A Future Next to You

by Stefania Gil

  Natalia was happy at his side. She could not imagine life without him. In such a short time Francisco managed to become her world. She wanted a future with him. They had already talked about it. She was comfortable with the idea of living together in Caserío but knew they were at imminent risk according to him. She had a feeling this oppression would end soon. She didn’t know how or when, but her instinct confirmed it and that was something Natalia never doubted.

  Things seemed to continue normally in Spain. They kept in constant contact with Juan Carlos and Isabel. The couple assured them they had not seen a drone or anyone hanging around the estate.

  Isabel told Natalia her grandmother frequently visited Caserío due to her apparently making good friends with Manuel the first time they met for her to teach him how to cook her famous dark roast.

  Since then, Rodrigo had been picking Natalia's grandmother up and taking her to Caserío several days a week.

  Natalia agreed life was good for them both. Manuel and her grandmother needed company. Why not add a little excitement in their lives. She knew her grandfather blessed them from his heavenly home.

  Isabel and Juan Carlos’ would soon arrive in New York. They would arrive on Thanksgiving Day. They had agreed to meet somewhere there so, that day, Natalia and Francisco were going to the place in question by car from Boston.

  They would all stay at Carlota and Edward's house since they decided not to sell it. It was comfortable, spacious and they would all be alright there. They would eat Thanksgiving dinner and then, Carlota, Edward and Alicia would return to their tour in Europe. For Christmas, they would celebrate in Spain.

  Isabel had planned to stay in New York. They would visit every store possible in order to find the best Christmas decorations to decorate the estate. The idea was to decorate it in such a fashion that it became the main topic of every conversation in the area at least until the following Christmas. Although, due to the decoration’s magnitude, Natalia suspected Isabel wanted to make it into a magazine article. Also make sure no one can ever forget the perfectly beautiful Christmas decoration of the Alcalá Orange Grove estate.

  They arrived into the city without any major inconveniences and that was when something surprising happened to Francisco.

  He sneezed a couple of times.

  “Bless you,” Natalia said as they unloaded the car. It was very cold that day. “I understand your condition, but I get the impression low temperatures with that simple shirt, won’t prevent you from sneezing.”

  Francisco sneezed again.

  “Are you going to stand there all night?” Natalia asked as she climbed the steps of the apartment carrying her luggage inside.

  When she came out again, Francisco looked as if he had seen a ghost. He was pale and sweating as if he had run the New York Marathon.

  Natalia ran to him.

  “Are you okay? Have you been attacked?” She took his hand. It was scorching. “Oh my God! You're burning up! Let`s go inside!”

  She quickly locked the car and, as best she could, hustled Francisco into the house. She left him sitting on the lounge chair and went to get a blanket from the closet. After a couple of minutes, she found it and took it to Francisco who was still in the same hypnotic state.

  “Okay, Francisco, you're really scaring me. What's the matter? It's a simple cold... or is it something else?”

  Then she realized what she had just said.

  Her eyes widened in surprise.

  Francisco began to shake from the cold and in a trembling voice he answered:

  “This is not normal. I- I- I can’t catch a cold.”

  He began to laugh with joy because he could feel something change inside him. Such was the change, he was beginning to catch a cold after more than four centuries of unblemished health.

  What did that mean? Did he no longer enjoy immortality?

  He reveled in his emotions, the tremors, and the fever that completely overwhelmed him. He would have time to find out what the hell had changed in him.

  He would take care of one thing at a time.

  For the moment, he would enjoy something he had not enjoyed for a lot of centuries.

  16

  “I can’t do it, Francisco.”

  “Don’t become a mother hen, Juan Carlos, please.”

  “What happens if something goes wrong or I miss? I won’t chance losing you so soon after finding you. I think the cold was more than enough to indicate your condition has changed.”

  Francisco glared at his brother with fury.

  “Do it!”

  “No!”

  Juan Carlos didn’t have time to react when Francisco jumped on top of him and they both went down to the ground. They began to struggle for the weapon Juan Carlos had in his hands. He clung to it as if his life depended on it. It was not exactly his life, but his brother's. The very imbecile got the idea to punch himself in a specific area of his body to assure nothing serious would happen to him. He wanted to verify his immortal condition, to see if he was immortal or not.

  Juan Carlos never believed they would reach this point. He had been evading the subject ever since Francisco had thought of testing it. They were still in the United States when the terrible idea occurred to him.

  The oldest Requena, thought with evasiveness. The moment would come when his brother would forget the idea. He hoped by then further proof might pass to confirm everyone’s suspicions of Francisco having recovered his mortality thanks to his love for Natalia.

  However, what happened that morning between them was evidence his brother never forgot and wouldn’t until he buried the damn center punch in his lower abdomen. He would suffer an infernal pain for several days and the wound would take weeks to heal —and not hours— he wouldn’t rest easy.

  Francisco struggled with his brother half-heartedly. He knew he could tear it away from him at any moment. He had the experience and the agility to do it, but he did not want to hurt Juan Carlos. One false step could be fatal for Juan Carlos and the truth was he also didn’t want to lose the only family he had in the world, again.

  Nevertheless, he wasn’t going to make it easy either. He would have nailed the damn punch himself if he had the courage to do so, but he was not brave enough to nail things into himself, especially when the fine sting grazed his skin and aroused all the terrors of torture.

  He tried. Of course he tried unfortunately, he wasn’t able too. So his brother had to do it. It’s not like he could ask Rodrigo or Manuel, to do something like that and with Edward he did not have the necessary confidence. He had not mentioned his plan to the women due to knowing they would force him to abandon his plan.

  He needed to ensure his mortality considering if he did, his whole life could change. If they stopped following Juan Carlos after he was wounded for that reason, then the same would happen with him and only then could he lead a normal life in every way. Although he knew he was also wanted to avenge the cold-blooded murders he committed so many centuries ago.

  He was lying on the ground trying to control Juan Carlos's hand and directed it to the exact point where he indicated he should nail the punch. They were in the open, away from anyone who could see them, but very close to the ruined house where Isabel and Natalia were working, making paper sketches of the restructuring they planned.

  His cell phone’s vibration distracted Juan Carlos for a brief second causing him to loosen his grip giving Francisco the advantage to fulfill his stupid desire. The youngest brother felt as the thin, cold metal pierced his skin and entered the precise spot.

  “Damn it!” Shouted Juan Carlos. “You're a psychopath.”

  Francisco rolled on his side with the punch still protruding from his stomach. With each movement he made, the pain intensified and his cell phone vibrating didn’t help. He took a deep breath as he watched the blood begin to spurt.

  “In the briefcase there are clean cloths and gauze, also medicine to treat the wound,” he told his brother. “I'll answer the call while I figure
out how to get this out without hurting.”

  Juan Carlos glared at him and ran to locate said items.

  “Yes,” Francisco answered, trying to sound normal. He witnessed his brother pulling out his cell phone to answer.

  “You will receive the coordinates of our meeting, if you don’t come, the girl dies.” He heard a heartbreaking scream freezing his blood in the background.

  For a few seconds he lay motionless on the grass trying to analyze what was happening. When he understood it, distress seized him. He began dialing Natalia’s number hoping they were playing a joke or it had been a wrong number.

  His hands shook and something kept him from getting up. Juan Carlos, at the edge of his vision, pinched the bridge of his nose while he was still on the phone.

  Natalia did not answer.

  “AHHHH!” He shouted with hatred and despair. He was afraid his Natalia was the victim of the damned secret society. He looked at his abdomen and remembered what happened just minutes before Juan Carlos approached him with cloths, medicine and bandages. “I WILL KILL THEM IF THEY TOUCH ONE SINGLE HAIR ON HER HEAD!”

  He snatched the center punch out without feeling anything. He watched the blood spurt rapidly. He grabbed a cloth and pressed it to himself to stop the bleeding.

  “Do they have her? Isabel is worried because Natalia is never late and she has been waiting for her for an hour. I told her we saw her leave and we thought they were together.”

  Francisco couldn’t hear for his anger. He was going to tear the heads off of each one of those bastards. He was going to beat them before ripping off their limbs. He would make them beg for mercy. They bandaged the wound quickly. He’d take care of it later.

  His Natalia needed him now. He started toward Scout.

  “You can’t leave like this, Francisco.”

  “Let me go, Juan. I don’t want to hurt you and right now, I'm not a good person.”

  He stared his brother in the eye. Juan Carlos had never seen his brother so full of hatred and fear over losing someone. The memory resurfaced of that infamous day in which they both were captured by the guards when they were ready to leave the place where they had lived all their lives. It seemed he relived that moment of so much fear and suffering also. Tears of rage and helplessness slipped from Francisco's eyes.

  “I'm not letting you go alone, I'm going with you.”

  Francisco appreciated his brother's gesture but if he took him, he would be one more concern. Juan Carlos didn’t have the experience he had in hand-to-hand combat with those assholes in the society. He was sure things wouldn’t end well for him. He needed to be focused on Natalia in order to rescue her safely and Juan Carlos would be a distraction.

  “I'm sorry, Juan. I can’t allow you to come with me.” Those were his last words before he escaped his older brother's grasp. With agility and dexterity he put him in a hold that left Juan Carlos's neck within the bend of his arm with which he pressed lightly to render Juan unconscious. He lay him gently on the ground.

  He received a text message from the society with the coordinates. He did not know where he was going but it was not far from there. He would leave on Scout. He dialed Isabel's number again as he mounted the horse.

  “Juan Carlos is unconscious north of where you are. Bring the car and get him as soon as possible. You will see him easily because I have put him on a horse. Do not delay.”

  “Did something happen to her?”

  “I'm going to bring her home safely, even if it's the last thing I do. Come for my brother.”

  He hung up, put away his cell phone and rode to the meeting point with the assholes.

  ***

  Francisco couldn’t think clearly. The mere thought of losing Natalia short circuited his brain leaving him useless and in return, charged with uncontrollable anger. He had never in his life been so enraged at another human being. Undoubtedly, when he escaped from the clutches of the Inquisition he was furious, but nothing was comparable to what he felt at this moment.

  He had no weapons on him but his body would become the deadliest weapon anyone has ever seen. He was going to destroy them all. He didn’t care if there were two or a thousand accursed society members, he would face them all. Natalia's scream echoed in her head incessantly, fueling his rage. If he found her wounded he would not have any mercy on them and he would torture them to make them suffer a damnable hell.

  And if... he found her... dead...

  He felt a tight knot in his throat and an unknown pressure in his chest to think he might find her dead. He would make them suffer twice as much before killing each of those demons.

  Scout rode as fast as he could. He knew the animal was giving everything he had and there wasn’t much left. If they came out of this, he would retire his poor friend. He would surround him by the best females of his race to have a precious family.

  The pressure in his chest tightened again at the mention of the word ‘family’ in his head. He thought about himself and Natalia in a short time. Since he fell ill with that cold it left him useless for a week, he realized if he regained his mortality, he wanted to have a family. Children, many of them who would exhaust him and catch his colds. To give him the happiness only a father could know.

  Natalia laughed at the thought of a battalion of children and told him if they did, they would have two because she wasn’t ready to be a mother. They were not in the time when he had grown up where everyone had a dozen children.

  He laughed at her comment and told her to only take care of giving birth and he would take care of them. That night they made wonderful love. They did not look away from each other; Francisco could read in her eyes how happy she was at the thought of forming a family with him.

  That night, Francisco asked if she was in love. She explained that love was a set of experiences and moments a couple lives together. She had seen it in her grandparents and so she could describe it perfectly. He told her no matter how long it took to know, love was always capricious and played with people making them fall into its web sooner or later. However, making them fall hopelessly into a condition in which you stop living individually as a human being because in your thoughts you can only imagine your day to day with that other person you cannot escape your thoughts. He also explained love needed solid foundations of respect and trust; complicity and high doses of laughter because you will not always be young and sex may become scarce but laughter would continue to fuel that partnership.

  Natalia told him she had never had a good experience with love and thanks to him she was discovering it.

  That night he told her he loved her and would love for her to stay by his side forever.

  “You'll have to do it the right way,” she said, smiling as he began stroking her bare skin. “A ring and a formal proposal. I'm a traditional girl who likes old things.”

  Francisco smiled at her with amused irony.

  “I am an expert in ancient methods, so I will endeavor to please your wishes for a marriage proposal. I hope you have a good dowry because that was the case in ancient times.”

  She only kissed him with unbridled passion as she stroked his manhood and then whispered in his ear:

  “I have something better than a dowry to pay you.”

  She began to cover Francisco's body with warm, seductive kisses until she reached his shaft, where she slipped him in her mouth giving him unimaginable pleasure.

  Francisco groaned with pleasure and gave thanks for the times change and dowries too.

  His cell phone’s GPS signal snapped him out of his memories when it beeped to indicate he was already in the place but ... What the hell! There was nothing there!

  He looked around and only a field stretched out before him.

  Suddenly he heard buzzing and remembered the day of the attack with the poison dart. He had heard something similar.

  He looked up and saw a drone overhead.

  He received a message.

  “Follow it”

  He did what he was t
old until he reached an abandoned house. This house seemed to be the beginning of a new nightmare. It was almost the same as the cabin he was imprisoned in before killing the Inquisitor General.

  Goose bumps broke out all over his skin, and Scout seemed worried about the place as well.

  “Easy boy. We’ll get out of here soon. Wait for me here.”

  He had nowhere to tether him, so he set him free, hoping he would not run anywhere.

  The drone disappeared from view and the property’s door opened own its own.

  Francisco entered with caution on high alert.

  No one was there as the door behind him closed with a dry, fast snick. The sound of the locks engaging could be heard. They controlled it mechanically from who knew where.

  He noticed this bastard’s house had a sophisticated alarm and surveillance system, which meant they were always watching him. A small, empty room with a door to which he went and opened. It was a room without windows and trapdoor in the floor. Francisco's cell vibrated again and he read the message:

  “Lift the gate and go down”

  He did as he was told despite the anger and fear beginning to invade him with each step he took, descending the dreadful spiral staircase made of stone. By the conditions in which it was found, Francisco supposed it was old like him.

  Memories began to dominate his mind and body. Fear rose in his system, completely distracting him of his objective: to rescue Natalia.

  It was affecting him so much he did not react in time when a couple of armed men grabbed him at the end of the stairwell. If he had been alert, he would have shot to kill. By not concentrating he was the target and ready to be shot.

  They led him through a narrow corridor lighted by white streetlights. The walls, from floor to ceiling were of gray stone. He remembered the moment when he was led to a similar place more than four centuries ago. A chill swept through him.

  He breathed deeply and had to make a superhuman effort to concentrate on Natalia.

  They stopped at the end of the corridor, before a massive iron door. They looked in the camera overhead and the door immediately opened. They pushed him through almost knocking him to the floor.