She pulled me back from my mind trip. “Hey, you okay, man?”
I rubbed my eyes, my heart racing from the trip. My mind kept picturing his glistening eyes, his breathtaking embrace. “Sorry, I... guess I'm not used to that stuff anymore. What the hell did it have, anyway?”
“No clue, but it's awesome, don't you think? Gets you high like nothing else.”
Again I took note to ask Andrei about it. “Well, I guess it does.” More like, having a nasty job to do gave me a high and a bad trip, all for the low price of... Shit.
“Hey, it's okay, I won't judge you for it. Yet.” She teased me.
“You better don't.” I said in a dead serious tone before bursting into laughter.
We went back and forth with meaningless flirty chitchat for a long while. Then she got closer and teasingly unbuttoned my shirt. She was totally amazed when she saw my chest tattoo. “Whoa. Is this...?”
“Yep.”
“Wow. I had never met someone from the mob. I'd have never thought they'd be so handsome and so nice.”
Yeah, except I wasn't. And... I didn't want to know what her family was up to, for her to be a target. But I kinda guessed she'd been closer to them than she thought. “Well... Seems like I am.” I winked at her.
She came closer and kissed me, like only a sixteen-year-old can. Not that I'm into teens, but they do have something, some kind of innocence, that nobody else could possibly have. I let go of my sick world and dived into her lips, warm as a winter sun.
I was clear that she was used to it all. She took off her clothes as if it was the only thing to do, and then helped me with mine. Then... well, the obvious thing happened, duh. What did you expect. I've always been good at playing nice, and she was one wild girl.
Half an hour later we were both out of breath. The smile on her lips was like a light in the middle of a sea of darkness. “You're so nice, hon. So sweet. A couple surprises more and I may as well fall in love.”
But a stray light can't last long in the night ocean. Fire never wins against the smothering water. I smirked. “Will you?”
“I don't know. Should I?” She teased me.
I smirked again. If it's going to happen anyway, I may as well enjoy it. “Darling. Have you never heard what they say? … About something being too good to be true?”
She laughed. “Oh, but you're a nice guy. I can see that.”
“Well... they say girls prefer bad boys, so I don't know how to take that.” I teased her as I put my clothes back on.
“Don't be silly! You know what I mean, you teaser.” She kept joking. Blissfully unaware of what was about to happen.
“Well...” I crawled to her, my shirt still open. No reason to close it, at all. Let her lust some more, she's earned that. “Seems to me like you've been a really lucky girl so far. Never finding a bad apple.”
“Not all guys are like you, you know. Some are real assholes.”
I grabbed her wrists playfully. “See, you keep thinking I'm a nice guy.” I got closer to her, close enough to whisper into her ear, while my grip on her wrists tightened. “But I have to tell you, I'm not.”
Long before she could even react, I tugged at her arms, hard enough to send her flying across the room.
She let out a scream of pain as she crashed, then started yelling. “What the hell do you think you're doing?” She tried to get up. A well-placed kick to her ribs took her breath away and made her reconsider her decision. She started gasping for air, her hands over her chest as if it would somehow help. Darling, that's for when you're bleeding.
I knelt beside her and grabbed her chin, made her look at me.
She couldn't hold the tears anymore. Part from pain, part from fear, but I'm guessing the worst were from feeling betrayed. “Why...”
“Sorry, gal. I'll be honest. You're just a target. This is just a job. I told you I'm not a nice guy.”
“You... don't have to...”
“I wish that was true.” Well, technically it was. But... Did I really have a choice? Or just the illusion of one? … Had I ever had a choice? I honestly didn't care.
I drew the knife and took it to her chin. She started crying harder, mumbling nonsense. Her sobs muted the creaking door as it opened, the subtle clack of it closing. But still, I felt a chill down my spine as her mumble faded out to nothing. The presence was obvious – even more so in her eyes. They lighted up like a bonfire. A glimmer of hope for the little light lost in the midnight sea.
I've always said that hope's a bitch. Though I guess it may have something to do with... what we do. You see, for me, it was painfully obvious that someone entering the room wasn't a reason to lighten up. Andrei's presence –it couldn't be anybody else– always meant hell on earth.
I closed my eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. No way around this. So I may as well make him proud. I opened them to see her staring at Andrei, incapable of understanding why he was just standing there. Poor thing.
I let the knife slowly caress her skin as it traced her jawline, from her chin to her cheek. She started sobbing again, only to stop as the blade dug deep into her flesh, slowly drawing a bloody X on it. Her screams brought a smile to my lips. There's a reason we never use gags unless absolutely necessary. “Hon, did that hurt?”
She was now whimpering pathetically, not realizing this wasn't over.
I was getting up when a crowbar landed at my side, clattering loudly. I took it – I knew well it hadn't fallen from the sky. Andrei didn't need to use words to tell me what he wanted.
I went for her legs first. Long bones, quite easy to heal, and I knew well that Andrei would ask for something worse later, so I wasn't gonna go for something actually bad on my own. Again I smiled at the muted snap. I knew well how much it hurt. Next hit was to her forearm – again a long bone, nothing too bad. I was in a madman's trance, fully aware of what I was doing – it made me feel euphoric. Knowing that he was there, watching. Hearing her screams. Shit, I guess I sound like a psycho.
Andrei's soft voice didn't shatter the feeling this time. “Lower back, Sandy. Break her spine.”
There it was. Something that couldn't really be fixed back. Oh, well. For the first time, I didn't even mind it. I pulled from her broken arm – I needed her in the correct position, or the risk of internal damage was too high. A bad hit to the liver could easily kill her. She screamed yet again, making me grin even wider. Once she was lying face down on the floor, too scared to try to move, I let the crowbar land, with all my strength, right on her spine, just below her waist. The sickening crack, and her painful wail, finally broke my trance.
I turned around to meet Andrei's gaze. He was beaming, his eyes glistening with joy and madness, hand in hand. I let the crowbar noisily fall on the floor as I almost jumped to hug him, to dig my head into his chest and try to forget what had just happened. He hugged me back, a soft caress that made me realize that I'd do it all again as soon as he asked.
