Flicker: The Game Of Chance

Chapter 14 | Feld mit Sonnenblumen

"Colleen... What are you...", I replied impulsively, not knowing what else I could've possibly said to her.

Colleen sighed and looked away from me, and then looked up at the mass crowd of books towering tall over the two of us; she brushed her fingers through her hair before she looked back at me and smiled warmly.

"Veronica... do you know what the word 'blume' means?", she asked. Not knowing the answer to her question, I just foolishly shook my head. Colleen nodded as if she'd expected that answer and then brushed her fingers through her hair once again before she started to explain it to me.

"It's a German word, you see. It translates to flower.", she spoke softly with the same warm smile as before, "Veronica... do you like seeing flowers?". The question felt like she just grabbed it completely out of the blue, eventhough what she asked was relevant to the topic - although, just as I was about to answer her question, she interrupted me and started to go on her next tangent.

"I used to adore those beautiful pieces of joy... their beautifully coloured petals, the patterns on their petals which make your eyes feel like they're in heaven, their elegance... everything. Everything is just magically perfect about flowers. Especially sunflowers. Or, at least... everything was". I waited patiently for her to continue her tangent on flowers; it was completely irrelevant to what was happening at that moment, yet, she spoke as if her life depended on it. I'd been wanting to ask her why she was covered in that strange liquid... I'd been wanting to find out what that liquid actually is. I recognised the scent of that liquid... it was something very familiar, like something you would see on a daily basis, but it was something other than water.

It was something... I couldn't quite get my grasp on it.

As I slowly got up from the sitting position I'd been in and tried to walk towards Colleen, she signalled me to stop and go back, signalled me to stay far away from her before she continued to speak. "Sonnenblume... that's what that man used to call me. The man who... indirectly killed my brother and father... the man who... did stuff to me. Ever since then, I've not been able to look at sunflowers the same way as before... I could never see them as the beautiful, elegant little fragments as before...".

Colleen had started to tear up and seemed to almost be at her breaking point before she could finish her tangent. I felt bad for her, of course, but I had to decipher the situation and choose the best case approach to get out of this situation with both of us unharmed. I decided to use her mental state to my advantage to get to the topic which actually mattered at this time - I decided to ask her about the liquid she was covered in.

"Colleen... what is that? The thing you're drenched in...", I asked with a petite voice, I was genuinely anxious and worried about what was about to happen.

"Hmm... this? Oh, I'm not really too sure...", she said with eyes which clearly gave off the fact that she was lying, she knew what it was. "Hey, Veronica... can I ask you something?", she'd quickly changed the topic. I nodded at her, knowing that I probably wouldn't get an answer to my question.

"Why... did you revive me?".

Her eyes looked just genuinely curious, with no hints of disappointment or anger being given off. I'd expected her to have at least the slightest bit of hostility towards me for reviving her just after her victory had softly approached her and stroked her hair, but I couldn't let that meeting go any further. And that's the same exact reason I told Colleen.

"Because... I couldn't let anyone else die".

"Is that so? That's a good reason...", she then looked away from me again and up towards all the books inside of the library once more. "I bet this library had a bunch of good books, huh? Too bad I'll never get to read any of them... I was never much of a reading fan anyway, but still... if someone had invited me, I would've...".