Running from Leo

CHAPTER 24: The truth

I left the cemetery without a word.

Maybe I saw Adrian coming out of the black car, constantly apologising for his actions and blaming and cursing his brother for tricking us. Maybe I saw him giving the capo a punch or two and getting a nosebleed. Maybe I heard them shouting at each other in their rapt country language then suddenly getting quiet as I crossed them in between and silently sat in the back seat of the car, gazing out of the closed window.

The journey back was...blur.

I don't remember much. Just the stairwell of the private jet, same interior, same room and the exact same bathroom. Nothing else. I might have heard a knock or two throughout the whole flight but I didn't respond.

I couldn't react about any of the things I had learnt and seen.

I was dead. Dead to my parents. Dead to my friends. Dead to my brother.

Runaway or not, everybody considered me as a dead girl and they left.

I had made myself comfortable by sitting on the toilet seat straight through the whole flight and not moving at all. I didn't wanted to leave that small confinement I called as a bathroom.

I liked not moving at all. Dead people don't move at all. They stay still.

I had seen death only two times in my whole life. Besides the things I had been cleaning up, I had never seen a person actually die in that place.

First was my pet cat. It was just a silly myth that cats have nine lives so I tried to prove this myth to myself. I rode my bicycle over her.

I guess that was her ninth life.

The second time I saw death was of my Grandma Martha. I was having a tea party with Freddy and Maria in the backyard when she called us back in to have cookies and milk.

That was the last thing she ever said. I was told that she has gone to visit Grandpa.

Who am I visiting now? Grandpa? Grandma? My cat? I don't see any of them here.

Maybe they left me too.

I couldn't feel anything except coldness in my chest. Is this how dead people feel? Cold? Strangely, I liked this feeling as if it was meant for me and me only.

I don't know how long I stayed like this, but the door in front of me broke open and a man with hazel eyes stood in front of me. He looked angelic. Like he was sent down to Earth to fetch me and take me away from all the bad. He held out his hand.

"Come."

And everything was blur again.

I found myself looking around, taking in the familiar walls and standing alone in the giant hall with a giant staircase in front of me. As if my legs had their own minds, they made me climb two floors, pass through the looks men gave me and I stood in front of a familiar door.

Without knocking, I opened the door and leaned to the side.

"Boys..." My eyes which were staring into space finally rose up and gave a pleading look to the familiar men who were sitting in chairs, in front of a desk, hiding the angel's figure who was sitting behind the desk. "Leave."

The men kept staring at me.

"Boys," I growled, the coldness in me slowly turning into anger. "I said leave."

They didn't move.

"I SAID LEAVE!" I shouted. They quickly grabbed their things and scurried off, each of them giving me a look of pity. I hate pity.