Chapter 22 – Six Months Later
MATTEO
SIX MONTHS LATER
She’s breathing against my chest, and I watch her sleeping for far longer than I should, but I can’t seem to close my eyes whenever she does.
It’s like I’m afraid she’ll try to hurt herself or something.
In the past months, she’s grown inward. The light in her eyes, slowly flickering until it’ll blow out completely.
He hasn’t sent her back there, but he likes to toy with us. He may do it again when we least expect it.
Later today, they’ll come for me as always, with more training or more men to kill. My back aches from the workout they had me go through yesterday, Drew pushing me, wanting me stronger. But that’s not a bad thing. The stronger I am, the harder it’ll be for them to destroy me.
She jolts, moaning as her body quivers, her head thrashing. “No,” she whimpers. “Leave me alone.”
“Aida,” I whisper. “Wake up. You’re having a nightmare.”
Again. She has them all the time and it breaks my damn heart.
Her eyes flash open and she jolts to a sitting position. “Matteo?” She looks around the room.
“Hey.” I swipe away the hair from the sweat settled on her forehead.
“I’m sorry I fell asleep.” She sighs.
“No, don’t be sorry.”
“Sleeping is useless anyway.” She shoves my hand away as she gets off the mattress. “I see them in my nightmares. I can’t run from it, no matter how hard I try.”
I rise to stand beside her, my fingers inching toward hers, but she pushes past me, leaving for the stairs.
Just as she’s about to go, she pauses, her back to me. “Why do you even bother with me, Matteo? When are you going to learn I don’t matter?”
She runs up the stairs as I scream her name. “Aida! Don’t say that! Aida! Come back.”
But the door shuts and I’m alone, wondering when I’ll see a glimpse of the girl she once was. But with each passing day, I’m afraid she’s gone.
For good.
The day after, she doesn’t bring me breakfast, nor lunch. Instead, Ms. Greco comes down with a bowl of soup and a salad.
“Where is she?” I ask as she places the food on the floor beside me.
“She’s not well, Matteo. I tried to talk to her, but she only looks past me, as though she’s not even listening.” She takes a deep sigh.
“We can’t give up on her.”
“I’m not giving up. I’m giving her room to breathe and so should you. She needs that right now.”
“You have to watch her. She may try to—”
“Don’t worry.” She squeezes my hand. “I am. I promise. I’ll do everything I can to keep her safe from herself.”
She starts for the stairs. “I care about you too, Matteo.” There’s sorrow etched in her eyes, her smile the same. “I hope you know that by now.”
“I do.”
She thins her lips as she nods. “I wish I had known you both at a better time, when life wasn’t so cruel. But we have to make the best of things.”
“That’s what we’ve been trying to do,” I tell her. “And look where it got us.”
The day has turned to night, and Ms. Greco returned hours ago to bring me dinner. Though I tried to sleep, it never came. I’ve been awake for longer than I should’ve and the house has gone quiet.
I think about what Ms. Greco said, giving Aida time.
I know she’s right but what if we don’t have any time left?
What if all we have are stolen seconds, dwindling away until they’re gone?
Every day, I wonder if today I’ll die. They don’t need me to kill for them.
They do it to torture me. That’s all I am, a toy.
When they get tired or bored, I’ll have no value left.
Then what will become of Aida and Robby?
The door suddenly opens.
“Hello?” My body stills into ice.
Footfalls crash heavy.
“Who’s there?”
Louder now.
It’s not Aida or Ms. Greco. I know how they walk by now.
The person gets nearer until the last step brings me face-to-face with Agnelo.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
He never shows his face down here. “I wanted to retrieve you personally. Today is a very important day.” He marches slowly, grabbing my wrist and undoing the chain with a key in his pocket. “Come on,” he orders with a wicked grin. “We’ve got places to be and people to kill.”
Fucking great. “What time is it?” I ask.
He doesn’t answer, not even when we make it outside and into a white van.
“No blindfold today?” I try with another question.
But his mirthless chuckle is all he offers in return.
All the muscles in my body turn rigid on alert. Something bad is about to happen.
The cruelty of his stare only amplifies that knowledge.
He slides open the door and shoves me beside a man I met once. Carlito I think his name was. It’s been so long since he brought out the bunny I was made to slaughter as a child.
“Nice to see you again, kid.” Carlito’s mouth curls in a vile way. Everything about him smells like shit. I really want to gut him.
Another man’s behind the wheel, Agnelo in the passenger side, as we drive for a while until the warehouse comes into view. It’s the perfect place for murder. Nothing around it but trees.
They all hop out first, then I’m ordered out, Carlito clutching my arm, yanking me out.
We trudge inside, the place dark, muffled sounds falling closer from the distance.
At first, I think it’s a child, and shit, my body recoils.
I can’t go through that again. I can’t murder kids.
That’s not right. But when someone turns on the light, the air from my lungs completely evaporates.
There are no kids here. Not at all. Instead, in front of me, I find Aida and Ms. Greco, each with a gun pointed to their temples, their mouths covered with black tape, tears caked down their cheeks.
“What the hell is this?” I roar, darting back at Agnelo, his arms crossed over his chest as he smugly stares me down.
He finally comes over, standing in front, obscuring my view of Aida sobbing.
“I swore to you that I’d take everything from you until there’s nothing left.
Remember that?” He clasps both his palms over my shoulders as I widen a stare, my heart pounding, my teeth gritted and bared.
“Well, that time has come.” He roughly pats my cheek. “You have some big decisions to make.”
My heart slams into my rib cage, my body cold inside, but my skin, it burns. “No.” I rapidly shake my head. “I won’t do it.”
He jerks his head back with a snicker. “I haven’t even told you what you have to do.”
But I know. I knew the moment I saw them.
“You’ll choose who lives and who dies. That will be on you.” He turns to the two women he never gave a damn about, and with a slice of his hand through the air, as though presenting me with a gift, he says, “So who will it be? The girl you love or the woman she loves?”
“Fuck!” I roar, my hands balled into shuddering fists. “I can’t! Goddamn you!”
“Sorry, but in this game, that’s not an option.” He tilts his chin to his men, who whack both women on the side of their heads with the pistols in their grips.
“You asshole!” I pounce as he jumps back like the coward he’s always been. I don’t even get a chance to hit him. Carlito and another guy hold me down even as I fight them.
“You’re wasting time, kid. You have two minutes to decide or they both die. And if you try that shit again, it’s game over for them both.”
They finally release me, and this time, I don’t move.
The men pull their gags down. “Matteo,” Aida cries. “Please kill me. Not her. I beg you!”
“Aida, no!” Ms. Greco screams, turning to her. “Don’t you dare! You can’t give up! I won’t let you.” Her sobs grow heavy. “You have to live for your mother! You have to let me go!”
“Don’t listen to her!” Aida retorts, not meeting her gaze. “You promised, Matteo. You pinky swore you wouldn’t save me.”
“Stop!” I shout, gripping my face in both hands. “Both of you just stop. I can’t… Fuuuuuk!” My roar rips through like an echo, setting off avalanches I can’t yet see.
“Time isn’t your friend,” Agnelo whispers near my ear.
I can’t choose. Of course my gut says to save Aida, she’s the damn love of my life, but hell, I can’t kill Ms. Greco. She’s been like family to me. And if I hurt her, there’s no way Aida will ever forgive me. I know that to be true. How do I save her only to let her go?
“One minute.” He removes the gun from the holster and holds it out for me. I take it because there’s nothing else I can do. I could shoot him, then try to take out his men, but none of that will guarantee that either Aida or Ms. Greco will survive.
“Thirty seconds.”
“Matteo,” Ms. Greco calls, choking on her tears. “Listen to me. You two need each other. You have to kill me. It’s the only way. I’m ready to go. I swear, I won’t hate you for it.”
My breathing rolls out harshly as my attention darts from her to Aida, an ache battering behind my eyes…in the back of my throat.
My vision grows hazy by the second as I lift the gun in the air, and never has my hand shook this badly, not even when I first held a gun they gave me when I was a child. But right now, with the magnitude of who I have to kill, I can’t make it stop.
“Matteo, please!” Aida wails. “You promised me. You swore. Y-you can’t break that p-p-promise.” Her chest climbs higher with every breath.
“Ten, nine…” Agnelo counts with excitement, the light dancing like a flame in his eyes as he stares at me, then at them.
“Do it!” Ms. Greco yells. “Kill me!”
“No!” Aida fights the man’s grasp, her whole body shaking violently.
I level the gun, my pulse exploding in my neck.
“Three. Two.”
Pop.
The bullet roars to life, like it’s in slow motion, and once it hits her right in between the eyes, she falls on the ground with a heavy thud.
And Aida, her scream, that gasping cry—it’s a sound I’ll never forget.