The knife is still laying on the floor, untouched and unseen. I reach for it and kick it towards Dante.

“Dante!”, Carmen yells seeing what I am doing.

His green eyes appear behind his hands and they’re focused and lucid. The knife slides on the floor, spinning on itself, and still I see everything in slow motion.

Dante grabbing it as soon as it’s within reach. Stabbing one of the two men in the foot. Knocking the blade in so strongly that the man’s foot remains planted on the wood floor. The man – Dagmar? Serban? Which one of the two bootlickers? – screams so loudly that my ears are filled with a ringing noise.

And then I see it. I see it and I realize what’s happened.

Dante’s hands are free, and the shackles lay open on the floor. I wonder if he was in that fetal position, covering his face with both of his hands, just to have time to set himself free. If so, he hasn’t been quick enough because he’s been beaten dozen of times and he’s bleeding copiously from various cuts.

Everything displays before my eyes in a fluid and rapid way. Ten, fifteen seconds maybe. Dante getting on his knees, raising his head abruptly and hitting the other man – Dagmar? Serban? Which one is left? – in the crotch, and making him fall on his back, his eyes popping out of his head and his mouth wide open, soundless.

Dante rolling on his toes, quickly, extracting the knife from the floor and from the man’s – the man who’s still shouting like a trapped prey – foot, sticking it into his stomach, deeply.

Then Dante gets up, and as soon as the guy puts both of his hands on his belly – and he’s still shouting, God he’s still shouting – the blade is removed, slipped through his bloodied fingers, and Dante opens his throat from one ear to the other.

The guy doesn’t shout anymore, like he’s been switched off abruptly. He makes these gurgling sounds, he watches Dante like he’s never seen him before, then his body goes down like an empty bag. Dante turns his whole body to the other man, grabs the gun who’s placed into his holster, loads it in a fluid, automatic motion and then shouts him in the face with no hesitation. His blood covers the wall behind him with a splattering sound.