[url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/246624086/0/0]Table of Contents[/url] [i]Hayden didn’t like doing this kind of thing. The knife felt unnatural in his hand, like always. Unbalanced and threatening to slip in his sweaty palm. But he held on tight, tilting the blade to point down towards his victim. Over the years it had become clear that his distaste for this would never go away, but it needed to be done. He took a calming breath, trying to hold the blade steady, then pressed the cold steel against flesh. Skin parted and the muscle underneath tore as he worked the blade back and forth, sawing through tendon and sinew. Blood flowed from the wound, slowly but surely. Nausea nearly overwhelmed Hayden, but he resisted the urge to gag and kept at it, cutting deeper until the blade rasped against bone. Somehow the feeling of hitting something solid was even more unsettling than carving through the tissue of the body. He retracted the blade and jabbed the tip in again, preparing to make the next incision. That moment was all he needed to inspect his work, and bile built up in his throat at the sight of the bleeding wound. At moments like this, it was very clear to him that he couldn’t handle the sight of blood and gore. Light footsteps sounded in the hall, and Hayden stifled his grimace as he turned to see who they belonged to. Natalia entered the kitchen, hefting a pot half-filled with water. She faltered at the sight of him brandishing the bloody knife, nearly spilling the water as it slapped at the rim of the container. Hayden quickly looked her over, as he did every time he saw her, absorbing the image of her beautiful face framed perfectly by her long, dark hair. They were both young adults now, their childhood long past, but she hadn’t changed in many ways. She was much taller than when they were kids, a little taller than most other people in Flats, but was still slender and very pale. She still acted like a child, wild and happy and carefree, but tempered with maturity. She had certainly gotten smarter, and occasionally used her cleverness to get into and out of all kinds of trouble. Hayden was usually the test subject of her pranks and mind games, but he didn’t mind. Natalia wobbled a little with the bowl in an attempt to keep its contents from splashing out, then smiled at Hayden. His world lit up, and he nearly forgot about his gruesome task as she walked past him. “Your momma’s such a whiny baby!” Natalia huffed as she practically dropped the pot onto the kitchen counter. She made sure to speak loudly enough to be heard throughout the house. “Don’t make me come out there!” Gwen’s voice called from the back of the house, “I’ll put you through twice the hell I’m feelin’ right now!” Natalia giggled, still a little out of breath from carrying the load. “That looks heavy,” Hayden remarked, gesturing to the pot with his knife. “Pfft,” Natalia dismissed nonchalantly, “No sweat! I’m like a mountain!” She raised her arm as if flexing, using her other hand to pinch what little muscle she had in her bicep, “A mountain with tiny mountains for mountain muscles!” Hayden laughed, turning back to his work. What good spirits he had recovered immediately died when his hand came to rest on the body, matting down sticky, blood-soaked hair. Hayden looked down at the rabbit on the cutting board. It was long dead, but he still saw it as a living thing. He loved rabbits. They were unbearably adorable, and increasingly rare thanks to the plummeting availability of food in the region. Without Gwen’s help, Alexei had considered himself very lucky to have found any food. This rabbit would save them from starvation. This was sickening. Not wanting the experience to last any longer than necessary, Hayden adjusted his grip on the small animal and tugged the knife down, creating one more unsightly gash. Then he made the mistake of looking at the creature’s head. Glassy, lifeless eyes stared into his, haunting. “Hayden,” Natalia said. She was looking around the kitchen, scanning the cupboards and counter. After a moment, her eyes settled on the stove and she pointed at it as she squeezed her bicep again, “Could you take care o’ the fire and I’ll cut the meat? Mountain muscles are gettin’ tired ‘CAUSE AUNTIE GWEN IS MAKIN’ ME SLAVE AWAY!” “YOUNG LADY!” Gwen hollered back, sounding both amused and pained, “GET BACK IN HERE AN’ I’LL SHOW YOU SOME REAL SLAVIN’!” “I can’t hear you!” Natalia retorted, “I’m busy doin’ slave work!” Natalia smirked at Hayden and whispered, “It’s a contest now. If she comes to me, she loses. Now let me have at that rabbit.” Hayden knew Natalia was only trying to cut the rabbit because she knew he didn’t like doing it. Being tired was a poor excuse. Hayden would have protested if he hadn’t been so relieved. He set down the knife and sidestepped to stand in front of the sink. Natalia bounced up next to him and plucked up the knife while he stuck his hands in the pot of water. She went straight to skinning the rabbit and Hayden did his best to look away, focusing on washing the red off of his hands. After he had dried his hands by wiping them on his pants, he pulled a cast iron frying pan out of the cupboard and set it on the stove. Then he shoveled twigs and wood shavings from a neat pile into the recess where a gas fire would normally be lit, if the stove had actually worked. He grabbed one of their last matches and snapped a flame into existence, carefully igniting the wood chips. Natalia was still skinning the rabbit, and Hayden busied himself with tending to the weak fire, using a stick to stir the shavings closer to the tongues of flame. They were silent for a long time, occupied with their work. Hayden had built a stable fire and was feeding in more twigs when the front door swung open. “Gwen, baby!” Alexei called, stepping into the house and leaving the door open behind him, “Doctor’s ready to see you!” “Thank the Traveler!” Gwen praised, still in her room. Alexei chuckled to himself, approaching the counter and inspecting their work, “Oh, what a feast!” Natalia had been taught to cook by her father growing up, and had inherited his ability to turn any food into a wonderful meal. A very desirable talent, especially among the Yegorovs, whose culinary skills began at cutting things and ended at setting things on fire… Alexei placed a hand in front of the rabbit and leaned over it to address Natalia, “We’ll save what we can for when Gwen’s fit to eat, yeah?” Natalia grinned wickedly, not needing to voice the sinister reply they all knew she was thinking. Gwen stormed out of the hall, her boot heels pounding the floor as she threw on her coat, “Strike down any man who makes a woman wait to get her tooth pulled! I woulda done it mahself if it weren’t in mah own mouth!” Alexei strolled back to the front door with her, making no effort to hide his merriment, “I’m sure you could get some leverage on it, hon. Maybe tie a string to a door?” Gwen held up a warning finger as she passed through the doorway, “Laugh at my pain again an’ I’ll knock out half o’ yer teeth.” “Yes ma’am,” Alexei saluted, briefly touching his lips to her forehead in a quick kiss. He winked at Hayden and Nat as he grabbed the door handle. “Hop to-“ Gwen began, audibly clacking her teeth together then cutting off with a gasp. Her hands shot up to clutch at the cheek where her bad tooth was as she cried out, “SON OF A WEASEL’S BISCUIT!” The last thing Hayden heard before the door shut was Alexei’s hysterical laughter. “Put some meat on the fire!” Natalia chirped, skipping past Hayden. She had abandoned the rabbit and washed her hands while Hayden was distracted by the spectacle. He sighed and squeamishly scooped up a couple cuttings of meat, watching Natalia rush to the window. Years had passed since Natalia’s introduction to the outside world, but she still spent a lot of time indoors and regularly watched the street through their windows. Watching people leave the house was one habit she had never outgrown. Sometimes Hayden thought she was still watching for when Ru and Markos came back, leading an army clad in gold and carrying the cure to all sickness, apologizing for having lost track of time… Hayden fell into a gloominess that overshadowed the anguish of handling the dead rabbit. No army ever came, no antidote, not the two men who had gone out to fix Natalia’s world. Entire days spent sitting at the window with Natalia in terrible silence, waiting for them to come back. A week turned into two, a month, a year, a decade. Their childhood passed, their adolescence, now their adulthood. And Hayden had watched it all. He didn’t know what Natalia was feeling under her skin -when she realized they weren’t coming back, when she despaired, when she gave up- but he suffered through it with her. Because her pain was his. Hayden realized with a start that he was still holding rabbit meat and dumped it in the pan, where it sizzled slightly from the heat of the metal over the fire. “Hayden…” Natalia called, her voice rising anxiously. Hayden turned to look back at her. She was peering through the shudders, and didn’t take her eyes away from them as she waved him over with a rapid flick of her hand, “There’s some men out there.”[/i]