by Ariana Kenny
Chapter 5 Sweet Relief
I must have slept all day because it was dusk when I came to and heard the door close. At first I thought Cassie must have left, but as I sluggishly came to and rolled over I heard the shower start up. She or Michael must have been out and back again already. I sat up and rubbed my face with my hands before I massaged the back of my neck and finally came to properly. I switched on the lamp on the table between the beds and saw, on her bed, opposite to me, there was a note and something wrapped in foil underneath. The note simply said: ‘Eat Me’. I smirked to myself at the Alice in Wonderland reference and picked up the foiled cylinder to unwrap it. Inside was the most welcome kebab I ever had.
I looked around and noted Michael was in fact still gone, and I downed a bottle of water I retrieved from my bag. Cassie emerged then from the bathroom in a red silken shirt, steam rising behind her. She carried a pair of dark jeans slung over her arm. I tried not to stare at her legs which disappeared in to the seam of her shirt only to reveal black underwear hinting at the edges as she walked nonchalantly over to the bed.
“Good morning.” she greeted me as she sat down towelling her hair. Thanks for the bed and the shower”.
“Thanks for dinner!” I replied raising what was left of it in to the air before I popped it in my mouth. “What happened to the day?” I said to make conversation. Being so close to her, and she being so relaxed and only half dressed sent my chest tight.
“I prefer it.” She proclaimed before explaining further “The night to the day anyway. Things seem clearer, more simple. Besides, you can’t be surprised you were out cold. You were driving all day and most of last night.”
I remembered how cold she had felt to touch earlier when I put her under the blankets. “Speaking of, how are you? When I put you in the bed, you were freezing. I thought something might be wrong.”
Cassie’s body stiffened slightly, and looked at me subtly surprised, before making an active effort to relax. “I’m fine. See.” she stood up while she held out her hand for me to take. I took it, and she felt warm. Then she sat back down, but next to me this time. In the soft light her skin looked velvety, and her eyes looked like they almost shined on their own in the semi darkness. She smiled and those perfectly white teeth glistened between those naturally red lips.
“Where did you get the clothes?” I wondered out loud.
“Got to know where to look.” she dismissed.
“Where’s Michael at?” I asked to distract myself from staring at her. There was this definite pull I had to her that was unnerving. Her proximity was disturbingly close.
“He said something about needing to get some fresh air, and I asked him to get some supplies to get us through the drive tonight.” She moved closer and tilted her chin down. “Thank you.” she said before looking up at me with those glistening grey-green eyes.
“That’s fine… no problem. I like the company.” My heart stared racing anew.
“You are the nicest person I’ve met Matt. Ever” and she lifted her hand to my face. “So uncomplicated.” she continued.
Trying to deal with the tension between us I joked to lighten the mood. “Did you just call me simple? Shouldn’t I be insulted?”
Cassie pressed closer to me. “I said uncomplicated, but you are still far from simple Matthias.” She felt so warm and soft against my cheek that I almost didn’t notice she called me by my full name.
“I never told you my name was Matthias, Cassie.” It wasn’t much of a protest, and as she moved in to kiss me gently on the lips. I both forgot, and didn’t care how she knew my full name. As much as I enjoyed kissing her, and the feel of the blood rushing through my ears, I put my hand to hers and gently pushed her away.
“You don’t owe me anything Cassie.” I said wishing I didn’t have to.
“This isn’t because I feel I owe you anything.” she laughed, brushing my hand away. She moved to kiss me again and I let her, I closed my eyes and felt the electricity as our lips met again, enjoying the feeling before I grasped her by the nape of her neck and kissed her back. We sank back in to the pillow. She tasted amazing. Cassie was amazing. Strong, but soft, warm. I couldn’t believe this was happening but it was and I loved it. No inhibitions, no worrying about what would happen later, just me, her, skin on skin and want. I just let go and felt she did as well.
Afterwards I was in an awesome daze. I languished in the feeling while tangled up in the sheets listening to Cassie have another shower. She had been in there for ages when I heard the door open. I sat up abruptly expecting to see Michael with a smug ‘I knew it you bastard’ look on his face. What I saw instead arrested my breath. I saw Cassie’s red shirt and faded black jeans disappear out the door. I jumped out of bed and went to the window confused. She was getting in the car, and starting up the engine as my heart stopped.
“No! No!” I yelled, hopelessly banging on the glass of the motel room. She reversed the car and looked straight out the window at me. She smiled beautifully frozen behind the pane of glass before she drove off.
I was in a blind panic. I pulled on my jeans grabbed my shirt and half put it on as I flew out the door. I ran in to the driveway mad and desperate. Michael had just appeared around the corner carrying two full paper bags and a shocked expression at having seen the car driving away. I ploughed in to him, sending the food flying as I raced after the car and Cassie. A couple standing next to their still running four wheel drive had stopped in the middle of unloading their suitcase to stare at me half naked running into the dust of my uncle’s car. They stared at me, and I looked at them, and the car’s open door. I didn’t even think, I just ran up and jumped behind the wheel. They started to yell at me and I reversed that car out in spite of their protests, but managed to yell “Sorry – I’ll bring it back” at them as I drove their car off. I just needed to get back my uncle’s car. Get it back. As I screeched out of the motel parking lot, Michael managed to catch up and flung the door open to throw himself in.
“What the hell happened?” he shouted at me as I raced down the road and recognised the lights in the distance.
I was closing the gap when Cassie turned the car into a small side street. I screeched around the corner and nearly lost control as the road turned in to dirt. Michael was tossed around the cabin and struggled to get his seatbelt on. We moved further into the darkness and there were no fences left to steer by, my only guide was the fast disappearing lights in the distance. Soon enough, they were gone altogether and it was just me, driving fast and desperate in the dark along a dirt road with Michael clutching on for his life.
I was driving blindly when Michael started to try and talk me down. “Matt. Matt. Stop the car. It’s gone. Stop Matt.” His voice was calm in comparison to my fast beating pulse and maddening thoughts.
I eventually gave up and stopped the car. I put my head on the wheel and breathed deep. Michael turned off the radio that had been going. I hadn’t even noticed the sound in my haze. That left me with the slowing sound of the blood rushing through my ears.
“Fuuuuck!!!” I screamed out. I threw my head back and clutched my hair as I tried to calm myself down. I sat there in the dark breathing loudly at first until I eventually calmed. I switched off the ignition and put my head in my hands, closed my eyes to try to think.
“Do you hear that” Michael asked from the seat beside me.
“I don’t hear anything.” I admitted.
“Listen.” He said intently.
It was then that I heard a pumping sound in the background like base speakers too loud, reverberating through the ground. I strained my eyes, switched the headlights off and looked around. The sound grew in my ears and as my eyes adjusted I eventually saw lights in the blackness, far-off in the distance. I started up the car again and we slowly approached the noise and the lights. I was hoping against hope to see some trace of the car, of Cassie. At this stage I almost didn’t care about anything else.
“It looks like an a
bandoned old factory or something, done up as a club.” Michael observed as we pulled up. There was the sound of music was flowing from it and people at the front loitering around smoking, finishing drinks, standing by cars. Clearly it was so ordinary to them, that as I drove up no one even bothered to look. I parked the car and just had a look around.
It was a club. In the middle of nowhere was some rave club and there was a really good chance that Cassie was in there with the keys to my car. We couldn't see the car in the lot but this place was the best chance that I had. I switched off the engine of the vehicle I had stolen (that was going to go down well with the folks) and stepped out. Michael nodded towards the entrance and two giant men standing at the front on either side.
Realising I was only half dressed I rummaged around the back of the car hoping to find something. I found a black jacket that I slipped on and walked towards the entrance running on false confidence that fuelled the desperate need to get that car back. I expected some kind of resistance but as we walked up one of the men opened the door for us and we stepped in. The bouncer who opened the door smiled and nodded as I entered, and paused to let my eyes become accustomed to the half light.
It was so dark inside but strobe lights were going intermittently with the coloured lights striking and partially blinding me. I kept moving forward in the dark walking along the pathway. Michael had been right, this had been an old factory. There was an upper walkway which I was on, with a steel railing separating the upper level walkway from the great depth below which would have formed the factory floor. Below where I stood, there were disco balls and strobe lights working their hardest and on an elevated platform below a DJ bashed out the music. There were a crazy amount of people dancing in front of him throwing their arms in the air, some dancing in their own worlds, either together or on their own. All around there were deep, dark colours adorning the décor. Blood reds, and dark purple velvet were found all over, either with curtains that came from the ceiling, along the walkway that I was on, or draped over the chairs that accompanied the tables I walked past. There was no doubt a hell of a lot of money was being poured into this place given it was a converted factory, and it looked amazing except that there was only one thing I was looking for that I couldn’t find. I kept looking either for her, or for some sort of sign of her and then I saw it. I was about to make a move when I felt a hand on my shoulder and I spun around – but it was just Michael.
“Just so you know, if we get busted for the felonies we committed to her here, I better get your dessert every meal we have in prison”. I felt relief that he was there, he had a way of making a situation seem less intense. It was then he pointed downstairs. There was the Viking standing at the bar that I had just seen a moment ago. I clutched the steel rail and headed to the stairs pushing past people to get there as fast as possible. Michael was right behind me. The Viking grabbed his drink while I was halfway down the stairs and was already moving away by the time we pushed through the throngs of people. He was gone from the bar and I was looking, trying to spot him anywhere. I saw his tall blonde head move through a side door behind where the DJ was sitting. We followed him to it. I pushed open the back door and emerged into a hallway filled with fluorescent light. Behind the thrum of the dance floor sounds I could hear the sounds of people talking and headed towards the noise in spite of my fear of the giant man. I knew I was in the right place. I turned the corner and at the end was another door that was slightly ajar. I walked up to it and stepped inside.
This room didn't have the harsh fluorescent lighting. There was a dark wood businesslike table in the corner surrounded by chairs on the right-hand side. On the left-hand side was set of red velvet chairs with a round coffee table between them where people were playing cards. The Viking was standing there over to the right in front of the table talking to other people. One was a tall man who looked to be in his early 40s with jet black hair, green eyes and an important look about him. He wore a black shirt with a collar slightly unbuttoned and looked about a million dollars. The other was a thin pasty looking man dressed in a smart suit, with a green shirt underneath and slicked back brown hair that ran halfway down his neck. When I walked in the three men, Viking included, immediately stopped talking and looked at me. Only the important looking one gave a half smile.
At this point I became aware of the other people in the room sitting on the left-hand side in lounge chairs. No one looked surprised to see us, though the two men who had been playing cards both wore disapproving looks on their faces. One was bald, one so fair he was nearly albino in appearance. In another one of these chairs sat a woman with glossy ebony hair, almond shaped blue-green eyes and skin as equally pale as the others in the room. She was petite and it was hard to pick her age she could have been anywhere between 20 and 30. She was holding a martini glass, which she put down on the table when she saw me. Both men at the table sat up straight, the bald one towering over the fair one though both looked as severe in their features as each other, with equally piercing eyes.
The important looking man took a step towards me. He might have looked pale but his teeth even whiter than his skin. They shone, glistening as he spoke. When he did speak, it was with a familiar accent in his voice “What is it we can do for you?”
“I'm looking for someone.” I replied
“What is your name?” he asked ignoring my statement.
“I’m Matt. I’m looking for Cassie.” I stumbled.
“Your name isn’t really Matt is it?” He replied and came over to put a hand on each side of my head. It was like the way my mother would when she was trying to draw out a lie from me when I was young.
“Matthias De Luca” I stated flatly. I looked at his face and didn’t feel unsafe though I felt a world away from thinking I was getting out of this room alive. Michael stood close beside me, fists clenched in tension.
“De Luca…..” he said thoughtfully. “That’s not your mother’s name though. I know that family name well. Now her name is one of good blood, Matthias.” The man smiled, and stalked around me. I got goose bumps while he continued to speak. “My name is Belil” he stated matter-of-factly “This is my home you are in Matthias, and I have many children. Cassie is one of them. Cassie,” he directed his speech to behind my left shoulder. Cassie stepped out from behind. I hadn't even noticed her there. “What do you think brings our friend here so fatefully, today. Our friend: Mathias of the De Luca family”.
Knowing I was being toyed with, and losing all sense of self preservation, I snapped at him. “I don’t know, Belil?” The man shuddered at my using his name. “Car jacking?”
Belil paced some more. “I don’t care about the car, when I have you Matthias.”
“Me? I don’t think you know who I am. I am nobody. I’m just ….”
“One of a kind. Born out of a blood bond that is unique. You Matthias were my key to greater things, but now, I will just have to make do on my own. You have become a liability, and you don’t even realise it.”
“What is this - a joke?” Michael asked.
Belil shot him a look of disgust before he moved to face off with Michael, near spitting as he ranted. “You shouldn’t even be standing here” he objected. “You live because I say you live, so keep your mouth shut or I will have someone shut it for you.” We were both silenced. Who spoke like that? We were in the deepest shitload of trouble and I knew it. Michael knew it.
Michael leaned over slightly to whisper in my ear “Can your uncle live without the car getting where it needs to? I’ll pay off the debt myself if we can get out of here right now….”
“So she stole your car?” Belil continued, smiling like it was an in-joke.
“I need it back.” I spoke up. Leaving without it would be nothing short of a disaster.
“She likes shiny things” Belil persisted. “And you like her I think. I tell you what.” his tone became more jovial and he paced in front and towards me. “You can have them both if you can get him to the floor
”. He nodded to behind him and the Viking stepped forward. Viktor the Viking laughed while he rolled up his sleeves.
Cassie took a few paces to stand next to me: “No Belil, that's not right. That's not why you asked me to bring him here. Viktor. Listen to me, we spoke about this…” I clearly was missing a piece of the puzzle.
“And that is not why you brought him here either” snapped Belil, cutting her off., malice suddenly etched in his face.
Viktor stood before me, a mass of a man, and I looked up at him feeling like an ant. Just then, the dark haired girl stood up from her spot at the card table and walked over to Belil, putting a hand on his arm and whispering in his ear. She was wearing a short black dress and looked like she belonged somewhere else, like a cocktail party in the 1940s. As she spoke in Belil’s ear, she watched me slyly, and he regarded me thoughtfully.
Before the outcome of whatever she said could take place everyone in the room except Michael and I turned their attention to the door. Viktor had an irritated snarl on his face. A moment later the door flew open and there was a gunshot right behind me. I flinched, with Michael dropping to his knees with hands in the air. Two men walked into the room holding shotguns one of which had just been fired into the ceiling. Plaster fell around us and I stood to the side as they pushed past me. No one else in the room moved.
The larger, fatter one spoke first. “Now I have your attention Belil. It had to come to this. I warned you didn’t I? This is my town. You move into my town, and you take my money by running this club, drawing all my customers, and you think I'm going to do nothing about it.” He was armed with a thick accent and a shotgun.
“Yeah!” exclaimed his more weasel like accomplice. Talk about a rock and a hard place. Here I was doomed to be either crushed by Viktor the Viking or shot in what looked like some territorial war.
“This is not a good time for you to be here.” said Belil staring the first man down.
“You have taken money and food from my family’s mouths” yelled the first man. “How could I not be here? Do you think I'm stupid? I am here to show you, you take something from my family,” he was spitting now, “I will take something from your family.” Without another word the man standing behind him shot Viktor point blank in the chest. Viktor flew to the floor, landing at the skinny man's feet behind Belil who looked more furious than before.
All of a sudden, there was the shrieking figure of the girl in black who lunged towards the man who had just shot Viktor. The man she rushed just king smashed her in the face, hard, and she fell over backwards on the floor blood oozing from her nose. She looked unconscious. She had to be from that kind of hit. Everyone just stood still.
In that moment that seemed to take forever, I couldn’t help but think to myself why no one else was in the running to take these guys out. This guy had just stormed in, shot one of them and king hit a woman. From the looks of them, at least one of them must have a gun, and all of them were standing there, just standing there, and didn’t look all that concerned either.
The first man with a gun turned and faced me, smiling and in his heavy accent said “and that is how we take care of things where I am from. No more stealing business from the Bellock Brothers.” I focussed on his very large nose and hoped he wouldn’t hit me or shoot me. The man standing with him lit up a cigarette. I broke out in a whole new sweat and my breath became shallow.
In the background behind him I saw, to my astonishment, the figure of the petit woman rise from the floor, black hair across her face. It was the girl who had been hit. She had got up. My eyes widened in horror; ‘stay down, stay down’ I thought. My focus shifted to her, the look of horror on my face obvious, and the man in front of me turned. She looked a mess. Blood streaming from her nose, she appeared even paler than before, veins prominent and hair everywhere. She wiped her nose with forearm and cocked her head to the side. He had turned and moved to raise his gun, but she grabbed his hand in an instant of time. I clearly heard every bone in that right arm of his break. Then I saw Viktor stand up. How the hell I didn’t know. But he stood up.
“Holy hell!” I heard Michael whisper from beside me.
The black haired girl pulled the man closer as he screamed in pain and dragged his throat to her mouth and crunched down. He twitched and flailed as she slurped from his throat and slowly sank him to the floor. She looked up, chin and mouth bathed in blood and she licked it up from over her two obvious fangs.
Meanwhile, Viktor examined the holes in his shirt with anger. He made a snarling sound and I saw his two canines had elongated so far he couldn’t close his mouth. The girl stood up over the body she lay at her feet, and Viktor kicked the now lifeless carcass of the man, which lay unmoving on the floor. They both turned just their heads and nothing else towards the man’s partner who had walked in the room so confident and cocky a moment ago. The one that shot Viktor. He was standing open mouthed, frozen, his cigarette hanging out of his mouth having become stuck to his bottom lip.
After what seemed like an eternity everyone at the back of the room suddenly broke in to the most sinister smiles I had ever seen, as the man started walking backwards clearly thinking about trying to make a run for it. Viktor was then at the door behind him and caught him by the neck as he turned in surprise. Viktor lifted him off the ground, and drew down the side the man’s throat with a sharp index fingernail and blood started spilling out.
Viktor walked the dangling leading man over to Belil who said: “What seems to be the problem. It’s all under your control isn’t it?” With that he clicked his fingers and the Viking bit into his shoulder. The man shuddered and twitched as his friend had, then remained still, dangling from Viktor’s arms, before being let free to fall to the floor. Belil looked at me. Then so did everyone else in the room.
I think my heart and my breath seized at the same moment in time. I had absolutely no idea what had just happened, but having said that, I also knew very clearly what had just happened. I just couldn’t accept it. I had feared being crushed by Viktor or shot by the gunmen. This I had not predicted.
“Let him go Father.” Cassie's voice sounded from behind me, warning and apprehension tainting her voice. She had moved to stand right next to me, then pressed against me. “I will take care of him. Just like you asked.” she pleaded. I wondered what the hell that meant.
Belil sighed: “I don't think you will Cassandra. Or you Camille.” he looked over his shoulder at the dark haired girl who was wiping blood from her chin with a table napkin. “Now. Where were we?” Belil’ mouth broke into a smile that revealed two long teeth, two fangs, as Viktor turned his attention to me once more. Before he reached me though, Cassie grabbed me by the collar with both hands and pulled me to her. Her tongue flicked across her teeth and I saw something red touch her lips just before she kissed me. It was a deep kiss and it took me a moment to realise what the strange taste in my mouth was. Blood. She let me go and my world reeled. She had a determined and concerned look on her face, the room was moving and I felt unbelievable. It was as though I'd been drugged, but I felt so strong. I could hear my heartbeat and could feel every inch of me becoming powerful, resilient. My breathe changed as my jaw hung open slack from the surge of hot liquid that felt was consuming my being.
I looked at Viktor and I saw red. Instinctively, I pushed Viktor with both arms and he flew across the room, hitting the wall behind the table. Belil’s smug look disappeared and anger drew across his face once again. The thin man then launched himself at me but I flung my arm out to meet him and he bounced off me on to the floor.
The room was moving all by itself but in it I felt Cassie's arm drag my body out the door and we ran. The girl in black, Camille he had called her, moved like lightning towards us and I set myself ready to defend us against her when I saw her grab Michael like you would grab a cat, and hurl him out the doorway and halfway down the corridor on his arse. She reached him in the blink of an eye, grabbing him again, before looking back down the corridor a
t me. She looked crazed and driven. With Cassie on my arm I ran so fast I was almost tripping over my own feet. It felt like nothing else I had ever known and I could barely see straight. I stumbled, but we made it to the end of the corridor and onto the factory floor in an instant.
That's when Cassie left me, and I spun blindly. The footsteps right behind us could have been anyone from the room we just escaped, though I didn't sense that Belil was one of them. The darkness and the flashing strobe lights only served to confuse me more.
I stumbled in what I hoped was the right direction but I couldn't see straight and I wasn't quite sure where I was going anywhere. People were everywhere and I tried to push through them. As I pushed past people on the dance floor, they were falling over like pins at a bowling alley, so I tried desperately not to touch anyone at all. I just kept mumbling “Sorry, sorry..” as I lurched forward. In the corner of my eye I saw Cassie. She grabbed the bald man and threw him so high he landed on the other side of the railing from the factory floor. There were faint screams of confusion from people on the walkway as the man fell at their feet.
Cassie darted like a cat up the stairs to the walkway and was followed by the other man from the room, the blonde one. He grabbed her and I lurched forward with an inkling to try and reach her, but my feet wouldn't work and I felt a push from someone behind me causing me to fall to the ground at the doorway. My head smashed into the architrave and I heard the shattering of wood. I then saw, through the blood pouring over my eyes, Camille, or Cam as Cassie had called her, pull the blonde man off Cassie and flick him through the wall.
I pulled myself up to my hands and knees only to find the man who had pushed me standing in front of me between myself and the outside. It was the lean one in the green shirt that had knocked me to the floor. He smiled nastily, fangs protruding over his thin ruddy lips. He reached down towards me, but before his hand touched me, his arm had been ripped off. With the pained howling in the background, Cassie grabbed me by one shoulder and Camille by the other and they dragged me stumbling towards a side door and out into the night air.
In the fresh air I felt a little more oriented. I looked for Michael and couldn’t see him. I did see my car as I was thrown in the back seat and the three of us prepared to take off. I dragged myself up to look outside the back window and Michael banged on it as he ran up. I threw the door open and he piled in the back seat with me as the dust rose from the wheels. Out of the window as we took off , I saw Belil standing there with the skinny, now one-armed man beside him, and the bald man wiping blood off the back of his head with a handkerchief. I laughed out of sheer panic and sank back into the back seat. I held my head and I felt a searing pain in my head from where I had slammed against the entranceway and my eyes closed against my will.
I had dreams, or visions of Michael, having never being pulled from that room, calling down the corridor for me while the bald man restrained him. Belil was grabbing at Michael’s face, fangs protruding, and that was the end of my friend, my would-be brother. When the head that drove the fangs into Michael rose to look at me, it was my own.
I hoped I would become conscious and find it was all not real. Maybe I ran off the side of the road, never picked Michael up. Maybe I was in hell, or some kind of purgatory my mother warned me about.