Oh, this little one ... "I hate you!" I called out to him and stepped onto the short path that led into a courtyard between several houses. Meadow, earthy ground and a trampled path that led to the garbage cans. In the middle stood several old chestnuts, which with their spreading branches almost touched the surrounding house walls. The old foliage of recent years has gathered around its roots and has spread to the bicycle racks that are probably rarely used.
I could only see all of this in the faint light of the moon, because Reese was right, it was really pitch black here. There were no lanterns and the windows of the houses facing the courtyard did not emit the slightest ray of light. All were dark. So the perfect conditions for a proles hunt. It really got better and better.
"Stared enough?" Came the dark shadow in the middle of the green courtyard. "Come here now."
Did anything touch this man at all? I couldn't care less. Annoyed, I pounded the backpack in
Sigh. “For a change, could you talk to me like a normal person? Just to end the day? Just imagine that I am someone you like and then try again with an answer. "Reese snorted. "I've probably never met someone as penetrative as you."I was silent, waiting."Because of me. There is a guy who keeps a prole as a pet and ... ""What ?!" Was that serious? "But that …""Do you want to hear that now, or would you rather explain to me that it is forbidden. Because whether you believe it or not, I know that myself. "My mouth closed. Of course he did. As a Venator, he probably knew the laws of the prole procedure better than any lawyer. Still, I didn't like it that much."Nice." Reese turned into the street with the row houses. “Well, there's this guy who keeps a pillicula as a pet. And he once dropped a bottle of cough syrup. Little Proles freaked out. I don't know what exactly it is, but something in the cough syrup is mak
Our way led us to a rather deserted area at the harbor. Old warehouses were lined up close together and with their shabby facade did not look very inviting. At least the part I could see in the dim light of the few street lights. And the warehouse in front of which the car came to a stop looked even darker than all the others put together.Bare walls made of old brick on which sprayers had immortalized themselves. Senseless lettering that was a lot, but certainly not art. The sheet metal ceiling was slightly arched upwards and large gates under a roof had probably received the delivery once. All around it was growing brown grass that looked more dead than alive, and a rusted fire escape led up to the roof. The only difference to the other warehouses here were the windows. They were all fine. Okay, maybe one of them had cracks or blind spots, but they would probably be able to keep the rain out - most of it at least.In the small, shabby parking lot were several cars, o
He had just not held a gun in front of my face! I licked my lips nervously and looked around briefly for an escape route. I discovered the other man with the many piercings on his face, who was leaning against the wall and grinning broadly at me. He made no move to help me, just watched what would happen next.With his appearance, my possibility of escape sank to zero. I might have escaped one, but two? Oh god, where did I end up here?"Hm, how about I call you Red? That suits you. ”The handsome boy changed the weapon into the other hand and took a few steps to the side to cut off any escape route for me. The barrel pointed at my forehead the whole time. He paid as little attention to his colleague as I did. “Red, all over again. What are you doing here?""Grace," I finally managed to get across my lips. My heart beat up to my neck. If I just answered and satisfied him, then maybe he would let me live. "My name is Grace, not Red.""Grace." He
This is none of your business, so stay out of it.""You can forget that. You tell me now what's going on here. "Without slowing his pace, he raised a raised eyebrow at me. "Anything else?"Yeah, I should come up with a good threat now, really quickly. Unfortunately, I've never been particularly good at that. “Otherwise I'll go to Jilin and tell her about this. You can take poison on that. ”His boss would be interested in the fact that Reese sold the proles like other people burned CDs.Reese shrugged and stopped by the car to search his pockets for the car key. "Just do it. She doesn't know how many young animals there were and if I say that there were only three, who do you think she is more likely to believe? Your top venator, or a little intern who is longing for attention? "Longing for attention ?! It was probably too good for him! "You illegally sold an unknown prole!" Okay, selling proles was illegal one way or another, but that
I looked to Jilin for help, but she just shrugged my shoulders, true to the motto: If he wants to do it alone, what are you still doing here? "Okay," I said hesitantly. I absolutely didn't like being sent away. I always did my job conscientiously and never left anything until I was done. But if I resisted now, it would certainly not improve my relationship with Reese. "I'll be back here tomorrow at eight.""No," he contradicted me immediately. "You will be at my front door at eight because I will certainly not go to the guild before my shift because of you, understand?"Was he serious? Another look at Jilin showed me that she had already returned to the papers on her desk and that I had to do this on my own. "Then you have to give me your address so that I ...""You always act so smart, so find it out on your own." With that he stomped past me out of the room and I could do nothing more than watch him.I pressed my lips together in annoyance. How do I get
"What about Dom?" I got up from my seat and put the used bowl in the sink with the other dirty dishes. I should actually have to clean it up, but I just felt too tired for that. That would have to wait until tomorrow morning."Hello? Best friend? He was waiting for you to call him and tell him how your first day went. "Oh no, she was probably right about that. I sighed loudly into the phone. "I'll just send him a message that I'll get in touch with him tomorrow to tell him everything.""Well, is he satisfied with that?"“He won't have any other choice. So now I depend on you We'll hear from you again tomorrow. ""Okay, bye and don't let your coach annoy you too much.""I'll try," I mumbled into her laugh and then just hung up. Then I quickly wrote a message to Domenico that I was tired and would call him tomorrow while I crossed the kitchen and turned off the light when leaving. My next stop was in my room, where Wynn was lounging on
Whether it was so normal that an intern had to go home to his teaching coach in the morning so as not to be left out in the rain - literally, as the floodgates of heaven had decided today to drown the world - or not, now I was standing here in front of his front door, waiting for him to finally open the stupid thing so that I wouldn't drown out here on his threshold. But of course the Lord took his time. After all, it was dry inside too, so no need to rush.The area I was in was even more run down than the part of town I lived in. One apartment building huddled together here. Large prefabricated buildings that were as monotonous as the cloud-gray sky. The amount of graffiti that smeared the house walls suggested that there were gangs here. And the bars and shutters in front of the shop windows of the shops on the other side could also give rise to this thought. On the other hand, they could also simply be intended to protect against proles. That wasn't uncommon today.
Amazed, I stopped in mid-motion, so the towel hung in the air instead of loading on the table. What should that mean again? God, I've been with guys every day. With what I was doing it was just inevitable and although I thought I knew the male species humans pretty well, this guy made me feel insecure. I didn't like that."Ah, it says here you are an orphan," he said and traced the lines in front of his eyes with his finger. "Your parents were killed by proles."A painful stitch twitched my heart. That wasn't a topic I liked to talk about. "Unfortunately this is a repetitive phenomenon these days," I replied, quieter than I wanted. Sighing, I put the towel on the table.Nick closed the folder and tapped it thoughtfully on the chin. "But at least you got to know her.""You don't yours?" I leaned back, keeping my eyes on the towel."Nah." He let the folder sink into his lap. “My father ran away when he noticed that he had impregnated his wife a
It's not that bad," mumbled Nick and rolled over on his back, yawning. I ignored Reese when Nick held out his hand to me. With the smile on his face, he seemed just the same again - nothing reminded of Mr. Who and the meat fork. Smiling, I ran across the room and sat down on the mattress with him. "How are you?" "Now that you're sitting next to me, better." That was really cute. "And your arm?" "I'll get him his painkillers," Reese announced and then disappeared from the doorway with one last hostile look at me. Nick looked after him thoughtfully. "He is angry." “Can you blame him? He was right, I shouldn't have just left the door open. " He turned his head so he could look me in the face. "Did I understand that correctly? You took out the garbage? " "I've cleaned up." "Where? Here?" "Well, the apartment." I shrugged my shoulders indifferently. "Just cleaned up a little." "Why?" Hm, an honest answer might
I ignored him and reached into the basket again, but before I could even touch the laundry, he had roughly grabbed my arm and pushed me towards the kitchen door. I stumbled and didn't fall because I could catch myself on the sofa. I hit my leg in the process, but the pain in my arm was much worse. Reese had hit the exact same spot where Nick grabbed me yesterday morning. There was a bruise on my skin there and it fucking hurt when he pressed there."And now finally get out of here and don't be seen here anymore!"I didn't think I was as angry with another person as I was at this moment in my life. No matter what kind of problems he had, it didn't give him the right to talk to me like that and that's why there was only one thing I could say back. "No."Reese blinked once, as if he couldn't believe what I'd just said of myself. "What did you say?""I said no. Nick wants me here and I won't go until he demands it. ”I straightened up and glared at him.
I stood tense in the kitchen and listened to the noises of the door closing."Nick?"Damn it, it really was Reese. Immediately our last meeting shot through my head.Hussy.Slut.Whore.I pinched my lips in a thin line and turned back to the laundry. I wouldn't let him drive me away again. Nick was my friend and I had every right to be here.I listened carefully to his steps. I could tell exactly when Reese stepped into the kitchen and saw me on the clothes horse. It wasn't just the fading of the noises, it was almost like a dark aura that entered the room with him and tried to push me against the nearest wall. Anger. I could practically feel it.But he didn't say anything, just stood silently in my back and that made me more nervous than if he had yelled at me straight away. Why didn't he say anything? I tried not to show my nervousness and just pulled the next item of laundry out of the basket. “I've already put the res
Taking a deep breath, I pushed myself off the wall and marched back into the kitchen. I was not finished yet. The dishes were still waiting and the floor also had to be mopped. The only room that escaped my cleaning madness was Reese's room, and only because he would probably cut me into four and then dump me with Mr. Who's remains if I even set foot in there. I had even cleaned the surface of Nick's room. Very quietly so as not to wake him up. He seemed to need sleep.The kitchen finally looked homely. I had even cleaned the upholstery of the couch with whatever was available to me. That alone had cost me an hour.Sighing, I stood at the sink and began to work on the soaked dishes. That was not that easy, because although I had put it in the water almost two hours ago to get the dried up food scraps away, there were some stubborn stains that resisted steadfastly and so I stood at the sink for a while before I did the last plate hoisted the white flag and was clean aga
I promised." I broke away from him, ran my hand over his stubbly cheek. The blond shadow of the beard was barely visible, but the dark circles under the eyes emerged very clearly. And also the pale skin color. He wasn't doing well, but I couldn't tell if it was because he had just stabbed his pet because I didn't like it, or the injury and the medication. But I knew one thing very well. "You belong in bed.""I've been in bed all morning." His hand also came to rest on my cheek, the hand with which he had just stabbed so coldly.I had to pull myself together hard not to shrink from it. “And with good reason. Come on, we'll put you under the covers again. "He chewed his lips briefly, looking in my eyes for an answer whose question I didn't know. "Will you stay with me?"That was probably the first real smile he got from me today. "Naturally. That's why I'm here, right? I lie down with you. ""OK."Since he didn't move, I took his hand a
Reese built this cage for me," he said quietly. His hand loosened the cramp on the grille and brushed toward the door. “He put a lock in, you see? Only he can open the cage. He doesn't give me the key. He always carries it with him. "Confusion showed on my face. Why did he tell me this?“Back then, Norbert told Reese that I should get a pet. It might help me to keep my balance, it makes me feel responsible, but I never got the key. ”He gave me a wry smile. His eyes looked slightly glazed, his gaze somehow distant. Was he still under the influence of the medication?“Nick, please get out of there. You belong in bed. "“He never gave me the key. I could only feed Mr. Who. ”His hand fell off the cage. There was something sad in his eyes as he turned and crossed the room to the kitchenette. "I've had it for a year now," he told me as he pulled out a drawer and rummaged in it. “In the beginning he tried to bite me a f
The door was ajar. I still didn't feel comfortable being here. I was happy and was able to assure myself that Nick was fine, but I was absent from the academy without excuse and that gave me a massive stomach rumble. I had never skipped before. Never!Taking a deep breath, I stepped into the apartment and quietly closed the door behind me. Immediately I had the smell of cold smoke and leftover food in my nose again. Did these guys never air? "Nick?""In the kitchen!" He called back.I took off my shoes and jacket and then took the now familiar path - although you couldn't really speak of familiar, after all, I had only been here twice. And once Reese chased me away. What would he say if he caught me here now? What did I care? It was absolutely none of his business! I just had to keep telling myself that, maybe at some point I wouldn't really care what he was thinking. I didn't even understand why I didn't care. Why did I care what Reese thought? And why the hell
Did I wake you up?"Nick! Immediately I sat upright in bed, "Are you all right? I mean, Reese said you ... ""Take it easy, Cherry, everything is okay with me.""Cherry?" Was he mistaking me now? Had something on his head after all?Nick laughed softly. "Naturally. Cherry, cherry. They are as red as your hair and just as cute as you. "My mouth opened a bit, but no word would come out. Was that supposed to be a mess? But why should he do that?"Are you there?""Um ... yes, I am." I sleepily pushed my hair back from my face. "I ..."An annoyed groan came from Wynn's bed. “Can't you go out if you have to call at this time? I still want to sleep!"I would have loved to roll my eyes. She never considered me either, but since I had to get up immediately anyway, I could just as easily turn off my alarm clock and start the day a little earlier."Grace?""Yes, wait a minute." I got out of bed and crept out of
My reputation was enough to get you back to the real issue. “Well, Nick was with them, but he's been released in the meantime. Since I couldn't prove that I really am his fiancée, the sister couldn't give me any exact information. But at least I know this much that the injury is not life-threatening. On the whole, he was just angry that this happened to him. ""So he's fine?" Where did my powerful voice go?Evangeline nodded. “Yes, he was given painkillers and sedatives. Reese probably drove him home then. ""Sedatives?" I frowned. "Why was he given tranquilizers?" Nick wasn't someone who was on the verge of collapse because of something like that. Or? No definitely not. The fact that he had been given tranquilizers didn't fit into the picture at all.She just shrugged. "No idea. I can only reproduce what I have heard. ""The best thing is to just call him yourself", thought Domenico and handed me my cell phone.It took me