DANIEL HERON: BECOMING

16 - They never had a chance

The dawn was at the horizon, but the inside of the cabin remained dark. Only a trace of light was outlining the windows behind the drapes.

Nothing in the house was moving. Daniel sat at the kitchen table just like before. It must have been two hours since anyone spoke. Ana wasn't sitting beside him anymore. About half an hour after Teresa turned off the light, the sound of a chair scraping against the tiles was heard, followed by footsteps that went silent when they moved onto the carpeted living room floor.

Daniel didn't even dare to think about stumbling around in an unknown house caped in darkness. He was on the edge of his nerves due to Teresa's behavior towards him. He was nervously tapping his leg, wondering if he'd ever see the daylight again.

"Stop that," Teresa said.

At first, Daniel wasn't aware she was speaking to him.

"Stop tapping the leg, I said!" she repeated, this time louder.

"Sorry," he replied and ordered his leg to settle down.

The silence filled the cabin once again. For the first time, Daniel became mindful of his own breathing. Somehow, in the overall quiet, it seemed too loud.

Are these two breathing? Do vampires breathe? Those were the questions to which he didn't have the answers.

"You might call now," Teresa said in her usual tone. "If he hasn't woken up yet, wake him."

Daniel was peering in the direction of the voice, but other than glistening of a pair of eyes, he couldn't see much else. And then the light was turned on. It bathed the whole living room. He had to blink several times to allow his eyes to adjust to the disappearance of the darkness.

In the meanwhile, Ana approached the phone. She brought the handset to her ear and pressed several digits on the base, each one followed by beeping. The silence allowed Daniel to hear the sound of the free line on the other side of the phone, and after seven or eight rings, someone answered because Ana said, "It is done. Eliminated. All of them."

Daniel had difficulty swallowing. Ana's words brought yesterday's images to his mind again. Someone cared deeply to get Lucio and his team out of the picture. That someone was willing to make a deal with the assassins whose very existence broke the laws of nature.

"The usual place, after sunset," Ana said to the person on the other side of the line. After that she hung up and turned towards Teresa. She simply gave her a nod, to what Teresa responded in the same way.

Witnessing the silent conversation between the two, he couldn't help but feel worried again. Did it mean that he would soon be eliminated too? Ana mentioned the word all. Another lump appeared in his throat.

Teresa's voice brought him back to reality. "And what are we going to do with him?" Her head subtly twitched in Daniel's direction.

"He stays here for now," Ana responded.

He sighed with relief, but wasn't fooling himself thinking that, after everything that happened, they would simply let him walk away.

"And we go to collect our payment? He cannot be trusted."

"He will not go anywhere." Ana looked at him. Her eyes were blue at the time, but Daniel learnt that it could change in a matter of seconds.

"Will you command him?"

"I shall."

"Then make sure snooping is off limits as well."

Daniel hated the fact that they were speaking about him as if weren't there. And what did the part about commanding mean? If there was one thing that pissed him off, it was when someone tried to order him around. He left his mother for the same reason. But he had to face the truth, Lucio was doing the same thing.