"Very well," he announced at last, triumphant and smiling, and the world around them changed.
***
Simon noticed the change immediately. The same tone of voice of Fabrizio was unrecognizable. He felt that talking was an incorporeal being, as when he heard the howling of the wind in the trees. He looked up, caught by surprise at this finding and the responses he had heard, and found himself catapulted into the worst nightmare of his life.
Around them, the environment was the same: there was the road through the village center, the ladies chatted and the kids exchanged figures, there was a small park with grass too high, because the people of the town were made seldom seen, and the bushes in which the dog to relieve himself adored Simona, there were gray skies and mist that covered the walls and windows of houses facing the square like a halo of mystery, which confused the outlines.
There was everything Simon had always known, but no longer moving, you and Fabrizio apart. It was as if immersed in a photograph, people placed in a plastic life-size, complete with faithful reproductions of other human beings. No noise, no smell, no sensation of temperature. The same bench on which they sat had become inconsistent, like a cloud.
And then there was Fabrizio. Beside him, Simon did not find the guy who was sitting a little earlier. He saw an anthropomorphic being wrapped in a dirty blanket that looked like a shroud, covered with dark red spots, which could only be dried blood, and other dirt, which caused a feeling of nausea at the sight only. The face that stared into his eyes in search of answers was deformed into a hideous grin, his mouth was a wound in the flesh, from which protruded teeth yellowed and chipped, as rotting ruins, his eyes were two black balls and shiny stuck at orbits, staring at her, projections and illuminated only by the reflection of the low light of day, the head was bald and wrinkled than the rest of the face where the skin, dark, scaly, piled creating deep ruts, as if it were extended and accumulated for centuries on the skull below.
"What. Thing. Happens? "Simon stammered, paralyzed in his position. Did not even notice when the bladder and gave a warm stream of urine to wet his pants and trousers.
"The time has come" to be sanctioned-Fabrizio, with ghostly voice, the divaricating horrible mouth. He raised his arms, along which slid the shroud and found two hands with long fingers and nails and lanky as rotten teeth.
Instinctively, Simon drew back and she would get up to get away as far as possible, but found he could not do it. All his mental strength was concentrated in assisting his desire to escape, but a higher power kept her tied to the bench. Trapped, his eyes shifted around in the vain hope that anyone in the audience back to life and ran to his aid.
As the nightmare he was living went beyond his understanding, the most rational had already understood that, whatever it was, would have to endure it passively until the end. He knew that he would awaken screaming in her bed, she knew that she would find herself lying on the floor of a nightclub with the aftermath of taking hallucinogenic drugs. It was all real. It probably would have been the end.
It was filled with a terror that he could kill her at any moment he felt that he could be disruptive out of breath, or my heart might explode in my chest, letting it fall to the ground lifeless, mouth gaping and eyes wide open, under the fierce gaze of the monster who had faced. The intensity of his fear was only comparable to the attraction that in the past days had tried against Fabrizio: an all-encompassing feeling, which excluded every other thought and made it less strong awareness of his own existence .
Simon began to shout loudly, marveling at being able.
***
Fabrizio, or what was left, remained unmoved by the cries. His terrible eyes blacks plush, dark as wells dug in his face, staring Simon continued, as his mouth opened slightly in the recitation of some incomprehensible phrase. The arms raised towards the sky made him look like a priest intent evocation of some mystery.
Simon stopped screaming and began to weep in despair. His voice hung around his head like dirt in a puddle, because even the air became still and the sound is not propagated. Alone and helpless in the face of his destiny, he hoped that the end giungesse as quickly as possible. But the horror he felt at seeing the being at his side who lowered his hands to his stomach as he was approaching them less intense.
Fabrizio had stopped talking. His eyes moved imperceptibly, following the movement of the arms. The monstrous teeth seemed to outline a tremendous smile as she leaned both hands against Simona coat, just below the stomach. The fingers were so long that reached the base of the neck, on which you could see a vein pulsating violently.
Simon felt a pang that the stabbing did scream again. Despite being the same as touching the clothes, he felt a bitter cold against the skin, just above the navel to the breast. But that feeling was nothing, because it was as if, when touched, the same Fabrizio also slashing his stomach with a sharp blade. Confused by blinding pain and terror, he heard tearing flesh wound and enlarge them as if he was opening a gift bag. For a moment, in the minds of Simona drew the image of his body hacked and mangled, the hand of the creature that is covered with his blood and sank in the gut, their legs writhing in pain before stopping totally devoid of life.
He had never suffered so. The wound in the stomach was burning as if she were being tortured with a blowtorch. Fabrizio began to press with your hands as if to penetrate deep inside her body. In a glimmer of lucidity, Simon wondered how he could still be conscious. He opened his eyes briefly and noticed how their hands were still being motionless, resting on his coat, and as he persisted in his bestial grin.
Devoid of any residual force, abandoned against the backrest of the bench, heard him speak again. " Redit in me face , "he proclaimed, and at that moment the pain of Simona peaked. He had the clear feeling of a tear in her body and thought that Fabrizio had detached cleanly through the heart. Then you would have wished that he had, because then she would die without having to experience moments of pain severe enough to take away your breath. Do not even found the strength to scream, or from continuing to cry. Her head fell back inert against his shoulder, eyes closed and a trickle of saliva that dripped from the corner of his mouth.
After a few seconds the hands of Fabrizio turned away from the coat. From behind the closed eyelids, Simon saw a strong light while a breeze caressed her face and tousled hair. The light faded, and soon after it disappeared along with the pain and fatigue that they were prevented from moving.
Simon opened his eyes and found himself on the bench, alone. Around her the world was back to normal: the kids were moving away from tobacco and the two ladies were saying goodbye, while passing a car on the road. He looked down at her stomach and saw nothing strange: the coat was intact, and even his body seemed untouched. Nevertheless, we eagerly slipped his hand under her shirt and felt her belly, finding smooth as ever and feeling a thrill at the touch of your fingers cool against the skin. Bewildered, looked towards the side street from which Fabrizio had come, but saw no one. Could he imagine it?
He did not have time to think, because it was invaded by a new emotion, that struck with the force of a hurricane soul. He could not define his feelings at that moment, but were very similar to listlessness, hopelessness, depression. Later, in retrospect, would have compared to a sense of loss, as after the death of a dear relative, when it seems to be impossible to resume their normal lives. Years later, he experienced the same feeling after giving birth Christina and the doctor gave the name of depression post partum .
One thing was certain, clear, undeniable, and that truth he brought with him another, albeit terrible what he had experienced was not a hallucination.
Fabrizio had taken away the embryo.
Simon got up on unsteady legs, and found the balance, he ran home crying.
***
In any other situation, if he was allowed a modicum of clarity and self-control and she had not been on the brink of madness, Simon would have noticed how his mother had reacted with unusual and inexplicable
composure at the sight of his own daughter plunged into the house in a sea of tears. Isa was on the stairs, coming down from the first floor, so if you found it in front, face and legs counterfeit despair that gave way, making her kneel on the ground.
"Mom," she sobbed, bursting into tears even more disruptive and lifting her face to Isa. A crawl on the floor, was the image of pain.
"Good God!" Cursed Isa, hurrying to get out and handed her a hand to help her recover. "Simon! Simon! "
"Mama," she cried again. "I took him away! Tore me! "
"What?" Asked Isa, hugging and squeezing him stronger. "What have you done?"
Simon was like a dead body lying against her mother, her head resting in the hollow between the shoulder and neck and mouth pressed against the wool sweater Isa. "Fabrizio," she sobbed, feeling the cloth of wool against my lips. "It was not him! It was not a man, was a ... "
Isa squeezed even harder, strozzandole words. "Simon," he called again, as if waking from a nightmare. He felt a strong urge to cry with her, to vent his grief and his rage at being unable to tell the whole story, as her mother had done with her thirty-five years before. "Calm down, please. Stop crying, tell me what happened. " He began to stroke her hair to calm her down and move the fate of the desired effects.
"I have found with Fabrizio," said Simon, sniffling and fighting the spasms that threatened to shake the chest and prevent her from speaking. "To say I was pregnant, as ... As you told me. "
"You thought of being pregnant," Isa specific, beginning to implement his plan.
"No," denied the Simona. "I did a test, I'm really ... I was really pregnant. "
"Those tests are not sure one hundred ..."
"Let me talk?" Simon blurted out that he needed to blow off steam and not to feel criticized. "Sorry," she added quickly, starting to cry silently.
"Excuse you."
"I ..." he continued after a moment. "Do not believe me, but I'm not crazy."
"Tell me," urged the Isa, preparing to swallow another bitter pill. The more bitter.
"Fabrizio ... when I told him I was pregnant, it is ... became different ... I do not know how to explain it, maybe it was just as I remember, but it has become ... "
"Tell me," Isa said again, squeezing even more of himself and failing to restrain a tear.
"A monster," Simon spat. "Horrible, mom, be a horrible and old and ... supported me these disgusting hands on my stomach and ... My God, Mom, took my child, I did a bad dog and I felt that I tore out the guts, then he disappeared and left her there and ... "But the effort of memory had been excessive and Simona was overwhelmed by a fresh wave of tears and nearly fainted.
"Holy God, Simon," said Isa, holding it from falling to the ground. "Come," he said, accompanying her on the couch in the living room. Sat her down and sat beside her, watching her with love and compassion and stroking his forehead beaded with sweat. "He did not take it well, right?"
"What?" Said Simon opening his eyes.
"Fabrizio. It did not take the news well. "
Simon opened his mouth to speak, then checked himself. Suddenly her despair she had turned to disbelief in his eyes had lit a spark that threatened to escalate into a fire of anger. "No, Mom. Not what you think. Non .. "
"I do not think you're crazy, if that's what scared 'Isa assured.
"Thank you. But what I said is true, are not the type to make up some stories, I'd be the first to be ashamed, but ... "
"Simon ..." Isa began, lowering his eyes and appeared embarrassed, as if trying not to offend the right words. "Sometimes, when we live a great disappointment when we feel a great pain, mentally I mean, we have a distorted view of reality. I ... "
"Mom, please," begged Simon, shaking his head and beginning to cry again.
"I was a child I entered the room of my grandparents," continued her mother decided. "We lived with them and were very close. Especially I loved my grandfather. That day I went into his room, because strangely enough had not yet awakened: he was always a little nap in the afternoon, it was routine and it was as if he had a clock in his head that made him get up at the same time. But not that day. I went and saw him lying on the bed. Then - and now you'll be thinking I'm crazy - I saw a shadow by the window, a shadow that had a human form, but without defining features. I froze in the doorway and I could not say anything, to do nothing but watch. The shadow came over to his grandfather and those that had to be leaned his arms on his chest. After a few seconds I saw a small ball of light emerged from his grandfather's sweater and incorporated it the shadow, making it disappear. At that moment I closed my eyes and when I opened them, a second later, there was nothing. I went over and touched it to his grandfather. Not breathing. He was dead. I was absolutely certain of what I had seen was that shadow to kill him. I called my grandmother, who was in the next room, and told her that her grandfather had died. I explained what had happened and she hugged me without comment. He told me that his grandfather was now just where the shadow and that it would no longer bother us. "
"And what does that mean?" Said Simon.
"What your mind can create incredible visions to be explained in difficult times. I myself, long after, I realized that I had imagined it all. Looking back on those moments, I remembered having noticed immediately that his grandfather was not breathing, because he was snoring all the time, while the room was shrouded in silence. And then, near the window was a coat room, where my grandmother often leaned his black robe, which was also that afternoon. What I mean is that I knew from the first moment that his grandfather had died and that my mind had worked his way to the discovery. "
Simon shook his head again. "And in my case what we would have been so painful?"
"Think about it," urged her Isa. "How did you react when you told Fabrizio perhaps expecting a child by him."
"As I told you," said Simon, on the defensive.
"This is what he has seen your mind. But what really happened? Think about it. "
Simon had no words. The speech of his mother could make sense, certainly more than it had the appalling events just before, but she was convinced that things had gone differently. "I do not know. Anyway ... "
"I tell you, darling. Fabrizio must have reacted badly, as it probably would make most boys of his age. He must have said he did not want and that your story could be considered complete if indeed you had been pregnant and had not chosen to have abortions. Must have used strong words and have you offended, and I made you feel like an adventure occasional worthless, when you had placed so many hopes in you. And you, out of desperation, because I know you and I know how you react to certain things, you must have ... "
"Explain to me why I lost the baby, then?" Simon objected, nervously.
"How do you know you lost it? How do you know you have had, first of all? "
"I told you I did the test."
"And I told you that the tests, those do-it-yourself, are ...»
"Okay, but ..." But he did not know what to add. In fact, he could not explain precisely how it was sure she lost the baby, even if telling the time in which Fabrizio had torn him.
"Let's go to a gynecologist," proposed Isa, catching her by surprise. "On Monday, without saying anything to his dad. He will tell us if you are pregnant or if you have had an abortion. And you'll see that you will all be clear. Okay? "
"I do not know ..."
"Let's do this. But promise me that after you put your heart at rest and forget this bad experience and that stupid guy. "
Simon did not comment. It was not yet convinced, would not ever fully. But the solution of his mother came to his advantage. The pregnancy test had tested positive and, although not always correct, those tests were not reliable enough, then the gynecologist would have at least confirmed the pregnancy. He could also see that the embryo was still in place, something that Simon hoped with all my heart.
Why could not pretend to agree with her mother, but he never allowed herself to have been a hallucination, and after what he
had experienced the joy of a child to grow, even without a man beside her, was what she needed. If the doctor had verified that she had an abortion, you probably would have collapsed and sunk into a deep despair, for having been the victim of a horrible fate, and so mad that I can not tell anyone, without being taken for a visionary.
"Okay," he agreed.
"Well," said Isa, a hint of a smile. "Come here," he invited her, spreading her arms in welcome. "My darling, this is a wrong world" sanctioned, stroking his back. "An unjust world, which only makes us suffer." And she thought sadly of how, by his attitude, she was contributing to the suffering of his daughter.
***
Erika was just in time to get off the last of the steps leading from the apartment building where he lived reached the sidewalk, when he noticed a figure on his left. He turned, startled by her presence, fearing that it was an unfortunate ready to attack her. When Simon saw, with eyes swollen with tears and his face torn by sadness, perhaps diverted from the negative thoughts that had caught her, she feared that her friend was recovering from some form of violence. "What ...?" He began.
"Please," Simon interrupted her crying desperately, his voice hoarse as someone who had screamed long. "Please, Erika, forgive me!"
Erika was forbidden. The broke my heart to see her friend in those conditions: Simona gave the impression of a person adrift, like a drunk dirty and sick by the roadside. Yet, every single morning last month, from the day they quarreled, she saw her friend and she seemed normal, although not to continue speaking to. Only a few hours before he was safely out of school after the end of lessons.
"I've got it all wrong," Simon continued, rubbing his pants at the thighs, where the hands seemed seized by spasms. "You were right, you were right. But please help me! "
Erika did not need to hear more. Hold back her tears, in turn, without even knowing the reason for the despair of her friend, but she felt bound by the relationship they shared for years, ran to her and hugged her. "What did he do?" He asked, his blood would begin to ribollirle veins. He was staring at a point in space with eyes that seemed about to throw flames. "What made you that animal?" He repeated.