The Golden Bond

Chapter 31

The light had been on all night. She still hadn't been given anything to eat. In the cell next door there was an obnoxious, hysterical woman who kept repeating something that sounded like serious threats over and over again. In addition there were two lecherous guards who spent most of their time standing in front of Sofia's cell, commenting on everything about her starting from the roots of her hair all the way down to her ankles. She didn't understand what they said, but somehow she knew exactly what they were talking about, their looks said enough.

Since they'd locked her in the cell she hadn't slept for a second. Her eyes were swollen from crying and she shook almost constantly – both with the cold and terror. 24 hours might have passed already but Sofia was no longer aware of time. Each and every second there was unbearable. She had a tough disposition and had already endured a lot, but whenever she could, she'd rather avoid conflict and stressful situations. The thing was that as soon as they crossed a particular boundary, she began to perceive them too intensely. As if a satellite quickly switched on inside her, receiving everything with an accuracy of several of NASA giant satellites. She was suddenly like a magnet, inadvertently attracting everything horrific around her. Even her attempts to create a shield were useless, she was simply running out of strength.

Just as she was washing her face, trying to make herself feel more civilised, a guard banged on the bars, shouting she'd got a visitor. She lifted her head carefully from the sink and whispered his name quietly.

"William?"

The guard unlocked her cell, handcuffed her then he grabbed her roughly by the shoulder and dragged her back into the room where she'd been interrogated. Sofia breathed deeply. She was almost certain that her William was waiting behind the door for her. He'd come to get her out of there. When she saw his diabolical grin, she turned completely pale.

"Take me away!" she shouted to the guard but they just slammed the door right in front of her face. She was left in the room alone, alone with him.

He looked her up and down, not hiding his joy at her pitiful condition. "Sit down!" he told her.

Sofia grinned with a painful expression. "Have you still not realised you can't boss me about? Your abracadabra doesn't work on me, Adam."

The Umbra Master just smiled. "I quite enjoy testing my assumptions, in fact, that's why I'm here," he said, pushing his glasses higher up on his nose and continued: "This ability of yours is the only reason why I didn't kill you yesterday. I'd be quite interested to know whether he told you who you actually are."

Sofia hesitated. She would have loved to tell him right to his face that she'd learned from William much more than he'd ever dreamed of, but her concern about his and her own safety stopped her. It would be better to keep her mouth shut.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him coldly.

Adam put on his serious face again. "I believe I'm the one asking questions here," he said frostily. He'd decided to make life a little bit less pleasant for Sofia before he disappeared forever, leaving her to rot in a anonymous Italian prison. "You know, White might have told you that we have our people everywhere. He likes to persist bitching about our... let's say good contacts in the right places." Adiabolical grin again. "We have all the time in the world, my dear. But I don't want to hold you back any longer, I'm sure you can't wait to get back to your cell. I've asked the people in charge here to give you extra special treatment." His super sweet voice sounded like something from a horror film.

Sofia got goose pimples.

"I just want to tell you one thing," he continued, "because I think that my dear brother might have twisted the truth a little, if he told you anything at all, that is. The love of your life really was like a blood relative to me, once. He was the only family I had. We grew up together, we trained together, we studied together, we played truant together, although... sure, he was always the one nervously fidgeting because it was against the rules. The ever responsible William... And then one day he took that sick obedience to the rules too seriously. You know why, Sofia?" His eyes darkened and for a moment she thought she saw his lip tremble. "Because he demonstrated that a stupid piece of paper was more important to him than someone who would have sacrificed his own life for him. He turned his back on me because I broke one of his stupid rules! Can you understand that at all?"

Adam's voice rose and Sofia sensed pain in it. She didn't know whether it was just her simple human perceptiveness or whether it was the Gift, but she knew that there was still a lot of grief inside Adam. The grief never left him, although he wouldn't openly admit it for anything in the world. The grief was now replaced by bitterness and a desire for revenge.

"I don't know what happened between you," she said quietly, "but whatever it was, it was long ago and it concerned you two. Not me. So I still have no clue what I've done to you or why I'm sitting here now."

Adam looked at Sofia compassionately, as if she was only a clueless farm animal condemned to the slaughterhouse. He stepped closer to her and gently stroked her cheek with his palm. "My dear, it's quite simple. Soon enough you'll understand what it means to break William White's rules."

Sofia pulled herself away from underneath his hand and pushed him with all her strength. Adam was much taller than her though and fended off her assault without any problems, although it took him a little while to get his balance back.

"Slowly, slowly, Missy," he admonished her flamboyantly with that unbearable smirk on his face. "Don't make it even worse for yourself in court." He looked at her one last time and then disappeared behind the door. As he walked down the gloomy hallway at the police station, his chest was filled with pride. He'd accomplished more than he could have ever wished for. He'd taken revenge on William in the worst possible way – he made someone that he loved suffer. What's more, he'd found out that the woman had the Gift. It seemed like an impossible coincidence but Adam remembered from his training that there was no such thing as coincidences. Now, he could use this non-coincidence to get into circles that he hadn't even dreamed of until now.

Shortly after he'd left, one of the two guards came to collect Sofia and using brute force, dragged her back to her cell. As she walked in, she stopped frozen. There were two beds in her cell from the very beginning but it had never occurred to her that the other bed might actually be occupied one day. Until now.

"Hai compagnia, Miss Jacobs," the guard said mockingly and walked away.

A woman stood opposite Sofia, or was it a man – she couldn't figure it out at first glance. But apparently it was a woman, with an expression of a thuggish drunk sailor who'd just returned from a 6-month voyage and wanted to screw anything with two legs that he could get his hands on.

Sofia instinctively stepped back to the bars. The butch convict moved confidently towards her and followed her until Sofia had nowhere to go. They stood opposite each other face to face. Sofia instinctively put her arms around her waist in order to protect herself.

"Ora ci divertiremo un po' insieme," the sailor said in a hoarse voice raising her ugly hands towards Sofia...