Chapter 24: Vienna

The air was frosty over Vienna, but the sun was none the less high on the spring pale sky. In between the morning wailing horns of the cars the faint voiles of birds having a cold could be heard from the park which lay between the grey concrete blocks. The trees were still naked but with a light hint of green at the edges of the frost clad boughs.

Kelly opened the window in the living room to look over the city, or rather the little suburb which she lived in. Together. With the others. The outcasts. It was not hard for them to find some kind of togetherness due to their past family relations. The light blinded her shortly at the sun's reflection in the pane hit her eyes. She whistled a quiet tune and turned to walk back through the room. The fresh breeze drifted into the living room where the stifled air of the night was cleansed.

Maris lay snoring on a mattress still, Loux stirred on the couch and from the bathroom the flush from the toilet was heard. Baldur had been out there for almost an hour.

The room stank of cigarette smoke, sweat and the food remains on the plates at the edge of the rickety coffee table. The light bulb had broken so they had to use candles, and the heat they gave off was enough for them now that they didn't have the money to pay the bills for having the heaters running.

Kelly went into the little kitchen. The water in the calcium-filled boiler sprouted happily, and she poured it sparingly into the chipped mugs with the small portions of instant coffee at their bottom. She removed some of the oldest of the white bread and threw it into the bag with bird seeds before she cut the rest into something that looked like slices.

The door to the narrow entrance hall was opened with a bang making the cupboard doors rattle, and Liam appeared with a beam. Morning shadows around the chin and faint lines under the eyes but none the less beaming. He flung the share-jacket into the wardrobe, which was just inside the door next to the kitchen.

"Morning," he said and turned to observe Kelly's undertaking with the bread and coffee. "Are the others up yet?"

"Not yet, but I opened the window in purpose," she answered. Liam was always a man who'd make her moods go up, even when the butter was turning to cream and the jam barely was enough for half a portion each. "Any mail?" she put down the dull bread knife and looked at Liam, who threw a pile of window envelope, fliers and a cold, folded free paper, sponsored mostly by commercials, beside the boiler.

"There you go," he said smiling before he went into the living room humming. Half-clenched outbursts and moaning with the words: "turn of the light!" and "let's sleep a little while longer, god damn it!" were heard. Kelly smiled to herself as she continued preparing breakfast. Baldur appeared in the kitchen still sleepy.

"I fell asleep on the shithole," he mumbled slightly angry with his own lack of will power to keep his eyes open. Kelly patted his shoulder.

"As long as you don't fall asleep at work," she said and carried the tray with her into the living room. Maris had sat op, his sleeping back still covering him, only his tousled hair and sleepy face was visible, like a massive larva just awakened from its cocoon not realizing yet that it had turned into a butterfly. Demonstratively, Loux had turned his back on the others and drawn the plaid further up around him. Kelly could see the eyes were shut tight in another attempt to sleep. She put the tray on the table and began collecting the plates from yesterday's dinner.

"So, Maris, what about your next step?" she asked and looked at Maris so stared dumbfounded at her as if her language was rubbish to him.

"Ah, you mean about the thing yesterday?" he asked and began getting the hang of the connection. Kelly nodded and tossed a strand of the long, blonde hair behind her ear as she bent down to collect the pile of plates. "Well, I don't know what we'll do. We're ostracized like you."

Liam sat down at the other end of the couch. It creaked ominously under his rather unremarkable weight. He found a cigarette and lit it with a disapproving glance from Kelly.

"Right now, there's not much to be done anyway," he said. "We only first understood when four days had passed without contact to the administration."

A door opened and a pair of sleepy-head boys came staggering into the room with woolly socks full of holes, boxers and loose shirts, the one named Eric, the other Caspar. They sat down next to Liam while Baldur threw himself across Loux' legs making him squeal annoyed. He sat up with a dark glance around but received with a grateful smile, the mug from Kelly full of steaming, hot instant coffee. She delivered today's breakfast with kind hand before she went to the window to close it.

"What about Angelo? Nobody's heard from him?" asked Baldur and looked around as he rolled a joint for the morning.

"He'd gone to Berlin to talk to Zenith, who directed him to Cato in London," said Eric and drew his knees under his chin.

"And nobody's heard from him since?" Baldur looked from Liam to Kelly, who sat down on a ruined chair at the end of the coffee table.

"Listen, it's not a possibility for us to go back to that shit," she said with a gloomy gaze at Baldur. "If anything has to be done, then let it be an assassination or a deal with the son of the bastard."

"Matthew does as he does, I don't believe the kid's any better than his father," said Caspar before he began to stuff himself with the sparsely jam-covered slice of white bread.

"We have no power, no means of complaining our situation," said Liam and shrugged.

"I still don't get it," said Loux with a grating voice. "There's gotta be a place where our crimes are stated."

"The Darklighter archives," Liam answered but shook his head hopelessly as he warmed his hands around his mug. "But it's practically impossible to get in. It's in the mansion itself and you have no idea how great their security measures are since Cato and Angelo broke in!"

Maris let his head dangle a bit. He hadn't touched breakfast or coffee yet. "I don't understand what they want to prove," he said hesitantly. The silence around him surprised him when he realized the others were listening. He looked up and around. "I mean... we're still Darklighters. In blood."

"No longer," said Kelly and looked compassionately at Maris. "You're ostracized now, like us. We're together because of the hatred towards Matthew Darklighter and his lackeys. We never wished for this to happen, but neither of us wanted the life we were given at the service of the Darklighters. We turned our backs on it, and for that we were ostracized."

"Why then continue the fight?" Loux asked. "It's David against Goliath!"

"We want justice," Liam said firmly. Maris sighed and pushed off the sleeping bag before taking his first gulp of coffee.

"I agree," he said and looked at Loux, his brother, who rolled his eyes despondently.

"Fine, we use our remaining money to go to London," he said.

"Then we can meet Angel and get to hear what she's found out," said Kelly and looked at Liam, who stared quietly into the air before he nodded agreeing.

"Cheers," Baldur giggled as he lit his joint.