Thanatophobia | VICTOR ZSASZ [DISCONTINUED]

nine | the fearsome dr. crane

While Oswald raised the glass up to his lips, a man in a red, long-sleeved shirt and black vest approached the table and held a phone out to Salvatore as he said, "Phone for you, boss."

Salvatore grabbed the phone and said into it, "Speak."

It was then that Annabelle heard Fish's voice say, "Hello, Sal."

Annabelle's hands clenched into fists and her body started to heavily shake just from hearing the voice of the very person that was responsible for the harm and practical torture she'd dealt with before Victor had saved her.

While her veins started to come onto display and her desire to rip Fish into tiny, little pieces came over her once more, Salvatore quickly looked over at Oswald as he said, "Hey."

Fish said to him, "You sound surprised. Let me guess, your little friend Penguin told you I was dead."

Salvatore replied, "As good as."

Fish said to him, "Hmm. I'm just on a vacation for a while."

In turn, Salvatore said, "Huh."

Then Fish said to him, "I'm not going to lie. I thought I was gonna end up on top. Instead, I got played. Turns out Penguin has been Falcone's man the whole time. They played us both for suckers."

Salvatore asked her, "Is that right?"

While Oswald gave Salvatore a nod of his head and held up his glass with a smile on his face, Fish replied, "Ah. Indeed. He told me himself right before I was about to gut him."

Salvatore said to her, "You understand why I might be skeptical, considering it's you telling me this."

While Oswald picked up a butter knife and sniffed it, Fish replied, "Oh, wake up, dummy. You mean to tell me this whole time, you haven't suspected anything? That he hasn't made one slip that he's had to explain away? Or maybe even you want to believe his lies." While Oswald waved over a waiter, Fish said, "But it still gnaws at you, doesn't it? The doubt."

Once the waiter reached the table, he said, "Si, Signore?"

While he pointed out a smudge on the knife before he handed it to the water, Oswald told him, "It's right there. A smudge. Don't let it happen again."

Salvatore said to Fish, "Maybe a couple of times."

Fish told him, "It's time to get your house in order, Salvatore. And remember who put you wise."

Then the phone call ended, which allowed Salvatore to put the phone on the receiver, while Oswald raised his glass once again as he said, "Not bad news, I hope."

With a shake of his head, Salvatore replied, "No. I gotta go upstate. See a guy about a thing. Come with me. We can talk about opportunities."

Oswald's mouth fell open for a moment before he nodded his head and said, "Sure." When Salvatore nodded his own head in response to Oswald's words, Oswald started to stand up from his seat as he said, "Just, uh, let me run home and—"

Salvatore told him, "Ah-ah. We gotta go. Right now."

Oswald faltered for a moment before he said with a quick shake of his head, "Super. I love a road trip. Yay."

Salvatore plastered a grin on his face as he said, "Yay."

After listening to Salvatore give his orders to his men before he and Oswald left, Annabelle sighed.

She abhorred the idea of going to wherever it was upstate that Salvatore was taking Oswald.

Because of the orders she was given by Carmine, that meant that there wouldn't be a likely chance in which she could take some free time to herself and start her search for Fish, which was quite troubling for her.