“What is it, what does that mean?”
“Don’t stay close, don’t look at him. We’re leaving now.”
Katia, however, had come forward, had entered the room. She came closer and closer to the creature, although the taut cables allowed her.
“It’s… it’s different. There is something different.”
The scream of the young man continued, heartbreaking.
“He lies!” the man cried. “Don’t listen to him!”
The scream troubled Nico and Katia even more.
“What is it, Max? Why are you doing this?”
“Don’t fall into his trap! Don’t believe him! Don’t be like my mother!”
He was looking around and yelled louder and louder as he realized where he was. The terror that he read in his face shook Nico.
“Who is it? Is him? He doesn’t seem him!”
Katia came to bend, to pass under some wiring and get closer.
The man let Nico go and continued to make headway to get away.
“Don’t listen to him! “He kept saying. “Don’t do that, please!”
Nico turned to look at him. “It already happened? Has already made this change? What does it mean?”
“He teased my mom!” he yelled. “He made her believe that Dino was there again! For this has destroyed our life! Don’t be fooled you too! It’s just a freak! A monster that always lies.”
Nico turned abruptly, incredulously. The young man’s body trembled and with him the cables that kept him up. It seemed crazy, trying to break free and he screamed without a break. He writhed in pain.
“Dino? Is he Dino?”
The man shook his head and tried to cover his ears with his hands. But nothing could stop that cry.
“What’s happening to him? Is he suffering? How is it possible…?” He tried to find a logical explanation. “It is this that has seen your mother? For this she hid him, she… protected him?”
He did not wait for a reply and went back to watching the young man.
“But does he realize… is him conscious?”
If it was him, if he was back him, it must have been a terrifying awakening. Pierced by all those leads, the body in agony, tortured by pain.
“He lies! It’s always him!” cried the man. “He’s just trying to convince us to free him.”
It was possible; he had already fooled even him, once. But Nico was confused, to see that young man in the throes of suffering was terrible. Katia did take the lead.
“Who are you? Stop yelling! Tell us who you are.”
The young man writhed again. Shreds of clothes fell to the ground, but also shreds of flesh broke away. Then he collapsed, as exhausted. He tried to speak, but it had to be painful to do so.
“Help! Help!”
“Who are you?” Katia yelled.
“Help me! Do something!”
There was nothing to be done, they all knew it. Whoever was that boy now he could not be released.
“Are you Dino?” asked Nico. “You are Dino?”
“Let me go!” yelled the young man. “I can’t take it anymore! Don’t leave me like this!”
He looked different, really different, beyond deception. Nico turned to the man.
“How can you be sure he lie?”
The man did not answer, and Nico realized that he wasn’t sure even him.
“Why your mother believed him? What did she say?”
The man took away his eyes, troubled.
She had to believe him firmly, his mother, that the soul of Dino was really inside that body. Only in that way could explain the terrible existence that had agreed to lead.
“Are you Dino?” asked Nico again, screaming to get his attention.
“Yes, yes, it’s me! Let me free!”
“Do you know where you are? Who are we?” he pointed to the man. “Who is he?”
The young man strove to look at them, one after another, then his eyes came back to rest on the cables that imprisoned him. Luckily his head was stuck and could not see the condition of the rest of the body.
“What have you done to me?”
“You don’t remember anything? You don’t remember what you did?”
Something he had to remember, because a shadow passed across his face, erasing the pain.
“What’s happening to me?”
“What do you remember? Who are you? What happened to you?”
“What is for!” the man groaned behind him. “How can you believe anything he says?”
But Nico wanted to know. That was the only occasion they would have to know the truth.
“Rosa! Where is Rosa? What happened? What have I done?”
It was not necessary to ask the man, to understand who Rosa was. Nico preferred not to say anything to him, or what had been, or how much time had passed.
“You’re not alone, do you realize that? Is there anybody else inside you? In your body.”
There was a long silence which broke with the breath of the young man. Then his voice, very weak: “Yes there is.”
“Who is that?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you want?”
“I don’t know! I don’t know!”
“And what then?”
“It scares me! Everything scares me! There is a pain, only pain. Am I dying? How am I alive? What’s wrong with me?”
“Who’s inside you?”
Silence.
“How did he take you? How did he enter you?”
The young man’s gaze rested upon him, and Nico read his despair.
“You do not believe me, nobody believes me.”
It was to him that he was addressing, perhaps because he was the youngest and frightened him less than the other. The prisoner seemed young; now, he showed less of his age.
“What happened? Tell us what happened, please!”
“It has no use! It makes no sense! I don’t know what happened to me! I can’t… I can’t understand!”
“You were missing. They found your bicycle near your home. It starts from there.”
“The bike, yes. The bike.”
“Do you remember it?”
“Yes, of course. How could I forget? It just happened!” Then the turmoil came back. “Is it just happened?”
“Continue,” only replied Nico.
“Did I hurt Rosa? I need to know! Please tell me at least that! Did I hurt her? How is she?”
“It wasn’t you.”
“No, not me, but… is she alright?”
Nico’s response was diplomatic.
“She is fine. Now tell me about that day. The day when you disappeared.”
“I went for a ride, just that. Cycling. I was almost back home when it happened. I… I did not pay much attention, I thought of something else, so I hit it. I went over it with a wheel.”
Nico came close a bit more.
“Who?”
“A hare. It was crossing the road, and I didn’t see it though I heard it under the wheel, it squeaked. I lost control of the bicycle; I ended up in a ditch.”
“Were you hurt?”
“No, no, me no. The bicycle handlebar was crooked, but it could be adjusted. It was nothing serious. However… for the hare, it did not go so well. So I went back on the road for it. There was blood on the ground, but it was gone. I don’t know why I did it, maybe I was sorry, and it was me who had invested. It had to be wound, dying somewhere. So I looked for it.”
It was not the kind of story that Nico expected, and it must have amazed the others even more because they were all silent.
“A hare. It was a hare, are you sure?”
“Yes, yes, I found more traces of blood, and they pointed toward the camp. So I left the bike there I followed them. I would have put it back on the street, or I would send someone to take it. The house was near. The hare could not have gone a long way; it continued to lose blood, so I went ahead. Instead, the tracks continued, I went far away. More fields, getting farther away. I d
id not know what to do. There was no doubt that it was wounded, but if it had arrived there, it would not have to be near death. Or maybe yes; if I had found it… oh, I had no idea. Perhaps I would have looked after it; maybe I would have given it the shot of grace, I do not know.”
“You ate it for dinner,” said Katia.
He tried to smile, but he managed to make only a face distorted by pain.
“In the end I found it. It was lying on the ground, and it wasn’t well at all. It had dragged itself as much as it could but now was dying. Or so at least I believed.”
“It was not so?”
“No, not at all. When I approached, it bit me. That damned had sharp teeth like knives, made me scream. And then the unbelievable: it did not escape, but it came to me. A hare, do you realize? When has been ever heard that? But above all, a moment before it seemed on the point of death, a moment later it healed and transformed into a bloodthirsty beast. Damn, freaked me out. I kicked it, but it did get some jumps! It seemed that I did not hurt it, it always got up again! Eventually, I did fall, and it jumped on me. That bastard pointed to the neck, like a rabid dog. The fear I had, I thought it was just that, the cause that it had rage. I had also bitten! So I grabbed a stone, and I hit it. And since it was still moving I hit it three or four times. I swear I heard its skull crack. I crushed, reduced to a pulp. It was dead, do you understand?”
Nico had a bad feeling. “But it wasn’t, isn’t it?”
“No, man, it wasn’t! I rose up; I tried to staunch the wounds with a handkerchief. I tried to clean my pants; then I tried to get the direction. You know, tracking down the road. When I turned around, it was moving! It dragged itself, and it was not possible because I was certain I killed it!”
“It couldn’t die,” murmured Nico.
“And it healed! It was healing! I saw its body healing! In the beginning, it staggered, but then it was always safer and pointed towards me! I swear I felt terrible. I was afraid. No, more, terror. I started to run away; I haven’t even tried to fight. I ran away.”
Nico was already making guesses, a disease transmitted by the bite of the hare when Dino resumed.
“What happened next… it’s too absurd for anyone to believe. I can’t either. It was too horrible.”
“There was an after?”
“It chased me. It jumped and ran like crazy, was faster than me. I couldn’t think; I was afraid. It was a hare, yes, but something was wrong. I killed it; it could not have survived. At that moment I couldn’t think normally. If only I had… well, whatever it was, I had already killed once, and I could do it again. And once again if it had awakened. Instead, it was a monster, it was frightening, I just wanted to get away from it. Eventually, it reached me. It jumped on me, on my back, and immediately sank his teeth. I started to scream; I tried to shake it off, I lost my balance and fell to the ground. I must have beaten against something because I lost consciousness for a few moments. To wake me up was the pain, tremendous pain. I couldn’t move! I could not even turn my head. The pain was behind me; I felt torn apart. Then I realized, I had my spinal column injured, it paralyzed me.”
“The hare?” asked Nico, dumbfounded.
“Yes, the hare. Its bite broke my spinal column. At some point, even the pain had disappeared. I did not know my body. I kept telling myself just that wasn’t possible; it was a hare, only a hare. And suddenly it was in front of me. Right in front of my face, looking at me. It had me in his power, completely. And still, it looked a very common hare. I knew it wasn’t over there; it was not satisfied. It would have killed me, I knew it. Instead… it came inside me.”
“You possessed?” screeched Katia. “It moved in your body? It possessed it, too?”
“No, No, it came just inside me! It had made its way, with tooth and nail. I felt, I felt everything! It opened up a hole in my stomach, made to shreds the meat, and then continued to make inroads, until it entered completely. Inside me! Inside me! I was crazy; I was desperate. I did not feel any pain, but I can feel what it was doing, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. Nothing!”
“And after?”
“There is no after! I don’t remember, at least. At one point there was nothing left. Nothingness. I guess I was… dead. I mean, I don’t know.”
“And the hare?”
“It was there. I heard it. I felt its terror. It was even bigger than mine. And it wasn’t alone; there were others. Even more primitive, primordial life forms.”
“And he was there too?” cried the man, addressing him for the first time.
“There was… There was something foreign, alien, and powerful. Very old.”
“And how was it? What did he want?”
“I don’t know! He was a presence, were all attendance, there was no communication! I also felt his fear, was the strongest of all.”
Nico was stunned. “Fear?”
“Yes, fear. And solitude, an immense solitude. And anger. A rage so fierce that shocked me.”
“And when you felt these appearances? You said you didn’t remember anything after!” shouted the man.
“I don’t know! It is a memory that is there in my mind, but I don’t know when it happened! It’s all so confusing!”
“And you believe him as well?” yelled the man. “Where was him in those eight days?”
Nico ventured, uncertain, “Perhaps it took some time before it took full possession of his body.”
“They searched the area, Palm to palm! All the fields in the surroundings. Do you think they would not see the blood? Any sign of a struggle? They found nothing, absolutely nothing! They are all lies; he invented now, entirely.”
Nico was confused, he looked the young man hung and in pain, and he seemed sincere. His pain and despair were genuine, he was sure.
He resumed talking, all of a sudden.
“Then I woke up and there she was. I didn’t realize where I was, not even of who I was; I didn’t remember what had happened. It felt like a dream. There she was, naked and making love, as I had always wanted. Only that something was wrong, it was odd. She was crying and screaming. I was getting punched. I felt terrible; I realized that she didn’t want and I was forcing her. I stopped right away; I felt like I was going crazy. I told her not to cry, I begged her to apologize, I told her that I loved her, I didn’t realize what I was doing, I wouldn’t do it again. I started crying too, I sobbed. And she looked at me in a way. I was afraid she hated me; she would never have forgiven me. And then I woke up here, now!”
Nico gasped.
“Is this too a dream? What’s real and what’s not? Who are you, what happened to me? Why am I here?”
Nico recoiled, shocked, passing through the cables to reach the man. He grabbed him by the arm.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“He lies, he lies even in this!”
“It didn’t happen as he said, with your mother?”
“She…”
“Tell me the truth, please.”
“She believed it. That’s what he always says. He briefly returned to be Dino. Just when he was raping her, Dino came back. That’s what she said.”
“You didn’t believe her?”
“That he was him? You haven’t lived with that being for fifty years, Nico! You have no idea of all the lies he told us! How much he is sneaky, how much he is evil. What he is capable of to dominate us!”
“But why there? Why at that time? Was there a reason to pretend? It was in his power; he was raping her after he would probably kill her, why pretend? What’s the point?”
“I don’t know! But he is capable of everything!”
That doubt had changed his mother’s life, transforming her into a prisoner, and had also dominated his existence. Because despite his denials Nico was sure that neither the man had the certainty that they were just lies.
“It could be your father. That guy could be your father.”
The man looked the prisoner and sighed.
“Him? No, he is not.”
“But there’s a chance he’s telling the truth. Even if is one out of a hundred, you can’t…”
A bitter smile crept across the man’s face.
“I know very well who my father is, and I assure you that is not Dino.”
He left him speechless.
“It was a different time, I told you. It was a time when you wed as a virgin. For more than a year since their engagement, my mom and Dino had never made love. Oh sure, they had done some things but had not gone this far. My mother was still a virgin when that monster raped her. He is my father, Dino!”
“But…”
“Why do you think I never made a family? Because I couldn’t have children? Do you think it’s only because of that cellar? You’re wrong; I have no idea what’s in my blood, in my DNA, what kind of curse I could send to my offspring.”
“But you are normal!”
“I look like him. Sometimes I am convinced of it too. But how to know for sure? How can we be sure that monster did not infect me somehow?”
“You have nothing to do with him.”
The man shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t know.
Nico turned and watched the young man hung. “What do we do with him?”
“What would you do? If even he said, the truth wouldn’t change anything. He is destined to disappear into oblivion from one moment to another; if it could re-emerge it because the creature is committed to regenerate. He cannot worry about other things. Dino died, Nico. What are left are memories. Only that. That creature gets those, made them his own. But Dino doesn’t exist anymore.”
“Don’t you think that…”
“Have you heard the tale? If you want to believe him, then you must also accept that they merged, him and the hare, and that was probably already happened before. Dino’s mind, his memory, is accessible to that creature. It knows everything; they can use against us. Maybe he is under the illusion to exist, but it doesn’t. He is a thing of the past now.”
Nico snorted.
“They are meaningless phrases! There is a guy who is suffering, hang there. And he cannot die to make it only worse! We have to do something.”
Katia began to scream, in a high-pitched voice. “Something is going on! He changes! He changes.”
The Prison Page 12
