The Monster In Us

17- get OUt of there

Name: Dante Berardi
Nicknames: D-Bird
Age: 24
Hair color: Black
Eye color: Brown
Height: 6'3"
Skin color: White, tan
Identifiers: Right arm tattoo sleeve, scar on neck
Rank: Second hand to Giovanni, no inferiors
Skill: Guns, hand to hand combat

I read through the file that Coleman had sent to me through Sergei that Pantera has on Dante. I don't really know exactly why I asked for it but it's kind of interesting to see all of the missions that he's been put on for his father. There's pages and pages of 'known missions' that he has been seen on, firsthand accounts from people from Pantera that have fought him and made it out alive.

There's a list of all of the people that he is known to have killed, both from Pantera and just in general. It's a lot longer than my list. I recognize a few names on the list but none of them surprise me because I had already known that they were dead at the hands of the Berardis so it makes sense that it was him. Nobody that I was ever close to or anything, I just worked with them.

It also lists how he's killed people and it's mostly by gun because he's apparently a very good shot but it's also just by beating them to death if it's necessary. Sometimes a knife but that one seems rare.

Nothing in his file is surprising, although maybe the number of people he has killed should be. Thirty-five that we know of. Mine is only twelve so I can't imagine what it must be like for him, to have all of that blood on his hands. I wonder if he enjoys it, killing people, but I want to believe that he doesn't. He only does it for his father, like I do.

I have only killed one person that I actually enjoyed killing, and it was when I was twelve years old. The first person that I'd ever killed, I wanted to kill him so badly and when I finally pulled the trigger, it felt so good. I had a very good reason for that though, because just the moment before that, I had seen him shoot my mother dead right in front of me and my father.

My father, too horror stricken by her death, pointed to the man as he was running out the door and yelled at me to get him. And so I did, and I hope that it hurt really bad for that man. But all of the others after him had never done anything to me directly or to anybody that I care about, so it wasn't enjoyable or easy for me to do, I just did it because that is my job.

Just like I'm sure that Dante just does it because it is his job.

Or maybe he really does enjoying taking peoples' lives because that is how he was raised, to crave the blood of others.

Either way, I need to stop thinking about this. I close the folder, making sure all of the papers are back inside and I hide it in the closet with the rest of my undercover stuff that only Vera can have.

It's Tuesday night now and I don't really have much to do. I've been watching YouTube and drawing in my sketchpad but my mind seems so busy. I can't get my mind off of Dante and it's incredibly infuriating.

As I'm trying to get my mind off of him, I'm glad that my phone rings to give me something to focus on other than Dante. However, the call is coming from my burner phone so it's somebody from Pantera which is odd.

"Hello?" I answer it.

"What are you doing?" Coleman answers the phone.

"Um, about to order dinner... how'd you get this number?"

"Sergei gave it to me," He explains. "And he told me what your mission is, why you had to leave for a while and this is the stupidest plan that has ever gone down in the history of Pantera. You have to get out of there, Vera."

"I don't have a choice," I tell him. "It was my father's idea and he wasn't going to take no for an answer. Trust me, I don't like it any more than you do but it has to be this way."