Natalia
A white hot tidal wave of air hit me at the same time as Nicholas’s voice. “Run, Natalia!” he growled from where he kneeled in front of Cosimo. His voice broke me from my paralysis. I obeyed immediately.
I swung the heel of my foot into the crotch of the man gripping my arm. He doubled over immediately, taken by surprise. I threw an elbow into his face for good measure, and then I turned and ran.
The second wave knocked me down. I tried to look backwards, but the light was blinding. I couldn’t hear, couldn’t see. The night was crackling with sparks and an unfamiliar chemical smell that singed at the edges of my nostrils. I could feel the heat baking against my back as I scrambled up. All I could think to do was move my legs. Run, run, don’t stop, don’t ever stop. Keep moving.
I burst out of the central courtyard and into the intricate pipework surrounding the facility. My breath was like a dagger in the side of my ribs, twisting deeper with every breath, but still, I couldn’t stop. I weaved my way between the massive contraptions of steel. Back behind me, fire and smoke were beginning to fill the air.
I finally broke out of the labyrinthine factory and onto an access road running behind it. Parked alongside the near edge of the road were a series of white vans, still idling. I ran up to the one in front and yanked open the driver’s side door.
The keys sat in the ignition. I looked around me. No one had followed. I was completely alone.
Here it was. The chance to escape that I’d always been waiting for. Anyone who had ever tried to keep me trapped was back in the middle of the sewage plant. No one could stop me now. All I had to do was climb into the car, pop the brake, and drive off to start a new life. I could do it. It was right there.
So why wasn’t I moving?
The answer was obvious. Nicholas was still back there.
I let a banshee wail tear up my throat. I slapped a hand on the side of the van, relishing how good it felt to hit something solid and know that it was real, that this wasn’t all some horrific, never-ending nightmare. The metal rang under my touch.
“Get in the car and drive, Natalia,” I said to myself. “Do it now. It’s easy. Climb in.” I choked back a sob and got into the seat. The fingers of my right hand came to rest on the keys, my left on the wheel. My foot found the gas pedal. But then I froze.
“Come on, Natalia,” I urged. “It’s so easy. Just turn the car on. Turn the goddamn car on.”
But Nicholas. My master, on paper and in body. But so much more than that. The first man who’d ever made me feel like I could truly stand up the way Marco had told me to. There was a lot I had yet to learn about him, but a deep part of me knew the words he said and the past he carried with him would only be a confirmation of the aura he gave off, the one I already felt and knew. I swallowed hard as the words crossed my mind—the one I loved.
He had taken me so roughly, so harshly. But I’d wanted it then and I wanted it now. I wanted it every day for the rest of my life.
I had to go find him.
I bolted out of the car and back towards the factory. The fire had begun to rise up. Shadow puppets danced on the sides of the huge storage tanks. Even from here, I could feel the heat roasting my face. The closer I got, the more intense it became. The smell, too, grew fouler and fouler as I ducked between the piping and zig-zagged between buildings. It was like running into the lowest rung of hell.
I still wasn’t sure whether the man I was after was a devil or an angel. But I wanted the chance to find out.
I turned onto a long, thin alleyway between two adjacent buildings. Weighing my options, I spun and headed down it rather than keep wandering the circuitous route I’d escaped by as I searched for Nicholas. I was halfway down when a figure stepped into the light on the other side.
Alessandra.
I halted. My heart was attacking the inside of my rib cage, pounding and pounding like it was trying to let her know how much fear was pouring through my veins at the sight of her. It felt like a cold hand was squeezing my stomach into a tiny little ball. My hands shook. My throat went dry.
Of course it would be her. I’d never be able to escape without facing her, the one who hated me, the one who’d tortured me and taunted me…my sister, Alessandra.
She was bleeding from a cut on her forehead. Ash was smeared across her face and upper arms and black flakes settled from the air onto her blonde hair, strands of which had fallen from the tight confines of her bun.
“Hello, sis,” she said. She took careful strides towards me, nails bared and teeth clenched. Her heels clacked on the concrete. “Didn’t think I’d see you again.”
“I’m leaving,” I told her. “You won’t see me again.”
“Not a fucking chance,” she spat. “You’re not going anywhere. You were stupid enough to stick around. You’re stupid enough to die.”
I backed up slowly, matching each of her steps forward with a retreating move of my own. All my weight was loaded into the balls of my feet. I was ready to sprint away at any moment.
“I thought making your life a living hell would be a fair punishment for what you did to our mother,” she said. She straightened her arms to the sky. Smoke hung around her like a wreath and the fire at the far end of the alley glimmered in the background. “But look what we have here. This is living hell, isn’t it? So I think I’d like just to kill you now. I think I’ll do that.”
I gulped. I was a couple steps away from the entryway. I could turn and run now. I had enough of a head start; she wouldn’t be able to catch me. But once again, just like when I was back at the van, my body wouldn’t listen. My feet refused to obey. The voices in my head, the cautious ones that had kept me alive for so many years by telling me to keep my head down, to follow orders and not fight back, were screaming for me to go.
But not this time. Stand up for yourself, Natalia, said Marco. Stand up for yourself, said the boy behind the restaurant. The same refrain, over and over, always heard but never obeyed. This time, I would listen. This time, I would stand my ground.
I planted a heel into the pavement and waited.
Alessandra took another step closer. She raised her eyebrow as she said, “Not going to run?”
“I’m standing right here,” I told her. “Come kill me.”
She was a yard away. She coiled herself downwards. Then she jumped.
Her nails were outstretched like the talons of a bird of prey. I ducked as she flew overhead, then rose just when she was at her peak. My shoulder drove into her stomach. I heard the air wheeze from her lungs. She hit the ground behind me. I turned to face her again, but I wasn’t fast enough. She was on me immediately, raking my face with her claws. I screamed as skin tore open beneath them.
Finding a handful of her hair, I seized tightly and yanked hard. She gasped as it ripped out of her head, leaving me with a bloody clump of blonde locks. In the moment where she relented, I tossed her off me. She hit the wall to my side, moaning and clutching the bare patch on her scalp where crimson blood had begun to seep through, staining her neck and face.
I threw the hair down at her. She groaned again. “Your turn to lie down and take it, bitch,” I said. Then I turned and ran down the alley, back towards the fire.
I had a man to find.