Please sit back, und ENJOY!
He woke up much more light-hearted the next morning. He had not had any nightmares, and he felt already much better from the day before. After his short morning routine – consisting of washing his face – he headed straight for the medic's room.
"Good morning, Feliciano." Arthur greeted him as soon as he entered. He was rubbing his eyes and yawning, as if he had just woken up. The bizarre thing was, he was sitting on a chair. Had he fallen asleep there?
"Uh, good morning. Did you sleep on the chair again?"
Arthur nodded, standing up and stretching his arms and back. "Hm-hmmm, I had to do some research... I must have accidentally dozed off." He groaned, yawning again.
Feliciano waited patiently for the him to recover from the sleepiness and freshen himself up a little, it was the least that he could do after all. It wasn't the first time the Brit had fallen asleep while studying or researching, he really did do his best to know everything he could as a medic and more, however at the cost of his own health. After the Disaster, he had ransacked his university's library for the most useful books, not only including everything needed as a medical school student, but also books about advanced biology, chemistry, astronomy, agriculture, geography, and a lot of guides and "How to" books, that ranged from "Surviving in the desert" to "Recognizing edible mushrooms". One lonely book of history had survived as well, probably taken more out of personal preference than usefulness. The other survivors had brought their significant additions to the library as well of course, especially Kiku with books on physics and mechanics – so that they would know what to do if, for example, their only functioning vehicle happened to break down.
"Hm, thank you for waiting. Anyway, I think we both know why you're here, right?" Arthur said, visibly more awake, as he returned from his adjacent bedroom.
Feliciano nodded. "Yep, yesterday you said you had a theory. I'm very curious about that."
"Indeed. Take a seat, please." Arthur gestured towards the table, and Feliciano complied. This was also a daily routine now, to check on the Italian's hand.
"Well, you see," Arthur started while taking the usual supplies for Feliciano's check up, "after having taken care of you two nitwits – you and Ludwig – I noticed something odd. Three things in fact. The first oddity was what you told me yesterday, that bizarre feeling you had, that drove you out right where the Nightmare was. It is too much of a weird coincidence to think it was only, well, a coincidence. But we'll have to wait until the next Nightmare attacks to know for sure." He chuckled. "The second oddity concerns yesterday's Nightmare. You know, Nightmares, monstrous as they may be, are still living beings – kind of –, and like all living beings, when they die, their corpses slowly rot away into the ground. Corpses do not become a slimy puddle of nauseating black goo after a couple of hours."
Feliciano's eyebrows shot up. "Huh, what?"
Arthur nodded, looking him in the eyes. "Exactly. I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't seen it with my very own eyes. A big black puddle, like molten rubber. Strange, isn't it? Blimey, and that goo smelled awful, believe me. I'm going to check that substance later, see what Nightmares are made of – or at least what's left of them. I could check if it might have any properties or useful aspects, although I do not think it will have any. Anyway, the last thing that I wanted to talk to you about was that your hand was burnt where the skin came in contact with the Nightmare's blood, but that is a normal reaction, considering its acidity. What isn't normal is for the Nightmare to have burned marks too."
"I thought you said it turned into a puddle." Feliciano frowned, confused and feeling slightly more and more uncomfortable under the Brit's scrutinizing gaze.
"I did, and it did. But Ludwig told me what he saw when he pulled your arm from the back of the monster's head." The medic chuckled. "You did quite a number on it, both of you, and with nothing else but your bare hands and stones. I must say I'm impressed. Now, could I just take a look at your hand for a minute?"
The Italian nodded, and followed the Brit's hands as they unwrapped the many bandages. After they had all come off, Feliciano inhaled sharply at the sight. The skin was slightly swollen, red, blotched and blistered as if it had been burned or attacked by acid – which wasn't too far from the truth, actually. Not a pretty sight, but Feliciano had to admit that it looked worse than it actually felt. In fact, his hand and fingers only felt a bit numb, nothing else.
The medic hummed. "Hmm. It has not worsened since yesterday night, that's a good sign. I already removed everything of the nasty stuff yesterday, but I don't know to what extent the Nightmare's blood can make damage. Thankfully the main injury is to the epidermis, only partial damage has been done to the dermis." He said, mostly muttering to himself. "How does it feel? Does it itch or burn?"
Feliciano frowned, slowly flexing his wrist. "No, not really, it's just kind of... numb. Like when your hand falls asleep."
"So you don't feel this?" Arthur asked, carefully poking the damaged skin.
"No, I don't feel anything."
"Try to move your fingers." The medic continued, and Feliciano complied. "Alright, there doesn't seem to be any extensive damage to the muscle tissues... but just to be sure, try to pick up this cup." Arthur offered him a normal mug, and Feliciano picked it up without any problems. "Interesting." He muttered, scribbling down some notes on a notepad.
"Way to be reassuring, doctor." Feliciano mumbled worriedly. "But what about this?" He pointed at the now familiar opening on the back of his hand. The skin of the opening had suffered the same fate as the rest of the hand, but the very faint glow inside of it had slightly gotten brighter, imperceptibly so.
"Right. The opening. Well..." The medic paused.
Feliciano did not like that pause. "Well...? Is it bad? Did I get infected by that Nightmare?!" Kiku had told him, Nightmares worked almost like zombies. A bite, a scratch, even some contact with infected blood could cause an Infection – if it happened to come in your eyes, mouth or an open wound. It worked when you were alive, it could also work on the recently dead. And he had buried almost his whole forearm into a weak spot, with that gaping opening on the back of his hand.
"No, surprisingly, you didn't get infected, don't worry, I checked that. We both know the symptoms for that, and you are not showing any of them. It might just confirm that this" Arthur pointed at the opening "is nothing like a wound or something like that. It rather seems to be a part of you, and the inside is... closed. Kind of like how your belly button works."
"Now that's just a nasty image you put in my head." Feliciano said. "Ew. Anatomy is nasty."
Arthur chuckled. "It sure is. But let me get this straight. This thing you have on your hand, and all the oddities that I told you before, they made me think, and I think I came up with a theory. I think you might be something like a... please don't laugh, I know it sounds ridiculous... some sort of an anti-Nightmare."
Feliciano was so astounded he didn't even know what to say or how to react. He just blinked, and uttered a "What."
Arthur shook his head and stood up, pacing around the room. "I know, I know, that's a perfectly understandable reaction! But think about it, just for one second. All those oddities, I have never heard of them before you came around. You admit of feeling weird when a Nightmare is around, you burn them when you touch them, and after they have been killed by you they bloody start to melt. If those are not some sort of clues I don't know what is! It must be some sort of power, an adaptation if you prefer, against the Nightmares. And that thing you have on your hand, it defies every recorded rule of anatomy I have ever read, just like Nightmares and REDs do, but you are obviously not either one of those things..." He suddenly stopped pacing, as if realizing something. "Hm. I suppose I should tell you what a RED is."
The Italian shook his head. "That isn't necessary, Ludwig told me about them yesterday. You were right, he visited me right after you left."
The medic's eyebrows shot up. "Ludwig told you?" After an affirmative nod from Feliciano, he smiled. "Well, I'll be damned. He seems to trust you enough, then. Congrats, Feliciano, you are officially the person that has gained Ludwig's trust the fastest. Maybe he is finally mellowing down, recovering from the life before the Rock. Anyway, as I was saying," he resumed his pacing, "since you now know what REDs are, you must know that you are clearly far from being a Nightmare or a RED. But what you have there cannot be human either." He stopped walking right when he was standing in front of Feliciano. "What I'm trying to say, Feliciano, is that as much as I want to understand this and help you, I don't have the faintest idea how. Not even a single one. And I sincerely apologize for that. But what I do know," he quickly added before Feliciano could stop his self-blaming rant, "is that thanks to that thing on your hand, thanks to the feeling you had, we didn't lose one of our own tonight. You saved Ludwig's life, and who knows what that Nightmare could have done if it had entered the Rock. That, among other things, reminds me that we need to reinstall a watch schedule. But, whatever happened to your hand, whatever it is, I'm grateful it was there. I do not think it's bad, and I think you should reconsider it too."
Feliciano exhaled, not having realized he had been holding his breath. He hesitantly nodded and thanked Arthur, convinced by his speech, and let the medic finish his check up without uttering another word.
Maybe he was right. The theory sounded even more ridiculous in his head, but maybe, just maybe... He looked at his hand. Well, he could at least reconsider thinking of it as a bad thing.
After the check up and after the hand's burns had been thoroughly treated and bandaged again, they were both ready for breakfast.
At the Rock, 'breakfast' meant drinking something that vaguely resembled coffee or tea and eat two dried biscuits. It was not much but it was something with which they were able to start the day.
Feliciano knew he loved coffee – his brain had randomly decided to remind him of that – but he somehow could not grow to like the coffee they had at the Rock. Something told him that it had to do with the fact that he was Italian, but he wasn't quite sure. Nevertheless, he still needed to drink it, otherwise he would never be able to swallow the dry biscuits, or have the energy to walk around.
As he and Arthur headed for the common diving cave, they heard a ruckus coming from said place. When they stepped into the cave, they saw that Tino and Mathias were in the middle of a heated argument, while Berwald was standing between them, trying to calm them down – to no avail. Kiku and Ludwig were there too, but sitting at the couch area – they had probably been sitting there long before the squabble started.
"There is no way, Tino, no freaking way in hell! It's not my fault, why are you immediately accusing me?!" Mathias's face was red.
"Then start explaining! Who is always complaining about being hungry? Who, Mathias? You!" Tino's face was even a couple of shades darker than Mathias's.
"That's not true! Ok maybe it is true, but I wouldn't do such a thing, and I don't get it why you don't see it! Maybe it's because you're blond!"
"Maybe you haven't noticed it, but you're blond too, Mathias!"
"Shut up!"
"And that is beside the point! You-"
"Calm d'wn, both of yoo! D'nt fight, let's talk 'bout it!" Berwald tried to intervene.
"I'm not talking to a thief!" Tino bit back, unexpectedly rude.
"I am not a thief!" Mathias barked.
"A thief and a liar!"
"I'm not either of those things!"
"Yes you are!"
"No!"
" Kyllä!"
"Nej!"
Arthur closed in onto the squabbling trio surprisingly quickly, yelling "Will you BOTH quiet the HELL DOWN! PLEASE!"
A surprised and startled silence fell after the medic's outburst.
"Thank you." He said, his voice returning frighteningly quickly to a normal tone. "Now. What seems to be the problem here?"
Ludwig and Kiku had now stood up, and approached to listen as well, briefly muttering 'good morning's under their breaths to Feliciano.
Tino took a deep breath to calm down a little, casting a quick glare in the general direction of the Dane. "Let's see, where do I start. Yesterday I went through our food storage, mostly because of my daily check but also because I thought of preparing something with canned meat for today's lunch. I counted the cans we had, and took note that we had more than enough. However when I came back this morning, I noticed that two cans of meat had mysteriously disappeared." Sarcasm dripped from his words, it was very strange to hear this tone coming from Tino, Feliciano briefly noticed. He was probably one of, if not the kindest, most patient and level-headed person in the Rock.
"The thing is, he instantly assumes it was me!" Mathias cut in, igniting a spark that set off the Fin again.
"Yes! Because the day before yesterday you so casually mentioned that you would love to eat some meat, and then poof two cans suddenly disappear! Coincidence? I don't think so!"
All onlookers felt like they were watching some sort of a tennis match, where the ball goes back and forth, and one has to continuously turn his head to follow the game.
"I'll say it once more. It. Wasn't. Me." Mathias seethed, clenching his fists.
"Shut up, both 'f yoo." Berwald positioned himself once more between the two arguers. "Tino, f'rst of all, who said 't was M'thias?"
The Dane nodded eagerly, obviously glad that someone was taking his side. "Yeah, exactly that. Who said that?"
Tino shook his head curtly. "I just know it." He snapped.
"Do yoo have any proof?" Berwald asked, now perfectly managing to be the peacekeeper.
"Yeah! Do you?" Mathias repeated, earning a slightly irritated shove from the tall Swede.
"Sh't up for a second, I'm trying t' figure th's out." He grumbled. "So?" He turned to look at Tino, as did everybody else following the display.
The Fin's eyes darted around, before landing on his own shoes. "I... I do not have any proof." He admitted in a low voice, seemingly calming down.
"Ha!" Mathias exclaimed triumphantly.
"Kiku, could you please confirm this for us?" Arthur politely asked the Japanese, who nodded.
He neared Mathias and looked him straight in the eye. "Mathias, did you steal the food?"
"Hell no. I'd be ready to swear it on a mountain of bibles if I had to." The Dane replied, folding his arms over his chest.
The Japanese's eyes narrowed, and everybody held their breaths.
"He's telling the truth." He finally stated, breaking eye contact and turning to look at the others.
"What?" Tino blinked, surprised. "Are you sure?" When the Japanese nodded, he looked clearly confused, and all traces of his previous anger disappeared. "But... but then who stole them?"
"I'm not going to question the fact that you might have counted wrong, Tino. Obviously you must be completely sure of the fact that two cans are missing." Ludwig reasoned. "And I don't think it could be one of us. Arthur, what do you think?" He turned to look at the medic.
Arthur nodded once. "Of course it's not one of us. It would be bloody stupid if we started to steal our own food, right?" Everyone nodded in agreement. "Then we're dealing with a thief from the outside. It's the only possible solution." He concluded, shrugging.
"There's someone else all the way out here?" Kiku questioned.
"To be more precise, there is someone else? Another person?" Ludwig wondered. Apart from Feliciano, the Rock gang had not seen a truly human being in at least a year.
"How am I supposed to know? But it seems to only logical explanation." Arthur shrugged again.
Silence fell, but was short, because Tino spoke up. "Mathias, I'm sorry for calling you a thief. I should have known that you weren't. It's just... I couldn't think of anyone else, let alone consider there could be someone else outside the Rock."
Mathias smiled, patting the Fin on the back. "No problem, Tino. I'm sorry too for yelling. And for calling you blond."
"Again, you're blond too, Mathias." Tino smirked back.
"Shut up!"
They all laughed, the tension of moments before disappeared, like snow in the sun.
"Alright then. I'm going to make coffee for everyone today." Tino said, putting his hands together, and Kiku volunteered to help.
The Brit then had an idea. "Tino, could you kindly check if any other goods are missing? Maybe our thief has been active for a while, before we finally noticed."
Both the Fin and the Japanese nodded, before heading towards the general kitchen area, while the rest walked towards the couches.
Ludwig sighed deeply as he plopped down on a couch, rubbing his face with two hands. "Ugh, I really do need that coffee. I almost didn't sleep last night." He groaned.
Arthur yawned. "Hm, me too. But I would honestly sell my kidney for a cup of good old Earl Grey. The tea we managed to salvage is of truly horrible quality."
When Tino and Kiku returned, they brought coffee and news of the thief's activity. Arthur's suspicions were confirmed: not only had the two cans of meat been stolen, but other general supplies as well – but always in small quantities, as to be less noticeable. And he would have gotten away with the meat too, if it had not been that he had stolen the cans right after Tino had counted them.
"So he's been active f'r a while, then." Berwald slurped his steaming coffee, and Tino nodded.
"Well...?" Mathias abruptly asked, standing up, his coffee and biscuits already gone. "What are we waiting for? Let's get this lowlife, ungrateful, stealing sonufabitch!" He ran off as soon as he was finished talking, on his quest to find the thief.
Berwald sighed, standing up with his coffee still in his hand. "I'm going 'fter him, who knows wh't kind of stupid stuff he's going t' do."
The rest drank their coffee and ate their breakfast in peace, before agreeing that Mathias had some sort of a point: they needed to find the thief. Feliciano had barely managed to finish his coffee and one dry biscuit, but decided to start searching as well. He stood up, putting the remaining biscuit in his pocket for later.
Everybody soon started to search, each with their own method, looking for clues inside or searching for traces outside. They could be looking for anything: hair, footprints, ripped cloth, anything. They were all almost centimetres from every surface, let it be a wall, the floor or the ground outside. After a couple of hours however, nobody had found anything still. To an outside onlooker, this scene would have looked rather silly.
During his searches, Feliciano ended up in the mirror cave, where he found a tall Swede scanning his surroundings for any traces or clues.
"Hello there, Berwald! Have you found anything?" The Italian asked, knowing very well what the answer was going to be.
"No, sadly. Ah 'lready checked the field, too. I'm going t' try my luck elsewhere." He sighed, fixing his wire-framed glasses with his almost permanent frown on his face. Feliciano knew that his eyesight was pretty bad to start with, and it had been even worsened because his eyeballs had been frozen, and that was the reason why the Swede was constantly frowning, and without really meaning to. Furthermore, his frown could come over as downright scary, even though he did not do that on purpose. Tino had told Feliciano that the Swede had always been rather self-conscious about it, he had always managed to scare pretty much everyone with that unconscious glare – enhanced by the cold colour of his eyes – and that that was why the Swede had almost immediately liked the Italian: he had not been scared when he had first met him.
"Ok, good luck!" Feliciano said as he left. So he was left alone, and he put his fists on his hips. Now, where should he start looking, double-checking what the Swede had already done? He could begin with the field, one of the few places in the whole Rock that had a soft surface – perfect to leave footprints. And he found multiple footprints, big ones, and he almost instantly knew to whom they belonged to because he recognized the boot print: they were Ludwig and Berwald's footprints. He then looked back at his own footprints, as to remember them and not confuse them. He walked back and forth over the field, slowly and carefully as not to step onto the growing vegetables or possible clues. It took much longer than what he would like to admit, but after what seemed like an eternity he was almost finished. His stomach growled, and Feliciano fished the biscuit from his pocket during the last few metres that he had to cover. While nibbling on the dry piece of carbohydrates, almost at the end of his mission near the farthest wall of the cave, he lost his balance on some loose piece of earth, and fell. His hands automatically went in front of him to soften the fall, but the biscuit slipped from his fingers. He fell with a soft 'thump'.
He groaned, contemplating the result of his clumsiness for a few moments, before gathering the necessary strength to sit up again. Noticing that he had lost his biscuit, his hungry guts demanded him to find it again, so he dusted off the dirt from his clothes and started searching for the precious food. Lifting one random leaf of a newborn vegetable he found it, but apart from the dirty half-nibbled rectangle, at the same time he found something else.
It was a footprint. A different footprint.
He let out an exclamation in surprise. The print was definitely smaller than Ludwig and Berwald's footprints, and it was a very lonely footprint. That probably meant that someone had erased all the other ones, except for this one, either because it had been hidden by the leaf or because the owner of the print had been in a hurry, or both. Feliciano blinked, surprised at his own deduction skills. He had done things like this before.
The print was deep. Too deep for a person with such small feet. Wither the guy weighed a ton, or... Feliciano looked up, shielding his eyes from the sun reflected by the mirrors hung around the hole in the ceiling. Maybe he fell from above. But then he would not have been able to walk, a fall from that height would definitely cripple, if not kill, a person. His brain suggested him the use of a rope, which however was not long enough.
Once again, he was surprised by his own deductive skills, but that was quickly replaced by enthusiasm. He picked up the dirty biscuit, stood up and cleaned it from the dirt as various thoughts started spinning in his head. Had probably found a very, very valuable clue, he had to tell everybody else about this!
He was already taking a deep breath as to call everyone – one of the advantages of the Rock was that it could carry sounds everywhere in almost every cave – but then a thought suddenly dawned on him.
What if he had been wrong? That would be stupid. After all, all he had was just a bizarre footprint, he should first check thoroughly if his theory was right before bothering everyone else. He could start by checking if there indeed was a rope somewhere. He nodded to himself, shoving what remained of the biscuit into his mouth and raced towards the exit of the Rock.
That's all, folks!
I am still thoroughly enjoying the re-writing process. Often what/how I wrote makes me cringe, and I know I am still far from perfect, but this gives me a chance to improve myself and better the story. I hope you're still enjoying this!
Be warned, apart from basically re-writing everything, I'll be occasionally making cuts and changes, some more relevant than others but I am not going to reveal which ones of course ;) so even old readers might be in for a surprise when re-reading the story!
...
Kyllä! : (Finnish) Yes!
Nej! : (Danish) No!