Deadly Love

Chapter 9

My eyes widened even more. "Am I dead?"

Still he didn't say anything.

"Charlie where are you? Tell me and I will save you." I begged him while sobbing.

Nothing.

"Say something!" my voice broke but instead of speaking, he got up and began walking away from me. "Charlie where are you going, stay with me!" I screamed after him but he was gone because I blacked out again.

"Jade." A soft voice whispered close to my ear. I opened my watery eyes and gazed into Emanuele's warm, dark ones. He wiped the tears that fell from my eyes and shushed me as I began sobbing.

"Emanuele, are you real?" For some unknown reason his presence here was soothing to me. Looking at his face gave me a sense of calmness and hope that I will be okay. That he will save me and protect me from all that is bad, even if he belonged to that bad himself. These were the emotions I was afraid of. I didn't want to feel safe with him, if I did; it was only a matter of time before I fell in love with him.

I clutched his arm desperately so he wouldn't leave me like Charlie did. I was praying that he was not a hallucination and really was here to rescue me.

But I was wrong. "Wake up!" he whispered lightly to me as he began to diminish. I cried out to him and wouldn't leave his arm.

"Wake up!" the voice changed and it was much more heavy and threatening now. I couldn't put a face to it because suddenly it was all dark in front of my eyes.

"Wake up, Zoccola!" I felt a kick in my stomach and that is what jerked me awake.

Pain and immense agony was the only thing I felt as I clutched my stomach with my arms, curling myself into a ball. Not only my stomach hurt but my head felt like it would explode. I wailed hysterically as I felt another kick to my stomach but it was blocked by my arm, it throbbed nonetheless. I opened my wet eyes slowly and through my blurred vision saw two manly figures standing above me. One of them was torturing me and the other one was behind him laughing at my suffering. I wanted nothing more than to die right now.

"Look who is awake!" the one kicking me said in a disgustingly cooing way. "Why didn't you listen to me for the first time, puttana?" He kicked me twice on the leg with his heavy booted foot.

I screamed and bawled my eyes out. "Who are you people?" I asked as I tried to slip away from him towards the corner.

His teeth clenched. He came closer to me and hunched down, he cupped his ear. "Did you just shout at me?" I tensed. He looked back at the other man who had his arms crossed at his chest, looking at us casually. "Did she just shout at me?"

His partner shrugged.

He turned back to me, madness in his eyes. I moved a few feet away from him by dragging myself with the help of my elbows, trying not to screech in pain.

Before I could reach the wall, he grabbed my hair and pulled at them roughly. I cried out as he slapped me hard on my cheek. The force of the blow made me fall back on the concrete floor and sob. I tasted metal on my tongue and felt the instant swell of my cheek. The hard fall on the floor gave me more scratches and bruises. My entire battered body ached and there was nothing more than I wanted right now than to see Emanuele's face.

"I don't like it when people shout at me!" he yelled near my face that made me turn away from the mad man.

"Che e sufficiente!" the man who has been staring at my whole ordeal quietly finally spoke. He pulled out a cell phone from his jeans pocket and offered it to the man who was now glaring at me. "Go call the boss!" he ordered him. He obliged and snatched the phone away from him, walking towards the single wooden door while still giving me angry glances from time to time. Much to my relief, he was gone.