BOOK 3: The Mafia Game (Hiatus)

TMG 52: Forget Me Not

CHAPTER 52: Forget Me Not

It's always the morning after that was literal hell for Vincent; muscles aching, bones as weak as jellies, severe pain tormenting her skull, knots and kinks all over her body from back to calves and occasional ugly bruises littered over her pale skin here and there. It has been over a year though; 18 dreading months to be exact, when her clan decided it would be necessary to finally toss her crown aside and stripped her role as a respected Mafia Empress and knocked her over a mud with a sharp elbow against her ribcage that left her groaning in pain and gasping for air.

There's also this one time she bled so bad she had to have 8 stitches on the left side of her stomach after receiving a particular deep cut of butterfly knife from Azmael. She still doesn't understand how a butterfly knife could do such damage but it unfortunately did. She remembered how no one panicked at her state and remembered shouting curses at everyone standing around them and just staring at her obvious panicked-needed situation. She remembered how alarming the amount of blood that was gushing from her wound and slipping through the gaps of her fingers.

She remembered how she swears on hell she'd visit Meisha at Azmael on their sleep and choked them if she dies. She remembered how the feeling slowly left her whole body, numb taking over her mind. She remembered how they only start moving their feet towards her when she totally collapses on her back, cold sweat slicked skin paling and breathe turning short and shallow. She doesn't remember what happened next though 'cause she passed out. She ended up taking a two weeks break, much to her pleasure and displeasure for Meisha. Not her fault Azmael was so dumb to leave her concussion.

It has been a torture. To suddenly wake up with a cold nose of gun pointed firmly against your cheekbone – a not so nice way of waking a person up from a well-deserved slumber – forcing her body to disregard how distraught she was from the intense training from the night before and let her reflex to kick in her sleep-foggy mind to protect herself with a nice kick landing on the intruder's stomach and a twisted arm behind their backs, gun long gone thrown somewhere across the room. It was a nice technique, said Meisha once, but still lacking about 80% so Vincent still ended up pinned against her own mattress with her arms bent behind her in a painful twist and face mushed against the sheets with a knee behind her skull keeping her head down until she's almost suffocating.

To make the long story short, the last 18 months were nothing but a torture. It doesn't need Einstein to understand how ridiculous it felt to suddenly wake up in one Saturday morning with your status flipped in 180 degrees. She was once treated no less of an Empress, respected, words law, and is protected by a couple hundreds of reaper lurking in the darkness to make sure she wasn't suddenly ambushed to her death bed. And also, a personal mafia reaper beside her 24/7 to keep her head secure intact on her neck.

It was funny how she was treated now; an amateur of a gunman, a trainee, that's what she is.

"Are you ready?" Meisha suddenly voiced out from Vincent's right, snapping the younger girl out of her thoughts. Nilingon niya ito ngunit mas pinili niyang hindi na lamang sumagot. She couldn't trust her voice now. She's not even sure herself what to answer to that question. Was she ready? She doesn't know. Kung ang panlalamig ng mga kamay at panginginig ng kalamanan ay tanda ng pagiging handa, oo, siguro nga'y handa na siya. Pero hindi niya maitatanggi ang biglang pagbilis ng tibok ng puso niya sa kaba dahil sa simpleng tanong na 'yon.

Mabilis niyang isinara ang zipper ng itim na bag at binitbit sa kanang kamay bago naglakad palapit sa pinto. Rinig niya naman ang tunog ng takong ni Meisha na nakasunod sakanya bitbit ang sariling itim na duffle bag. Dalawang itim, heavy tinted and bulletproof na sasakyan ang nakahanda na sa labas ng quarter – o basement ng mansion – isa rito ay ang gagamitin niya para sa sarili niyang destinasyon.