Shadow

Chapter 11

Roman's Pov

I wake up with my feet off the ground. My hands are numb above my head. I'm hanging off the ground by my hands. I feel the cool breeze on my back, I'm shirtless. It feels like I've sweated gallons. I look out the window, its about evening time. I've been out for a while. I hear a large door open creak open behind me, I hear the clicking of heels. It must be the woman who was following me.

"Roman James." she says.
"Mercenary, sister to Aya Callabo and lover to Natalia Perez, one of the worlds most powerful hitwomen."

"Well not anymore on that last part." She cackles a bit. She sounds like a frog trying to pass a bowel movement.

She tries talking again, I interrupt her.

"Miss, my apologies for the interruption, but why am I here?" I say.

"You, Roman are here...because..." She pauses.

"Because..." I say, trying to help her finish her sentence.

She says, " Granada Spain, 2018. You and your sister were taking down a drug trafficking organization. Sound familiar? The head of that organizations his name was..."

"Vincenzo, Grata. Why?" I say.

"Ah, he remembers. Guess who that was? My father. After you and your sister did your little massacre with our organization. My father killed all of my family. Mama and my nine siblings. But he killed me the slowest. Only I survived. And guess where I went? A mental institute." She says.

"Wow, well that's bad." I say.

She has sort of a New Jersey accent, she's from Spain. Its weird.

"Yeah, it is sugar. My father being king of our organization, was no stranger to torture." She whispers, "drowning was his favorite."

I'm not afraid of death. I see it everyday. Yes, I could escape this manic psychopath easily. But what if it's for the best. What if I don't want to do living anymore. I don't want to die because Nat, well, dumped me. It just made the dam break. I'm done. I'm done. I am done.

Two men come from the opposite side of the room with a a large cylinder shaped tank. It has green putrid looking water that looks about knee deep . While I'm studying it, the crazy woman sticks a needle in my neck.

Suddenly I can see all of mama and papa before they died. I see my sister and I in the rubble of our apartment staring at their corpses. Then my 14 year old sister at the time screams in my face, "do not give up."

I open my eyes, the woman the woman is cackling.

I close my eyes again, hoping that I could be anywhere but this. Now I see Natalia dead beside Aya. Natalia looks up at me and says, "you gave up, this is, because of you." I open my eyes.

The woman is gone, there's a hole in the tank. Water is gushing out, I with it. Out of nowhere Natalia pulls me out of the tank into her arms on the ground. She whispers in my ear, "Don't give up. I cannot lose you. You die, I die too."

I studying the structure of her face. I look into her piecing blue eyes, they look like the ocean. She's crying, she never cries in front of anyone.

I find my familiar humorous tone and say, "Agh, you flatter me love."

She smiles, then slaps me on the face.

She says, "Roman James I know you could have gotten out of there without a scratch. You were about to give up."

"Lets not talk about that right now love" I say.

We both walk out of the door.