'So timid. Don't you know where you are? If you just stand there it'll be a boring show, with such a useless bull. Show some fighting spirit you coward.' The man slammed the heavy stick onto his back three or four times in the same place until he cried out in pain. Pepelito tried to edge out the way, not knowing what to do or why he was so angry.
'You’re supposed to be ferocious. Give me some rage. You'll disgrace your breeder if you act like this, they'll have to give you the black banderillas.' As the stick struck his back again Pepelito looked up and saw the man on a platform above them. He beat, kicked and tormented all the bulls in the enclosure but seemed to particularly enjoy hurting him. What had he done to make the man hate him?
And now he was right by the door trying to get in. Pepelito began to tremble with fear and found it hard to breathe.
Rita spoke calmly, not opening the door. 'May I inform you that you're talking to a police officer? Carry on, and me and my partner will take the lot of you down the station and do you for assault.'
'Excuse me. We're from the Fundacion de Toro Bravo. We've had information saying you've got Pepelito. It might be a prank, but we'd like to come in and see for ourselves.' He hated their voices. Trying unsuccessfully to move backwards between the bath and basin, he scraped some of the plaster off the wall with his foot. Tears dripped down his face.
'Have you got authorisation from a judge?' Rita shouted.
'Well -'
'Well! You can't. It's late, I'm about to have dinner with some guests. I've never heard such rubbish. Next time, leave house searches to the professionals.' Panting, Pepelito climbed backwards into the bath, as close as he could get to the wall, and stood with his back legs in the bath and his front legs on the floor. The plastic cracked under his weight.
'One of them's out on license, so dunno what he's playing at, I'll put him straight back inside,' Rita said, loud enough for the men to hear.
One of them spat on the ground outside. 'The boss’s sister-in-law is a cop, this is her house. That bitch is something else. She’s a fucking crazy vegan.'
'Shit. Yeah. I know her. Rita Silvera, right?' Someone else kicked the door hard.
'Nah, it won't open.'
'Let me try.' The door rattled and shook.
Pepelito was seized by panic as he remembered the things he had seen and heard and smelt them do. What they’d done to him when he was trapped. He scrabbled out, loosening the basin from the wall, and shoved himself at the bathroom door. It flew open, creaked and came off one of its hinges; as it fell, it tore down part of the blind covering the front door. Rita let out an ear-splitting scream as she dived away and landed in the straw pile in the living room.
'I can't see in there. Do you think that's him?'
'Nah, that door's solid. Let's come back tonight with some more muscle.' He heard the men muttering to themselves, their footsteps retreating.
But he knew them too well.
They'd be back.
They were going to come in. He had to run somewhere far away. He couldn't let them anywhere near him.
He threw himself down the passage and leapt onto the armchair, flinging himself at the kitchen door behind.
It broke and collapsed and he skidded into the kitchen, crashing into the table Dominguez had climbed on earlier. There was a splinter in his hoof. He threw himself at the glass door to the courtyard; it shattered against his horns. A stone statue of an angel that usually sat on Rita's back step fell onto the ground, but did not break. He looked around desperately. The passage leading into the street was too narrow for him. Someone saw him from the other side of the alley and screamed. He turned away, trying to run, he didn't know where.
****
Alfonso pulled up and parked his van around the corner from Rita's. It was dark. Rita hadn't replied to his text. Was she OK? He texted her again but there was no response. Feeling apprehensive, he took his first aid box from the van. He had tried to dissuade her from putting Dominguez up. Could she be sure she could trust him? They’d helped each other out before and the guy was facing homelessness - but he was still a cop.
It was easy for him to forget Rita was a cop too – he had to remind himself. She was stubborn and she'd say she knew this guy better, Alfonso knew that. He couldn't be the dickhead telling her what she could and couldn't do. If his instincts were right, she'd never listen anyway.
That was what he liked about her. Maybe he was crazy.
He’d enjoyed last night all the more because he had not let himself feel this way for so long.
Then there was Pepelito. It brought Alfonso such joy to see a beautiful animal getting stronger, more confident, as he lost his fear of humans and recovered from their torture and cruelty. Rita’s love, care and fierce protectiveness for the sweet-natured bull endeared her to him. It made his admiration for her grow whenever he thought about it. Wouldn’t her attitude have got her in trouble with some of the troglodytes she worked with?
He turned a corner and approached her door. He rang the doorbell. There was no response, but he heard the sound of a woman crying and his chest tightened. The lights were on. The blind had been pulled down. He couldn't see much but what he could spoke for itself. The bathroom door was halfway off its hinge and blocked the corridor diagonally. He pressed the doorbell again, hearing a male voice swearing.
'There's no bull here, we don't have him, leave her alone,' the man snapped. Rita was sobbing in the background.
'Let him in, Jesus.'
Dominguez fumbled with the lock and opened the door. 'Get in.'
'What happened?' Alfonso guessed what had happened.
Rita stood up and pushed the bathroom door slightly to the side; it separated from the other hinge entirely and fell. The kitchen door was lying a metre inside the kitchen, away from the doorway. The armchair she had placed in front of it was upturned. The door to the courtyard was smashed. Tears were running down Rita's face. He held her tightly as they walked to the kitchen together. Behind them, Dominguez slammed the fatally weakened front door shut. There was a terrible crash as gravity tore it from its hinges, sending it clattering to the ground.
'Where is he?' Alfonso asked Rita gently as he held her. She shook her head and started crying again.
'Did they take him?'
'I don't know.' Rita swallowed hard. 'They turned up at the door half an hour ago asking to come in, saying they knew I had him and they were coming to take him. I threatened them with arrest, they got nasty and tried to force their way in - they gave up eventually. But I've never seen him like that, he gets nervous round us sometimes, but he's pretty calm, you know? And before I knew it? He went for it out into the yard and out somewhere as fast as he could. And now he's broken all my fucking doors - it's gonna cost a fortune to replace...'
'You must have been terrified,' Alfonso said gently, wrapping his arms around her. He kissed her hair. Rita nodded. She was shaking.
'What if they've got him and they're going to hurt him?' she sobbed. Even after the devastation Pepelito had caused, Rita wasn't thinking of herself, just like she hadn’t when she’d agreed Dominguez could stay. Alfonso felt his fists clench and a knot of anger in his stomach. How frightened they must both have been. His gloves had become wet with Pepelito's blood as he removed the torture equipment planted in his back. Doing so without injuring the animal further had not been easy. He’d almost cut his own hand on the spikes.
'If they so much as touch him I'll come after them and break their fucking teeth.' He shocked himself at the violence of his reply and the depth of feeling behind it.
Rita nodded, hugging him closer.
Alfonso squeezed her tightly against him. He said gently, 'Come home with me tonight. I'll put your friend up in a hotel.'
'Thanks. I'd like that.' Rita drew a shuddering breath.
'We should go and look for him.' Alfonso and Rita stepped out into the courtyard. The sky was dark. He could hear people on the streets nearby, laughing, chatting as usual. A good sign? It would be a different story if a bull ran loose.
'I'll go look in the streets around here with Jesus, can you stay sort of around here in case he comes back? Or - well - they come back?' Rita said anxiously. Castella's thugs hadn't managed to find him for a week, with thousands, if not millions of others helping. Would the three of them really have better luck?
'Sure.' Alfonso squeezed her hand. She kissed him hard before disappearing back into the house, her shoes crunching on broken glass.
Alfonso walked around the courtyard. There was a skip lined up with some bins. The gap behind them was too small for Pepelito. He would need his painkillers and get tired quickly. Maybe he'd hurt himself and was trying to hide in a quiet place. But there weren't many quiet places here for a bull to hide successfully. It was about 9pm, most things were open, lots of people in the street, even if they were some way from the disturbance. Someone would have seen or heard. He looked around at the other floors. Could he have climbed up the stairs?
Alfonso stepped up onto the stone staircase which led up to the second and third floors on the opposite side; Rita had told him the owners were away. The stairs were very steep. A light came on dimly when he walked onto the first floor landing, but soon turned off again. He continued walking up the stairs to the landing between the second and third floor. He could definitely hear something. He took another step forward and the bulb flickered on.
Pepelito was standing at the bottom of the third floor stairs. He saw Alfonso and did not approach him. He was shivering and panting hard, like he had been that first time. As Alfonso shone the light from his phone, he saw one of the bull's hooves was bleeding. His ears and tail flicked and the whites of his eyes showed, staring at Alfonso in absolute terror.
Alfonso walked slowly down the stairs without speaking, his pulse racing. Who knew how Pepelito would act when he was cornered and afraid, even to someone who had gone out their way to help him? He walked past the first floor landing to the bottom of the stairs, carefully looking behind him, and sat on the middle of the stairwell. He sent a message to Rita. 'Come back. I've got him.'
Rita replied in seconds. 'Thank God. Coming back now ❤️'
He typed a reply. After several minutes, he heard hooves coming slowly down the stone stairs. Something big and wet nudged the middle of his back. He turned around and saw Pepelito standing behind him sniffing, slightly more relaxed.
'Hey, buddy. It's OK. Haven't you caused a lot of trouble?'
The bull was panting and looked exhausted so Alfonso took out a spare bottle of water from his bag and slowly held it out. Pepelito took a few gulps, then tried to lick him. Alfonso felt honoured that he trusted him enough to get close; those who raised fighting bulls and arranged corridas saw any lack of aggression as 'cowardice' deserving of brutal punishment.
Alfonso's phone vibrated with Rita's latest text. He read it and snorted with laughter. 'Jesus reckons we can take him down his uncle's farm in a van for taking people to prison - tell him he's wrong please????'
'LOL of course not! We'll need a truck!'
AN: I didn't want to have him go far or to have the bad guys catch him atm - and I thought that right now, he still wouldn't be able to despite feeling better and would know it. Hope it worked.