Emotions

Chapter 5: The Injury

Tears begin to drip on the floor. I quickly untie the knots on her back and free her from the rope.

''It's okay, we are here now.'' I reassure her. The moment she was free Mana embraces both of us.
"Mana, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?" Lido asks, concern and worry evident in his voice.
Mana stops hugging and points at her right foot that she is slightly holding above the ground.
"I-I can't stand on this foot... it hurts." I move forward to support her then, allowing Mana to lean against me to alleviate her foot from the ground.

Lido dashes towards the man with the two trembling boys hiding behind his legs. "What have you done to her?! Why did you tie her up?!" A sudden wave of anger consumes him, balling his hand into a fist and holding it up threateningly. ''Don't tell me... That you hurt her feet too?!'' He continues. 

The man prepares himself to take the hit, but Lido did not have it in him to hit the hopeless man. He steps backward and calms down a bit.
''Tell me.'' His tone sounds serious. He's glaring with eyes as if he is ready to kill him on the spot.

The man gives in to Lido's rage, answering his question.
''Well, we heard a loud crumbling sound and a sudden yell. So, we rushed towards the back room to see what happened. Then we found her at the entrance. We brought her with us, because she looked hurt. We were afraid that she was with the government, like you two. So, we tied her up.''

"Without even waiting for her to wake up so you could ask her personally?" Lido snarls.''You have to understand that we are hiding from the government's brainwashing. We could not take any risks of her attacking us the moment she woke up.'' The man explains frantically moving his arms.

''I understand...'' Mana's voice was soft, but her words seemed to echo through the room. ''I would have done the same thing...''

Our attention gets drawn to Mana, who tries to stand on both her feet, but almost falls from the pain. I help her to sit down again and examine her injury. It looks quite swollen and purple. After feeling the wound thoroughly, I discover that it isn't broken. I let out a small sigh of relief as I rip a small piece of my shirt to bind the wound with. She let out a small noise of discomfort, but feels better afterward.

''Thanks, Ziro.'' ''No problem Mana.'' I smile back. I step away from her to give her some rest. I then head to Lido, who was impatiently waiting for my status report on Mana.

''So?'' Lido asks, tapping his feet nervously. ''How is her foot?'' ''It is not broken, luckily, but it is quite swollen.'' I see Lido calm down a bit, but he's not yet completely at ease.''Okay.'' He replies, not taking his eyes of the man for even a second.''Please, can you tell us what happened to you?'' I ask the man, hoping to get a better understanding of their situation. 

The man shares a look with us. Well, only me, actually. It looks like he's still terrified Lido would hurt him. It causes him to back up further, to shelter the others. I push Lido behind me, which he clearly didn't agree with. But I give him a nod and whisper:

"Calm down. You're scaring them. We need to know their story first.'' Still disgruntled, he whispers back: ''Well, a punch will surely get him talking.'' He knacks his knuckles, causing the crew to fear him even more.

I turn Lido to me, snapping him out of his deluded staring contest.
''We are here to save people like them, not hurt them even more.'' These words seemed to have knocked some sense into him.

''Fine!'' He pouts, crossing his arms as he goes to check on Mana.Once the danger has left, I speak to them from a distance, to make sure they don't see me as a threat.

''Please, we want to help you, but to do so, we need you to tell us.'' I plead, looking all of them in the eyes, only to be avoided. However, once my gaze meets the ones of the man, I see pure sadness and despair. It appears that the man is preparing himself, preparing himself for the story tell he wishes he never had to give again.