The silence came into the room after the terrible story. Cultured from the tremendous impression that it was losing valuable time, Christina was to begin again to speak first. "So you think that this aspect is part of the game, the rules?" He asked.
"Yes," said Isa. "I have not a certainty but it would be absurd to think it's just a coincidence that we all react the same way."
"Even your mother?"
"Probably. I can not say for sure why ... I do not know if the mother has ever told you but my parents died together in a car accident. It crashed into a tree. I never doubted that it had been a tragedy if I had not had this experience years later and I had not reconnected to the one I witnessed in the room of my grandfather."
"You say your mom has caused the accident?"
"That's what I think."
"But it is not strange that he killed himself? We are not important to him? "
"You are as long as we are young, but after we become instruments of which can get rid of when he wants. Which evidently did with my mother. I'm sure that if he survived he would have known me all the explanations I needed after that killed his grandfather but I am equally certain to be reached even by myself to the right conclusions. "
"And my mother had guessed everything. For this he was determined to go forward, to try to stop the mechanism was too. "
"Considering the age that was, I was beginning to experience the first signs of confusion between your dad and Fabrizio. The situation degenerated when he saw your boy and recognized him, imagine what it must have thought ... "
"Why have not you had ever told the truth."
"I could not. However, there are no more secrets for you, now, so you should have enough elements to understand that any attempt to change things is a lost cause. "
"The first idea I came up with is this," agreed Christina. "But I suspect that he relies on our own fear, no would ever dare to confront a being so powerful and we do stop at the start, but he assures us that if we believed, we could not manage to ... »
"You saw what happened to your mom. She believed and what he got? "
"She was not best placed to try to change things. As you say, we are required as long as we are young, ready to meet its energy needs by providing it with our fertility ... Mom was already used goods, to throw. "
Christina kept a few seconds of silence. Isa watched with concern, sensing that the end was coming.
"I have a chance to hit him," said Cristina. "I have what it takes to him and I may stop taking it."
"No, you do not have it!" Isa tried to dissuade her, raising his voice, while Cristina is in front of her rose and ran towards the door. "Because the only way to do it ..."
"Exactly," agreed Christina, with a light neutral but resolute eyes, and left the apartment, deaf to the call of his grandmother and begging her to stop thinking and Olga, who was shouting something about his father.
***
Shortly after being released by the Carabinieri, who fortunately had taken his data for a routine check, without detecting infringements, Roberto asked Erika to dial the number of his mother and passing the phone.
"Mom, I'm sorry, I am. No, okay, just do not know if we can be on time for lunch, I'm sorry but ... no, really, quiet. By 'to Matthias but for now it is confirmed that we go in the pool and ask pardon but I'm sure he'll understand. I just ... I put down, apologize, then I'll explain. Hello hello hello. "
He hung up, resisting the urge to cry. His nervousness was such as to make him want to scream loudly. But he had to endure, had to ask one last effort to his nerves.
Erika handed the phone to dial the number and made of Isa. "Then I will pay you the money, I'm sorry," he said, without realizing what it was misplaced. She handed him the phone and said nothing.
"Olga? Olga, it's me, Robert. Hello. Listen, it is urgent, Cristina is there? Yes? Well, tell her not to go away, to wait ten minutes I'll be right. It is very important, do not make it go away entirely, please! Thank you, Olga. Thank you. "
"Is there?" Said Erika.
"Not for much longer, I fear," confessed Bob. He had waited to call, because he realized that he was the only way to stop that, but Cristina was also the best way to put it on the run again. "We hope to make it in time."
"My God, what the situation is' snapped Erika, even on the verge of tears.
"Leave it alone Leave it to God."
***
"It's not over yet," said Matthew suddenly. He sat still in front of the book of tasks, which had already completed more than four pages, but it was a few minutes since he did not write and read. He stared at the pictures and thought.
"How?" Said Gisella, who understood, but hoped to have been wrong. She was making the meat sauce, to free the mind from unpleasant thoughts which had aroused a call from Robert.
"We still feel bad," she repeated Matthias.
"But what are you saying?" Rebuked him Isa, approaching. "It will be for a call from your dad."
"Yes."
"Darling, but he just said it will arrive late because ..."
"Something is still missing. I've seen. "
"Seen what?" Gisella even beginning to be frightened.
"He was laughing" Matthew recalled. "The boyfriend of Cristina. He laughed to prayer for the mother and definitely has something in mind. Something today. That's because the father is not. "
"Love, do not worry, okay?" But she wanted to run home of Robert and find out what the hell was going on yet.
***
Cristina parked his car on the edge of the road, slightly uphill, leading to the top of the bank. He was consumed with fear and thousands of voices in his head were standing and screaming that he would still have time to pull back, that was not written anywhere that it was up to her, that was not to prove anything to anyone.
But a voice predominated among many others and was one of Simon, whose real presence is manifested through the gold necklace around his neck that Cristina and that in the last minute he shook almost continuously. And Simon told her that he had in mind was the only solution, however painful and drastic. Moreover, major changes included major responsibilities and enormous sacrifices.
The sun was high in the sky and the temperature had reached the peak of the day, that noon of June. A good day to die , he thought cynically Cristina, who soon after felt a chill. Certainly would have found relief by the unbearable sultriness and damp that permeated the air like a heavy wet blanket and annoying.
Cristina went up to the point where the paved road gave way to gravel and paused for breath. He was an athletic girl who had walked up and would not be a problem for you under normal conditions, but it was more mentally tired than physically. While breathing heavily, let his eyes wander towards the center of the country where he was born and raised, from the little church in the square tower to the roofs of houses from which he lined up one behind the other, as old ladies in contemplation of the mystery of God
There was no one around. At that time the people took refuge in the house, ready for lunch, away from the heat unbearable. She would have been the cool walls of his kitchen, to have lunch with his family, but fate or the legacy, as he had called his grandmother, had fallen on their family as an ax murderer, and he changed everything . He found himself wondering how he could still be true the whole story: they were in 2000, fuck!
Cristina turned and glanced at the small road, from where it started, down steeply on the other side of the bank and, jutting out between two neat rows of poplars, leading up to the banks of the Po had covered many times that way, in company with his father and his mother and his grandmother Gisella was going to throw the stones into the water when she was a child walking or biking when it had become more grandicella. She would go alone, to take his own life.
How strange the world.
***
Roberto ran panting up the stairs to the door of Isa. Erika followed him a short distance, holding the railing for fear of tripping and falling. His heart was pumping a lot, kno
wing that they were at a turning point.
"Olga," shouted Roberto knocking violently.
After a few moments the door opened and Olga appeared before them, looked bleak. "I heard," he explained quickly. "When I put down corendo phone was off and did not hear me. I'm sorry. "
Robert sighed in despair. Without too much courtesy Olga stepped aside and entered the apartment, directly into the living room. Erika stood behind him, passing by the Ukrainian nanny with a "Permission" just mumbled.
Isa was sitting at his usual place at the same attitude in recent weeks. The only new element was glossy and swollen eyes and a sense of weariness and despair, rather than insanity. Robert wondered if you were leaving influenced by what was learned. "Where is she?"
Isa did not deign even to glance at.
"Where is she? What did he say? "He barked, while Olga had reached them, but remained on the sidelines.
"Madam, it is important," interjected Erika. Isa, hearing a new voice, he turned toward her and recognized her, the friend of her daughter when they were little girls. Remained visibly surprised and almost ran a smile. Bitter, but still a smile.
Erika stared back at him with tenderness. "It's really important, ma'am. Cristina could do something ... "
"It could not" sanctioned Isa. "He will. He wants to break the line. "
"Where is she?" Robert yelled again, putting her hands to her hair and falling on his knees. "Holy shit, where did my daughter?"
"Provided he give him" said Isa, impassive.
***
Having reached the end of the road, continuing on the riverfront, extricating itself from low branches, overgrown bushes and grass, you could walk to a grassy slope in the light coming down into the water until it disappears.
A pontoon is pushed almost to one third of the width of the bed of the river, whose waters, quell'arido in early summer, they had reached very low levels, leaving the pillars that supported the walkway covered with planks of rotten wood. The water was moving slowly, driven by a negligible current, so that both banks had accumulated a horrible, smelly yellowish-white foam, which had always been afraid to Cristina and that reminded her hairy mold of occasionally formed on the forgotten food in the fridge for too many days.
She stood in the grass, he thought that rather than throwing in those smelly foam, he would give to any regard for the Liberation of his family. But luckily for him, if I could tell, the pier offered the chance to jump directly to where the water was clean or, better, less dirty, since the Po And it certainly would have been deeper at that point, especially that would have simplified things.
Now that the decisive moment had arrived, Christina wondered if he had not underestimated the situation. He grew up under the recommendations of his grandparents and his parents, who put on alert about the dangers of the river, which seemed harmless and inviting, but potentially deadly hidden dangers, represented by the swirling of water in a few seconds would have done drown anyone. Christina had always been terrified of the kind of stories, but at that moment she began to wonder if they were not seasoned dall'allarmismo and exaggeration typical of adults who want to convey an important lesson to children. He found himself in trouble, so he came to think that it would never be able to commit suicide by drowning: indeed, he could swim and the instinct for survival that would have to remain firm and prevented from getting to the bottom. If the current, as he noted, was very impetuous and the waters were quiet, almost stagnant, would certainly be an unnecessary risk of bath and thus losing the resolve that brought her this far, on the brink of the abyss.
But his thoughts did not lasted long. A noise behind her back to reality and made her turn suddenly. Someone was approaching her and making her way, she stepped on a twig, snapping it. Cristina had just time to recognize that person and think that had to hurry or he would lose his chance, but after the first step towards the pier lost the ability to move and control their own bodies.
"What are you doing here?" He asked, with the nerves of the neck and pulled out, the effort to speak even a few words. His body was motionless facing the water, in the position of a sprinter in the full release still picture taken, but his face was bent backwards, as if drawn irresistibly by the other person.
"You should know," Daniel replied, smiling. "I came to take what is mine."
***
As had happened to Simon, Isa and dozens of women before them, Cristina watched in horror at the transformation of the world around him and the boy who stood in front. The entire environment in which it was surrounded seemed to crystallize, even more than it already seemed on a hot summer day in which did not draw a breath of wind and the sounds themselves were muffled as moisture that permeated the air. The river water ceased to flow completely into the distant mouth and stinky foam is not floated over to the shore.
Daniel was moving slowly toward Cristina. In the short time required to perform a few steps his figure suffered untold changes, destroying the young and handsome face and replacing it with that of a decrepit old and disfigured, barely recognizable as human. Cristina thought briefly metamorphosis already seen in some cartoon but there was nothing pleasant in quell'analogia. She tried to scream but he found himself incapable.
The being had been the boy you fell in love and with whom he spent many memorable times joined her and spent a tremendous smile, sharp teeth and yellow rot. A Cristina seemed to smell and felt a strong desire to vomit. But he was conscious of not having the strength to even the simplest and involuntary gesture was under the complete control of Daniel. How could he be so stupid as to let himself be lodged, when he was so close to achieving its purpose?
The boy raised his disgusting hands, showing them to Christine as they were instruments of death with which he was about to torture her, and basically it was just like that. "You could risparmiartelo" he said, with derision. "I always get what you want. And so far who has tried to stop me did not even have time to check if he achieved his goal. As your stupid mother. "
Christina looked at him, hate-filled, with another superhuman effort and spat a few provocative words. "Kill me, then! What are you waiting? "
The anthropomorphic being smiled again, with greater conviction and endless cruelty. "I do not think it's so easy. It was not for nothing, for thee I never thought of a special treatment, just to speak to the desire to suggest to your daughter one day follow in your footsteps. "
"I'll never have a daughter," whispered Christina, his face ravaged by fatigue and tension and drenched in sweat.
"We'll see, we'll see" the mocked even Daniel. He still had his hands open in front of the girl and now, back serious, leaned forward, toward his belly.
"Non .. we ... try, "she threatened Cristina vain, consuming energy unnecessarily in an attempt to retreat. He felt the touch of her long, wrinkled fingers against his shirt and shut his eyes to the horror and fear. At that point, it is hoped that it would last only as little as possible.
Cristina felt a sudden and not cold, a sensation that went from the stomach and from there spread to the whole body. The contrast with the heat that had suffered up to that time made her feel an immediate sense of nausea. Then he began to feel cut: the pain was like an explosion destined to give rise to a rapidly spreading fire and hit just below the sternum. The formed before our eyes the image of a large knife that penetrated deeply and was preparing to open it like a pig.
He began to cry and she found herself wanting to lose consciousness, fall to the ground powerless, but he knew that was not so lucky. Why was he who was directing the orchestra.
Lost in the resignation and terrified at the thought of "special treatment" that he had promised, he tried with all remaining rationality to focus his attention on the thought of his mother, who certainly, wherever he was, had spiritually close. To give strength to his thought, while his hands in front of her being proceeded with the edge that would cut open the belly, mind visualized with the necklace around his neck and squeezed even more eyelids and teeth.
And all of a sudden he saw Simon.
***
Light.
Lots of light.
A figure.
It's her.
It is made of light, part of that light. He looks at it. He smiles.
Where is she? It seems suspended. & Does not perceive. Has no body, maybe it's too light. Maybe it's dead, special treatment, but does not believe. In the distance, very far away, still feels pain. He goes on, opens it, he must take. Unfortunately we will succeed.
'I could not, Mom.' Wants to cry, but do not know if this place can do it. She is worried and disappointed, but felt calm everywhere, even inside itself. Inside and out, that there is the same thing.
'You were good' says Simon. It is pure love that emanates from his eyes. You could kill the intensity he has, would kill anyone who saw him outside of this wonderful place. In this place of light.
'Not enough. I have not stopped. '
'Almost. You're almost there. '
'But now ...'
'Perhaps not. There is still time. We can '. He smiles as it is beautiful. More young, young. Happy.
'But how? He's doing ... '
'He feeds us. He draws energy from us. '
'I do not understand, Mom. I'm scared, help me. Keep me here with you. '
'In him is part of us. There is also a part of me . '
The contours become even more blurred, the light begins to get lost in the light. He's leaving.
'No, Mom, wait. Help me. ' But it is coming back. Is coming from him.
'Do not miss the moment.' Last words barely audible, also lost in the light.
'Mamma!'
'I'm sorry that it should be you, but do not miss the moment.' And it's gone.
'Mamma!'
***
Cristina opened his eyes. Nothing had changed: Daniel, the ugly face bent to the belly, where he was having his monstrous rite, continued to martoriarle meat and soon would complete his work. The pain that resulted was something that Cristina would never have imagined even absurd, but for the unexpected and brief encounter with his mother was able to mitigate it. But he was back, blinding, debilitating, deadly.
Cristina being shifted his gaze to the hands that touched my shirt. He saw nothing, no blood and had not even an inch of exposed skin: hands clung to the horrendous cotton and did not seem to have any practical effect, however, that caused the feelings were very real, physical. What would last longer? And that moment was supposed to take? What was referring to his mother? Or it was just a creation of his mind under psychological and physical trauma to that?