“Put them there!” shouted Rocco from the top of the ladder. “When we complete all this we will try to find out what they open.”
Mario threw the keys on the cluttered desk, where they staggered in a corner.
Nico could not get his eyes off the keys, so Rocco had to yell at him: “What the fuck are you doing, you enchanted? Get moving, hurry up!”
He looked away and started to collect the money. What was he supposed to do? There was that young man chained in the cellar. Who was? If the man had lied to him, if he was not his son, then that was the only hope of saving him. Then they would have gone, probably Rocco would have killed him, no one would ever be able to help him. But what could he do, in the situation he was?
However, when he went to deposit another handful of banknotes on the desk, his hand closed around the keys and grabbed them.
No one had noticed anything; probably they had already forgotten them, dazzled by the lure of all that wealth. He held them tightly as he collected the money while studying a plan.
After the books were inspected Mario too was forced to climb a ladder. They spoke among themselves, excited, and they were jubilant. No one expected such a fortune. Nico too was forgotten. Only Rocco looked at him now and then, just to be sure he continued with his work. At that point, it wasn’t a big difference if he had pocketed some handful of banknotes.
So Nico waited for a moment when no one was checking him and launched himself toward the door at the bottom of the room. He opened it without making any noise and left. That would have given him the time he needed.
He knew nothing would change, they would find him, and his destiny was inevitable, but he wanted to do something good before the end came. He ran down the corridor to the stairs.
“I have it!” he murmured, but speaking low for fear of being heard. “I have it!”
He emerged in the cellar but did not stop, kept running towards the cell. There he raised his voice.
“I have it! I got them!”
The young man was always there, although he still didn’t see it. He heard his voice.
“Hurry! Hurry!”
In front of the cell door, he started to search the right key. He tried a couple of keys, and then found the one that entered perfectly. It turned immediately, a sign that it was often used. Then he slid the chain and let it fall to the ground. He walked in and approached the boy.
He made himself cautious. “Who are you?”
The young man was trying to stretch toward him, but chains let him move just a bit.
“Don’t stop! Not now! Come here, let me go!”
“You’re his son? You are the son of Max?”
“No!” he cried. “I’ve never seen him! I’d never seen him before! I don’t know who he is.”
“What did he do to you?”
“Why do you ask? Can’t you see by yourself? He's a pervert!”
Even in the dim light, the pallor of youth was cadaverous, who knows how long he was confined there. The chains had left signs on his skin. His eyes were desperate.
“Do not you believe him? You saw what he did to me.”
He was just wasting time. They now noticed he escaped and were looking throughout the house for him. Soon they would come there too. It didn’t matter if he was the son of the man or not; nobody had the right to reduce someone like that. Nico made his decision and started to free him.
“Hurry! Hurry!” the young man insisted all the time, while Nico was looking for the right keys. “He can arrive at any moment.”
His hands trembled as he tried one key after another. Finally, one entered, but could not make it turn. He had to force it; he put all his determination to make it move. It seemed that those locks were there for years. He heard the shot and the bracelet on the wall that imprisoned one of the wrists came off. The young man found himself with a free arm. It was at that moment that Nico met his eyes and realized he had made a grave mistake. In front of him, there was an abyss, deep shafts in which it was mirrored, black as night. A smile rippled the young man’s lips.
“Thanks,” he said.
Then Nico felt something hit him with violence to his head, and everything went black.
7
“Please! Please! Say something!”
The pain was horrible, that annoying voice, but Nico realized he was not dead. Yes, he was still alive. He managed to raise his hand to the temple and heard something humid. He opened his eyes. He saw his hand dirty with blood, and immediately behind his mother’s figure, bent toward him. The light of a torch was illuminating them both, but he could not see who was pointing.
“He is alive!” His mother shouted.
Nico tried to turn his head, and the pain made him nearly scream. He was leaning against the wall of the cell, near him the chains hanging from the wall, the young man had disappeared.
Katia had risen and backed by a couple of steps. She pointed to him.
“It was him! He did it all! All his idea and those thugs of his friends! I had nothing to do with it; I told you had to put them in the bank! He tried to rob you again!”
Behind the torch, it had to be the man, and it was to him that Katia was talking. This was the solution she had devised, blame his son? Why not, since there were precedents, he had already caught with their hands in that drawer.
The voice of the man came but was not cheerful as usual.
“You have nothing to say, Nico?”
What was there to say? Refute the accusations, to blame her mother, say they had forced him? No one could believe such a story. Katia stared at him, with a tense expression. If she had been worried about his life, seeing him lying on the ground and dirt in blood was just for a few moments, now she was back and struggled for another life: her own. Nico shook his head, getting a twinge.
“Did you have to do that? Couldn’t you do without it?”
He tried to see the man, but the torch was blinding him. He remembered the young prisoner and wondered what he was referring to in reality.
“We’d better not stay here, let’s go back upstairs. Help him, Katia, get him up.”
The torch moved away, and Nico fell into darkness. Finally, he saw the man, but he was an indistinct figure. He was out of the cell and already was going away. He felt the presence of his mother beside him. A whisper came to him.
“What the fuck happened? Who did this to you? The bastard!”
She tried to get him up, holding him, but she just made him scream.
“You were right after all. That pig wanted to fuck us all.”
She did not even understand, but Nico also struggled to think, still as painful as his head was. Again, he touched his temple.
“Don’t worry; it’s not serious. It is not as bad as it looks, you just lost some blood.”
Nico was staggering he could not stand alone.
“What happened?”
Katia’s voice lowered even more. “We’re in deep shit. He locked us inside.”
The confusion grew. “Closed? Who did it?”
“Max! He locked us inside! You should have seen it! I couldn’t do anything to stop him; he was too fast. And after… after I did not know what to do.”
The man was so far away, now, to the other side of the cellar. Nico saw only the torch moving.
He whispered back. “What are you saying? What does it mean?”
“I don’t know! When we got back I was silent; I thought it was already all over! Instead, he has noticed something was wrong as soon as he entered the house. He ran to the alarm; I thought he wanted to check it, I didn’t realize… instead, he triggered something; I don’t know what, I wasn’t watching. And now we’re stuck in here; we can no longer go out.”
“What does that mean?”
“It happened like in the movies. Do you know the vaults? You press a button and suddenly drop a wall of iron to lock doors and windows. Yes, something like that. Well, he did it!”
Nico heard her panting in an attempt to hold him.
&
nbsp; “I think I betrayed myself. He is suspicious of me. He is suspicious of everyone. He has changed, he is no longer the same Max I knew, and he scares me.”
The voice of the man came, far away. “Do we want to hurry?”
“I thought it was you!” Katia whispered. “When I saw the blood, I thought Rocco had killed you. I said you name, and he must have heard me.”
“What blood?”
“There is blood everywhere, even in the lobby. That’s what alarmed him. And I betrayed myself like an idiot! But maybe we can still fix it.”
Nico showed a grimace. What was the remedy devised by his mother, accuse him of everything.
“The blood of whom?”
“One of his partner in crime. I think it was Tano. We found the body. God, how he reduced it. He fucked us all, Rocco tricked us.”
Nico could not understand he was still confused. “The money… did he take the money?”
His mother stopped and almost made him fall to the ground.
“No!” she muttered as if she were aware just now. “It is all there, in the study. There is a mountain of money. I’ve never seen so much in my entire life.”
Then she looked at him, and for once Nico read the fear on her face. “When did he leave them there?”
Nico got rid of his mother’s support and tried to walk alone. He stepped forward to the man.
“Who was he?” He yelled. “Who was he?”
The man enlightened them; then he lowered the torch ashore. Now Nico saw him clearly, and he looked different. It was not just the absence of his smile; it seemed that he had removed a mask.
“Could not you trust me for once?”
“He was not your son!” Nico cried.
He was unimpressed. “No, he wasn’t.”
“You lied to me! How could you?”
“Oh, that was easy. That’s all I do. All my life I only tell lies.”
Nico was astonished that the man was still able to hurt him, but his words had done so. He wanted to cry.
“You wanted to hurt me!”
The man shook his head. “You’re wrong. I wanted to save you. I just wanted to save you, and instead, I sentenced you to death.”
Katia intervene with shrilly voice. “What are you saying?”
The man did not even look at her. “We’re dead, all of us. He will kill us.”
Katia waste time asking questions, she went down the stairs. “Let’s go away! I want to go away!”
“No one can get out of here. The house is sealed.”
Katia attacked him. “And you open it! You have done it, and you can undo it!”
“I have no intention of it. No one will go out of here.”
“Even if this will be our grave?”
“Even if this will be our grave.”
“Why?” asked Nico, interrupting them.
“Because he does not have to go out.”
Something was not clear to him, Nico tried to focus.
“But you are here! You are back!” He tried to explain better because they did not understand. “It has been hours! At least two hours, from when he hit me. It may not be here yet, he will be gone.”
A flicker of a smile returned the on the face of man.
“Without me? I don’t think so. The thing he wants most is to be free, but I think that killing me is more important. He hates me too much.”
“Whom are you talking about?” Katia screeched. Then she understood the sense of the speech. “And thou hast closed us here with a madman? A crazy murderer?”
“He is not crazy,” said the man, and enlighten the stairs. “Let’s go up; I cannot stand to stay here anymore.”
He preceded them up the stairs, and they saw no other solution than to follow him. Katia was scared to the point that she clung to the arm of her son.
The hall was silent. Nico pointed to the locked doors.
“What is in there?”
Katia answered behind him.
“His mother’s room. She lived here. He… cannot bear to enter.”
Nico was surprised she knew him so well. Passing she commented: “Now they are open.”
Nico reminded that Mario had searched all over the floor. Shouldn’t have been a problem for him to pick the locks.
When they entered the study room, the destruction was complete. They had to climb up a mountain of books to cross it. When it appeared the desk and all his treasure, Katia was unable to hold back a groan. The man did not comment or look at her either. It was Nico who murmured, “I’m sorry.”
He waited for them at the door, and when they reached him, he drew Nico close to him by the arm.
“Stay next to me,” he said.
He opened the parlor door cautiously and leaned his head.
“Come in!”
No one was there, but something terrible must have happened there because some of the furniture was a mess and there were traces of blood. The man followed them, headed towards the entrance, always clutching Nico’s arm. Katia followed them in silence.
“Who else was there?” asked the man.
Answering was equivalent to admit that he had gone there to rob him. For once, Nico imported the judgment of others. Of his judgment. He did not want this man to think of him badly. He turned to look at his mother, but if he hoped for her help, he was disappointed. She immediately turned her gaze away.
Then he forced himself to answer.
“There were four of us.”
“Bad, bad, very bad!” said the man.
A trail of blood across the entrance and Nico looked horrified his mother. It was obvious that the man noticed something was wrong, coming in! He wished it were Rocco’s body, although he already knew it wasn’t.
The body of Tano had collapsed sideways in the middle of a doorway. They could see only his legs, initially. When they were closer, Nico groaned. His mother had stopped before, not to watch. She had already seen it before.
Tano's head exploded, and pieces of the brain were scattered everywhere. A lake of blood around him.
“We must find the others,” said the man. And this implied his belief that they were still there, probably reduced in the same way.
It was a big house, bigger than it looked like from the outside because it extended in length. They passed through many rooms; then they found another body. Mario was hanging from the music room’s chandelier, right next to the piano. From his chest protruded about ten sharp blades. Several had passed him. A lake of blood was still spreading on the ground. They were exposition swords, which Nico had already noticed inside a glass case.
“Who is this crazy guy?” murmured Katia.
“He’s playing with us,” snapped the man, ignoring his question. “He is having fun.”
Nico felt guilty being the one who freed such a crazy boy, but he was also angry with the man, who with his lies was guilty as he was.
“Where’s Rocco?” Katia said, betraying herself for the second time. Then she tried to fix it, turning to the man: “The fourth cannot be anyone other than him, they are friends, and they always go together. I have always told Nico not to attend such riff-raff, but he does not listen to me.”
The man accentuated his grasp and moved him closer. Nico for the first time in his life felt protected. He realized that the man did not believe in her, he didn’t care what she asserted, he still cares about him.
Then Nico asked again. “Who is that?”
“My curse,” replied the man. “My prison.”
“You knew it was dangerous, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “It is evil. He lives to kill.”
Katia, who listened to them, groaned. “Let’s get out from here! Open those doors.”
They found them in the kitchen as if they were waiting for them. In appearance, it was a very normal scene, not terrifying. Rocco was in the middle of the room, sitting on a chair. The young man was standing at his side, and he held a hand on his shoulder. Rocco was alive and apparently unharmed, and Nico was a bit disa
ppointed about that.
The young man was very different, now. He wore clothes, and while retaining his pallor was less skinny. He looked so young and weak that seemed incredible he may have had defeated two men much bigger than him.
Nico stepped forward before the man could stop him, and his eyes leaned on Rocco’s tight jeans. They were wet, the cloth was darker around the groin, and something dripped on the floor, but it was not blood. Incredulous he realized that Rocco had urinated on him.
“It took you a lot to arrive! Your friend was becoming impatient.”
The voice of the young man was cheerful, perfectly normal. The man walked to Nico, to address him.
“Those are my clothes, I guess.”
The young man chuckled, glancing.
“They are not my size, but I had to go with them.”
The man was scared, even if he was hiding it. Nico noticed because he was expert in these things.
“You had to go back when you had the chance; now it’s too late, you’ve wasted your only chance.”
The young burst out laughing. “But I’m already free, can’t you see? You can’t do anything against me.”
“I won’t let you get out!”
“Do you think I need your permission?”
Nico clung to the man’s arm. “Who is him?”
The young man laughs another time. “You didn’t tell them? Doesn’t he know yet? You should do that; he deserves to know!”
Nico came forward, but again the man grabbed him, stopping him. Then he turned directly to the young man.
“You’re not his son, right?”
The young man did nothing but laugh, looked like he was having a great time.
“Son! This is just funny. Me your son!”
Nico looked up at the man. He noticed he was getting pale. Then the man glanced down at him and for a moment forgot his interlocutor.
“He is not my son,” he said. “He is my father.”
Nico read the truth in his eyes and became speechless. Katia instead stepped forward; the young man being puny was not scaring her.
“Bullshit, he won’t be even of legal age! He is a boy!”
The man nodded. “Yes, he is, and he has been like that for more than the past fifty years.”
The Prison Page 7
