FEROX FOREVER 1: Nothing Sinful ✓

Kabanata 21

Abby

You'll find out later.

After we had our morning pancakes and drank our coffees, Veric told me to return to the suite and wait.

Sinunod ko naman ang sabi niya.

You'll find out later.

Ngayon, nakatayo ako sa harapan ng bintana ng kwarto namin, nakapikit at dinadama ang malamig na simoy ng hangin mula sa labas.

You'll find out later.

Wild thoughts were currently racing rampantly in my head, playing a lot of scenarios what Veric meant earlier when he'd said, "You'll find out later."

I kept drumming my fingers against the window sill out of nerves, and the rush of anxiety I was feeling only skyrocketed when I heard him entered the room and felt his footsteps approaching.

"These should keep you... ready," salubong niya sa akin nang humarap ako sa kanya. Hindi ko alam kung ikagagaan ba ng pakiramdam ko na nandito na siya.

May hawak siyang isang mahabang kahapon na yari sa puting kahoy.

I eyed the wooden box warily, wondering what could possibly be inside.

My eyes locked on his dark ones. "What's inside it?"

"Tools," he replied, his voice not betraying anything. "I told you that I'll help. This is my way of making the eve of the Run more easier and amendable to you. What's inside will keep you prepared until the Run commences."

Nilapitan ko siya. "These aren't guns, are they? Because those could be very handy but I have no inclination to kill anyone the moment they touch me."

Veric somehow found my question silly because he chuckled. One corner of his pinkish lips was raised as he held in his full laughter and his eyes brimmed with brief mirth.

"What's funny?" kunot-noong tanong ko sa kanya. "It's a valid question. Bakit mo 'ko pinagtatawanan?"

Inabot ni Veric yung kahon sa akin. "If I give you a gun, I might find myself at the end of its barrel. Not a smart decision on my part."

"You think that once I have a way with a gun, I'll try to kill you?"

He raised his perfect brows at me in challenge. "The thought and need to put a bullet in my head didn't struck you?"

"No," I admitted.

His eyes darkened. "Liar."

"I said no." Because it was the truth. Despite everything, I never had the predisposition to want Veric dead.

Though I had every right to want his corpse rotting in a landfill somewhere in Italy; to wish that some rival Clan had caught and tortured him for days and dumped his broken, lifeless body among the filth; to wish that his soul was damned for all eternity in hell as the Devil bathe him with fire...

I should imagine him getting killed or tormented in someway. I had the power to actually dream of him getting punched and kicked by a group of people he'd hurt in the past because of him being a mafioso. I could want him gagged and whipped until his skin flayed off from his bones and his flesh was tender and damaged. I could make-up a scene where he was being waterboarded in boiling water, or getting swarmed by yellowjackets, or maybe thrown into a den of lions.

But I couldn't remember wanting those things to happen to him.

If I had, then I was glad that there was still logic left in my brain back then. Because right now, there was an indisputable change in me I couldn't ignore anymore. A shift. Like a switch being toggled from Off to On. I had no idea when it exactly started. But already, I could feel it spreading. Like a disease. Like a wildfire.