Linn looks at Fedora with a slightly worried expression adjusting her blouse.

  -“I really think we shouldn’t be drinking while out on a mission…”

  Fedora rolls her eyes, looking at the mosaic window thoughtful for a few seconds.

  -“I know! How about we play truth or dare? After each truth or dare we have to take a sip!”

  -“Ehhh…wasn’t it like if you don’t do your dare or don’t answer your question then you have to drink…?” Says Linn.

  -“Oh c’mon who cares…sooo many rules…let’s just play! Please?”

  Fedora looks at Linn with the puppy eyes her hands around her chest in a cute manner.

  Linn rolls her eyes and smiles.

  -“Alright fine but we go right to sleep afterwards alright?”

  Fedora does a fist pump celebration and clenches her teeth.

  -“YES! Let’s fucking go! Me first, say, what was your longest relationship?”

  Says Fedora as she passes Linn the bottle.

  -“Well…this is a little embarrassing to admit but…I’ve never actually been in a relationship…”

  She looks at the wooden floor for a few seconds thoughtful before aggressively taking a large sip of whiskey.

  She passes Fedora the bottle.

  -“My turn now…wait you didn’t even ask me truth or dare you just straight up asked me a question!” Says Linn as she slightly recoils from the realization.

  -“Shit you’re right…my bad…I’m sleepier than I thought…well who wants to do dares now anyway…let’s just call it alcoholic interrogation…” Says Fedora.

  Linn laughs.

  -“Alright then…what about you? What was your longest relationship?”

  Fedora scoffs, looking at the whiskey in the bottle.

  -“I actually never had one either…I became an Ergal before I could…experience any of that…a relationship…a life I wanted…”

  She takes an aggressive sip out of the bottle aswell before handing it back to Linn.

  Fedora sensing herself get serious, tries to switch the topic towards something more lighthearted.

  -“Hm…HA,I got a good one! What was the weirdest thing you’ve ever done?”

  Linn looks up at the ceiling for a few seconds, lying back a bit in the bed.

  -“Oh I remember when I was younger I slept all night up in a tree like 6 meters above the ground.”

  Fedora’s eyes turn wide while Linn was taking her sip out of the bottle.

  -“No fucking way you’re lying…how did you not fall in your sleep?”

  Linn shrugs.

  -“I think about the exact same thing every time I remember it…”

  Fedora scoffs at the absurdity of the act as Linn hands her the bottle.

  -“I don’t want it to seem like I am copying your questions…but since you asked me I just have to know aswell…what was the weirdest thing YOU ever did.”

  Says Linn.

  Fedora smiles and giggles while looking at the floor.

  -“One time when I was younger while playing truth or dare I made a bubblegum bubble with my nose.”

  Fedora takes her sip of the whiskey.

  Linn looks at her with an expression that was half disbelief half disgust.

  -“Just how…”

  Fedora laughs as she hands her the bottle.

  -“Well I took the gum, stretched it a bit with my fingers so it was thin, brought it up to my nose and just exhaled into it.”

  Fedora shrugs.

  Linn laughs for a few seconds while looking at the bottle, then her expression gets serious.

  -“I know my turn is over but…while I was passed out…I heard you screaming at Sylvia…I…never heard you so angry…what happened…?”

  Despite it being something that Fedora wouldn’t like to talk about, the alcohol had already brought down her defenses enough.

  She rubs her temples as she gestures towards the ground angrily.

  -“She laid you against the door of the truck and…the door fucking opened since that truck is a piece if junk…and you started to fall out of the truck…on that thin fucking road through the middle of the Schism…I was passed out too…barely able to move a muscle and you almost fell into the fucking schism…I barely managed to pull you in…AND SHE DIDN’T MOVE A FUCKING MUSCLE TO HELP ME.”

  Fedora’s eyes start to turn watery as Linn looked at her with a concerned look.

  Hearing these Linn drinks the last sip of whiskey from the bottle, not being able to believe what she was hearing.

  -“M-Maybe she didn’t see what was happening?...”

  Fedora scoffs, clearly angry.

  -“I was wailing. How could she not hear that and the door of the truck open?”

  Linn looks thoughtful at the empty bottle, looking at her reflection in the glass.

  -“We should really go to sleep…it’s really late and the bottle is empty…”

  Says Linn.

  -“Yeah I guess so…”

  Says Fedora still pissed off at what happened.

  -“Goodnight Linn.”

  Fedora turns on her side facing the wall.

  -“Goodnight Fedora…”

  Says Linn as she lays down her bed, looking thoughtful and the bottom of the bed above her.

  Hours pass and Fedora keeps rolling in her bed, unable to sleep.

  She stands up and goes to the mosaic window at the other end of the room, and she notices she can lift it up to open it.

  She sighs deeply, and opens it fully.

  She manages to get through the window, and due to her drunkenness she falls into the snow. Thankfully the snow was thick and the window was not very high.

  She stands up and gets the snow out of her hair, picks up her glasses and puts them back on, then gets the snow off of her clothes.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  She looks towards the village to her left and starts walking towards it.

  Nearly every house was fully dark, not like they had many windows, and they had no streetlights either.

  She walks a bit more, and out of all the houses she notices one at the end of one road that stood out.

  Even though every house in this village was made out of lifeless concrete, that one house was a small wooden cabin, with light coming out of it.

  Fedora starts walking towards it and sees that the wooden door left half open.

  She slowly pushes it open and walks in.

  -“What the fuck…”

  Everywhere on the walls there were children’s drawings attached, and despite definitely being made by different kids, they all resembled the same thing, a woman in a red dress standing in a green field at sunset. The entire small wood cabin was lit up by hundreds of candles either on the ground or on holders on the walls.

  Fedora never felt more disturbed and weirded out in her life, her drunk vision barely able to tell what was happening in the drawings, her body swaying left and right, her eyes wide and scared.

  She turns around and closes the door, walking back to the guest house.

  -“Man fuck me I drank way too much…”

  Says Fedora as she holds onto a small tree outside her window.

  -“You bet you did.”

  Fedora lifts her gaze suddenly, seeing Sylvia standing in front of her, leaning against the concrete wall of the guest house in her crimson coat.

  -“Oh fucking great…you are here why?”

  -“I think I should be asking you that.”

  Says Sylvia with a serious voice.

  A few hours ago Sylvia couldn’t sleep, she kept turning left and right in her bed.

  She stood up and picked a book from the small shelf next to her bed, but despite turning page after page, the book was written in a language with such symbols that she couldn’t understand them.

  She picks up another book, their covers were all matte black with no title or illustration whatsoever, and again, same thing, instead of letters the books were full of unknown symbols she could not understand.

  Just as she was trying to read, she heard a thump outside like something fell from the roof, and when she goes to look outside her window, she saw Fedora buried halfway into the snow.

  Sylvia picked up her coat and walked out of the guest house through the main door and waited for Fedora outside her window.

  -“You’re both drinking and going out without notice while on a mission?”

  Says Sylvia.

  -“Oh come on man…I just wanted to take a breath of fresh…air…that’s all I couldn’t sleep…”

  Says Fedora.

  -“And you decided that the best way to do that is to dive into the snow through your window?”

  -“Ughhh…technicalities…means to and end…”

  Sylvia rubs the bridge of her nose.

  -“Come inside I’ll help you.”

  Sylvia walks over to Fedora and tries to take her hand off of the tree.

  Fedora pulls her hand back aggressively.

  -“I can w-walk on my ow-“

  Just before she could finish her sentence she trips and falls into the snow from the recoil of pulling back her hand.

  -“You definitely cannot…come on swallow your pride and let’s go inside…you left the window open too you don’t want Linn to freeze do you now?”

  -“Oh shit…did I…?”

  Says Fedora as she looks up at the window and sees that she indeed left it open.

  -“Fuck…”

  Says Fedora as she accepts the hand Sylvia extended and she let herself carried piggy back into the guest house and in front of her room. Sylvia tries to open the door, but it was locked.

  -“You locked the door?”

  -“Oops…guess I did do that…haha…”

  -“Great…Linn!”

  Sylvia knocks on the door a few times.

  -“Linn it’s me Sylvia please unlock the door.”

  A few seconds later Sylvia hears a loud noise from the room and then hears the door unlock.

  She sees Linn open the door, her eyes half open, the bedrest to Fedora’s bed fallen on its side on the floor, and her hair messed up.

  -“H-huh…F-Ffedora…? Wha…What happened…?”

  Says Linn clearly drunk out of her mind.

  -“Oh hi Linn…I just took a walk…and Sylvia wanted to bring me back to sleep…”

  Sylvia exhales and rolls her eyes in disbelief.

  -“Jesus Christ you’re drunk too?”

  She sighs again as she walks into their room and places Fedora on her bed. She adjust the nightstand and walks over to the window to close.

  -“You two better not be drunk by the time we reach the Kola tomorrow or Catherine will eat me alive.”

  -“Oooooh don’t worryyyy…I’ll be as good as…new! Tomorrow…”

  Says Fedora.

  -“Go to sleep. Goodnight and for real this time.”

  Says Sylvia as she closes the door behind her.

  Fedora lies back in her bed and looks at Linn who was still standing holding onto the bedframe, the key to the door still in her hand.

  -“H-hey Linn…ca-can you p-please l-lock the door…? Pretty please with a cherry on…top!”

  Linn smiles sweetly.

  -“S-sure thing!”

  Linn turns over to the door and tries to lock the door, but every time she tries to put the key into the keyhole she misses.

  She misses again.

  Again.

  And again.

  And again.

  Linn starts laughing.

  -“I can’t…can’t get it in…”

  Fedora starts laughing hysterically.

  -“Maybe you need some Viagra Linn…PFAHAHAHAHAA”

  Linn starts laughing hysterically too as she leans back from her laugh.

  She leaned back too much, she fell on her back while still holding onto the bedframe with her other hand, making the both of them laugh even harder.

  -“H-how did y-you even g-get it in the…first time?”

  Linn barely manages to talk while laughing on the floor.

  -“Y-you w-weren’t watching t-the first time…n-now it g-got sh-sh-shy and it won’t go in…”

  They start laughing even harder, their drunken jokes going on for a few more minutes before Linn manages to climb back into her bed.

  Time passes, about half an hour went by since they stopped laughing, but Fedora was not sleeping. Her eyes remained glued to the bed above her. She turns over to look at the clock, seeing the amount of time that had passed.

  She turns over to look at Linn, she seemed to be in deep sleep.

  Fedora reaches slowly behind her ears, being very careful not to make any noise. With a few soft clicks, her opaque pitch dark glasses finally come loose. She slowly takes them off, her silvery hair coming all over her face like an old sticky spider web. She sets them gently on her bed, and she finally opens her eyes to the dark room.

  Her blank, white irises pierce through the darkness like two eerie headlights. She turns to her side, her eyes open wide forcefully, as wide as they can go, still behind the thin web of her hair covering her face. She stares at Linn’s face as she was sleeping facing her way.

  *Look at her…mmmhhhhh….look at her…*

  She brings the thumb nail of her right hand to her mouth and starts to nibble on it pinching the nail between her front teeth holding herself back from fully biting it off.

  *Her face…the eyeliner…why would you wear makeup in this kind of place…woman…she wears makeup…her face is so soft, it looks so pale. The skin looks like it is made out of snow. What a small nose she has. The eyelashses, a woman has long eyelashses, she’s a woman.*

  Fedora starts to scratch her temple obsessively with the pinky nail of her left hand, her breathing growing heavier and more uneven.

  *Her lips…they look juicy and soft…how would they feel…they must be so warm*

  Her nail starts to scratch harder into her skin making it become red and irritated, she stops biting her nail now wanting to bite off, and instead she starts biting the skin inside her cheeks just as obsessively.

  *Her chest, her breasts…*

  She kicks her foot against the bed sheets and bites so hard on the inside of her cheek she can feel the faint metallic taste of blood.

  *So full…are they soft? Are they firm?*

  Fedora starts to unconsciously hump her mattress.

  *Her hips-“

  Her left hand does a sudden downward jerking motion, leaving a long cut down the side of her face. The sudden cut makes her snap out of her gaze.

  -“Fuck…”

  She whispers to herself, a few drops of blood spilling on the sheets of the brown sheets of the bed. She puts her hand against the cut, pressing on it. She tries to get out of the bed as quietly as she can, her body swaying left and right from how drunk she was. She goes to the bathroom, barely able to open the door…Once she enters the bathroom, she uses one hand to cover her eyes from seeing the mirror, while the other to press on the cut. She looks down into the sink, she washes her hands, aswell as the cut to wash away the blood.

  She spends a few seconds looking down the drain of the sink and breathing heavily, the alcohol making her dizzy She groans, 1 of the flowers on the back of her elbow withering, her cut healing in a few seconds, her skin looked as if it was never touched, the skin inside of her cheek healing aswell. The flower on her elbow blooms again, and she lets out an exhale of relief. She turns around, and walks out of the door, making sure to not avoid any reflection, even though she never turned on the lights in the bathroom.

  She struggles to quietly make her way back to her bed, deciding that crawling on all fours is safer than walking upright to avoid any fall. She avoids looking at Linn, she puts her glasses back on, and goes to sleep.

  This time, she finally falls asleep.

  The next morning both her and Linn are woken up by Sylvia yelling at them.

  -“Come on you two you overslept! I told you to be up early didn’t I?”

  Fedora rubs her eyes under her glasses.

  -“Oh quit shouting I just woke up…give me a second man…”

  Her eyes felt like she hand sand in them, and she had a splitting headache.

  She looks over at Linn who just stood up out of her bed.

  -“Geez my head is killing me…you feeling alright…?”

  Says Linn as she looks over at Fedora.

  -“We’re in the same boat…I feel like I’m carrying an anvil on my head…but fuck it let’s go…”

  They both get dressed, Fedora returning Linn her coat putting on her own black coat.

  They walk out of the guest house and saw that Sylvia had already parked the truck there while talking to Mechka.

  They walk next to the truck and wait for Sylvia to finish talking to Mechka.

  A few minutes pass, and they were both so sleepy they actually start to sleep while standing, leaning against one another for support while Sylvia keeps talking to Mechka.

  -“Linn…Linn…hello Linn?” Says Sylvia as she snaps her fingers to wake them up.

  Linn wakes up and straightens up, letting Fedora who was still sleeping fall into the snow, the fall waking her up aswell.

  -“What’s going on..?” Says Fedora all sleepy her hair full of snow.

  -“Mechka gave us these as a parting gift and wished us a safe journey.”

  Says Sylvia as she extends her hand and gives them each a small wooden animal.

  Linn gets a cat, Fedora gets a wolf, and Sylvia had a dog in her hand.

  -“They’re really cute…” Says Linn.

  -“They do look nice…” Says Fedora leaning back in the snow, Linn joining her sitting down.

  -“Come on you two freshen up a bit, in the truck we’re leaving.”

  -“Auughhh why do you have to be so commanding…”

  Says Fedora as she gets up, extending her arm to Linn so she gets up aswell and they climb into the truck.

  Not too long after they left the village, Linn was already laid back on the seat sleeping, and Fedora sleeping on top of her, her legs over Sylvia’s.

  -“If you don’t wake up I’ll tell Catherine all about what you two did last night.”

  Says Sylvia.

  -“Huh…? Ah I’ll care after I wake up…”

  Says Fedora as she goes back to sleep for the rest of the ride.