Burning Up

Depravation

The sound of the front door slamming below me ripped me out of my hazy state.

'Niko' My mind supplied, calming my racing heart.

I knew I should get up and greet him, but I couldn't help but feel as though there was some invisible force holding me back; pinning me to the bed as I contemplated the act.

It wouldn't even be that difficult; I'd get up, walk down the stairs, greet him with a smile and offer to cook dinner. Easy. But for some reason, I just wasn't in the mood to face his kind face and softly spoken reassurances. I wanted to be alone, without the pressure to speak and act like a normal person. I felt sick and tired and all I wanted to do was sleep.

So I remained upstairs; lying in bed and staring up at the ceiling, listening to the sound of shuffling, followed by the low hum of voices which blended in with the evening hum of cicadas.

Occasionally I would pick out individual words from their conversation, my name being one of them. Normally it would have bothered me, but I trusted Niko, and if Iago needed to vent, I'd rather it be to him than anyone else.

Time seemed to stretch as I lay there, weaving and morphing between seconds and hours so seamlessly that any chance of working out how many hours had passed lay down to the setting sun outside the window.

Of course, even that had to come to an end, and eventually I found myself lying there in the darkness, listening to the silence echo from downstairs as each man had said goodnight and retired to their rooms.

I would always be surprised by just how comforting Niko's presence seemed to be, not only for Iago, but for me too. How even the loss of his soft, rumbling voice, felt like a defence stripped away.

I suppose its because he was kind. Fatherly in his way of taking care of you. Brotherly in his teasing. Motherly in his fierce protectiveness.

It made me worry, sometimes, about who took care of him.

All of a sudden, I was ripped from my thoughts, a thud from below me startling me out of my semi-conscious state.

Within seconds I was sitting upright, my hand clutching the first thing to my left which happened to be an expensive looking, geometric, metallic dog statue.

'Niko, what the fuck?' I thought but thanked him nonetheless as it was heavy and about the length of my forearm; the perfect defence against whoever was slowly but surely making their way up the stairs and towards my door.

I knew that realistically, it could only be one of two people, Niko or Iago, but a strange sort of terror had clouded over my mind, filling it with images of intruders; masked men dressed immaculately, brandishing each and every form of weapon.

After all, it wouldn't be impossible, I'd heard both Iago and Niko retire to bed hours ago.

I jumped again as there was another thud, followed by a curse, and then the intruder was... knocking?

I rolled my eyes internally, shaking off the fear which had consumed me as I edged towards the door.

"Yeah?" I called out softly, keeping my distance as I came to a halt just behind where the door would swing open

Deep down, I know there was little chance that Ghost, or one of his men, would knock so politely, but the thought of opening the door to that same, greasy, bald man, had me brandishing my dog regardless.

The door creaked as it swung open softly, giving me ample time to peak round it before Iago stepped through the doorway, flooding every cell in my body with relief before my brain caught up with me and reminded me that I was still furious with him.