𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐘 𝐈𝐍 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 by A.P.Mary

24

"Where is Maverine?" 

I look around the place and realize that I haven't seen her since we left the room. I rush down the stairs, going directly to the basements. As I move down the stairs, my heart starts racing, and I can feel the cold sweat on my forehead. I call out her name, but there's no response, only the eerie silence of the basement.

I can't lose another one. I walk in every door of the refrigerators, as my fists harden. Scenes from the past come back, and in between ice and cold I can still hear the sound of the big old house burning down, the smell of gasoline filling my lungs even if I'm not even near a single substance. With every door I open, I start hating every single one of them more. 

Even if she despises me at least I know It's real.

I can still feel my knuckles hurt from hitting Iuliano. A small shiver of a memory that makes my lips curve upwards. I feel my muscles harden as the cold washes me harder and harder with every door I open. The sudden thought hits me.

They gradually become colder and colder.

I get to a locked door, and I skip to the next one that's open, but that's when I realize why it was locked.

I take a crowbar from one of the previous rooms and start hitting the lock. After a couple minutes of trying, the lock finally gave in, and the door broke open. I cautiously stepped inside, unsure of what I would find, until I saw her.

She looked dead from every angle possible. Her face pale, her nose with frozen blood and her eyes half open. I throw the crowbar, and I waste no time in taking her and getting us out of there immediately. Her limbs are frozen, but I can still feel her pulse, even if weak, but steady. I take my jacket off and cover her in it, and all I can do is put her against my body.

I massage her wrists, her chest, her neck, to find a small scar that comes from all the way on her back. Images from the night I saw her scars come back, and a rush of agitation sits in my mind. I see her eyes become to flutter, and she's not agitated. She looks serene, almost fuller of life that before.

Our eyes lock, and I can see a touch of malice in them as she smiles.

"Not even dead I can escape you, can't I?" Her voice is weak, but enough. 

She pushes me away, seating in my lap and facing me with bloodshot eyes.

"I saw my mother" I smile with the sounds of gunshots starting again in the background, and she doesn't not move away from me. My hand instinctively went to brush her hair, and she doesn't shiver away from my touch. We are just looking at each other, distanced sounds devouring us.

"Did she speak to you?" I ask reassuringly. She nods rapidly with excitement, and I put strands of her hair behind her ear. "You can't go back there, I found where I could get you away from here" she distances herself from me, wiping her tears and tuning into her poker face. 

"No, I have unfinished business here" I can't bring myself to say anything else as she gets up; I follow her face, getting cold by every second passing, more and more serious and determined.  We follow the gunshots until I can't hear shit anymore. We hide, looking around to prevent any kind of surprises. I thought those bastards left, but I was wrong. What made me understand this was the loud radios still magically working.

"Meet me up on the roof, or this blondie will become a redhead soon. Over." I first thought they were talking about Iuliano, but he would've easily said his name. Reality hit me as soon as the only other blonde person I know came to mind.

Ant. 

 I look toward Mave, but she looks straight ahead. I could feel the anger boiling inside me as I clenched my fists, and Mave's lack of reaction only added to my frustration, making me wonder if she even cares.

Everyone was all around the roof, and everyone had a gun to their head. The situation was tense, and no one knew how it would end. Iuliano had a gun pointed at his head by a man, and the guy had a gun pointed at his head by Giacomo, held still by another guy, and so on. But one specific person didn't have a gun in their hand, and that one was Antaura. She had a black eye, and judging by her half-closed eyes, she was definitely drugged. We hear clicks behind us as we point guns at my brother. I still need to figure out if addressing him as one is still correct.

"Anyone moves a goddamn finger, and I'll kill her." His eyes were shot open, his face as red as it could ever be. He was mad and psychotic, and Antaura was definitely not in the best of hands. His scream was muffled by the strong wind at the top of the skyscraper. I didn't think this restaurant was so damn high up.

"You feel so frightened about your plan failing that you got someone that wasn't even playing in it" she was deprived of emotions, her voice flat as she spoke. Every sight was pointed towards her, and she took the first set of steps. Her grip on the gun was still, walking around him like a panther. Saying she was attractive at this moment would definitely be inappropriate. As well as any other thought that fogged my mind as she started speaking.

"Stop right on your tracks before I put you down like a dog you whore" she smiles, but for some reason she wasn't losing it. She has every step counted, her expression not faltering, eyes not closing even if the wing dried them up with its force. She stops, putting up her arms. She is facing him, right next to the border of this building that led to the river underneath. A small amount of distraction and she's falling several feet towards the high water.

This is not going to end well.

"You know, I think it's funny." she tilts her gun, pointing it towards him.

"I find it funny how you decided to run away from your family, only to return and want to kill them," she says, lowering her head. But you still haven't killed them," she says as she peers through her brows. She knows she's playing with fire. "You know what I call this kind of person?" I call them disappointments." Her gun clicks, and now his men point their guns at her. "You told me we were the same, but do you know the first thing that makes us different? I fight on my own to get what I want; I don't send other people to do the work for me" she says, raising her head "even if it would cost me my goddamn life". She stares at him with a piercing gaze, daring him to challenge her. "So tell me, can you say the same?"

The time slowed down

"So many questions. How come you hadn't given the order to kill them, since they have a hitman behind each and every single one? Why do you feel so threatened to take her to attract them all? How come you called us? But most of all" she takes a pair of steps towards him "What is your real intention?"

His skin is drained of any color left. He, who had all the energy for a good plan, just went stone cold. He didn't even move to breathe. It was as if he had been struck by lightning. The sudden change in his demeanor left everyone in the room stunned and confused.

"But guess what, I already know the answer. You were so stupid to lock me in a room with the answer. I remember reading it all over again to stay conscious, but still couldn't keep up" she looked up, reciting the following poem to the sky, like a lullaby.

"Oh, mom, oh, dad, thy existence had eroded me, and, shall I say, thy sons were oh, so cruel. But may thy bodies be preserved in this cold ambient, as thy soul has been towards me," I say, stopping my breathing. I read between the lines, and what seemed like reality hit me like a brick. Thirty minutes ago, I went into the room where my parents' corpses were. But she wasn't finished.

"In this world shall I seek revenge, for what they presented me, and may I take their everything. Strip them of their power, as I dispose that I burned all their heritage" Her words are cut short by a loud piercing sound.

Two gunshots

I see Lucas's eyes fall to the back of his head as his forehead is pierced by a bullet. A single bullet. I rapidly looked towards her, and all I could see was her bracing her stomach. I knew immediately that the bullet had hit her, and I felt a wave of panic wash over me as I rushed to her side.

Antaura screams to an unnatural pitch, as she faces towards her direction, she could barely keep her jaw open. I cannot understand what was happening, everything rushed too much at that moment, and nothing seemed to make sense. My brothers kill the others, and I can't fathom what is happening next. My eyes clearly see Maverine throwing herself backwards from the roof we were on.

And I say were because I ran to reach her.