Chapter 8

"People always talk about how hard it can be to remember things - where they left their keys, or the name of an acquaintance - but no one ever talks about how much effort we put into forgetting. I am exhausted from the effort to forget... There are things that have to be forgotten if you want to go on living." - Stephen Carpenter

Slowly I close the apartment door behind me when I get back to the apartment. The sun is setting, evaporating the light between the white walls of the open plan kitchen and livingroom. I am late. I should have left earlier, but I missed Isabella so much and to be honest. I wasn't ready to say goodbye. My eyes search for any sign of Arthur, but there doesn't seem to be anyone here. I take a step deeper into the apartment dropping my phone into my pocket.

"Shh..." A whisper next to my ear send bolts of terror exhilarating through my body. A huge figure behind me set his hand over my mouth and a strong arm wrap around my body. He pull me back with him until we reach the wall between the door and the kitchen counter. My back against his front. I don't move. Can't move.

The door slowly open next to us and my eyes follow the shadows on the opposite wall. Two men holding their hand guns infront of them quietly step into the room. Anxiety vacate my body at the realisation that the man behind me can only be Arthur. I instantly feel saver and he must have felt my body relax against him, because he took his hand covering my mouth away.

"Please just stay here and keep quiet." The whisper barely hearable. He doesn't give me any time to respond before he remove his arm around me and step out from behind the door pulling one of the men back with his arm cloacked around the intruder's neck. The other man turn to face him, but doesn't shoot. Arthur is using his friend as a human shield.

" говорил тебе не вмешиваться." Arthur utter so casually without any emotion.

"Босс не хочет ждать." The man pointing his gun at Arthur spit.

"Это не важно." Arthur chuckle taking a step closer to his rival. "Tell your Boss to go fuck himself." The sudden English surprise me as I was trying so hard to make my brain understand the foreign language that I gasped at Arthur's words.

"Get down!" Arthur yell letting go of the man infront of him and jumping over to me. My head hit the ground as Arthur comes crushing onto me. Bullets tear through the door sending splinters flying over us as Arthur roll us into the kitchen behind the counter. His one arm tightly enveloping my body.

Arthur smash his hand hard into the side of the cupboard retrieving a gun from inside the splintered wood. Arthur's reaction to the man rounding the counter is psyche, inevitable. He fire straight at the man with sharp precise three-round bursts that send the man falling to the ground. The other guy reach for Arthur's gun, but Arthur roll his hands down and away, making a quick swirl then his feet meeting the man's face. His head turn to the side from the kick and with a small snap of Arthur's hands around his neck he fall to the ground. Motionless.

"We need to go." Arthur mutter so casually, but I am trapped. Sitting between the broken kitchen cupboard and a dead man whose blood surround me. "Чертова баба." Arthur curse in his language picking up my shaking body from the floor and draping me over his shoulder. He step over the blood and between the two dead men plastered to the floor then bend his knees lowering himself to pick up a black suitcase from the floor before we exit the door.

"Where are we going?" I clean my dry throat watching Arthur switch gears and picking up pace. I don't recognise the car inside I glance over the dash trying to search for a hint to what the make of the car is.

"I am not sure if I want to tell you." He check his mirror switching the indicater on to change lanes. I ignore his brutality fiddling with the buttons and turning knobs on the dash trying to figure out how to switch on the heat. There is so much buttons. "Stop that." He scowl at me.

"I am cold!" I snap back.

"Didn't your parents teach you to ask or do you just choose never to listen?" His question cut into my chest like a million small cuts. This isn't even about the darn heat. This is about me not staying put as I promised. His boldness I can handle. I have developed a thick skin over the years, but his insensitive and cold heart. That is the deal-breaker here. I will rather face death than be emotionally abused.

"My mother never had the time and my father... I never met him." I shrug and the corner of my eye catch the knob to turn on the heat. Without hesitation I reach for it and turn it halfway. This time Arthur doesn't stop me. He rather decide on watching me, waiting for me to explain my answer.

"Well I don't know who my father is. He left my mother while she was three months pregnant with me. She never talked about him. The only thing she ever told me was that if circumstances were different he wouldn't have left." I pause waiting for him to say something, but he doesn't. Not even a change in emotion. I rub my hands together absorbing the heat from the car.

"When I was eight she met my stepfather. Our lifes changed for awhile. I spend more time with my mother than my grandmother, but that didn't last for long. My grandmother who was in perfect health just suddenly died, so my stepfather decided to leave his job to look after me. My mother had to take up another job, again. Like before she married my stepfather. I barely saw my mother anymore although we did some nights have family dinner, but my stepfather usually took charge and let's just say he wasn't very fond of me."

"Where are they now?" Arthur set the speed control and take his feet from the peddles.

"Dead." I lean my head against the seat. "They were murdered." I close my eyes trying to erase the memory of them laying at the dinner table covered with blood from my mind.

"Tell your mother what happened at school today." Antonio blather with his mouthful. I always knew he was a savage, but blaming my swollen blue eye on Tommy. Unacceptable. "Tell your mother what that little shit you call your boyfriend did." He slam both his hands on the table so hard that the sauce on my plate ripple with aftershock.

I look up at my mother who catches her first glimpse of my face. "Oh Lilith..." She breath dropping her fork to her plate, but Antonio set his arm over her to prevent her from getting up.

"It looks worse than it is." I sooth my mother before Antonio gets angry again. "Just an accident." I murmer taking a bite of risotto.

"Don't lie to your mother!" Antonio stare at me with threatening eyes. He doesn't want me seeing Tommy anymore. He wants my mother to say it. He wants her to break my heart. He want me to hate my mother and sometimes I do. I hate her for not being around and I hate her for leaving me with him.

"I am not!" I snap. My heart bouncing around my chest. My emotions falling all over the dining room. I fucking hate him. I want him mad. I want my mother to finally see him the way I do.

"See what I mean." He gesture to my mother with his finger pointed at me. "I can't cope with her being so aggressive. This is what I told you about. You should talk to her or... I will..." His voice is calm now. The manipulating bastard. He is going to pin this on me. My behaviour.

"Lilith..." I turn my eyes to my mother seeing her eyes closing, blood gliding from her head over her closed eyelids.

"Mamma!" I cry when her head falls forward hitting the table. Antonio jump up at the sudden chaos when a bullet pierce through his heart. I watch him stumble back a few feet when another bullet penetrate through the skin on his forehead and his body slope to the ground.

There is so much blood.

"Lilith?" I open my eyes at the sound of Arthur's voice. "We are here."

"Where?" I lift my head. Arthur is bending over his seat on his knees.

"Just come." He sigh closing his door when he get out.