Dreading The Mafia

Part 14

Part 14

The mysterious box which I had been wondering about earlier was the one which housed my worst nightmare. Somebody had removed the black cloth while I was gone, which meant I could clearly see the monsters which were in the box.

It was more like a cage than an actual box, with metal rods crossing each other, forming hundreds of small diamonds. The cage was filled to the brim with at least a hundred brown rats which were squeaking and moving around. The mere sight of them had nausea bubbling in my stomach. Why were there so many rats in one place? Why in the world did Renzo have them?

"What the hell is wrong with you? Are you even sane? No wait, don't answer that, I already know you are not," I babbled as I looked at the disgusting creatures staring at me with their creepy eyes.

"I hope you like rats because you are about to become awfully familiar with them," Renzo said with a victorious smirk on his face. How could he be beautiful and love rats at the same time?

"Why do you have so many rats? You do know they cause rabies, right?" I was sure he knew the dangers of keeping rats in the house—they were a health hazard.

"Not just rabies, they can be highly toxic." His statement confused me. I never knew rats could be toxic; I thought they were only responsible for rabies.

"Uh I don't think so." I told him, wondering how to get out of here without being caught by this freak standing next to me. If he weren't so dangerous, I would be more than happy to stay, but he was a criminal and I wanted no part of his life.

"I told Severon and Adone to work on these rats...make them toxic enough to kill within a few seconds with just one bite." The hair on the back of my neck stood at attention when he talked about being killed in a few seconds. I could not die just yet; I had so many things to do. This monster had ruined my life and I had to get it back before it was too late.

"Why? They are dangerous enough as it is!" I was panicking, which was not the right thing to do at this time. If Renzo knew that I was scared, then he would use that against me. He had already won as it was; forcing me to help him find Natasha.

"I just figured you might need some...extra persuasion. Hopefully by the end of this you will agree to do whatever it is I require of you," he said, his eyes twinkling with sinister intent.

"Can you do anything without using torture?" I asked, ignoring the pounding of my heart as it begged me to release it of its cage.

"If you would just behave yourself, I wouldn't have to do all this. So if you are looking for someone to blame, sugarplum, I suggest you blame yourself," he replied.

"You can't honestly expect me to cooperate, do you?" He was delusional, it was evident. Perhaps every man who worked in the Mafia was crazy.

He grabbed my arm and pulled me closer to him. "We can either do this the easy way or the hard way, darling, but rest assured, you will do exactly what I say."

"You need a reality check," I snapped, gazing deep into his eyes, trying to find a weakness in him but no matter what I did, the only conclusion I could reach was that Renzo had no weakness.

"The reality, sugarplum, is that you'll become a rat's target if you don't agree to do as I say. Now the choice is yours." He let go of my arm and stepped back, knowing exactly what I would choose.

I took a deep breath and forced myself to look at the rats once again. I didn't know why I did that, perhaps I was a masochist, or maybe I was just an idiot but I couldn't help but stare at the rats with a sick fascination, as if it was a supernatural creature which I'd never seen before.