Chapter 42

(Filippo Valentini)

I open my eyes and feeling dizzy from the stabbing pain I have been hit with, I close them again. Not only my wound hurts, but also my head, my bones, my joints, absolutely everything in me! Cazzo!

I feel dehydrated and burning, as if fire were splashing directly on my skin, I wriggle around in a futile attempt to get rid of this infernal heat. Oh, shit! I feel trapped! I hate feeling this, it makes me have memories that follow me through the night in the form of horrible nightmares.

After a while, trying not to focus on the pain, I suddenly feel a pair of gentle hands come down on me with a damp cloth, being gently wiped across my face. I let out a sigh of relief and lifted my hand to the source of the coolness and softness, grasping it desperately, as if it were the last thread of hope, the last ray of light.

"Filippo, don't," she complains to me. "Lie still, let me take care of you, amato."

It is Renata's voice, her command overriding my maddening pain, and obey