it is indeed Sey. The only thing that irritates Suki a bit is the fact that the eyes she is looking into are not deep black as usual, but, even if looking a little exhausted, glow in a brilliant blue.
"What's your name?"
Suki is startled from her thoughts when she realizes that he is talking to her.
"... Se- Selena."
The name just fell off her lips before Suki had even thought of answering. There seems to be an incredible mess in her head, and she feels as if it is getting harder and harder to come to a clear thought from second to second.
One of the other soldiers shouts another order to them that Suki cannot understand, but Sey turns back to her without thinking twice to translate for her.
"They want to know where your village is ... But I advise you to lead them in the wrong direction if you want something left of your home tomorrow."He throws a furtive look at his three comrades, who obviously haven't understood a word of his translation and are impatiently waiting for an answer. Suki actually wants to ask Sey what's going on here, but no matter how much she concentrates, the words in her head just won't come out of her lips. Instead, her mouth responds as if controlled by an alien force, and completely against her will.
"There is nothing left of my village anyway ... You are not the first soldiers to appear here since the beginning of the war ... but ... I don't quite understand why you are trying to help me ...?"
Just as Sey opens his mouth to answer her, one of the other soldiers appears next to him and grabs Suki's arm. He throws a few incomprehensible words in her face and rudely pulls her to him. Meanwhile, Sey talks to him in the strange foreign language, but the guy doesn't let himself be put off. Just as the soldier, cheered on by the other two, reaches for her hair and roughly pulls her head towards him, Sey grabs his arm. Then everything happens incredibly quickly. Sey stretches back and hits the tall red-haired soldier with a targeted slap in the face, causing him to let go of Suki with a scream and instead press his hands on his badly bleeding nose. Suki loses his balance and lands on his back on the forest floor, just as the other two get involved. One of them grabs Sey by the collar of his tattered uniform and pushes him against the next tree where he yells various insults that Suki does not understand, but the meaning of which can be clearly read on the face of the angry bald man. Sey tries to free himself from his grip, but the guy about a head taller and a lot wider is clearly superior to him in terms of strength.
"What are you waiting for? Get up and leave while you have the chance!"
Sey's call is followed by a wheezing cough as the soldier holding him rams his fist in the stomach. Suki gets up, dodges the third soldier, who had just taken care of the injured man, with a wide hook and runs as fast as she can into the forest. She can hear the thuds, followed each time by Sey's grunted moans. Every fiber in her body screams to turn around and help him, but her legs just move on their own. She has the feeling that all of her senses are ceaselessly turning in circles, as if her head is about to burst. She looks back over one shoulder and just sees how Sey slides down the tree trunk far behind her and remains there motionless. But even though she would like to force herself to turn around, she runs on ... deeper and deeper into the forest without even the slightest idea of ​​what her goal is.Suddenly she feels herself being grabbed by the arm from behind and a rough jerk goes through her body. From one second to the next, her eyes go black and she has the feeling of emerging from an icy cold lake, feeling her face breaking through the surface and warmth flowing through her frozen limbs.
When she opens her eyes, she stares straight into Seys, now night-black eyes again, her face only a few inches away from his. He looks at least as confused as she is feeling right now. When she realizes that she is the one bent over him, her elbows on the mattress, she jumps up with a bright red face and tries, albeit clumsily, to regain her balance. After she has caught herself, she turns around frantically, hoping he won't notice her glowing cheeks, and finds herself right in front of Amander's barbed-wire-tattooed cleavage.
"What the hell is this going to be, honey?"
Suki puts a little distance between herself and Amander and tries to explain with some unorthodox gestures and incomprehensible stammering what she basically doesn't even begin to understand herself.
"A flashback ..."
Suki turns to Sey, who is now sitting upright out of bed and holding his head with one hand. He avoids looking at her and instead stares into space.
"What exactly did you do, Suki?"
She feels the blush rising in her face again and desperately struggles for words.
"So I, .. uh .. I thought you might be cold .... well, because of the wet clothes and then ... uh .. well ... I must have touched you ... somehow ... accidentally and in the next moment I was in this clearing ... "
Sey looks at her completely amazed.
"You were where? Wait, does that mean you were there?"
"... Sure, uh ... you saw me ... I was the girl with that old-fashioned apron ... but I don't quite understand what it all ..."
Sey gets up with one jump and paces restlessly back and forth, running one hand thoughtfully through his hair.
"That's impossible, the only girl that was there is ... I mean, it's my memory after all ..."
"... Your memory? So it wasn't just some dream? Are you saying these soldiers ... and this girl I was somehow stuck in ... it all really happened?"
Sey looks piercingly and at the same time somewhat absently in the eyes, almost as if he was thinking hard about something and hoping to find the answer he was looking for in her.
"So you were her? ... Maybe it all makes sense ... After all, she is ..."
He pauses in the middle of a sentence and avoids her gaze, as if he had just said more than he actually intended ... Amander lets out an amused giggle and sneaks through the door in a good mood, while she still has a clearly audible " Oh oh!" leaves behind.Sey makes no move to pursue the topic any further, but Suki does not give up that easily.
"Say it already, Sey! You're hiding something from me! Who is this girl and why am I in contact with her?"
"To be honest, I have no idea what exactly is going on here ... At first I thought you were her ... - I mean, you don't just look like her, you are her exact image! I thought ... maybe ... "
A cold shiver runs through Suki's entire body and she feels a strange numbness in her head. Although she does her best not to let it show, the lump in her throat makes her voice shake slightly.
"... Does that mean the real reason you didn't let me die ... is because you thought I was her?"
Even if Sey does not make a sound, the honest and at the same time shameful look with which he grazes her is enough of an answer. Suki feels another stitch and quickly turns away from him.
"But I'm not her ... I felt it myself. This girl is a completely different person than me, even if we may look alike ... I guess you already noticed that for yourself ... Definitely if I hadn't run away like a coward like she did ... "
Sey gives her an angry look.
"... You have no idea what you are talking about, Suki! She was anything but a coward ..."
"Oh yeah? What I just saw and felt was pretty much like cowardice!"
"What you saw was only a small part of the story! Someone like you, who has always been able to lead a quiet life, has no right to judge someone like her!"
Without really knowing why, she feels her eyes burn a little and quickly walks towards the door.
"... Fine! That doesn't change the fact that I'm not her! I'm sorry, but I guess you saved the wrong girl! I hope you're not too disappointed!"
"Suki! Wait!"
The door slams shut with a loud thump that reverberates in the oppressive silence that remains in the room. Sey stares at the closed wooden door in front of him for a few seconds, unsure what to do next. For now he is satisfied with kicking Amander's bar stool into the next corner, before finally dropping in frustration on the small, shabby couch in the middle of the deserted room and cursing his own stupidity in his mind ...