Memories

LVIII

MONSTER

'But what if I, what if I trip?
What if I, what if I fall?
Then am I the monster?
Just let me know
And what if I, what if I sin?
And what if I, what if I break?
Then am I the monster? 
Just let me know'

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She strode across the room, hit Lola with a few punches until she was stumbling backward clutching what was probably a broken nose, and took a craft knife out of her boot. She lunged forward and stabbed DiMaccio in the side, breaking off the part of the knife that was inside him, and going at him again. He groaned in pain. Nathalia got in a few good hits, breaking off the excess each time, before she was pulled back.

Lola's hands felt like they were trying to squeeze the life out of Nathalia, but she had enough training of her own. Lola herself had trained Nathalia. She couldn't remember any of the lessons, just that they'd happened. And that she remembered everything she learnt in them.

Nathalia saw her father go after Nathaniel, and tried to scream, but the knife Lola had put to her throat earlier was back and cut a shallow line, causing a small bubble of blood to show up on the outside of her skin. She gasped at the quick pain and put her hand to her neck, as if she was going to bleed out right then and there. Nathalia wiped the blood off and looked at her hand. There wasn't even that much.

There was apparently enough of a distraction, however, for Lola to kick the back of Nathalia's knee and force her to the floor. She put her hand down to catch herself, but that was a mistake. She didn't dare yell in pain, and instead bit her lip.

Nathan was still going after his son, who was now scrambling away on the floor. Nathaniel had terror and regret in his eyes, and he wouldn't take them off his father. Then something in him changed, and he got up and turned, heading for Lola. She was standing in front of Nathalia now, and got her gun and knife out, ready for the resistance. 

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Nathaniel dodged the knife and ducked from the gun, though he knew she wouldn't shoot. She came at him, knife ready for another attack, but Nathaniel dodged again and punched her throat. Lola choked, but Nathaniel barely heard it through the crackling in his brain. Every bone and muscle in his hand and the rest of his body disagreed strongly with his actions, and he fought to stay upright. 

Lola yelled out in pain again and fell to her knees. Nathaniel looked and saw his sister pulling a knife out of Lola's calf. There was no blood on it, though, and that's when he realised it was a craft knife, designed to snap off pieces on the end when they had gone dull. Nathalia had found a different, more violent use for the tool, however, and Nathaniel almost smiled. It must have been what she'd gone at DiMaccio with as well, because he seemed to be limping and trying to grab things out of his back.

Nathaniel turned and lunged for the door. Lola, despite being injured, grabbed his hair. He didn't care how much hair he lost. Nathaniel wouldn't let go of the door knob.

"Stop," Nathan's voice said. Nathaniel turned, knowing it wasn't good when Lola did the same. His breath caught in his throat at the sight.

Nathan had Nathalia's hair in his fist, forcing her head back. He was holding his cleaver up to her neck, and she looked like she was crying. Nathaniel knew she wasn't, though. It didn't matter how long she'd been away from all of this, or how much she remembered or didn't remember. Nathaniel knew she remembered the promise she made him all those years ago; don't cry. In the face of danger? don't cry. In pain? don't cry. Just lost everything and have nothing left to live for? don't cry. In this moment, she wouldn't forget it. She wouldn't even dare.

"You want her to live?" Nathan said. "Then stop moving. Stop trying to run away. You can't. It's over, Nathaniel. It was always meant to happen this way. I'm going to kill you. And then I'm going to kill your sister, because if I don't then she'll run to the cops, and probably the FBI as well. And I can't have that."

Nathan threw Nathalia to the side, where DiMaccio caught her and held her down. Then he went after Nathaniel who Lola was holding down. He easily got out of her grip, however, and scrambled backwards. His father pinned him down, and all hope left Nathaniel's chest. Nathan pressed his cleaver to Nathaniel's throat, and called over his shoulder for DiMaccio to cuff Nathalia to the sink and hand him his axe.

"Maybe we'll do both," Nathan said as if he were discussing the weather. "If we do it right, the two of you might last all night." He was carving shallow patterns into Nathaniel's face with his cleaver, while holding him down with the axe. "Lola," Nathan said, and the woman immediately appeared at his side. She wasn't smiling, and was limping from the wound Nathalia had given her.

"Would you like the pleasure of crippling him?" Nathan asked.

"No," Nathaniel said against the blade at his neck. He felt fear crawling its way up his throat until he felt like he was going to throw up. Nathaniel kicked his legs away from where she was crouching out of his sight. Nathan tolerated it until Nathaniel accidentally put his hands on him. Then he lay his cleaver on the bridge of his nose.

"If you do not sit the fuck still I will gouge your eyes out." he said. Nathaniel froze. He too had made a deal to his sister. While she had promised she would never cry, Nathaniel had told Nathalia that he would never beg. So he kept his mouth shut while he trembled, though he desperately wanted to cry out.

"Can I?" Lola asked.

"We'll slit your ankles, then your knees," Nathan said, looking into his son's eyes. "And if you try to crawl away I will take your arms from you too. Do you understand?"

DiMaccio was back with a blowtorch which he put beside Nathan. Nathaniel wanted to scream, but he saw that as a sort of begging, and he thought that if he started now, that he wouldn't be able to stop himself. Instead, he turned his head to where his sister was sitting, watching it all happen. Nathalia had tears in her eyes, but she wouldn't let them fall. Not even as she watched her brother being torn apart and killed, knowing the same would happen to her. 

The eye contact made Nathalia sit up straighter and she took a deep breath across the room and started yanking her wrists away from the handcuffs keeping her down. Her actions got DiMaccio's attention, and he walked across the room to her. Nathaniel's attention turned back in the direction of his father when the cellar door slammed open. Nathaniel was never so happy to see the police.