Her eyes are closed, hair fluttering in the wind with the window rolled all the way down. Outside, the dark has taken the place of the sun, and the street lights are the only source of light. When I drive into a tunnel, the strong light causes her to awaken from her trance. I'm tempted to take out my narcoleptic tissues, but something is stopping me.
The air is frigid, and my jacket on her shoulders appears to be enough to make her keep the window down. "How much do we have until we arrive? My eyes are ready to fall, my phone has zero signal, and I think my friends probably already put posters with my face around the town." She closes the window, and a heavy perfume dances under my nose. She scrolls through her phone, pressing her nails harder and harder on the screen hoping that the reload button will start working. A chill crawls on my back as the cold wind blows on my bare arms, and my head starts hurting from the loud music.
My hair starts going in all the possible directions, and I'm honestly rethinking all my life choices, until someone grabs my right hand and raises it in the air as Rihanna murders my ears. I imagine her cheerful face soon to spit blood, and her voice will finally shut down. I start smiling, and she mimics me. She has no Idea.
I park right in front of a house, different from the one I left her before. She might be naive but not dumb. Not until now.
"Thank you for today, by the way," she says as she gives me back the jacket in front of her porch. "You're coming to the festival then, right?" Her hand is very red, probably as cold as ice since she kept it outside the car window during the whole trip, and her cheeks distinguish themselves from the pale tone with a light red.
"You'll see, but you better keep an eye open in case I want to snap your head."
She laughs, and I smile "And why would you want to do that exactly?" I feel a rush of excitement, and my heart beats faster as I imagine her in my hands. The thought of having her all to myself fills me with desire, and I can barely contain It.
"Maybe because you stole my jacket and kept the window open all the time? Thank whoever you pray to that I make it to the event without a severe flu." I see her eyes soften, and goosebumps get their way on my skin.
"Okay then, you should be careful too; I'm not as stupid as you think I am." You would be surprised. I smile and wave goodbye as I distance myself from her, going back to my car. The engine roars, and On my way home, I think about whatever happened today. I should have taken her, maybe. But I'm not running out of time.
~
I enter the house to see my brothers around the dinner table with expressions that could kill. hands gripping their hair, and eyes red from lack of sleep and probably from some fun pills. Their heads turn to me, and if sights could murder, I would be mutilated.
"Care to explain where you were in the past hours while we were killing each other?" Iuliano is the first one talking , biting the insides of his cheeks just to not start screaming at me "I was—what are you talking about?"
"Are you blind, perhaps? Don't you see our situation ? "We are not making any progress, and you're just going out as always, always having fun, while we strangle our brain to get out of this state where every move is like floating in a black hole" I respect my own patience, Other times I would go and beat the shit out of them all.
"I was about to tell you that pretty eyes just invited us to their local festival, but if you're busy spitting bullshit on my name, then I'll just leave." I put my jacket on the rack and throw my shoes away, going for the first steps of the stairs. I hear Emanuele screaming from downstairs. I refrain myself from not laughing.
"What did you just say?" Emanuele speaks up. Everyone follows him to the base of the staircase, and I find myself leaning on the railing. Looking at them from here makes them less intimidating. They've always been like that, and seeing them just grasping for help from me, makes me snarl. They are ugly inside, their looks help them lots.
"I said I'm leaving." I say in a serious tone, not cracking a single emotion.
"Not that, before you becoming all petty." Iuliano's forehead is veiny. Now they need me. I smile at them, and I see them getting the insult from that.
"Basically, my new best friend called Maverine Bellaux just invited me to a not-prom date, telling me I could invite my other friends to have fun with us'' My fake enthusiasm makes the twins giggle, and Iuliano's will to kill me is higher than ever, but to my fortune, or his, he shakes the nerves off and exhales.
"So maybe our useless brother is not completely useless at the end, is he?" Now my head is pulsing. I raise my shoulders and fake laugh. "When will this be exactly?"As I'm about to speak, a wild Luna spawns from the door, her brown hair thrown in a ponytail and smeared eyeliner that goes from the eye to the neck. God the house will be noisy.
"Have you seen Antaura?" Her strong Spanish makes her eat a bunch of letters. Those two are really weird.
"She's upstairs, third floor, second door; are you ok?" She nods, pointing at the storm outside, and runs upstairs to her girlfriend, who is either sleeping or reading some of the classics she stole from our library. She literally just spawned here from Spain. For that woman.
"Guys, remember we're just using her to attract the whole crew; no touching, or killing; the last one will come another time, but the rest is banned." Giacomo clears up some basics, even if neither of us ever did those things.
"You should worry the most, last time I checked you almost blew an entire operation for a stripper, remember?" he laughs and I don't move a single muscle.
"You're the type to do all of the above". Giacomo mocks my expressions quietly.
I lay in bed, and my mind wanders to her curves and the way her lips looked when she smiled. Murderous thoughts wash over me like a wave, and I can feel myself growing harder at the mere thought of her. I close my eyes and let my imagination run wild, imagining all the things I would do to her if given the chance. The image is not pretty
~
"What day is today?" Someone slammed my door open, waking me and my urge to kill myself up.
"Why the fuck would you even ask me as if I would fucking know? I don't know, and honestly, I couldn't give a shit to you filthy little bast-" A long whistle interrupted me, followed by a nasty voice that anyone could recognize
"Calm down, I just wanted to remind you that tomorrow night is 'the night'. Why is everyone cursing at me this morning?" I recognize Antaura's voice as I slowly start regaining consciousness. Her blonde hair sits on her head as if something or someone has nested on It.
"Strange right? I was wondering the same thing," and after my words, she runs to ask the same thing to the next brother, leaving my door and my will to die open wide. God, if my father knew who he called a sweet, intelligent angel, he would roll in his grave. Not that he had one, but that's another point. I get up to slam shut my door, but before I start walking, my phone buzzes from the nightstand , and before I completely ignore whatever notification came, my screen turns black and an audio is heard from it, freezing me on the spot.
The voice couldn't be more familiar. Maverine fucking Bellaux
-------------------------------
[person 01] Nisha I'm going; don't forget to call me when you're set
[person 02] Alright, when you return, remember to buy a bunch of snacks, because I don't think we're going to eat some peacefully in a while
[person 01] Got it. Bye then
[person 02] bye
[_walking_]
-------------------------------
I stare at my phone as the screen starts to write everything it says, and then I remember the camera in the jacket I gave her the first night. I run to my computer station and click on the camera folder, finding her leaving her house. I relax on my chair, and meanwhile I'm rubbing my eyes trying to wake me up, someone enters again in my room, this time the person being Iuliano, who looked half asleep; probably Antaura struck in his room too, that woman.
"With who were you talking earlier?" He probably heard her voice on my phone
"No one; my security camera notified me that my jacket has been worn." He looked more confused as I spoke, "the jacket I gave to Maverine that day." Now he's interested, and as he puts two plus two together in his head, I heard her running. My brother came next to me, and we saw her entering a wide forest, pacing on a rocky street, and arriving in a very old and rural looking village, where people started greeting her.
"Going to your dear grandma, sweetie?" An old lady asked her, to which she answered with a quick 'yes' before accelerating her steps. She paced until the village was not in view anymore, marching to an old little house with vines around it and uncut grass around it. Her grandmother?
Wasn't her entire family killed by my father?
It was pitch dark in the house; only her steps were heard; she suddenly seems to go into a dusty basement, until she turned on the lights.
"Holy Fuck," my brother whispered as he saw what the basement was filled with.
Money.