Chapter 10

Dark. Everything around me is dark, and all I can hear is Alexandra’s breathing. I know it is her. Her low, suffocated crying blends with the sound of her teeth chattering. She is cold. I suspect we are in the South Wing, but that does not matter. Every cell in my body seems to feel fear, for me and for her. It is such an overwhelming fear that I almost feel inclined to beg, like my mother once did. My hands are tied, not too tightly, because the Consigliere’s daughter cannot have visible marks, but firmly enough to keep me from running. “Alexandra…” “Shh!” she whispers. “He will hear us. Please, be quiet.” “Can you move?” Silence. We remain like that until a light turns on. My eyes burn, but I can make out Bruno’s silhouette. He walks in, switches on a dimmer light, and turns off the main one, as if he wanted to make the room feel more intimate. I recognize where we are, the room we escaped from, but when I lift my neck, the image before me destroys me. Alexandra is tied up, immobilized like an animal, because the collar around her neck represents exactly that. Her body lies with her back against the table, hands and feet bound together exactly like prey waiting for slaughter. Completely exposed, she endures the cold of that room without any warmth. Her face, chest, and abdomen are completely soaked with the tears she has shed in the last hour. The gunshot only grazed her and blends with the many bruises already there. “What do you think, Valentina? Isn’t it a perfect job? Tied up like the beast she is. Scared?” He stares at me with demon eyes. “It was my fault. Let her go.” “Yes, it was your fault. Your father made that very clear. Your fault. And whatever happens in this room tonight will also be your fault,” he repeats the words almost like hypnosis. “You cannot kill her.” Yes, he can, but I will not beg. I only speak as if my order could actually be obeyed. “No, I cannot,” he surprises me. “And she will not die.” He laughs at the relief he saw on my face. “Do not get excited. She will stay alive long enough to beg to die. The miserable life waiting for her will be your fault. She will live long enough to pay for your stupidity. A debt from both of you. Want to know how?” No, I do not want to hear anything else, I do not want to feel more guilt than I already feel. I cannot. “First, I will break her. I will f**k with her, with her mind, every miserable part of her. I will strip away every layer. Every shell until there is nothing left. I will break her in a way that she will not recognize herself. That takes time, I know, but the first session you are going to watch. And when she is nothing more than just a doll, she will be a little gift from your father to one of the men in the Association. She will not be like a w***e, do not worry. Whores have desires, she will not. A little bitch.” The dizziness hits me hard, heavy, like a punch. I do not answer, because I have no answers. I have nothing to say about his speech, because it is not even a threat. It is the certainty of what will happen. Everything that happens after that feels like slow motion, at least inside my head. Alexandra tries in vain to move while, blow after blow, he immobilizes her. She screamed in pain until unconsciousness silenced her. Deep down, I feel calm. It is better that she is unconscious. He repositions her in front of me, her back turned upward and her breasts crushed against the table. I can see the outline of her naked body, now covered in bruises. He goes to the cabinet and takes out a whip. A damn whip, very similar to the one that has haunted me since last year. At that moment, I hold my breath, far too focused on checking whether she is still breathing. A glass of water is placed on the table, and a stereo at deafening volume is turned on. Enter Sandman by Metallica sets the stage for the moment of terror. “From now on, sleep with one eye open, princess,” he whispers the lyrics of the song, directing them at me. “When the light goes out, darkness is forever.” It is all darkness. In the middle of that temporary deafness caused by our tormentor, I watch Alexandra being pulled out of the unconsciousness that had embraced her. The darkness enters her forever, while Bruno lashes her. I cannot even hear the sounds she makes, although I think she is no longer capable of speaking. The whip is blood red, his shirt is too. And her hair has never looked so alive. The red of her blood mixed with the red of her hair, one great confusion. She is no longer a person. She is pure rosso .Red dominates her skin and my mind. I heard my mother die. But I had never seen the red of the night that now embraces us until suffocation. The smell of iron fills the room, and my stomach insists on rejecting all of it. The music stops and, incredibly, she is still conscious. Her body does not want to surrender, and inside I pray that she does. Bruno’s sadism can go even further, I am sure. “You little slut, our night is going to be endless. You’d better save your energy, because we’ve got a show to put on for that little princess over there.” “Please…” she begs. I feel bitterness rise in my mouth, reliving that scene again. “Please, please…” “Leave her and do whatever you have to do to me.” “Well, well, if the little princess is not brave. Unfortunately, I cannot carry out my plans on you. You know that. But it is good to know you feel every one of her pains.” “I already got the message!” “Tsc, tsc… But I have not delivered the message yet. Let us say tonight is a lesson about disobedience.” “I already said I understand!” I scream. He runs a hand through his hair, losing patience. He comes closer to me, so close that if I take a deep breath our lips will touch. Then he runs his index finger along my face, tracing my jawline. “Your innocence moves me. Fifteen years old and you still have not seen much, have you, girl? Will you feel it when I thrust so deep she bleeds?” he threatens. “Will you feel it when I tear her in half while she begs to die? Will you feel it when your little brother comes to play with her again? You think I am sadistic? You have never seen Paolo in action. She will forget who she is. Then, yes, only then, you will understand the message.”