"???"

Carter's POV:

All three of us walked in silence. It was as if all of them were trying to kill me every second.

Or I was just too paranoid perhaps.

Dimir was chatting with the other man, who seemed annoyed by the amount of his words. I kept myself from cringing, because it just looked too funny.

We stopped for a break, it was quite a distance we've walked. I was sitting away from the two, they didn’t give me a reassuring feeling. My decision was not to let myself close to them. It was to do everything and anything to keep them away.

I didn’t trust them a bit. I didn’t know if I even could.

I grabbed one of the pieces of bread that I’ve ripped apart to spare food. I didn’t know how long or how far we’d wander around.

I ate it up, the dry bread in my mouth felt numb. I yawned. Dimir glanced at me, approaching. I looked up. He smiled at me and I smiled back.

The last thing I'd do is get on their bad side. So just act and pretend was my goal.

"Hey. Tired?" He asked. I glanced up at him. Tired? How can I ever tell you that I am?

"Nah, not really!" I was exhausted.

I felt like my entire body was going to crumble in pieces. But I kept my facade smile and nodded.

"You?" I asked. He yawned, his eyes were red.

"I'm exhausted damn. I wonder how long we'll travel for!" He pushed his hands into his pockets. He stretched out, leaning by the broken wall. The city was visible already, but it was still a bit to walk.

"Ah. I see." I said. I leaned to the wall aswell, just keeping my distance and giving him a clear hint I didn't want their closure.

I tried giving them hints that I know about their plan that they didn't plan for shit, but I had one aswell.

We both were plotting to putting a knife through one another's chest in order to survive. But what's the point?

There we none. Really, there wasn't any option nor choice neither of us had.

Either dying, or working together and against each other.

A good plan, right?

He offered me a small piece of a chocolate bar, I shook my head and smiled. He pulled it away.

"Don't like sweets?" He asked.

"Not really." I nodded, saying. His lips curled into a smile and he let out a chuckle.

"Really? You looked like you had a sweet tooth to me. But turns out you don't." He broke a small bit of the bar, putting it into his mouth. The warmth was going away, and I wondered how it didn't melt in his pocket.

He sighed. He lifted his head up to look up, ending up letting out a sigh.

I glanced at him, he gave me a small smile. I looked away. I didn’t know what to say, it was quite a mess that I wanted to sort. But never had the time to do such thing. To sort myself, to sort everything.

Fuck, all this mess that felt too unsolvable just somehow always solved itself. Sucked sometimes, but sometimes it was so great that it even felt so blank, so pathetic.

I closed my eyes and breathed in. I felt his stares boring into my skin. Like a knife. Sharp, cold. And solid.

I slowly drifted off to sleep.

I woke up, panting. I shouldn’t have fallen asleep. Shit, I really should not have fallen asleep.

He was sharpening his knife, the clicking of the metal blade was heard from even further away. I rubbed my eyes, my eyes slowly focusing onto the figure that stood a couple feet from me.

He turned. The cold eyes of Alexander shined in my vision. I widened my eyes and stood up. My feet felt wobbly, but I kept on running towards him and the second I stood inches from him, I extended my arms and wrapped them around his body. The warmth of his body felt so welcoming, so close.

So close to the closure I used to remember.

He didn’t seem confused, the hug felt so natural and so normal and what he did was just do the same as I did. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled himself close to me.

I felt warm tears rolling down my cheeks. I was hugging him. I was hugging Alexander again, who I thought was dead. Who I convinced myself was dead.

He lifted his head up to look at me, and put his palms on my cheeks. I stared down at him, I couldn’t help but sob.

He leaned in, tip-toeing on his feet. I looked at him, frozen in place because I wasn’t sure what to do.

I woke up. I rubbed my eyes. Dimir stared down at me, his buddy beside him. He wasn’t staring at me, but for sure he was annoyed. The frown on his face explained a lot.

I got up, my legs still ached. I grabbed my bag, Dimir’s lips curled into a smile of what seem dissapointment. Was he dissapointed I woke up or was he dissapointed I didn’t die?

I couldn’t choose which was which. But I didn’t give a shit, if I were to be completely honest. Nor did I wish to give a shit.

“Let’s go.” The other one said. I looked up at him. His cold gaze locked with mine. Immediatly I knew this guy wasn’t good news. And I accepted it.

We started walking, and walked in silence, they were in the front I was a couple feet back behind them. I had my hands pushed into my pockets, it was hot and it helped me a bit to cool them off.

The other guy stopped. He looked around, grabbing his gun. He glared at me, as if to alarm me to “Stay back”. I did. They walked off alone, I stood there alone. We already had entered the city. I stood in the street, deciding to take shelter by the empty store beside the road. I didn’t want to wait long in the heat.

I grabbed the handle, pushing it. I glanced around. I avoided the shards of glass and turned on the flashlight. The store lit up. I put down the bag and started to walk around to look around the store, hoping to find something.

The dim light that was breaking in through the crack of the boarded windows and roof was not enough to light up the entire room. I had to use the flashlight to see everything or at least most of the parts of the store. It was a small one, by the still standing posters I presumed it was a comics shop or one of those crystal shops.

I never actually understood what was the obsession with crystals. It felt so weird, like people obsessed over an object. But I guess I just never bothered to learn about them, since crystals are an interesting thing, but for me I just liked them. Not that they had a specific meaning.

I noticed a small book. So it wasn’t neither of those. It was a bookshop.

I grabbed it in my hands, blowing off the dust off of the cover. I slid down along the wall. I carefully opened the book, it didn’t look like it took much damage. I traced my finger along the paper.

I closed my eyes.

I used to always like to smell the books I got, the smell of a new book was a smell I used to like. It’s weird, but I always seemed to enjoy it. For some reason it just happened to be one of my most favourite smell ever.

Dimir came running, he looked like he ran the whole way back here. He stopped for a second, he stood in the middle of the road, panting. He turned to the right, and the second he saw me he picked up his pace and ran towards me.

“CARTER! Please- You need- You need to help us.” He said. He was taking deep breaths in between his words, he was completely out of breath.

I glanced up. I stood up, closing the book and putting it on the top of the broken counter.

I gave him a nod and he ran out. I picked up my pace too, I ran after him. I just followed him, letting him lead me.

He stopped. He moved aside, so I could get a better look. I widened my eyes and dropped my knife.