What Did You See?

Marcus took a deep breath and closed his eyes to calm himself. The fingers were trembling treacherously. He clenched his palms into fists. Smooth and calm breathing gradually appeased the tense nerves.

He got so accustomed to his feelings, focused on current tasks, each time tossing aside distracting thoughts that he almost forgot how scary what lives inside him can be.

The sticky darkness, sticky like swamp mud, was pulling its slippery tentacles every time the man closed his eyes. It was squeezing, pressing, wrapping around his throat deceptively softly, dragging him to the bottom of the abyss, in which there had been no light for a long time.

He lost his light. Lost the one that was his guiding star in the darkness of the endless night. When Amelia left, he had no choice but to build his life according to her predictions - those little echoes of her personality that remained in the curls of ink on paper.

It was an imitation. A pitiful imitation of her presence. But it was enough to open his eyes every morning, move on, hoping to see her light again. That was enough. Up to this point.

Marcus leaned back against the cold wall and slowly slid down, the coolness was calming his body, but not his mind.

"Are you okay?" David did not immediately notice the man squatting around the corner of the house.

"No."

An unexpectedly direct answer surprised Anderson, Marcus was not the kind of man who spoke openly about his feelings.

"What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Taubert answered dryly, continuing to sit with his eyes closed, leaning against the wall.

Well, apparently, David jumped to conclusions. But Marcus's next phrase brought the man into an even greater stupor.

"I'm scared," Marcus admitted, opened his eyes and looked up at the gray sky. Low clouds were pressing on the city, as if they were deciding whether it was worthy of the New Year's snow. "I am used to counting every step, knowing about the consequences of my decisions. I'm used to pursuing the goal... But after Mexico, everything flies head over heels. And the road seems to be the same, and the final stop is clear, but it seems to me that I am not going there. I am afraid that having reached the final, I will find myself where I tried to escape with all my might all this time."

David sat down next to him and after a short pause replied,

"A shitty feeling."

Marcus chuckled and looked at his son-in-law. It was not clear from Anderson's face whether he was sympathetic or sarcastic, taking pleasure in Taubert's depressed look. "Says the one who, judging by Nick's words, may die in the coming week."

David smiled. For some reason, this prospect did not frighten him. Moreover, after Elena's return, he became strangely calm. His wife behaved as if nothing had happened, and her cheerfulness was contageous. He did not even feel any jealousy when Elena went out to meet with Marcus, about which the paparazzi from all channels and newspapers later buzzed.

It's a strange thing - the world was expecting the apocalypse in the way it was represented in the dramatic blockbusters. People were worried about what to wear for New Year's Eve, and how to grab another game console on a Black Friday sale. And he knew that everything could be over in a few days, and he was calm.

"You said yourself that when you die once, it's not going to be scary to die the second time."

The sun pushed several gray clouds aside and broke through with its rays to stroke the frozen ground.

"From the mouth of an immortal, it could be taken as sarcasm, David," Marcus took a cigarette case out of an inner pocket of his jacket, pulled out a cigarette and lit it with the usual snap of his fingers. A cloud enveloped the man, filled with the scent of herbs, juniper and marjoram.

He noticed David's surprised look and offered to join him, but Anderson waved it off. "I do not smoke."

"Hmm, I remember when you met my Elena, it was different," irony flashed in the man's eyes.

David winced, not wanting to recall the embarrassing details of his past, "When I met my Elena, it was not a habit. Just a couple of times, to calm my nerves."

"Or to look like a tough guy," Marcus suggested another option and got to the point.

Only God knows how worried David was, waiting for the first meeting with the one he had been looking for for so many years. It took him a lot of effort to keep his distance, and not to scare the girl away when everything inside him demanded to seize the girl and appropriate her for himself. Although he hardly succeeded, given that he proposed to Elena on the fifth day of their acquaintance. Fortunately for him, she did not take these words seriously, but agreed to date him.

Before David had time to celebrate this event, he received the news of the murder of Professor Richards. He suddenly wondered if it was a coincidence or if someone (let's not point a finger at the one sitting next to him) decided to intervene in the too rapid development of his daughter's personal life?

"What?" Marcus raised an eyebrow in bewilderment at David's probing gaze.

"Nothing, just, all sorts of thoughts." From Anderson's answer, Marcus realized that the thoughts were clearly about him and clearly not very nice.

"What the hell are you smoking? It reminds me of my grandmother's scented candles," a picture from early childhood came to David's eyes, where his grandmother poured fragrant smoke on him to drive out the evil spirits that haunted the child at night. How could an adult woman know that a three-year-old is tormented by memories of a past life?

Marcus took a drag and looked at the smoldering ember of his cigarette. "Consider this my personal relaxant. Zero harm to health, a loading dose of a sedative. After ninety years, the nerves start to give you a hell of the trouble," the man said with annoyance, like an old man regretting his lost youth. The annoyance was clearly feigned.

"A friend of mine makes these things. A funny old lady, by the way," Marcus nodded to David, as if he knew her. "I remember, in her youth, Amelia was terribly jealous of that lady, she thought that I and that woman had tricks even before she was born. What a silly," Taubert smiled to himself, remembering his wife's pouting lips.

"And you hadn't?"

Marcus turned sharply to David, "God forbid!" the man crossed himself and spat three times over his left shoulder, demonstrating what a stupid thing Anderson had just admitted, "Even I sometimes shiver when I meet this lady. And we have known each other for over fifty years. By the way, you know her too. Madame Wang's her name."

Madame Wang? David blinked in confusion. Madame Wang?! The one who advised Mr. Lee to adopt Elena? The one who prompted them to go to Tibet? The one that gave David the scrolls at Amelia's request?

There was a malicious grin on Marcus's face, he was damn pleased with his son-in-law's reaction. Teasing this guy was fun both in his past life and in this one.

"You have no idea how I want to break that smiling jaw of yours right now," David gasped.

"Oh, the jaw, by the way! I spent two weeks in the medical unit that time. Father beat Armand great for helping you escape."

"It serves you right. There was no need to get handsy and set us up," David reluctantly recalled the past, which he preferred to forget like an old nightmare.

If not for Marcus's trick, Richard would not have conducted that experiment on them. However, knowing Richard Steiner and considering the time, it would hardly have mattered. Their fate was sealed as soon as they entered the gate of Wewelsburg Castle.

Marcus fell silent. In his life, he did a lot of dirty and cruel things in the understanding of ordinary people, but he did not care about the opinion of the majority. He didn't mind getting his hands dirty and bloody if it was for the people he loved.

"Then my father hurried Richard to get at least some results from the experiments conducted by Ahnenerbe. Steiner wanted to use Polina for them, our father agreed, although he knew what she meant to Armand. He wanted to break my brother. Even if the experiment was successful, and Polina remained alive, the maximum that he would allow Armand would be to leave the girl as a bedding to satisfy his body needs. The same Richard was not averse to use the girl that way. I had to drag whores for him from the surrounding villages to distract him from Polina."

David did not expect that at that time, behind the external relaxation and well-being of the sons of the castle commandant, such events took place. He, like a prisoner, saw only his side of the story.

Marcus's voice became quieter, "So one day I suggested that Richard use you and Elena as test subjects," he looked David straight in the eye, "I deliberately set you up to save my brother and Polina. And if I say that I was ashamed, I will lie. I felt sorry for you, but I was not ashamed of my decision. That's it."

David was looking at his former enemy and did not know how to respond to such an unexpected confession. The more he interacted with this person, the more Marcus puzzled David.

"I get it," Anderson replied quickly and Taubert nodded in response. That was enough.

"Are you going to sit here for a long time?" Nick's displeased voice came from above, "Elena said that if you are not at the table in two minutes, you will meet the New Year hungry," the guy looked from his father to Marcus, noted to himself that the man looked normal. Well, it looks like he shouldn't have worried.

Without waiting for these two, Nick turned around and went back into the house.

Marcus rose from his knees, straightened his trousers and jacket, "Hmm, we should hurry. Teser women are terrifying as they are in anger. Never make your wife angry - a free advice from the man who communicated with three beautiful representatives of their family," Marcus winked at his son-in-law and followed Nick.

"Marcus," David called out and the man turned around. "What did you see?"

Taubert was silent for a moment, shrugged his shoulder and replied with a slight smile, "My death, David. I saw my death."