Death Smith - Book 2 - Chapter 1

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Closure

Two weeks since Rift 7.

Mid-March, 14 AR.

United Kingdom, London, St Thomas' Hospital.

There was an uncomfortable silence in Room 5a, 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 and said that he understood.

“I am 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 Daniel that the GRRO had finished their investigation of the ‘incident’ that 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, remembering Lance’s current state. “Will the GRRO really leave it at that?” Daniel asked, forcing his tone respectful and composed.

He wanted to know what the GRRO would do about this matter. Two weeks of investigation had resulted in barely anything. Both 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, yet never arriving at her destination. Since there had been no trace of any activity on her account and upon further inspection, the GRRO concluded that the identification documents she had provided R.A.M. had been forged, thus making her identity a mystery.

As if one unknown element that had run away wasn’t bad enough, Connor had lawyered up within hours. At first, he had been cooperative, but after entering the GRRO HQ, he had contacted his guild and had been swept away in an ocean of lawyers and red tape. 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.

Louis had cooperated fully, having attended several hearings, and help where he could, yet at the end, he had given the same statement as the other two had given in the beginning; Monsters had ambushed their party, and they had thought the monsters had killed the others. The situation had forced them to return to camp to get reinforcements. Although cooperating, Louis had returned to France after ten days, having remained in contact with the GRRO through the local branch in France.

“I am afraid so,” Constance said, her tone neutral, but her eyes occasionally glanced at the young man sitting in the hospital bed, devoid of any emotions. “GRRO 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 did not have any further questions. She handed Daniel her card and excused herself, letting him know they could contact that number 24/7 if they had any further questions.

In the end, Daniel simply 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?” he asked carefully, seeing the young man staring out of the window, eyes still red from the emotions he no doubt was feeling.

“I don’t know,” Lance said truthfully before the door to his room abruptly opened and a massive Rift-hound suddenly rushed towards Lance, only to jump onto his bed and lean against him. A moment later, Dieter followed suit, nodding to Daniel before making his way over towards Lance. Large hands grabbed Lance and pulled him into a tight embrace, with the Rift-hound, little Hans, burrowing his head underneath Lance’s arm to rest on his lap. Both Dieter and the Hound looked exhausted, no doubt having just returned from a Rift.

Daniel then stepped outside of the room, hearing Lance’s voice break as his hands ran through the creature’s fur. The animal slowly coaxing Lance towards the path of grief and healing. Daniel closed the door behind him before he grabbed his phone, texting Samuel Jones, asking him to meet up later. He figured the head of the GRRO London branch might know more.

* * * * *

After a while, Dieter joined Daniel, grabbing some coffee as the two of them made their way over to a nearby bench. The loyal Rift-hound had refused to move, instead, focusing 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. Knowing Dieter, this was probably the case.

“You could have at least washed,” Daniel said with a grin, leaning back against the wall and closing his eyes briefly.

“And you could have gotten me a coffee as well, instead of using the whole one hand excuse,” Dieter replied, nudging his friend in the side as he sipped his 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?”

Daniel sighed, his mind wondering how he could possibly explain how Lance was doing. There were so many aspects to cover, and nearly all of them were bad. “Poorly,” he finally said, opening his eyes before he continued. “Physically, he is doing better. He had several broken bones; multiple lacerations and his left hand needed several surgeries to properly 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,” he explained.

“Mentally?” Dieter simply asked.

“A mess, truly. I don’t even know where to begin. It took the GRRO and me a few hours to realise that Lance and not Thomas had made it out of the Rift and had driven away from the Rift site. It was bad. The GRRO even contacted Thomas’s family with incorrect information. By the time I had found him, nearly twelve hours had passed,” Daniel said, sipping his coffee as he heard Dieter mutter something in German.

“The lad was a mess. I found him on the sofa, next to Thomas’s broken shield. He wasn’t in a pleasant state 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, knowing that the story would even get more complex when he had to explain to Dieter what had ‘officially’ happened inside the Rift and what Lance’s testimony had been. Lance’s account of the Rift had been about poor leadership and then having been left to fend for themselves, with Thomas sacrificing himself to save Lance.

So, Daniel started to explain, sharing what had happened in terms of the investigation and the events afterwards. The hardest part to talk about was retelling how Thomas’s 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 survived, not Thomas. Daniel could still remember how every word they uttered fragmented the family more and more. The mother had simply collapsed in tears while Thomas’s father had remained upright, devoid of any emotion as he carried his family.

“And how are you doing?” Dieter asked, his hands gripping one another and exerting a tremendous amount of force, 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 Rifters that had been investigated. For now, he focused on what he could do for his friends.

“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,” Daniel said.

“Our guild, I still haven’t accepted your official resignation. And the boys would have been accepted and treated like family,” Dieter said as a ran a hand through his dirty blonde beard to distract himself somewhat. “When is the funeral?” Dieter asked eventually.

“The day after tomorrow. Thomas’s father expressed his wishes for us to be there as well if you are up for it?” Daniel explained before asking Dieter. The man simply nodded. Thomas’s 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 several Rifters needed to be investigated from all angles. Beyond that, Lance had refused most visitors during his stay until now.

“I am meeting Samuel later today,” Daniel said, ignoring the disapproving grunt from Dieter as he continued, “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 again. What else was there to say. They both felt the loss of Thomas, having spent a long time together during their first Rift. True, Daniel had continued to be a large presence in their lives, taking on the role of mentor, but 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, drinking their coffee in silence while mourning the loss of a good man.

* * * * *

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, as if it chased 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 he felt at not being there for the young men, for not having pushed them to Dieter’s guild sooner, or simply being there in the Rift alongside them. ‘Even with one arm, I might have 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, eying the one-handed Rifter to his side. The document in 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. He has lost his friend,” Samuel said, swirling 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 had happened inside?” Samuel asked carefully, knowing how protective Daniel could be of him, or Thomas.

“No, nothing more than the basics. Monsters had cornered their group because of poor leadership and greed. Three of the Rifters fled. Thomas had rushed Lance to safety at the cost of his life,” Daniel said, closing his eyes. It still puzzled him how Lance had managed to survive beyond chance and a lot of luck. He had tried to talk to Lance about what he had to do after Thomas had died, but Lance usually froze up during those moments. Questions about his current level or class were unclear, seeing as Lance explained, he did not want to open his status screen or deal with anything Rift related in this moment. Daniel felt Samuel’s gaze on him, his mind no doubt busy in taking it all in. Samuel 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?” Samuel inquired, sipping his drink afterwards.

“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 simply refused it each time. The doctors said it is probably PTSD and that it would be beneficial for Lance to see someone at a later stage,” Daniel said, shaking his head. It was hard to understand how to help a Rifter.

Most of the Rifters Daniel had encountered in his life had endured some sort of trauma. Either way, it simply came with the nature of how they had become Rifters. Like those in the army, Rifters encountered horrible situations, but unlike those in the Army, a Rifter 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 Daniel undergo therapy after numerous bad Rifts he had been in, yet he refused each time. It wasn’t like he did not trust or appreciate what those professionals were trying to do. It was more so like it was not possible to explain to a normal civilian what a Rifter encountered. That was why Daniel had preferred working in a guild, to have other Rifters around you who had experienced what you had.

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,” Samuel 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, Daniel. And take some time to reconsider my offer of employment,” Samuel said, as he waved at the Rifter, ignoring Daniel’s refusal to work for the GRRO as per usual. That Samuel did not 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 in the end. Samuel had ended up being the head of the GRRO London branch by 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 Samuel’s glass. 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,’ Daniel thought, remembering Lance’s reaction when the GRRO official had explained the news. The folder he had next to him only made that news even worse. It was filled with elements of Connor’s lawyers working against the GRRO and evidence of the R.A.M. officials having chosen to take on a higher-level Rift instead of a safer one. The worst part was documents linking the woman named Kira, to several contract killings over the past five years. All of that would no doubt further chip away at Lance if he ever were to find out. Losing a friend was bad enough, yet losing one because of other people’s negligence, greed, pride, and nature…

He stared at both the drink and the folder for minutes, choosing his words and weighing 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 quickly finished his drink in one quick motion. Afterwards, he grabbed the cell phone and dialled the number, contacting Dieter. Moments passed before he heard the man’s voice. Feeling his right arm throb in pain, he brought the cell phone to his ear before he broke the news to Dieter.

“Dieter, it’s Daniel. We need to talk.”

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Author: Osirium

Copyright: 2022 OsiriumWrites

Released: 2022