by Lola Swain
Luca pointed the gun at Katy’s right foot and pulled the trigger. She screamed and fell to the ground. Paul jumped from the couch and watched Katy writhing around the living room floor in agony.
“Serves you right, you fucking bitch!” Paul said as he pointed at her.
Luca walked over to Katy and kicked her.
“That’s enough with the hysterics, Katy. You’re fine.”
Katy curled up on her side and held her foot. Her face was a mess of dried blood and contorted grotesquely.
“You shot me!” she said and screamed. “You fucking shot me! I didn’t do anything!”
Luca knelt beside Katy and pressed the gun into her forehead and his mouth to her ear.
“In the foot. Getting shot in the foot is not a big deal…just a flesh wound. And if you pull the martyr card one more time, Katy, I will shoot you in the head. I know what you did and I know how long you’ve known. Okay? Wonderful! Paul, get over here and carry your wife back to the sofa so we can continue.”
Paul flew over to Katy and gathered her in his arms.
“I should drop you off the balcony, you fucking disloyal cunt,” he said as he walked to the couch.
“Good, put her down here and sit,” Luca said and walked to the entertainment unit with the revolver. “We need to talk.”
Luca turned his back to Paul and Katy and rested his head against the glass door of the cabinet. He rifled around one of the drawers while he listened to Katy’s whimpers and Paul’s sniffles. He twisted his head and looked at Lena.
He thought that she looked like Sleeping Beauty and his heart broke. When he couldn’t take the emotion any longer, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“Now, are we ready to talk?” Luca said as he turned to face Paul and Katy and scratched the side of his face with the revolver.
“Yes!” Paul said. “Anything.”
“I’ve been thinking about allegiance, Paul. In my old life, I was never loyal, but I’ve grown a lot. Lena, on the other hand, well, she’s loyal to the extreme. Do you know this woman once drove her piece of shit car all over the United States for an entire summer to follow some shitty band?”
“The Grateful Dead?” Paul said as he looked at Lena.
“No, but good guess. No, these guys were nobodies. They played in bars all over the place, mostly for the free drinks, a variety of pussy and to escape responsibility. I certainly don’t begrudge them that. But, not the point. My wife, that exquisite woman you see over there laying in shards of glass, followed this band around because she was in love with the drummer. Do you want to know what his name was?”
“Um, sure?” Paul said and nodded.
“Mickey Sexual. I kid you not. Mickey Sexual. Can you believe?”
“Huh,” Paul said and forced a chuckle.
“So, anyway, Lena follows Mickey Sexual all over the United States just to be near him. She takes whore’s baths in filthy rest stops and sleeps in the back of her beat-up car because she didn’t have money for hotels and tickets to the shows. Dedication, no?”
“Total dedication,” Paul said and seemed to relax a bit.
“But, what do you think a man with a name like that thinks of my beauty? Right…not very much. But every night, if he had nothing better going on, he’d bed down with Lena in some shit-shack motel and use her. And she came back and back and back. That, my friend, is loyalty. Of course, she needed therapy after degrading herself in that way for so long, but she’s grown a lot too.”
“That is a…really nice story, Luca,” Paul said and sighed.
“Yes, it is. That said, where is your allegiance, Paul? Where’s your loyalty? Katy here, we know where her loyalty is. Totally misguided like Lena’s was with Mickey Sexual, however, it is easily definable. It’s yours I wonder about,” Luca said and sat on the coffee table and rubbed Paul’s knee with the butt of the revolver.
Paul stared at Luca while he pondered his question and then glanced down at the gun.
“Well, you’re going to think this is total bullshit, but I really want to make the world a better place.”
Luca looked at Paul and did a line of cocaine.
“In Italy, we call them anarchico, you know…the anarchists. They fought for people who did not have a voice, for the common good. Yes, they made mischief, but a little mayhem never hurt a population, you know? But I don’t think that’s your fight, Paul. I don’t think you really have what it takes to stand up for something that’s bigger than your ego.”
“I-I didn’t. But now, I do.”
“Really? And I brought about this change?”
“Yes, you did. You really did! I was lost and—”
“Now you’re found?” Luca said and smiled.
“Well…I mean it on a deeper level,” Paul said and cleared his throat.
Luca looked at Katy and tapped her on the head with the gun.
“Open your eyes, pretty. I want you in on this conversation.”
He packed one of the straws with cocaine and sat down on the couch between Paul and Katy. Luca pulled Katy up and jammed the straw up her nostril. Katy whimpered and clawed at Luca’s hand.
“Here, this will help,” Luca said as he held her mouth closed with his other hand.
When Katy could hold her breath no longer, she was forced to inhale the caustic cocaine. Tears streamed down her face and fresh blood trickled from her nose as she cried.
“Stop that crying!” Paul said. “You have a flesh wound and a broken nose, stop acting like a baby! I’m sorry, Luca, please continue.”
Luca stood up and sat on the table opposite Paul.
“Thank you. That showed a bit of your fight. Still, I really don’t think you have what it takes. Do you see this scar?” Luca said and traced the barrel of the revolver down a scar that began at the top of his pectoral muscle and ended at his ribcage.
“Yes. What is that, a cross?” Paul said.
“Eh, kind of. I got this scar from that knife,” Luca said and picked up his knife off the table and stabbed the blade in the remaining brick of cocaine. “I was, as I said, a bad man. I did bad things all the time, but it eventually caught up to me. I was given a second chance and during my reeducation, I was brought into a room and questioned. The Illuminati wanted to know if I was proud or ashamed of my misdeeds.”
“Wait a minute,” Paul said and pointed to him, “are you CIA?”
“Close,” Luca said and laughed. “Anyway, of course I said that I was gravely ashamed of every bad thing I ever did. But you know what, Paul, it was a lie. I wasn’t ashamed in the least. I was proud of my wickedness. It is a part of who I am; the same as what you do is a part of who you are. And the interrogators knew this. Every time I betrayed my heart, I was lashed with a whip with razor blades attached. Until I caught on.”
“That’s amazing,” Paul said and shook his head. “So they wanted you to admit to loving the things that you did?”
“Exactly!” Luca said and jumped from the table. “And finally, when I did that, they said: acta non verba and handed me the knife. Do you know that phase?”
“Let’s see,” Paul said, “um, verba means words and act—well, I’m trying to remember. It’s been a while since I studied Black’s Law, but I—”
“Shut up!” Luca said. “Acta non verba—deeds not words! The Illuminati was tired of my bullshit…they couldn’t believe anything I said. So, when I answered in the affirmative when questioned about the level of pride I had for my corruption, I had to prove it. I carved this symbol into my chest to prove it! Now, what will you do to prove your pride? Show me your fucking allegiance!”
“You want me to cut myself? I can, I will cut myself!”
“Listen to me you stupid, sniveling asshole!” Luca said and grabbed Paul by the hair. “Do you have what it takes to cut your heart out just to prove your point? Look at me! You know how much I love Lena, don’t you?”
“Y-y-yes!”
“You tell me how much heart this fucking takes,” L
uca said.
Luca cocked the hammer of the gun and crossed his arm over his chest. He aimed the revolver at Lena and looked at Paul and raised his eyebrows.
“Could you do it?” Luca whispered.
“Please don’t,” Paul said and stared at Lena’s body. “It’s not her fault.”
“That’s what makes it so sweet. Acta non verba! Deeds not words, Paul! Deeds not fucking words!”
“No!” Paul screamed.
Luca fired the gun once into Lena’s body. He stood from the table and walked over to her. He rubbed his forehead with the barrel of the gun and nudged her with his foot.
“Shit,” Luca said and chuckled, “went right through her chest. Ah, well.”
Luca fired three more rounds into Lena’s body and turned to look at Paul.
He sobbed with his head down and sat in a puddle of his own piss. Katy’s eyes were frozen open and her mouth moved up and down like a guppy.
“Look at me, Paul!”
Paul slowly lifted his head and stared at Luca. He trembled and sputtered as he sobbed.
“Will you murder the thing you love to stand by your evil?” Luca whispered.
Paul shook his head and swiped at his nose. He slammed his fists into his thighs and screamed.
“I’m confused! Do you want me to murder Katy?” Paul said.
“Oh, for the love of fuck can we move on?”
“Oh my God,” Katy said and tried to get off the couch, “Lena!”
Lena stood from the floor and wiped glass dust from her skin.
“Well, how do I look?” Lena said as she held her arms out in front of Luca.
Luca looked at her and smiled.
“You are beautiful, baby,” he said and hugged her.
“Will someone tell me what the fuck is going on?” Paul Kirschner screamed.
“We had to raise you adrenaline levels to the acceptable rate,” Lena said as she walked toward Paul and Katy. “The cocaine wasn’t enough. You needed to perceive a threat.”
“So, this was all an act? But he really shot me!” Katy said.
“It wasn’t really an act. This isn’t Mystery Dinner Theater, Katy,” Lena said and picked her drink up off the table and took a sip. “This is all real. Well, except that Luca didn’t kill me.”
“I’m so fucking confused,” Paul said and rocked back and forth on the couch. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
“You will soon enough,” Luca said. “For now, let’s head into the second bedroom, shall we?”
Luca and Lena pushed Paul and Katy Kirschner into the second bedroom of the suite. As the Kirschner’s eyes adjusted to candlelight in the room, Katy fell to her knees and began to pray. Paul Kirschner turned around and stared at Luca.
“You cannot mean—”
Luca walked up to Paul and grabbed him by the back of the neck. He breathed heavily and clenched his teeth.
“You were wrong Paul, this isn’t revenge, this is vengeance!”
Luca pushed Paul back against the giant wooden cross in the room. He made him stand on a box with Luca as Luca looped a thick, braided rope around Paul’s wrists.
“A little close, huh?” Luca said as his chest rubbed against Paul’s chest while he tied his wrists together with the rope. “Sorry about invading your personal space, you’ll be alone soon enough.”
“I will do anything you want, Luca. I’m serious…anything,” Paul said as Luca secured the rope around a wooden beam above their heads.
“I know you will, Paul. You know, I just wanted to say that I really didn’t appreciate watching you eye-fuck Lena all night.”
“Wh-what? You are swingers! That’s what swingers do! Why are you changing the rules of this now?”
Luca finished tying the rope to Paul’s wrists and looked in his eyes and sighed.
“You’re right. That is not the issue and the stuff of my ego, I apologize.”
Luca jumped off the box and stood next to the cross.
“How’s he look, Lena?” Luca said.
“Stunning! Kinda like a picture from some giant book I was forced to read on Sundays. Only in a filthy tuxedo. Shall we have the missus strip him?”
“Excellent idea, love,” Luca said and grabbed Katy off the ground. “Get up on that box and take all his clothes off. Use the knife to cut his shirt away and don’t worry about being terribly careful.”
Luca handed Katy the knife and she looked down at it.
“It’s very powerful, isn’t it,” Katy said.
“It is deadly. And before you wonder, you cannot kill us with it.”
Katy looked up at Luca and inhaled.
“I know what you are,” she said and frowned. “I know what you both are.”
“Good,” Luca said and turned Katy by the shoulders and pushed her toward Paul. “Do your job.”
Katy hobbled up on the box beside Paul and began hacking away at Paul’s clothes. She giggled as Paul screamed at her and she managed to knick him a bit with the tip of the blade here and there. Finally, Paul Kirschner was before them naked.
“This is humiliating,” Paul mumbled.
Luca, Lena and Katy stood in a row staring at him. Katy handed the knife to Luca and laughed at Paul.
Lena walked over to the cross and jabbed Paul in the ribs with her fingers.
“Lift your feet up,” Lena said.
“No!”
“Either you lift them yourself or I will get a sledgehammer and knock the box out from under your feet. You don’t want that. My aim is not as good as Luca’s.”
Paul lifted his feet as Lena kicked the box out from under him. He stretched his legs back down and hung from his arms.
“He looks pretty comfortable, don’t you think, Katy?” Luca said.
“He sure does!”
“I am fucking leaving you!” Paul said. “Did you hear me? As soon as we get out of this fucking nightmare I am leaving your crazy ass high and dry. And don’t you for a minute think you are going to get one fucking dime out of me. You signed a pre-nup!”
“So sad that everything comes down to money,” Lena said and sat on the white twin bed in the room.
“Do you know what the strappado is, Paul?” Luca said as he walked to the corner of the room.
“No?” Paul said and watched Luca.
“In the Medieval times, strappado was conducted using a nice pulley system. The arms were tied in front and this was tied at the feet.”
Luca pointed at the cast-iron kettlebell weight on the ground next to him.
“Sweet Jesus, no!” Paul said.
“Well…we had to modify. Too much work with the pulley and the other mechanisms, so we made due. But I am actually quite impressed with our work. This is the more sophisticated, Waldorf-Astoria-version of strappado. High-brow, no?”
Luca grunted a bit as he picked up the heaviest kettlebell and staggered over to Paul.
He pulled a length of thick rope and threaded it through the hook of the kettlebell. Lena wrapped the other end of the rope around Paul’s feet. As she bound his ankles together, she stared at his toes and then looked up at him.
“Pedicure?” she said and looked back down at his perfect toenails.
“He goes every Wednesday,” Katy said. “It’s metrosexual.”
Luca looked at Katy and laughed.
“I think I may miss you a bit, Katy,” Luca said. “Okay, Lena, I’m going to lift the weight and I want you to pull as much slack off the rope as you can to secure the ankles. I don’t want this falling through the floor and taking his legs with it. That may piss off the downstairs tenants.”
Luca and Lena worked together to make sure the rope pulled taught and secured tightly at Paul’s ankles.
“Now, Paul,” Luca said, “I am going to do you a favor and not throw this down. Your shoulders will dislocate immediately and that won’t be any fun. Instead, I will almost roll it off my hands and it will find its natural place with minimal jerking. Sound good?”
“No! No, it
doesn’t sound good!”
“Okay, great. Here we go! One. Two. Three!”
Luca crouched down with the kettlebell and tilted his hands. The weight tumbled out of his hands and landed, suspended about four feet from the ground. Paul screamed as his vertebrae stretched and he hung.
“Would you please gag him?” Lena said.
Luca grabbed a ball gag and the box and stood beside Paul. Paul looked at him and his eyes bulged from their sockets.
“Please!” Paul said and screamed until his voice was hoarse.
Luca struggled and worked the ball gag into his mouth. His screams were muted to grunts.
“Don’t worry, friend,” Luca said and patted Paul on the cheek, “your arms will be numb in just a few minutes. Lena, shall we start?”
“Yes. Katy, go stand by your husband.”
Katy walked over and stood next to Paul and she looked up at her husband. His face was so red he looked like he stuck it in a pot of boiling water and he was covered in sweat.
“I am sorry, dear one,” Katy said. “But you brought this on yourself.”
Paul grunted at her and Katy patted him on the leg.
“Silence!” Luca said as he stood next to Lena. “I will read the orders of the Auto-Da-Fé against Paul and Katy Kirschner. There is no trial. The Offenders have already confessed to the crime. The punishments will then commence!”
“Should we bow our heads?” Katy said.
“I think she’s enjoying this?” Lena said to Luca.
“I know, she thinks she’s not going to be punished,” Luca said and sighed.
“Well, I wouldn’t call the first part a punishment.”
Luca looked at Lena and raised his eyebrow.
“Oh no?”
“Nope,” Lena said. “As a matter of fact, I welcome that kind of punishment.”
Luca stared into Lena’s eyes and smiled. He turned back to the Offenders and held up his arms.
“Paul and Katy Kirschner, you are hereby sentenced to punishment as pronounced by the Auto-Da-Fé for your crimes against humanity. The intention of punishment is not your penance for your crimes, nor does it absolve you of those crimes. Instead, the punishment’s intention is the good of the public and in the interest first and foremost of humanity. The Order decreed that this punishment of torture will be imprinted into your cells so you never again do harm to another. Do you understand?”