December 1916 ...

Reaper - Chapter 5
December 1916

Suki feels herself being pushed over the threshold into the small, dark room with a rough push. With a metallic clang, the heavy door is thrown on its hinges behind her and all of a sudden she sees nothing more than the tiny streak of light falling through the keyhole onto the gray stone floor. She carefully feels her way forward until her hands encircle two thick, ice-cold iron bars. Slightly hesitating, she walks along the lattice wall until suddenly one foot bumps painfully against a heavy wooden bench. Hopping on one leg, she mumbles a few curses.
"Suki?"
She squints her eyes, which have gradually got used to the darkness around her, and looks through the bars into the second room, next to her cell. She discovers a faint, red glow on the opposite wall.
"Sey! Is that you?"
"Who else ... are you okay?"
"Yeah, I think so ... where are we?"
Sey leans against the bars with his back to her and sighs.
"Security detention ... This is the old prison facility below the headquarters ..."
A faint rustling next to her feet makes Suki flinch. Not only is it damp and dark down here, but rats have to roam around in their immediate vicinity ...
"I hate it down here ..."
She wraps her arms around her body to stifle the shaking, but shiver after shiver continues to run through her limbs in the face of the cold. After all, she's just wearing Amander's colorful top. Suddenly she feels a light weight on her shoulders. Slightly confused, she pulls Sey's heavy jacket over her half-frozen arms.
"D-thank you."
"No problem."
For a while, they just stand there back to back. The silence in the dungeon makes their surroundings appear even more threatening. Suki has never wished so much to lie in her bed at home in her entire life ...
"Suki ..?"
"Hmm ..."
"I am sorry."
She hadn't expected that, which is why her answer comes with a few seconds delay.
"You couldn't have guessed that they would lock us up in such a place ..."
"That's not what I mean ... but on the other hand ... I should apologize for that too ..."
"What do you mean then?"
Basically, Suki knows exactly what he's getting at ...
"All of that ... I mean ... Come on, you know what I mean!"
She can't help but smile silently. Hearing Sey struggle for words is, after all, a pleasure that she does not get too often.
"I'm sorry too ... I mean, for being bitchy ..."
Even if she can't see anything in the dark, she's pretty sure that Sey is smiling on the other side of the bars too. She can't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
"How long do you think they'll keep us locked up here?""Maybe a couple of hours ... they'll want to sort it out as soon as possible, I'm sure ..."
Suki sinks down on the low wooden bench and, exhausted, leans against one of the metal bars. She feels how Sey does the same on the other side. Two rats sneak across the cell floor. She can see her small piercing eyes glow in the barely noticeable rays of light emanating from the door. Sey seems to clearly sense her discomfort.
"Are you scared?"
She pulls both legs to her body and puts her arms around them.
"A little ... I'm scared of what's going to happen ..."
Sey can't think of anything he could say to cheer her up without lying to her face.
"Can I ask you something, Sey?"
"For sure..."
Suki feels her heartbeat accelerate a little. This question had been on the tip of her tongue for a while, but she couldn't bring herself to speak it out yet ...
"What does all this have to do with me? I mean, a few days ago I had no idea that there was such a thing as Reaper, Cerberus or Demons ... and now I'm sitting here in a dungeon, possibly waiting for mine Execution or what do I know and also found out that I'm just a copy of someone from WWII ... "
"You are not a copy ..."
Suki lets out a deep sigh.
"Right .. I'm more of a decal ..."
"Stop doing that!"
Suki bites his lower lip, angry at the stern tone of his voice. She's basically waiting to hear again how much better this Selena is ... in contrast to her ...
"You are good the way you are, Suki ..."
She looks back in surprise, but can only see darkness. After a few seconds she gathers all her courage and meekly whispers into the silence.
"What exactly happened back then? ... You said I don't know the whole story, but I'm really trying to understand all of this ... And I have the feeling that I can only do that when I know what happened back then .. . "
The silence that falls over the room lasts a lot longer this time than before. Suki can literally feel Sey is thinking hard.
"I guess it has to be, huh?"
She nods until it occurs to her that he can't see her and she hastily appends a "yes".
"As nice as you like ... after I got you involved in the whole thing, I'll have to face the consequences now ..."
After a tortured sigh, he clears his throat.
"Selena and I ... we were ... so to speak ... well, engaged ..."
Suki struggles to suppress the> I knew it! <Scream in her head and act as unimpressed as possible.
"Okay ... I just find it hard to imagine, after all, I saw her just let you down ..."
"I said that's only half the story ... In reality she came back ... Without her I would have bled to death in this damn forest ...""That's the least ... after all, you saved her first ..."
Sey simply ignores this open criticism.
"While the military had gradually taken over the entire area, we hid in a house in the forest ... Your whole family was killed during the war, as was mine ... so we decided to flee to the border together to finally put the war behind us. Unfortunately we had no idea how bad the conditions were in the border towns. All places were besieged by the soldiers ... they looted, destroyed houses and killed anyone who gave them trouble ... Us traveled from city to city for a few months, but eventually we realized it was the same everywhere, so we ended up staying in one of the occupied cities ... almost a year ... but the mercenaries got greedy and greedy Killed more and more of the residents ... We didn't want to put up with that any longer, so over time a group of insurgents formed ... We wanted to start a revolution, the country again r win us back and get rid of the mercenaries once and for all ... and we had a good chance. The soldiers had lost some of their glamor over the months in which they lived only from looting and drinking bouts ... and we had the element of surprise on our side ... We thought we could completely change the situation in one night .. . "

[i]... December 1916 ...

"We have organized five more barrels of black powder ... where are they supposed to go?"
"Put her over there with the others ... and fucking get the snow down, it's hard enough to keep the powder dry in this filthy weather ..."
"Aye, sir!"
"What about the rest of the ammunition?"
"Let's see the caliber ... hmm ... hand it over to Unit 2, I have to take care of the map now ..."
The tall, bearded man throws the last of his hand-rolled cigarette on the wet floor and disappears through a rotten wooden door into a small doorway, while the courtyard is still bustling with activity. The small room is only lit by a temporary, flickering oil lamp attached to the ceiling. Sey looks up at the doorway and gives the bearded man a fleeting nod before concentrating again on the scattered papers in front of him. With a deep groan, the man takes off his perforated cap and throws it on the crooked table in the middle of the room, next to the yellowed cards spread out on it. He almost threw the half-empty rum bottle on one corner of the table with him.
"Be careful, if you ruin the cards, we're dead ..."
"It's okay, it's okay, little one ... Who would have thought that I would have to be dictated to by someone who could be my son ..."
"If you weren't always drowning your brain in rum, you could make the announcements here yourself, Joe ..."The older man nods with a crooked smile that reveals his patchy teeth.
"Better a slave with rum than a leader without it!"
To underline his words, he takes a long swig from the bottle on the table.
"Save yourself the drink for tomorrow morning ... when we first celebrate our freedom!"
Sey makes one last line on the paper in front of him and then, relieved, drops the pen on the tabletop.
"What's the weather like?"
"Still sleet ... We hardly have the place to store the powder ..."
"Perfect."
"Perfect? ​​Ever heard of a revolution won with wet gunpowder?"
"No, the powder has to be dry, of course ... But as long as it rains, it is certain that the soldiers will all gather in the bar ... The more of them we get rid of in one fell swoop, the better ..."
Joe's harsh laugh echoes across the small room. At the same moment the door slams open and a young woman enters the room, along with some snowflakes that the wind carries over the doorstep. With a sigh, Selena pulls the wet headscarf from her curly hair.
"We are ready now ... The others are waiting for further instructions."
"Joe, go tell them to get ready, we'll go through the plan again and then we'll leave."
The stocky man gets up from his chair and disappears outside. Sey runs his hair exhausted. When he notices Selena's amused look, he pauses.
"What is?"
"Nothing. I was just thinking about someone telling me a few weeks ago that it wouldn't be that difficult ..."
"Um, I'm sorry, I can't remember that ..."
"You liar!"
She hugs him with a big smile and gives him a quick kiss on the cheek.
"You can do it, the men think highly of your opinion."
"I just hope nothing really goes wrong ..."
"Come on, you've been thinking this through for so long, I'm sure everything will go according to plan."
Sey takes a deep breath and puts on a big grin.
"You're right. We're going to do this!"
He grabs the dark brown, warm jacket lying on one of the rickety chairs and walks towards the old door. Just as he reaches for