nna

like a file, dragging me back to a state of consciousness. My

bare bulb above me, my eyes slowly focusing on

to move, a brutal, tearing pai

he sound was muff

ked rag deep into my mouth, forcing it

urgical scrubs wer

-alley butchers the syndicate used to extract bulle

n at me, his eyes glint

ht she could ride in luxury cars, but onl

y stomach with intentional, excessive force,

e table, hot tears st

les were strapped down tight wit

ly insulting my mother and my

ering it as a justified punishment for

white-hot pain, I heard a voic

oursed through

choed through the smudged glas

nd "extract the bastard" so he c

rd the window, my neck strai

g next to Enzo in t

arm, feigning tears wi

trembling as she claimed she never wa

duced him because she loved hi

r waist and pulled her flush against h

ed into a dark,

ne true Donna, and I was mere

ience for loud, hysterical women, and o

er fake tears, a triumphant

es, her hands sliding

to entertain him properly tonight

e embrace through the dir

as if some vital, animating fluid had simply

cold, as if my very

tomach vanished, replaced by

al monitors next to the table suddenly sta

avers yelled i

haging massively and my bloo

rushed to the door, banging franti

y lit hallwa

he premises with Carmela, le

of having a dead body on their hands

on will have our heads if a corpse comp

, and dragged me up a narrow flight of concrete stairs. The freezing night air h

nonymously for neutral city paramedics to collect a dying woman in th

ze of distant sirens and the harsh glare of fl

into the darkened alleyway

wearing under their breath at the absolu

action, straddling me to perfo

lattered belongings from a dirty m

ith my limp thumb, and dialed the

and yelled into it, screaming

nected with

mbled with the device, accident

of Enzo and Carmela having violent, passionate se

g Enzo's name in a

at same dark purr that she was the o

silence fell over the

tion of a second, his hands hovering over my chest

s were

on the other end of that line-not love

, trembling, blood-covere

g strength, I navigated to my m

ediately, her warm, fa

ess sky, my voice nothing mor

I was

eel wrapped in velvet. "I'm already on my way.