The Red Nights

Two hours later the group met again in the party organized to celebrate the return of the ' heroes '.

In fact, Lina hadn't been able to hide the battle that happened in the night before since the noise of the gunshots were too loud, that made that both the citizens and the refugees who lived near the place where was the fight couldn't sleep the rest of the night. The citizens of Stainfall were particularly worried but still less than the refugees who came recently and not for the same reasons. For the case of the formers, Jamal had the habit of carrying his battles silently which meant that most of the time they were not aware of the large majority of his fights, therefore, that situation was quite unusual for them.

Some of them dared to come out and to go seeking some answers from Lina so during the rest of the night the woman made of using all her energy to circulate among the people to explain to them that a group of outlaws particularly violent was trying to cross the barrier but there was nothing to worry since Natasha and Jamal were there to protect them all and she even added that their friends from the other cities were there to help so that she could relax the entire mass of people and at the same time reassure the refugees and give them the hope that they would be able to see their friends and relatives once again.

The idea worked a little bit too well as the people there unexpectedly become excited, they even decided to go wake up the rest of the citizens to prepare to welcome all those brave people who chose to fight in order to protect them all. The euphoria was so great that Lina couldn't possibly contain them and even found herself carried by all that excitement, she wanted to believe that the man she loved and Natasha whom she loved like a sister, would come back to her alive and in one piece. The result was that all the people stayed awake the rest of the night standing on the streets of the city waiting for their ' heroes ' to appear.

Some of them proposed to organize a party to celebrate the event and even volunteered to prepare it.

...

" Hello everyone, " Lina said as she saw her new friends escorted by Matteo walking towards them; Jamal, Natasha and she, with Natasha the first one to arrive.

" Hey " they responded altogether. " How feel our life saviour? " Volga asked to Natasha joyfully.

The young woman smiled " I'm not injured hopefully, I just need to fill my belly with as much food as I can and I will be totally fine ".

" Seems like we are sharing the same thoughts," Carla said as she approached and wrapped her arm around hers, " I'm starving you can't even imagine it "

" Yes, but please leave some space for the dessert Lina will make especially for you, " Natasha told her with a grin, making her remember about the bet she lost earlier.

Carla dared to take a peek at the beautiful lady standing right next to Jamal whom Natasha was referring, the former winked at her before she said: " Nat' told me that you did a great job to help her get rid of those monsters and that you deserve a gift, don't worry I make you eat the most succulent cake you ever ate on your life ".

" Or maybe the last " Natasha murmured teasingly.

Carla's turned pale as she was swallowing heavily her saliva, she grabbed Natasha's tighter " please spare me, I'm the one who carried you all that time you were unconscious you should show some gratitude ".

Natasha smacked her tongue while shaking her head " it doesn't work like that since you have agreed to the conditions of the challenge you have to honour your name and accept the consequences ", she shook a little before she pushed her where the festivities had already begun " don't stress, it will be alright ".

" You're coming with us? " Jamal proposed to the rest of the group.

" Oh yes, " Nelson suddenly remembered, he turned to him " I forgot to ask you what should we do about the goods we have brought from- "

Lina stopped him with a grunt, she released Jamal's arm to grab both his hand as well as Sania's and pulled them both towards the centre of the square, " we are in a celebration party and here we are supposed to enjoy so interdiction to talk about boring stuff like what you were about to say " she scolded him.

" But it something important " Nelson tried to argue.

" More important than the fact that you didn't peek at Sania's b.o.o.b.s even once despite the indecent way she's wearing her shirt for you? I don't think so " Lina said without letting Nelson the time to reply, " I'm sure you didn't get a proper date since she had confessed her love for you, did you? " she turned to look at them expecting them to answer her, the couple just glance at each other timidly without saying a word and Lina exclaimed " I knew it! So now you will use this occasion to enjoy your time as a couple of lovers officially because holding hands while shooting at a group of undead doesn't count as a cute moment between lovers, do you hear me? "

She stopped walking and waited for them to nod to her before she released them, she put Sania's hand into Nelson's, she tied the last buttons of Sania's shirt while murmuring to her " he lost his chance so don't let him get distracted by these beauties now ", she pushed them lightly from their backs while telling them " here you go, see in few hours " and she sighed while she was staring at them as they were going off.

" Are you satisfied now? " Jamal said as he stopped next to her.

" Yes a little bit but I will be more satisfied once I finish. It's your turn, Matteo and Dana " she sang as she was turning around but surprisingly the both youngsters were missing. " They ran away at the second you took off your sight of them " Jamal let her know.

She shrugged, took his arm and wrapped around her waist while holding his tight, " shall we have our double date then " she said to the last couple remaining, Don and Volga had glanced at each other amused before they gladly accepted her invitation.

The party had been set in a way that it looked more like a carnival than a party, there was first, people making a show of their various and unexpected talents whatever it was in the domain of street arts like a new refugee named Andre who teamed up with another named Carl to create a masterpiece graffiti of the city of Stainfall, they said wanted to show they see that city which became their new home now. Next, there was a shooting tournament which there were set many targets in various places along a path of 50 meters in which one had to touch as many targets as in the smallest lapse of time, Volga won easily since Jamal had been forbidden to participate. Then they did a competition of dodgeball where the team composed of Jamal, Andre, Brad, Sania and Pam won against the team composed of Natasha, Carla, Volga, Sam and the little Karen in the final, and so many other activities.

Instead of a big banquet where everyone would sit and eat together, there were stands of food where the various restaurateurs made use of that occasion to make the names their businesses be known by the new residents Stainfall had welcomed, so people could go serve themselves some free meals and other desserts.

They were not the only ones, owners of different types of businesses were offering the same services to attract more customers, since the last speech of Lina, people were motivated to have a new life far from the fear and the terror of these last periods of their time.

Jamal had spent half of his time introducing Linda and Natasha to his new friends of the other cities and like most of the time, Lina had left them a memorable impression. But the other half the couple would wander in the crowd hand in hand enjoying being together once again.

" Are you in love with him? " Carla asked to Natasha as they were walking behind the couple.

Natasha turned abruptly her head as she was surprised, however, she managed to contain herself while she was replying " what are you saying? "

" I figured out as you didn't stop staring at them during almost the entire day, you had the same expression as I used to have when I'm staring at Nelson and Sania," she said with a calm tone almost melancholic, " like something you want but you know that you can't get it ".

" You love Nelson? "

" I used to think that we had a special relationship since I grew up by his side and he somehow took care of me when I was young but I realized recently that he was just fulfilling the wish of the one who saved my life and that he has never seen me as a woman but more as the daughter he never had ".

" It seems like the more I know and the more I see how much we are similar," Natasha said while releasing a sigh, she started to open her heart to Carla " similarly to you, I grew up by Jamal's side admiring him and loving how cool and amazing he was whatever the situation he was in and before I realized it I began to love him as a person but then it was already too late, he had already found his soulmate while he continued to see me as the little sister ".

" Didn't you make him notice your feelings? " she asked.

" One of the traits of his I admire the most is his loyalty, he knows me too well to not notice those feelings but in his heart, there is only one woman, Lina and whenever that subject would be brought up he would always ignore it so that to not hurt my feelings but he doesn't know that the more he does that the more I want him ".

" Did you ever try to have him? " Carla replied more curious than before.

She shook her head immediately, " Lina is like a sister to me, I will never do something susceptible to hurt her like that ".

Carla stared at this woman whose heart was enduring painful trial every day but never betrayed her, [ that is one of the reasons she's so stronger than me ] Carla had to admit while making the promise to forge her heart to be as strong as hers, she pushed her friendly by her shoulder " you, too, are very loyal and you deserve him too ".

An hour later the carnival progressively came to an end as the people started to evacuate the place, another part, however, stayed to clean the mess left behind.

Lina approached Nelson and Sania while they were sweeping pieces of paper, confetti and other dirt in a part of the court, she seized the broom they had on their hands and told them with an angry tone, " what are you still doing here? "

" We are helping to clean " they responded wondering why was she mad.

" Are you kidding, it's actually my job to clean. You, go find a bed where you can take care of each other, why do you think I asked Matteo to show your residences in advance? Stop messing around and hurry up to go show your love for each other " she said while pushing them to leave.

She, then, reported her attention to Volga and Don, " you too I don't want to see you until tomorrow, you will be soon married so you better start training for your wedding night ", Volga ran towards Lina to put a kiss on her cheek before she went to grab Don's hand and leave the place.

" Brad, you too, go find your girl, she needs you with her more than we do here ", the man who started to know a little bit didn't even try to argue and quickly got out.

She finally landed her sight on Natasha and Carla, her lips extended slowly in a smirk but before she could say anything the both women shouted " we will stay to help " and closed the discussion while the few people who were there started to laugh.

They soon finish cleaning, Jamal walked toward Matteo and Dana with two bottles of fruit juice in his hands, he handed one to each of them before he focused his attention on the girl, " I heard that you wanted to meet me " the girl didn't answer and Jamal didn't rush her either he instead turned around and said, " come with us, it seems like we have very much to say ".