E.B.E. 21- the Hunt

by Peer Lehregger

  Ibby and Hannes were sitting at the table, nobody knew what was going to happen. Everyone looked in a different direction. Hannes stood up and brewed himself a coffee. Ibby looked after him. When Hannes sat down, he looked Ibby in the eye. They were wide open, and Hannes recognized fear in it. Not because of him, he thought, but because of the conversation. Ibby had probably recognized with her fine intuition that Hannes knew something he shouldn't know.

  Hannes drank a sip and put the cup down. He raised his head, gave himself a jerk inside and said: "Ibby, I got some information about you, I wanted to discuss it with you first".

  Ibby looked at him motionless.

  "Ibby, I was trapped in a cell in Algeria, I got beaten and I got electroshocked. "In the end, they just wanted to beat me to death." From Ibby's eyes rolled tears. Hannes didn't believe her. "I was liberated, taken to hospital and was fed some information by a Colonel Sergej and a Major Alban."

  Hannes looked at Ibby sharply. What was most important to him was the information Alban had given at the end. Most likely Ibby was very able to speak.

  "Ibby, those two told me you could talk. It would be difficult to understand you, but it would probably work."

  Ibby's reaction was to squeeze her lips together into a thin line. Her eyes sparkled. Hannes was scared inside, maybe she would attack him now because he had information he should never have gotten. Hannes tried to keep the eye contact, even as he took another sip from his cup.

  "Ibby, is that right?"

  Ibby's face derailed, she slapped her hands in front of her face and started crying. Hannes had a short fuse. "Stop crying," Hannes shouted at her, bent over the table. "You're an alien, why are you crying like a fishwife? That's a human thing. Aliens don't cry!"

  Ibby turned to the side. There was nothing more to hear, except the sniffing, which also stopped soon.

  "Ibby, you've been fooling me the whole time! I made a fool of myself for you. We could have just talked! Why all this?"

  Ibby turned with a jerk to Hannes. She opened her mouth, Hannes was on the extreme tense, with big eyes he looked into Ibby's face as she started to talk. His arms were covered with goosebumps.

  "I didn't make a fool out of you," she said. Her voice was strange, it was a pleasant dark female voice, but with sibilants and frictional sounds, almost like Swiss. But strange. With a foreign intonation, a foreign modulation. But clearly to understand.

  Hannes froze. The goose bumps were now spreading over his back. That, he thought, was a new dimension of strange. That was the real stranger he was afraid of. A strange being spoke his language. It was all spinning in his head. It turned black before his eyes. He gritted his teeth, felt like he was going to faint.

  Ibby couldn't prevent him from sinking to the ground, but when Hannes woke up after a few moments, she held him in her arms. Hannes stood up and sit down again at the table.

  "Ibby, why didn't you talk earlier?"

  "There was no reason. We understood each other."

  Hannes felt the anger rise again in him.

  "Yeah, maybe. But it was awkward. I had trouble making myself understood. With my fidgeting. With the drawings. You did what you wanted, and I kept running after you!"

  Ibby shook her head.

  "No," she said, "you communicated with me. You have tried to find a way to communicate with me, a being from the stars. I thought it was very nice. You made a lot of effort. That touched me a lot."

  "Oh? It touched you." Hannes didn't know what to say anymore. He had a thousand questions for Ibby but was sure he didn't want to know the answers.

  He closed his eyes and just put his head on the table. "Ibby, this is all too much for me. I can't take any more."

  "You said," Ibby explained, "that you liked me very much when you said goodbye. Do you still like me very much?"

  That was a question, that Hannes hadn't expected at the time. Astonished, he lifted his head, looked at Ibby, who looked at him expectantly. "What makes you think that?" Ibby smiled cautiously. "I'd like to tell you that I'm very fond of you." She looked to the side. "That's not true. It's more than liking. Before you left to pick up the package, I felt a deep affection for you. When you weren't there, I felt a big void. These feelings were strange to me. Our kind feels very little. That I felt something like this was new to me. I also felt when you left that you liked me very much. I don't know how you feel now. You're scared, but you feel some kind of disgust for me. I can feel it. I'm too strange to you."

  Ibby got up and went to the window to look outside. Hannes said nothing, staring at the tabletop.

  "I never thought," she said, "I'd talk about myself for once in my life. But I want you to know that I feel great fear. I'm not afraid you'll send me away. I'm really scared you're gonna say you don't like me anymore. I've always been afraid of the big ones. That was the only thing I was afraid of. Now I'm afraid that you don't like me. I was waiting for you to come back. I was afraid I'd find out you were dead. Your pain is my pain. I've cried a lot and I'm crying a lot now." She was silent for a moment. "I hate that feeling. I feel helpless when the tears come. I've never felt that way before. It hurts, and I hate the pain because it comes from within. If I used to have pain, others would inflict it on me, I could suppress it. I can't do that anymore."

  Hannes had a lump in his throat. He cleared his throat. "Ibby, should we go to the Rhine and sit on a bench and talk? It's too cramped for me here."

  "So, you can escape faster when I attack you?"

  Ibby turned around and stared at Hannes.

  Hannes shook his head. Everything could have been different, he realized, if he hadn't asked her. Maybe she could both have spent an hour in bed, not with sex, but with the warmth and closeness, he had missed so much. But he was in a situation where this conversation had to be completed, no matter the outcome.

  "No," he said, "I don't want to run from you. You're not attacking me. But I was locked up and I want to get some fresh air."

  Ibby nodded. "All right, let's go."

  They went through the city to the banks of the Rhine and looked for a bench in the midday sun where they could sit undisturbed and talk. For a while, they watched the people, who also took advantage of the beautiful weather and strolled along the promenade. Ibby had her hands in her pockets and tied a scarf around her chin, put on her sunglasses, cool as a cucumber. Hannes sat there in his jacket, tense and nervous.

  "Ibby, where are you from and why are you here on this planet?"

  Ibby chuckled. "I'm from the spaceship that dropped me off here. My home is about 12 light-years away from this system. But we left a long time ago, I only know my homeland from stories. I was born on the spaceship. But I want to go home. Where everything is like as in the stories. Where nothing hurts."

  "Where's the spaceship now?" Hannes wanted to know.

  "Not so far away. Behind the big planet with the rings. You call him Saturn. There's the base."

  "Why don't you get in touch with your people?"

  "I can't do that. I've failed. I'm being hunted. And when I reach the portal, I don't know where it leads me. I'm alone."

  Hannes looked at her. "Failed?"

  Ibby nodded. "Yes."

  "What happened?"

  Ibby looked at Hannes very closely. "I'll tell you. But you won't believe me. If you believe me, it will increase your disgust for me. Do you want to know?"

  Hannes nodded. "Tell. I'm listening."

  Ibby was looking at the Rhine. "We belong to a species whose purpose is to execute orders for another species."

  "Sergej told me about it," Hannes interrupted.

  "That may be so. After the last assignment, I didn't want to participate anymore. I refused. That made me an outcast."

  "What was the assignment?"

  "We had to destroy a small village."

  "Why?"

  "Why? Because it was the assignment. When we get an assignment, we come as a group. A group like this consists of ten or twelve participants. We'll do wh
at we came for and be picked up again."

  Hannes frowned. "Well, tell me, what was the assignment?"

  "We should kill all the inhabitants of a village. We got the name hyenas. That's not exactly true. We're something else."

  "If I understand you correctly now, Ibby, are you assassins?"

  "You can say our kind kills when someone tells us to."

  "Now what? What about you?"

  "The last mission was to kill all the inhabitants of a village. The village was Friar in America. When the killing began, I saw that many children and women also lived in the village. If we get such a mission, it means that in the crowd of those killed there are only one or two men who are the real target. All the others must be killed, too. Over 500 people were killed at the time just to kill the priest and the police chief."

  "Why these two?"

  "The two men have discovered a base in the forest. It wasn't supposed to be."

  "Your base?"

  "No."

  Hannes stood up and walked a few steps up and down in front of the bank. "Ibby, what happened then?"

  "Not much. I called in and said I wouldn't go through with the killing. That's all."

  "When was that?"

  "That was 1940. I've been on the run for almost 80 years."

  Hannes sat down again. "On the run for 80 years. I was wondering why you're so... human. You know all our peculiarities, our quirks. You speak our language. Sometimes I thought you didn't even come from the stars. That you're just some kind of breeding. A hybrid."

  Ibby was silent for a while. "There are also hybrids. I'm not one of them. I've been forced to live among people. I learned a lot, but I hated the planet and its people. But I didn't want to go back either. I knew there would come a time when the hunters would come. And I was captured. I was abused. I was driven to the arena and was to be abandoned at night so that the hunt could begin. But you found me. You gave me a place to stay."

  Hannes had a thousand more questions. He tried to ask the most important ones because he expected Ibby to just get up and leave after the conversation. "Ibby, tell me this. Why did you put so much emphasis on me examining you? I can't think of a better expression."

  Ibby laughed. "You were embarrassed. You were insecure." She gave him a look, Hannes blushed. "Yes, I was embarrassed." Ibby looked at him. "All you had to do was convince yourself that my wounds and injuries had healed. You could have sent me away at that time without breaking the code."

  "Ibby, this is too complicated for me. Sergej and Alban had told me about different rules that all participants would follow. I don't see how it's connected."

  "That's easy, Hannes. If you had sent me away when I was still wounded, I would have told everywhere according to our code that from you no help could be expected. If you had sent me away when my wounds had healed, I would have told every hunted person that he could find help with you. But you didn't send me away."

  Hannes stared at Ibby. "Then I'd have regular visitors in front of my door, some haunted aliens?"

  "Yes."

  "Then what would it do to me?"

  Ibby laughed. "Hannes, sooner or later somebody would have been grateful. That's all I can tell you because I don't know."

  "And?" Hannes wanted to know, "What about you now? Are you going to leave?"

  "Am I such a stranger to you?" Ibby wanted to know, "Are you afraid of me? Do you disgust me?"

  Hannes was silent.

  Then he said, "I don't know. I feel empty. You know, Sergej said I was in prison for four weeks. First, they talked to me, but then they didn't talk to me anymore. I don't know why. I should release you, they wanted you back so the hunt could continue. I didn't do that. I was liberated and ended up here in the hospital. I don't even know how long I was there. I was dropped off here this morning, I don't know what day or date it is today. Then I see you and Helge and wonder what to do."

  "Helge slept in the living room," interrupted Ibby. "I don't mean that," Hannes said. "Then why I was supposed to die there? In Algeria? You wouldn't even have come there to maybe free me, would you?"

  "No, I didn't know where you were. I got the letters you wrote about wanting to start a new life. I didn't believe that. But I did get two more letters. One letter said that you were safe and the other announced that you were coming home today. That's all I can tell you."

  "Are we still under surveillance, Ibby?"

  "I don't know. I think so, yes. But as long as you don't send me away, I'm safe. And so are you."

  "Ibby, this is also a complicated thing for me. I don't want everything to depend on this. Whether I send you away or not."

  Ibby put a hand on his arm. "Hannes, I'm staying with you because I want to. And if you want to. I am very strong and very experienced. If I'm hunted again, I'll fight. I can fight. I can kill. I have no mercy. I would fight and kill for you, too. I'd die for you. That's all I'm saying."

  Hannes looked at Ibby scared. "No one should die. And no one should get kill."

  Ibby moved a little closer to Hannes and grabbed his hand. "Please tell me if I should stay with you or if I should go. It's important to me."

  Hannes was thinking while holding Ibby's hand. He wasn't sure, because he didn't know if he and Ibby had a future. As for family or children, no way. But how much he had missed her, even in the cell, he realized when he sat on a bench with her here and held her hand. He remembered that in the days before his kidnapping they had both always sought closeness of the other. That they understood each other even without language. Ultimately, Hannes thought, it had been quite amusing to communicate with gestures. When the information came from the man at the Christmas market that Ibby would understand him without any problems, it was already a small break, but basically, nothing had changed. Now that he knew she was able to speak; nothing had changed either. The unknown was gone, and now new or different paths could be taken. He realized he needed to be close to this strange creature. Maybe it was possible that they could move away from Cologne sometime in the future. Someplace where a strange woman didn't arouse suspicion. Yeah, he admitted, he wanted Ibby to stay.

  "Ibby, I want you to stay with me. You told me this morning that you liked me. I like you too. A lot. Please stay with me."

  Ibby smiled and leaned her head against his shoulder. "Hannes, I'm staying with you. My hearts are beating for you. They always will."

  "Yes," Hannes said, "I learned this morning that you have two hearts."

  "Does it bother you?"

  Hannes had to grin. "No, I just thought it was weird."

  "I have breathing holes on my back," she said, "which is why I often don't wear anything. It'll make my breathing easier. Besides, I need the humidity from the air. Does it bother you?" "No", Hannes replied, "I don't mind. You're a very pleasant sight."

  Ibby laughed.

  She heard heavy footsteps behind her and turned around in shock. Helge stood at the bench, his legs apart and grinning up to both ears. "Well, you two lovebirds?" he asked and went around the bank, sat next to Hannes. "Did you guys speak?" They both nodded.

  "Fine," Helge said, "Then I'll get on my way to see my wife. My services are no longer necessary." Hannes didn't know what to say, but Helge beat him to it.

  "Watch out. It was something very special staying with you, Ibby. Don't worry, Hannes, nothing happened. But now that you're back, I can drive home. My wife called yesterday and told me that we could get some insurance money from the house. So, we'll soon have a new place to stay. Ibby gave me money, so don't worry about it. So, you two. I already have my stuff in the car. Here's the key to the house. Oh, I don't know what else to say: You weren't gone a whole day, the weird birds from above moved out. A lot of noise, but it went fast. I celebrated when they were gone. I just want to tell you."

  Hannes nodded. Helge pressed the key into Hannes' hand. "And when we have a new place to stay, you'll come visit us. Okay?

  Wordlessly, Hannes stood up and the two men hugged each other, padded each other on
the back. "Thank you," Hannes said, "Thank you for everything!" "Shut your mouth," Helge said and was touched. Ibby and Helge embraced each other as well, but Helge did not knock on Ibby's back. Hannes paused. "She would have knocked back," said Helge, turned around and went back to town.

  Ibby and Hannes stood there, and Hannes had a guilty conscience and was glad that Helge was gone now. Ibby reached for his hand, he turned to her, she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulled him to her and the two kissed with delight.

  "Come home," Ibby said. "The evening is still long."

  Parasite

  In the evening they had made love, inconveniently, but it worked excellently. Hannes had stayed up for a while, had sat down in the living room and looked lost in thoughts at the turned-off television. He wasn't hungry, he wasn't thirsty, he was tired, but he felt good. After a while, he got up and took a shower.

  When he dried himself off, his left shoulder suddenly hurt. But not as he knew it, a dull pain coming from the bones, but as if a thick needle was piercing his skin. Hannes looked at the aching spot and discovered a small green dot. Under the skin was a small knot, like a pimple, which was not ready yet. It hurt. Hannes carefully felt around the spot. The green pimple was numb, but the skin and bone around the spot hurt when touched. Hannes let his arm sink and stared into the mirror.

  It was the spot Alban had patted on his farewell down the street. Hannes stared at his mirror image. Yes, Alban had patted him on it, said some triviality, and it had hurt. Alban had apologized, and Hannes had forgotten about the scene. Hannes wanted to tell himself that this little green pimple was nothing special, but the color, the short severe pain when he took off his T-shirt and moved his arm over his head was strange. That didn't happen on the other days. An unpleasant feeling spread into Hannes's stomach. The pimple was not only green, but Hannes also had the impression, it even was glowing. For a moment he was tempted to turn off the light in the bathroom to see if the pimple was glowing in the dark. He once shook his head violently to get rid of that thought. That was ridiculous. But strange.

  When Hannes put on a fresh T-shirt, he wondered if he should show Ibby that pimple; maybe she knew what it could be. But Ibby had gone to sleep an hour ago. He didn't want to wake her.