Chapter 24 DEATH GAME
I wasn't sure of it, but it took a really long time for me to get out of the ethereal darkness I had been plunged into.
I slowly opened my eyes and I could feel a sharp pain in my head, just a little above my right eyebrow.
I winced a little, finally noticing where I was. I was already back in my room— at the Devereaux's mansion.
I looked to my side and I noticed Rafael was sitting by the same chair he had sat on the previous night. On the table beside him, instead of an ash tray, his gun was lying on it.
And Rafael, his eyes were shut against the world, and I assumed he was asleep.
I sighed, my mind totally blanked off what had happened back at the clubhouse. I didn't want to recall yet because my hurting head would only suffer more PTSD attacks.
So I watched him. His subtle face, how calm and gentle he looked when he had shut himself against the world.
I still couldn't believe this moment was real. I never would have imagined I would be lying in bed under a mafia boss roof somewhere in Italy instead of New York.
I sighed, but before I could settle my sigh, his hoarse voice almost made me choke.
“How do you feel, Vanessa?” He asked.
I coughed, sitting up already. I wondered if he truly had been asleep or not to catch me off guard without notice.
“Better, I guess.” I replied, clearing my throat as I quickly swiped my hair off my face.
I looked over at him. He was still very calm, but his expression was cold and empty and I could read his thoughts loud and clear. It was certainly about him warning me against coming with him, but I quickly intercepted his thoughts before he could say them to me.
“What happened? That man, what did you do to him?” I asked.
“You don't have to worry about him, Nessa.”
My eyebrows furrowed, an assumption settling in fast within my train of thought.
“Did you…” I paused, my words becoming heavy in my throat. “Did you kill him?” I asked him again, this time very softly with a throbbing heart.
Rafael failed to give a response, not sure if I could take it, but his silence was loud enough— it was an absolutely perfect response to what he had done.
Rafael had done what was evil again and with me being a part of it. My eyes wandered off towards the gun lying on the stand by table beside him again and I quickly shot at it— fast enough before he could stop me.
With the gun held with trembling hands, pointed right at him, he got up, trying to calm me down so I could drop the gun.
“Why did you do it?” I cried, my disheveled hair falling about as I moved.
“Because it was necessary.”
I scoffed in disbelief.
A man had been killed because he deemed it necessary and he felt not a single ounce of remorse for what he had done?
“Put the gun down, Vanessa.” Rafael commanded, his time very impatient.
I couldn't accept this. He had killed a man for my sake just because he had hurled a whiskey glass at me. What more can this man do with the anger that flows within his veins?
“How could you hurt a man without batting an eye?” I cried out loud, the gun still held up at him.
I was barely holding up, trying to control my tears and as well keep him in check.
“You just don't know where to stop. No one gets away with hurting you, Nessa. No one.”
“Dylan? What did he ever do to me to make you kill him as well? The man I loved had no sin.” I cried, sniffing back my tears.
“Love? Scrap that Vanessa. You cannot be in love with that man and everything you know or felt for him has to end.” Rafael growled.
“This doesn't end until you die!”
I was more determined to end it all. Without batting an eye, I pulled at the trigger, aiming right at his chest and the world spun at the dazzle of the simple click of the trigger.
—
Realizing I had indeed pulled the trigger at Rafael, I almost crashed into the floor, but again, the realization Rafael was still standing right where he had been standing a minute ago was even more terrifying.
I looked at the gun in my hand, wondering what had gone wrong. I had aimed accurately and pulled the trigger at him, but why was he still alive?
Is there some sort of sorcery to this?
“I knew you'd try to do something crazy one day, so I always leave the first barrel empty.” Rafael said, his tone already calm as he watched me panicking.
“Look, I'm sorry I raised my voice at you.” He apologized tenderly and sincerely.
My heart sank again, as I had failed to end him at that moment. Then out of nowhere, it struck me like a bullet.
His words rang in my ears again.
‘…I always leave the first barrel empty.’
I flipped the switch immediately, pointing the tip of the gun at my throat.
“Vanessa, don't!” He shouted, lunging at me to grab the gun.
“Stand back!” I warned him with shaky breath, slowly walking away from the table and him.
“Calm down, Vanessa… what you're doing is stupid.”
“Stupid?” I laughed, holding fast to the gun. “Any woman would go mad if she's taken away from her wedding, her normal life and be forced to live under the obsession and delusions of a man she knows almost nothing about, so my actions are justified!”
“Come on, give me the gun and let's talk this out. I promise, everything is going to be okay after this.” He continued, taking another step closer to me.
“Stand back or I'll pull the trigger.” I threatened again, stepping away from him.
“Nessa…”
With the grin of a crazy woman forming on my face, I totally understood him at that moment.
Rafael couldn't bear to watch me hurt myself and watching him become helpless and miserable was endearing to my sight.
If my death could make him miserable for the rest of his life, then I might as well serve it to him on a platter— a golden platter.