The Sins of Our Fathers

XX Dance of the Insane

The bright strobe lights flashed in my eyes as I stepped into club momentarily blinding me. Eyes blinded I descended down the stairs through the man made smoke into the dark mess of sweaty bodies. When I reached the last step the change in the atmosphere was like a switch being flipped. Instantly darkness enveloped me like a cloak with random bursts of colored lights washing over me. I coughed as I breathed in the thick never ending smoke. Sweaty bodies were tangled together as they moved to the music slamming against each other as the beat dropped. The heat in the room was almost unbearable. It was perfect.

Moving through the drunken crowd I scanned each face looking for the face of the commander that I had committed to memory. For a minute I let myself get lost in the crowd imagining I was just another teenage girl who wanted to get drunk and dance. In that moment someone bumped me from behind knocking into my bag, my lifeline. Immediately  I clutched the purse making sure that I never lost hold on the gun and the purse's other contents. Sweat was beginning to roll down my arms a mixture of my own and the disgusting people around me as I moved through the crowd when someone ran into me again.

"Hey babe." A deep voice slurred as hands wrapped themselves around my waist and pulled my back to his chest.

I rammed my elbow into the drunk's abdomen and swiftly kicked him in the groin with enough power to keep him from making a single sound as he fell. I heard a wail of pain behind me after a few minutes, but I didn't stop moving.

Rhythmically I pushed through the bodies reeking of alcohol and desperation as I neared the clearing where the more high profile clubbers were drinking their worries away.

Their wealth and power that put them above us was displayed quite literally here. They danced and drank together on a raised platform a solid five feet off the ground and made of glass to let the lights from underneath shine through. A single set of wide stairs led up to the high profile area guarded by hulking men in black shirts. Pushing the last person out of my way I made my way to the stair case that led to both the commander and a door that would grant me access to the smoke machine.

Smiling I patted the compartment of my bag that held the vial of Finistère and the now half empty vial of the cure. Taking a deep breath I willed myself to march up the steps and do my father proud.

"Do it Neoma." A gruff voice soothed.

My eyes nearly popped out of my head at the sound of his voice as I spun around.

"Finish it." He said. There were more wrinkles around his eyes than there had been and his olive skin had faded and his hair had turned to a salt and pepper color. Despite the changes I would have recognized him if half his face had been missing, I recognized him now.

"Daddy?" I whispered as I stared at the former Mafia boss.

"Neoma time is running out, finish it." My father spoke again as I took a few steps toward him, "End it! Without Marina it has to end!" My father cried and I could have sworn I saw a single tear fall down his cheek.

"I miss mom too." I said and I closed the final distance to hug my father as tears started to stream down my cheeks. I put my hands up to wrap them around him, but when I did all I felt was nothing, but air.

"Daddy?" I whispered using the childhood name for him as I turned in a full circle searching for his salt and pepper hair. Nothing. Not a single trace of Romulus Casimir remained; maybe he was never there at all.

I blinked rapidly to clear my eyes trying to ward off the invasive smoke that surrounded me, but all I succeeded in doing was removing the tears from my eyes. Setting my chin forward I turned back to the stairs and put my foot down on the first step to begin the climb to the end of the world. Determination filled my soul as I can closer to the guards at the top of the stairs who blocked the entrance to the high end part of the club.