"Dear Boss" [16]

A sound like a shattered window. A warm green light encompassed the room. Nikki's wounds healed. Guards, astounded by the flash, held their breaths with tendency of 'trigger-finger'. Igna casually lit a cigarette. The smoke brought the lass into a few coughs. The latter scraped like a grate, a guttural cough. "Where am I?" she gasped, and the smoke fell heavily onto her pillow. 

  "Welcome," he said, stepping away from her face.

She wiped her eyes and looked about, "-where am I?" she asked.

  "The cottage?" he replied with an inflection.

  "The cottage?" she rose against bedrest, "-how long was I out?"

  "Don't know and don't care," he puffed, muffled sound of distress and pain snuck. Akin to how the light of healing escaped into the corridor, remnants of painful screams came into theirs. "-Nikki, you have something to say?"

  "Mirai," she gulped, "-he proposed."

  "Didn't I say he would?" 

  "I refused."

  "And?"