Chapter 40
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ENZO
She’s so close and yet so far out of reach.
Blood drips down my temple and into my eyes as we’re blanketed in a thick veil of darkness. I force my head up to try and find her but it’s useless. There’s a pained groan followed by a loud smacking sound and then I hear her familiar voice, breaking out into a scream.
“Anastasia?” I try to call out, but the words die on my tongue.
Water . I need fucking water.
My body lurches forward as I try to reach her but the chains around my neck and wrists strangle me back in place. All I can imagine is that bastard over her, beating her senseless as she tries to fight back.
My girl’s a fighter but against a man weighing 190 pounds… fuck, I need out of these chains.
“Anastasia!” I manage to get out, the words all scratched and strangled in my throat. They’re fighting just in-front of me. I can feel the heat of their bodies, hear the pained sounds bouncing against the walls. It’s a mind fuck I’m desperately trying to escape as I yank at the chains again.
“Don’t fucking touch her you worthless piece of shit! Finish me off first! Fucking kill me first asshole—”
A gunshot rings outs. I see the flash of a spark and then nothing.
There’s a heavy silence weighing on my soul as the seconds continue to drag out. My ragged breaths are the only audible sound in the room but uncertainty whips inside of me like a violent storm, making me feel sick.
She can’t be dead. I could feel it, I would just know.
A red light bathes the room, casting an eerie glow. I blink heavily to try and make out the world again. Black splotches cover most of the floor, making my panic grow as I take in the mass of blood before me. Following the trail, I fight to ignore the loud beating of my heart that seems to drown out the rest of the world.
“Missed me?” I jump at the sound of that beautiful voice. Craning my neck back, I catch a glimpse of her perfect smile.
“What? You didn’t think I’d let onion breath kill me, did you?” I follow her gaze to the dead man lying in a pool of blood, a bullet thole perfectly centered in the middle of his forehead.
Even in the dark she has perfect aim.
Her lips meet my swollen cheek and I hold back a groan as she reaches up to undo my chains. My body falls limp but she catches me and I bury my face into her neck.
Inhaling deeply, I catch her sweet familiar scent and let the notes imprint themself in my mind. “You scared me for a second.” I manage to croak out.
She laughs, clinging onto my waist whilst I adjust to not having my fucking limbs stretched out. Gently, she presses her fingertips against my chest, her gaze unmoving from the ugly burns left seared onto my skin. “I’m going to kill them all for hurting you.”
In our twisted minds it’s a romantic proclamation that would make me smile if my face didn’t hurt so much. “How did you get out? ”
I learnt a long time ago not to underestimate my wife, but breaking out whatever shit hole they were keeping her in and killing the guards outside of her cell seems a lot, even for her.
Shaking her head, she wraps her arm around my waist and helps me hobble past the dead body. I grab onto the metal door, breathing hard as every muscle in my body burns like I’m on fire. “It’s a long story but right now, we need to save your mom.”
Fuck .
My Ma was trapped with that psychopath. The last time I saw her she was being electrocuted on the floor, forcing a smile whilst she suffered. It was the same broken smile I remember from my nightmares.
“We can’t do anything to help her until we get the collar off.” Anastasia grips onto my waist again, helping me to walk down the eerie hallway. In the distance, gunfire and screams echo against the hollow walls whilst the ceiling above creaks loudly.
She smiles. “Why do you think the lights went out? I doubt the collar will work without electricity.”
God, I fucking love this woman.
She resembles the Greek goddess Athena with her wild hair and flawless face covered in splattering’s of her prey’s blood. “That was you? ”
She shrugs. “Kind of.” I’m about to press her for more when a violent scream rips through the air. Our footsteps halt as my heart sinks to the bottom of my stomach. “Shit.” Anastasia murmurs before racing towards the sound. I follow her as fast as my pathetic body will allow me.
“The one on the right!” I call out to her, recalling the smirk on Aldo’s face as he dragged my mother inside.
She reaches the door before me and kicks at the rusted hinges, swearing beneath her breath as it refuses to budge. It takes me a minute to reach her and I grip her hand tight. “Together.” We slam our feet against the bolts, stepping back as the wood gives in and splinters open.
Anastasia shoves it open, freezing as she reaches the doorway. My chest hits her back and she gasps, turning her head away and squeezing her eyes shut — because fuck, we’ve never seen anything as bloody as this.
“Ma?” I don’t know if she’s ignoring me or if my words simply drift through her ears. Anastasia steps aside to let me pass and slowly I approach her, careful not to step into the pool of blood growing by the second. The red light continues to flash above us, making the scene appear even more harrowing.
My heart breaks as I watch her scream again. Tears flood down her cheeks with each brutal stab she delivers to his chest. His lifeless body jerks, releasing more blood though I doubt there’s little left to drain.
“Ma?” I call out again, attempting to free her from the nightmare she’s trapped inside.
Anastasia quietly walks behind me, squeezing my hand as she passes. I kneel in the pool of blood surrounding my mother before reaching out. Gently, I grip her wrist but she ignores my attempts to stop her and instead pulls my hand down with each violent stab. “Ma, please come back to me.”
I cup her blood-stained cheeks, forcing her head to me. She gasps and her hand unclenches, finally letting the dagger fall. “Enzo? Il mio bambino, oh.” My baby boy. Her eyes move around crazed, blackened beneath the light. “Mi dispiace piccola, perdonami. Perdonami.” I'm sorry baby, forgive me. Forgive me.
I catch her as she falls against my burnt chest and move back, pulling her away from Aldo’s rotting corpse. “It’s okay Ma. I’m okay.”
“You were so small.” She sobs. “Just a boy.”
And that’s when I realize where she is — trapped in the memory of that wretched night.
She's back in that house and I’m hiding in the closet. She tells me to dream. I try but all I can hear are the defiling slurs he curses at her and the quiet cries of pain that she tries to muffle .
Blinking hard, I force myself back to the present. “I grew up Ma and we survived.” I force her to look at me again, brushing away the thick tears that stain her cheeks. “You survived.”
Something in my words seems to break through to her. Slowly I watch as she begins to come back to me. Her head turns to Aldo’s rotting corpse and then to the dagger with the same inscription as the one my father gave to me.
A quiet laugh escapes her throat. “Tuo nonno regalò a ciascuno dei suoi figli uno di quei pugnali per il loro sedicesimo compleanno. Aldo ha ucciso tuo padre con esso. Dopo averlo picchiato fino a farlo perdere i sensi, naturalmente, ma è stato il pugnale che ha posto fine all'amore della mia vita. Sono contento di aver avuto la mia rivincita. Enzo. Potrebbe avermi trasformato in un mostro, ma alla fine ce l'ho fatta.” Your grandfather gave each of his sons one of those daggers for their sixteenth birthdays. Aldo killed your father with his own and then stole it. He was taunting me with how he was going to use it to kill you as he shocked me with that collar. How he would repeat history and rape Anastasia, making you watch as you choked on your own blood. Then suddenly there no more pain. The collar wasn’t working and I just struck. I didn’t care about dying or getting hurt. I just wanted the revenge I spent twenty years dreaming of. I may be a monster now, Enzo but at least the nightmare is finally over. At least my baby boy is free .
That's when I realize that it was always her revenge — never mine.
All those years of pent-up anger and frustration and violence was for nothing. When I lost Anastasia, I needed something to fill that huge void left in my soul and I let revenge consume it, nurtured by the bitter knowing that the love of my life was out there, hating me for all my stupid mistakes.
“Enzo,” Anastasia sets her hand on my arm, a large canister in the other. “We need to destroy the evidence.” I nod, pulling my Ma back before stepping forward to help my wife. “Wait.”
She leans over his dead body, grimacing as she moves aside his bloody jacket and reaches into the pocket. A smile flashes across her face when she finds the ruby ring I gave her and slides it back onto her finger.
“I would have bought you a new one.” I remind her.
She scoffs, pulling a lighter out of his other pocket. “Never. I love this one.”
Together we slug the large can of gasoline over the body and step back as she throws the open lighter over his body. Grabbing Anastasia’s hand tight, I usher my mother out as the flames roar high.
My legs feel weak and my mind starts to spin but I yank my wife into my chest anyways to kiss her hard. She gasps, parting her lips for my tongue to reach in deep. I caress her jaw softly, tilting her head back so I can taste those sweet lips over and over, losing myself in her touch like always.
Her fingers touch my hands and I savor the warmth she brings me, unsure if I’ll ever be able to feel it again. My muscles weaken and I stumble back towards the fire. Anastasia lurches forward to grab me before I can fall into the blaze. “Angelica, help me!”
I can feel my mother on the other side, shifting her arm around my waist. They force me forward, creating a scorching ripple of pain that spreads along my spine. I groan, nearly collapsing forward but Anastasia manages to catch me, gripping onto the doorway as she struggles with my weight. “Just lean on us Enzo.”
I try to but my body is slowly giving up. My bones feel brittle, my muscles too weak and my tongue fails to produce any words…all I can do is focus on the intense pain that paralyzes every nerve in my body.
“It’s just the pain.” The lull of her voice makes me feel dizzy. I want to bathe in the sound and fall asleep. “All the adrenaline is gone, the numbness has left and all you’ve got now is pain. Focus on me — on how angry I’ll be if you give up and die before we finally get to the good parts.”
I try to smile but the entire world is spinning…the room is fading .
“Nearly there. So close.” The walls creak as if warning us our demise. “It should just be right here.” Her warmth slips away as she shoves at the door. Her grunts become pained as she turns on her side, slamming into the metal again and again.
“Anastasia,” I croak, gently pushing her aside.
Bile rises in my throat as I take in a heavy breath, pinching my eyes shut as I kick at the door with everything I have left. The pain blisters into heat, searing into every muscle in my body.
There’s a loud bang and suddenly I’m falling forward.
“Enzo—” Anastasia grabs me before I can fall, hauling me back up but everything in me wishes she would just let go and run.
The cold of the night bites at my skin, a strange relief until the strong smell of sulfur suddenly hits my nose. Gas . The word dies on my tongue but Anastasia frowns, inhaling the same smell.
“What the—oh shit.” Her eyes grow wide, fear fixed in that raw blue. “Run!” She wraps her arms around me again, refusing to let go even as I try to pull away.
No baby. Just run. Just leave me.
The smell doesn’t disappear and we’re not moving fast enough .
Both are slowing to help me. I try to move faster. I try to make them leave me.
“Keep going.” Anastasia chants. “Come on, we can make it. We can make it. We’re almost—”
Our bodies are flung apart from each other.
I lose her touch and jerk into the air before landing hard on the ground. There’s a loud ringing that splinters through my skull.
I groan, trying to move. Gravel sticks to my skin, embedding itself into my hands and face like sharp pieces of glass cutting into me. Pain rackets through my body, striking every nerve until all I can see is an abyss of stark blackness with no hope of light breaking through.
I try to envision her.
The woman who's haunted my dreams for the past nine years, the only woman I’ve ever been with – only wanted to be with.
I see us fighting, arguing, screaming and hurting each other. I see how much we hate ourselves for it, how broken we truly are without each other.
Then she forgives me.
She lets me in again and I make a vow to never hurt her the way I did last time. I see her laugh, her smile as she whispers that she loves me. I made her happy, even if it was only for a moment in our history, and I fight for it.
I fight to keep her that way, to give her what I promised.
But darkness envelops the world, taking me with it.