Mikhail

29

Groaning softly, I rolled out of bed. Just like what had been happening for the past four nights, I couldn't sleep for the life of me. The nightmare with Alacran killing those two men came haunting me.

I would just go for a walk tonight, see whether that would help my insomnia.

The right hand man's room was just beside Alacran's. Alacran had kicked Pietro out of it and placed me there the day he made me his right hand.

I was just about to pass his door when I heard slurry sounds. Drawing closer to the door, I realized it was Alacran speaking. If I could call what he was doing speaking.

Everything was gliberish and only a few words stood out. I wondered what was happening? Curious, I tried turning his doorknob. The door opened to my surprise.

I pushed the door back slightly. Alacran's voice became clearer, but not necessarily meaningful.

"No... Norberto, my love... Sorry. You're dead... Because... me... Taboo..
Calamity... My father... Gustavo... Die too... Don't love him... Much as I loved you." He kept on with the gliberish with words poking out here and there.

It took me a while to realize he'd said my name. At least the name I had given him.

"What are you doing there?" A voice said from behind me.

I closed the door as noiselessly as I could and lowly turned to find one of Alacran's men. He was the only one among the men who didn't seem to mind that Alacran had made me his right hand.

"Thought I heard something. Realized everything was good." I said. He nodded expectantly.

I nodded back and went right back into my room, my plans of taking a walk forgotten. The words Alacran were saying were swirling through my head. From how his voice had sounded, he'd obviously been having a nightmare.

Putting two and two together, it didn't take me much to figure out what his words had meant even if most of them were nonsense.

Alacran was in love with whoever this Noberto was. Someone, probably his father, saw it is a taboo and killed Noberto. It made sense why Alacran would kill his own father because of something like that.

As for saying my name, did that mean that Alacran was in love with me? Was that why this position and his trust had come so easily?

Why had he killed those men if he himself was gay? People could be pretty twisted. He perhaps blamed himself for Noberto's death.

It had probably affected him so much that he'd bought into the 'gay men don't deserve to live' idea, words probably said by his father. Perhaps killing other gay men like Noberto was killed gave him some sort of peace.

Of course, this was just my theory. But who could've thought that Alacran had so many layers.

***

"Haven't the booze arrived yet?" Alacran whined.

He was an always smiley person, but today I'd never seen him so excited. I guess we had our victory over the Sierra Cartel to thank.

It'd taken three days after our visit to The Godfather to devise a plan to attack the Sierras. Today, we'd taken them unawares at the basement where they kept their drugs and ammunition and retrieved the cocaine they stole as well as other things that did not belong to the Scorpione Cartel, granted Alacran had lost six of his men.

"You all did very good today. The Godfather is going to be so proud of you all." Alacran said.

The other men cheered but I snorted. We all knew the only person The Godfather was going to be proud of was Alacran even though he'd barely done anything.

After the celebration in the gang house, he was going to go see The Godfather to probably receive some reward. Such a shame it was going to be his last time.

The booze finally arrived. Boxes of tequila were brought in by some of the men, and they began to binge without a care. If only they knew what was in store for them.

Last night, they'd wasted all the booze in the house in case it was their last time. Alacran had asked me to order some to be delivered today because he had been so sure of victory.

It was the perfect opportunity I had needed to call Vasquez to prepare the poisoned tequilas. I stood to the side, watching the men drinking to their heart's content. Alacran strode up to me with a second bottle in his hand.

"I know you drink, so why aren't you drinking tonight?" He asked.

"I'm good."

"No you're drinking whether you want to or yes. It's an order." He turned the second bottle in his hand towards me, looking challengingly into my eyes.

I tensed but was careful not to let it show. I wasn't worried about drinking the tequila because I had already taken an injection that offered me immunity to the poison, but I couldn't help but wonder whether Alacran knew.

I took the bottle from his hand and took a sip without hesitation. He beamed at me before drinking his own.

He drew closer to me and slung his arm over my shoulder. "Isn't victory the best noun in the world?"

I hummed, counting the seconds the minutes. By now some of the men were on a second bottle. Pietro was on his third. The effects of the poison soon began to take effect.

Bottles fell on the floor, shattering as men clutched their stomachs, groaning in pain. Alacran's arm left my shoulder as he went down too. I went along with everything, acting like I was also feeling the same pains.

I fell to the floor beside Alacran who looked dazedly at me before his eyes closed. I waited for five minutes to be sure they were all out before getting up.

I know what you must be wondering. Had I really killed these men just to have a smoother revenge? No, I didn't.

The poison was toxic enough only to cause intense stomach pain and, eventually, unconsciousness. All of them were going to wake up in a few hours.

I was done killing the people who didn't matter to my revenge. The Godfather was my target, and he was going to be the last person I was going to kill.

Working for close to month with these men had given me the opportunity to realize that not all of them possessed a dark soul to go along with the work they did.

Don't get me wrong. There were some who were cruel by heart, but most of them were driven into this work by a variety of factors. Dispair, revenge, the need for a sense of belonging.

I know that is not justification enough, but I was hoping that my taking out Alacran and The Godfather would facilitate grounds for them to do something better with their lives.

I looked down at Alacran's unconscious body. It was time to activate the second part of my plan.

Pulling out the syringe and needle from by pocket, I placed the needle at the mouth of the syringe. Then I took out the little glass of Zara, a chemical that could do wonders.

After I had collected every bit of the drug with the needle, I leaned down and stamped it into Alacran's neck, emptying every bit of it into him. Then I brought out the ammonium bottle, uncapped it, and brought it to his nose.

He woke up in three seconds. Blinking, he looked at me in confusion. "Gustavo."

I looked straight into his eyes. "I am your master and from now and you'll only do only as I say.”