𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐞

𝟒𝟗. 𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬

"Do you want to know the truth? I may scare you," I said while smirking.

"You? A little girl?" he asked me with disbelief.

"I want to take revenge for my sister's death," I replied and got up.

I started walking around the room with my shoulders back, without looking at Derange. I could see him scanning me with the corner of my eye.

"Oh and I also want a gun," I added.

A satisfaction, as if having completed a deeply, personally needed action. Expressed by the slightest curve at his mouth's corner and a youthful confidence worn in a light raise of his eyebrow above his quizzical, joyful eye.

"I see. Well then we must help you, right?" he asked me while smirking.

"You don't really have a choice," I replied almost immediately.

My steps wouldn't have worked on him but who said that I didn't have any other steps. I knew guys like Mr Derange. A thin paper cigarette hung from his bottom lip, a small trail of smoke escaping from the corner of his mouth danced its way to the ceiling above us. He was playing the bad guy, he held a gaze more fearsome than a tiger but he was a softie.

Suddenly, as if watching a movie I saw him opening the left drawer in his desk. Finally my fake ID and my passport would be shortly in my possession. My gaze fell to his hands. In his right hand a gun laid loosely, his finger gently pressed against the trigger sending a bullet millimeters away from my face and into the wall behind me, with a bang that echoed throughout the room.

I breathed in and out but air wouldn't enter my lungs. Starved for air, my heart raced at tremendous speeds. I stood there for what felt like an eternity but was actually only five minutes. Each second submerged in fear made a permanent mark on my heart. His eyebrow raised in amusement at my reaction.

"You see, I have many choices here, I can do whatever the hell I want and believe me when I say that I can even kill you right here. Nobody comes in my territory and disrespects me," he said while playing with the gun in his hands.

"Are you crazy?" I screamed at him with all my strength. "You could have killed me just seconds ago," the words trembled in my tongue.

"Oh yes, but I didn't, did I?" he laughed.

"Listen, I don't have time for games. Can you help me? yes or no?" I sighed.

"Yes," he replied without thinking. "I can and I will help you but only if you agree to tell me everything."

"We have a deal then," I sighed.

"Let's go."

We got out of the underground bar and left with a big, black luxurious car. It was strange, there were no other people coming with us, no men, not even bodyguards. How could he sure that I wouldn't harm him? Well, I got scared by a single bullet so that instantly made me, not dangerous. No matter what, I would get what I came here for. My fake passport and ID.

"I don't like having fake names," I mumbled. "And I really don't like the name Inanna."

He didn't look at me but I knew that an answer would escape his lips soon. His face was serious, he didn't take his eyes off the road, not even for a second.

"Really? Because I thought you wanted a fake ID, with a fake name on it," he said sarcastically.

"I am Alice," I whispered.

"Oh no, no. Now if they torture me to learn information about you I have to say everything," he laughed once again.

"You are the messenger, you will pass the message to my rivals," I laughed and tried mimicking a deeper voice.

The car stopped after a few minutes. I looked around and what I saw amazed me. A huge white house was in front of me. Derange parked his car and led me up until the porch. The front door, made of dark wood planks with black hinges spreading half way across, had that rustic appeal the rich city folk craved. Inside it was renovated, no expense spared. The charm of the country with every modern convenience of a penthouse suite.

"Welcome to my home. Oh and if you want to kill me just know that I have guys guarding the house," he smirked. I wasn't sure if he was kidding or not.

He led me through a big white door and we were finally in the living room which looked as if nobody had ever used anything. Everything was too expensive to sit on, I was even afraid of destroying his couch. Derange went straight to pour us some drinks and when he came back he found me sitting on the stairs. He looked at me confused but then he laughed as soon as he understood why I was sitting there.

"Come sit here please," he insisted. I got up and sat on his white leather couch.

"All alone in a world so dark, where the people are cruel and karma doesn't exist," he sipped some of his drink. "Me, not so innocent but not yet tainted, get's treated like I'm less than human, even though I haven't done any wrong towards them."

"Towards who?" I exclaimed.

"I had fallen into their lies and believed the words they told me, but then I realized they were the same as me. I have two eyes, a mouth, a nose. I have two arms and two legs like them. If you cut me and yourself, we would both bleed red," he was in deep thinking. "But what they didn't expect was the strength and the anger that grew inside of me everyday. So, you see I had a reason for becoming like this. I was provoked. I will help you because I can see this anger and strength that is growing inside you."

"I highly doubt that you can ever imagine what I have been through," I sighed and looked around neurotically. "I have a proposition to make," I suddenly said without thinking. His full attention shifted on me.

"Come with me and help me and I'll pay you a lot of money," the words came out and even I was shocked.

"You will pay me," he started laughing uncontrollably. "If you had the money to pay me you wouldn't have come here seeking for help."

I got up and sat on the stairs again with my head slumped into my hands. I told him everything, since the beginning and he just stood there without taking his eyes off of me, listening. I almost cried as I spoke, my pain inside moving like ocean waves just to speak my mind. All the moments I had spent with Victoria turned slowly into painful memories. They were sharp, and cut right through me everytime I thought. Even the sweet good moments we had were turned into a knife that killed my already broken heart. Every word I said to Derange tortured my soul.

I had experienced pain before, but nothing amounted to this. I could neither hide or run or fight them. My memories were indeed my worst enemy and the thing that would most likely destroy me. I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around my shins as I was talking. If I could just curl up into a ball, I wouldn't have to face real life, I'd be protected from everything around me. I let my head fall down to my knees, and I pulled my legs closer to me.

"That's all," I whispered trying to fight my tears. "Now you know everything."

There was a time when I was a poisoned apple. Half green, half red on the outside but black and rotten on the inside like an angel in disguise. There was no hope of rescue for me but somehow, after talking about everything almost set me free. Free from the prison of thick brambles and deadly thorns which I had planted for myself. I was almost free from an evil so thick, I couldn't control it.