All the potential victims are included on that list. Playing a game. Yeah, sure. It’s not hard to figure out what that game means.

It’s a game of death.

“…Dante, huh?”.

My head snaps up as I am pulled out from my thoughts. Carmen is speaking, she’s looking at me with those deep brown eyes of hers.

“What?”.

“The tick tack part”, Shane says in a monotonous voice. She’s exhausted. She’s already so done with all this story. I can’t blame her.

I scratch my chin, absent-mindedly.

“The tick tack part makes me think that there is another bomb. What can I say?”, I reply apologetically, “There are no hints to make me figure out where it can be or when it can explode”.

I shake my head seeing that Shane is growing pale again.

“The only thing we can do is call the people on that list and make them come here. We need to stay together, we should not part. A tight-knit group is harder to beat”, I say, getting up and throwing my cell phone to Shane.

She grabs it in mid-air with no hesitation.

“Call them”, I say, rummaging in my pockets for a smoke.

Shane exchanges a glance with her wife and Carmen gets up, taking the phone from her hand. She disappears in the other room, her gym shoes making a muffled noise on the parquet floor.

“I am so sorry, Shane…”, I murmur rubbing my eyes when Carmen closes the door behind her back and we’re alone.

She just shakes her head and gets up, striking a match and keeping the flame in front of the cigarette hanging from my lips. Her green eyes shine in the reddish light of the fire, and I nod gratefully, taking the first drag from my smoke.

She smirks. The ghost of a smirk. And she shakes her head, staring at me.

“Your wife is pregnant and you still smoke”, she considers, huskily.

I giggle, a raspy growl coming from my mouth and trying uselessly to escape my pursed lips.

“I know. I had quit. I started again three days ago”.

Her eyes smile in that witty way of hers.

“Yeah, I would have done the same”.

“How are things going between you and Carmen?”, I ask, not breaking eye-contact.