1.7

Joachim leaned his head against the cool glass behind him, his legs stretched across both seats, and stared out the window of the bus door.

It had been several hours now since Frank left. After telling Joachim the story about Nick, he stayed a little longer, got drunk and kept making jokes on behalf of the other athletes.

At some point, he probably decided that Joachim was too boring to drink with him any longer.

So Joachim was by himself in the bus.

Darkness moved across the sky, all sounds seemed to amplify three times in this lonely silence, and the moon looked down on everything.

Which meant that Joachim was alone with his imagination and thoughts.

His mind was still filled with the story of Nick.

Of course, he did not believe that Aaron had anything to do with the murder of this Nick. But, hadn't he also harassed Kay in some way?

He was the reason why Kay had fallen to the ground three times, and he had even puked before his feet...

But he wouldn't be killed because of this, would he? After all, it wasn't intentional...

Bloody images of his presumed imminent death invaded his brain. Impaled on one of the many levers, as a bloody corpse lying on a seat, spread in several pieces all over the bus, countless scenarios, in only one, except for the moonlight, pitch-black bus.

That was also the reason why Joachim always kept the door in his sight, even though it was closed, and very securely at that, Joachim still felt irrational fear driving away his need for sleep.

Bam!

Joachim jerked hard and almost fell from his seat, a scream was stuck in his throat, but he swallowed it down.

He sat there like petrified, one hand clasped over his mouth to prevent any noise. Where had the sound come from?

He concentrated on his ears.

Behind him.

After this frightening realization, Joachim slowly turned around, careful not to make a sound.

Fear surrounded his heart, he grabbed the blanket over his legs tightly as if it were an anchor. He was not a very brave person, but he swore that if he didn't die tonight, he would apologize to Kay in the morning.

He looked out the window.

A dark pinewood forest, that's all he could see. The branches of the fir trees swayed in the warm wind of summer nights, the silver moon shone cool in the night sky and the stars sparkled. Everything as usual.

He was about to turn back to the door, the probably riskiest place of this vehicle when he saw a dark figure scurrying between the trees.

His head swung around, his gaze directed into the thicket, holding his breath.

Fear made his arms tremble, the hairs on his body stood up. He gripped the blanket so tightly that even with his chubbiness his knuckles protruded from his skin.

Bam!

Joachim let himself fall flat onto the seat. He hit the back of his head but ignored the pain to pull the blanket over himself. His breath was shaky.

The beat of his heart was ringing in his ears.

He remembered the lessons of his class again.

With deep breaths, he tried to calm himself down.

***

That was definitely not good for his health.

He sat in his seat and let Aaron and Steffen talk.

No sleep, again. Nevertheless, he forced himself to watch out for the traffic.

His tired eyes looked in the rearview mirror, Kay was sitting in the back of the bus, his eyes closed. Joachim was a little jealous when he saw this, but he immediately remembered Frank's story and his vow from last night.

"Oh, you have to turn here."

Joachim was startled, but he turned the bus automatically.

Steffen laughed: "Do you want us to stay with you a bit longer? Unfortunately, however, it's already time for us to get to the stadium and our rooms."

Surprised, Joachim looked at Aaron and Steffen for a moment before he had to watch out for the traffic in front of him again.

Aaron noticed his glance and answered with a beaming smile: "Yes, we are almost there now. Being driven by you was a lot more fun than with Nick."

"And we could still meet up after we won our gold medals to do something," Steffen added, a broad, silly grin on his face.

Joachim felt his heart flooded with sadness.

Once he had completed the 'Quest', they would never see each other again. He would return to his world and live his life as it had been before.

His throat tightened at this thought, but Aaron and Steffen expected an answer from him, so he forced himself to a happy tone: "Sure, then maybe you can show me some examples of your sport's techniques."

After a few turns, a huge stadium appeared in front of them.

Joachim maneuvered the bus through the last traffic lights before it came to a last stop outside the stadium.

The bus stopped without any hitch.

The athletes cheered and applauded.

They rose from their seats, including Aaron and Steffen. They patted Joachim on the shoulder and congratulated him, the other athletes followed suit, only Frank drunkenly staggered past him.

With every touch of his shoulder, Joachim became sadder.

A hand lay warm on his shoulder. Although Kay did not smile, his tone was friendly.

"Thank you for bringing us here."

Tears dripped from Joachim's chin, he didn't want to go alone into his world again. Or at least he still wanted to apologize to someone who had dreams but lost them to misfortune. An existence much better and more tragic than his.

He looked up, Kay had already turned his back towards him.

"I'm sorry."

Two words that tickled the ear with a tender sweetness that sent warm waves through the body and embraced the heart.

Kay stopped, he did not look back, but his shoulders rose a little. His right leg trembled.

"...I'm sorry too."

Hesitantly, as if the words had not been spoken for a long time.

They hung in the room like a rain cloud, desolate but indispensable to life.

"Mr. Nowak, we're supposed to go to the stadium now, the event organizers want to give us a tour quickly."

This dispelled the gloomy atmosphere in the bus.

Kay walked down the stairs, only Joachim remained behind.