That Wednesday, on their final jam session, he felt that the song had reached the best possible balance while keeping the tone the same. It was definitely one of his best, even though he was still an amateur at song writing. His songs were either catchy or smooth, but he felt they lacked something at times, yet couldn’t put his finger on it. Whatever the case, the song was up there and the group seemed to like it a lot.

“I just hope it blows everyone´s minds… nothing could be worse than a crowd going silent after that.”

“Usually silent crowds are better than angry ones.”

“At least the angry ones give you some sort of feedback. With silent ones you don´t know if they liked it or were disgusted by it.”

“Anyways, we should prepare for an encore.”

The whole group looked in surprise at Czesch, who didn’t know why they were so shocked at such a simple proposal.

“E-Encore?”

“They´ll only ask for that if they love it to death, Czesch. Are you sure we shouldn’t concentrate on the original?”

“You already got it set in those thick skulls of yours, so there´s nothing left to fix there. We should take a simple, yet lighthearted one in case we get the green light… “Won´t you wanna dance?” will do the trick.”

“Errr, which one is that?”

“Oh, right… I never did play it with you guys… it goes something like…”

Czesch started hammering the keys, immediately after being giving instructions to the rest of the band. He was marveled by the fact that, without any idea about the song or the way it flowed, they managed to copy it and it get it into shape without issue.

“Won´t you wanna, won´t you wanna, won´t ya, don´t ya know? Won´t you wanna, won´t you wanna, won´t ya, won´t you now?”

They all stopped playing in unison, muffled laughter being the only sound playing along the Kid´s piano.

“Wait, that´s the chorus?”

“Yes, it is.”

“It sounds… a bit stupid.”

“It really does.”

“Did you write this one?”

“I like it!”

“You would like it, lil sis.”

“Oh, go to hell!”

Their sudden rant forced him to stop momentarily, just to get them back in line.

“Guys, guys! It´s a simple tune and it´s supposed to be that way. Not all songs need to be edgy, you can have lighthearted ones as well.”

“And we are using this one because…”

“Because that way they won´t be asking for a 2nd encore and we´ll be off with shining colours. That and the fact that it´s one of my most popular.”

“You are kidding, right?”

“You have written better ones, we can tell.”

“Well, not all listeners are music industry experts, so popularity and good songwriting don´t necessarily mix.”

“That´s a bloody shame… think this one will skyrocket?”

“That we´ll have to see… come on, again from the top, until our fingers are bloody and raw!”

Time went on, and Czesch really gained confidence after finishing with his proposed encore. They got the hang of it in minutes, and if “Rising Crows” had taken them so much more effort, then it was bound to be a good song. Each and every one of them laughed when finishing up, even André, the cool, stoic member, chuckled by the end.

“Okay everyone, listen up! We are going to rest until the festival so we don´t get overburdened, but don´t you dare forget a single bloody note, ya hear me!?”

“Sure thing, Jess!”

“Can we go get something to eat?”

“Feeling peckish already, Laurie?”

“Well, I haven´t eaten much for lunch…”

With Andre and Laurie talking about food, Jess took that chance to annoy the Kid.

“Much… lunch… hey, Chess, write a song about that!”

“As if!”

“Alright, I think we all got hungry after spending the whole afternoon doing this! No surprise there…”

“What time is it anyway?”

“Simon, you have the clock right there.”

“O-Oh, yeah… It´s already half past eight!?”

They had never played for as long as during that session, almost 5 hours of non-stop tweaks and arrangements.

“Time flies when playing, doesn´t it?”

“No wonder my stomach was rumbling! Where are we going? Any place would be good.”

“I have an idea! How about we head over to the Indian over at-“

“Oh god, no!”

“Are you out of your bloody mind!?”

André´s proposal was shot down before materializing. It seemed like the group was well aware of his tastes.

“Huh? What´s wrong?”

“André, you might be good at drums, but I´m not trusting your taste in food ever again!”

“Come on, it wasn’t that bad.”

“Wasn´t that bad? We had to drag Simon out of there, unconscious!”

“Well, he shouldn’t have ordered the extra spicy stuff… such a pushover…”

Before things got any rougher, Jess called over to all of them, having found an idea to their conundrum.

“How about the Vietnamese?”

“Thank god someone has bright ideas every now and then!”

“Oh, Laura, you should stop- Wait, what do you mean by “now and then”!?”

“I-I meant always! You´ve always got great taste in food, Jess!”

“That´s what I thought...”

While the girls argued about their tastes in food, Simon got closer to the Kid.

“Czesch, have you ever been there?”

“No, not really. Jess wanted to take me there one of these days.”

Laurie got a hold of that answer and proceeded to turn on a gossiping machine, much like the one Vivi had in her deranged brain.

“Uuuu, Jess was planning on taking you there, huh? She always did like her meals hot and spicy…”

“Laurie, would you mind hitting your sister for being dumb?”

“I´m not- Ouch!! And why do you listen to her?”

“I always follow orders I´m comfortable with.”

“Let´s make this our pre-success dinner, how about that?”

The whole group stopped their squabbling, looking at Simon with tiredness and annoyance.

“Errr… Simon…”

“Huh? What? Why the long faces?”

“Do you know what “jinxing” means?”

“Oh… sorry…”

Everyone took a good laugh at poor Simon and went off to the Vietnamese spot (Simon included). It was a cozy spot, apparently run by a family of immigrants that had brought actual recipes from their homeland, along with decorations and smells from their land. They sat down in one of their group tables and everyone decided on their order immediately, the Kid realizing they were talking to the owners as if they were family of sorts. So that´s what being a regular felt like, he thought. He never even thought about acting that way at the bar in Central HQ.

“Errr… what should I ask for?”

“Depends on what you like better.”

“Anything´s fine, then. I´m not a picky eater… how about-?”

His menu disappeared from between his fingers, as Jess propped it out of his hands at mach speed.

“I´ll order for you, Chess! You won´t regret it!”

“O-Okay… André, will I regret it?”

“For the rest of your life.”

“… Great.”

Czesch´s dish would take years to properly describe. It had meat, fish, vegetables and other things he couldn’t cathegorise. It was bound to be spicy as hell, but the amount of content inside that platter was just absurd to the amount of cash it cost. There had to be some sort of weird drawback to eating that.

Upon eating… he found out it was actually really good! He started eating, his throat on fire from the spices, but getting used to it quite nicely. The more he ate, the more food he had to put in his mouth to stop it from drooling. Seeing him in such a state, the other members stopped eating their rations and took a good look at their struggling companion.

“Holy shit, he´s actually eating it!”

“I told you, this guy has a throat that can stand hell itself!”

“Don´t you think he´s going to lose his voice after this?”

“Maybe, but I´m sure he´ll be fine!”

Maybe it was the heat of the hotpot getting to him or Jess´s words of confidence, but one of the two definitely reminded him to perform one of Nate´s usual blunders for personal enjoyment.

“Aaarrghhh, I can feel my vocal cords… snapping… urk!”

“Oh, fuck, we are screwed!”

“Chess, drink some water!”

“…Haha, kidding!”

“Motherfucker… that acting was good, you know that?”

Czesch took that one as a compliment, since acting came with being a child soldier. Looking tough can open you a lot of doors when showing weakness equals death and vice-versa.

“But seriously, Jess, one of these days you may want to say his name right.”

“Huh? Whose name?”

“Czesch…”

“Oh, Chess? Why, I´m saying it just as it´s supposed to be said.”

“No, no, you are just naming the boardgame. Czesch is different from chess.”

“I can´t see the difference… should I call him Chase then?”

“It definitely sounds a lot better… and manly.”

“Chase Travaly… doesn´t sound too good, to be honest. Czesch is the best fit for that.”

“You think?”

“I´m not changing the name, you guys… it´s one of the few things I got left.”

“Left from what?”

He bit his tongue. Why had he added that last comment? Now they would ask him about it, the subject about his past would pop up and the last thing he wanted was to repeat the awkwardness he felt with his neighbors. Why did he always discuss it so openly when he felt comfortable?

“It´s… It´s nothing, rea-“

“Annie told me that Czesch here is a survivor from the Czech Civil War… that he has seen some heavy shit.”

“Annie told you that?”

“Man, that´s sick!”

“Oh, oh, tell us one close call you had!”

“Laura, don´t ask about that sort of thing!”

“What? He doesn´t look like the sort of person who takes that the wrong way.”

“Looking and being that sort of person are completely different things!”

“Awwww, you are no fun…”

Czesch was completely lost at that point in time. The cat was out of the bag, but somehow it had ended up chasing its own tail back inside it. It was weird and funny at the same time.

“So, Annie ended up telling you that?”

“And a lot of other things!! Seriously, that´s the reason I asked about the dating thing.”

Simon had been drinkining at the time, and he suddenly spat the contents all over André, who also immediately turned to face Czesch, who immediately got scared at the amount of attention that small remark seemed to make.

“Wait, you two are dating!?”

“He´s dating WHO!?”

“How have you managed that!? How is she when kissing!?”

“Guys, calm down!! I´m not dating her… and why would you care so much even if I did?”

“Well, she´s the toughest girl in school-“

“Ahem!”

“… of course, second only to Jess here…  and you have to admit she´s quite the beauty, in her own special way!”

“Is that so… huh, I never noticed… we are friends more than anything else.”

“Friends? How can you be friends with a girl like her?”

“How can you be friends with a girl like Jess?”

“Hey, fuck you!”

She stepped on his foot, with enough strength to make it quite the annoyance.

“Ouch! I was implying you are just as tough as Annie or even tougher!”

“Just put it that way and you won´t get kicked, dumbass!”

“What I´m saying is that she´s a bit like Jess in the sense that, once you get to know them, they are incredible people to be with.”

“You have a point there… I, for one, have always been scared shitless from just looking at their direction.”

“Oohh, what is that? Simon, are you not scared anymore?”

“… It´s a… gradual thing… Got better at coping.”

“What I still don´t understand is why Annie talks so much about me… I don’t think I´m that interesting a person, and she definitely knows more people than me.”

“It´s not like she´s sharing classified information about you. I could have asked you myself and got an answer, but instead she told me.”

“T-True enough…”

“Besides, it´s no wonder she talks so much about you… I gotta agree with her, you are quite a bloody handyman when it comes down to it!”

“She talks more about you than she does of her boyfriend.”

“And how do you know that, sis?”

“I, err… I might have overheard some of their conversations…”

“Oooohhh, the stalking predator approaches once- Ouch! That one hurt!”

While the two Lauras fought between themselves, Jess moved in quick to reasurre the Kid of his position, seeing that information as a concerning development.

“It´s not that hard to get talked about more than Pete, the guy is a complete lunatic in the wrong sense of the word.”

“I´m guessing you´ve met him already?”

“… Yeah, but I don´t think we have bonded that well… not that I wanted to, anyway.”

“I´m starting to get that feeling as well, yeah…”

“Well, don´t you worry about it! Besides. the only thing Annie seems to talk about when mentioning you is praise.”

That statement puzzled him more than a thousand impossible combat situations ever could.

“Praise? She spends half the bloody day calling me an idiot or a sleepyhead!”

“I would have imagined something like “laggard” coming from her.”

“Oh, that´s one of her other alternatives, trust me!”

“That must be her way of caring for you… I wouldn’t know, I´m not inside her head all the time…”

Czesch came to a realization: Women are crazy, or at least the crazy ones outnumber the normal ones by an enormous amount. That idea of tough love being “romantic” made his stomach churn… that or the food was taking its toll on him.

… No, definitely the latter.

“I have to go to the bathroom…”

“Take care to not do it too fast, otherwise you´ll burn your arse!”

“Yeah, Chess, shit with care!”

Everyone laughed at Jess´s comment while Czesch paid careful heed to her words, which became true right afterwards. That was the danger of spicy food, and right now Czesch was having as much as a hard time as when he caught dysentery in the area of Oprava during the war.

He heard some shouting outside, but that was the way the Vietnamese operated there, screaming orders to keep everything snappy and understandable. Czesch spent 10 minutes in the bathroom, wondering if the Old Crone would prepare something as tortuous as this for when he finally decided to die.

He got out and opened the bathroom door, only to find a masked gunman searching through the bathroom stall next to his. Considering he was in Harville, he guessed this should have happened sooner, but it was amazing that he hadn´t taken part in any robbery as a hostage for that whole month. What was weird is that they were stealing from a Vietnamese restaurant, and something told him that they weren´t there exactly for the food.

A sensible person would have remained silent and have done a surprise attack of sorts, or maybe skip by unnoticed. But that is simply not the Czesch way of doing things…

“Can I help you?”

The man turned around, shouting in fear, waving his gun at the Kid. The calmness in that boy´s face immediately put him off as he made his threats.

“How do ya bloody dare sneak up on me!?”

“I didn´t do that, I just came out of the bathroom and-“

“Gimme the fucking money, boy!”

“Huh? What money?”

“The money on ya, ye git!! Cash, credit cards, phone, everything!”

“But you can´t use my credit card without the safety number, why would you want it?”

“Just shut yer trap or ye´ll get a bullet in da head, ya hear me!?”

The gunman prodded his weapon against the Kid´s forehead, only for him to be able to identify the weapon faster… and actually surprise him.

“Oooh, that´s a Tokarev TT-33! That thing belongs in a museum, but it´s so cool to see one in action!”

“Huh!? Are ye mocking me!? This here is an M9 pistol from Uncle Sam´s army!”

… The man definitely looked dumb enough to buy that lie. The Kid thought it best to educate him on his poor business choices.

“Errr…  no, it isn’t. No US gunsmith would try selling one of these.”

“Yes it is!”

“Have you read the side of the grip? It clearly says Tokarev on the bottom.”

“…. Huh!? What the actual fuck is going on!?”

“Hah! I think you got a bit of a prankster selling weapons, mate!”

“Oh, that´s it!”

The man went for a sideways strike to the head, which Czesch evaded easily. He would have preferred not to harm the man, but training and instinct forced his hand into a jab that connected with the man´s head, causing it to crash into the bathroom wall and making the man collapse. Seeing him not moving, he began scratching the back of his neck.

“Shit! Sorry about that… I didn´t hit you that hard, now did I? Don´t have much in terms of resistance to pain, apparently… keep forgetting about you lot…”

He exited the bathroom only to find 2 more gunmen threatening everyone and forcing them to empty their pockets. This was a vulgar robbery and Czesch didn´t feel like causing a massacre would benefit anyone. Maybe if he had been younger he would have rushed like a madman to murder them, but he had changed in that regard. He was even crazier now.

“Excuse me, your buddy has knocked himself out cold!! He may need a little help!”

The gunmen turned around to face the boy talking to them. They knew their companion had entered that same bathroom, but only that boy had come out.

“Chess, don´t get cocky!!”

“Wait, did that girly say Czesch!?”

Jess had said that. She was genuinely concerned, but Czesch managed to pull off a grin. After all, not even scared would that girl give up on mispronouncing it on purpose. But apparently the robbers had recognized it… forcing him to sigh and accept his new reputation

“THAT Czesch!? Can´t be, he´s a bloody kid!”

“Nah, I was there for the fight, mate! That lad right there is THE Czesch that beat the beast Hank!!”

“Holy shite, Robbie… Argh, forget about him, let´s go!”

“And what about the cash? We haven´t-“

“Just go, ya bastard! You wanna die!?”

Both men ran for the door and made it for their ride. Czesch was about to invite them to pick their friend up, but he realized that such an act was apparently not up high in their list of priorities. That´s what happens when you go with shitty friends, he thought. He went to the owner of the restaurant, who was cowering behind the counter.

“I suggest you find some rope or something to tie the guy in the bathroom and call the police. That would be a smart course of action.”

“T-Thank you! Thank you so much for your help!”

“Huh? But I haven´t done a-“

People started cheering for him, including the club members, followed up by a round of applause. He didn’t like that one bit, but that was how people liked it done. Intimidation is always better than actual fighting, but some days you have to pull a punch… or the trigger, to get stuff done. And Czesch hated the fact that people expected him to do it without hesitation.

He sat down back with the group, sighing heavily and covering his face with his hands as he stretched his back.

“That was amazing!! You told them off like there were kids!”

“You weren’t afraid at all? You didn’t even flinch when they pointed their guns at you!”

“And what was it they said about a “Hank”? Someone you know, Chess?”

“You could say that, yeah… arghhhh, bloody hell…hate it when this shit happens…”

“Well, it can´t be that bad. At least you didn’t have to pull in any punches.”

“Tell that to the guy whose head I caved into a bathroom stall.”

“Ouch! Is he OK?”

“I think he is… just being a bit of a wimp, is all. I don’t think I broke anything aside from the stall.”

“And how did you manage that? They all carried guns, you know.”

“In that sense, all I can say is that they were bad musicians.”

The whole group looked at him, not knowing whether he had lost his mind or that he actually knew the robbers. Czesch sighed and explained.

“Using a gun is like playing an instrument… sure, anyone can pull the trigger, as well as aim it at someone, just like a person can play with the strings in a guitar or touch the keys on a piano… the main difference comes when a person trains with those day after day, until he or she becomes proficient in their use. That´s why I´m saying that they were bad musicians, because they didn’t know their instruments inside out.”

“And you do?”

“Better than them, anyways. I play Paintball, just so you know.”

“But… have you actually fired a gun before?”

“… That I have.”

“I mean, that shit was ice-cold! It was almost like you were going to kill them if they did anything stupid! Have you actually done that before?”

Czesch remained silent. The last thing he wanted to do at the moment was reminisce all the times he had pulled the trigger against some poor sod´s face.  He didn’t care whether they shat their pants or fought till the bitter end, he would unload lead without giving it a second thought.

He was about to answer, but the chef of the establishment, wanting to congratulate Czesch for his work, prepared him a 2nd ration of that hellish dish he had swallowed beforehand. He gulped, looking at the enormous quantity of food in store.

“Errr… any help with this?”

The group simply laughed and didn’t bother helping him with that monstrous order… he´d have to buckle up and take it all in.

A decision he regretted immediately after.

“Is it much further to your place?”

“You all didn’t have to come with me! I´m fine, really!”

“You can´t be fine after devouring a second dish of that thing!! We are just making sure you don´t fall over dead, that´s all.”

“That and Jess probably wants to know where you live.”

“André!”

“What? It´s a normal thing, I´m curious as well.”

The other members of the group looked at André with disbelief, forcing Czesch to reciprocate by sheer group pressure.

“You being curious? Well, I´ll be…”

“André being curious is like commies defending the capitalist market… or Ghandi preaching to bathe the world in atomic fire.”

“I just want to know how a guy my age living alone keeps his place up.”

“It´s probably filled to the brim with trash. Ain´t that right, Chess?”

He scratched the back of his neck, uncomfortable about speaking of that subject.

“Errrr, actually… I have a bit of a cleaning disorder… can´t work well with shit lying around.”

“So it´s shinier than my old man´s head? Damn, I´m impressed!”

“I´m more impressed that you got André talking about his dad!”

“What, you two get along that badly?”

“My pops is a nice guy, but that bowling ball he has for a head could probably blow up spy satellites by reflecting the sun… it´s that shiny.”

Czesch wasn’t sure why they were coming with him. Sure, he felt like shit after finishing off that second bowl of food by himself. He couldn’t just leave food there, he understood better than most people there what having no food did to the human mind, and having leftovers drove him a bit nauseous, a bit like his cleaning disorder. Even with his bowels about to burst, he was still unsure of the intentions of his colleagues, for no matter how friendly they were, it was concerning that they´d worry themselves over an extra dish.

They reached the entrance to Czesch´s apartment building. The tempestuous sea that had been his stomach a few minutes ago was calm again, but only the Crone would know if that would be the case later on.

“Thanks for coming up, really appreciate it. I guess I´ll get some sleep before…”

He stopped his monologue, for no one was paying him heed. They were all looking at Jess, as if expecting her to do something. She looked reticent, but what she showed more than anything was shame. What was she going to say?

“Come on, Jess. Even you agreed to this.”

“B-But…”

“No “butts” now. If we do this, we do it now.”

“… Argh, fine… Look, Chess… the band and I decided to get you a little something…”

She handed him over a case packaged as a present. To say that he was surprised would be to say that water fills the ocean, an overstatement the size of mountains.

“Errrr… It´s not that I ain´t glad… but… why?”

“Even if we end up fucking up-“

“Which we won´t.”

“- we figured we needed a way to thank you for helping out, so… open it up.”

He opened it, even though part of him still had the belief that a bomb was the more viable option in regards for a present. It was a watch, a pretty expensive one at that, the sort that he used to check during ambush operations or to time himself when jogging around.

He wasn´t completely sure how to react. Sure, people at the company had given him gifts for his birthday, but this was entirely different. This wasn´t a bonus payment for a job well done, it was a heartfelt present, he figured that much. And it was probably the first time he received one of those.

“You don´t like it?”

“I told you we should have bought that other one!”

“We still have the receipt, you can change it if-“

“No, no, it´s… it´s just that…”

A grin formed in his face like no other. He tried his hardest not to sound or look too emotional, but that was too much for him. He had expected no payment for his services. He was working in a “vacation” of sorts out of self-interest, and receiving a present like that as compensation… he couldn’t help but think that everything he did would always carry that hypocritical and awkward air behind it.

“… I love it. I really do… I didn’t see this one coming at all!”

“Glad you do!! Well, we are off! Hope you prepare well for Friday!”

“You too! Don´t you dare fuck up after all this hard work!”

“If there´s anyone who is going to fuck up, that is you, Chess!”

As he went up to his flat, he tried on his new watch. It fit like a glove and it made him think that if such acts of selflessness were paid in a similar manner, then the world would be much friendlier and gentler. And that, in turn, would lower his stream of revenue by a large margin and make for an extremely boring story to tell.

After all, Czesch´s life revolved around problems to be solved.

The day had finally come. The school grounds had been repurposed for an activity that would hopefully benefit both the students and the people living in the city, and that activity revolved around making the school look as close to a summer fair as possible. There were food stands, game stands, activities both for young and old, music groups playing the worst songs they knew and much more going around. It was almost as if the building and the grounds around it weren´t meant for education at all.

But the meat of the party was inside the school´s auditorium, a building usually reserved for speeches to the whole student core or special events like that one. It could house a great number of people, around 200, and it was bound to be packed full for the festivity, both with insiders and outsiders. There were a great number of acts, ranging from plays and stand-ups to any sort of musical band the school owned. Including the jazz group.

And lucky them, that they got to play first… as the introductory number, the “acclimatizers”.

The band was getting ready backstage. Some of them were clearly more nervous than others, due to the new elements in place. Simon was trembling, Laura was hugging her sister for some comfort. André looked like always, chill as only a guy like André could be. Jess… worried, for one reason or another. But the main reason had something to do with the missing member.

“God dammit, where is that bastard!?”

“I´m sure he´s about to get here.”

“He better be arriving right fucking now! We go out there in 10!”

Czesch finally arrived, opening the doors wide and finishing his sprint. He was gasping after having been running from his place to the backstage area. Jess sighed in relief as she approached the crouching Kid.

“About time, Chess!”

“I got… argh, god… I got busy… last minute call… argh, whew...”

“You alright? You don´t look too hot.”

“It´s alright, Laurie, I´m good. Just need to… catch my breath, is all.”

He took one final deep breath  to get his lungs in working condition.

“Good to know… any last words of encouragement?”

“I thought that was more your thing, Jess.”

“Nah, I´ve never been good with those… and Annie tells me you like speeches.”

“Oh boy, running her mouth again…”

“Come on, I´m sure you had something ready… it could definitely help Simon over here.”

“L-L-L-Like y-you a-are one t-to talk!”

“Hmmmm… something to say…”

He thought about it for a moment. It was true that a speech would be in good order to give a small morale boost right before playing. And he knew just the way.

“I have a question for all of you… Are you happy with the way this has been set up?”

They shared a look amongst themselves, clearly not getting the hidden meaning behind his question.

“… What do you mean by that?”

“From what you´ve told me, you always play first in this sort of events.”

“Well, that´s what we get for not playing well enough for their taste all the time.”

“And we clearly are not happy about it. Just look at us.”

“Just the answer I needed… and this is my answer to you…”

He waited to add dramatic effect. Then, he let it loose.

“I´ve been helping you out for a while now, and what I´m going to say now is a certainty: This is the last time those bastards will throw us at the start as an afterthought! They will learn not to mock us again and we will make them enjoy every moment of it, so much so that they´ll feel nothing but regret afterwards! But, above all, remember the basics: if you don´t enjoy playing, they won´t as well… so let´s get out there and show them our smoking guns!”

“Fuck yeah!”

“Simon, time to get your groove on!”

“I already have my groove on!”

“Hahaha, that´s the spirit!”

“Let´s get out there and show them some proper fucking tunes!”

The band started making it to the stage, but Czesch was stopped by something behind him. He turned around and felt Jess tucking his shirt. She still looked gloomy, and Czesch wasn´t exactly sure what was the cause behind that sour attitude unlike her.

“What is it, Jess?”

“… I… I don´t know if I´ll be able to get in with the flow… I´m sorry…”

Czesch couldn’t believe she had been worrying over something like that. He grinned, having a small chuckle as he did.

“What´s so funny?”

“The fact that you thought that comes from practice alone.”

“It doesn’t?”

“In our most trying of moments is when we have the opportunity to shine. And all this time you´ve tried to shine alone. This time, do try to shine with us, and then you´ll get what I meant when I referred to the flow.”

“It´s just that… I don´t want to fuck up. We´ve trained so hard that-“

“Keep on thinking that way and we will fuck up. Just give it your best and have fun!”

“… You know what? You are totally right! Let´s do this!”

They came onto the scene, with all their instruments already in place. Czesch thought that it must have been a pain, bringing the piano all the way there. The band started fiddling around with their tools, making sure that each and every one of them was properly tuned and fit for duty. Czesch smirked, realizing that he didn’t need to do any last minute check. They all knew what to do, and all he had to do was manage his part of the spectacle. And what a part that was.

The time came, as the hall´s lights dimmed down to a faint glow. André and Simon started hammering away in their instruments, providing a smooth and solid background rhythm that got everyone´s attention in the hall. Czesch got up from his seat, grabbing the microphone as he did, a light starting to shine directly above him. The auditorium was packed full and the only thought that crossed his mind was how it would probably be easier to manage them than a rag-tag guerilla group in need of training.

“Ladies and Gentlemen!! Welcome to this marvelous evening in the Saint Vincent auditorium! I hope our colleagues are treating you well enough, because the real party is starting right now!! The official Jazz group from Saint Vincent´s will gladly do some magic tonight! That´s right, you heard me, magic to make you believe in something above music!”

He stopped for a second, realizing now he had everyone´s interest. He had never done that sort of thing with the SOT, but he wanted to give a shot at presenting after the London operation.

“The time has come to present our magicians for the night! He always stays in the back, like a shadow at night, and you may never see his face shrouded in dark, but I can tell you without a shadow of doubt that your heart and shadow will beat to his rhythm whether you like it or not… The Shadow of Percussion, André!!”

With a light shining over him, André started playing away whatever he felt was right, and it worked to perfection. Some people even started clapping at his sudden show of skill. He returned with Simon to the background rhythm.

“Some people tell him to “drop the bass”, to which he responds by hammering his against their heads! He´s twitchy and you´ll get nervous just by looking in his direction, but his fingers are the fastest thing you´ll never be able to keep up with!... Lightning Fingers, Simon!!”

True enough, he played with the speed of lightning, but still retaining a semblance of rhythm and control. Some people were left astonished at this sudden show of prowess. From chaos, that seemingly amateur group had come across a way to make the tune more than appropriate.

“Every man in this room knows two is better than one… yeah, I see some of you agreeing with me right there!! These two twins are up for some fighting, and whether one is the young one and the other is older only they care, for when they play together… let´s just say you´ll want to hear more of it for the rest of your lives… The Twin Vipers, Laura and Laurie!”

The twins had their moment to shine, switching at a moments glance between unison play and alternating keys while complimenting the other´s play, slowly moving around in a dance they had rehearsed by themselves. People were appaled by their seemingly clairvoyant way of playing, knowing when the other sister was about to press a key and for how long.

“Her light shines so bright she´ll burn your eyes if she´s not careful!! The sax has always been an instrument to show how far people can fly… and I can tell you for a fact that this girl, with bravado and will bigger than the sun, is definitely going to go blow your minds faster than a supernova…The Shimmering Sun, Jessica!”

She chuckled a bit at his tomfoolery, and immediately began by putting her soul into her instrument. Every single member of the audience sat there, astonished at the fluidity and the echoing of her sax. Some couldn’t believe that this was the same girl that had played the year prior, moving around without any rage or hatred.

“And last… and certainly the least in this list of amazing magicians… a musician for hire, a pianist who comes and goes as a mercenary to play for the right price… a singer of hollow words filled with passion… and one who feels honored every time he gets to play with such wonderful people… The Quiet Wolf, Czesch!”

He played the piano slowly with one hand, letting every key languish for the correct time. The tune had just come to his head, making him realize he´d have to write a new one just from that piece alone. People felt just like he had said they would feel: The tune was a mellow one, happy even… then what was that feeling of emptiness that it carried along?

“And you may think that this is all we have!! But this band has set itself on showing all the people present the true ring of music! For too long you´ve heard soulless pieces, songs devoid of spirit and energy, droning beats and robotic voices! Well, no more! Tonight, Saint Vincent´s Jazz club is proud to present you tonight´s rhythm… Ladies and Gentlemen, I give to you… “Rising Crows”!”

He sat down, the applause a sign that things were going in the right direction. One of his hands was trembling as he set the mic on its platform back again. He grinned, knowing that a trembling hand before acting always meant good luck.

And with that, he started playing… as the world emptied itself from distractions.

Jess played along with the song, noticing slowly that the world around her was disappearing. The stage, the people sitting in front of her, the lights… everything was going away, leaving her and the sax her mother had played for all that time. Like so many times before, she was alone, playing to the void. For a moment, she felt like acting defiant again, breaking the barrier and making the music around like her own again. She was about to make something she knew now was a mistake, but she knew that in no way would she be able to work in any other way. Then, she heard it, a voice crashing through the silence:

“Fly away with me/ Flesh is on the hills, and luscious/ don´t run from the fresh kill/ crows are sweeping, fast and gracious/ don´t stutter now/there is no time to make amends!/ St Vincent´s watching down/ the crows will rise again!”

He appeared, as if from thin air, with his piano and his voice, smiling as he pressed away, laughing as he sang about devouring flesh and death. She came to a realization: If she couldn’t play her own way, at least she would follow him through. It was the least she could do to pay back all the help he had given.

He looked different while playing, that was something she now just noticed after so much time practicing. Czesch was an overall nice guy, a bit of a prick at times, but usually smiling and keeping a happy attitude. The Czesch she now had in front of her lacked that. He looked like a shell, as if he had separated himself from his body to play and sing… and yet, the sound was still gorgeous and the vocals still echoed through her head. She wondered… if the person who was playing right now was a husk of Czesch´s true self, then… how good was he when he played with all his heart into it?

The improve section arrived and, out of the blue, every member of the band performed a short, but sweet, solo act, including the twins, who ended up performing first separately and then at unison. It was her turn now and she felt that her sax was somehow behaving differently. The keys felt different, the sensation of blowing through it changed from a cold spark to a warm caress… a lighter instrument, one that felt just right.

She figured it out. The reason she had never been able to get with the flow, the main factor in her not being able to play along with the rules, the solid rule that had prevented her from reaching her mother´s level… she had already done it. She had already reached her mother in terms of skill and was still clinging to that idea of becoming better than her… no, of becoming her.

Czesch told her already, that the sax was the instrument of the free-spirited. And she had kept her mother´s inside it for the longest of times, stopping Jess from growing any further as a musician. And finally, thanks to that quirky, smiling man playing the piano, she had released her… and the instrument was finally hers to talk with.

She saw it now, the river, and she swam through it, every key fondling along with the flow, every breath of air a kiss, every rocking movement a splash of water. Everyone noticed the sudden change, even Czesch, who got out a laugh as he followed her up. But she could hear it now… no, not hear… feel. She could feel what Czesch was saying through the keys, and it sounded like a fun experiment:

“We´ll follow you. Go wild and maybe they will as well.”

And so she did, a smile forming in her face as she went crazy with the sax, with Czesch following up, the twins and the two other boys adding a background layer to keep the action sharp and steady, with Simon bouncing up and down as he plucked away, André gritting his teeth and grinning as he hammered the timbals and the twins standing back to back, following up without issue.

Jess was having fun. She now realized it as she started playing around with Czesch, initiating what could only be described as a “musical” conversation. She talked through her sax, and he responded with his piano. She noticed that she was walking around him as he played along, keeping that hollow shell of his playing to the tune.

The words he was saying were empty, she knew that much, but… they were still beautiful. She was having a hard time keeping up with how amazing his tune was becoming, but she did so nonetheless. She was one with him now, playing along the same notes on the same track with the different spirits… and all of it hadn´t been prepared and had it happened a day before, she would have probably failed miserably. Some people were already clapping and cheering at the surreal performance that was being delivered.

For a second, she saw him with different eyes… he was the most amazing person in the world, talented and charming, keeping that grin of his. Was she in love? She couldn’t tell, so mesmerized that she was by the flow of things. Maybe she really felt something about him more than awe… but only time would tell if that was the case.

And, before she realized it, the song was over. Her hands were shaking from excitement as the world slowly returned back to her. And instead of music, the sound of clapping and cheering erupted inside the auditorium, as people filled with euphory and heads to the brim with catchy tunes sang in unison that word Jess hadn´t heard in her life. That one word her mother got time and time again. And as they did, she cried a little, realizing she had finally done it…

“Encore!! Encore!! Encore!!”

The rest of the group was sweating, finally being relieved of pressure that was finally gone after weeks of preparation. Simon was the first to point out the obvious.

“Fuck me… I never thought they´d want more!”

“We really nailed it right there, didn´t we?”

“Holy shit, even Jess is crying!!”

The Kid called over to them, reminding everyone that they weren’t done.

“OK, get ready! They want an encore and we will comply! Jess… are you ready to blow their minds a second time?”

She swept the tears forming in her face and turned back to him. Yes, even now he still looked amazing. Her smile did catch him off-guard and he even blushed a little when looking at her in the eye. She giggled and readied her sax.

“Let´s do round 2, alright!! Better not lose that monstrous voice of yours, Czesch!”

Everyone, for a moment, left their mouths agape in complete disbelief. She had called him by his name properly and she had blushed a little while doing so.  After the fact, the group couldn’t help but laugh as Czesch played away his most stupid but most successful song.

And Jess played along, feeling her heart growing bigger with every blow of air.

“Group, huddle time!!!”

Czesch huddled with the others, feeling a mix of respite and some sort of joy. A small part of him believed that they were bound to fuck up at some point, but the song had a superb delivery which the public in the auditorium took greatly, standing and cheering as if they had won the lottery themselves. He knew the group deserved that much, for there is nothing more rewarding after months of preparation and training than being recognized for your work.

They dropped the huddle and Simon screamed so loudly that Laurie had to cover her ears.

“We did it!!! We fucking did it!!”

“Jesus Christ, Simon, calm down!! We´ve never seen you like this!”

“It´s just that… we did it!!”

“We know already, quit screaming!”

“Sorry, sorry…”

“I really believed I didn’t have the strength for the encore… Czesch, you chose the song well. Had it been something more complicated-“

“I knew that the drums were the hardest part in ours and that you´d be exhausted, so I went with a simple one to keep you on the game, André.”

“Yeah, thanks for that… I still feel my hands shaking a little.”

“You were amazing there, André! I´ve never seen you smile so much while drumming!”

“Thanks Laura, you girls were on fire too!... By the way, where did Jess go?”

“She went to the bathroom, said she needed to freshen up a bit.”

“After that performance, I´d need some freshening myself!”

“… She did play quite well.”

“Quite well!? Czesch, we weren´t exactly deaf, you played along with her and it sounded more than amazing! It was out of this world!”

“It was mostly her that did the playing, I just followed up.”

“I´ve never seen her play like that ever! It was like a different person was there!”

“And she even called you by your name at the end.”

“Yeah, that was… awkward… wonder why she did so.”

“Maybe it´s that she- Ouch! What was that for, sis?”

“Don´t spoil it! Leave them wondering!”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Nothing, nothing! Just Laurie talking out of her ass as always.”

“Well, I have to be honest with you: That was probably my favourite version of “Won´t you wanna dance?” I´ve heard in a long time… you did the song justice.”

“Thanks! At first we thought it was a bit stupid, but after “Rising Crows” anything can get harder.”

“And it still sounds good.”

“Well, that´s what I hoped would-“

“Czesch!!”

“Huh!?”

Someone charged over to him and tackled him, almost forcing him to lose balance. Luckily, he managed to turn to his assailant and keep his feet on the ground. He had let his guard down and now he had someone on top of him. A suicide bomber? An assassin? A hitman sent by the Russians to silence him?

It was just Annie. For some reason, part of him wished that it had been the Russian hitman instead.

“H-Hey, Annie! Did you watch us play?”

“Watch you play? I couldn’t move from my seat after the encore! You all did an amazing job!”

“Thanks, Annie!”

“Glad you liked it!”

“When I said I wanted to hear you play properly, I never thought it would turn out this good!”

“Errr… right, right…”

“What? Don´t tell me you didn’t give it your all out there, because it definitely looked like it!”

Czesch kept silent, looking at the floor. She was right, he hadn´t gone full out. He never went full out when playing with others, for it would break pacing and cohesion. When he played using his full capabilities… well, that was an experience reserved for special occasions.

“All I´m going to say is that it was a team effort. Every one of us had an equal part in the success of the show.”

“And did you do any magic on Jess!? I swear, it was almost as if she was a different person on stage!”

“I didn’t do anything, I swear! I just played like-”

“Annie!!!”

Jess appeared from the bathroom, running and hugging her as she jumped. She was laughing and Annie shared in, making the scene embarrassing enough for the Kid to start scratching the back of his neck. He wondered if someone else would run and hug him mid-air… and if the next one would come with an explosive belt of sorts.

“Czesch!!”

A man´s voice shouting his name. Another person wanting to hug him? It was getting repetitive, more than he could handle on a day. Maybe it was the Russian hitman going after him? No, the Russians wouldn’t waste money and resources on him that foolishly… maybe.

The boy calling over to him was a complete stranger to Czesch. He was quite short by the looks of his age and had a plaster on his arm. He was looking quite anxious, but also pleased. A cold shiver crossed through Czesch spine just imagining that combination of emotions… only dark thoughts crossed his perturbed mind.

“Jerry? What are you doing here?”

“Wait, he´s Jerry? The guy that left the band?”

“That´s right, I left because that woman over there drove me mad every time I tried to get some change done!”

“And fuck you too, Jerr!”

“Anyways, I´m not here for you… Czesch, right? I´m Jerry Elmer, I was supposed to play the closing act and… well, you can check for yourself. Happened this morning, still hurts.”

“Hmmm… a bit hard to play with one arm.”

“When I saw you on-stage, I knew I found my savior… the only one that could save my ass and do me some justice.”

Czesch took a couple of steps back, his face grimacing from the thought.

“… I´m not into dudes.”

“Huh!? What on Earth are you on about!?”

“It´s just that… the way you put it was-“

“You need to play in my spot at the end of the festival!! I implore you, I know of no one else that could make it work!”

Czesch sighed in relief. So he doesn´t want to ravage my… personal space, he thought.

“I´m not against playing again… I´m in.”

“What!? Really!?”

“Czesch, do you really want to do it?”

“You´ve already done quite well, you should get some rest.”

“I´m fine! Besides, I always wanted to try my hand at solo play! What did you have in mind, Jerry?”

“It was an emotive piece I had planned on doing, something to drive people to either tears or joy… but I don’t think we have enough time to make it work.”

It looked like Jerry was one of those “prideful” types. Czesch scratched the back of his neck yet again, thankful that he wouldn’t have to rush in learning a song.

“I´ll just use one of mine if you don´t mind… something emotional… hmmm…”

He tried thinking of a song that could fit the bill. A ballad could probably do perfectly, but he was unsure of which one to use. His repertoire wasn’t that big, especially the more emotional ones, and he felt queasy just trying to pick a song out of all of them… did he really have a song that could transmit true emotion?

“What day is it today?”

“Friday?”

“I meant the number.”

“Errr… October 12th.”

He grinned… a sad grin, one that had already given him the answer. On October 12th he had made a promise… a promise to someone he still held dear, one that had been the catalyst for his struggles inside Blue Sparrow and the UK. And on that same day, he had been told to play something emotional, something to move the heart. He knew just what to play, a piece he hadn’t practiced in a long time… and one he planned on playing once the appropriate time came.

“I think I got something… but I´m going to need some time to get in the mood. How long until your act?”

“About an hour and a half.”

“Perfect… I´ll get in this back room to prepare myself. Knock only when I have to go to scene, OK?”

“S-Sure.”

“And girls, try and get yourselves some seats. This is going to be a one-time performance from my exclusive song list, so you better get comfy.”

“What are you going to play?”

His eyes lost some of their brilliance, as his conscious self began reverting back to that old, familiar feeling of emptiness.

“… A song I want to play only once more… but I song I will play nonetheless, to remind myself more than anything…”

Annie immediately caught on, concern growing in her otherwise beaming face.

“… Is it about-?”

“Yes, it is… I´ll let you judge after I´m done, so give me proper feedback!”

And with those words he entered that empty room and started to reminiscence, his mind drifting off to that moment of hopelessness… and to the company of that guarding angel that always managed to make him smile.

He´d let her in once more, along with her sorrow and pain.

“Do you know what he´s going to play, Annie?”

“I´m not entirely sure… I just hope he ends up OK after it.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Nothing, nothing…”

Annie had read Czesch´s eyes right at the moment he left for the room. They looked exactly the same way as when the mistery girl popped up, but this time it seemed he had brought her in himself. Was he planning to play using her as inspiration? She cringed at the thought. She had never been too much into love stories, and Czesch´s tale seemed fit enough for a book of the sort.

Then again… could she really judge him? She knew of no other person like Czesch, and behind that false smile of his lay a great number of unburied ghosts. How many and how lasting their impact was, she couldn’t tell. What she could see just from facts alone was that Czesch and that girl were extremely close and that he still believed her to be alive… a strong enough feeling befitting a powerful song.

“Annie, are you listening?”

“Huh? What is it?”

“I was… asking you, since you know Czesch better than any of us…”

“… Go on…”

“What sort of person does he like? Is he more into blondes or brunettes? Atheltic or just normal? Cheerful or a bit like you?”

The question caught her off-guard. Did Jess start feeling something for him? Annie got a good look at her and, indeed, the mere mention of Czesch got her to blush.

“Jess, don´t tell me you-“

“Maybe… maybe, I don’t know! Ever since I started playing with him, I… He turned out different, you know.”

“I think I know what you mean…”

“He´s a bit of a smartass and looks aloof half the time, but the way he untangles you, his voice echoing through your head… those hands- argh, you know what I´m talking about!”

“Yeah, I can see what you mean…”

It was Jess´s turn to look at her with wonder.

“… Annie, are you still trying to get to him?”

“I might be, yeah.”

“Does that mean… any problems with Pete?”

“Huh? No, of course not! Pete is still there.”

“Annie, you can tell me. I promise I won´t tell anyone else.”

She sighed, not wanting to talk about a subject that she clearly found uncomfortable.

“… For some reason, ever since Czesch got in the gang… Pete has started acting weird.”

“Weird in what way?”

“He´s trying to show off, to get crazy things done for people to recognize him… a few days ago, he mentioned something about stealing stuff from Armenians in the city… and every time he pulls stuff like that, I… I see more a psychopath than I see him, back when he wasn’t so full of himself…”

“Shit, then why don´t you leave him?”

“I… I won´t risk it yet. He might calm down after a while, and telling him now… wouldn’t be such a good idea.”

“Come on, don´t tell me you are afraid of him!”

“Not him, not at all! It´s… complicated.”

Concerned for her best friend, Jess put her hand on Annie´s lap, driving the point forward.

“Shit, Annie, you know we are here to help… Especially Czesch, he can-“

“No, I don’t want to involve him in this. He has helped me out enough… besides, I don’t think I have the heart to ask him of all people.”

 “You not having the heart to do something? Wow, talk about the absurd.”

“This is serious, Jess!! I´m a bit like you in what regards Czesch… only I know more about…”

“Huh? Know more about what?”

“… No, sorry, I doubt he´d want me to-“

“Shhhh!! Look, it´s his turn!!! Don´t you dare make it better than our show, Czesch!!”

She squinted her eyes, trying to get a proper look at his face. From the distance, she couldn’t see much, but one thing was certain:

This Czesch was the real deal.

He sat in front of the piano, a mere motion that went through him as if he were a machine. He sighed, lifting the cover of the keys and checking them out. He had a lot on him then, events that still haunted and tortured him, events he refused to accept were harming him. Maybe playing this song would ease some of that built up tension. Maybe he would even be able to sleep at night without issue for once. Maybe there was answer hidden among each verse.

Maybe… The world isn´t built from maybes, he knew that much.

He started playing, the song melded into his mind as if a lullaby her mother had sung. The melody sounded mellow enough, but the sadness behind it was apparent for everyone in the room. He looked like he was in pain with every key he pressed, but he still kept on going. Then, he started to sing, his voice still booming across the

“I can´t believe we survived all those days/ No shattered bones, all empty prayers./ Screeching sound of a loud bunch of fools/ hopeless devils, bound to fate as tools.”

“Void drums of war, approach from afar/ The blood is curdling, arms all jarred/ Screeching pain it echoes,..run, Kid, run…”

He played the intro again, only this time with more strength behind it. His parents were dead in his mind, killed in front of his eyes. Killed because he had been too ill to move out of the village, because of his weakness, because they wanted to protect him. The rabid anger inside him and sorrow had taken over the song, and it followed:

“Unkind bishop, you made a sign/No more lullabies, no more sleep at night/ Soulless jokers tell tales of despair/ Sanctimonious lies ,all about to tear.”

 “There are no innocent men/ who try to finish their play/ There is no heaven awaiting for me…”

A dead man walking, especially someone accursed like him, would really get no heaven. Only an eternity in the grasp of the Old Crone, forever forced to suffer her torments… like it was any different from living everyday under her constant pestering. And out of the uncertainty , she appeared… Laria, the light in the dark:

“Accursed blood, flow through my veins/ Girl is splattered, toes to shoulders/ crying, heaving, all in pain/ Bested courage, we´re all goners/ Static, rhythm, through my head/ Choking, breaking, ending of the rope/ Catharsis, drop disdain/ Lend a hand and fight their reign!”

He changed rhythm and overall tone, to a more subtle and calm one… it was time for that chorus. The chorus that repeated in his head time and time again:

“Do you remember that lie, we made last summer?/ When we told each other that, we´d fight with one another/ I still remember your cries at the end of that summer/ Hoping there´d be a better tomorrow… at the end of that summer…”

The tune continued. People were shocked, astonished by the energy put behind each word and key-press. They realized it was the same person as the one who had played at the beginning, but he sounded so different. The happiness, the joy, the smiling… all gone and changed for ragged pain, for twisted words and dark endings. Some among the public began tearing up.

He carried on, now going back to the killing. Hapless devils. How they turned from human to demons. Perfect crime. How they were forced to commit brutal acts of torture. Wishful perils. How he promised Sabrina to keep his word. Throw the die. The roll of fate, deciding whose turn was it to die… and the pressure and anxiety just kept piling in the further he went.

“Sheltered me from my own shadow/curse the blood now in my hands/ whisper soflty, words of kindness/ while the burning iron brands/ Never satisified or wasted/ crying into sleep at night/ we were shadows, forlorn, empty/ searching for each other´s light!/ Don´t believe in happy endings/ chasing dreams so far away/ you reasurre, I keep on cursing/ live to see another day/ Gilded cross that guards my heart/ Keep on tearing me apart/ You are gone and I´m all twisted/ I´m about to lose my mind!!”

He hammered the keyboard, gasping heavily at the display of anger he had just delivered. He needed a moment for it to sink in, both for him and the rest of the public, whose jaws had just dropped. He clenched one of his hands as he thought he would punch the piano. Then, he heard it echoing through the hall , as well as the people sitting down, who were equal times frightened and amazed by the womanly whisper that had invaded the scene:

“…Take my hand yet one more time…”

Czesch played the chorus again, vigorously and almost screaming every word into the heavens, with the whisper following him. Laria´s whisper accompanied every single word, and the supposed 1-man ballad had received another layer voice coming from nowhere. No manner of speech on Earth could describe the amount of awe pouring into the hearts of every person, most now tearing up at the raw display of emotion.

He went back to playing slowly, almost lovingly. This is almost the end, he thought. An end that I don´t want to repeat again… Ever again.

“Still miss the sound of your voice/as it finished up my rhyme/ as I walk among shadows/ waiting for your sign/ And if I find you again/ I hope we get to start over/ to mend the lie that we made…”

He was crying. He was crying like he hadn’t done in years, tears streaming down into the piano keys. He felt embarrassed, scornful… yet also relieved and happy. Happy that her presence was with him, even if for a mere moment.

“… at the end of that summer.”

The song ended with a single key press and not a single voice could be heard. Not a single clap, only the heavy breathing of some individuals down below. He got up from his seat, tears still coming down like a sprayer in a dry field.

He smiled. He had fucked up that last part royally, he knew that much. But the sudden burst of ovations and clapping must have meant that no one else noticed.

He had truly done it. And while smiling and crying, he vowed.

Often times, people see the world around them in shades of grey. The world is nothing but a  heaping mountain of destruction and despair, with thousands of people dying every day in the other side of the world because of the inaction of people who understand their actions carry no meaning behind them. There´s no God in heaven, and there are no innocent people. There will always be violence, always pain, remorse, sorrow, dread, anger and solace. There will always be children forced to fight for ideas that aren´t their own, but that of their fathers and grandfathers. The rest of many lies in the sacrifices of a few that will always be forgotten… A grey world, filled with truants and liars, with killers and psychopaths, with the worst that humanity has to offer.

That´s what Annie believed in every day, a colorless world she could do nothing about, a world that forced her into stereotypes, norms, ideas, memes…  and even denying all of them was part of the vicious cycle of hatred, of disdain for those who came before you. She had spent her entire life wanting her mother´s love and her father´s understanding, a future that held in the distance, a reason to get out of bed every morning… a light of sorts, a beacon that she knew would never show up. Which is why she took her medicine, because then at least she would able to hide the world she was a part of for a while.

Everything had changed now. Every word Czesch had said came with pain, with all the emotions he had hidden away inside of him for so long. A ballad of all the twisted events and ruinous carnage he must have seen during his youth. A tale mostly of despair, of failure, of destruction and chaos, of anarchy and, in the end, solitude… Things that would break any normal man and bring him to his knees, gun in his hand and pointed to his head.

But Czesch had more will than any other human being she had known. As he finished, Annie finally saw it: The grey colors were being slowly changed, tones of red, blue, orange, green, yellow… all of them, which she had craved as a child, were coming back, not only the dark and twisted, but also the joyful and kind, the sarcastic and ironic, the caring and loving, all those emotions flowing through the room as the crowd imploded into ovation. And she couldn’t move. For she couldn’t believe she had finally found it.

For the beacon was no other than the smiling, crying idiot standing on scene.

“Where the hell is he?”

“He texted me, saying he was already at the carnival… that he´s part of an event of sorts.”

“Argh, that idiot…”

Annie pulled out her phone again, checking for a message she knew wasn’t there. Czesch had told them that he had been convinced by someone to take part in an event, and due to his nature he clearly accepted (for a price, of course). She understood Jess´s rage completely, because she wanted to do the same as her: congratulate him on how amazing his performance had been, and she wanted to do it face to face.

“I´m still amazed you got it at all, Annie.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well… you aren´t that much into music, you listen to any rubbish they pop on the radio in the morning… had my doubts that you understood proper music at all.”

“Come on, I´m not that daft, he just played a masterpiece and you know it!”

“He did fuck up at the end.”

“No, he didn´t.”

“He actually did. But, still, the rest was too damn good, I have to agree with that much… would have sounded more amazing had I been there with him…”

“I seriously doubt it. That was a song he had to play by himself or not at all.”

“Oh,you reckon?”

“… I just do, OK? I doubt he wants to talk about it.”

Now the thought occurred to her. True, he had been smiling and crying at the same time, which meant he hadn’t gone complete apeshit like after the disco party, but… part of her was afraid that he had really gone overboard or lost his bearing. She wanted to help him in that case, as she had somehow managed in the lake.

“Do you think this is the spot he mentioned?”

“It does say “Special Event”… also says that the prize for participating is “a date with a music star”.”

“They have probably picked up a B-rated wannabee that came off cheap at the supermarket, or a retired old man that only 40 year olds find attractive.”

“… Or Czesch.”

“… Or Czesch…”

“So, signing up, are you?”

“Same?”

“Yup.”

“Yeah.”

They both looked at each other and laughed as they wrote their names on the list of participants, among the first ones to actually sign up. Most would do so when the event was properly revealed, but they wanted to try their luck.

“Wait up!!”

It was Simon, who came running towards them, gasping as if he had ran around town for hours on end.

“God… argh, you girls… sure… like to go fast…”

“We were in a bit of a hurry.”

“Talking of a hurry, you really ran all the way towards here?”

“Of course I… did! I need to show off my running skills and-“

“Oh look, the twins are already here.”

“- stuff… don´t say it.”

The look of embarrassment was too good to pass up, and Jess took that chance without thinking twice.

“They walked here and got here just after you did while running.”

“… I fucking hate karma…”

“Relax, you are not the less sportive of the group… that honor goes to Jess over here.”

Simon raised his view from the ground, now noticing the two toughest girls in school looking at each other with contempt and evil intentions.

“Really? Aiming so low all of a sudden? Wow, you must have a really bad migraine to think of something so lame.”

“At least I can actually write something worth a damn, unlike you.”

“Yeah, like you can write all those novels that you published… oh, wait, that´s right…”

“Bitch…”

“Skank…”

They were taking it a bit too far, and Annie knew it. She was used to teasing like that in extreme situations, but Simon did the right thing by stopping them short.

“Girls, girls, calm down! Let´s not go crazy all of a sudden now!”

“Grrrr… wait, Simon, wasn´t André with you?”

“André? Oh, he went around with some girls after Czesch finished playing… I don’t really know where he went.”

“That bastard sure knows when to set the sail… Simon, why didn’t you follow him?”

“Well, that´s because, errrr… I…”

Both girls were surprised by seeing him blush like that, and Jess took advantage yet again to play around with him.

“You were heartbroken that your sweetest André left with some girls?”

“No, it´s not that!! I… there´s this girl I…”

“Holy shit, I never knew this one could actually be in love!! My mind is officially blown!”

“Who is the lucky one?”

Simon turned around to the approaching twins, already saying enough just by the look of his eyes.

“… Which of the two?”

“The smart one, I´m not dumb enough to choose the other.”

“Ouch, that´s bound to do some harm. You better not say it that loud again.”

“Damn, Simon, I… never noticed.”

“No one would have ever known… and I don’t think I would have done it either if we had fucked up tonight… but, I´ve made up my mind. I´ll tell her what I feel.”

“And if she rejects you?”

“I won´t mind much, I´ll just get this out of my chest and keep on going.”

Annie bit her lip upon hearing those words. She had basically done the same with Czesch, apart from the fact that she was drunk and he was pissed beyond human imagining, and only now she realized that she couldn’t move forward. Not without a second chance, at least…

“It seems it´s starting… you ready, Annie?”

“I´m going to make you eat dirt.”

“Wow, talk about friendly sportsmanship!... but it´s you who´s going to lick my boots after we are done.”

“Ok… I´m… I´m off with the twins… good luck, both of you, and try… try to not murder each other?”

“Making no promises.”

“Go have your love story, Simon, we´ve got this score to settle.”

Simon met the girls halfway, while Annie and Jess paid attention to the announcer, an eccentric senior named William (or “Willy Will” for everyone at school), who was wearing the most outrageous clothes possible with a copyrighted and trademarked top hat to look the part. The guy looked like he had crossed the borders of stupidity and hadn´t really come back from them, as per tradition with the usual “class joker”.

“Ladies and Gentlemen… mostly ladies, I presume… welcome to this XVth anniversary of the gymkhana for desperate women, here in St Vincent´s autumn festival!! Now, I know what you are thinking, what is the deal with this stupid event!? To be completely frank, we are just here to watch the toughest fighters in Harville duke it out with each other to get a fantastic reward!!”

He let a few seconds of silence to transpire, mostly for the crowd to properly gather up and listen. It seems that that was one of the strategies most presenters usually use when it comes to controlling the crowd.

“I know that most of you will be probably reluctant to participate, thinking that the prize isn´t worth what it says on paper… but I assure you, the price is more than agreeable, for I´m about to reveal the identity of the sweet and suave individual that won everyone´s hearts at the start of the festival during the initial presentation in the auditorium!! You guessed it, Ladies, you have the opportunity to go out with the majestic, handsome master pianist, Chess Travaly!!”

The sounds of cheering fangirls were probably muffling Czesch´s groans at yet another person mispronouncing his name, and that made Annie chuckle. So it was really him behind the prize. Now the real battle began, between her and Jess. A battle to see who could be on top more so than getting to him.

“We already have some participants, but the more we are, the better the time we´ll be having together!! Depending on how many lovely ladies sign up, certain trials will eliminate participants immediately, so do give it your all when out there!”

A great number of girls from the school signed up, thinking that Czesch was finally at arms reach after months of being monopolized by Annie. He probably never really understood why they were all around him, since there were better looking guys like him and he was in between being introvertive and extrovertive. What he didn’t realize is that his smiling, silent persona made them swoon… and he wouldn’t come to realize it ever.

With the participants now set, Jess and Annie locked hands in a tight grasp, a sort of promise that either of them would win and that they wouldn’t let any other girl get her hands on a man they considered to be in their dominion. Czesch most likely felt a cold shiver at the back of his spine, unsure about what had caused him to suddenly be very afraid for his life.

The trials were little more than small games designed to put the girls in embarrassing situations for the leisure of the men around. Cream, honey, water… anything a pervert would consider the best tools for making women regret being so. A lot of them simply called out after being so foolish, but Annie and Jess pulled through each of them, not caring about the perverted looks or the state they were in. They were dead set in achieving their objective, grit and determination to win their prize… and the Kid began wondering if it had been that good of an idea to sign up for a quick laugh.

They were down to three participants, and the 3rd one was invisible to the eyes of both girls, who were now locked into a staring contest of sorts, a show of determination. William, a bit afraid of the aggressiveness displayed, finally announced the last round.

“Only one of you girls is going to get the prize, so in this last trial only one of you will emerge victorious… the game consists of climbing up to the top of this construct the boys at the engineering group have constructed out of the kindness of their hearts. I´m going to climb up there and will designate the winner of this night of love!!”

The tower they were supposed to be climbing had 4 entry points, so they probably expected a 4 way for the end. It was crazy to think that an engineering department had designed such an awkward looking, but highly safe construct. It had everything, from climbing points, to platforms, and even water sprayers and other tools to hinder progress. Both girls stopped looking at each other and concentrated on the most time efficient route, making sure they planned their steps ahead of time.

When the horn rang, the race was on, and Annie knew that she had more of a chance at winning than Jess, since the latter wasn´t a very sportive person…  even though the former couldn’t say that about herself either. Still, the climb was quite harder than both of them expected. They gritted their teeth and pushed on, occassionaly checking if the other had made it to their level, which was often the case. It was a mad race of overpowering the other´s intent with more strength and charisma than the other. People were cheering them on, enjoying an event that didn’t deserve the entertainment it was generating.

They were halfway there and tiredness started taking over, which forced them to act even more rashly. The pulled off impossible stunts , just to get to the top of that crazy tower. They were almost there, they both could feel victory approaching-

“We have a winner!!! I say again, we have a winner!!”

Both girls stopped climbing. A winner so soon? They looked at each other, now noticing the mistake they had made. They hadn´t paid any attention to the 3rd girl, who had made it to the top almost effortlessly, summoning upper body strength unlike anything they had seen before. She was now on the top, greeting all the people cheering her while cheering herself loudly. Both Annie and Jess got down from the tower, looks of embarrassment in both their faces, and decided to finish their competition by hugging it out of their system.

“Sorry I got so dumb headed by the end.”

“Could say the same, but I wouldn’t if one of us had won.”

“It was really stupid… but you looked good covered in cream.”

“Those splashes of water really enhanced those hips of yours”

They both  got a small pity laugh, now noticing the amount of stupid things they had to go through. As a consolation price, one of the members of the team in charge of the event gave them both pins. They both told him the same thing in unison:

“You can shove it up your ass, thankyouverymuch!”

They went back to the crowd, just to get a good glimpse at the person who had beat them to plan their revenge,  the one who was now standing on a smaller platform with William. From up there, with all the lights around stage flashing, it was hard to make her out too well. Apparently, they had already started with her ending speech of sorts, so they didn’t get the name of the girl who had beat them to pulp. She sounded extremely energetic and happy.

“And what do you feel after winning?”

“I feel… I feel amazing!! I want to try that again, if possible!!”

“Hahaha, we have ourselves a real fighter here!! And what do you think of your prize?”

“Ummmm… to be honest, I joined here without knowing. Figured you´d tell me by the end!”

The girls couldn’t believe so at first, thinking that she was joking… but the tone of her voice made them think otherwise. Will was just as shocked as the rest of the participants.

“O-Oh, r-right… well then, champion of champions, princess of the night!!! Behold, your lovely prince, delivered to your arms for him to obey your every wish for one night!!”

Czesch came from one of the sides of the lower stage, looking as if he had just woken up from one of his naps. There were a bunch of steps laid in front of him, signaling that he was supposed to wait there for the girl. He looked like he didn’t care much about it, as if accepting the fact that the rest of the night was just another test of endurance for him to overcome.

He looked up, trying to make out the person who was now climbing down… except she didn’t quite attempt to use the stairs. One look at the person below and the girl jumped off the stage, letting out a cry that made Czesch realize a lot of things. First, the reason he had been having cold shivers in his spine during the event. Second, how the fact that the girl was jumping came off as no surprise. And third and final, how history had the bad fortune of always repeating itself, for this situation was almost the same as to when both had met for the first time.

And the girl´s cry echoed through the festival, forcing Annie and Jess to drop their mouths from just outright surrealism:

“CZESCHKY!!!!”

And Czesch, knowing fully well that the angle had been the perfect one, couldn´t help but shield himself, shouting something just as romantic while receiving the whole weight of Karen´s body.

“Fuck my life!!”

He felt the impact and plummeted to the ground, shielding Karen from any harm, but feeling his back crunch against the hard floor. He let out a small groan of pain, trying to keep his wits to himself. He looked up and there she was, looking at him with a grin that went from one side of her face to the other. A Karen grin, so to speak.

“K!? What the hell are you doing here!?”

“Czeschky!!! I missed you so, so, so, so much!!!”

And a Karen hug gripped him, stopping the flow of air and generally crushing his back even more. He tried to move out of it, but the pressure was too big for him to handle. Another cold shiver down his spine, different for some reason.

“K-K!!!... I can´t… I can´t… breathe!”

“Aaaahh, sorry, sorry!! I just… got so excited when I saw it was you!!”

Sweet release, one that allowed for oxygen to move freely once again.

“Next time… try to… oh, god… try to not jump on me… pretty please…”

“Making noooooo promises!”

Her goofy face was no consolation prize for the damage to his back. More importantly, there was an issue they needed to discuss before moving any further.

“You didn’t answer my question: What are you doing here!? You were supposed to be in Hereford, helping the old man!”

“Uncle Gervaise told me that you were still in Harville, and when I asked Vivi she said something about a festival and that I should go visit you… and, lucky me!! My day off and you turn out to be the prize!!”

“This has to be some sort of joke… a hallucination…”

He tried measuring his temperature, realizing he was just making a fool of himself.

“It is reality, my sweet, sweet prince! And now I´m your princess and must be escorted away to have fun, presto!”

“…I´m probably still sleeping… finally got a dream that´s not reoccurring, thank god… not that much better than usual, but I´ll take it …”

He dropped to the floor, trying to knock himself unconscious to avoid having to deal with a situation he wasn’t prepared for. Karen retaliated with both knees to his stomach.

“You are not sleeping, dummy!! I´m here and I want you to take me out on a date, like we use to!!”

Another shiver… a really, REALLY cold one at that. Like someone had dropped a block of ice down his back and had sprayed liquid nitrogen on top. It forced him to sit up to acknowledge her.

“It´s not that I´m against it, but… you did catch me in an… an awkward spot, so to speak… could we leave it for-“

“No, we are not doing that!”

She looked pissed, even with her grin on top. And Czesch had never seen Karen properly angry at something. At the face of the unknown, man can only fear and tread lightly, and that is what Czesch felt for the most part: genuine fear for his life, something he didn’t feel most of the time when being shot at.

“Errrr… O-OK then, but…”

“No “buts”! After all, you probably forgot your promise…”

“My… promise? I don’t really know what you are talking about right now.”

“I figured as much… remember the words “theme park” sprouting to mind?”

“A theme park? I- Oh, bollocks, I remember now!! Shit, shit, shit, I completely forgot!”

“I think I told you you would end up forgetting…”

“I´m so sorry, K! Really sorry about it!”

“It´s alright, I´m not mad!! Vivi told me you had a lot of work, so it´s no wonder you couldn’t pop up! But now is the perfect time to mend that!”

He thought he had misheard, giving a look around to spot anything resembling a theme park. He found nothing to quell his growing concern.

“In an autumn fair like this?”

“Closest thing at hand and, besides, I have more fun in places like this than at a crowded theme park with children crying in every queue!! Now, come on, let´s have some fun!!”

“K, wait a second, I was-“

“No complanining, just having fun!! Onward!!”

She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and started dragging Czesch away, while he cursed all the strength she had gained handling weapons and crates for all that time. She had managed to drag him across by quite a margin before he got up himself, which was quite the amazing task considering he wasn’t light by any means.

All things considered, he did garner this as a favourable turn of events. Instead of getting a crazy woman who would try weird things on him, he could have one of Karen´s dates to compensate, and they were just trips around places like that having as much of her fun as possible. As a plus, she would try nothing on him. If she wanted, she could have done it a thousand times before, her idea of romance being clouded by all the ways that she could entertain herself.

Besides, it was impossible for people to mistake two friends hanging out as a proper date.

Annie and Jess stood there, their mouths grinning in an almost psychotic manner. Anyone that looked at them straight up would immediately avert their gaze for the fear of getting murdered on the spot. One of them chuckled, yet the other didn’t even notice.

“… He called her K... he called that girl like that, like they were childhood friends…”

“… And she said “like we use to” when talking about dates…”

“…”

“…”

They both looked at each other, still not quite believing what they had just seen. Jess hit Annie in the shoulder, a light jab that still had some strength behind it.

“Ouch! What was that for!?”

“Just to check if I was awake.”

“Hit yourself for that, you retard!”

“So... Czesch had a girlfriend all of this time?”

“He said he didn’t have one… why would he lie like that?”

“Maybe he didn’t want anyone else to know… or maybe-“

“Maybe he lied to get laid without pressure?… No, that´s not Czesch at all.”

“Oh, yeah? How long have you known him?”

“Errr, a month at most… but he isn’t like that at all!! If he was, we would have done it weeks ago!”

“Maybe he´s desperately looking for someone else to be with in a more romantic fashion. Responds to that question and, let´s face it, that girl looks like she´s bonkers.”

“She did jump from all the way up there… Christ, this whole thing smells fishy all the way.”

“Whatever, we better follow them, make sure we don´t lose their trail.”

“Wait, you want to stalk them?”

“Don´t you?”

“B-But… It´s wrong, you know!!”

“Hah! Like that has ever stopped you… just trust your gut on this one!”

Trust her gut… those words hit harder than she had anticipated. She sighed heavily and stretched her shoulders, getting ready for some detective work.

“Take the lead, I´ll follow.”

Candy floss. The stuff is made from almost 100% sugar and it´s bound to rot teeth at a higher pace than normal candy, and it can be found at any event worth going (At least, according to those who crave it). Give a stick of that to a kid and he/she will go completely bonkers with the sugar overdose, or simply delight in its yuminess…

And Karen loved it way too much for Czesch´s wallet to bear.

Sure, it was cheap, but at no point Czesch had wanted to satisfy her hunger by buying her more and more of the massive clouds of sugar. The more Karen ate, the more Czesch wondered how she kept so lithe and strong with all that sugar in her body… maybe she was balancing the lack of caffeine in her bloodstream.

“Oh, Oh, Czesch!! Another, another!!”

“That stuff must be really made from clouds, because this is your 5th one!”

“You can never have enough!!! Also, I skipped brunch today, so I´m starving.”

“… Argh, you forgot to eat again today…”

One could qualify Karen as a special type of prodigy. In her head, calculations were made that would take Czesch hours to properly complete and the management of weapons with different calibers and the study of each of their individual parts was one of the few things she didn’t get bored while doing… that said, she got bored of eating at humanly hours, so she only did so when she felt it was a bear necessity. That is, when she noticed it.

“How many times have I told Gervaise to force some food down that throat of yours? You are going to give me a scare one of these days!”

“If it comes to that, I´m sure you´d be the last person to hear about it!”

Those words hurt, even as they were uttered in the most loving tone he had heard out of her.

“Oh, come on, I´m not that bad!”

“You never called…”

“Because I was busy most of the time! Besides, I´ve already told you that calling me  isn´t taboo, you can do it whenever you want!”

“Last time I called, you got really mad at me!”

“No, I did not!”

“Yes, you did! Remember, it was during that operation at Stockholm when-“

He was quick to put a hand over her mouth. As much as she was a prodigy, a speech filter was something she sorely missed.

“That had nothing to do with you calling me! We weren´t briefed with sufficient time, we were far away from the- Argh, shit!”

“What?”

“K, I can´t talk about work here, I´m undercover! People can´t know I work for the company!”

Karen stared at him for a couple of seconds, one eyebrow raised to imply the lack of understanding on her part.

“And why is that? I think you do a really cool job!”

“Of course you´d think that, but normal earthlings don´t respond too kindly at the words: “Hey, I´m a child soldier that works for a PMC and commits assassinations for profit, nice to meet you!”…  I´m enough of a freak already, I don´t want people to fear me on top of that.”

“I see, I see… you are worried about “social etiquette” and “normal conventions”?”

“S-Something like that, yeah…”

“Huh.”

She mulled over it for a couple of seconds, then immediately continued onward, with the Kid following close behind.

“Hmm? What´s the matter?”

 “Well… no, it´s nothing…”

“Oh, that was something, what is it?”

“Errrr… those girls following us. You´ve noticed as well, haven´t you? You know them?”

Czesch figured that, after the date with Karen, he´d have to go talk with Annie and Jess and teach them the proper procedure when stalking a target. If they were going to do it anyway, then he might as well just teach them the proper technique for future situations.

“Yeah, friends I´ve made over here, one´s a writer of sorts, the other a musician, and both have the tendency to drive me insane whenever I least expect it.”

“Should we tell them to pop over? I feel a little bad about-“

“I think they are trying to be respectful since we are on a “date”… they must have overheard us talking, so they are thinking that…”

He stopped himself short, realizing the sort of misunderstanding that stupid event had caused in their psyche. Karen, with her curiosity still not satisfied, grabbed him by the arm, bringing him back to the world of the living.

“… Come on, don´t leave me hanging!”

“T-That we are going out… as in, girlfriend-boyfriend, that type of… yeah…”

Karen started laughing, a laugh that Czesch, for some reason, loved hearing. It was the same laugh she made when Czesch fired his designated weapon for the first time, or when they went to a zoo to watch the chimpanzees. A genuine laugh that didn’t feel forced in any way.

“Hahaha, oh man… ahhh… you better clear that up for them as soon as possible, I don´t want to restrict your options!”

“I´ll do that in due- What do you mean by that?”

“If they think you are already going out with me, they won´t feel too encouraged to try their luck on you! And I get the feeling you want to see how that goes!”

He had to give credit where it was due: Karen had learned a great deal from Vivi when it came to annoying him.

“Wha-!!?? I wasn´t-! Get that idea out of your head!”

“Huh? Why? Are you scared of them? Or is it that you lean more towards-“

“For the last time, I´m not gay! Can you people leave that to rest for once!?”

“You are going to have to do more than repeat that to yourself to prove me wrong, because from what I´ve seen you aren´t really good when dealing with romanticism.”

“Yeah, like you are any better… besides,  hooking up with girls isn’t exactly a requisite in high demand in my line of work!”

“It might not be, but you´d think that after all the practice we had together you´d have picked something by now.”

Czesch stopped his train of thought for a moment, the feedback from her words now being processed. What had she just said? That all those times going out with her were nothing but another training program? Something else from Vivi´s list of exercises to complete? Had Karen just played with him like all the rest?

“K, what are you implying by-“

“Oooohhh, C!, C, a shooting gallery!! Come on, Czeschky, come on!!”

She dashed over to the intended stall, leaving the Kid with nothing but the dust from her footprints.

“K!! Wait up… goddammit, how can she be so fast?... Jesus, if it isn´t food it´s games with this one…”

The man at the stand seemed a nice enough fellow, but previous experiences with Vivi had taught him that the smile up front hid their evil intentions: Often times, games of that sort were rigged so that they were impossible to win, or extremely hard to complete. It was that sort of think that pissed Czesch off, but he had to admit that they were experts in their trade.

“Sir, how can we get the big fluffy ones up top!?”

“Well, young lady, you see these 8 tiny tin men on my back? You knock them all over and you can pick whichever one you prefer… but be warned! They are really had to hit!”

“It´s alright!! C here can make the shots! Right, Czeschky?”

“Aha… right”

Karen grabbed the air rifle and started to weigh it, checking the sights and getting a general idea of what weapon she was using. She asked for a trial shot, and the man merely smiled and gave her a single round. She loaded it and fired, aiming at another target different from those intended. She observed the arch of the round and calculated the power of the compressed air over the distance, while taking into account the loss of air after each shot. She finally handed the gun to Czesch, who was content just listening to her feedback.

“Sight is misaligned by 4 degrees to the left. You are also going to have to compensate for air loss after each round, the rifle definitely loses more air than normal so it seems the rounds stop hitting after a while… I´d say .2 inches after every shot, give or take.”

He loaded the weapon himself, getting it ready in a quick flash.

“Copy that. Time to get me some tin men…”

“Beats the real thing, right!?”

“Right…”

Czesch fired shot after shot, compensationg like Karen had told him to, and one by one the tin men fell down. The last one absorbed the shot and remained standing, so Czesch fired another round straight after to force the tin figure down. And it did, earning Karen a plushie the size of a small child as a reward for the shooting gallery. So, in the end, Czesch was down twenty quid and Karen had gained another pet for her collection. And the world kept on going round, as per usual.

“I´m having so much fun!! Thanks for the present, Czeschky! You are the best!”

“Mmmmhmmmm…”

He was lost in thought, still a bit uncomfortable after Karen´s last remark. It´s never easy to hear that a part of your life you thought a mere pastime turned out to be something with much bigger significance. And it seemed that she caught on to it just by checking his face.

“… Hey, C… about what I said before…”

“Yeah?”

“It wasn´t a training program designed by Vivi or anything of the sort. When I went out with you, it was all because I saw that… well, you were pretty lonely… I was as well for a time…and I just wanted you to learn about fun stuff to do.”

“K… you don´t have to-”

“So, I have a question for you, because I definitely know the answer for all the other cases… Are you having fun right now?”

Czesch looked her straight in the eye, and saw her determination. It was a difficult question, especially for a guy like him. What was the definition of fun? How could he describe what he felt when he was so mangled up deep inside? Could he really tell how he truly felt from just second thought or opinion? In the end, he sighed and tried to give an appropriate answer:

“There´s never a dull moment with you around, and… whether I ended up enjoying it or not, it always ends up giving me something to think about or to remember fondly… and fond memories are in short supply when it comes to me, you know that much.”

“Please, Czeschky, just answer the question…”

“… Honestly… I´m having a lot of fun today. Part of it is thanks to you, but I´ve done so much today already that it´s hard to say when it all started… sorry I can´t be more-“

Karen´s almost inaudible giggle turned into a full-blown hysterical laugh before Czesch ended his speech. She was crying a little from all the laughing and some people turned their heads to both of them. When she straightened herself up, she managed to give her response:

“Boy, am I glad!! For a second, I believed you thought of me as a pedant or an annoying friend! Thank you, C!!”

Another wide eye-to-eye grin, one that always kickstarted feelings in the Kid´s mind that he wasn’t used to in the least. He looked to a side, blushing and scratching the back of his neck.

“H-Hey, I never said you were good! I just implied that there´s no time to breathe when you lead!”

He knew that was an answer that only Nate would deliver… and Karen had talked with Nate extensively.

“And that´s the best compliment you´ve made all night, C!! Come here!!”

Another Karen hug. And, for a second, Czesch thought he had passed out from the pressure but, suddenly, Karen was grasped by a powerful hand that pulled her away from him. All sorts of alarms started triggering as he got ready to employ force. A kidnapping? A robbery? Terrorist attack?

And then he heard Nate laughing right behind him, and saw Vivi grabbing Karen by the shoulder… alarms were still blaring, but the threat had changed entirely.

“Now… what did I tell you about hugging the Kid?”

Karen, hanging in the air from Vivi´s powerful arm, began twiddling with her fingers.

“… That I have to be careful not to strangle him…”

“And what were you doing?... Come on, love, don´t be shy…”

“…Strangling him… sorry…”

Vivi kindly dropped her onto the cold, hard ground as a reward for her honesty.

“That´s a good girl… Hey there, Czesch!! Never thought we´d find you here!”

“What the- V-vivi!? What are you-?”

Nate turned him around to face him, just as he burped. The smell of alcohol was too noticeable to not cringe at the sudden scent.

“And don´t forget about us!! Rob and Buri asked for their day off just to come over and check your performance! I, of course, had-”

“Wait, wait, performance!? Czeschky, did you play music here!?”

Karen immediately got back up, grabbing the Kid by the collar of his shirt. If there was a person alive that loved his music, it had to be her.

“Errrr, yeah? It´s the whole reason I was part of that stupid contest for desperate women… apparently I did well enough at it that some people think of me as a god of music of sorts.”

“You did fuck up at the end.”

“Completely.”

“I wouldn’t say that much, but it was a bit hard on the ears.”

“… Thanks, guys…really feeling the love…”

Their honesty was well founded, if a bit overbearing. That was the problem when trying out a song he hadn’t practiced beforehand: Mistakes were bound to be made.

“Nate!! Did you record it!? Please, please, please, tell me you did! You always do!”

“Hmmm… I think I forgot to bring my camera to this one… sorry, sweetheart…”

“Ohhhh…. I missed one of Czeschky´s performances, I can´t believe it…”

“… that´s what I´ll tell you when I´m drunk enough to forget to bring it with me!! Psych!!”

The marksman got a laugh out of the girl´s innocence, just as she punched him in the ribs.

“Nate, you´re mean!! When will you give it to me?”

Nate couldn’t help but guffaw at the obvious hidden meaning behind it, while Vivi merely looked at him with killing intent. Czesch was too out of place to react accordingly.

“When I edit it properly, then you´ll get to hear the whole thing… you think I should, C?”

“I´m… I… don´t even… can´t…”

“What´s the matter, C? You didn’t expect us to come?”

“N-Not at all!! I thought you were up to your necks with work and-“

“We are hardly working! That´s just something Nate here said to save his arse, since he has been walking around Central without a thing to do for a while.”

“Oh, like you are doing any better, Rob!! Should I tell everyone about-“

Buri was fast enough to separate the arguing couple before a proper fight broke out.

“Guys, guys, come on! We are here to have fun and torture the Kid a bit. You´ll go back to kicking each other´s ass after we are done… and after we have a few more rounds!!”

“Amen to that!”

Nate looked like he had too many a pint to take up on Buri´s offer, laughing at seemingly nothing and holding onto his shoulder for some support. That meant they had ben there for quite a while, taking in the festive spirit of the night at their own fast pace. Buri was also drunk, but he had a resistance to alcohol way beyond any of the team, including Czesch, and bared the effects of the dozen drinks on him with better results than his British companion.

While the rest of the SOT argued about where to continue their drink pillaging, Vivi approached Czesch with a smile that didn’t bode well.

“By the way, C… that encore song you played…”

“Oh, errr… Vivi, I can explain- Ouch, why always the right thigh!? You know it´s-”

“I don´t think I gave you permission to use that one outside our performances! You know how much that´s going to hurt the show!? Now half the bloody town knows about our best song, you fool!”

“I´m sorry, I´m sorry, I´m-!!”

He had expected another fist to fly in his direction, but instead Vivi chose to do a half-hug of sorts, wrapping her arm around his neck. She was keeping Czesch´s ear close to her mouth, for she was about to whisper some words Czesch desperately needed:

“That last song… she would have loved it… so better practice for when she comes to not fuck it up, ok?…”

For a second, Czesch felt his heart thumping, like a drum being played inside a cave… and the feeling was that of relief. For years, he believed that his blood had freezed and, under that mask of optimism he forced himself to wear, deep inside, he was as dead as the people he had left behind. And now he could feel that his heart was still beating... just coming to grips with it was quite a surreal experience for him. Vivi stopped hugging him and squeezed her fist gently on top of his head. That was the way Vivi had to let him know that she was there for him.

Immediately after, of course, she hit him in the leg again.

“Ouch!! Talk about a shifting temper!!”

“Don´t do this ever again without permission, or next time I´ll force you to run around town for 12 hours straight, did I make myself clear!?”

“Vivi, come on, I didn´t-“

“Did I make myself clear, Kid!?”

“Y-Yes, Ma´am!”

“Good… come on, boys, time to go and leave C to his things… and you, missy, are coming with us!”

She grabbed Karen yet again, having her hang from the air yet again.

“Huh!? Why me!? I haven´t done anything wrong!”

“Gervaise called us, said you are skipping work right now.”

“K!”

She gave herself a nudge in the head, one that was supposed to be “cute”… the Kid was too caught up in the moment to notice.

“Ooopsie… I guess I got caught in the end,haha…”

“He´s furious right now, so better come back before he gets a rifle out of the box… literally.”

“Okay… have fun, C!”

“See you later, Kid… and remember, if someone offers some candy your way, accept it and send it my way to resell  later!! You never know when you are going to hit a gold mine!”

“Nate, you jackass, don´t involve Czesch in your weird conspiracies!”

“C´mon, V, you know I wasn’t ! This is another contract to get better acquainted with society! Right, guys? Rob? Buri?”

The other two members did the right thing by tapping him on the shoulder, getting him off his high horse.

“You need to quit the drinking or else Sally will skin you alive”

“And we know who has the pants on in that house…”

“Oh, shut it!! What would you know about- Wow, almost tripped there…”

“We´ll get you home, you drunk fool… don´t drink as much as him in the future, huh, Kid?”

“Making no promises!”

The team and Karen left Czesch to his own devices… and now he realized he didn’t know what he wanted to do. He had been going around with people so much during the festival that just now he noticed that, by himself, there wasn´t much that was catching his eye.

It had all been a rush, apart from waiting for that bloody contest to end. Playing with the band, then playing Laria´s song, then Karen showing up… he felt like he needed a breather, some time to compensate for all the action-

“So, are you going to explain yourself or will we have to ask?”

Annie and Jess… in the nick of time, of course. Happy thoughts of relaxing and having a moment to reflect on things disappeared immediately upon seeing their bewildered faces.

“Oh, right… that was Karen, a friend of mine, along with Vivi and her buddies. Karen is one of the first people I met while in Hereford, so I get along well with her.”

“Just a friend? Or-“

“Just a friend. She is overly joyful, I know, and that often gives the wrong impression to people… so, no, we are not going out together… not that you two should be so bothered by that thought.”

 “Right, w-we aren´t!! You can go out with whoever you want! It´s totally your choice!”

“Exactly!”

The way they almost screamed that to his face didn’t convince him in the least.

“… OK… so, you girls have any plans? Because right now I´m a step away from just calling it a night.”

“Already? Come on, playing with us wasn’t that tiring!”

“Well, you haven’t had to, oh, I don’t know, play a full-on ballad and right after deal with Miss Sunshine for an extended period of time!!… sorry, that came off a bit strong… I just… feel exhausted all of a sudden.”

“It´s a normal thing after-“

“Are you sure it´s just that, C? Is it really just exhaustion?”

Of course Annie would have to ask the question. She had just seen him collapse in front of her a while back, so being overly careful was high on the list of prioritites. Czesch wasn’t in that state… at least not yet… he hoped it would be a while before the next downpour hit, but that was wishful thinking on his part.

“I´m good, I´m good… not planning on collapsing again, that I can tell you.”

“That´s a relief… oh, right, we almost forgot!”

“About what? I get the feeling that, whatever it is, it´s not going to be good…”

“We wanted to congratulate you on that last performance! It was amazing!”

“You did fuck up at the-“

“End. Yeah, I did, can you people stop pointing that out? Already learned my lesson, sheesh.”

“I mean, it sounded good, but the rhythm was a bit messed up, if I´m honest.”

“I thought it was a beautiful song, and the delivery was… errr… shit, can´t find a word to describe it.”

Seeing a chance to get some snark on the plate, he swiftly moved in for the kill.

“The writer can´t find a word to describe something? My, my, aren´t we getting rusty!”

“Oh, like you did any better when you played with Vivi, idiot!”

“Hehehe… so, you girls want to do anything exciting?”

“Hmmm, I think I´ve got an-“

Annie´s phone rang and went to a side, talking with whoever was at the end, and Annie wasn’t exactly pleased while speaking:

“I´m in the middle of- What!? You told me- No, you told me that´d be tomorrow, not today!!... Just because he doesn´t feel like it… Shit, shit! Is there no way you can- OK… aha… right… sure, sure… sorry… I´m on my way now, wait up…”

She hung up and sighed deeply, so much so in fact that it seemed that her lungs were running out of oxygen. She turned back to both with a grim look in her face.

“I, err… have to go meet someone… sorry, I… I thought this would happen tomorrow, but-“

“No worries, Annie! I´ll make sure to keep Czesch here on a leash.”

“I´m not a dog, you know!!”

“Yeah…yeah… well, see ya!”

She left on a hurry, making Czesch wonder if she would be OK. Normally, he would have just shrugged it off, seeing that it was her own business and that he had nothing to do with it. But lately he had been getting the impression that doing so was not the correct course of action, that Annie had problems that were bigger than her and that he needed to lend in a hand… he realized now that Annie was trying to accomplish the exact same thing with him and his answer had been straight denial. He felt like an idiot, the exact words Annie used every time when referring to him.

“Do you think she´ll be alright? She looked quite anxious.”

“Annie is one of the strongest people I know. If she can´t handle it… aahh, let´s not worry about that now! Come on, let´s go have some fun.”

Czesch spent the rest of the night going out with Jess. And the idea didn’t conflict with him at all, far from that… he found out that spending time with her was a welcome change of pace. They played games, did pranks on one another, held a drinking competition and Czesch ended up gifting her one of the prizes he had won at one of the games.

“Come on, you don´t have to! You won that one fair and square!”

“I really don´t see any use I could give it…”

“So you are giving me trash? Great.”

“… and I wanted you to have it, suits you just fine.”

“Huh? Where did that one come from?”

Jess looked at him straight in the eye, Czesch doing the same. What was he doing? What had those words, those intentions, come out of his mouth? He took a better look at her. Czesch tried to remember people by their names moreso than their faces, since he always had a hard time looking at people directly in the eyes…and he was surprised by the fact that he had never noticed Jess wore glasses over her blue eyes. He had spent a fair amount of time with her and he had only noticed her interior, her struggle and desires, instead of her exterior. Looking at her then… he came to the conclusion that she was quite cute (not as much as Annie, but enticing enough compared to Lucie or Jenny), and found himself staring at her as she toyed around with her gift, unsure as to how to take his sudden boost in interest.

“W-Well, thanks, I guess… hmmmm…. Czesch?”

“Huh? What?”

“Errrrr, you are staring at me a bit too much, aren´t you?”

“I am!? Oh, sorry, sorry! I got… caught in a thought.”

“You are acting really weird all of a-“

She stopped mid-sentence, apparently realizing something important. She turned her head away from Czesch, muttering something to herself. He couldn’t quite make it out, so he wasn’t sure whether to be happy or afraid… and clearly being both at the same time would get him nowhere.

“Czesch, can I… can I ask you a favor?”

“D-Depends on the favor…”

“… No, this won´t do, we need a better spot… come with me, I know a spot we can use…”

“Errrr, can´t you… maybe, tell me what you are-“

“Trust me, OK? It´s worth a try.”

The door opened at the mention of that word: trust. A revolving door that swung around, causing grief and respect on equal measure. There came times where Czesch doubted even his own shadow, marked as he was by fate to seek death around him. He was saved from that, time and time again, by different individuals with desires and will that challenged destiny. First came Bishop, then Laria, then Sabrina and, finally, at his darkest moment, Vivi.  Human interaction was something so basic and yet so important… how come he had never noticed how close to heart it was?

He couldn’t spend his entire life running away from people. The best he could do was try to keep them out of harms way as best as possible, to avoid having to lose any more. It was one of his greatest struggles, the possibility that he´d have to witness the death of another again and go through the same corroding pain and remorse. And, just as he knew that his heart was still beating, so too came the knowledge that the death of others would slowly etch his will and degrade the shield he had raised against causality.

But that situation was entirely different: He wasn´t in a battlefield and he wasn´t fighting a soul. He was walking along a bunch of woods inside a park next to the school alongside a person he had only known for almost 3 weeks and who he had come to see in a different light very recently. Jess had an active mind, was rash like Annie, but also showed care and compassion to those close to her. She played music with her heart, something Czesch barely did anymore, and the tunes coming out seemed at first hand angsty and disdainful, but deep behind the melodies coming out of her instrument was a much bigger message that he had managed to open up. A message too familiar to a dead man walking like him:

I´ll never stop heading forward. No matter what may come.

They made it through the park and the shrubbery, which was quite thick. Remarkably, Jess had chosen a path that had been carved out lightly for human usage and kept in some sort of constant renovation, a weird notion for a town like Harville. Finally, they arrived at a small grove at the highest point of the park (which was sitting atop of a small hill) and looked down below at the festival. They weren´t that high up and the smell of fried food and garbage crept up on them. However, the sights were mind-numbing, even for someone like Czesch, who had been all around the world. Maybe only now he noticed the lights of the city and those of the sky as something of beauty. Maybe now he´d be able to better appreciate the starred skylines of the desert or the aurora up in the North.

Maybe… but the world wasn’t made up of maybes in the least.

“You don´t pick places by the smell, I can tell you that much!! First the Vietnamese, and now…”

She chuckled at that. He had tried to be a bit rude for god knows what reason, but she had chuckled. That was something he didn’t expect, his snark actually paying off. Jess stood beside him, looking down below and waiting for Czesch to say something. He gulped and tried coming up with something remotely encouraging.

“… but the view is amazing from up here. Didn’t know there were places like these left in a city of vagrants and sociopaths.”

“We found it when we first formed the group, before the band even became a thing. This is our special spot, a place to relax and unwind after a hard day… or a place to do something to remember…”

Those words had meaning behind them. Even through the darkness, Czesch could still squint out the blushing on Jess´s face, who was arming herself with courage to commit the following question:

“C-Can I ask you the favor now?”

“Sure… sure, go ahead…”

“Could you… close your eyes for a few?”

“Huh? You want me to fall asleep?”

“N-No! J-Just close your eyes… please… can´t do this with you watching.”

“… Alright…”

He obeyed her command, and the world turned to dark. A small crying voice inside of him was warning of possible threats, like a knife or a gunshot among the woods. He tried his hardest to overpower it, as he waited for Jess to do whatever she was planning. She cleared her throat and got closer to him, putting herself  right up his nose, so close that it reminded Czesch of… he composed himself, trying to imagine his feet being covered with a thick layer of concrete to avoid running away.

“Okay, here goes… when you first came over, I thought of you as another asshole friend of Annie´s. I didn´t like the way you bossed us around, didn’t like the way you smiled at us or the way you got toyed around… I liked none of it… but… but then, out of nowhere, you… you changed everything.”

She stopped to clear her mind, clearly having a hard time getting her ideas into order.

“When… mom died, I tried… tried to become her. Not better than her, just her… just because I didn’t want her memory to fade. I didn’t want her to leave like she did, so I… I acted dumb. Ever since she was gone, I always doubted if I was doing the right thing or not… and all it took for you was a jam session with a piano and swollen hands to make me realize what an idiot I was being.”

Somehow, Czesch just knew she was smirking. Maybe she didn’t want anyone looking at her while saying something like that. She probably thought she was being annoying, talking about her problems in that way. He paid no mind… he had been in the same shoes a dozen times.

“When we played together today, I… I couldn’t see that asshole anymore. I couldn’t see you, I could just… hear you. How distraught you really feel, how many you must have lost, how… confused you are behind deep down… and all of that while pulling a smile. You didn’t let any of it bring you down. and for that, I…”

She breathed heavily. Czesch tried to keep his cool for her comfort, although he wasn’t sure he was doing the right thing.

“I´ve never met a guy like you in all my life, and I doubt I´ll find anyone that even comes to compare … If it hadn’t been for you, I… what I´m trying to say is that… that… argh, shit!... I wanted to… thank you… for everything you´ve done, and I… I-I… God, I have the urge to shout cut and do a re-run, it feels like I´m in a bad soap opera!”

“I´ve my eyes closed, don´t worry about it.”

“It´s my first time doing something like this, OK!? D-Don´t give me any shit!”

“Well, if you are getting stuck, just go with the basics and-“

Roll with it. He had wanted to say that, but his mouth was stopped from uttering any other sound. The kiss had been just like Rakya´s, although part of him had been expecting something along those lines since the start of her speech. Even with his foresight, the kiss actually caught him off-guard in a sense. Her lips were hot compared to the cold lumps of skin he called his. It really was her first time, with how clumsy the kiss was becoming, but Czesch couldn’t claim being an expert at it anyways.

His mind went astray, but he wasn’t afraid. This surprised him, considering that his entire existence was based around controlling his impulses and behavior, constantly restraining himself to prevent him losing his mind and avoiding a massacre that would almost certainly follow. But, as Jess kept on kissing, he stopped thinking, feeling only the sensation of her warmth invading him.

He could feel his heart beating in his chest and the blood that flowed through his veins... he was alive. More alive that he’d ever felt among the numerous different hells he had lived through. Right now at this moment, there was nothing that could go wrong that he couldn’t solve and compared to his normal fucked up nature at this moment.. he felt a sort of peace that hadn’t showed up in years.

But that sensation was short-lived, as Jess pulled away from him. Something did not feel right, he thought they were both enjoying it. Had he fucked up somehow? He wanted to open his eyes and see her face, but he believed she would get mad at him for watching her act dumb and-

And she kissed him again. This time it was even more rash than before, and didn’t quite have the effect of the first one. It was quicker too, and left Czesch a bit uneasy. Not knowing what thoughts crossed her mind was quite the problem when it came down to responding.

“… Jess? Am I really that bad at this?”

“No, no, no, it´s not… it´s not you… I think… what the actual fuck…”

He opened his eyes. She didn’t look furious, angry or even sad. She just looked a bit annoyed at herself, muttering without really knowing what she was saying.

“I expected… I don’t really know what I was expecting… something different than this…”

“I have to admit you had the perfect setup… apart from the smell of the stands, that was a bit distracting.”

“You think that had something to do with it?”

“I dunno. But I´m not really sure what you are on about, I thought that was great.”

“W-Well, it… it didn’t feel the same for me… there was no magic in it… it just felt like rubbing my lips on rubber… no fuzzy feeling, no fucked up thoughts… nothing.”

“… Come on, not even I can be THAT clumsy!”

“I already told you it isn´t about you, dumbass!! You are an amazing guy and I wanted to feel that way as well!! But… it didn’t turn out the way I wanted!”

“Then what´s the problem?”

“I… I don´t know… why…”

She crouched down among the shrubbery, with Czesch following her up. Her muttering was turning halfways to sobbing, but not quite making her cry about it. She had a strong will, he gave her that much.

“I imagined something spectacular, for me to be invaded with… I don´t know, feelings I´ve never felt. A bit like when we played together, I wanted to feel that but times a hundred! But for some reason… somehow, everything has gone to shit… and here I thought not fucking up our session was the impossible thing.”

“That sort of bad luck happens every single time… Murphy´s Law, you know.”

“I… really don´t know what to think anymore… I´ve already made the step, and I thought it´d work. But now… now I just feel like a complete idiot.”

She hid her face between her arms. She wasn’t crying, she was simply avoiding having to look at anything to clear her head from any disturbance. Czesch sighed, knowing too well that feeling of having done something you thought right and having it blow on your face completely. He sat right next to her, trying his best to comfort her with his limited skills.

“The line between bravery and foolishness is very tight, so much so we cross it without even noticing, making fools out of ourselves… and there´s no better feeling than being a fool.”

“… You picked that up on a book or what?”

“A friend… one of my mentors taught that to me after I fucked up big time once. By that he meant that sometimes acting with good intentions can often times end up with a terrible result… but the hidden meaning there is that, even if you screw things up by the end, it´s a lot better than not going through with it.”

“… It´s not the end result that makes the action worthwhile…”

“It´s acting that makes us who we are, and not acting carries all sorts of remorse. If you hadn´t done it today, you probably would have felt like shit afterwards.”

“Sounds about right… the end result matters, but… knowing that I finally got that out of my chest is a bit of a relief.”

“It always is. Trust me, holding up thoughts like that for too long is actually harmful. Speaking from experience here.”

“But… this still doesn’t solve the problem… I know what want to feel for you, but I still don´t get any tinge when we… you know…”

“I don’t know… want to try again, see if anything has changed?”

“I´ve got nothing to lose, so… here goes nothing!”

They kissed again, and this time Czesch felt a lot of conflicted feeling behind this one. All those sensations that had flooded him before had been replaced by arousal, and he now noticed the growing bulge in his pants. He hoped Jess wouldn’t notice, though he considered she had problems of her own to deal with. They separated lips and Jess sighed again.

“Nothing on my end, same as before… you?”

“I-I´m… getting the hang of it… I think…”

“Wow, you really are susceptible to these, aren’t you?  And still no idea what I´m supposed to do… why the fuck does this happen? I´m dead set on it, but I cant get there no matter how hard I try!”

Czesch started pondering about it. Why was she so determined on it? What had brought an idea like that inside of her head? Had it been… yes, of course. That could be the source of all the problems. The source that had helped her out so much was now backfiring in a sense, and he knew he had to mend that before it got any worse.

“Jess, I want you to say what you like about me.”

“Huh? How´s that going to help?”

“Just, believe me, it´ll somehow work…”

She pondered for a moment, trying to summon as many adjectives as her mind could allow.

“Errr… You´re…  whenever you play, you put your whole being into it. You smile carefree, sing effortlessly and play around without being really there, while also playing around with the people around you. You are amazing at that and-“

“Let´s switch things now… concentrate on me this time instead of my musician persona. What can you say of me? What would make you fall in love with me?”

“Well, you´re… you´re a… a… nice guy?... Oh, wait…”

Czesch and Jess felt completely silent. Jess, because she had just realized what the problem in front of her was…Czesch, because that description had been a little bit… discouraging, to say the least.

“… That´s it? That´s my only redeeming quality? Being nice?... Oh god, there´s all kinds of wrong with that one and you´ll never know any of it…”

“I´ve… I think I´ve got it… and I think you got it as well, right before I did!”

“Then go ahead, tell me what´s the problem and how you can solve it.”

“The problem is that… I´m not in love with you! How could I be? You aren´t that dreamy if you are not on stage!”

He fell another hit to his self-esteem, lowering his head in the process while sighing.

“… A tiny part of me just died there, but go ahead. Why is that?”

“Because… because I only fell in love with your music, with the way you played. I was so enthralled by it I got it all mixed in the end!! Instead of just loving the music, I started loving the person behind it without really knowing him… I-I mean, you´re a really nice guy, but-“

“Again, can´t really tell you how wrong you are on that one.”

Seeing him being so adamant in denying such an obvious character trait, she couldn’t help but nudge him.

“What? It´s not that far from reality! You love helping people!”

“Oh, trust me, it isn’t love… you could say it´s inertia, something I´ve been doing for a while now… can´t really stop after doing it my whole life, can I?”

 “Okay… well, you are just not my type, that´s the answer. Which begs the question…what´s my type? I´ve always wondered, but looking at you guys… it was kind of underwhelming, to be completely honest. You don´t strike me as anything but baboons.”

“Ouch, that´s cruel!... So, you´ve nothing as a reference point? Even if I have my preferred type, and I´m not that interested in the first place.”

She looked at the dark skies above for an answer, but her search was for naught.

“Not…really.”

 “No sex idol? No nothing?”

“I´ve got the sax, I never thought I´d need more than that.”

Czesch´s mind peered into a very dark place… and immediately returned upon framing imagery more disturbing than war photography.

“Aha… right… that went really creepy real fast.”

“…Like you are one to talk about creep factor.”

“Look, I´m just trying to help out, that´s-“

“Oh, like you´d come up with the answer right away! What, now you are going to tell me what my sex preferences are like? Come on!”

She got up, her patience having run out from the Kid´s constant foresight.

“Hey, at least I find the answers when I look for them! You´d just be moody, playing the sax alone in the woods if it wasn´t for me!”

“Then, oh so mighty one, pray tell, why I don´t get off while looking at your smug and neanderthal faces!?”

“Maybe you just don´t lean that way!”

“I… wait, what?”

“I said maybe you just don’t lean that way!! The world is very diverse when it comes to people shagging one another!! Otherwise it’d just be a boring waste of time to talk about it!”

Jess stopped her rambling. She looked at the Kid dead in the eye, who was still a bit heated up by her sudden outburst, managing to calm him down with her sudden calm state. She then turned around and looked at the festival below, people still going around and wasting their money on cheap thrills. Just as Czesch approached her from behind, she began giggling, forcing him to ask the obvious.

“Jess, what´s up?... A-Are you OK?”

“Was the answer always this simple? I just… can´t believe… holy shit, it was that was simple… all this time…”

“Jess, I have no clue what you are on about.”

“What I´m on about? You just made me realize I´ve been blind in more ways than one, that´s what I´m on about!!”

“Errr, what?”

She started laughing with all her strength, every breath of air turning immediately and litteraly into laughing material. Tears were streaming across her face, and Czesch couldn’t help but join the laughter, even if he wasn’t completely sure that he understood what she had just realized.

“Oh, man!! Oooh, I needed that so badly!! Thanks, Czesch!!”

“Don´t mention it… by the way, errrr… this little incident…I hope it wasn´t-”

“That´s right! I won´t say a thing about it. After all… I still want to give Annie some hope… and I´m sure you want that as well…”

The mention of his relationship with Annie right after going through that ordeal… it was a bit too much for the Kid to handle.

“Wha- What!? Come on, we are friends!! Why can´t you people let the idea rest!?”

“Because it´s going to happen, whether you like it or not!!! Now, come on, we´ve got long lives to live, cash to spend and I´ve a new world I want to explore,and finding the right person is going to be the best challenge of them all!”

The way she phrased it… could it be that she… truly leaned the other way?

“… Wait, wait, wait… are you saying that-!?”

“The night is still young!! Hahahahaha!!”

She ran back the way they came, dragging Czesch along with her. She had recovered to her usual self, acting brash and arrogant, but… she was smiling now, a nice change of pace for her. Unlike Czesch, who had got a bit grim for a second… the moment she said “we´ve long lives to live”.

A foolish notion, one that had cost the lives of all who believed it.

Another dream. Another miserable nightmare, dark and shoddy. This time, it was in a hospital… no, calling that a hospital would be a disservice to what hospitals represent. A dark clinic, lights flickering on and off as the sounds of bombing reigned in the distance. Czesch hadn´t been there in a while, and now it came off as a surprise while he made his way through the corridors. He knew which one to take, for how long to walk and what door he had to get in to get eyes on the person that was supposed to be there. It was the room where Mila had drawn her last breath… Mila, “The Healing Hand”, the one person in the Pack who received more damage than she dealt. Sabrina´s lover at a young age and also quite an patient and empathic  person before and after the fight. Without her, the Kid would have died a hundred times or so… he owed her so much, and he hadn’t paid back even a quarter of it.

He finally opened the door, only to reveal Sabrina reading a book. Of course she would pull something like that, taking Mila´s place just to screw with his memory. He knew so far as to doubt whenever Sabrina decided to pop up into existence inside his mind. He went for the clinic´s window, which shed an orange light formed by the late afternoon sun and the fires around town.  He waited there for a while, waiting for Sabrina to say whatever she had to. She finally put the book down, turning to the Kid with her usual crazy look.

“You know how weird it felt, the first time I kissed her? She was frustrated, about to break from all the pressure, and what I did just came naturally… I tried to care for her like I did for any other, but she was special. She couldn’t act like you and go to a full killing spree to relieve the tension, she had to stay behind and heal wounds that would kill us but which only harmed her... Kinda fucked up, innit?”

“We almost overdosed her on morphine one time. I remember you took her hand and told her everything would be alright over and over... she was too good to all of us.”

“In the end, she ended up like we all did… apart from you, that is. You got off lucky.”

It was his turn to stare at her, only his was filled with repressed anger.

“Yeah, right… the boy dreaming of all his mistakes every single night is supposed to be the lucky one of the bunch. Give me a break, Sabi.”

“I think you´ve already had quite the break… this festival must have been a very happy moment for you.”

She remained silent after that final remark. Czesch sighed and finally threw the question he had in his mind, one of which he knew the answer to.

“It isn´t going to last, is it? This period… you said it would only get worse.”

“That´s how she wants it to be… and she isn´t going to go easy on you.”

“She shouldn’t be. I´ve been screwing with her plans ever since she gave me this bloody curse.”

At the mention of the word “curse”, Sabrina began giggling like a schoolgirl.

“A curse of curses… a curse formed by Will alone… do you know what it means?”

“I doubt I want to. The moment I do, I´ll grow complacent.”

“And that´s when she´ll get you… you´ve grown well after all this time!!”

“… How bad is this going to be?”

“It isn´t going to be like “that”… but it´s going to hurt nonetheless.”

“So, same thing as always? Push through and hope for the best?”

“You´ve got it! Same old Czesch, to the rescue!”

Czesch went towards Sabrina, hugging her in the process, catching her by surprise. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt like he had to do it before regretting not being able to… Jess had reminded him of that much. He knew the dream was almost over, and so he asked a last question before the world around him turned dark again.

“What is that book you are reading?”

“It´s called “The Importance of Friends”… you should give it a read, it´s quite enlightening.”

And as shadows engulfed his whole being, he couldn´t help but smirk and say the obvious:

“Nothing quite like friends.”

 �

Next Chapter: Chapter VIII: Armenians Get Cocky and Get What They Deserve