The Fire Unleashed ✔

37. Resurrection

The darkness that surrounded me was finally vanishing, I thought as I sensed a speck of light somewhere in the distance. Rather than waiting for it to come to me, I wanted to walk towards it myself, and award myself with the benevolent and ethereal light. But, no matter how much I tried and struggled, all was in vain. I wanted to barrel my way through, but it felt as if I was stuck in my place, completely unable to move.

When it almost felt impossible and I was about to give up, the speck of light became a small aperture, then a large slit. The white light kept increasing ever so slowly until there was not a single particle of a familiar bleak blackness. Finally, I felt like I could live. But, I continuously kept hearing foreign noises around me coming from unseen people. With passing time, these voices became louder until I couldn't bare it, and I opened my mouth to shut them up....

....Only to learn that I couldn't utter a word except letting out a grunt.

Almost instantly, I felt a swarm of people towering and crowding over me. It was extremely asphyxiating and all I wanted, was to return to the place devoid of people. Anything to get back the silence and peace of that place. I grunted again, next thing I found was some others poking at my eyes and hands, examining me like I was some animal in a scientific experiment.

And then, as I clarity returned to my gaze, I could point out all the familiar faces. Could I name them too? To my left, was an elderly woman – my mamma, and another much younger than her – Bria? To my right, were three men and the fourth was in a white coat. Luca and Paul were here too. I wanted to open my mouth, to say something, but my throat felt parched and so with all the energy left in my body, I asked for water.

Immediately, I was being served water with a straw, and it felt like I hadn't drunk it in years. And I still couldn't recollect any past occurrences which would have landed me in such a condition, no matter how much I tried, I couldn't remember. But then, I saw a familiar flickering of a lighter in the distance and it all clicked. The road trip, the expected betrayal, Roberto, being trapped in a building with an inextinguishable fire, and the escape. So, I hadn't died, it seemed.

As the recognition returned in my eyes, the doctor – my family's personal doctor – towered over me once again, asking me all sorts of cliche questions to name him and all the others in the room. The others too, crowded over me eagerly, not wanting to be left out.

"I know all of you. I know... everything. Just let me sleep now," I told them gathering all my strength and then closed my eyes, wanting lots of rest.

In the next few days, I kept waking up intermittently, but always ended up sleeping again. That incident had thoroughly fucked me up, but I wasn't one to accept defeat, so I never gave up. Everytime I woke up, I slept afterwards with a promise to wake up again no matter what. Those days must have been really hard for my people, and after word got out that I was dead, it must be even more difficult to control all the subsidiaries in the game.

Finally, once I woke up, it was a day of celebration. I had enough energy to sit up properly for an hour, and then I started walking too. A few days later, I was running and a month later, I was up again, fully healed. The doctor had said that the unnatural exhaustion, the skin burn and too much smoke in my lungs worsened my condition, but now that I was alright, I would make every conscious effort to become the invincible man I once was.

Although this event might have brought a great sense of comfort to all those who had wished for my death, it was an eye-opener for me. I realized that I, as a single force, would be incapable f fighting him at all. Even though my gang was of a considerable size, I would never be able to take on him without a second support.

And not only me, mamma too, realized that and told me once in a meeting with Paul. Although it angered me that I was still incapable of exacting my revenge, it was the more rational side of those two who made me understand the gravity of the situation. I had mulled over and only one name came to mind – Arnold Adams. But I wasn't sure that I would want to work with an old man who could die anytime. Maybe if he had an heir, I would have contacted him.

Three months after the incident, I was completely fine, but on the right side of my body, where I was burned by the wooden piece, was a huge scar, which reminded me of my weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Every time I looked at it, I felt ashamed to be called a member of the mafia. I felt ashamed to be called my father's son. And so, to change that wretched feeling of shame into something more productive, something more powerful, I decided to get it tattooed. It was a large tiger's face on my torso, representing my gang and my personal name, and looking at that induced confidence in me.

No matter how, but I was sure that one day, I will destroy Roberto.

And as long as I was alive, he will never be able to evade my wrath.