I have absolutely no idea how we managed to break through the steel watertight door that closed the garage.
In fact, I wasn't looking. I guess that you don't get the best view from under the passenger seat. However, when I finally get up, we're already half a mile away. Bullets are hailing over us, evidently some survivors are following us.
Tears suddenly leaves the steering wheel and leans out of the window.
- You drive! -
- What? - I scream so loud that I manage to deafen myself with my own voice.
He waves his hand. - Hold the fucking wheel and drive! You just have to go straight on this avenue, we have to get to the old Duplomatic factory! -
I grab the huge steering wheel and I move on the driver's seat while Tears gets out of the window. I already did my theory lessons for the driving test, but I haven't practiced much. Especially not with trucks. I'm just saying...
Tears is sitting on the driver's window. He is holding on the roof with one and and taking a grenade with the other. He removes the safety pin with his teeth as bullets hit the bodywork around us. He throws the grenade and an explosion follows.
In the rearview mirror I see one of the cars chasing us skid. The one next to it hits the sidewalk and overturns twice, before ending off the road. Three other cars pass it. They keep on shooting at us. Tears loads the Spas hanging from his shoulder. I hear dull thuds as the enemy fire hits the bodywork of the truck.
A jolt and the sound of breaking glass: I just hit a parked car. Tears almost falls on the street because of the impact. He leans back in the cabin and yells at me.
- WHAT THE FUCK? DO YOU KNOW WHAT A STEERING WHEEL IS? -
I steadily grip the wheel. - I STEERED! HAVEN'T YOU NOTICED? -
He reloads the Spas. - AND WHAT ABOUT THE BRAKES? DO THEY WORK? -
I don't think we can go faster than we're going at the moment. - AND HOW WOULD I KNOW? I'VE NEVER BRAKED YET! -
He starts firing again. I see two other cars ending off the road in a blaze and Tears gets back in the cabin, passing over me with little grace. He even steps on my face. - LISTEN, you don't mind if I buckle up, do you? - He sits down and puts his seat belt on.
- What the fuck are you doing? -
- I ran out of bullets, so now I'll sit back and enjoy the ride. -
- On the road to hell? They're going to kill us! - Other thuds come from the bodywork.
- Nope, we're almost there, – and he smiles.
****
I grab a bowl of chips and I crash on the couch just as the opening song of ““Fist of the North Star” begins to play. All pleased with myself I shove a potato chip in my mouth and put my feet up, making myself comfortable.
The living room wall next to me shatters, scattering debris as big as human heads, which whiz around the room, passing in front of me.
I put another chip in my mouth while the nose of a truck pulls up short next to my head. I lick my fingers while the opening theme ends and Tears and Sunshine pass in front of me running and screaming.
Actually Sunshine is the only one doing all the screaming. - ASYLUM! POLITICAL ASYLUM! -
Tears points to the wall while running. - I'll fix it later Mesis, I need your tools! -
Behind them a handful of guys I ignore.
I wearily point to the other room, but he knows where I store my weapons. I'm keeping my eyes peeled on the TV. In this episode Toki dies: it's one of my favorites.
Another seven or eight guys I don't know pass in front of the television, and it's starting to get on my nerves: I can't see anything.
A gun to my temple. - Hands up, Babe! -
I swallow my chip and throw another one in my mouth. - Leave me out of your quarrels. And try to make less noise, I don't want to miss this episode. -
- I'm not kidding, sweetie! - And he pushes the gun barrel on my temple.
I snort and uncross my legs, getting up. I stretch. - You know what? - I yawn. - On an ordinary day I'd break your face. - I spin around and kick him in the face. Blood and teeth fly everywhere. - AND TODAY IT'S ONE OF THOSE DAYS! -
His gun rolls away on the floor, two guys nearby turn around and aim at me.
****
Those who managed to follow us on the Magnum are only about a dozen.
I hit a couple in their legs as soon as I manage to reload the Glock with Electra's bullets. Tears lets me have it my way and doesn't give them his usual final blow. I guess he doesn't want to leave corpses in other people's houses.
Meanwhile, through the living room door, I see Electra kicking refugees in the face. I keep the gun pointed at the guy Tears has just disarmed and I check on Electra. - Tears? Don't you think we should help her? -
Tears pulls out of his pocket a pair of handcuffs with the Confederation symbol on them. I wonder if he has ever used them. Usually the dead don't need to be handcuffed.
- Don't worry, "Sunshine", – he says sarcastically.
Meanwhile, in the living room Electra disarms the last conscious refugee with a final kick and puts her hands on her hips.
- So, kiddo, are you going to follow me to the Confederation or you like to be handcuffed by women? -
- Fuck you, bitch! - He yells back.
- Um, you know what? - She spins on herself and hits the man's jaw with a heel. - I don't feel like it! - The guy collapses on the floor.
Right after that another handful of refugees invades the living room passing from the breach we've opened in the wall with the truck, and surrounds Electra.
She's in trouble now. I nod towards her. - Tears, there's five of them. -
He's handcuffing those two I shot earlier. - Yes, yes, I can count to five. -
Before I can reply to that, Electra jumps, dodges bullets, kicks and punches like there's no tomorrow.
I am astounded. - T... Tears... - I mumble over the refugees' screams.
Tears doesn't turn and continues to handcuff the refugees peacefully. - Mesis? How are you doing back there? -
Electra blocks the foot of the guy in front of her with her leg and elbows him on the right cheekbone, then she twists his arm and throws him on the floor. - I'm doing great! -
I'm speechless. Each one of her moves is perfect to the very last inch. Each gesture, movement, weight calibration reflects the exact amount needed. And every move she makes hits home.
Tears gets up and finally looks at her, folding his arms with a smirk on his lips. He leans slightly towards me without taking his eyes off Electra. - Watch now, she's going to lay him flat using her head. -
That's exactly what Electra does.
- I'm scared, - I murmur.
Tears shakes his head and claps his hands. - She's fantastic, - he grins.
****
In less than fifteen minutes they're all knocked down and handcuffed.
Electra tidies her hair, looks at the TV screen, and swears when she realizes that the ending theme of “Fist of the North Star” is now playing. Then she comes to us, she grabs Tears by his vest and kisses him.
I feel out of place.
- These all count as mine, darling. And the wall is on you, is everything clear? - She tells him then, smiling.
He grins and nods slightly. Then she looks at me and smiles. - What's the matter, Sunshine? You look a little pale, did you get scared? -
I swallow. She's wearing a pair of jeans made with such a small quantity of denim that you could barely make a handkerchief out of it. Not to mention the tight top that highlights her flourishing breast. - Well... see... I didn't think that... - I scratch my head. - I mean, good job. -
I messed up, dammit!
She smiles and pats me on the head, then she returns to the living room and ascertains the wall damage.
I look at Tears. - Why did you get a kiss and I got a pat on the head? -
- 'Cause you're a retarded puppy, – he says right before getting on the phone.
I listen to the conversation as the guys from the cleaning team arrive and they calculate how many points should be assigned and to whom. Tears is walking back and forth and he's gesticulating a lot while talking on the phone.
- At least twenty. Yup. Scattered in and all around my house. You should also check all Borri avenue. You'll find a couple of charred cars. I did my fucking best! I don't pay attention to where I scatter somebody else's bones when I'm trying to keep mine together! No, I'm at Mesis'. Yeah... right... if not, what? They overlap? Yeah yeah, okay... see that they wire me my 20,000 euros and change for all the dead refugees ... WHAT DO YOU MEAN HALF PRICE? Are you crazy? The fuck half of it to the wanker! I have to fix my house! I wipe my ass with only 10,000 euros. Have you any idea of the devastation I have in there? I don't care, I'll confiscate his part! For room and board! Fuck you, Shelv! - He hangs up throwing the phone on the floor, and to be on the safe side he even steps on it.
****
I crawl up the stairs and I hear music blasting from the club audio system.
The Muse. Sin must be in there. As soon as I peek from behind the velvet curtain, I see him dancing fluidly to the tune of “Supermassive Black Hole”. He's dancing with his eyes closed. He hums, barely moving his lips, voicelessly. Between the pain in my leg and the one in my shoulder, I manage to find the time to stop and admire him. I lean on the column and smile, thinking about how many hundreds of people would die to see him like this.
Most of the people, and with people I mean the huge amount of men and women who Sin picks up every day, see him in his perfect shape, when he's got everything under control and he plays a game he knows exactly how to lead and how it will end. And then they end up never seeing him again.
But not me.
I get to see him every day. Even before I became... what am I? His slave? Well, I mean, even before we sealed that deal, if that's what you wanna call it.
I was not a person to hit on. I was the bartender and owner of the club where he more or less ended up every night. The place he loved the most and where he felt more at ease. He would arrive unaccompanied and leave with someone, he would then return after a couple of hours and leave again with someone else.
I know what you're thinking and no, he's not a prostitute. Or rather, it's not a job for him but a diversion, an entertainment. Once he said to me that this is the only way for him to feel anything.
He has little familiarity with feelings. He has to live on the edge in order to feel something. Push everything to the limit: battles, relationships. It's like he had a thick shell around himself, and if you don't scream loud enough, he can't hear you from inside.
Besides his are not relationships, it's just sex. He never gets involved with anybody.
He says that relationships are not for him, that he's incapable of them. I think that's not true. He's capable all right, it's just that he doesn't realize it.
He doesn't understand other people's emotions and probably he doesn't understand his own either.
I know he felt me enter the room. Sin's senses are more acute than those of an animal. He waits until the end of the song and then he opens his eyes and barely stares at me. He quietly starts walking toward me.
- No. I would have known it immediately. Wounded? Yes. Because I would have felt it, sensed it. It's terribly similar anyway, have you noticed? -
He looks at me and I'm mentally playing Scrabble to reassemble the words and put them together in a meaningful sentence, but he keeps on talking before I manage to solve the puzzle.
- Wounded but not dead, – he points at me, then he spins around and gestures a little, gracefully. - Ah, you've never seen him, but I can assure you... Damn it, how is it possible that Tears hasn't noticed? Anyway, it was a suicide mission, just to remind him the importance of the rules that we had set. He won't come here, because he knows. Of course he's very young but still, what the heck, he sees him every day! -
I sigh. - Sin, I think it's time for you to take your pills, even I am starting to have problems understanding you. -
He looks at me, quietly. He blinks a couple of times. - It could be, but I'm safe here. - Then he sniffs the air and bites one of his lips. His eyes change and he smiles a little, slyly. - I smell blood. -
I look at my shoulder through the neckline of my sweatshirt. - I took a stray bullet on the shoulder, and I got one in my left calf. But it's nothing serious. -
He rubs against me, I have been waiting all day for this moment. His breath against my ear. - I want to lick the blood off of you, - he murmurs.
I raise my eyebrows while he pushes me against the wall. His hands move under my jumper. - Well, I have no objections, - I say.
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