... were there ...", no, she couldn't tell!Everything in her resisted! But she had to! So she gathered up the rest of her courage and went on talking: "... there were shooting ranges where the students of the higher grades had shooting training!"
So now it was out! She had said what she never really wanted to tell a living being! At the same time, all the pressure and fear that had rested on her since then had crumbled off like old, cracked plaster and finally disappeared completely. It had been good to talk to someone about it, although she hadn't done it willingly or voluntarily. Relieved, she looked from one to the other and back again, realizing that not everyone was as happy about it as she was at this point. They all stared at her in shock and with a face that was written in sheer horror. Only now did she realize what this terrible news had triggered with her friends, so she quickly added
"It will turn out to be a misunderstanding.I mean we are here in a monastery. "To her previous report. However, without really believing in her own words, as she would have liked to have done.
Finally, after an eternity, Kai broke out of his stupor and let himself sink to the floor like a wet sandbag along the wall. He drew up his legs, propped himself up on his knees with his elbows, put his head in his hands and audibly inhaled the moist air. A few moments later Ina did the same and sat down next to him.
"And what do we do now? I mean, if we just burst in there, we'll get into real trouble when we go back and walk into the overcrowded canteen, too!" Kai asked everyone after a few minutes of silence. There was great perplexity and since nobody knew what to do, they just stood or sat in the dark corridor without doing anything. You could feel the tension that uncomfortable silence brought with it."What should we do now? I have to say something, after all I am to blame for everything! Bet Kai hates me now even more than before. Well, I should be used to doing everything wrong with him by now to do wrong !! ", Ina went through her head.
After about ten minutes of uncomfortable silence, Tala managed to propose something:
"I think we should take a look at that up front, because if what Ina says is really true, we should definitely try to find out more about it! Or what do you think about it?"
"Hmm ..." came from Kai, who looked up from his waking sleep.
"Well, let's have a look up there!" Was his final comment.
Ina looked at him in amazement. It was the first time that he was interested in anything to do with her. Maybe it's just because of the guns, or out of curiosity, she thought, and her mood sank back to freezing. Once again she was so lost in thought that she didn't notice anything.Only when she got a gruff
"What is it now? Are you coming or do you want to wait until we pick you up on the way back?" out of her thoughts, she reacted. She blinked a little confused and only now noticed that Kai reached out his hand to help her get up.
Tala and Salvia were a few steps away from them.
Slightly irritated and puzzled, but also pleased, she grabbed Kai's hand, whereupon he pulled her to her feet.
"Thank you!" Said Ina. There was only an incomprehensible hum from Kai and he looked strained in another direction. Well, then not. I'm already satisfied, thought Ina, although she was also slightly disappointed that he blocked any attempt by her to talk to him. But she had resolved to change that and to try to get along a little better with him, because she just found it stupid to hang out with someone who didn't talk to her. Besides, maybe he was really nice too, you never know, she kept telling herself, just like: he must have his reasons for not liking me.I just have to be patient, then it will be fine!
Since the silence prevailed again, Ina ran a little faster in order to catch up with Tala and Salvia again as soon as possible. Kai did the same, albeit a few meters away.
"What was going on?" Asked Salvia Ina in a whisper.
"Nothing, it's okay. He only helped me to get up." Ina replied.
"What?" Asked Salvia in disbelief.
"Shh ... !!! Not so loud, not everyone has to hear it!" Ina braked her friend in her surprise.
"It's okay. Sorry. But I was pretty flat." And with a look over her shoulder at Kai she added: "I wouldn't have expected that from him. What made him do it?"
"I don't know! It also came as a surprise to me. But after that he was like before. Well, it would be great if the mood between him and me finally got better." Ina whispered answer.
With one last look at Kai, who was still walking a few meters behind them, she sank back into her thoughts.This time these were a lot better than before this "incident".

*

After another endless ten minutes of running in silence one behind the other or side by side, Ina stopped abruptly this time. Which led to Kai running over them this time.
"Sorry," he muttered towards the floor. And after a few seconds he added (at normal volume!):
"What's going on? Why are you stopping?" After these questions he looked at Tala, who winked at him encouragingly. Salvia and Ina looked confused from one to the other and tried to understand the connections.
After a few minutes of perplexity, Ina listened intently into the darkness again.
"What is it? Do you hear ... mmmm!", The rest of Salvia's question was drowned out in a protesting growl, as Ina raised her mouth with the palm of her hand.
"Shhh! Shut up! Everyone!", She hissed commanding, which now finally silenced the friend.
After a few more seconds of strained listening, Ina relaxed again and immediately apologized to her friends for the harshness."Alright. But what was going on?", Tala and Salvia accepted the apology, while Kai only looked at them slightly angry.
"I thought I heard other noises besides the loud gunshots! But I must have been mistaken. Well, no matter. Let's go on, it can't take too long," Ina explained to her.
So they walked on through the dark corridor, the eerie silence of which was regularly interrupted by the gunshot sounds that were now getting closer and closer.
Ina still felt uncomfortable at the thought of having to watch this terrible spectacle again.
What do we do when we get to the door? Just burst in? Wait outside until someone sees us and asks us in? Take a quick look and turn back?
No no! She had no idea! Her head was already starting to ache with deliberations and unanswered questions.
And what do we do if someone sees us? Run away Stop? Or just let us get caught?No, no, and once again no!!! It can't work that way. You were completely without a plan.
How do they actually imagine it?
The next moment she started up. Her thoughts were interrupted by an excited, but at the same time fearful whisper from Salvia, which, due to the hall, was a lot louder than it was spoken:
"There, there is light! You see? That must be the door. We are there!"
Ina looked in the direction Salvia was pointing and had to realize with a slight shudder that her friend was right: they had reached their goal!
The heavy iron-studded door was no more than a hundred yards away from them now.
Ina's heart began to beat until it burst and she would have liked to turn on her heel. But she couldn't bring that to Kai and the others either.
Do what you have to do!
Salvia, almost dying of curiosity and zest for action, had already reached the door, peered through and waved to the others."Salvia, are you crazy? Come back right away! If someone sees you, you're done!", Her brother whispered to her in a sharp tone.
"Hey, stay cool, I'll be careful! Now come over here and take a look at this, that's really not normal anymore!" He said and peeked through the gap between the iron door and the bare bare brickwork again.
Ina didn’t like having to look through this door again, but what else could she do but do the same to Tala and Kai and walk towards the crack?
In short: nothing!
So she ran after the two boys so as not to be left alone in the all-swallowing darkness.
When they got to the door, they all stared through the small gap at the same time. What they saw made her shudder and Ina felt cold down her back at this "familiar" sight: it was as she had said. Students from the higher grades stood at shooting ranges, had earmuffs on and tried to hit the cardboard replicas of a human body about 50 meters away!But not anywhere, but in the head, the heart, or the legs - all places that either kill you immediately or at least put you out of action for a long time.
Ina's heart was now pounding up to her throat. She couldn't see it anymore - she didn't want to see it anymore, but she couldn't take her eyes off the terrible event. It was as if her eyes were being magically drawn. As if she was no longer in control of her entire body.
The others seemed to feel the same way, because they too stared spellbound and with as few pauses as possible through the crack of the door at what was going on behind it.
"Go on, go on! What do you think you are here for? To steal my time? Go on, continue training!", Someone shouted without any mercy and in a commanding voice across the room.
Ina took a closer look around the exercise hall and discovered who was responsible for the rough words. It was none other than Boris Kovac, the right-hand man of the monastery director, very personally, who was sitting on a slightly raised platform in a huge wooden chair and yelling his commands and meanness around the ears of the students.Although he looked rather bored, he was still threatening and scary to look at. His eyes seemed to see everything and his gaze was more piercing than a stab in the back.
Ina shuddered when she saw him sitting on the chair like this. The rest of the group didn't seem to be much different. With horrified eyes and open mouths, they looked in disbelief and horrified at the training supervisor all in black.
Ina felt sorry for the students and if she had been able to