The older man rested on the edge of the wingchair and slowly sat back. He let out a grunt in total anguish
"Dad take it easy. Here drink this." Agetha brought a cup of water to his mouth.
Even the act of swallowing brought about sharp pains all over his body.
Gersin brooded across from Agetha's father.
"Whats with the scowl Gersin." The mans scowl was deeper than usual.
"You're in this pain because of me. It should've been me. I should be in."
"What? And how would that make Agetha feel?" Agetha looked down and bit her lip. She would never have been able to choose between her father and Gersin. She didn't love anything outside of them. If she lost one of them she would lose half her world.
"Losing you right after your story together has just began? No I've raised her from a little thing to this strong opinionated woman with a great taste in men to boot." His laugh invoked another series of sharp pains.
"But what about our child. There have been many times where I've needed your sage advice. I can't be that." Gersin couldn't imagine a world without his surrogate father.
"And what would that childs life be without its father."
"I'm not saying that but I know I can make it two years. You were months away from retiring from the docks."
A booming series of knocks rap on the door. Despite Agetha's strong nature. the whole of the situation had her shaken, so she shuttered and let out the smallest whisper of a peep. Almost like a mouse.
Gersin got up.
"Don't." She looked at Gersin. The expression on her frightened face, truly the first time he had ever seen her show any signs of fear. Tears streaming down her usually haggard face. In fact her fearlessness is what drew him to her. Though, right now she was scared, and there was no hiding or masking it. She was beyond scared.
His expression pleaded to her. He didn't want to be the one. She would begrudge him for opening the door for the rest of her life. In her mind if they didn't open the door then what was outside might never come in and invade this moment of false safety. What would rush in and overwhelm them and tear her to pieces would be kept at bay. REALITY.
"But if I don't." Gersin whispered. He tries to look into her eyes once more and beg for her to be rational. He would be putting her life at stake by refusing them entry.
"Its okay, Gersin." Agetha's father gave Gersin the approval he needed. Now he would only be doing what he said and slightly mitigating Agetha's hate.
"No, daddy." Agetha begged, but it was too late. Gersin reached for the door and as he opened it, in an attempt to hold on to the moment even a second longer, Agetha whispered. "Wait..."
The door opened. The face of a man dressed in Peace Corps attire filled the door frame. "Good evening."
"Good evening, sir." Gersin greeted him sullenly.
"Its cold out, may we come in?" The Peace Corps member said with a straight face never taking a friendly tone.
Gersin stiffened and stepped to the side. "Yes of course, I apologize please come in."
"Thank you." The room was small. "Only you two will enter with me. Tentris remain outside."
The man in charge walked in with the other two men. His arm patch showing he was the highest ranked of this group.
"Its cold outside. What took you all so long to open the door. Don't you know it is a punishable offense to refuse a request from the Peace Corps." One of the other members said roughly.
"We didn't know that you were the Peace Corps until he opened the door." Agetha explained pointing out his flawed logic.
"Yes I got to the door as quickly as I usually do." Gersin chimed in.
"Yeah not fast enough. There will have to be punitive actions taken now. Against all of you." He frowned at Agetha.
"Marcel." The leader glared at him out of the side of his face and his pupil sought him out of the corner.
"I apologize. I didn't mean to." Marcel's voice trailed off. He seemed a wildcard but with a word and a glance he could be tamed by this man.
The leader raised his palm. "I was mistaken. This home is smaller than I thought. Wait outside. Larel and I shall remain inside."
"Yes, Captain Enyo." Marcel saluted.
"Be sure to close the door tight it is cold outside."
"Sir." Marcel closed the door lightly behind him to Agetha's surprise.
"I apologize for that outburst. I understand with the way things are, there seems to be the stale air of hostility in the air as if daddy hit mommy. But there has to be no violence. We all have our duties to uphold. It is what maintains order and peace." Captain Enyo let out a veiled, malign chuckle. "Aren't they the same thing. How can we have peace without the former. Do you agree?" He said while walking towards an open seat.
Agetha and Gersin nodded and her father sat unmoving. Captain Enyo after receiving his agreement continued. "Yes that is what the the Peace Corps main duty is, to uphold peace through out the world. Exactly! We are here to keep the torch of peace alive and ablaze shining from coast to coast and beyond. But, we are no different from you or you. There is no you and us. There are only those who protect the peace and those who wish to extinguish the peace." He pulls out a piece of paper. "We are all, on the side of peace."
"Enough of this." The old man laggardly raised up from his seat. "I will go with you. I know what is written on that piece of paper. it is a summons. Im being drafted."
"Father, no." Agetha whimpered.
"Let us go." The old man requested. He would have to go he didn't have to allow the man to drag it out painfully.
"Sit." Captain Enyo commanded. His eyes had gone cold. His face wasn't rainbows and kittens before but now it usurped them of his hidden willingness for cruelty. The old man slowly returned his seat.
"The boy and I were having a conversation. Do not be disrespectful. Disrespecting an officer of Peace is second only to striking one but sits above denying a request made by one. Rest, your time may come or not." He reached into his pocket and pulled out another slip of paper.
"No." Agetha protested.
Captain Enyo smirked. "It seems I have two slips to give out this evening. To my surprise they stay in the same household. But relax, you know that only one household member is allowd to be drafted at a time. Also, two years must pass before another of that same household can be drafted."
"But, Gersin does not have any outstanding abilities." As Agetha blurted out, Larel glowed a sword and disappeared out of sight.
"Wait." Larel stopped in front of Agetha ready to plunge his sword straight through her heart. Captain Enyo warned Larel "We still need her."
"Don't make me go over the entire list of offenses. Ignorance is a poor excuse to lament a death. Do not lie to me. He does have, as you would put it an outstanding ability. See this is not my first time in this town and I know of the treacherous rock formations that lie below the cliff that a non-outstanding person could not survive. So I was puzzled as to why someone who seems to care about you, throw you off the edge and send you plummeting to your own death. I was immediately distracted by the incredible show of strength being displayed on the docks and I forgot all about you. Then after the ship was docked you show up again. I thought he must have the most extravagant luck and have missed them all. So I had one of my soldiers go down and have a look for me. Larel what did you find?"
"It was shattered. It was recently done because the rubble scattered the ocean floor bed yet to be carried away by the tide." Larel explained.
Agetha began to protest and as she looked up she choked on the words. Not at the sword still placed squarely at her chest, that was not the real threat to her life. It was not the man ready to plunge a sword into her heart. It was the man that wasn't even looking her way. She knew that, should she utter a word it was not the sword at her chest but the man calmly relaxed across the room that would end her life.
"But then as I don't know for sure, please don't think me rude to make demands in a strangers home, but could you take off your shirt for me." Captain Enyo said while looking into Gersin's eyes with no room for rejection.
A surprised expression crossed his fiancés face. He slowly removed his shirt. Showing off an incredibly toned physique.
"Wow that is impressive. Isn't it Larel?" Captain Enyo remarked. Larel nodded in amazement. The dock workers of Shinoa Port weren't famous for no reason. "Maybe we can have you work at the docks for a little while."
Agetha scanned his body and found no bruises or marks of any kind. Agetha started to feel the chips stack in her favor again, then she saw Captain Enyo's hand shoot up in objection.
"Please be patient." He said to Aretha then returned his gaze back to Gersin. "And one more request. Please if you could turn around."
Surprise struck Gersin's face and he slowly turned around. "Yahtzee!"
"Yahtzee?" Gersin questioned, never hearing the term before.
"Yes. Yahtzee." Enyo pandered to everyone in the room. "You don't know the game? It's a board game. One of many played in the north. Has the craze not reached this far."
"Like a game played when your bored?" Said Agetha teasingly
"Like tic tac toe? We used to play that as kids with Quitum and Frander." Gersin remembered.
"Yes and no. A game? Yes except its more like poker with dice. If you get five of the same dice then you get Yahtzee. Its really exciting." His eyebrows go up and then one twitches.
"Sir." Larel bringing back the stakes and the matter in which they had left things.
Captain Enyo looked up at his eyebrow as it twitched. "Sorry it does that when ever I'm excited. It just so happens that it was going wild when I saw you up on the docks surviving what I thought to be a date with death."
"Please don't do this." Agetha pleaded again.
Larel plunged the his Glow sword right through Agetha's chest.
The old man shot up. "Agetha!"
In a moment Larel removes the sword sending her blood shooting out. The old man grabs onto Larel and he plunges his sword into the old man.
The old man mustered his last remaining strength and to Larel's surprise gripped the young mans shoulders in an attempt to squeeze the life out of him.
Larel lets out a scream as his knees began to buckle from the excruciating pain. Blood squirted from between his shoulder blades and between the old mans fingers. Then a slice through the air and the old mans arms fell to his sides and then his body to the floor. As his body hit the floor his head bounced and rolled to Gersin's feet.
"NOOO!" Yelled Gersin. Before he could move a muscle he was chopped in the neck and lost consciousness.
"Tentris." Captain Enyo called outside.
The door opened and Tentris walked in to the gruesome scene unfazed.
Captain Enyo looked down at Agetha as she coughed up blood and tried to crawl to her father."Do what? I wasn't going to do anything, they were. Since we can take only one volunteer I was going to leave it up to a vote. Nice and easy. Why does it always end like this? Grab that one hes our new volunteer. Hes been drafted."
TO BE CONTINUED...
Thanks for reading!