After being informed that the dialogue is hard to read/understand and it was making my story hard to read- I decided to clean it up by spacing everything out. Sorry for the sudden change in format. Chapter 6 will be coming later today since I didn't upload yesterday. Enjoy
Caveira sat on her bed with her legs to her chest. She rested her head on her knees as she silently wept missing Bandit. It had been a week since his funeral, and she still couldn't bring herself to socialize with any of the other operators. Not even Capitao with whom she was the closest to. The speculations before, during, and even after the funeral were too much. Everyone was on edge about who could have done it. The base wasn't the same afterwards. Especially after Caveira had spoken to the coroner after the autopsy. The bullets pulled from his torso were 9mm rounds, and although many operators had pistols that used the same ammo- the fact that no one heard a single shot fired was more than telling enough. She had had visions ever since her meet up with the coroner. She could see Bandit stepping towards her, the bullets ripping his flesh open as they were fired into him, she could even see the kill shot of the final bullet through his chin. Every time she had a flashback, she felt that sudden heaviness accompanied with the shadow she had seen so many times before.
A low growl came from deep inside of her stomach. She hadn't eaten anything after the funeral. She endured the hunger pains by sleeping them off. In all honesty, she slept all the pain off the best she could. But whenever she began to dream, the creature that haunted her would tear her away and wake her up. She figured that maybe this was her penance for her past. She had always heard stories of omens that brung warnings to those who were close to their sentence of damnation while growing up in Brazil. She'd always put it off as just religious superstition, she knew she was smarter than to believe something so ludicrous. But upon the arrival of this thing that watched her and the horrible visions that drove her to killing Bandit- Caveira could only believe the stories. And now, here she sat starving herself in her room, afraid that she would do it all again. She lied back down on her bed, and hugged her pillow tightly. Tears slipped between her eyelashes after making their way through her tightly shut lids.
IQ, Jager, and Blitz all sat together poking at their plates. It was hard to really enjoy themselves without Bandit there making a mockery of any and everything they did. Blitz cleared his throat dropping his fork, "You know, I always said I couldn't wait for the day Dominic wasn't here to pester me, but now I can't stand the silence."
IQ and Jager both looked up at him. He held his head in one of his hands and his face was covered with anguish.
"I know what you mean. It's one thing to be killed out in the field, but killed on base with no one being made aware of anything? How does that happen?" Jager added in.
IQ looked nervously around the cafeteria. She leaned in and whispered, "What if Taina did it? Elias and I saw her talking to herself when we were in Italy. I think she's unstable."
Jager shook his head, "She and Dom were real. I wouldn't think in a million years she would do anything to him."
Blitz lifted his head just then, "And that's a perfect reason of why it could have been her. No one would think she would." Blitz opened his mouth to continue when Capitao came walking by. Blitz looked down at his tray pretending to be interested with the contents of his plate. Capitao stopped and turned towards the Germans.
"Maybe it'd just be better to leave it alone," he said before going on his way. Not wanting to cause any drama, the Germans heeded his advice.
Caveira strolled through the halls of Hereford, tracing her fingers along the crude stone walls. She was exhausted, and her body felt like it wanted to give out. Trudging her way down the stairs and through the first floor, she found herself in front of the double doors to Hereford's recent addition. It was a Chapel that Six had installed in an unused storage space near the back of the base. Since there were more recruits coming in with spiritual and religious beliefs, she decided to give them a place for them to be able to practice. Caveira placed a hand on one of the heavy wooden doors. She took a deep breath and pushed it open. The smell of fresh lumber awoke her senses as she stepped inside. The downlights in the ceiling running along the walls were dimly lit, barely allowing her to see the colors on the stained glass windows. However, at the front of the Chapel, the statue of the Virgin Mary and the altar just under her were brilliantly illuminated from above. Caveira swallowed hard as she made her way to the front of the Chapel. She placed her hands on the altar, running her fingers along the red banner that lay on top. She sighed taking a step back to fall on her knees. She looked upwards to the statue of Mary, then bowed her head to pray to whoever was above.
"Taina?" a familiar voice with a French accent called out. Caveira stood up, turning to see Lion walking between the rows of pews towards the front of the Chapel. "I didn't know you were part of the Faith," he said placing a rosary around one of the cross statues on the altar.
Caveira grabbed onto her left arm and pulled it close to her, "Oh, I'm not really into that..."
Lion raised an eyebrow as he studied her face, "Then why are you here?"
Caveira looked away in an attempt to hide her uncertainty. She wasn't exactly sure why either- but she felt deep down inside that maybe she did believe. And in that small belief, she needed some sort of salvation or forgiveness.
"I just- Can we talk?" Caveira said barely above a whisper. Lion nodded his head motioning to her to sit in one of the pews. Caveira sat in the middle of the first pew on the left, and Lion took a spot beside her. Caveira stared at the floor unblinking. She took in a deep breath before looking back up at the statue of Mary. "I've been hearing and seeing things. At first I thought that maybe it was because of the fevers..."
She paused to close her eyes. She threatened to break down as the images of whatever it was that had been bothering her filled her mind. Lion waited, studying her face to see exactly what she was feeling. "There's this thing that's been following me... I feel like I know it from somewhere, but it won't let me sleep. It watches me. It- it talks to me..." Caveira gasped as she couldn't swallow back her emotions anymore. Tears began to stream from her eyes and stain her cheeks. "Olivier, do you believe that confessions have to be to priests?" she said looking up at him.
Lion shook his head, "I know that's part of my religion, but I believe a confession gets to God whether you confess to a priest or not."
Caveira wiped her eyes looking back down at the floor. "Will you keep this between us?" Lion nodded his head and gave her his word that he would. Caveira sniffled wiping her face again. "The night that Bandit died..." She stopped to catch her breath. She shook her head and looked upward in an attempt to roll her tears back behind her eyes. "I keep having visions of him getting shot. I watch him die in my mind so many times. I was the one who killed him," Caveira cried. She dropped her face in her hands as she loudly wept. Lion could feel her grief radiate into the air, but the chills that ran up and down his spine at her confession made his skin crawl.
"I thought I was shooting at... At that thing. It was there in front of me. I promise- I was trying to kill it, not Dom..." she croaked through heavy tears and hysterical sobs. The way that Lion looked at her was like a fawn at a wolf. He was scared. Terrified. Whatever she was facing- it was very serious. Whatever it was had caused her to gun down the person she considered her lover. God forbid it mess with her head and have her kill someone else in Rainbow. As far as he knew now- every night she was at Hereford from here on out was a potential night for killing.
"Taina, what if I told you I know someone who could help you." Caveira sat up to look at him. Even in the dim lighting Lion could see how swollen her eyes already were from crying.
"There's someone who can help me?"
Lion sighed before nodding. "I do believe that he can. But we'll have to travel to France in order to see him. Would you be willing to do that?"
Caveira shook her head 'yes' as she wiped her eyes. "I don't have Dominic anymore, there's nothing for me here..."
It was Lion's turn to look at the statue of Mary as the last part of her sentence resonated with him. He had been in her shoes before, and he felt exactly where she was coming from. "I'll talk to Six about taking a leave as soon as possible. I don't know how soon we'll be able to go, but I promise you we'll get there quickly. For now, let us pray." Caveira nodded her head as she joined Lion in front of the altar. They fell on their knees with their hands clasped together under their chin. Caveira let herself get lost in the words as Lion began to pray, "Hail Mary, full of grace..."