appeal to tease and increase the s.e.x.u.a.l d.e.s.i.r.es of the people in order to control them after, but s.e.x.u.a.l d.e.s.i.r.es are not enough to transform everyone into a perfect obedient slave especially if that person is a woman like her ", after that the people around him started to understand what he meant.

" You want to say she didn't use the attraction Sania had for her to control her? " Pam suggested, uncertain.

" Rather that Konny didn't especially use the same d.e.s.i.r.e for everyone to control them " Volga corrected, she told him " but we already knew that since you gave us the example that she most likely used Nelson's d.e.s.i.r.e to save Sania to control him ".

" Exactly " he surprisingly replied, " I want to point the fact that maybe there are more than one factor which intervene in the intensity of the mind control in someone ".

" If I understand you well ", Carla began to list " those factors may be the d.e.s.i.r.e of the person, how long that person has been under the influence of Konny's power and... "

" And the person on himself or herself " Volga completed " is it right? "

" That's right " Jamal replied, " those people we have just saved have been controlled by Konny for such a very long time so Konny had all time to train them in a way that they couldn't disobey her. When we look at Nelson's case, she immediately used his d.e.s.i.r.e to protect Sania which seemed obviously the strongest in her eyes but in his heart there were still some strong d.e.s.i.r.e which spared him to completely submit to her like his d.e.s.i.r.e to protect Carla and keep his promise or to care of his men and lead them and so on ".

Hearing that his affection for her was still strong despite the power of Konny made Carla smile uncontrollably.

" What about the woman, Sania? " Pam came again.

" Since we have left Palet Carla noticed from her a change of behavior what means that when we arrive here her emotional state was quite in wrecks and Konny surely noticed that " Jamal responded, " I think she used the fact that she was perturbed emotionally to catch her ".

" But if we follow your logic, in that case she must have been weaker than others so her mind control must have been stronger too and so she would have lost all her memories like the the others, however it actually not the case " the young woman objected.

" That would be the case if we weren't considering a third factor, Sania herself " Jamal lifted his finger and responded " her emotional state must probably have been in a mess but her mind was still well operational that's why I think her mind control was not total ".

" So the conclusion of all that discussion is what? " Volga asked as the ambiance was about to become silent again.

" The conclusion is that we were not capable to bring back the memories of all those people, and they most likely never recover them " Jamal responded with a dramatic tone. He took a glance at the door of the room they just came from " Well, Nelson stayed to take care of Sania, they should be fine, so I propose to get down and prepare to move ".

" Wait... where are you going? " Pam questioned a little worried. " Don't worry, I just wanted to keep my promise, we shall return to Konny HQ there we will find the food and all the other stuffs you may need to organize the celebration of your army's victory " Jamal replied while making a gesture to reassure her

" Celebration? " she repeated as if it was the first time she was hearing that word. " Yes, the members of your army have worked hard they need a reward, moreover we can make a use of that occasion to help your ancient colleagues and the other people freed from Konny's power to get along with each other and also for your army to get used of the actual situation and if possible turn the page ".