Psychotic Love (a mafia love story)

Chapter 37

LUCA'S POV

I walk through the empty halls of an underground building. A ripple of direful wails and screams flush down the hallway. I peek inside cell 103. Not her. 104, not her. 105, not her. 106, not her, not her, not her.

I'm nearing the end of the hall as well as the end of my patience. Where the hell is she?

I peek through the small rectangular window of cell 112 and hope swells in my chest. A dark-haired girl sits curled up in a ball, facing a corner. Her body is small and frail. That's not Echo, it can't be. I bring a card to the lock anyway.

The girl trembles and her cries are ghostly. They linger through the air in waves of sorrow. Her spine extrudes from her back in ridges causing a reptile-ish effect.

"Echo?"

Her cries grow louder at the sound of my voice.

"Luca?"

Her voice drifts through my ears in an echo. It pulls at the strings of my heart and suddenly I can't breathe. The world has stopped spinning, its people have stopped living their lives, and the universe has come to rest.

I've found her.

"Echo, I'm here," I say speeding towards her. My hand places itself on her shoulder.

She turns. But instead of seeing her beautiful face like I've been longing to, I'm met with a gory sight. Her eyes are no longer in their sockets. Bloody tears stream down her severely sliced face.

She grabs me. "YOU DID THIS TO ME. YOU DID THIS, LUCA."

Her body starts to twist and contort into unworldly positions. As I try freeing myself from her, her face begins to melt.

I fall back onto my ass, completely terrified.

In the blink of an eye, she's sitting on her knees, covering her bare chest with her arms that hold her body. Her head faces the floor.

I get up to leave the cell. "Luca." Her voice falls back to the one I've always known. Soft and silky.

"Don't leave me." I continue to back out of the room. That's not my Echo. That's not my love.

"LUCA," she yells. Her head pops back up and a demonic creature seeps through her tone.

"LUCA! WAKE UP BEFORE ITS TOO LATE. WAKE UP BEFORE I'M DEAD."

"LUCA! Wake the hell up." I open my eyes to see Dario. He's shaking me. I push him off.

"I'm up, I'm up," I say. My voice is hoarse and groggy.

"Luca, I know you're worried about her, but at this point, you're falling behind. You need to get up."

I still lay back staring at the ceiling.

"Why are you so sweaty? It's fucking freezing in here."

I ignore his questions. He's the last person I want to talk to about these nightmares. It's only been three days and the loss of her is already haunting my dreams.

"Get out," I say lowly.

"We have work to do, Luca. You need to put your weird feelings aside, moping around all day isn't helping us, and it damn sure isn't helping you find Echo. You should work, get your mind off of her."

Right now work has consisted of collecting debt from the people who owe me. That debt being their lives. Maybe working will help me rid Echo from my brain for a bit. But that's the problem. I don't want to rid her. I want to fucking find her.

"My goal is not to get her off my mind, it's to get her back. If you don't have any information on her, get the fuck out."

Dario sits on the end of my bed. "You've grown soft, Luca. This girl has turned you into a pile of mush. Do you like...need a kiss or something? You know, to make you feel better."