Me Llamo Tokio (My Name Is Tokyo) - A Money Heist Prequel

Chapter 32 - The Gang

Frustration. This is what has taken over me while the attacker's hand is being pushed harder over my mouth.
I can't breathe, and quickly I find myself almost unable to see too clearly either as small dancing stars block my sight.
All I can hear around me is just an avalanche of voices, talking one after another, and even screaming to each other. I'm not even sure if all of them belong to the people who attacked us or they're mixed with the voices that are constantly living in my head.
"Silene!"
Oh, this is a voice that I can definitely recognize. A voice that has the power to bring me back even from the darkest depths of despair, because it belongs to the person who resurrected me and filled me with the most beautiful thing in the world, love.
"Let her go, for fuck's sake!" Juan screams.
I wish I could've replied to him, but the air was barely entering in my lungs and, now, the dancing stars that I'm seeing are starting to have an increasingly black contour.
A terrible pain goes through my chest. I feel how the man who's holding me releases the grip, only to catch me by the neck and press his fingers harder into my skin.
The black contour is now extending up to the point where I can't see, nor sense anything. I'm not sure how death feels like, but probably this is an accurate glimpse of it. All I have to do now is just try to swim through this ocean of blackness.

The first thing that I perceive is a sharp pain traveling all over my body. Then, gradually, I start claiming back my other senses.
Comparing to the moment when I woke up at Tatiana's villa, right now it's not hard at all to find the power to open my eyes. But, I wish I wouldn't have been able to do that so soon, as the setting around me doesn't look too good.
First of all, Juan is not in the small dirty room. There are no windows, nor too much furniture. Just a chair and a nightstand are being stashed next to my bed, while the rest of the room is filled with garbage. From huge boxes to broken computers and old clothes, it rather seems like a deposit than an actual place to live. And, secondly, where the hell am I?
I guess the smell is the last sense I'm getting back, as the stench of mold hits me just now. I cough and I feel that terrible chest pain spreading throughout my entire body.
My eyes fall on the glass of water from the nightstand. I take it and drink a few sips, trying to calm my paranoid mind who's desperately warning me that I shouldn't just drink something from an unknown source.
The door opens right in the moment when I put the glass back and let myself fall back on the dirty pillow.
A guy in his thirties is standing in the doorframe, looking at me with something that seems like fear.
He wants to get out, but I can't stay like this and see how a chance of getting an explanation might evade like that and exclaim, "Wait, please!"
He is confused, like he wasn't expecting me to be able to say something coherent.
"Don't go," I almost beg him. "I just wanna know what's going on. Where am I? Where's Juan?"
He puts a finger on his mouth, indicating me to be silent. Then, he makes me a sign to wait and turns to leave.
"Please, no." I'm desperate. "Talk to me, I need to know. Please, just tell me something."
A sad look appears on his face. He enters, closing the door after him, and approaches me. I can see a gun on his belt, but something tells me that I shouldn't be afraid.
"I'm desperate," I admit. "I need to know what's going on. Please, say something, I'm begging you."
He opens his mouth and, for a second, I'm relieved that he'll finally talk to me, but this feeling flies away in a second after I see the sad truth. His tongue was missing.
"I'm sorry," I whisper a bit embarrassed.
He gets closer and touches my shoulder, in a gesture made to assure me that it's fine.
I smile in a dead attempt to seem nicer now.
He smiles back as he's looking for something in the interior of his vest.
"Juan?" I try again. "The guy who was with me. Have you seen him?"
He nods.
"Is he okay?" I ask.
He nods again and I'm finally relieved.
"Thank you."
He takes out a small card and hands it to me. It says: "Hi, my name is Alonso and I can't talk. I'm so sorry for the inconvenience. If you don't understand sign language, please be patient with me until I write down my answer. Thank you."
"I'm Silene." I introduce myself, returning him the card.
He smiles at me and something in his eyes tells me that he already knew.
I feel very emotional, as I've never imagined that there could be mute criminals too. Probably, his life is really hard, yet he survived like this too. Now, what I wonder is if Alonso lost his tongue due to natural causes or someone cut it. Knowing this world even for a short amount of time inclines me to believe that it might be the second option, since punishments like this aren't something unheard of around here.
In the meantime, he took out a small notebook and started writing something. When he's done, he hands it to me.
"Juan is fine. He's in a meeting now, but I'll let him know that you woke up and you're good. Tell me if you need anything else."
"Thank you so much." My voice is shaking a bit. "I'm good, I don't need anything. Sorry for keeping you."
He smiles and nods, showing me with his hand that he has to go now.
This was the most unexpected thing of the day after everything that happened in the alley, but I can't say I dislike the guy. Alonso seems quite different from the one who almost strangled me to death.
He leaves, and now that I'm alone, my mind is free to swim some more in the ocean of confusion that I've been floating in for a while.
I'm trying to arrange my thoughts and put things in order. The conclusion is that I don't think that these guys are having something to do with El Zorro since I'm alive now, but the fact that they attacked us both doesn't make me trust them too much either. I'll settle and put them in the mixed feelings area till I'll get more information about them. Alonso doesn't seem like the bad guy, but, if the guy who attacked me is his colleague, then I'll have to doubt him too.
My head hurts so badly from all my theories. I don't even hear the footsteps outside and how someone is opening the door, the result being the fact that I almost scream out of joy when Juan enters in the room.
"Silene!" he exclaims relieved as he comes to embrace me. "I'm so happy you're awake. I'm sorry for everything. I'm really sorry."
"It's okay," I tell him while tears are coming out of my eyes, desperate to welcome Juan too. "It's okay. You're good. Oh my God."
"Yes, I'm good. Don't worry, I had worse," he says. "But how are you? How are you feeling?"
"I'm okay, I'm just confused about this entire situation, but now that you're here and you're okay, I can finally think clearly," I admit. "What happened? Do you know these guys?"
"Yes, I know them, they're fine." There's no doubt in his voice and I believe him, despite everything that happened to me. "Please relax, it's fine. I'll explain you everything."
I hug him tightly, clinging onto him. I'm so scared by the idea that I could lose Juan that easily, but I can't tell him that. All I can say is just, "I'm fine, please tell me what happened."
He lets out a loud sigh, then he takes my hand in his.
"Brace yourself because you're not gonna like this," he warns me with a hint of concern in his voice.
"Just tell me, Juan," I reply impatiently.
"Alright." He looks down for a moment then he continues. "Well, here are the Madrid headquarters of my old gang. They attacked us that night, but..."
"What?" I reply shocked. "Juan, what the actual fuck is going on? You're telling me that your ex-gang attacked us and you just sit casually here, trying to have a conversation, instead of shooting these motherfuckers and run?"
"Silene, stop," he says a bit amused. "You haven't heard even a quarter of what I have to tell you."
"Okay, fine, tell me, but my opinion remains the same." I say sharply. "Just so you know."
"Of course." His grin hasn't completely disappeared from his face. "First of all, these aren't the bad guys."
"Why do I doubt it?" I ask raising an eyebrow. "They seem as trustworthy as El Zorro."
"Silene, would you let me finish?" he asks, but there's no hint of annoyance in his voice.
"Yeah, fine," I reply indifferently. "Go on."
"These are my friends." Juan seems really happy that he reunited with these people, but this wasn't enough for me to trust them. "After my trial, the gang separated. Some took my side, the others preferred to remain loyal to Sancho. Well, here are my friends, the people who insisted that I receive a fair trial."
"But you didn't do anything, Juan." I feel the need to remind him. "I thought we discussed about this gang before. You don't know who betrayed you. He might've been from Sancho's men, but he could've also been from this gang too."
"I don't think so," Juan says. "I've known these guys for half a lifetime."
"Like you knew Sancho or El Zorro," I snap.
"They were just some idiots. No, not in that way. These people are fine." Juan is trying really hard to take their side, but I need more than just words to put my trust in them. "Silene, please, just give them a chance. They're runaways like us. Sancho was chasing them and they came here. You killed him and freed them, they owe you their lives. You're their hero."
"Let's not exaggerate," I laugh. "I just tried to protect us."
"And you succeeded." He's really proud. "They can't wait to meet you."
"Yeah, right," I say rolling my eyes. "For sure."
I take a look at Juan. He's really excited and I'm trying hardly to do this for him, yet there's a small detail that I can't get over that easily.
"And how about the moment when they got us from the street?" I ask. "They chocked me till I fainted and the last thing I remember is that you were also bleeding. What the fuck happened there?"
"They didn't know it's us. When I told them, it was already too late. I'm so sorry," he says sadly. "I'm fine, but I was really worried about you."
"As you can see, I'm good," I reply plainly. "But what were they doing there?"
"Remember when Rodrigo told us about the entire jewelry store thing that had its backdoor alarm broken?" he asks.
"Yes." I'm curious to find out the conclusion.
"Well, it was actually their robbery idea. They've been working at it for weeks and we just appeared and ruined everything." Juan says with a hint of guilt in his voice. "They still claimed half of what we got."
"And are you going to give it to them?" I'm really angry. "For fuck's sake, Juan!"
"It was their plan and we appeared and fucked it up." He's trying to empathize, but it doesn't help me at all. "I think it's far of..."
"I don't even wanna hear about it!" I scream. "Oh my God, Juan. You meet these guys and now you're acting so changed all of a sudden. Just because they're the people that you stayed with for a long time, it doesn't mean that we have to give them all we got like this."
He leans down, until his face is in my hair and his lips are almost touching my ear.
"Silene, you're right, but we have to get out of this alive," he whispers. "I don't want to be like this and I'm really sorry, but we're not safe here."
I sigh relieved. At least he told me that we're now playing a role, so that I'll know to act accordingly.
"We have to," Juan says louder. "It's their right to have a part."
"Fine," I agree trying so hard to control my voice. "You can give it to them."
"Thanks," Juan whispers while looking at me. "If things will go well, tomorrow we can go."
I nod and smile.
We're in a deeper shit than I thought. First of all because Juan is acting like he's almost scared and, secondly, these guys seem way more prepared than us to fight. So, all we have to do now is follow Juan's plan and play along until we'll be able to walk away freely from here.