Chapter 5

Kenrick and Gisela were slowly walking down the single dirt trail towards the village.

“This is going to be a long walk. What should we talk about?” Gisela asked.

“We don’t need to talk.” Kenrick said as he was carrying his small case as well as Gisela’s, which was nearly twice as big.

“What did you pack in here?” Kenrick asked.

“Well it’s all the stuff I travel with.” Gisela said.

“We’re going to be there for a single night.”

“And I wasn’t leaving my stuff at your place. We’d get back and it’d be missing.” Gisela replied.

The two continued to walk in silence for a few seconds.

“Anything you want to know about me?” Gisela asked.

“Is there anything I need to know?” Kenrick asked.

“I am a person without family.” She said.

“Well that can’t be possible.” Kenrick said.

Gisela swallowed hard.

“I moved here when I was young…”

“And you said that your parents spoke Gaelic with you.”

Gisela wiped her eyes.

“I don’t know where they are…but they left me when I was seven years old. I’ve been living on my own ever since. Making things and selling them were the only way I could make money.” She said, brushing hair out from her face as she tried to calm herself down.

“Why don’t you go to school?” Kenrick asked.

“Can’t afford it.” She replied.

“Really I only make enough money for food.” She said.

Kenrick sighed as the two continued to walk down the dirt road.

“What about you? What’s your life story?” She asked Kenrick with a big smile.

Kenrick looked at her before going back to stare forward.

“I lived with my Mother until I was a teenager. She spent most of her life ill, and the man who raised me took care of her until he decided it was too much. He took whatever money we had left and disappeared. I did my best to take care of her, yet she wanted me to focus on my studies. I mainly studied science to see if there was a way to cure her of her ailments. Sadly, I didn’t have enough time before she passed. I focused all of my time and energy into my studies until I met Lettice. We had our family and now I work doing much the same as you. I create things to help others and do my best to sell them to the government, but they take a very long time in paying me back.” Kenrick spoke.

Gisela nodded and softly tapped his arm.

“What sort of things have you made?” She asked.

“Well, I was the one who invented the artificial lights that now fill many homes and stand on the streets.” Kenrick replied.

Gisela’s eyes went wide as she became excited.

“That is a wonderful invention! Are those the things in your barn?” She asked.

Kenrick turned to look at her confused.

“You’ve never seen them?” He asked.

She shook her head side to side.

“I don’t really understand what those things are or how they work.” She said.

Kenrick softly chuckled.

“It took quite a long time, but I wanted to make the streets safer to travel at night. Now people can mostly see their surroundings and the people walking around them.”

“Well, that does sound like a nice thing for you to create.”

“Yeah…” Kenrick said as he stared off into the distance.

The two continued to walk until they spotted the edges of the small town. Gisela groaned and then suddenly jumped up onto Kenrick’s back.

“My feet hurt. Carry me the rest of the way.” She said as she rested her head on his shoulder.

Kenrick rolled his eyes and smiled as he kept walking with ease. Gisela was messy and sweaty while Kenrick wasn’t even breathing heavily. Gisela looked at him curiously, but he didn’t notice.

“You are so strong.” Gisela said as she laid her head down, her eyes fluttering closed as she quickly fell to sleep.

Kenrick rolled his eyes and carried Gisela as well as both of their cases into the entrance of the small town.

The buildings were all made of stone and  with multiple large windows covering the walls for every floor, chimneys sticking out of the roof, doors that lead directly into the streets, and elaborate curtains inside not letting him see inside. The street was entirely dirty ground with horse drawn carriages slowly making their way through. The sidewalks were made of the same material of the homes, yet were only wide enough for one person to walk each direction. Kenrick continued to walk, looking around the buildings to see anywhere they could sleep. The sun was beginning to set as he sighed. The streets had a small amount of fog and smoke, but not enough to obscure the town. Kenrick continued to walk as the people were slowly making their ways home. Stores and shops were all closing down as the people sealed them up and went to their homes after long, slow days.

Kenrick finally made it to a larger building, a small wooden board sitting by the front door that read “hotel” scratched into it.

Kenrick slowly walked through the front door. It was like a bar inside with a few small tables with two chairs for each. Kenrick walked up to the bar as an older man slowly made his way over.

“Drink or room?” He asked with a deep and raspy voice.

“Room. Preferably two.” Kenrick replied.

The man looked at Gisela asleep around him, but shrugged.

“Only got one available.” The man replied.

Kenrick sighed and looked around. The outside was already getting quite dark, the street lights all taking a while to flicker on.

“We’ll take it.” Kenrick replied.

“Alright. Is it only one night?” The man asked.

“Yes it is.” He pulled coins out and placed them on the bar. The man counted them and shrugged, reaching underneath and pulling out a metal key.

“Up the stairs. Last room on the left.” The man said.

Kenrick took the key between two fingers and nodded as he continued to carry everything with ease.

He slowly made his way up to the room, putting the cases down to open the door. As the door opened, Gisela jumped down and quickly ran into the room, jumping onto the single bed, giggling as Kenrick rolled his eyes. He carried both cases in, shut the door with his foot, then stopped when he noticed the one bed.

“Well…I guess I’ll sleep on the floor then.” Kenrick said as he put Gisela’s case on the bed, then put his on the floor.

“Oh really? I get cold when I sleep alone.” Gisela joked as she moved to lay on her chest, kicking her legs up as she stared at Kenrick.

“Well then wrap yourself in the blanket.” Kenrick replied.

He started to lay down on the floor as Gisela pouted, but then they could hear loud shouting and glass breaking coming from downstairs.

“What’s that?” Gisela asked.

Kenrick quickly got up and put his hand to her chest.

“Stay here. I’ll go check.”

He left the room and made his way over to the stairs.

“Give us the money!” He could hear being shouted in a thick cockney accent. Kenrick slowly and quietly began to move down the stairs. Other rooms were opening their doors, but Kenrick turned and motioned for them to go back inside and lock their rooms. Kenrick continued to go down slowly, peeking around the corner to see three men, two beating up the old hotel worker with broken glass covering the bar.

“Please…” The old man pleaded before getting hit in the chest with a broken chair leg.

“I don’t like using that word. Now where is the money?” The criminal asked, leaning right in front, blocking Kenrick’s view of him.

Kenrick looked just around the corner and stared at the group. One was holding the old man up to his feet, another was behind the bar, smashing things until he found the coins. The third man laughed and turned around.

Kenrick recognized him as the man who was trying to rape the woman in the alleyway, but this time he had two other henchmen. Kenrick clenched his fist and waited for the right time.

“Alright now, we can make this easy…or fun.”

The man pulled out a butcher’s knife from his jacket sitting on one of the tables. The old man was panicking and trying to break free, but took a punch to the back of his neck. The henchman kept holding him up as the man holding the knife slowly walked over.

Kenrick had seen enough and darted into the room quickly. The man holding the knife turned around just as Kenrick used his leg and booted him in the chest, causing him to fly backwards over a table, hitting the ground head first as the table flipped over on top of him. The man holding the hotel owner let go, but Kenrick immediately grabbed him by his throat and slammed him down onto the bar. Broken glass covering it stabbed him all over his back as he screamed in agony. The final man swung a bottle that shattered over Kenrick’s head, but he barely reacted at all. The two jumped up onto the bar as the other man slowly rolled off, his back covered in cuts and blood pouring out. Kenrick went for a punch, but the criminal was able to dodge it and hit his own to the side of Kenrick’s head, but quickly grabbed his hand in pain. Kenrick kicked the criminal in the gut just hard enough to make him bend over, then did a front flip over him while grabbing his waist. Kenrick landed on his feet and lifted the man up with ease before throwing him off the bar and sending him crashing all the way onto the floor head and neck first.

The main criminal that Kenrick knew jumped over the table and ran to the bar. Kenrick jumped down to stand behind the bar as the man tried to stab him, but Kenrick dodged them with ease. Kenrick punched him in the wrist to make him release the knife, dropping it to the floor. The criminal bleeding from his back was very slowly getting to his feet, grabbing a handful of broken glass. It cut his hands open in multiple places, but then he threw them right into Kenrick’s face. A few got into his eyes as he screamed in agony. He bent over when the two criminals pulled him over the bar by his shirt, hanging his head over when one kicked him in the side of the head over and over again. Kenrick finally dropped to the floor bleeding from his head and back, his head spinning and throbbing. He suddenly felt one of the criminals stop and turned to see why. The one with the bleeding back was thrashing around while Gisela was wrapped around his back, clawing his face and eyes with her nails. He grabbed her by her hair and threw her over his body and slammed her through one of the tables, shattering it as splinters stabbed into her body all over. Gisela got up anyways and punched the man in the head, but the other criminal raced over and shoved her hard into the wall. Gisela screamed loudly as her arm and shoulder was visibly dislocated, but she got up and kept swinging with her good arm. Kenrick gritted his teeth as the glass pushed out of his skin, the cuts slowly sealing up as he got back to his feet. He grabbed a nearby chair and threw it like it was nothing, sending it racing at a high speed that imploded against the bleeding criminal. He was knocked out cold as the main criminal noticed and grabbed broken wood. He swung it hard, but Kenrick punched the wood and caused it to shatter in two. The criminal was frozen in shock until Kenrick grabbed him by his shirt collar and threw him up, his head smashing into the ceiling before falling down, Kenrick catching him again and throwing him all the way out of the room onto his back. He was barely able to move, but he ran as quickly as he could out of the hotel, leaving the other two criminals lying injured and unconscious on the ground. Gisela was clutching her shoulder while crying, curled up into a ball against the wall.

“Gisela…come on…I’ll help you.”

He held his hand out and was breathing heavily as Gisela slowly looked over at him. His wounds were all healed, which made her eyes go wide.

“I’m fine…I need to help you.” He took her good arm and pulled her up, carrying her in his arms to the stairs.

“How…how are…you…” Gisela was stuttering and shaking from pain and shock as her good hand rubbed against his face.

“I…” She started, but interrupted herself by screaming as he went up the stairs, her arm moving around with every step.

“It’ll be okay. I’ve done this to myself too.” He said as he went up the stairs quickly.

Gisela kept crying as she buried her face deep into his chest, soaking his shirt with her tears. Kenrick carried her into the bedroom and very carefully laid her down on the bed. She was coughing and breathing quickly when Kenrick sat her up.

“This is going to hurt…but you’ll be okay after a while.” Kenrick said.

Gisela was still crying and tried to pull her arm free. Kenrick moved so he could look deep into her eyes. Their foreheads were nearly touching as their eyes locked. Gisela could feel herself immediately calming down, her breathing under control and her tears no longer running down her face. She let out a single giant breath and nodded her head softly.

“Okay…I trust you.” She whispered.

Kenrick nodded back and moved to her side. He gave her a kind, reassuring look as he held her dislocated arm. He took a deep breath as he tried to focus. Gisela was looking forward, unable to watch when he suddenly pushed hard, the arm popping back in as Gisela screamed. Her arm thrashed around before she clutched it hard. She was able to keep herself from crying and very slowly moved her fingers around, curling them one by one. She clenched her hand tightly into a fist and let out a loud groan.

“Holy ****! That did hurt!” Gisela playfully and jokingly slapped Kenrick in the face, not too hard to hurt but instead made Kenrick softly chuckle. Gisela slowly calmed down before she chuckled.

“I didn’t mean to slap you.”

The two were now laughing as she moved her arm around, flexing it and cry laughing.

“Okay…feels good now. Thank you.”

Gisela wiped her eyes and face as she let out a loud sigh.

“Never broken a bone before?” Kenrick asked.

“I may do stupid and dangerous things, but I know how to keep myself safe.” Gisela replied.

“I wish I knew the same thing.” Kenrick replied as he went to his case on the floor.

“What happened to your wounds?” She asked, leaning back on the bed.

“What wounds?” Kenrick asked as he refused to look over at her.

“You were a bleeding mess when I got down there. Where are the wounds?” She asked.

Kenrick turned partially and shrugged.

“I don’t know what to tell you.” Kenrick replied.

Gisela pouted and crossed her arms, quickly gritting her teeth.

“How long is this going to hurt?” She asked.

“You’ll feel it for a few days.” He said.

“A few days?” She shouted.

“Yes.” Kenrick dryly replied.

“Well that means whatever we buy, you’re going to have to carry.” She said.

“I assumed that was what was going to happen anyways.”

They both laughed as Kenrick bent down to grab his clothes for sleeping. Gisela kept staring at his body when he suddenly took his shirt off, revealing the two scars in his back.

“Woah…what are those?” She asked.

Kenrick didn’t respond, only preparing to put on a new shirt until he felt her run up and stop him. She observed the scars closely as he tried to keep pulling his clothing down.

“How did you get these?” She asked.

“I had an accident when I was young. One of the first things I invented.” He replied.

“What was it?” She asked.

“I wanted to fly like birds. Jumped off the top of my home, landed on my back, and the device shattered into my back.” Kenrick replied.

Gisela stared at them and softly rubbed her fingers along them, but the instant she touched Kenrick spasmed and moved away.

“Oh…sorry…I didn’t realize that it hurt.” She said.

“It’s okay. Just sensitive.” Kenrick replied.

Gisela cleared her throat as he pulled the shirt down.

“So how do you sleep?” She asked.

“On my side or face down. Sleeping on my back his painful.” He replied.

“Don’t forget sleeping on your desk.” Gisela joked with a playful smile.

Kenrick laughed in response.

“Well it’s been a very eventful night. We should get some rest and go shopping first thing tomorrow morning.” He said, going over and hugging her softly. Gisela immediately hugged him back tightly, not wanting to let him go.

“You can sleep in the bed with me…I won’t do anything.” She whispered.

Kenrick sighed and rubbed her head.

“No…I’ll sleep on the floor.” He said.

“You’re rude.” She muttered.

“How so?” Kenrick asked.

Before she could respond, he could feel her body relax. She was breathing slowly and softly snoring as he looked down. She was asleep wrapped around him as he carried her over to the bed, slowly laying her down and tucking her in. He walked over to the floor and looked down, but then stopped and looked over at the bed.

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