Soaked with old, dirty stone walls surrounded the imprisoned girls. Chained by rusty chains to a hitch in the ceiling, they sat on the cold floor, their backs to each other. They were in a dungeon in the mansion's basement, behind bars. They had completely lost track of time, as no light reached these dark recesses. They did not know when it was night and when it was day. They could only suggest themselves by murmurs and deafening voices from above. It was unfortunate that Kaja's group was at a time of food rationing, so her hunger was getting the best of her. She was burping in her stomach which Aurora could clearly hear. Kaja felt ashamed, it was embarrassing for her even though her friend assured her that it shouldn't be. The gap between the girls was huge when it came to survival, but the fear for their own lives in both of them was comparable. They were in such paralysis that their conversations quickly ended or did not begin at all. Only silence filled the four walls for a long time. Aurora wondered if it would be better to stall so that the others could react, but Kaja kept cutting the subject off, explaining that it was better to give up than to die.

  "They will kill us anyway. What difference does it make when?" she burbled exasperatedly.

  Kaja, however, refused to give up. She didn't believe that people could become so bad in a few days. She had confidence that they would survive.

  "They will find us. I am sure." She replied with hope in her voice, turning her head toward Aurora.

  More hours passed in the darkness. The girls were hungry, tired. Aurora felt fear, it is true, but she kept her cool. This caught the attention of Kaja, who envied her this stoic calm. The chain squeaked when the young Kaczmarka tried to turn around without success. Still, she asked bluntly.

  "Aren't you afraid? - She asked timidly.

  "And do I look like I'm afraid? She closed her eyes, exhausted.

  "Well, precisely no. Tell me how you do it."

  Aurora was silent.

  "I want to talk about something because I'm going crazy." She continued.

  "About what? - she answered with compulsion.

  "Tell me something about yourself. What is your story, Aurora?"

  "My story...?" she snorted a sad laugh when Kaja brought up these memories.

  ><

  It was 2008, the sixth day of May. The murmur of rain accompanied the chilly night, bathed in the accompaniment of car engines crossing the street from time to time. Tarhos, holding a bloody knife in his hand wandered down the street. The blood on his body and clothes was washed away by the downpour. Veredi wandered in the depths of his mind, he was not sane at the time. Only moments earlier, he had committed murder on the last person responsible for the death of his family. Police sirens could be heard circling in search of the perpetrator.

  Unexpectedly, the man heard a baby crying. The sound came from a side street. Perplexed, he walked deeper into it, looking around. He spotted the baby, lying on a dirty piece of rag, under a cardboard box protecting it from the rain. Tarhos dropped the knife, kneeling by the child. He burst into tears. The infant reminded him of his daughter, whom he lost seven years ago at the time. He curled up in despair, lamenting. He cuddled the baby to his chest. He no longer knew whether he was crying because of his situation or that someone had abandoned her like a dog. Drops of remaining blood soiled the infant's body, but there was silence. The baby stopped crying.

  The man, despite his inability to take care of the child, tried to do so as best he could. The first months were hard. Of course, he had experience in fatherhood, having been one for five years after all, but the pain caused by the loss never went away. For months after adopting the child, Tarhos suffered from a reality disorder. A switch in his head flipped overnight, causing him to start recognizing his adopted daughter as his dead child. From his perspective it might have all made sense but for some reason Veredi was aware of her death. He repeated phrases like "I won't let you die a second time" or "I'm sorry I wasn't there."

  From the sidelines, it looked terrifying. Strangers hearing these words spoken by a man to a child considered him a madman. And perhaps rightly so, for he was indeed one. It's hard to say whether this was the result of post-traumatic stress disorder, some kind of conversion to a belief in reincarnation, or anything else that might have had an impact.

  Everything changed when Aurora started taking her first steps. Increasingly, the man questioned the life of his biological daughter and became more aware of his mental disability. He began to use the services of a psychiatrist and take medication. He refused treatment in a psychiatric facility because he didn't want to leave his child, even if she had care at the time. His fear of loss was deeply rooted in him. He was afraid to leave Aurora alone. When he went out for five minutes, he had to have the child with him because his psyche would not allow him to function calmly for fear of the worst.

  Tarhos began to improve over time. He weaned off the drugs when it was stable and nothing ever came back, except post-traumatic stress. The man didn't want to go through the same thing a second time, and decided to train his daughter in combat. He had experience himself because he had been an agent in the Mafia during his seven-year pursuit of revenge. One of the agents in 2001 noticed Tarhos' problem and offered him membership at the time. Veredi's condition was a promise to destroy a rival group that had murdered his loved ones, which the organization's leaders did not agree to. However, they offered a counteroffer, which he had already accepted. It consisted of the fact that he would be trained and the information he needed would be lent to him, but he would take the consequences of the murders on himself. And so it happened except that there were no consequences and Tarhos continued to work for the Mafia. He had a short break during his period of psychosis, but returned to it around the same time he began training Aurora. This was at a time when the girl was of school age.

  Her father gave her a hard time, the workouts could last for several hours at a time, sometimes until late at night. Training his daughter became his obsession of sorts. She didn't like it at first, like any child her age she wanted to go to school. Tarhos protested, but under the pressure of her pleas and laments, he finally agreed. As quickly as her learning adventure began, it ended. Children teased her at school, took things away, and insulted her for being "different." This was one of the things that affected the girl's development. She didn't want to form relationships anymore, she was afraid of people. Veredi did not force her to continue her education, in truth he was satisfied with this fact, at least at the time. The income from his work was enough to support the two of them, the girl did not have to worry about anything.

  It came as a great surprise to the man when three years later Aurora asked her father for the opportunity to work with him. She was only ten years old and could match some adults in maturity. Veredi did not agree, already seeing before his eyes what could happen, his job was not safe. The daughter insisted, however, the man resisted with his own. She was the apple of his eye, he allowed her as much as he could, but it was beyond his capabilities. Aurora didn't want to admit it, but she liked the life she was leading at the time. Completely separated from the social life she hated. You could say that through her father's influence Aurora became a loner and she liked it because, well, she had no other choice. That's why she also wanted to belong to the organization, but eventually came to terms with Tarhos' decision.

  Shortly thereafter, the two moved to Finland, more specifically Helsinki. Aurora gathered experience watching Veredi from the sidelines when the man didn't realize it. The girl had no trouble hiding from his eye until she had to deprive a man of his life during one of Tarhos' missions. It was not planned, rather a "mere" accident through recklessness and sticking her nose into things that were not her own. She felt that what her father was dealing with was dirty work. She had a moment of hesitation but did not give up her plans. The first assassination was another impetus for her to turn into a disturbed person. One day finally Tarhos had to urgently fly to another country to fulfill his duties, he took Aurora with him. He agreed to let the girl help him this one time, but even this was unfortunate because it was the moment of an emergency landing in a Polish village. The girl admitted that it was not any change of her father's job, just as the text about working in a kindergarten was a lie. They were supposed to go to the country on a mission to assassinate a politician involved in human trafficking deals and acting as a rival to a mob principal. Unfortunately, or unfortunately and unfortunately, it stopped mattering to them the moment they saw the first walking dead.

  ><

  "Are you an agent?" she quietly exclaimed, fascinated, unable to hide her smile.

  "Yeah, or rather, I was." she replied, feeling uncomfortable with the fact that Kaja was so stoked.

  "She's great." she thought, wanting to ask Aurora another question but the sudden opening of the door and the sound of footsteps startled her. Aurora became as invigorated as a cat alarmed by danger. Both girls waited for the person who was about to emerge from around the corner. Whether it was Igor or Klara it still did not bode well. Out of the two, Klara came down to the basement, holding a small tray that contained leftover food. A piece of a loaf of bread and half a bottle of water. Kaja was happy to see the food, Aurora not so much. She suspected that it might be a way to get rid of them with some kind of poison.

  "You can eat it." Klara opened the cell door with a key and then went inside. She placed the tray right next to the girls so they could easily reach it.

  The girls watched Klara in silence. They met each other's eyes momentarily, trying to figure out how to get out. Kaja saw a glint in Aurora's eye. She realized that her friend might attack in a moment. Aurora reached for her shoe with her right hand, pretending to correct it. Kaja noticed out of the corner of her eye at the last moment how a small blade slid out of the shoe, her heart went up to her throat until here suddenly a scream. Igor's loud voice from above called Klara to bring Emil's sister to him. This caused Kaja even more fear, as before she had hoped so now she thought it was the end.

  Aurora did not have time to attack Klara because the latter was already in the process of uncuffing the girl and taking her away.

  "Damn!" she scorched to herself, left in the cage.

  Klara led the young Kaczmarka through a rather long, dark corridor. In the years when the manor house was built all sorts of lamps or lampstands were used for illumination, but now there was no trace of that. Fortunately, Klara had a flashlight, which she turned on so as not to get lost or lose her hostage.

  "How is Emil?" She asked, pushing the girl slightly to walk ahead.

  Kaja looked at her angrily out of the corner of her eye, wondering how she still had the nerve to ask this after what she had done to him.

  "Why do you care?" she replied aggressively.

  "I was just curious." she explained. "I'm sorry it came out that way."

  "You're sorry?" Kaja felt like she was going to explode. Another moment and she would have pulled all the hair out of her head just to keep from smothering her with her bare hands. Kaja was rarely aggressive, but when it came to her brother, she could push her limits. She was already about to respond to her words but Klara took it further.

  "I thought we would just leave and that was how it was supposed to be but then he came."

  "So it's my brother's fault?" she asked pretentiously holding on to the fact that their simply fucked everyone up.

  Klara denied it, realizing that there should not have been a fight between Emil and Igor. She then stated that it was an unfortunate situation, that emotions could have worked. What interested Kaja were the girl's words regarding Igor.

  "I don't know what happened to him. He wasn't like this before all this." sadness flooded her face.

  Only when Kaja looked at Klara did she notice that the girl had a cut lip. Earlier she had not paid attention to Klara at all, she was even afraid to look at her. She was surprised, because lately there had been no one to cause such a wound besides devouring someone alive. Igor immediately came to her mind.

  "Is he beating you?" She paused, forcing her to stop as well.

  Klara sighed, covering her mouth with her hand. Indeed, a foretaste of Igor's tyranny Kaja may have already had on the night of the kidnapping. At the time her mind might not have taken note of it, it was dark and she was terrified. She didn't know what to think of her. On the one hand, she was her brother's ex-girlfriend, whom he had lavished affection on for some reason, but on the other hand she was complicit in his near-death situation. She fell silent, having nothing to say. Klara's silence was completely enough for her to confirm her words.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Being already on the first floor, Kaja looked around for possible escape options. Windows, doors, maybe a hole in the roof. Klara, however, didn't give her much time to scout around and led her straight into the sizable living room. All that remained of the mansion's base was the remnants of a fireplace, but if one moved one's imagination one could visualize what it once looked like. A glowing fire in the fireplace to the left of which might have been a wooden table for the whole family. A window and a small closet filling the space right next to it. On the other side, a view of the stairs to the first floor, discolored traces of paintings long ago taken away to places unknown to anyone. A place abandoned long before the end of the world gave a different sense of melancholy than houses abandoned afterwards. It's been an even 230 years since the place was abandoned and no one has ever returned to take care of it.

  One-eyed Igor had been expecting Kaja for several minutes. Once she appeared with Klara, he approached them. Klara reflexively flinched when Igor raised his hand, however, he only grabbed Kaja's head and pulled her to deeper into the living room. He sat the girl on a chair, tying her up. He turned, pulling out a knife stuck in the wooden table. Kaja was horrified, she lowered her gaze but then her fear increased. There was blood on the floor beneath her. She was not old, she could smell it. She knew that this was exactly where her brother had been injured. She looked up at her tormentor, who was staring at her psychedelically, silently. Her heart was rumbling, she was unable to get a word out. The second time she had a panic attack, she began to choke. Gulping down oxygen, she heard a quiet whisper.

  "I think you're gonna like it here."

  ><

  "Where is my baby!"

  Tarhos heard Anna scream, recovering from being hit in the face by Miko?aj. Dawid cut off his possible escape route, standing a piece behind his back holding an axe in his hands. Veredi was confused, he was as shocked as the rest, after all, his daughter had also been kidnapped. The Kaczmarek family hurried him, wanting to hear something but not knowing what to tell them. They were partly right to react this way, Tarhos was a stranger to them, he could have planned the kidnapping. In reality, of course, this was not the case, but convincing them was no piece of cake. He stood up, shaking off the sand and dust.

  "Let's keep calm. I don't know where Kaja is, my daughter has also disappeared! Why would I kidnap this child?"

  "Apparently, you were last seen with her. We all slept but you didn't." Anna furiously wanted to strangle Tarhos.

  "I told you not to try anything." Dawid was coming dangerously close to him with an axe at the ready.

  Tarhos turned toward Dawid, not wanting to be turned with his back to the axe. He nervously mirrored everyone with his eyes, thinking who might believe him. He had to think of something quickly or he would end up with an open skull. He was preceded in his words by Isabella, stepping between Veredi and the angry household members.

  "I believe him. Have you already forgotten about the two of you from a few days ago?" They all looked at her. "I don't think we need any other proof. They are alive."

  "Thank you." said Tarhos quietly to Isabella, shaking, however, not from fear for his own life but for the lives of the girls.

  The whole family quickly believed that they had returned after all. Although they didn't want to believe it, it seemed more logical to them than if Tarhos was behind it. They were already up to their eyeballs in things with Igor and Klara, and they wanted to put an end to it.

  "I'll fuck them up." Dawid nervously said, clutching a wooden handle in his hand.

  The family was in agreement in that they needed to get rid of the problem, literally get rid of it. The measure had run its course, the Kaczmark family could no longer tolerate it. They could turn a blind eye to Emil's injury when it appeared he would survive, but using children for revenge was overkill.

  Tarhos were reminded of their worst moments, the situation was repeating itself. It was not the same, but similar. It caused him great fear. The death of his daughter would kill him, he would not rise from the bottom a second time. He was committed to helping, but he needed his gun back.

  "My revolver." He began, the family looked at him. "If we want to fight, I will need it."

  They weren't too convinced when he mentioned it. They needed all the help they could get to save Kaja, but at the same time they feared an armed stranger in their midst.

  "We can use it." Dawid suggested. He was confident that he would be able to use it.

  "Have you ever held a gun in your hand?" He asked rhetorically.

  He denied it. Neither of them had any experience with firearms. During the conversation, Miko?aj went home. Meanwhile, Tarhos continued to convince them.

  "Listen. You want to get the girl back, right? I also have someone to rescue. I saved your son, Anna!"

  "I know, and I thank you for it." She nodded her head giving him respect.

  Miko?aj slammed the door, leaving the house. Tarhos noticed that the man was holding his and Aurora's weapons. Emil's father approached the gray-haired man. They exchanged glances directly into each other's eyes. Miko?aj trusted Tarhos, he had to do it. Any help counted. Everyone realized that Igor and Klara had weapons, they would not be able to face the opponent alone. The man turned the King Cobra handle to Veredi and held out his hand, handing it to him.

  "I will take the other one. I count on you not to deceive us."

  Tarhos assured him that he had no such intention. He took the gun in his hand, checking the number of cartridges in the chamber. There weren't many in the gun itself, but he still had several boxes of cartridges that had also been confiscated from him. They didn't have to worry about running out of ammunition and the amount they had would certainly be enough to eliminate the enemy.

  "You won't hesitate to shoot?" He looked at him, watching for a reaction.

  "I hope so." He stressed, however, for the son he was able to sacrifice. He was beginning to understand this world, to adapt. The situation demanded it.

  Isabella, standing beside them in silence, listened to her loved ones. She was not satisfied. She thought it should be ended peacefully. She felt resentment towards her family for turning into animals. For her it was the definitive end of humanity, the end of a peaceful life. She was quiet for a long time, but in the end she couldn't keep it inside.

  "Now the solution is to kill? Someone has lost control because of what's going on and now we're supposed to get rid of them? What are we going to be better at than them?" she looked away. Her insides were burning with feelings of anger, disappointment. She could not accept the new rules. "We are lost."

  There was a long silence. Isabella, not wanting to look at anyone, went home. Anna and Judyta thought the same as her, but they did not say it out loud. They knew it had to be done because they would never find peace.

  "We may be lost, but at least we won't lose anyone else." said Miko?aj, more to himself, lifting his spirits.

  And they set off on their way. The women were left in the shelter not to endanger them and the men armed went to the rescue of Kaja and Aurora.

  ><

  Kaja wept feeling another blow on her face. Igor was torturing her, shouting at her. The girl was terrified, she wanted someone to finally save her. She was in pain as she took Igor's blows again and again. His plan was to cause as much harm to the girl as possible before killing her. He also wanted to know all of her family's weaknesses, secrets, possible hidden reserves. Igor wanted to kill them all to take over their shelter in peace but Kaja remained strong. She didn't squeak a word which only irritated Igor, who beat her even harder. Klara watched all this passively. It's hard to say what she felt at the time, she certainly wasn't happy about what was happening but she didn't want to get involved.

  "You tell your parents to all get out of this house and leave everything. Along with Emil, because he's alive, right? I felt it. I'll finish him off this time."

  "I won't do anything! Leave me alone, psycho!"

  Again she got punched in the face. This time Igor knocked out her tooth, blood from the gum gushed to the ground. Kaja cried harder, she could not stand the pain. Igor stopped controlling himself, he had had enough. The inability to get information out of her forced him to move drastically.

  "So none of this? Too bad, I thought you liked to have all your fingers." He took his knife, approaching the table with his 'instruments of torture'.

  The blade was bloody, but it didn't make much difference to him. The girl tried to break free. She was jumping, jerking with the rope, willowing herself to all sides. Igor only laughed, her fear excited him, he lost all his senses. He approached Kaja, grabbing her hand, which he freed from his grasp and lifted upwards. The girl closed her eyes, holding her breath. The blade of the knife was digging into her finger, a second separated the man from cutting it off.

  Suddenly Klara grabbed Igor, pulling him back. Kaja didn't know what happened, she only felt her hand become free. The blonde was really furious.

  - Are you crazy! What the fuck are you doing!

  - Touch me again and-.

  They heard a loud bang from downstairs. The surprise on their faces was huge, they wondered what it could have been. Igor instructed Klara to take the gun and check what happened. He also ordered her to shoot Aurora if necessary. Klara hesitated, but did what he asked her to do.

  The bang was caused by Aurora, who, hearing what was happening upstairs, looked for a way to escape. She knew that normally she would not get out, she had to risk something else. She looked up at the ceiling. She went with logic, if the building is very old then its walls could collapse under even a small force. She trusted her intuition and was not wrong. She used all her strength to pull the chain and tear it from the catch. Hearing only Kaja's screams, Aurora was gaining strength motivating herself to escape and rescue her.

  Let's become friends. You and me.

  "Why do you care so much, Kaja!

  The entire ceiling collapsed, and fortunately Aurora, thanks to the force with which she pushed forward, managed to jump away in time. Out of breath, she shook off the chain shattered as the debris fell on top of her. She herself couldn't believe her luck, but she was proud. Thanks to the big hole, she could better hear what was going on upstairs, and she knew she was coming for her. Not wanting to waste time, she ran to the exit, thinking about her next move.

  ><

  Emil had many dreams during his coma. He saw a lot, everything was real to him. Mostly they were dull days from life before the apocalypse, which confirmed that this was what he wanted. Returning to a normal life was his dream, his constant dream. On the one hand, the coma was to his liking, he had his dream world. He believed in it so much that he completely forgot about the real world.

  "God, how much more of this lesson was left?" Marcel slammed his forehead against the bench, yawning.

  "Just a little longer, Marcel." patted him on the back, taking a moment to jot down something from the blackboard. He didn't know what he was writing down, his hand involuntarily did. In his dream he did not sense that it was something strange, only his friend's words threw him off balance.

  "How much longer are you going to sit here?"

  Marcel looked out the window. Emil, turning suddenly in his direction after these words, did not see the world in the window, but his room. Kaja was beside him, talking to Tarhos about something. He heard their voice, but it was indistinct to him at that moment. He quickly looked in the opposite direction, at the classroom but it was completely empty. He stood up full of anxiety, in a fraction of a moment they had all disappeared or were they never really here?

  "You are sleeping peacefully and they are fighting for their lives. You are irresponsible, Emil." pointed out Marcel to him. He was partly right, the blond agreed.

  "Right. They are all waiting for me."

  He reminded himself of everything. About Nikodem, about school, about the plane crash, about Klara and about Igor.

  "But what if they are already dead?"

  Emil heard a familiar voice as the class disappeared into the black void. He began to look around, searching with his eyes for Marcel but he wasn't there either. He felt the cold touch of a man's hand on the back of his neck, wanted to turn his head, wanting to see who it was, and felt as if he had looked in a mirror. He saw himself. His pulse began to go crazy.

  "No. That's impossible. They are alive." He rejected from himself the thought of their death.

  "It might be possible if you don't do what you have to do." His voice was calm in contrast to the frightened voice of the real Emil. "Your sister is in danger, you know that?"

  "What, she-"

  He heard Kaja shouting, calling out to him. He turned immediately and saw her. A cold sweat broke out on him because she was dead. She was standing on equal legs admittedly, but her skin was blue, her eye sockets were empty and blood was flowing from her mouth. It boiled inside him when he saw Igor behind her back, embracing the girl.

  Emil's alter ego grabbed the boy's shoulders, leaning into his ear. Emil clenched his teeth.

  "You know that Isabella's words are not right. You don't believe it. You will do what must be done, otherwise you will not save anyone. There is no place in this world for nice people, everyone will stab you in the back sooner or later. You know I'm right. I have never been wrong. Do you remember? You wanted to kill him a long time ago, her too. Say the word and we'll do it together."

  The boy felt weak. He felt sleepy, he was losing consciousness. Kaja had disappeared, and so had Igor and Alter Emil. He was left alone with himself in that black space. The multitude of thoughts in his head did not allow him to calm down. At one point, he lost ground. He started falling straight out of the blue sky, flying through the clouds. He breathed deeply, achieving inner peace. He still did not accept the new world, but he was able to adapt. You kill or be killed, that's how it works.

  Emil moved his finger in the real world, opening his eyes a moment later.

  "I've had enough of dreams."