Hollis swore successively and pleaded, "Ugo please get out. Your fingerprint has been registered. Press it on the scanner below the dining table. Drag Castel with you! What the fuck!"
He screamed and the line went dead. I looked at the phone and handed it over to Castello. He examined it."Battery’s fucking dead. I forgot to charge it, " he confessed and put the useless phone back in his pocket.He tapped the scanner under the table and started barking instructions. "Step into the basement, it will lead you to a long walkway that goes straight up." He pushed chips, biscuits and two cans of water into a bag for me."Follow the pathway straight ahead. Once you come to the end of the road, you'll see a drainage cover above. Push it open and head straight. Do not deviate. Keep straight and in twenty or forty minutes max, you'll come to a brown cabin with a dark roof and pine trees behind. Scan your finger on the scanner under the doormat. That should take you insideGunfire suddenly erupted at the back of the crowd, and I saw three of Amory's men go down with a splat. The guard who told me about Hugh's whereabouts had snuck out behind them, taking three men down before getting shot himself. While Amory's men had been distracted by the guard, Castello cocked his fist back and punched Amory right on the nose. Amory fell back like a rag doll. He slid to the floor and his head hit the ground with a thud. One of his men ran to his side but he shoved him away. Disoriented, he wobbled to a sitting position, his nose bleeding, "Fuckin kill him," he ordered pinching his nose with two fingers. Three of his men raised their weapons and, in unison, fired shots at Castello. Castello went limp to the floor. At that moment, I felt like I'd been knocked out of my body. What did I just see? It's not possible. My vision blurred, but my eyes stayed on Castello. I willed him to get back up, to fight back, to run. But he wasn’t moving. Blood soaked up the f
Branches slashed me in the face, and I pummeled full speed into a few tree trunks. I couldn’t see more than two feet in front of me, but I saw the flight lights getting closer, so I didn’t stop. I kept running, often tripping over fallen logs and bushes and skeletons. My legs were getting severely scratched and bruised. My hands were tattered. The adrenaline was pumping too fast for me to feel much, but after a while, my burning lungs were also starting to plot against me. Though my mind continued to speed through, my body was slowly giving up. When my shoulder hit an unseen tree limb, I fell backwards to the ground, and the back of my head hit the hard ground. I forced myself to get up but just fell forward on my hands and couldn’t go on anymore. The forest was dark, the moon was unable to do much for me at this point because it was covered by tree branches. So, it was reflecting off the treetops. Slowly, the torchlights started diminishing. I heard footsteps stomping f
Next, I started feeling the cold through my body. By the time we reached the cabin Castello described for me, my teeth were chattering, and my naked feet and fingers were burning. Hollis carried me toward the building. There was chaos around the property. A couple of his men were there; some were manning the cabin while others seemed to be walking around the property, surveying the land, looking for clues or other stuff, I had no idea. I concentrated on how good it was to hear Hollis's voice again. He carried me into the cabin and immediately into an empty room not giving me time to glance around the space. The bedroom was small but comfortable and most importantly, warm. Hollis released me from his back and made me sit on the mattress. "I need you to take a minute, and then we'll be out of here." He explained as he brought out a thermometer to get my temperature. In the nightmarish haze I was in, I held my arm down to prevent the thermometer from falling off. Then I got up a
I could feel the throbbing in my bruised and bloodied legs. I could also feel the fear and the pain that was lingering deep, slowly rising to the surface. I wrapped myself in the towel that Hollis had left for me and walked out to the small living room where he was standing at the edge deep in a phone conversation. His expression was dead serious, and I knew not to disturb him. I walked into the bedroom, he had already set out some clothes on the bed for me. Like a robot, I dressed myself. I soon heard the sound of the shower and I knew Hollis had gone to wash up.The clothes I had on smelled like him. By the time I was completely dressed, he was out of the shower, dressed already in jeans; his upper body was shirtless. He looked miserable and I could feel my drowned emotions already bubbling up. I strolled back to the living room, there was a heater present, so I felt it was best to stay there and get myself warmed up. I watched Hollis walk to the stove where the kettle was now b
I had no idea where I was or what time it was when I woke up again. Disoriented, I glanced around the room, looking for a clock, and then, I suddenly recalled the events of the previous day. Disarrayed images of what had happened started filtering through in pieces. Gunfire, dead bodies, skeletons, Castello. I gulped to force back down the knot that was growing in my throat and got up. From the windows, I could see that the sun was up and that Hollis wasn't home, a little panic took over me. I shuffled over to the living room, just as he walked through the door, grocery bags in hand. "The grocery store didn’t have much, but I got what I could." He announced, breathless. Placing the bags on the table, he rushed over to me and shocked me with a hug that lasted for a while. He cradled my face in his hands and surveyed it with worry, passing his thumbs over my puffy and scratched cheeks. I forced a cheering smile. "Good morning," he whispered, kissing me on the
"What?" I jolted up. Not sure what pained me most. What he said, or the fact that he dropped me down. "But it's not even up to a year." I reminded him, in case he's forgotten."Yeah, and I'm letting you go." He said.I shook my head, walking to meet him in the living room. "No, don't say that. I can help you with something while I'm here.""No, you can't." He shook his head.My voice broke into a whisper. "I... I don't want to..." I held out to him. "I just told you that I love you." I wondered if my words didn't mean a thing to him. After everything that had happened, we needed each other more than ever. I considered bringing my face a few inches forward to bridge the gap between us, while he continued to shake his head. "The fact that I said I love you, does it mean anything to you at all?" I asked him. He smiled lazily. "You know it does. But I can't keep you here. Surely, this isn't the future you want for yourself.""It is," I said hurriedly
I saw Castello spread on the ground. I yelled at him to get up, but he refused to move. I was frantic. He was lying on the tiled floor right in front of me, and I bent over, trying to get to him, but someone was holding me back. I fought the hand that was grabbing onto the back of my shirt and turned around to see Amory sitting across from me with a long whip. I woke up in a cold sweat. Hollis was already holding me and calling out my name. I was screaming Castello's name. His face had implanted itself in my brain while I was sleeping, and it wasn’t going away anytime soon. Hollis rocked me back and forth as the tears and quivering started up again. But something was different this time. I didn’t want to hold any of it in anymore. After a few minutes of tears, I willed myself to calm down, and I turned to Hollis. He looked sick with worry. "Baby, I'm here." He groaned painfully. "What are you going to do to Amory?" I asked point blank, wiping the wetness from my face. H
I woke up very late, well into the afternoon. Even then, I realized that what woke me up was the sound of Hollis's voice coming from outside. I went downstairs and peeked out the window. He was pacing back and forth on the porch, talking rapidly on his cell phone. I could hear him angrily retelling my story, the parts they didn't catch on camera to whoever was listening on the other side. He was beside himself, and a string of cuss words preceded and followed Frick's name. I took the opportunity to wash my face and have a boiling warm shower. As the warm water washed the soapy leather off my body, so did my remaining jumbled thoughts. Everything in my head was clear again, and, though my heart still felt like it was being squeezed every time I thought of Castello, I didn’t let my brain run away from it anymore. I let myself feel the pain and remember everything as it happened. Then I started thinking of the way forward. I haven't spoken to my father yet. I droppe