CHAPTER 156

CHAPTER 156
Celine

In a flash of fury, thunderous uproars of war filled the air, the heavy boots of Marco's army of bodyguards stomping loudly against the dusty ground as they began to charge towards Antonio and the Luna Nera brothers from all angles, their batons and axes raised high in the air.

Armando began to slowly drag himself backwards against the wall, searching for a cover from the impending doom, while the Luna Nera brothers circled up with their spiked batons equally raised high, nodding in response as Matteo and Antonio gave them a coded eye signal I couldn't really make out.

Then as if on cue, Marco and Antonio exchanged knowing glances, their heads snapping towards my direction at the same time. 

What followed next left my eyes bulging in panic as Marco quickly raised the portable phone in his grip in my direction, this close to pressing the red light on the screen in order to set the bomb under my seat off, when Antonio raised his leg and slammed it into his chest with a sickening force, sending both the device and Marco clattering to the floor meters away.

Antonio rushed towards the phone, and just as he leaned forward and grabbed it, Marco quickly crawled forward, tugging his leg.

He fell to the hard ground on his back and landed on his head, the phone sliding to the far end of the building.

“Antonio!” I yelled in panic as he groaned softly in pain, aggressively struggling to free my hands from the ropes as Marco got on top of him and balled his fist, driving it into his face.

But Antonio overthrew him immediately and pushed him off him, yanking him up to his feet using his shirt. And at that point, Marco threw another punch and a series of brutal non stop punches began to fly between the both of them, leaving trails of blood on their knuckles.

Meanwhile, on the other part of the building, half of the Luna Nera brothers were in a heated fight with some of Marco's bodyguards, weapons and blood flying around as flesh from both sides were being ripped apart. It was an eye shore, with heads of the opposing side separating from necks, and bodies dropping on the floor like flies as bullets from the gun of the sniper on the rooftop hit them.

And on another part of the building, Pedro and the other half of the Luna Nera brothers had formed a cluster, wedging the remaining two-third of Marco's bodyguards with their spiked batons, while still doing their best to endure their counterattacks as they struck them with their own batons and axes, leaving injuries on their backs and shoulders.

Then Matteo, who had been firing at the bodyguards while still equally holding on to the neck of the hostage, gave the Luna Nera brothers clustered with Pedro that same coded eye signal he'd given to them moments ago, and they nodded once, hinting that they were ready. 

With that, Matteo hauled the hostage strapped with the bomb vest towards them and the guys quickly grabbed onto him, yanking him in front of the bodyguards. With all their might, they all began to push him and the resisting bodyguards backwards towards the stairs with no railings, while I gradually continued to loosen the rope tying my hands backward.

With one final push from the Luna Nera brothers, the bodyguards began to fall down to the last floor in fours and fives, their shrill yells piercing the air. And just like that, no one was left, the hostage being the last to meet his fall.

Then Matteo fired at what was obviously the bomb vest, judging from the speed of light with which he, Pedro and all the other Luna Nera brothers dove for shelter, practically flying in the air.

In less than a second what followed was a loud BOOM!, and a wave of fire erupted from the ground floor upwards, accompanied by thick dust.

The deafening blast violently shook and crumpled that part of the building, to the point that the walls quickly came crashing down, covering those within its radar before they could run for cover.

Each one of us felt the massive impact—Antonio and Marco slightly floating in separate directions; a loud grunt escaping their lips as they landed on the hard ground with a sickening thud— and me and my chair tumbling over and sliding towards the rods and construction materials piled at a corner, missing it by barely an arm’s length.

Soon enough, the thick dust devoured us all, blinding to the point that I couldn't clearly make out anyone's face anymore. The only thing I could hear were heavy coughing, from my surrounding perimeters and beyond, my heart pounding heavily in my chest.

My shoulders hurt so much, and I could feel fresh warm blood streaming down from the side of my head, but the good thing was that the fall had created a crack on the backrest of the seat, thereby slackening the awfully tight rope I'd been struggling to loosen.

In a fleeting second, the dust cleared up a bit, and to my right I could faintly see the remnants of Marco's bodyguards who hadn't been blown up with the rest, buried underneath heaps of stones from the ruins of the concrete walls. 

I could also see Matteo, Pedro, and the other Luna Nera brothers, all sprawled on the floor with their eyes tightly shut, with tiny flickers of fire surrounding them. 

A good number of the Luna Nera brothers had narrowly escaped the crumbled walls, but they were barely moving, with severe open wounds on their necks and back, left by their opponent’s weapons. In addition, a part of the fabric of their suits were dusty and shredded, revealing the red and blistered burn wounds on their backs and arms, sustained as a result of the blast.

And then, like I'd been hit with something, I suddenly remembered Armando.

Armando wasn't here anymore. He'd probably gotten away during all the commotion.

My anxious eyes darted to my left in search of Antonio, only for them to land on Marco’s blood smeared, crooked nose and swollen left eye; courtesy of Antonio's punches. 

But that wasn't what spooked me out, it was the fact that he was already up on his feet, his thumb hovering above the portable phone in his hand, while a devilish smirk tugged at the corners of his lips.

“Good bye, Celine,” he muttered, his eyes as dark as darkness can be.

My eyes widened in sheer horror, drifting to the chair still very much stuck to me, and then I looked ahead and I saw Antonio directly across from me, gripping the side of his stomach.

He was lying flat on his back, and I soon realized why he looked like he was in excruciating pain when I spotted the rebar punctured into the side of his stomach, likely from when he'd fallen right after the blast.

“Antonio,” I cried out with tears in my eyes as his gaze slowly met mine, his eyes bulging so widely it felt like they'd pop out, as he picked up on what Marco was about to do to me.