Natalia

 

I swam back into consciousness, a horrible taste in my mouth, but for some reason, the world was still black. My wrists were encased in metal cuffs, held high behind my back. My shoulder was crying out in pain at the uncomfortable position in which I was pinned. I twisted my head left and right and realized I couldn’t see because there was a hood over my head.

 

“She’s moving,” growled a voice in the distance. It echoed in the room.

 

I heard the wet plink of liquid dripping to the ground. Where the hell was I?

 

“The drugs must have worn off. Take off her hood,” said a female voice. I knew that one. Alessandra.

 

Heavy footsteps trotted over to me. The hood was ripped suddenly off my head. I squinted hard against the bright fluorescent lights overhead. It took several long blinks before my vision had everything squared away.

 

Alessandra stood in front of me. She was dressed as well as always, in a tight dress made up of black and gray cotton panels stitched together. She tapped one toe on the concrete floor impatiently.

 

Next to her stood a man I didn’t recognize. He was fat, with floppy jowls that were desperate for a razor to get rid of the ugly whiskers scabbing across them. He wore sweats and a tank top, stained. His eyes were set far apart from each other, but they protruded like a fish’s.

 

“How much longer?” Alessandra fired at the fat man.

 

He shrugged. “Not sure. Can’t be much, though. It’s almost midnight.”

 

She sucked her teeth in annoyance. Her gaze swung to me. Her eyes, iron gray, showed not the slightest shred of mercy. “Why do I have to keep dealing with you?” she snapped.

 

I was too bleary to offer any kind of an answer. The remaining tendrils of the drug in my system clouded my thoughts, making it hard to focus on any one thing. I looked back and forth from Alessandra to the man, my eyes refusing to settle.

 

She stalked towards me and came to a halt. Her head blocked out the light above. It cast a halo around her face, illuminating her blonde hair like it was on fire. “Over and over again, you keep finding your way back into my life,” she said. “Like a cockroach. A parasite. A fucking leech.” She spat in my face. “You have always been a cockroach. Ever since you were born.”

 

Alessandra’s words didn’t make any sense. Ever since I was born? She’d only known me in the time since I was taken from my daddy and brought to the Esposito mansion. “What are you talking about?” I stammered, confused.

 

She smiled grimly. “You don’t know, do you? Stupid bitch, never even bothered to find out.”

 

I shook my head, trying to clear the cobwebs and find some sense in all this chaos. The room around me was filled with pipes leaking fluid. They looked old and rusty, as if ready to burst at any moment.

 

Alessandra sensed my confusion. “Where’s your mother, Natalia?” she chanted in a childish sing-song voice. “Eh? Where is she? Don’t you know?”

 

“She’s in, um…California. She ran away. She didn’t like the cold.”

 

Alessandra’s face twisted into a mocking scowl with each word I said as I repeated the story that Daddy had always told me. When I finished, her laugh echoed off the metal piping. “Idiot girl. You killed her, Natalia. You killed her. You killed our mother.”

 

I blinked hard. The lights were so bright and the pressure in the room was giving me a headache. I couldn’t have heard her right. Did she say our mother? That made no sense. My mouth flopped open uselessly like a fish as I tried to form the question I wanted to know the answer to.

 

Alessandra beat me to it. “You heard me. Our mother. The one you killed. You kicked in her stomach. She was driving, and you kicked so hard that she crashed. She died, but for some godforsaken reason, you didn’t. You survived.”

 

I was reeling. This was information overload. There was no way it could be true. But one look at Alessandra told me it was. I couldn’t deny the certainty of the hate written across her face.

 

“Why do you think I’ve always hated you, Natalia?” she taunted. “You killed my mother. Our father was a piece of shit and he deserved to die the way he did. But she didn’t deserve that. Why did you do it?”

 

She tilted her head to the side. She seemed to genuinely expect an answer from me. I didn’t know what to say. “I, uh, I, how…” I stuttered. My tongue felt fat and numb in my mouth. It wouldn’t work properly. My throat seemed to be closing.

 

“It doesn’t matter,” she snapped. “You are going to die tonight. Both you and your lovely new man.” Her smile broadened by one perfect tooth. “Shame. You two seemed so perfect together.” She whirled around to face the man in the sweats. “Fuck her up,” she commanded. She clomped out of the room, leaving me alone with him.

 

The man grinned like a pig, then began to walk towards me, tugging down the front of his sweatpants as he drew closer.

 

I screamed and screamed, but there was no one around to hear me. Try as I might, I just couldn’t stand up.

 

“Looks like it’s just you and me,” he drawled as he stopped a yard in front of me. He had one hand shoved down the front of his pants. He reached forward with the other and cupped my chin. I yanked at my chains. They were locked too securely to offer much in the way of wiggle room. I wasn’t going anywhere.

 

“That lady sure does hate you,” he remarked. “She was tellin’ me all about it. Seems like she’s been out to make you suffer for a long, long time. Well,” he sighed, stroking my cheekbone with one rough thumb, “I’m just doing my own small part to help her out. That’s its own reward, ain’t it? Helping out your fellow man? Or woman, or whatever? Of course, a little piece of ass like yourself ain’t a bad side benefit. And the money. That’s nice, too.”

 

His eyes glistened. I saved up all the spit I could in my mouth and fired it into his face. He dropped my chin, surprised, as he fell backwards a few steps and laughed. “Feisty, well, I’ll be damned. Didn’t see that one coming.” His eyes narrowed. “But if I were you, I’d be saving that spit. It’ll help everything go down your throat just a bit easier.” His tone ended in a low, guttural growl as he jumped back towards me and sealed my nostrils between his thumb and forefinger.

 

I kept my mouth shut for as long as I could. In front of me, I saw him fumble with his member until I flopped forward out of his pants. It was thick, much rounder than Nicholas’s, and rose out of a nest of wild black pubic hair. He picked it up with his free hand and stroked it. The thing rocketed into a thudding erection.

 

I was losing the fight with my lungs. I’d have to draw in a breath soon. But I wanted to keep pushing that moment away. Just a few more seconds. Then someone would save me, right? Just a few more. Just a few more.

 

I couldn’t hold it anymore. I opened my mouth and sucked in a greedy lungful of air. The man immediately let go of my nose and grabbed my cheeks, squeezing them hard to keep them open. As he did, he rammed himself into my mouth.

 

I was wrong. No one was coming.