“Fuck!”, the man behind Carmen exclaims, his eyes popping out, “Fuck!! He killed Adrian!!”.

”Recall the deeds as if
They’re all someone else’s
Atrocious stories
Now you stand reborn before us all
So glad to see you well”

There is a moment of astonished silence in the room, then I hear a muffled sob from Alice. Dante watches Francois.

“If your guys make another move on Shane, Carmen or the other girls, this is how they will end”.

The tone in his voice freezes me. Carmen swallows hard and grabs my forearm tightly.

Francois and the old man don’t seem impressed at all. The French just watches Dante and shakes his head in disappointment. Then, he shrugs his shoulders in a total disinterest.

“You are not setting any rules. But I’ll admit that Adrian was exaggerating a little…”, he just considers, shoving his hands into his pockets and shifting a little, “…Now that you’ve sorted out the problem, I guess we can talk”.

Dante nods, without breaking eye-contact.

“Sure. We can talk. Talk with me. It’s me your only problem, believe me”, he murmurs, smiling joylessly.

The older man gets up.

“My name is John James Sanders. Senior. I’m Johnny’s father. You can call me Jack…”, he says conversationally, sipping another bit of his cognac.

"You really think you’re the Jack of Spades?", Carmen winces, "You’re loco, man…".

Sanders senior doesn’t seem to notice her words. He keeps on talking like he hasn’t been interrupted at all.

“…And yes, you’re right. You’re here to be killed. But, before that…”, and his eyes glance at me, “…You must be punished”.

“Carmen needs you by her side”, Dante told me.
I blinked my eyelids repeatedly as a new set of tears rolled down my face. The gun felt suddenly so heavy in my hand.
Dante extended his hand.
“Give it to me”.
“Give it to Dante”, Marshall echoed.
“Carmen is at the hospital”, I muttered, like once was not enough.
“She needs you by her side”, he repeated, like once was not enough.
“I’m in too deep”, I sobbed and dried my eyes with the sleeve of my shirt.
“I can’t let go”.
“You can let go, that’s why I’m here”, Dante stated, and sounded so comforting.
But I said.
“It’s too late”.
“No, it’s not. Nothing’s gonna happen if you give me that gun. We’ll take care of everything and –“.
“…And you really think I’ll pretend nothing happened?”, I interrupted him, shouting.
“Shane”.
“What the fuck do you want from me? Huh!?”.
My whole body was shaking.
“Now Shane, I want you to look at me”.
Those words.
I remember hearing those words in Carmen’s voice and I turned towards him, like somebody slapped me in the face.
“Don’t throw it all away”, he begged me.
“He needs to be punished!” I growled.
And how tired I was.
I just wanted to put an end to it.
“Shane… look at him” Dante whispered, “He’s dying… And, frankly, that would be the easiest way to escape. But if you give me that gun, if you just turn around, step away and let me and Marshall take care of him, he’ll spend many years in jail”.
His Italian accent was much more marked than usual, because of the tension.
And suddenly, all of this seemed so absurd.
So unreal.
“How did I end up here?”, I sobbed.
Dante’s face looked touched as he moved another step towards me.
Closer.
“You are scared, you’re angry, you don’t know what to do to fix what’s gone wrong… That’s the reason why you’re doing this…” he said, firmly.
“I don’t know what to do. I don’t even know what I think anymore…”, I muttered, feeling the unbearable heaviness of the gun in my hand.
“You don’t need to do this, Shane. You really don’t need to waste your life, to waste your time with this scumbag…”.
“Am I loosing my mind?” I asked, trying hard to figure out if he had an answer for me.
And he looked at me like he was thinking that I had been going through a lot of shit, and that I just couldn’t handle it anymore.
So simple.
So simple in his eyes.

“I am sorry about your friends and about Cassandra. I just needed them to drag you here, in my house. You, Shane and Carmen are the people I want. They’re just a collateral effect of what I am about to do”, Jack states, frankly. But there is no trace of compassion into his eyes and in his voice. And I understand that all of this, all of this is just about vendetta. The purest form of vendetta. A father for a son.

Then, Jack Sanders turns his head to Carmen and smiles a little.

“Glad to see you again, Miss Morales. You look beautiful as usual”, he murmurs, politely but coldly.

I stare at Carmen in disbelief. She nods her head slowly, her eyes narrowing in a sudden understanding.

“I do know you…”, she whispers in shock.

Sanders smiles again.

“Yes, of course you do. You’re not the kind of woman who forgets a kind stranger”.

”And not to pull your halo down
Around your neck and tug you to the ground
But I’m more than just a little curious
How you’re planning to go about
Making your amends to the dead
To the dead
With your halo slipping down
Your halo slipping down
Your halo slipping down to choke you now”*

TBC

SOUNDTRACK

* “The Noose” (A Perfect Circle)