AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It takes me almost a full minute without moving, not even to release the air trapped in my throat. Even my heart seems intimidated enough to lose its beat.
The men in suits taking up every inch of my house don't help me convince myself that I didn't sleep on the train, nor that I'm not in the middle of a nightmare, yet somehow, I know this is real. So real.
Thirteen men, I count. Six lined up precariously on the left and another six on the right. They look too big to fit here. And, just like days ago, at the airport, in the center of them is the one that is definitely too big for my house. Sitting in the only chair we have is the face from my most beautiful nightmares.
I wondered what his eyes looked like when dark lenses were hiding them from me. I should regret having wanted to see them so much, I should regret all the times I insisted on thinking about this man when what I should have done was forget that one day our paths crossed.
I knew he was dangerous the moment I first laid eyes on him. Every cell, tissue, bone, and muscle of mine warned me to run in the opposite direction he was going, and yet I didn't listen. Not when there were other voices screaming much louder and with much more urgency in my head. I should have listened, I realize.I should, because even though I knew there was no way this could be good for me after what I did, I wished, more than once, to see him again, even if it was just for a second.
“Come in” The man I pretended to bump into at the airport demands it, and my body immediately complies.
My heart starts beating again, assuming a crazy rhythm that forces me to exhale forcefully. I gasp soon after and my first instinct is to look for Raquel. When I find her glued to the wall along with my father and Fernanda, looking scared to death and crying, my feet move without me giving the order. I don't see anything in front of me but my sister.
“It was her! It was her! We have nothing to do with it. Take her! Take her! But don't hurt us, please... Please!” Fernanda screams and raises her finger accusingly as I walk towards Raquel.
I hear a low chuckle, or maybe it's just my mind searching for a way out of the absolute madness my day has turned into. I'm about to get on my knees to hug my little sister when strong arms grab me from behind. My body is turned towards the man who is no longer sitting in the chair, now he is standing with his attention completely focused on me.
His eyes travel down my body, slowly analyzing the strands of hair that escape my ponytail and cling to my sweaty forehead and neck, the red t-shirt faded enough to have turned pink, the worn and dirty jeans with grease stains on the knees I'm wearing. Every hair on my body stands on end, and the sweat that covered my skin turns into an uncontrollable amount of drops sliding down my forehead, lower back, and down my neck, all at the same time. When his gaze rises to meet my face again, the man pauses at the brooch still attached to my blouse. He doesn't say anything.
His observation changes as I struggle against his henchman's arms, it seems to last an eternity. I fight, shaking myself in the big hands that hold me, trying at all costs to free myself to get to Raquel. I just want to get to her.
The man raises a hand towards my younger sister, and remaining silent is no longer an option. My eyes widen when I see the giant ready to obey the silent order given to him.
“Raquel!” I scream her name, but it's not like she can do anything, it's not like she can defend herself. “No! Please! No!” My voice is much louder than Fernanda’s accusations. I thrash in the unescapable grip that holds me in place. “Please! Please!” I beg.
Hot tears sting my eyes before sliding down my cheeks.
“Do you know why I'm here?” His voice is something I would never forget, even if I could.
The timbre is hoarse and low in a way that seems capable of forcing you to obey it, and the way the words roll around his tongue makes them sound like a deadly lullaby. I don't know what that accent is, but I doubt anyone else wields it as a weapon.
“I don't care, I just... Just...” I choke, without the courage to say the words, without the courage to ask him not to kill my sister.
My breathing is an uncontrolled set of gasps and sobs while Fernanda continues screaming in the background, but I don't care, nothing matters. The man looks at me as if in my eyes he searches for all my secrets only to discover that I have none.
“Raquel!” I struggle more violently when my sister is lifted off the ground. The small, fragile, and too thin body staggers before she stands, steady by the hands that hold her.
“Gabi!” My nickname is a breathless cry escaping her throat, and I was wrong when I thought the man before me had the face of my nightmares.
The image tattooing itself in my eyes is the face, the sound, the color, and taste of my cruelest dreams. The prospect of meeting this man again never scared me, anything he could do to me never really worried me.
The truth is, maybe when I decided to go ahead and change those bags, despite all my instincts telling me to run, maybe I was hoping he would discover me. Maybe I hoped he would find me. Maybe I hoped that all this could simply come to an end.
“You stole something from me,” he says.
“I don't have it anymore.” I reply in despair. “I don't have it anymore” I repeat, unable to stop myself from crying. “Please, please, let her go!” I beg you. “I'll tell you who I gave it to. I'll tell you where to find them. I tell you whatever you want.” The man laughs amidst my lack of control, tears, and struggle. He doesn't care, I know, but I can't stop. “I'll tell you whatever you want to know! I'll tell you whatever you want to know!” I scream because I will. Anything, even what I don't know, I’ll make it up, I say anything he wants to hear.
“They're dead, Gabriella.” He states as if he was announcing that today is Tuesday.
He destroys my hopes and, for the first time since I opened the door and noticed his presence, I am afraid. Not because he just confessed to murdering the most dangerous people I've ever met, but because there's nothing I can give him. Not a single thing.
“Please!” The plea comes out quietly, my throat, the only weapon with which I can fight, giving up on me. “Please!”
“In my world, debts are paid in blood” he says, and I close my eyes, feeling immense relief cover me. It will end. Everything will end. “But yours... I don't think it's an adequate punishment.” I open my eyes, they run to Raquel, and the man follows my gaze. I open my mouth, but no sound comes out. “As it turns out, I have this impression...” He pauses and cuts the distance between us with just two steps.
I stop moving, his proximity acting like some kind of paralyzing poison. It's not a conscious or voluntary choice, my body simply obeys what this man wants. He lifts his fingers and touches a loose strand of my hair. The only one outside the ponytail besides the unruly strands.
“This insistent impression, Gabriella, that you're going to like this.”
