The Invisibility Trap
Chapter 1: Wolfgang
Water.
Cool water was swirling beneath his fingertips; floating them up to form little eddies at the interface between water and air. Little ripples lapped softly against his aching chest, soothing the electric tingles that still singed and sparked under his skin.
A warm hand filled his. Languorous, all too conscious of his strained an aching neck, Wolfgang rolled his gaze over to the side the hand originated from.
"Ah shit."
Kala, floating serenely to his left, blinked in surprise and raised a quizzical eyebrow. "Pardon me?"
"I am not dead," he groaned, letting his eyes slide out of focus again, it seemed to be inordinately difficult to resolve anything at the moment. Probable concussion, the part of him that had been trained to recognize these things whispered.
There was a pregnant pause on Kala's end, until it seemed he would not elaborate without some prodding, "How do you know that?"
Wolfgang sighed, feeling the water soaking into his beard, now stiff and caked to his face with dried blood and sweat. "I'm pretty sure that people like me, they don't go the same place you do," he squinted at her, experimentally closing one eye then the other, "I expect a lot more fire and eternal damnation on my end."
"Hmm," Kala made that little noise, the one he had come to associate with disagreement. A corner of his mouth crooked up in expectation. It felt stiff. How long had it been since he had smiled? Certainly not since they had taken him to this place.
"Hmm," she repeated, and she let of his hand, supporting his back and shoulders instead, as he began to sink a little. It seemed the water they were in was shallow, but he could not even begin to fathom standing up. He felt the cool metal of the ring on her left hand bite into the skin at the base of his neck.
"I do not believe in Hell. But," she continued, "I find it interesting that you do, given your previous skepticism about God caring enough to intervene in our existence at all."
Wolfgang, would have shrugged, "Makes perfect sense to me, it seems that the consequences always arrive even if the rewards don't."
The scent of chlorine was straggling its way into his senses now, finally overriding the clots of blood in his nostrils. They were in a pool. Wolfgang tried not to think too hard about that; it wasn't safe to think of locations.
"I am sorry, " she whispered, and he could feel the strands of her hair lapping against his arm, slippery as silk, "I wanted to come and get you."
"It's okay."
It wasn't. Many things recently were not okay with Wolfgang, but it didn't matter now. He understood at least why they had left him behind. Guilt began to fill him, dark and viscous as molasses.
"He knows your name," Wolfgang, felt the words claw a little at his tongue as they left his mouth, "He knows who you are."
Struggling he twisted to look at her, there was no good way to express his shame "I let him – I was too weak – I – I failed you." He settled on at last.
"That was not your fault," murmured Kala, as he knew she would. It was not in her to hate, not like him. "No one could have withstood that."
Wolfgang tried in vain to focus on her face, nothing but an oval, framed with dark curls, "I should have," he replied at last, breath beginning to come quickly, "I should have been strong enough to resist him."
But this was worse then his uncle's neglectful custody of him, leaving him to the tender mercies of career hit-men. It was worse than the clumsy hand-stitching of his more suspicious looking wounds, it was worse even than the brutal beatings his father would unleash; all the more unbearable for their unpredictability.
Then, they could hurt no one but him. He had no one to protect. He could retreat, curl inside that small dark space in his mind, the one he had prepared for such occasions, and wait it out.
But this time his thoughts were not safe. There was no sanctuary. The dark space had been filled.
It belonged to her now.
Wolfgang didn't even know when he had given it up, when he had let her occupy so much of what he had kept empty. When he was hurt he had run to her, never even aware of making the choice to do so. And now they knew her name.
Pain arched hotly up and down his spine for a moment and he felt Kala's hands rub soothing circles on his back.
"That feels nice," he exhaled finally, as the hand supporting his shoulders began to loosen the cramped muscles there.
Kala hummed softly, "It is the least I can do," her expression might have become a bit shy, "I wanted you to wake up comfortable."
"Thank you," and there was only the barest hint of irony in his voice. His eyelids felt heavy and he could faintly detect the scent of her hair, mixed in with all the chlorine, dragging his thoughts into sweeter memories.
"It was surprisingly easy to find a pool actually," continued Kala, "Riley seems to know every little corner of this –"
"Don't," warned Wolfgang, cracking one eye open, "It's not safe."
"We have Whispers, what else could they do to you?"
"Much more, I expect." If there was anything Wolfgang was sure of, it was that. He would not expect a reprieve until he was properly free of BPO, until he put a bullet between Whisper's eyes, and watched the life drain out of him just to be sure.
Kala sighed as if she could hear his thoughts, and he felt her lips brush softly against his, as blissfully cool as the water beneath him.
Consciousness was fading from him again, but this time it was comforting, welcome. Still he fought the exhaustion, wanting to stay with her just a moment longer.
"I am sorry about Paris."
Had he ever believed he would make it there? It felt like a dream from someone else's life.
He felt her smile against his mouth, and if there were tears on her face, they mixed with the pool water and no evidence remained.
"Don't you dare, I am not giving up on you that easily Wolfgang Bogdanow."
I am back! Hope you like it there will be more coming, likely updated a few times a week. Let me know what you think :)
