The Prison

by Stefano Pastor

  The young man clapped his hands, cheerful.

  “Bravo Max, you finally said it! You shared your secret with someone.” He hooked Nico’s eyes. “Poor him, he merely complained. You are my ruin, blah blah blah, alone and abandoned; no one will ever know… how boring, fifty years of boredom!”

  Now Rocco was no longer restrained, but he did not move a muscle, he dared not even to talk in the hopes that he forget about him. Nico realized that he had seen something unbearable, so nasty that had changed him forever. Probably he saw his friends die. He had almost pity of him.

  Nico found himself asking a question that amazed even him.

  “What’s this?”

  Katia looked at him in disbelief; it seemed impossible that his son would believe an explanation absurd as that one.

  The man only shook his head and returned to watch the young boy. He seemed disappointed.

  “That’s all, Max? You don’t tell them anything else? You don’t want to tell them what you’ve been doing all these years?”

  Katia asked. “What did you do to him?”

  “Why do you waste your time?” asked the man. “You will kill us, all of us; you know we can’t do anything to stop you.”

  “Sure, sure,” said the young man, and caressed Rocco’s neck.

  At the touch of his hand, Rocco began to scream. He turned to Katia, though only Nico realized that.

  “Help me! Don’t let him kill me! You’ve got to stop him.”

  Katia turned away; for fear that their connivance would no longer be a secret. Now both hands of the young man caressed Rocco’s big and muscular neck.

  “We will try to do it quickly,” he murmured, and when Rocco started to scream said, “Not too quickly.”

  Nico gazed open-mouthed, incredulous, while the young man hands pressed around the neck of Rocco. He tried to rise but seemed to have not the strength. Then his arms twitched automatically in an attempt to break free, and they clung to the hands that they were strangling him.

  “Help! Help!” he shouted.

  Katia gazed in wide-eyed and couldn’t believe it. That kid was having control of Rocco. He was strangling him. Rocco struggled, trying to scratch him, like a sissy.

  She turned to Nico and the man who stood beside him. “You won’t do anything? Will we let him die?”

  Even if he wanted to, Nico couldn’t. The man grasp was as strong as that of the killer. It froze him; it took almost his breath.

  “Do something!” Katia shouted again.

  The man’s voice was almost too calm. “There is nothing to do; he will kill us all.”

  She snorted and became hysterical. Nico knew those outbursts of his mother and was scared. He tried to free himself but to no avail.

  Rocco’s face turned quite red, and Nico could see the veins on his temples pulse. It was an unequal struggle; the young man has to be much stronger than him. He suspected that he limited himself, for lasting that torture as much as possible. He could see that he was having fun.

  Rocco’s body was writhing in spasms, trembling all over. He couldn’t even scream. If he had managed to scratch the arms of the young man, there was no trace.

  Katia ran to the sink and grabbed a large knife laid out to dry. Then she launched herself toward the young man yelling.

  “Let him go! Let him go now!”

  The man hugged Nico forcefully, to prevent him from intervening. The young man did not care about Katia and what she was doing and strengthened the stranglehold. Katia came around, and then sank his knife into his back, holding it tight with both hands. She let it go and backed away horrified by what she had done.

  But the young man did not cry; he hasn't even noticed, he only continued to press the neck of Rocco. Katia saw the man’s feet kicking so convulsed and shook her head, as if to dispel a vision, and then she launched herself against the young man. She drew the knife blade, with difficulty, and returned to hit him, once, twice, three times.

  Rocco was at the end, eyes already wide open, his neck in an unnatural position, and the young man still clutched. Only his body refused to surrender and was shaking all over. Behind the young man Katia looked crazy; she kept sticking the knife in his back, screaming. When he saw the body of Rocco sag, she had a new explosion of anger and planted the knife in the back of the head. The blade almost pierced it, protruding on the palate. There she left it and backed away shaking, glancing at her hands stained with blood.

  When the young man let him go, Rocco’s body slid off the chair, collapsing to the ground. Then he turned to Katia and stretched his arm. She began to scream louder.

  “He cannot be dead,” muttered the man, still clutching Nico.

  The hand of the young man snapped and grabbed that of Katia. Everyone felt the knife fall to the floor, without him touching it. The young man drew her to him, and Katia paralyzed, she ceased even to scream. He sneered.

  “He ruined your shirt, Max. I’m afraid you’ll have to borrow me another one.”

  Nico struggled to free himself, although he did not know how he could be of any help. But the man grasp was growing stronger.

  The young man caressed Katia’s neck she struggled not to lose control. He clutched her in front of him and embraced her, just as the man was doing with Nico.

  “Woman or boy, Max? Who interests you more?”

  Absurd question, the answer was obvious. The man said, “It won’t help, you know that I will never let you go free.”

  Then he bent down and forced Nico to turn to him. He looked into his eyes.

  “Do you understand? I can’t leave him free in the world.”

  Nico realized that. He also understood much more: they would all die, he and his mother, no matter what they did. And yes, that monster couldn’t be let loose in the world. He nodded.

  “That’s cute! He is the son you wanted to have. Yes, you’ve always wanted to have a family. Pity that there was me, and I was quite cumbersome. You’re unlucky, right?”

  “Shut up!” yelled the man. «Kill us and stop it!”

  “Why should I!” shouted the young man and pushed Katia towards them. “I just started having fun.”

  Katia stayed a moment uncertain, without realizing that she was free. Once Katia understood, she began screaming, running towards them.

  The young man snapped, faster than a predator. Katia found him next to her and lost her balance, ending up on the ground. But he surpassed her, ignoring her, and a moment later Nico felt raised, tight in his embrace. He implored the man with eyes, trying not to scream, but he saw him motionless, paralyzed and understood that he would not do anything to save him. The young man had put his head over his shoulder, and the voice came insinuating, though he could not see him. He made no effort to keep him raised off the ground.

  “Is your son, Max? Is that what you think of him?”

  The man shook his head again.

  “What is it, then? Why do you care? Tell me the truth, and maybe I’ll let you live. For a while, at least.”

  The man remained silent for a long time, to the point that Katia shouted: “Do something! Tell him what he wants to know! Would you like to get him killed?”

  On the face of the man appeared a shadow of a smile.

  “What is life? Life sucks, how often I thought that! I don’t deserve to lie. But most of the time no. I go on without one reason, day after day, horror after horror, and it all became a habit, even the most terrifying incidents. Sometimes I say to myself that the worst is over, that now I can manage it, that I can go on. Even if I’m alone.”

  A sigh.

  “Sometimes I remember my mother with love, with lots of love. I think I owe her everything. But more often than not, I only hate her. Even if she is dead, perhaps just because of that. I didn’t have the heart to leave her as long as she was alive, and now I’m a prisoner of this nightmare forever. I believed, despite what she did to me, I have been clinging to her, I thought this might protect me from the whole world.”

  Nico
was speechless, he looked only the man, and he had even forgotten to be in the hands of a monster.

  The man smiled at him.

  “I wear a mask; I always have, since I was born. I pretend to be strong, not to be afraid, but it’s not true. My life is a nightmare, is dominated by fear. Fear of him!” And he pointed to him. “Fear of the whole world. Fear that the world can find of his existence and of what we did.”

  A moment of pause.

  “I became very good at pretending, I don’t even notice anymore. Maybe that’s why I see them more easily; I mean those who pretend like me. Those who hide. Those who want only one thing from life: be free. Just like I wished. I didn’t want anything else, since childhood. I wanted someone to let me free; to get rid of you!”

  He stepped forward and shook the hand of Nico, although he was a prisoner. The young man asked him to do it.

  “You’re not the first. I met others, prisoners of a curse. Oppressed, annihilated by love and hatred, unable to react, to take possession of their lives. Confused, afraid. I have always tried to help them because I thought I could do it. Because I wanted to help, and I thought they were the same. But I did not do anything than fail. Some did not understand; others did not believe me. Others have tried, but they failed, even with my help. Because they know how to destroy you, those you love and should protect you. They can destroy you and make you a slave. And there is no way to escape from that prison.”

  Nico couldn’t breathe, he watched the man’s face, and he seemed to be in front of a mirror. He sought to strive, to say something, but Katia solved the situation.

  He tried to get up, painstakingly and was so furious that he forgot that they were at the mercy of a monster.

  “Are you talking about me, you piece of shit? And I was caring for you! I destroyed him; I made him a slave? Prison? Asshole! You are a pig! You don’t know what I did for my son, what I was capable of doing! Are you grown that now you would lecture me? Watch with what a bastard I was going, you have only used me!”

  But it was just a confused babble that they even could not hear. The game they were playing was important. Nico was sure that now he would kill him. If he hated that man so much, he wouldn’t allow him to live, after what he had said. He was ready; he felt his arms tighten him and knew that it would take very little to crush him. He closed his eyes.

  The voice of the young man was very close to his ear.

  “The woman is right, Max, how dare you? Me too I might take offense. Did I lock you in prison? It seems to me that I have been the one locked up, and in chains, until now. Not you. Maybe you forgot. Did I ruin your life? Good, you deserve it. You ruined mine. You could leave me free at any time, and you’d be free too. You could have had a wife and children. Why didn’t you do it? Because mommy told you not to do it?”

  The man clung to Nico with both hands and began to pull it.

  “I will never leave you out; whatever you do. You know.”

  Nico felt himself tighten and he lacked the breath.

  “Do you think it matters?” said the young man. “I am already out. Is the house sealed? But for how long? Soon they will realize that there is something strange, they will check it out. They should find that you are missing. They will discover the steel doors; they’ll want to figure out what’s inside. It’s only a matter of time, Max, how long do you think it will take? Weeks, a couple of months? It would take even a year would it matter? I have all the time in the world; have been waiting for fifty years. But how long can you resist? The house is sealed, there is not enough food. Even the air won’t last long.”

  “You’re going to kill us first.”

  The young burst out laughing.

  “Yes, it will happen that way. I don’t want to spoil the fun.”

  Nico felt tight come loose, and immediately the man drew him near. He finally put his feet on the ground.

  “You’re funny,” said the young man. “A lot of fun. I can wait.”

  Then he drove them both aside, and he walked out of the kitchen.

  8

  Kate was kneeling beside the corpse of Rocco but dared not to touch him. To watch his face disgusted her.

  “What’s going on?”

  Nico blocked the man who was going out of the kitchen. “Where are you going?”

  “I must find out what he is doing, where he is.”

  Nico shook his head several times.

  “I have to do this.”

  Nico didn’t want him to leave them alone, not at that moment. He needed him more than ever.

  “Your life…”

  “What do you want to know?”

  “How was your life?”

  The man smiled, it seemed to go back to the past.

  “You ask me what it’s like to grow up with a monster chained up in the cellar, and know that he is your father? I think you know that already.”

  “Bastard!” Katia yelled. “Damn bastard!”

  She searched something around him and found only a shoe of Rocco, who had lost while he was kicking. She grabbed it and threw to him. Both were quick to dodge it.

  “I couldn’t do anything. My life was a litany of prohibitions. I didn’t have to talk to anyone; I didn’t have to have friends, I didn’t have to give confidence to anyone. And then I had to help her. Hear her sermons; hear her say all the time that she was doing it just for me, because I had to have a father and a better future. But the worst was him. He always spoke; there was no way to keep him quiet. He was able to charm you, even though we all knew he did nothing but tell lies. He implied the doubt, in this was a master. He tried to set us one against the other, always.”

  “You have held that thing in the cellar for so long? Why?”

  He shrugged. “He was my father. Because my mother had loved him before, and throughout his life, she hoped she could change him.… because at some point I could not do anything else.”

  “But what is he? What happened to him? He has always been that way?”

  He shook his head. “We have no idea what happened to him. Or even what he is.”

  Nico had several ideas, get from every horror movie he was enthusiastic about them.

  “A… vampire? A zombie?”

  The man did not make fun of him, showing he has addressed the problem.

  “He doesn't feed on blood nor fear the sun. He is not dead. His heart beats and he breathes. I think the problem is quite different: he can’t die, there is no way to kill him.”

  “But he used to be a man, right? What happened to him?”

  The man felt uncomfortable talking there, in that kitchen, with Rocco’s corpse in the middle of them. He reached Katia and tried to help her to stand up. She broke him away with one punch, but then she stood up by herself.

  The man pushed Nico out of the door and Katia went behind. They found a small lounge and the man brought them in. He even recovered a bottle of brandy and some glasses. No one had anything to say after serving Nico, so the boy hurried to drink.

  “They were neighbors,” began the man. “There was even a kinship between them, cousins of the fourth or fifth grade. My parents had grown up practically together. There were large families, in those days, there was the habit to live all together, and the house was full of uncles and cousins. They were fine, financially I mean, extremely well. I call them homes, but in truth were villas. They lived out of town, a little isolated. It was a serious thing, already at sixteen years old they were officially engaged; everyone was used to that too. Everything was perfect, or at least my mother remembered like that, until one day Dino disappeared. That was his name, before he… changed.”

  He sipped his brandy with a calm that not suit the situation. He had again worn his mask without fear.

  “They searched everywhere. They found his bike one kilometer away from home, thrown into a ditch. Then they were afraid they asked other neighbors, they organized a search. But Dino had disappeared. My mother was desperate, but even his family did not know what to do. They called t
he police, but it was all in vain. Now they were convinced that it was a kidnapping and that a ransom demand would be received. But that didn’t happen either. Instead, on the eighth day after his disappearance, he returned.”

  He finished his brandy with a swig and poured a dose more generous.

  “He went first in his own home, and there he made the first massacre. He killed them all, his parents, his brothers, even the grandparents. And then uncles and cousins. Even children, even one that was still in the cradle. It was a scary massacre, but mom and her relatives become aware of nothing. The houses were not close enough to hear the cries. Then he went knocking on their door.”

  Even Katia listened carefully; she forgot all the offenses.

  “They had no way out; he was powerful and indestructible. My grandfather shot him in the chest, but didn’t stop him; he was on him in a second and killed him. And then continued the slaughter, no one could escape. There were eighteen people in that house, and fourteen in the next. It was a night that no one in the neighborhood will ever forget. When he came to my mother’s room, however, was different. He did not kill her, as he had done with the others. I don’t know why, I’ve never understood, but jumped on her and took her by force. She knew he wasn’t Dino that he wasn’t anymore. She said to me she noticed right away that he was a different person. She struggled, but there was nothing she could do. She started screaming.”

  Nico dangled from his lips. “He spared her?”

  The man shook his head. “In reality, they weren’t all dead. Aunt Anna, mom’s older sister, had survived. He had hit her, yes, but she was just knocked out. She had lost a lot of blood, and perhaps he did this to save her, he thought she died. But she had recovered and had heard her sister scream. Then she took an axe and ran upstairs to her aid. When she saw them, she didn’t waste a moment, came in screaming and planted an axe in the head of the rapist.”

  “As I did?” murmured Katia.

  The man nodded. “And even then it did nothing. He had a moment of weakness, but only one, then the wound began to heal. Aunt Anna was strong, however, and did not give up. She hit him again. One blow after another, without stopping. The wounds healed, yes, but she would always create new ones. He used up all his energies to treat wounds; he could not react and attack her. Aunt Anna tried to decapitate him without success. Then she started screaming at my mother to pick the chains. She knew that there should be some around despite what had happened and the horrors she saw and was able to fight back. She ran out, while Aunt Anna continued to hold him off with an axe. She had to tie him down, being careful not to get too close. First, his legs then all around the body, twists and turns of sturdy chains. He was strong but not enough to get rid of those chains. Eventually, they both jumped on him and managed to lock them with padlocks.”