The Numbers That Brought Our Fates Together 18 The Night Before The Beginning.

'Hmm, too much David in the same day. I have to mark this day as the

The girl touched her neck where the young man had left his print earlier. She still felt his hot breath and pa.s.sionate kisses on her skin. Ah, still it was d.a.m.n nice.

Elena smiled, rolled onto her side and closed her eyes. 'I hope he will not be haunting me while I sleep at least. Otherwise, my heart will not withstand such heat.'

A few minutes later the girl's breathing became even, and she fell into a deep sleep.

. . .

Empty room with gray walls. The lamp blinks dimly, as if counting seconds to its final chord. In the center of the room there is a table. A girl is sitting at the table. Next to the girl there is a man. She tries to raise her head to see his face, but she fails to see anything. She feels his breath close to her ear and his voice causes her whole body to tremble.

"My little kitty, how does that happen? You were given such a simple task, and you still make mistakes?" The jailer squeezes the girl's throat, and she begins to choke.

"Kitty, this is a very simple formula. There are only 2300 characters. Well, 2345 to be precise. Is it difficult to memorize? Let's try again, ok? Huh, I even thought out a great motivation for you, just look!"

The man lets go of the girl's throat and gives his subordinate a sign to open the door. A man and two girls are entering the room with their mouths stopped with a gag and their hands tied.

"Let's play like that. I give you an hour to tell me this formula. If you make one mistake, I'll kill him."

The jailer points the gun at the man with his hands tied. The prisoner's eyes look in panic at the girl sitting at the table. She begins to list the information of the formula in a trembling voice. It takes her almost an hour. Suddenly, the jailer interrupts her monotonous speech.

"That's an entirely different matter! Well done! 1850 characters and no mistakes! Almost perfect!" Suddenly he sharply raises his gun.

Bang!

The prisoner falls dead on floor. Two girls standing next to him begin to writhe in silent hysterics.

"What a pity... Pity... You began very well ... until you made the first mistake." The man raises his hand and hits the girl in the face with all his force.

"One more time! If you make the second mistake, it will cost two lives. And these two young ladies will sing good bye to their lives just like their friend did. And if you then make the third mistake ... then three little girls are waiting for us outside the door."

The body of the girl sitting at the table begins to shake; tears are running down her cheeks.

"Don't you worry so much, I will not shoot the children. We will give them a magic pill, and they will slowly die of suffocation right in front of your eyes ..." The smiling jailer looks at the girl. "Well, let's begin, shall we?"

Another hour pa.s.ses. The girl stops talking. The man gently strokes her head.

"Well done, you memorized the whole formula. You see, it was not so difficult. Motivation really works wonders!" The jailer bends down to the girl and whispers in her ear "Only you know, 2341 sign is your second mistake", he says and c.o.c.ks the trigger.

. . .

"Ahhhhh!"

Elena jumped on the bed in horror from the dream she had just seen. Her whole body was shaking, and her heart was pounding in her chest. The girl looked at her watch. The arrows showed 4am.

Suddenly she thought about something, got out of bed and went to the desk. Elena sat on a chair, opened her laptop and began typing.

The first rays of the rising sun broke through the gla.s.s and fell to the edge of the table. The girl looked at the window and squinted at the light that came into her eyes. Suddenly she turned sharply and looked at her laptop.

Elena jumped up, nearly falling off a chair, and began to back up. The newly saved doc.u.ment was opened on the laptop display.

In the lower left corner of the doc.u.ment she could read. "Number of characters: 2345".

Her legs trembled and she fell to the floor.

"W-what the h.e.l.l is going on here?"