(OsiriumWrites) Death Smith - II - Chapter 1 (Closure)
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Two weeks after Rift 7.
March, 14 AR.
England, London, St Lucas' Hospital.
There was an uncomfortable silence in room 5-A, only broken by the sound of the clock that was placed above the doorframe. Seconds passed in silence, threatening to turn into minutes before the young man nodded, showing that he understood.
“I’m sorry, I know that this news must be unpleasant for you,” the GRRO representative said, trying her best to make eye contact with the young man in front of her.
Daniel watched the exchange in silence, dealing with his own feelings on the matter. The representative, Constance Grand, had just explained to Lance and him that the GRRO had finished their investigation of the ‘incident’ that had happened. Two weeks of investigation had resulted in all charges being dropped for the three individuals that had been under investigation. Daniel had suspected something like this, but the reality still stung.
“You can’t be serious. That’s it?” Daniel finally asked the woman, his voice slightly raised before he subdued it. He remembered Lance’s current mental state. “Will the GRRO really leave it at that?” Daniel asked, forcing his tone to be respectful and composed.
He wanted to know what the GRRO would do about this matter. Two weeks of investigation had resulted in barely anything. Kira, Connor and Louis had given their initial statements to a GRRO official when they had exited the Rift, yet afterwards everything had gone wrong. There was video footage of the woman, Kira, entering the GRRO vehicle on site, but she had never arrived at her destination. There had been no trace of her afterwards. Not long after that, the GRRO concluded that the identification documents she had provided R.A.M. were forged, thus making her identity a mystery.
As if one unknown element wasn’t bad enough, Connor had lawyered up within hours. At first, he had been cooperative, but after entering the GRRO HQ, several lawyers that worked for his guild had swept him up in an ocean of red tape and legal loopholes. Officially, they had cooperated fully with the investigation, but Daniel could imagine just how little the GRRO could do when faced with such an enemy. That Connor’s brother was the fifth strongest Rifter in the United States and had a massive guild to back him up made Connor virtually untouchable.
The Frenchman, Louis, had cooperated fully. He had attended several hearings, and had helped where he could, but in the end, he had given the same statement as the other two had given in the beginning; Monsters had ambushed their party, and the three of them had thought the monsters had killed the others. The dire situation had forced them to return to camp to get reinforcements. Although cooperating, Louis had returned to France after seven days, having remained in contact with the GRRO through the branch in France.
“I’m afraid so,” Constance said. Her tone was neutral, but her eyes occasionally glanced at the young man sitting in the hospital bed, devoid of any emotions. “GRRO deeply regrets what has happened and offers their condolences to the friends and families of the fallen,” she said as she slowly got up, realising that Lance didn’t have any further questions. She handed Daniel her card and excused herself, letting him know they could contact that number anytime if they had any further questions.
In the end, Daniel had accepted the card and thanked her for her time, realising that now wasn’t the time to ask the hard questions. He inhaled deeply before he turned his attention to Lance. “How are you feeling, lad?” he asked carefully, seeing the young man staring out of the window. His eyes were still red from the emotions he no doubt was struggling with, although his face displayed little of it.
“I don’t know,” Lance said truthfully before the door to his room abruptly opened and a massive Rift-hound rushed in. It wasted no time in moving towards Lance, only to jump onto his bed and lean into him. A moment later, Dieter followed suit, nodding to Daniel before making his way over towards Lance. Large hands grabbed the young man and pulled him into a tight embrace. The Rift-hound, little Hans, burrowed his head underneath Lance’s arm to rest on his lap. Both Dieter and the Hound looked exhausted, no doubt having just returned from another Rift. Daniel then stepped outside of the room as he heard Lance’s voice break as his hands ran through the creature’s fur. The animal slowly coaxed Lance towards the path of grief and healing.
As Daniel closed the door behind him, he grabbed his phone and texted Samuel Jones, asking him to meet up later. He figured the head of the GRRO London branch might give him more answers.
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Several minutes later, Dieter joined his friend outside of Lance’s room. He grabbed some coffee as the two of them made their way over to a nearby bench. The loyal Rift-hound had refused to move. It instead focused on keeping Lance company. Dieter was still wearing his Rifter outfit, minus the armour he usually wore on top of it. He was unshaven, dirty, and had some minor bruises on his arms and face. The man looked as if he had simply rushed over when he had learned what had happened after he exited the Rift, dropping everything. As well as Daniel knew his friend, he figured this was probably the case.
“You could’ve at least washed,” Daniel said with a grin as he leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes briefly.
“And you could’ve gotten me a coffee, instead of using the whole one hand excuse,” the large German said as he nudged his friend in the ribs while sipping coffee. The two of them sat in silence for a while then, with Dieter ignoring any nurse or doctor that stared at him as they passed by. Finally, he broke the silence and asked the one question Daniel did not know how to answer. “How is he doing?”
Daniel sighed at the question. He wondered how he could explain how Lance was doing. There were so many aspects to cover, and nearly all of them were bad. “Poorly,” he finally said as he opened his eyes. “Physically, he is doing better. He had several broken bones, multiple lacerations, and his left hand needed extensive surgery to fix. Still, he is young, healthy and has been using his skill to speed up the healing process. The doctors said he’d probably make a full recovery, minus some loss of feeling in his left hand, if any.”
“And mentally?” his friend asked.
“A mess, truly. I don’t even know where to begin. It took the GRRO and I a few hours to realise that it was Lance and not Thomas that had survived and had driven away from the Rift site. It was bad. The GRRO had even contacted Thomas’ family with incorrect information. By the time I had found him, nearly ten hours had passed,” Daniel said as he sipped his coffee. He could hear his friend mutter things under his breath, no doubt feeling bad for the Walker family.
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“The lad was a wreck. I found him on the sofa, next to Thomas’ broken shield. He wasn’t in a pleasant state of mind at that point. The blood loss, injuries and shell shock had eroded much of him. The things he said at that moment were mostly incoherent,” Daniel said. He knew the story would get even more complex when he had to explain to Dieter what had ‘officially’ happened inside the Rift and what Lance’s testimony had been. The young man’s account of things had been about poor leadership from the fighters and them abandoning the porters to fend for themselves. Thomas had sacrificed himself to save Lance.
While they drank their coffee, Daniel explained what had happened in terms of the investigation and the events afterwards. The hardest part to talk about was retelling how Thomas’ family had reacted when they had arrived at the hospital. Both a GRRO spokesperson and Daniel had been there to break the news, to let them know it had been Lance that had survived, not Thomas. He could still remember how every word they uttered fragmented the family even more. The mother had simply collapsed in tears while Thomas’ father had remained upright, devoid of any emotion as he carried his family.
“And how are you doing?” Dieter asked. His hands were gripping one another and exerting a tremendous amount of force. He was no doubt dealing with his own grief by doing this. Daniel knew that Dieter would have more questions about the investigation and what had happened to the three fighters that had left Lance and Thomas to their fates. For now, the large German focused on what he could do for his friend.
“About the same as you, I think. I…” Daniel stopped as he leaned backwards again, exhaling deeply. “Those boys did not deserve this. They were supposed to do some boring jobs to get some experience under their belt. I figured if they did a dozen of these Rifts, I could persuade you to let them join your guild.”
“Our guild. And I still haven’t accepted your official resignation. You know full well that we would’ve accepted those boys in a heartbeat and treated them like family,” Dieter said as he ran a hand through his dirty blonde beard to distract himself somewhat. “When is the funeral?” he asked eventually.
“The day after tomorrow. Thomas’ father expressed his wishes for us to be there as well if you’re up for it?” Daniel shared. His friend simply nodded.
Thomas’ father had frequently spoken with Daniel to hear how Lance was doing. He had wanted to visit, but Lance had either been in surgery, therapy, or the GRRO had taken up much of his time with their investigation. The death of so many Rifters needed to be investigated from all angles. Beyond that, Lance had refused most visitors during his stay until now.
“I‘m meeting Samuel later today,” Daniel said, ignoring the disapproving grunt from his friend as he continued. “I’m going to see if he has some more information for me about the investigation. Can you look after Lance for now? The doctors said they could discharge him tomorrow morning or later in the afternoon.”
Dieter nodded once more. There wasn’t anything else left to say after that. They both felt the loss of Thomas, having spent a long time together during their first Rift. While Daniel had continued to be a large presence in their lives, taking on the role of mentor, Dieter had bonded with Thomas differently. Both he and Thomas were quite similar in their behaviour and had regularly kept in contact, with Dieter frequently receiving messages from Thomas for advice or inquiring about any potential openings in Dieter’s guild.
In the end, both Rifters stared at a random spot on the floor as they drank their coffee in silence while mourning the loss of a good man.
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A few hours later, two men sat next to one another at the bar, each holding a glass containing scotch, gazing into its golden depths. The amber liquid reflected their faces. They lost themselves in it as if it might reveal the answers to whatever they were contemplating. One of them had placed a folder on the bar between the two of them, containing the GRRO logo and a case number.
“What the hell am I going to tell the lad?” Daniel said finally. He took a large sip and felt the liquid burn his throat in a way that he found fitting. It was as if he was chasing the demons out of his mind. They would no doubt make their return in a short while, but it did not stop him from trying. They would come nipping at his heels, festering his mind with guilt and self-loathing. Guilt at not having been in the Rift with the young men or not having pushed them to Dieter’s guild sooner. ‘Even with one arm, I might’ve made a difference,’ Daniel chastised himself before he took another sip.
“That is up to you. The truth will hurt as much as any sugar-coated variant of it,” Samuel Jones said as he eyed the one-handed Rifter at his side. The document between them contained all the information about the ‘incident’ of the Rift that resulted in the loss of six people. There was the official report of the Rift-leader, supporting R.A.M. personnel on-site, and eyewitness accounts of several Rifters that had been inside the Rift. “No version will make it any better, or bring back his lost friend,” Samuel said as he swirled his drink.
Daniel wanted to slam his fist through the wooden bar but kept a check on his emotions. This day had taken a lot out of him. It was hard to hear that the GRRO was closing the investigation and concluding that it had been an incident. A vague term frequently used to cover these types of things.
“Did the lad say anything else about what happened inside?” Samuel asked carefully, knowing how protective Daniel could be of loved ones.
“No, nothing more than the basics. Monsters cornered their group because of poor leadership and greed. Three of the Rifters fled. Thomas rushed Lance to safety at the cost of his own life,” Daniel said, closing his eyes. It still puzzled him how Lance had survived exiting the Rift beyond chance and a lot of luck.
He had tried to talk to him about what he had to do after Thomas had died, but Lance usually froze up during those moments. Questions about the state of his current level or class remained unanswered. Lance had told him he didn’t want to open his status screen or deal with anything Rift related at the moment. It was one of the few things where Lance would snap out of his daze and show anger when someone pressed the topic.
Daniel felt Samuel’s gaze on him, his mind no doubt busy in taking it all in. The man was a keen observer and had been around Rifters a lot to know how to read them.
“I heard he is to be discharged tomorrow?”
“I think so. I tried to convince him to stay longer, to persuade him to talk about his experience with a professional there, but he refused each time. The doctors said it is probably PTSD and that it would be beneficial for him to see someone at a later stage,” Daniel said as he shook his head. It was hard to understand how to help a Rifter.
Most of the Rifters that Daniel had encountered in his life had endured some sort of trauma. Either way, it simply came with how most people became Rifters. Like people in the military, Rifters encountered horrible combat situations. Beyond that, a Rifter also had to deal with things beyond comprehension. Harsh environments that defied all logic, brutal flora and fauna that went beyond description, not to mention a merciless and monstrous enemy that stopped at nothing to kill a Rifter.
Plenty of people had suggested that Daniel himself undergo therapy after the many bad Rifts he had been in, yet he had refused each time. It wasn’t like he did not trust or appreciate what those professionals were trying to do. It had to do with the fact that it wasn’t possible to explain to a civilian what a Rifter encountered. That was why Daniel preferred working in a guild, to have other Rifters around you who had experienced what you had and could help you cope with it.
Samuel then got up and finished his last drink as he signalled to the bartender that Daniel would be paying. “Sometimes there are no words left beyond those that hurt us. You can only be there for him during that time,” he told him as he grabbed his coat from the chair and made his way to the door. Upon opening it, Daniel could see the black car parked outside, with the driver already getting out to open the passenger door for Samuel.
“Take care of yourself. And take some time to reconsider my offer of employment,” Samuel said, as he waved at the Rifter, ignoring Daniel’s outright refusal to work for the GRRO as per usual. That Samuel didn’t take the folder with him was a sign of trust between the two men, and an unspoken assumption on his end that Daniel would end up working for him. The old man hadn’t ended up as the head of the GRRO London branch by not having a sharp instinct when it came to people.
When the door closed, it left Daniel to his thoughts and the sound of the bartender cleaning glasses. He felt the stump of his right arm twitch and irritate him again, indicating that he was feeling uncomfortable. ‘How the hell do I tell Lance that even the GRRO is powerless here, despite understanding what happened inside the Rift?’
He remembered Lance’s reaction when the GRRO official had broken the news to them. The folder on the bar only made that news even darker. The document contained numerous examples of Connor’s lawyers working against the GRRO. It showed evidence of the R.A.M. officials purposely having chosen to take on a higher-level Rift instead of a safer one. The worst part was about the female Rifter named Kira that had disappeared. They had found ties between her and several contract killings over the past five years. ‘All of this will chip away at what little Lance has left if he ever were to find out. Losing a friend is bad enough, but losing one because of other people’s negligence, greed, pride, and evil intentions?’
He stared at both the drink and the folder for minutes as he went over his options and weighed their potential outcomes. Finally, he recalled something his wife used to say to him; ‘A kind heart endures’. The memory of his wife pulled at his heart, making him remember her… remember her holding their child.
Not letting more of those memories bubble up to the surface, he finished his drink in one quick motion. Afterwards, he grabbed his phone and dialled Dieter’s number. Moments passed before he heard the man’s voice. Feeling his right arm throb in pain, he brought the phone to his ear as he made his choice.
“It’s me. We need to talk.”
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Author: Osirium
Copyright: OsiriumWrites