Aftermath

Arriving late at Corporal, I see Figueira and Zangrandi at the gate. Hmmm, I made them wait. I secretly hated myself for this for some time. When I came closer, they had a strange look on their faces.
"Where are you going, Miss Grisam?"
"Well, I intend to open the door so we can come in, no?", I smiled at the obvious, when I heard the deep sound of somebody falling, coming from inside Corporal.
"Somebody arrived before us today", said Zangrandi, "did you set it up half an hour earlier today, Miss Grisam?"
"Of course not", I frowned.
"Well, somebody did.", he said, shrugging.
Another deep sound as the first and I ran to the iron door. And I find out I left the goddamned keys at home, to make things even worse. I start knocking; I turn back and see the two shaking their heads at me and see lots of wooden boxes around in the background. Ah, and there was this voice. The tone sounds like someone putting the house in order:
"Not always can I get the better of you, right? Can you prove it? Can you prove it?".
The voice is Panotti's. And he does sound angry. I looked at Zangrandi and Figueira and was willing to place boxes on boxes under the window to reach it. The two wouldn't even assist me. When I could look through the bars of the window what I saw was slightly frightening: Panotti was lying on his belly on the mat beside Galhardo. Panotti's and Galhardo's arms were entwined in a complex pattern like that of some handicraft, forcing Galhardo's body up like a bow.
"Can't I?", he asked Galhardo and tightened the grip a little more. More. More, sending shivers up and down my spine.
"It's not time for matches, Panotti, we need to come in", I said in my usually affected naïveté.
"Hey, whoever asks we don't know you, right?", moaned two voices beside the boxes where I stood.
The scene seemed to freeze in the room.
"Can or can't I?"
He started pulling Galhardo's arms forward. He came down moaning, falling on his own arms. He seemed to not stand the pain. Physical, emotional, whatever pain, he wouldn't take it for long, it seemed.
"Panotti, let him go! It's enough!!"
"You can!! You can!!! Always!"
The young man is an assassin. He is fearsome. Frightening. Yes, now I'm ready to write up a report.
"Have you finished, gentlemen? Would anyone of you be so kind as to open the door?"
Panotti came to open. Galhardo had a bruise on the face and was panting, still lying on the mat, apparently unable to move from his position. He didn't even look at me nor at the other two. We came in and Panotti quietly tied his shoelaces in silence. When he saw us, he said he had lost the sense of time. I told him it was easy for me to see he had lost the sense of time.
"He's very friendly and open", said Figueira after the session when we left Corporal, "but he's also bad", he winked at Zangrandi, "he is so very bad when gets those guys that say they know everything. Then things go crazy. You know what? I'd do the same."
Strange, what Figueira and Zangrandi say about the others sometimes doesn't meet my observations at least about Morales and Panotti. Figueira says Panotti's friendly and open and he isn't. Zangrandi says Morales isn't forcing him in the training and he absolutely is.

The feeling begins | Circle within

Radio Universal: The Making Of A Thousand Gods.