"What do you mean?" Mina answering to Pyotr
"Mina, why are you blinding yourself? Isn't it enough for you? he answers facing Mina with an ominous yellow backlight shining on his back
"What?" She stutters back
The light turns on inside the room. Her gaze lowers, seeing the once white mattress, turning into a blood red color. She jumps off falling on the floor, witnessing the door getting kicked in by a group of suited men holding silenced MP-5s.
"If you can't see the truth, maybe it's best for you to go to Hell to witness it." Pyotr shouts at Mina, falling down the balcony from the number of bullets hitting him in the chest.
She screams in fear, waking up on the muddy ground again. A mere 10 seconds passed after she fell on the ground and relapsed. Her stomach pain is gone, though Koltis stands in front of her, with Fotia sprinting directly at him.
She locks eyes with him, noticing a light shimmer inside it.
You are one of them, so you really meant it when you said you were awakened. I thought they were all dead, but no I was wrong. How did I not notice, you are unnatural. Let us see how you stand against this.
She goes for the handgun on her waist and points it towards Koltis in a quick succession. Shooting him into the chest 3 times. Too fast for Koltis to react, he immediately falls on the mud. Gurgling from the amount of blood, he loses every second.
Fotia slows down, gazing at Mina standing upon Koltis laying on the ground. She signals the exit behind her to Fotia, leading them both to escape the compound onto the streets, but before escaping she spits on Koltis' face.
"You deserve nothing but death." She whispers to him, squatting down.
They both escaped late at night, leaving a crowd of workers surrounding Koltis.
"Please call help." Koltis shouts out
This damn demon, this is my end. I wish my father would not notice me in this pathetic state. Please let me walk longer in this life. I will follow your commands. Just one more walk...
His muscles soften as he ends his thoughts.
Meanwhile, both Mina and Fotia are deep downtown, with multiple eyes staring at them and looking away at the same time. Looking for a sky train to Ghaya, they managed to evade suspicious officers, investigating their chaos on the Ware hub compound.
Her right hand shakes lightly.
Godddamn it, I let it go again. These damn thoughts, so vengeful and a violation of Pyotr's code. I must tell him, I cannot live with it, I feel so guilty. Falling back to old habits, I wish I had never started.
"Oh, man I'm so hungry. Let's grab some pizza."
She spots a small corner restaurant named "Andrea's Pizzeria", with barely functioning green neon signs illuminating the entrance. Though Mina enters, Fotia stands in the alleyway besides it, no being able to enter, because of its sheer size.
Small bells ring as she opens the door to an empty room. The yellow-white uneven marble floor plastered everywhere on the ground, with the room being cut in half by an area elevated for the orders of customers, the restaurant seems minimalistic. Traditional Astrum tables, with white-red geometric tablecloth and Bergère chairs lined with them, fill in the entire restaurant. A small old lady sits behind the white counter on the elevated area of the restaurant.
"We are closing, get off." She shouts out across from the counter.
"Oh, I didn't know that my bad." her head down, she turns around.
"Come on, don't give me that face. If your stomach yearns it so much, I'll fill it."
Mina turns around, sitting down on one of the tables.
"What is it dear?" She comes over to her table.
"Huh, what do you mean?" Mina's eye stares blankly through space.
"Something happened today?" She sits down across the table, facing her, while Mina does not, looking away outside the window into the streets.
"Nothing, just some stress from work." She answers silently to her.
"Hm, alright so what kind of Pizza does your heart desire?"
"Salami, please."
"Coming right up, young lady."
Running up behind the counter, she kneads the dough elegantly with her hands. Briefly stopping, grabbing a purple-red tinted powder from a wooden shelf above the table.
"We call this Nafasian spice, you know?"
"Yes, I do actually." She smirks, looking out the window onto the streets.
"My father once taught me how to knead the best dough in the wide galaxy. I'm carrying his legacy now as the best Pizza maker!" She announces proudly.
Mina chuckles lightly.
"Hey, is it okay if I order two, for my friend outside?"
"Oh sure! Why doesn't he take a seat in here?"
"He is a bit too tall, maybe."
"No way! Invite him in, we have enough space!"
Mina went outside to call Fotia, it tried to get in, failing miserably.
"Oh dear, he is one quite a tall gentleman. No worries let us place a table outside for both of you."
"Both nodded down, thanking her for her warm generosity.
"Hey, I ordered you one Pizza too. My favorite one though, so you got to endure my taste."
This reminds me of the dinners I had with my mom. Oh, how I miss them, so welcoming and warm every time. Thank you, strange girl, for this reminder.
Fotia nods, thumbing up to her.
"Here we go. Two salami Pizzas for two souls."
A wide crust filled with cheese, salami toppings spaced evenly across all precut slices, steaming hot up through the cold night air.
"Oh my, I haven't eaten a good-looking pizza in a long while. Come on, try one too Fotia."
Fotia's hand reaches out to one, trying to grab one cautiously without crushing it immediately. Not having a mouth, it tries to squish down the pizza through the vertical gap below the eye socket. Disappearing behind the deep darkness inside the helmet.
It tastes so delicious, I feel it is so intense, with every part of my being. It calms and sooths. The different flavors combining into one big orchestra, playing the strings of a part of my being, I never knew.
One small tear flows out from Fotia's eye socket, dripping down the metallic surface and landing on the grey ashy ground. Splashing on the dirt, ashes fly out turning into a bright green, a withering dandelion before death replenishes into a white seed head. Whistling winds let seeds glide with them, spreading life again.
Mina witnesses Fotia's tear doing that, bewildered by the situation she just witnessed.
"Fotia, what are you really?"