Fourth Tally

Posted on Sunday, 7 February 2021 - 5:52pm by Lieutenant JG Adrianna Eberhardt

Adrianna awoke from her slumber in a rather groggy manner. Her eyes looked around, it was still dark. It was a familiar bed, it was the one from her place in Rome. The smell of stale coffee from the café below had her reminiscent of time long gone.

She looked to her old fashioned clock and smiled, she still had time for a few more hours, it wasn't going to hurt anyone. Adrianna pulled up her cotton bed sheet, snuggling down, finding a cooler spot on her pillow.

It was a strange dream. Just waking up to fall back to sleep again. It almost felt paradoxical.

The sound of something metal dropping to her wooden floors, awoke her. She could spell something other than coffee. What was it?

A soft rumble had her sat up.

Her eyes spotted her doorway illuminating orange. The glow turned brighter, cutting through the darkness with envious greed for destruction.

That smell, it was grappa.

As the door blew open, Adrianna grabbed her dagger and ran straight through a closed window, falling a story down onto the café's awning below. The glass shattered around her, as if raining pure shards.

Bouncing straight off the awning, with very little grace, she managed to roll her landing just as her apartment exploded, taking parts of the café with it. Her eyes went straight back to her place. It was gone. In seconds it was just smoke and remnants of a home. Ash reigned down along with charred personal possessions now littered Rome's streets.

Who did this?

***

Adrianna awoke, breathing hard. She looked round and saw Leopold sleeping sounding. The woman sat back, relaxing a little with a smile. Her fingers stoked a piece of his hair off of his face, and she leant down to kiss him.

As her lips neared his head, she paused.

That smell. A metal clink.

Her eyes went for the door. It's edges began to let a hot ember glow through. What could she do? She couldn't jump out of a window here.

"Leopold," she shook him, "Leopold, wake up! We need to get somewhere safe."

Adrianna didn't see movement.

Wait.

Was he even breathing?

"Leopold," she screamed, shaking him harder.

The room was suddenly engulfed with a raging fireball.

***

"Leopold!"

Adrianna was now very much awake. She looked over, but he wasn't there. He was working.

Adrianna needed to control this. She knew that the next Tally was one she didn't want to relive. Not again. She didn't need a reminder as to how far an outraged father would go to silence his daughter.

Breathe.