Chapter Forty
"Again." I order with clenched fists.
Harper grabs another bottle of water to splash Ivan. He's tied to the chair Hanibal was tied too and this makes my lips curl into an evil smile. I finally have him in my hands and I will make him wish he was never born.
Immediately how I arrived home, I went to check on Vincent who passed out because of the crying. The boy is fucking terrified to stay in a house where his sister isn't and it breaks my heart that I'm not someone he can trust, while I would die for him.
I put two doctors to check him and make sure he stays alive because I made a promise to my wife and I know she will kill me when she wakes up and sees Vincent in a hospital bed, next to hers. My boy is strong though. He will wake up with his little heart still broken, but I will be there for him. And not because Althea asked me to take care of him, but because after such short time, Vincent made me love him like a father loves his son.
He may never consider me his father, but he will be my son. He will be raised by me and I will make sure he will be the man Hanibal never was. Me and Althea will make sure of that.
Because she is not leaving me.
Althea will never leave me in a world where she doesn't exit. Even if she doesn't know it yet.
I shake my head, ignoring the numbness in my chest. I look at Ivan and after four buckets of cold water thrown at him and two bottles of how water, he's still unconscious.
"Again."
Harper turns to me and looks me in the eyes, making me raise my eyebrows. My body almost snaps at him for not following my direct order, but I let him say what he has to say.
"This is the third bottle, Boss. What if he's dead?"
I look at Ivan, not saying a word. The men in the room stare at me and I think for the first time, they are actually scared of my 'calm' being.
Ivan isn't fucking dead. He is hard to kill, but I will make him break on his knees in front of me. He took Keres from this world because he was blind by jealousy, he almost killed the love of my life because he couldn't accept that he killed his. Fucker isn't dead, he's just hiding somewhere, scared to look me in the eyes.
Ivan is wrong is he thinks he'll get away with it. He signed his death the moment he pulled the trigger and killed Keres and the child she was caring.
I walk toward the table, grabbing another bottle. I see that Ivan wants to be awaken by me.
It's a pleasure to make that happen.
I grab his hair and force his head to stay up. His face is bloody and a few scratches are along his cheeks.
He has a few scratches while Althea is fighting for her life. I need to change the situation; he can't be with a step ahead from my little fox. Not when she is stronger than him by a million.
I raise the bottle toward his face, forcing the water down his throat. When nothing happens, I grab another bottle and force it until water almost comes out of his mouth. I tighten my fingers in his hair when I see a cough coming out of him. His body starts to react back at the abuse.
Welcome back motherfucker.
Ivan's eyes open in alert and he starts chocking on the water that comes back. I let his head free, stepping back to not get wet from his choking.
Ivan starts screaming when he sees where he is and I know his throat must be burning. He shakes violently in the chair, looking at us with disgust. His coughs are coming too, hard and powerful, almost knocking him down.
"And I-I was r-ready to watch Althea b-break, but y-you woke me." He whispers, his sarcastic voice almost faint.
I smirk at his boldness and with two steps, I'm in front of him. I see how he tries to hide the fear in his eyes with that sarcastic smile. His body trembles, being too weak to fight the ropes. I lower my back until I look at his fucked-up face, feeling the anger bursting out of me.
"You should learn how to shut up." I say back at him, slamming my fist to his face. Ivan groans and his head remains in the position I just put him in. His head to the right, with his body limp on the chair.
I turn my back to him, going next to the table that has all my favorite toys. I look for the metal stick that
has at a corner the letter E, smirking as I lift it and handed to one of the guards. He simply nods, going to the next room where a broken oven sits there for things like this.
With the corner of my left eye, I see a light that can blind anyone. Ivan yells again, trying to escape the ropes.
I turn slowly and see Venus in front of him with, holding a white polaroid camera in her slim, tattooed hands. Her smirk can make people cry and her eyes can haunt you forever. And all that for the bastard who thought that he can kill her best friend, her sister.
The camera starts beeping and a second later, a photo comes out of it. At the first glance, it seems like a dark background, but after Venus shakes it a little, the full weak, bloody body of Ivan is imprinted on it.
I try to hold my smirk at the sadistic ways of Venus Fiamma's killing. Not only that she sends to her future preys’ polaroid pictures with them and a big, red X over, but after she catches them, she takes another picture to show that her work is done.
"This will look so pretty in my album." She says in awe, winking at Ivan.
She lowers herself on the ground and puts her camera along with the photo in the duffel bag that wasn't there a few minutes ago.
"D-Do you want to k-know how p-pretty Althea looked on her knees, b-begging me to kill her?"
My blood boils at her name and I take one of Venus's swords, stabbing it in Ivan's thigh. His pained roar is music to my ears.
I can't think of Althea without wanting to rip my heart out so that I can be with her. I don't care if she's in heaven or hell. If she's there, I know I'll be fine.
The guard comes in the room with the metal stick and hands it to me. I carefully put my hand exactly in the spot he had his, looking at the red E. I walk again in Ivan's direction and his eyes are looking confused at the metal. His whimpers are getting weaker and the blood that comes out of his thigh is black.
I promised I will bring him hell. And I always keep my promises.
"The sole of the foot." Is all I say, and another man comes next to Ivan, lifting his foot off the ground.
I kneel on the ground, looking at Ivan's angry face. He is still fighting his fate; too bad I'm here to break him in pieces.
"Remember this, Ivan. I will not let you die until she wakes up. I won't let you torment her dreams and make her leave me. As long as I have to live without my wife, I will hold you between life and death. I will torture you until Althea returns to me." I swear in front of everybody and I press the burning metal into his skin, marking the bastard with my name.
He will talk about me in hell. He will make everyone know that no one messes with my wife and gets to live.
His scream makes my men grin, and his moans are desperate.
"Vincent is asking for you, Keaton." Venus tells me and I soften my muscles at the thought of him.
"Have fun with Venus, motherfucker." I say and walk out of the room, letting Venus do whatever she wants with him.
I move quickly to the bathroom and wash my hands before going to Vincent. I don't want to infect him with whatever that bastard has.
I knock on his door and a sob comes from inside. My hands turn into fists. I can't hear him like this. It's
pure torture to know that this little boy holds this much pain.
I already failed him.
Althea would've known what to do, but I stand here, outside him room, trying to not break before him. Because we both might lose the most important person from our lives.
The door opens suddenly and Vincent little body is looking up to me. He cries harder when he sees me and he raises his little hands toward me. I almost fall in front of him, but I need to be strong. One of us has to be strong.
I take him in my arms and he glues to me like a spider monkey. His neck is buried in mine and his hands are squeezing my shirt in a tight hold. The whimpers are wrecking his body, his voice raspy.
"I'm here, Vince, just calm down." I pet his back gently, kissing his head multiple times.
"Althea," He cries harder when he says her name. He continues to cry her name like it's his prayer.
"She's going to fine." I try to say the words as hopeful as I can.
Vincent shakes his head, not believing me. He just cries, pleading for his sister. The one who raised him. The one who helped him with his first steps, and the one who always wiped his tears away. Vincent cries for Althea the way a child cries for his mother.
I squeeze him tighter to me, trying to protect him from this world. It's just me and him right now.
I hear another whimper and I look at his bed, seeing my mother trying to hold her emotions in. She looks devastated, and she eyes the little boy in my arms with so much pain and torment, that it kills me. She comes slowly next to me and hugs me with everything she has.
"Kea-Keat-" Vincent tries to say my name but he fails. He never got my name right and I always told him to call me whatever he likes.
"You can call me Everette, or Everest, bug." I soothe him and encourage him to say what he wanted to say.
"Posso chiamarti papà?" I close my eyes when he asks me something in Italian. The only thing that I understand is the word 'papa'.
Does he want Hanibal?
My heart breaks at the thought that Vincent will never be satisfied with me. That no matter how hard I try, I will never be good enough for him.
I can be your dad, too, bug. Please let me show you what a real dad is.
"You know I'm dumb, Vince. You have to say it in English." I try to joke, even though my body screams in pain.
He presses his face harder in my neck and I can hear the angry noises he makes. I almost laugh at the fact that he's angry because I don't understand Italian.
Mom caresses his hair, trying to encourage him too. Her smile is broken, and she looks at me with pride.
"You'll be fine, Ev." She kisses my arm. "And next time I come to visit, please let me know if you get another wild animal as a pet. I'm too old for this kind of heart attacks." And she leaves the room.
I look at Scarface's body and I can see the tension in his muscles.
I'll be far from fine. Not when I'm between breaking for Althea and holding on for Vincent.
"Can I call you dad?" Vincent blurs and the hand I have on his back stops.
I think the whole world stops.
I try to gather my thoughts but they scream in my
head. My heart beats way to fast and my legs are shaking.
I need to lie down before I fucking fall on knees with Vincent in my arms.
I walk toward the bed, letting myself fall on it. My silence makes Vince move his body until he looks at my face. His cheeks are red, his blue eyes are also red, but puffy too.
"I know I have Papa, but he never did the things you do for me. And you feel like my dad more than him." Fucking hell, he wants to kill me.
He's not even five years old and he already makes me lose my mind. What will happen when he's a teenager?
I look at him in awe, trying to find out what I did in another life to deserve Althea and Vince.
"Now it's the time to say something," He snaps, getting impatient. He's so much like Althea it hurts.
I grab his face in one hand, making him look at me with those ocean eyes. "Nothing will make me happier than being your dad." I whisper, trying to hold back the tears.
His own eyes fill again with tears and he hugs me again, whispering something in gibberish.
But I let him give everything out. I watch as his body calms down and all the tension leaves his little body.
"Will Althea come back?" He asks me with a little voice.
"She doesn't have a choice, bug. We need her more than she needs us, so she's stuck with us." I say and that makes him giggle.
And that sound is all I need to keep fighting.
"Yeah, she's stuck with us." He giggles again, looking at me with what I desperately wanted from him.
Trust.
I stare at her beautiful, pale face and I feel like dying right here, next to her.
The heart monitor keeps beating but it doesn't give me any satisfaction. Her chest moves at a normal rate, but she's still torturing me. She wears a cheap piece of blue clothing and her hair is tied in a high, messy bun.
But yet, she is the most gorgeous woman I ever laid eyes on.
"Sleeping beauty woke up from her dream coma in a day, not a fucking week." I whisper to her, pecking her cheek with gentle kisses. "And I'm even kissing you, and you're still not waking up. Do you like to torment me?"
But Althea isn't answering me.
Every day for a week, I come here and talk to her in the hope she'll wake up. I talk about different topics, ones that she loves, one that she doesn't. I even bring Vince yesterday to talk to her, but nothing.
My little fox is dreaming about something that makes her leave this world, and I know it's not me.
I peck her cheek again, one, two, three times and I let my eyes roam over her pale face. She looks like she lost half of her weight. The glow of her brownish skin is long gone.
"Are you sure these doctors know what they put in this IV? You look pale, Little Fox." I caress her hair, wishing to hear her voice again.
But again, she doesn't even move. She stays still, hiding her beautiful eyes from me.
My hand begins to tremble in her hair, fear taking control of my body.
"I'm so fucking scared, Althea." I whisper brokenly. It's the first time I ever admit that out loud. "I'm scared that you may not be the love of my life in another universe... I'm scared that if you don't wake up, I'll be forced to live a life without you. I want to love you in every life we will relive, I want you to be mine forever, just as much as I am yours."
I let my forehead fall to hers.
"I got lost in your heart, Althea. The heart you claim you don't have and I'll be damn if I want to find my way out. So please, don't force me to live without you."