I sometimes hear people talk about silver bullets or spiritual wards to defend against the horrors of the night, the monsters of the black forest who seek to drag you under the earth to feed their kin. It may seem foolish at first, but there's somewhat a truth to it. There's a good reason Samurai have a tendency to choose a theme early on.

-- Intro to the online quizzes what samurai are you

I will admit that I don’t have that much experience with going to bars, but even I know that this is not much of one. The counter is just big enough to squeeze one guy behind it, and the tables are so rusted that they are one bar fight away from giving everyone tetanus.

The problem is, that Evelin does not want to take over and deal with that person, the only reaction she gives me is a loud giggle.

“So when you said bar, did you mean a confined place to hide the body?” I ask Snake Eyes, who is walking in front of me.

Snake Eyes whips around, her slitted eyes going wide and shaking with shock. Something about her face still irks me, a feeling I could still not really place properly. Neither one of us had ever met her, of that much I am sure. Someone with a face this perfect and symmetrical would be hard to forget. Then why do I keep having this feeling of anger every time I look at her?

“No, I would never! Why would you even think that?” she says, trying to defend herself

I just gesture around the room. “You told me we were going to a bar and proceeded to take me to a room without any people, so I am at least a bit suspicious.”

Snake Eyes looks at me curiously, “And you still followed me inside?”

I pause. “Not to be rude or anything, but you don’t feel that threatening to me.” I say in the most neutral tone that I can manage. Fuck, I am not good at this, Evelin. Get out here!

Snake Eyes opens her mouth, ready to say something, before she closes it again. “You know that I am a Samurai, right?” she says, her mouth being pressed into a thin line.

“That explains why all those others seem to think that you were in charge.” I muse out loud.

“Seem to think I am in charge? I am in charge. This whole place would just be rubble without me.” she says, sounding a bit offended.

I look around at the broken chairs in a corner, at the huge cracks along the wall, at the few bottles of liquor still lying around.

“I hate to say it, princess, but this place is not really all that far from being rubble.” I say.

“What do you mean? This place has sturdy walls.” she says, trying her best to defend herself, as her cheeks turn red again.

“They are filled with cracks, making them anything but sturdy.” I say, looking at her with my eyebrow raised.

“Ugh, you are mean. Let's just grab some drinks and sit down.” she says as she walks to the bar, talking to the man behind it for a while, before she grabs two bottles and heads back to me. “I got the goods. Let's go somewhere more private.”

I nod. “Yeah, let's do that.” I say, a bit awkwardly, as I follow behind her.

Snake Eyes takes me further inside into a small side room, it is basically nothing more than a U-shaped couch around a sticky table. We sit down opposite each other.

“Here you go.” she says, handing me one of the bottles.

“I don’t drink.” I say with a small smile.

“Why not?”

“Because I am afraid that I will make a mistake while inebriated, and I will be punished.” I say, almost on autopilot.

“Punished by who? Is someone threatening you?” she asks, getting this hard look on her face.

I pause and think. Who am I still afraid of? “I don’t know. I am still somewhat on autopilot. I guess somewhere I still think that I am on the surface, and that I have to go back to work soon.”

“Yeah, old habits have a way of doing that, but don’t worry about it. No surface dweller will ever dare to step in the undercity, especially with that force field around, so you are completely safe.“

I flip my look from the bottle to Snake Eyes, who is giving me a kind look. I guess that is true, and even if New Hope did somehow show up, that would only be a positive thing. I take the bottle from her, twist the cap off and take a swig. The burning liquid goes down my throat, and I cough loudly as I almost choke on it.

“Be careful, it's strong, so you should drink a bit slowly.” Snake Eyes says, with a laugh.

I try my best not to be embarrassed as I take another sip, making sure to be a lot slower this time. Protectors, why does it still burn this much? I look up to see that Snake Eyes is smiling at me with bright eyes.

“And how is it?” she asks me.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Feels like I just swallowed a fire.” I complain.

“You get used to it after a while. Now, on to more important stuff. Your weapon. How did you get it?” she asks,, giving me a somewhat serious look that is only broken by the deep blush on her cheeks.

“What do you mean, how did I get it? I bought it and had it installed.” I say, looking at the woman, a bit confused.

“Yeah, but weapons are forbidden here unless you are part of the defence force.”

“So what, you going to take my arm off? I'd love to see you try, little serpent.” I say with a smile, daring her to strike.

“No, I won’t, I promise!” she shouts, looking very panicked.

I give her an unimpressed “Aren’t you supposed to be the big bad leader?”

“I am.” she says in a high and mighty tone.

“Then why are you acting like a wet paper towel this entire time?” I say, with a bit more bite than intended.

“Why are you being so mean to me?” Snake Eyes whines, feeling more like a petulant child than the twenty-five-year-old that her looks would suggest.

I give it the moment it deserves to think about it again, but I still can’t find the answer. “I just don’t like you. Call it a gut feeling or something, but something is telling me that you will be nothing but trouble.”

Her face falls, and I can almost see tears appear in her eyes. Was I too harsh? No, that could not be it. A lot of people have told us that they did not like us in the past and we were never upset about it. No, wait, we were at first angry and sad, but we learned to live with it.

I sigh. “I am sorry, that was unnecessary. I am not sure what is wrong with you. Something about seeing your face makes me angry, and I can’t really put my finger on why, and it is frustrating.” I finally admit, feeling bad about hurting her.

“You don’t like snakes?” the girl asks, her voice having gone soft and fragile. Wait, aren’t you supposed to be a samurai? What is going on?

“I have never given them much thought, to be honest, but no, I don’t think that is it. It is more like the general shape, I guess. Ugh, it is hard to explain, sorry.” I say, truly feeling sorry. Wait, why am I sorry? How can something frustrate me, and I feel sorry for you at the same time? My brain feels a bit numb, so I take another sip to distract myself.

“I guess that could make some sense. My face shape was really popular some two or three years ago,” she says, putting a hand on her chin to think.

“Popular? You used to be famous?” I asked, a bit surprised. Maybe I had seen her before.

“No, I am not. I am…” she pauses, looking distinctly uncomfortable. “I used to be an indentured servant. They forced me to change my face so I could help the higher-ups better.” she says, looking really sad and defeated.

I pause, and suddenly, everything falls into place. I did recognise her face. Sure, she was a bit taller, about a head taller than me, making her face stretch in different places, but yeah, that was it. That was my face I was looking at. The only difference was her black hair and her slit eyes. Fuck, I always knew I was not unique. That my face was the result of careful research into what was the most attractive, but this is the first time it became this strikingly clear.

I feel all the memories flood back into me like a cold wave of ice water: how I had begged them to stop, that I wanted to keep my looks, how I had begged to keep anything that was still me. How relieved I felt when they said I could keep my eyes, saying that the natural colour was unique and that people would love it so much more. How much Cierra had loved them. I did not know how to feel. I did not do emotions well. I fought my problems because, usually, they were something that could be killed, but I could not fight this.

“Are you okay? You look a bit pale.” Snake Eyes says, looking at me with concern.

“Yeah, I am fine. I was just reminded of the past and why I hate that face so much.”

“Ohh.” Snake says, cocking her head as if in question. “You want to tell me about it?”

“It reminds me of my own face and how scared and miserable I felt and how much pain I was in when they forced me to change mine.” I say, struggling with the words more than I would like to. I take another sip of the drink, hoping that the alcohol will make it easier.

I see her face slowly soften as she reaches up her arms to grab my hand and softly strokes it with her thumb. “Don’t worry, you are free now, and I won’t allow them to take you back.”

I look at her, a bit surprised, before I burst out laughing. “Don’t worry about it, I am already pretty much free.”

“Ooh, really, how long have you been free?” she asks.

I take another swig of the drink as I try to remember. How long has it been since I became a samurai? So much stuff has happened between then and now, but it could not have been much more than three weeks. I sigh. “About a month or so, and you?”

“Depends on what you call free. After the corpos were done with me, I fell down hard, ending up in a cheap whore house pumped full of drugs all day so that I would not really pay attention to anything. I broke out of those chains when I became a samurai, so like, maybe two weeks. Keeping track of time down here is hard.” she says.

I grimaced. It was not hard to imagine what she had gone through, a fate that I had so desperately tried to avoid by clinging to Cierra. “So what now, then? Now that you are free, that is?”

“I don’t really know. I want to get out of here first, but cracking the forcefield feels almost impossible,” she pauses, looking at me with wide eyes. “I should not have said that.”

“Why not?” I ask, a bit surprised.

“Because people still believe that we can break out of this hellhole, and as long as they believe that, there is still hope.” she says, her voice taking on a sombre tone.

“Well, I guess that is true, but I still have hope, so you are fine.” I say with a smile.

She smiles widely at me, revealing parts of her snake-like fangs. “How can you still have hope in me?” she asks, a bit playfully.

“I just have a lot of faith in my friends. They are probably topside right now, trying to figure out a way to get us out of here.” I say with my best reassuring smile.

“Those friends of yours must be really special then.” she says, still smiling at me.

“They are.” I say with a happy smile, as I try to take another sip, only to realise the bottle is empty.

Snake eyes laughs at me. “Let's get another bottle then.”

“I shouldn't. I need to get the stuff for the orphanage still.” I say, a bit mournfully.

Snake Eyes looks at me, then smiles. “Give me the list, I can have one of the guards collect it for you.”

“That is all right. I don’t want to bother you.”

“It is fine. Let me abuse my awesome boss powers for once.” she says, giving me a wink.

Not as reluctantly as I should, I agree and give her the list. She steps out for only a moment, coming back with some new bottles and sits down beside me, leaning against me, as her warm body starts to heat up my cold skin.