SIX

Six returns home a little after the hour of seven. He's been away for over  week, handling issues within the Verdonni family. This all has him beat. The family, he knows, is hanging on by a mere thread. And yet, Idris seems to be taking that same thread for granted.

But now that he's within his home, Six casts all conflicts aside. No more Ramsey or Ainse or Rand or Five. No more Idris. Let him have this time of peace for his family.

The mafia may be a dark world. Too dark to foster a family one might say. But Six has made it possible. He embraces his daughter, who just turned eleven today, then gives his wife a kiss.

"Where did you go this time?" Victoria, his daughter, asks.

Six refrains from telling her the whole truth. She has yet to truly figure out his line of work. "I met with my friend. He's having some issues."

"Is he okay?"

Six pats her head. "He's still struggling."

Victoria nods, accepting the tale. "I'm glad you're back for the party."

To this, his wife smiles. She, too, must be glad. It's a gathering to celebrate Victoria's eleventh birthday. Nothing big, as she instructed. Close friends and family only.

"Victoria, sweety. Your cousins are here." His wife says, and immediately Victoria beams and heads for the living room.

Now that he's home, Six wants some time to rest. "I'll be back in time before the party starts."

"Don't stay in there long." His wife tells him, still in that same nagging tone.

Six just sighs, already depleted of strength.

"I'm serious, Rafael. It's your daughter's birthday."

Why must she reiterate the obvious? He doesn't answer and instead, makes off down the hall for the study, where he spends most of his time at home. Even his wife has grown worried from all the hours he stays locked up in there. But this is just where Six goes for quiet time. The space soothes him.

When Six enters, however, he's greeted not by an empty room, but by a girl dressed in all black. Immediately, Six is alarmed. Except he isn't given any time to make sense of the situation, because he's shot right in his left thigh.

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Six regains his senses some time later. His consciousness was stolen from him, this he now knows. Then it gradually all comes back. There was a girl. A girl who shot him in his leg with some sedative. He surveys the surroundings until the same girl comes into view.

"Hello, Rafael."

The grin on The Girl's face tells Six one thing. He's in danger. He doesn't know who she is, neither does he know how she slipped into his home. She must be there on some assassination quest sent by some enemy of his. If he can just reason with her, maybe this entire fiasco will dial down. But the thing is, he can't. His mouth has been taped shut.

The Girl also has him tied down so firmly to a chair that he can't move an inch. Can't even wiggle. What strength must she have to mummify him this way? But enough about the knots and ropes, because now The Girl simply watches him. Studies him. Like he's a gazelle in the middle of the wild, and she's chosen him out of all the others to hunt. This hunt, Six can dreadfully tell, will not end in his escape.

From the room next to this one, he hears his family jubilate. Their laughter blends in with the music in the background, and the chorus seeps through the great divide that separates him from the rest of that merry celebration. On the other side his family is, so close and within reach. Yet he can't get through to them.

The Girl squats down in front of him. "Where were you fifteen years ago, October 27th?"

Clearly he can't reply as his mouth has been  compromised. But he suspects she doesn't actually want an answer. It's a question that's supposed to probe him. To get him to think. To push him towards some realization. But fifteen years was too long ago. He hardly even remembers last week. The Girl, however, has some more clues to guide him along.

She pulls from her left eye a contact lens and reveals to him its true color. And instantly, it clicks. It hits him hard across his gut like a sledgehammer. The memories infiltrate his mind and bring with it a bubbling feeling of dread. Of fear. Of regret.

Selling the second twin was Paolo's idea. He didn't quite agree with it, because there really was no use. But Paolo stuck with the plan. It was supposed to be some added form of punishment for the Rocci family. So in the end, they sold the second twin to the Dream Alive Center. That was supposed to be the end of it.

Now she has returned. Though in the midst of a trial of death, it is still quite laughable. Why had no one considered the possibility that she would claw her way out of The Center and one day return? Six regrets what he did to the Roccis, but he also regrets not wiping out the family completely. Because he knows she's the one behind Rand and Five's deaths. And now it's his turn.

"You all watched back then," The Girl says. "You all found it funny. You all laughed."

As if on cue, his family all begin laughing on the other side of the wall. They're in the midst of some chatter that has been made inaudible by the music in the background. He should be there with them. He should be cheering along with his family.

The Girl leaves her place in front of him and heads for the bag she'd snuck in along with herself. Calmly, she begins unpacking the contents, and immediately, Six's face turns ghost pale.

Scissors, knives, a mini axe. And of course, a pair of gloves, because the blood will get in the way of the torture she's about to bestow upon him. Six's chest begins heaving. He even begins trembling. Surely, they'll be found before The Girl can go any further. This can't be happening to him. Why should he pay for some crime he committed fifteen years ago? Someone has to come save him. They have to pick up some clue from his absence.

"Where's dad?" Says Victoria on the other side of the wall. The words are a bit muffled, but he can make them out, and damn does the relief feel good when it washes over him. This is it. They will go on a search for him. And then The Girl's plans would have backfired.

But unfortunately for Six, his wife tells Victoria, "He sent me a message, sweety. He said he won't be down for another while."

Six freezes. He never sent such a message. But immediately his questions are answered when he looks towards The Girl and finds his phone next to her bag. She gives him a smile in exchange for his terror. Now Six realizes he really is trapped. There's no one coming for him. He's been abandoned there to suffer for his crimes.

The Girl first uses her scissors to cut away his shirt. It seems he won't be needing them for the plan she has in store. Then she switches over to a miniature knife that looks the size of a switchblade. This is the first of the torture. The Girl squats down once again, and with the blade in her hands, begins digging into his finger nail. She drives the knife all the way down to the cuticle and makes sure the nail detaches before she pulls away.

Six screams, but only internally, as his mouth is no longer in service. It pains him so much, it feels like his skin is on fire. Like his eyes are bulging out of his head. The Girl spares him no time to mourn the pain though, because she moves to the next finger and repeats the process. All the way down to the tenth finger.

Six has already begun crying at this point. The mucus runs from his nose and coats the tape on the way down to his chin. The pain is excruciating. It has numbed his thoughts and drowned out every other bodily function. He's not even sure if he's breathing. Oh, does he wish he weren't breathing.

The Girl is content with this round of torture, but is not yet satisfied. She repeats the same process with his toes, slowing it all down this time around to inflict a harsher punishment. Harsher it is indeed. It seems to take hours before the knife hits the cuticle, years before the nail fully tears off.

Once all toes have been taken care of, The Girl swaps the knife out for the mini axe this time, and upon the sight of the weapon, Six begins squirming within his confines. He cannot be subjected to any more torture. He won't be able to handle it. He'll wind up going insane.

But this clearly is none of The Girl's business. She steadies his finger where they are on the armrest, then brings the axe back and forcefully brings it back down on the index finger. Except she doesn't sever the finger in its entirety, but just the top portion. It seems she's planning on cutting them all into three separate pieces.

Six shuts his eyes as the axe brings him judgment. All he hears now is the sharp thud of the axe after it has snipped through his finger, and all he feels is the urge to scream. But he can't. So instead he squirms and writhes in misery as The Girl selfishly chops away at his fingers, trying and failing to escape that unmanageable pain.

Meanwhile, the rest of his family continue their chatter and laughter on the other side. Their mix of glee trickles over and even infiltrates his ears despite the bubble of misery he's been trapped in. So clueless they are, while he's there on the brink of collapse. He not only weeps from the pain, but from how alone he feels. It's like he's been casted aside and forgotten. Left to The Girl's merciless torture.

As soon as The Girl is done chopping his toes, Six is granted some time to rest. He gazes upon his hands that now have no fingers attached and weeps even more. The blood has stained his trousers and slid its way past the chair to the floor. And below, he can feel the blood beneath his feet; how it has gathered in a shallow pool.

The torture once again commences. The weapon this time is a butcher knife, much bigger and intimidating than the last two instruments of torture. Six can't even move from how much the pain has worn him down, so he just accepts his fate. He'll be tortured no matter how much he uselessly struggles. He tries to brace himself, but one can never adequately prepare themselves enough for physical affliction.

The Girl severs his right hand first, followed by his left. Then she pauses and allows him suffer. After all, that is her objective. The blood pumps out of both his arms, where his hands once used to be just seconds ago. She watches him throw his head back as the agony takes his body captive, and from within that struggle, she smiles. It must be pleasing seeing her target so helpless. So pleasing that she targets his left and right foot next.

For the grand finale, Six is greeted by a pair of scissors. At this point, his unconsciousness has begun knocking at the door. This is good news, as it means he will escape the pain. But for the meantime, he retains his consciousness and watches as The Girl grabs a hold of some skin on his abdomen. Then, slowly, agonizingly, she snips it off and drops the clump of flesh to the floor.

Six weeps harder. He clenches his teeth until it actually snaps in the front. How great the pain is that he wishes he could gun himself down. As if to insult his torment, someone increases the music's volume from the other side, and now he can hear all the joy from the section that has moved on without him. If only they could hear him. If only they could help him.

The Girl keeps up with the sharp scissors. She gathers his skin on different areas and cuts it off, until he begins resembling a sponge. With the amount of blood that coats his body, it won't be long until he dies from blood loss. Six anticipates this fate. Let his death come quickly. He has suffered enough. He has regretted and struggled enough. Now all he thinks about is his family. His little girl. His wife. He thinks little about the Verdonni family, because he thinks it's their fault he's been landed in this predicament.

But Six chose to go down that road all by himself. He chose to join the Verdonni family, to occupy a seat as a capo. He chose to participate in the Rocci family's torture. He even gave ideas of his own about what torture they would carry out. And he thinks of his family now in this time of near death, but doesn't think about what Marcello Rocci must have felt when they subjected his own family to their act of cruelty.

Six brings his weary eyes up to The Girl and captures the clear grey on the left. That same eye he ended fifteen years ago. In the end, he lost his life to karma. He lost it regretting his life choices.

The Girl doesn't give him time to fade out. He must meet his end instantaneously and brutally. So she stabs the scissors through his left eye, all the way to the back of his head where it remains buried. And now Rafael "Six" Lévine has met his end.

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