Of Cages and Misery

[Cat]

Elena Voigt. The person who told Kyle that Kiara Galow had been captured. The person who apparently had a plan to rescue Kiara from her Gallic captor. Well, that was one rescue attempt. Kyle didn't know if Elena had even received his message about Kiara believing to be someone else and leading a somewhat happy life in Gallia. What bothered him was that he had started a fight with the people who were supposed to be his friends here. Although Kyle didn't want to have anything to do with that thug that Voigt had brought with her. Speaking of...

"You have got to be kidding me. Cross? The guy we are here to save as well?" Kyle heard the voice of the man who had caused him so much trouble, this time right above him. As he slowly opened his eyes, not changing position, he found himself staring down the barrel of a rifle. Then he turned his attention to the man holding it. Kyle could see a large, fit man standing over him. The man was wearing a brown lether jacket, and a silver T-shirt under it, along with blue jeans and black boots. The rifle didn't move away from Kyle's face, but at least that guy didn't try to take away Kyle's pistol. Elena's pistol.

Kyle remained lying on the floor in a relaxed position, his hands spread apart, as if he were a snow angel. Except that he was no angel, and there wasn't any snow. "That's what you call 'saving', huh? Waltz in, shoot and threaten everything that moves, including Kiara?" A sarcastic grin appeared on Kyle's exhausted face as he asked that in a rather calm manner, so as not to anger the guy with the rifle too much. Instead he turned his face to Elena: "I didn't think that 'the almighty plan' involved that."

Elena didn't respond to this feeble attempt to ease the tension or lighten the mood. Instead, she moved her ensanguined hand away from the injured ankle and caught hold of the edge of the bed. Yomping towards it, she still clenched her teeth and breathed heavily through her nose. When she reached the bed, she pawed at one of the blankets lying on top of it, and got hold of it.

"Neither it involved getting shot by the guy we try to rescue," she spat through her teeth in a caustic tone. Tearing the blanket away, she simultaneously rolled over slightly to now lean against the bedstead with her humped back. With narrowed eyes, she bustled around with the blanket and ripped a part of it off, then gawped at her right leg, seeing a small pool of blood next to her on the floor. Elena then proceeded to put a makeshift tourniquet around the wound, not paying attention to anyone else in the room.

"Well we didn't really know you'd be here. For all we knew you were dead or locked up, not living with her." Kyle's recent opponent muttered out and stepped over him, walking towards Elena. He crouched in front of her and ripped some more of the blanket, starting to clean the blood on Elena. "Well that definetly didn't go as planned," he said quietly with a sigh.

Kyle remained lying on the floor, at least for the time being. For the first time he was in Gallia, he felt as if he wasn't a complete stranger. The feeling was... unexpected. If anyone, those two unlucky Forlorn Hope rescuers deserved to know what happened: "Locked up was just about right. I'm not living with Kiara. In fact, I had just come here and barely had time to take a shower before someone shot the lock instead of knocking on the door."

He then turned his face to Elena, looking at her as she was patching herself up. Kyle's own expression changed, as he was trying to find the right words to apologize: "I'm sorry for your ankle... It's just that I thought you two were some thugs... I heard some shots, Kiara's screams, and saw her getting wounded... I thought that guy held her hostage." Kyle moved his head in the direction of the thug briefly.

Elena deemed Kyle worthy only of a quick glimpse, a severe look on her face, then a grunt. She mumbled something offensive, but Kyle couldn't hear it. After having finished up the improvised pressure bandage around her ankle, she took another piece of the blanket and cleaned her bloodied hands with it. Instead Elena's associate continued speaking: "And why are you here, if you're supposed to be locked up?" his voice was now calmer, and he still looked at Elena, trying to clean of the blood and tried to clean the blood that he could see. "What the **** is with her anyways? You call her Kiara, she calls herself Aurora. Did she not recognise us or really did play us?" he asked, as he turned over to Kyle.

Kyle sat up on the floor and then stood up, his tone slightly sarcastic at first: "Got released early for good behavior. That, and the fact that Remy Moreau disappeared all of a sudden, and whoever is in charge now thought that feeding me was a waste of credits. As for Kiara, it's compli...", he then turned his face to Elena, who started acting strangely.

Her head wound was still palpitating sorely, so she used the same blanket piece to hold it against her head afterwards. With the other hand she held her stomach, having a sick feeling again - her body language spoke volumes. "Kiara..." she muttered, her head lowered. "Where the **** is..." Elena suddenly halted, and at the same convulsed her body and tucked up her legs, whilst her breathing turned into a huffing and puffing again.

Her accomplice turned his face to her, his tone was now worried: "Oh Christ.. Going to vomit?" Elena didn't react to the question, just pressing her lips together, not saying anything. In the meantime, she huddled up next to the bed, and curled up into a ball, quite similar to how a distressed child would do. With her arms bent, she tried to obscure her rather pinched face that had turned ashen-pale by now. She screwed her eyes up, as though she panicly tried to look away from something. Her breathing became more rapid and heavy fast, up until she was on the verge of actually hyperventilating. Slowly, she rolled her shivering body over to one side, away from the two men. A mutter and a slurred "Oh God, no" were everything Mason and Kyle would hear from her.