In the End

14│Harmless Flirting

The last thing I heard was the office door slamming shut behind me. Steam was fuming from my ears as tears fell down my face. I hate him, I hate them, I hate everything about this fucking situation.

I couldn't help but pity myself constantly. Maybe in the beginning I would have thought that my own doubts of what was happening could somehow translate it into not being real. It was fairly obvious now that no matter how hard I wished it, this just wasn't true.

But now I had proof, or at least some shred, that this wasn't just some made-up fairytale movie land that was ending my life. No, it was a deadly situation that resulted in my best friend most likely experiencing a brutal murder, leaving her body tattered, bruised and then scattered to the wind like it was nothing.

My footsteps were heavy against the floor, both that and the ungodly sounds of weakness that was coming from my mouth being the only thing I could hear. In fact, thanks to the otherwise complete silence, it was the only thing that could be heard in this whole damn hallway.

Just as I was approaching a corner, Solomon turned in, immediately pausing to look me over in my current state.

"Hey, Ida, Woah, what's going on?" He asked quickly, jumping right into the situation, "Is the Don still in the office or have you sent him off somewhere?"

I had a feeling that was a joke. And I think that if I was in any other mood, I would have played right along with that. But I couldn't not in the headspace I was in right now.

"Not now Solomon," I growled, "That bastard is still in there unless he's thrown himself out the window."

This pricked his ears, "What did you do?"

I turned around in a fury, "Oh, so it's what I did? Let me tell you, Sol, I didn't do anything. But him?" I pointed back behind me to the office door that I knew Luciano was still stuck behind. "He kidnapped me, he locked me up, and he's killed my best friend. Trust me, I haven't done anything."

Solomon bared his chest, "You can't still be going on about this-"

"Would you just have some compassion?" I finally screamed, putting in my entire efforts in keeping my body from crumbling to the floor. "You all like to act so real and nice with me until I bring up the whole reason that I'm here. It's been a week, did you really expect me to just roll over and surrender?"

Solomon stepped forward, coming in on me. "I thought you were much more intelligent because if you were smart, you would have accepted this the moment that we locked you in the back of that van. Obviously, that hasn't happened, but trust me when I tell you that if you don't drop this subject and start getting accepting, Luciano will not be kind in his punishment. Of course, we feel slightly guilty, but not enough to give a shit when you start ranting."

I stilled my body, focusing my eyes into one, harsh glare directed exactly at Solomon. "You say you feel guilty, and I suppose that I've reaped a few benefits of your pity, but how the hell would you know what I'm going through?"

I think Solomon would have done anything at that moment just to shut me up, or, at the very least, done anything to reverse this whole situation. I suppose that was on him for interacting with me in the first place. "Luciano's sister is just older than you. We're all close, and trust me, we certainly can imagine what would happen if it was here in this situation-"

I cracked my knuckles, "So you can't even see me as my own person? You can't feel guilty for me on your own, you need to pretend I'm someone else?"

He groaned, "That's not what I meant."

"Oh, I bet," I growled as I fisted my hand, quickly sending it flying into the side of Solomon's jaw. He wasn't expecting that, I knew that he wasn't, especially as he went flying just a few steps backwards. I watched as his body faltered for just a moment before returning to his usual pose.