[center][h2]Emil Günther[/h2]

Physical state: A slightly accelerated heart rate
Mental state: Nervous, but only now becoming conscious of it[/center]

[color=39b54a][i]Sneaky.[/i] [/color]She exposed her pale cheek over her shoulder, looking behind. [color=39b54a][i]Like a mouse.[/i][/color] Her shoes ticked and tocked along the yard. [color=39b54a]Mäuschen [i]toy of mine from school days.[/i][/color] The curious heads are lifted up by the approaching sirens. [color=39b54a][i]Tie them all to the poles, the streetlights. They'll fall into the blood and the body. Police music. Atkins is not going home. Does he have a Penelope waiting?[/i][/color] They all look like china pots in the snow, the heads. The police badge makes their faces seem too wooden, too artificial. [color=39b54a][i]We played on the break. Franz was Elpenor. Pretending to be drunken on water.[/i][/color] The girl's mouth steams. [color=39b54a][i]Telemachus? Poor Atkinsboy. Fatherless. [/i][/color]

[color=f7941d]"...at me when I speak...you, boy, what are you looking at?"[/color]

The classroom-ship of irregular edges and colours that sailed on the turbulent Aegean of his childhood memories evaporates as Dr Steiner's quite real frame emerges from the depths and sinks it with his voice made of stones. [color=39b54a][i]Made of[/i] Steine.[/color]

[color=f7941d]"Kennst du sie?" Die Mädchen?[/color]

[color=0072bc]”Es tut mir leid,”[/color] Emil says and fixes his posture, taking his sweaty hands out of the jacket pockets into the cold morning air. And it bites. [color=39b54a] [i]A secret? Sweat.[/i][/color] [color=0072bc]”Maybe you were not the only one he was supposed to tell something, professor?”[/color]  [color=39b54a][i]Rub them on the trousers. Nervous.[/i][/color] [color=0072bc]”Maybe he didn't jump. Maybe he fell. Or was pushed...”[/color]

Tick tock, tick tock.

[color=0072bc]”Und nein,”[/color] he adds, both eyeing her again, the one whom the police officer brought the gift of stealth. [color=0072bc]”Ich hab' sie noch nie gesehen. Sie sieht wie keine Studendin aus.”[/color] The smoke from the cigarette between Steiner's lips breaches his bronchioli. [color=0072bc]”I'm willing to help. With the office business, I mean.”[/color]