The Fox and the Pigeon hole P2 Chapter 16

16. Blood

“No” Exclaims Rafiel, he sits opposite sergeant Hourne on the large stone table,
“Raff, I understand-“
“No, He killed her Oscar!” He slams his fists down on the table and looks directly at Sergeant Hourne, his eyes gleaming. “He killed her,” Burying his face in his hands, “If you don’t, then I will ... You know I will” Hourne sighs, his raggedy hair hangs over his face in elaborate braids “But-“
“No,” Rafiel says again bluntly, before striding out of the room. Lance watches from the door but Rafiel doesn’t glance at him as he leaves. Slightly downhearted Lance walks over to Charlie, he looks up “oh, hi Lance,” He smiles half heartedly and looks down at his feet, “How’s Dawn?”
“She’s, okay” Lance says slowly, “Listen, do you know why he did it? Kurt?”
Charlie sighs, “No, I really don’t know why” he sounds ashamed, as if he is somehow responsible, “But I don’t really talk to him much. You could ask one of the other officer’s maybe they might know”
“yeah, thanks” Lance walks off wondering why Kurt could have possibly had reason to kill Suheila, he has never even seen them talk to each other before.

Then he thinks about his dream, how could that be true, how could he have seen this before it happened it’s ridiculous. Pushing it to the back of his mind he walks back to the house where he and Dawn had been the previous night, still deep in thought.

“Oh”, Looking up Lance freezes as he see’s Kurt sitting on the bed facing him. Just before he is about to leave he stops, with some sudden burst of anger and defiance he walks further into the room. “Why did you, kill her? Why?” He raises his voice expecting to be shouted down by the much older and more imposing officer but he doesn’t stand. “I don’t know,” Looking just as surprised as Lance is at this statement he continues; “She kept asking me, if I knew where Rafiel was. And I...I Just got angry with her, I-“He takes a deep breath,
“So you killed her?!” Lance asks violently,
“I...I don’t know”
“You don’t know!”
“Alright!” Kurt Stands, his fists clenched, “What is it to you anyway! Huh!” Backing away slightly Lance loses confidence, but he stands his ground.
“She, She was my friend-“
“Ha!” Kurt shouts, “You hardly even knew her! Stop trying to act the Hero You don’t know anything!”
“I knew that she was going to die! I ... I had a dream about it” He trails off uncertainly, expecting Kurt to laugh but the menacing smirk is wiped off of his face replaced by one of confusion and unmistakable fright.

Rather than retaliating Kurt rushes past Lance and out the door, leaving him confused, “Hey!, You” He hears Kurt shout and walks off towards him. Kurt is pointing his finger at Rafiel who stands oblivious at the edge of the forest. “What” he replies coldly,
“I know” Says Kurt still advancing on him, “I know what you did!” With a sudden realization Rafiel looks around frantically, “Now, calm down” He raises his hands trying to stop Kurt coming any closer.
“No,” Replies Kurt “How could you do that, you’re a traitor!” He bellows,
“Shh, stop-“But Kurt continues to shout “Shut up!” shouts Rafiel again as he see’s Lance walking towards them. “Please,” He pleads with Kurt, “He can’t know” Kurt stops to look at him, quivering and begging. “You owe me that much...”

*

The trip was quiet and uneventful, everyone shaken by Suheila’s death and people talked rarely. After walking for several miles through the sparse they come out onto a clearing, a long irregular strip of vibrant green grass. They walk across the wide patch of clean cut grass and Lance is reminded of the river by which he and Rafiel had slept, her remembers that night vividly because he of the violent weather and fits of shivering sleep that never lasted for long, that had been the night that he dreamt of Suheila. Then he remembers that throbbing pain in his arm, he had never given it much thought but looking down at it again he finds that the red dot has not healed and realizes that his arm had hurt for quite a while after that. “What is it?” Asks Dawn quietly looking down at his arm,
“I don’t know” He says confused, “I thought it was a bite but I’ve had it for ages, and it still hurts a bit”
“Hmm” Dawn holds his arm closer and examines it , “It kind of looks like the cut I got when we got injections at school, oh well im sure it’ll be fine. Do you have any water?”
“Injections?” Lance ponders while he searches his backpack for any remaining water.

After crossing the strip of grass Hourne calls for everyone to stop, and they soon see why, where the grass stops a cliff starts, tumbling down for what seems like forever. “Be careful everyone” Hourne says before leading them along the cliff top to a narrow path leading down into the green basing of trees and the faraway waterfall that marks their destination. With a perilous drop to one side and a smooth cliff face to the other, progress is slow and tiring. Feeling lightheaded from the heat, Lance looks down the path in front of him and sees that he is directly behind Sergeant Hourne, all of a sudden he spots something large and grey running up the path towards them. Could his luck really be this bad, was this creature coming to kill them or was it just a stray animal. Before he had time to decide the creature got to them and leaped into Hourne’s outstretched arms, “Hey there!” He shouts soothingly to the dog who barks with delight before jumping from his arms and running up and down in a frenzy of happiness. “Calm down,” Chuckles Hourne, “Where’s Dimitri?” With another Bark the large dog bounds off back down the cliff, “This way everyone” Bellows Hourne before starting off after him.

After succeeding in scaling the perilous cliff they take a twisting path through the forest bellow, guided by the grey dog. “Not long now” Wheezes Sergeant Hourne to Lance, who is still behind him. The fast pace has got to him and the aches in his legs make it difficult to keep up but Lance still manages to keep in sight of the dog and before long they can see a break in the trees ahead, and then the huge sandy beach that stretches out beyond it. As they come closer Lance sees that the beach curves around in a sweeping semi circle around a lake. Reaching the edge of the forest the party stops to look out at the beautiful seen in front of them. The lake is so clear that they can see small groups of fish flitting around on the farthest side, it also marks the opposite edge of the basin as the cliff rises up in front of them once more, jagged and grey. Thundering down it comes a tirade of water crashing into the lake below and creating swirls of white water. Sitting in the shade on the cool sand Lance doubts that he has ever seen anything so peaceful in his life. Just to the right of the waterfall is a great chasm in the cliff, a wide split where the lake continues out and then widens, before turning out of site.

“Oscar!” Comes a shout from along the beach, a man runs towards them with sandy hair and a strange uniform of blue and grey, his jacket has two rows of beautiful polished golden buttons and his grey trousers are rolled up as he jogs barefoot towards them. “Dimitri” Calls back Hourne walking out to greet him. At the very end of the beach is something Lance didn’t notice on arrival, in the shadow of the towering cliff sits about twenty or so tents. There are people walking around the camp and crates and boxes stacked high against the cliff, no doubt bearing weapons and armour for this had to be the army that Sergeant Hourne had talked about. “Oh” Sighs Dawn as she arrives and collapses next to him, drinking in the breathtaking scene, “It’s beautiful”.