The warehouse definitely looked more majestic outside; inside, it was cold and dark. The walls were painted a sickening silver colour with rust filling holes the painter had left out. In the middle, Valentino was tied to a chair and sat in front of a table with a small lamp facing him.
"WHERE ARE YOU MEETING THE ASSOCIATE?!" Padre's voice boomed through the once awfully silent warehouse. He was standing across from Valentino, his face etched with fury.
"Like I'd tell rebel scum like you." Valentino retorted. With what little strength he had left, he spit on Padre's face.
He leaned over and whispered in his ear. "Pendejo."
Padre, losing his cool, hotly responded by punching the general in the face. Blood started pouring out Valentino's nose with accompaniment blood from the mouth, yet all he did was laugh.
"Come on Captain!" he taunted, accompanied by coughs which scattered blood across Padre's face. "You can do better than that!"
Provoked, Padre slammed his fist into the table in frustration, leaving a deep crater in the middle. I walked up to him, planning to pin his arms down to restrain him from killing the man but as soon as he saw me his anger dissipated as relief flooded his face. "Karlos! You're finally here, great. I believe Santos is with you."
"Yeah he's here." I replied,
"To make a long story short, our friend here refuses to crack. We've gone on for a while and—"
However Padre was cut off by Valentino, surprisingly addressing me in a mockingly apologetic tone.
"¡Dios mío! If it isn't the Captain's mijo! I wonder how you've been considering, you just lost your oh so poor family in that devilish explosion."
Through my one good eye, I saw his gaze, full of malice, settle on me, his sadistic smile stretching across his face. "I wonder who organised the whole thing." He delivered the line in such a way that he made it sound like a punchline, a joke. Valentino chuckled in villainous laughter, knowingly trying to provoke me.
It worked.
The memories of the explosion flooded through my head; the first shock, the house collapsing with me in it, my right eye crying blood, Kamila's mutilated body, her severed right arm.
Right there, I lost it.
Anger took over my strain of thought and erased any possible rationality from my brain. With fists clenched and blood pounding in my head, I wordlessly ran at him at full speed with the intention of killing him. Before I could reach him, I felt two strong arms hold me back. I strained against my restraints but they held firm, intent on keeping me still. I look over and it's Padre, face steeled with concentration as he restrains me from punching the shit out of Valentino.
"Cálmate Karlos, we'll break him." He grabbed his radio and called over, "Alex, you got the package?"
"Yeah, I'm here." Alex radioed over. A package? My thoughts broke away from strangling Valentino. I never heard of any package.
"What's the package?" I asked Padre, my curiosity overcoming my rage. I turned to him and his smile was sly but foreboding. I had a bad feeling but kept it down as he kept talking.
"Just a...bargaining chip for our little"—he cocked his eyes towards Valentino, who still had a smug smile on his face—"friend here." His smile became more ominous, which worried me. "Could you meet Alex around the back?"
I didn't bother asking more questions. As I walked towards the exit, my stomach started to swirl, startling me with a ravaging stomachache. My gut seemed to be trying to tell me that something awful was outside, but I ignored it to the best of my ability.
YOU ARE READING
At What Cost?
AcciónA boy fresh out of high school is dragged into a civil war. He sees the bloody hell that he's trapped in and tries to figure out which side to help. As he navigates his new brutal life, he gets hit with bombs, gunfire and many other close brushes w...
