Excerpt from The Journal of Josef Mandovi
Date Unrecorded
As of Darko’s arrival at the Cove after his supposed death, I have decided to keep a journal of my life. Perhaps one day this may be useful to someone. It helps me keep things in the past, If I don’t have to think about them.
Today Darko came back to the cove, almost gave me a bloody heart attack when I saw him... Dear god, what a terrible sight, the man looked half dead. He made his usual smartass comments, just like when I used to know him. He demanded new body parts which confused me. Later I realized that he was half rotted. The man is practically undead. I took Darko down to the surgery clinic and gave him more blood, adrenaline, and some replacement flesh and body parts, trying to forget who it was on the medical table making jokes at me. At one of the comments, I retorted with “Darko, are you hiding from something? Or are you just weak?” He looked at me weird and said in a dangerous way “Don’t take that tone with me good doctor” I said back to him, pushing him on purpose, angry memories driving me, “Darko, we both know what you did. We both know you're weak at heart.” He got off the table and at that had he started over the edge I had seen him cross before. He told me in a dark voice, “I, am not weak” with that he grabbed me by the arm and pushed me up to the wall, his hands burned with fire, and memories of his own tortured soul poured into my own mind. I screamed in agony. Then he pushed both hands up to my neck to choke me. Pressing me against the wall, my feet left the ground. He then said again. “I am not weak, doctor” He held me for a moment before letting me go, I dropped to the floor. I gasped for air, and then, as he turned to leave, I said, “Darko, we have both been through horrors, what makes you weak is your inability to deal with reality in a responsible way, when others listen, you lash out in hate. When others wait, you spring forward to crush them.” Darko chuckled darkly, then unexpectedly lunged out with a blade at my eye. I dogged, and then broke his nose with a defensive punch. He didn't care, I got out a razor sharp scalpel to try to defend my self. But Darko was too fast, he lunged at me again, but I failed to move far enough. His blade stabbed me square in the chest, and I fell on my back, Darko on top of me. I had dropped the scalpel and now darko was kneeling on my chest. I felt ribs break, as he spoke to me in a hushed voice. “lets try something I learned when was fourteen” I had no idea what in the hell he was talking about, I was just trying to stay conscious, and not pass out from the pain. Darko dragged me to the table and put on restraints. I fought feebly, but to no good did it do. Darko put a cloth around my entire head. Then he poured ice cold water, drowning me. My lungs so dry, I was struggling to get air. This seemed to go on forever, but it must have only lasted twenty or so seconds. He then undid the straps and pulled me off the table. He had his razor of a blade up to me neck, and he said, “Still think I’m weak?” I replied, In a hoarse voice, “We will see just how weak you are Darko, would you kill a man at one word? Just how weak and afraid are you Darko? I think you are weak, show me if you are strong or not.” His eyes flashed angrily, and I became afraid. But Sally must have heard my tortured screams, she came in a huff, demanding to know what was going on. Darko by now had thrown me onto the floor, where I was bleeding, almost unconscious. As far as I know, Darko acknowledges the commands of only two people: Sally, and Silent. Darko got kind of awkward at the question, saying only, “He called me weak, Cap'n” I mustered all my strength and managed to stand while Sally lectured us both about respecting boundaries and not laying a hand on a crew member outside of a bar fight. She then shooed Darko off, and asked If I was alright. I lied of course, what could she do but worry? I guess this is just like old times, but this time, I don’t have a physical edge to him...