Into The Aether

Chapter Eight: Revelations

Takeo was waiting for me outside and came to me as I stepped outside the office.

"Ready?" He enquired and I gave a nod for us to leave.

Takeo glanced at Richtofen who was standing behind me at the door. Richtofen returned a neutral glance - not giving anything away. We returned to Dempsey and Nikolai who were waiting in the furnace room with the Thompson gun. As they both heard our footsteps, Dempsey turned and rushed over to me grabbing my shoulders and leaning down to my height.

"Are you okay? What did he ask you?" Dempsey blurted out with urgency.

"Nothing much other than asking me whether my memory had returned yet", I lied because I imagined the heavy metal door muffled our voices preventing even Takeo from eavesdropping.

And this was likely why Richtofen chose his lab instead. Dempsey bought it and ushered me over to the fire to warm up. We all sat huddled around it in silence. I checked my burn and caught Dempsey wince as he looked over at my arm.

"It looks worse than it is", I said reassuringly.

Which was the truth, burns were great at that.

"It's not gonna get infected, is it?" Dempsey enquired with genuine concern.

"As long as I keep it clean I'll be fine", I replied with a smile.

Nikolai interrupted:

"I should apologise for leaving you with the German. Can I offer some vodka at least?"

I thanked him and accepted the bottle before splashing some on my arm as the burn was already beginning to get dirty again. Nikolai looked on in shock as he expected me to take a swig instead. Everyone laughed - even Takeo. A grin became plastered across my face as I realised a great story involving vodka.

"You know Nikolai", I began as everyone leaned in to hear what I was going to say.

"My piercing above my lip became swollen and irritated one night", I began as Nikolai turned to face me with a look of intrigue.

"I was at a friend's house at the time and they decided that I should disinfect it. So they went into their kitchen cabinet and brought out a bottle of unopened vodka straight from Russia, even the glass was ornately moulded!" I began to grin more as Dempsey and Takeo knew where I was going with the story.

Nikolai recoiled in terror anticipating his worst nightmare.

"I used the vodka as mouthwash. MERE MOUTHWASH!" I cackled exaggeratedly.

Nikolai was gripping his vodka close to him.

"How could you? How could you treat vodka like that!?" He cried as he cuddled his vodka bottles.

We all laughed in unison at his reaction.

"So what is it anyway?" Dempsey enquired referring to my piercings.

He was clearly clueless since he likely had not seen it before.

"It's called a medusa piercing", I replied pointing to it.

"And this is a daith", I continued, pointing to my ear.

"Oh, and I have a belly bar too", Dempsey flinched as if he was reliving the pain he assumed I had felt getting my piercings.

"It wasn't sore at all, but then again I do have an obscene pain tolerance", I laughed.

This seemed to reassure him and his expression lightened up.