Chereads / Mist and light / Chapter 3 - 2. Arrived at destination

Chapter 3 - 2. Arrived at destination

"Every story has an ending, but in life every ending is a new beginning."

Mario Scolas.

Tuesday March 9,

- Ladies and gentlemen, we will soon be landing at Benito-Juarez airport in Mexico City, please return to your seats and fasten your seat belts for landing. It is currently 10:00 am, the sky is clear and the temperature is 27°C. Thank you for choosing easyflight airline for your trip and we hope to see you again.

Under the pilot's instructions, Maria obeyed and looked out the window. In the distance one could see a very green landscape.

The twenty-four-year-old sighed. It was that she was both stressed and excited at the idea of ​​starting all over again. Now there was no going back. Her future was in Mexico.

For a new life. A second life. A better life.

A week earlier, she had submitted her letter of resignation to the swiss news agency News Aktuell under the reproaches of her boss who had assured her that it was not the best choice.

He had also tried to convince her of the contrary by offering her a very considerable raise because, according to him, "she had a talent for this profession and was an outstanding journalist". In that sense giving up all she got was synonymous with madness itself.

Not even talking about her reaction when she told him of her plans to become an artist and start a new life in her native country Mexico.

Maria still remembered his dubious expression, mouth wide open like a fish out of water.

The young woman had wanted to stop everything for a long time, in order to fulfill her childhood dream: to become a painter and live off her paintings. But in recent years she had lacked courage, until the day she came across an old tape from her childhood while she was doing some tidying up in her two-room apartment. Her late mother's tape, which she had never really known except through the old photos that had been shown to her; singing a lullaby in Spanish, her mother tongue which she unfortunately did not speak perfectly well, and it was the trigger.

An indescribable desire to learn a little more about her history but also her passion seized her. It seemed as if a part of her being had suddenly awakened from a long trance and was pushing her to act.

Until this very moment, Maria did not really know how to explain this risk-taking feeling which had pushed her to travel.

No doubt it was madness as his superior had clearly repeated.

"Or maybe it was time to get to know yourself a little more", she repeated to herself.

This is how the young brunette with long honey-colored curls had saved up to prepare for her departure. And here she is now about to land in unknown territory, far from her comfort zone...

***

Tubes of medicine rose to the surface like sailboats in the middle of the ocean; flat calm in the absence of wind.

His first steps out of the tub were hesitant like those of a one-year-old child learning to walk. He was struggling to find any semblance of landmarks. His legs were heavy and acid reflux burned his esophagus for a long time.

"One day his addiction would probably cost him his life," he thought.

It was then that a vibration that he perceived as very strong occurred in the pocket of his half-soaked white bathrobe.

He managed after a multitude of slow-motion attempts, to pick up his cellphone and what he heard on the one end made him cringe.

- Felix, Zuno esta muerto. (Felix, Zuno is dead.)

There was a long silence in which Felix closed his eyes, and realized that like in his heart, outside it was raining too. Waterspouts fell on the asphalt. Or at least that's what he perceived at the time, probably because of the meds. Sadness and electricity in the air, he saw floating in his mind the image of his now deceased right arm and friend: Zuno Sergio.

- Jefe? (Boss ?)

He finally decided to speak, a growing hatred seizing his reason:

- Donde? (where ? )

The haggard voice at the end of the line twitched a little before murmuring:

- Estaba en la calle Lope de Vega por la llave...Felix no tenemos suficiente tiempo, Que hacemos? (He was in Lope de Vega street to grab the USB key file. Felix, we don't have enough time, what do we do?).

- José sigue vivo? (Is Jose still alive?), Felix asked without answering the question.

- No lo sabemos, pero una cosa es segura que estaba con Zuno cuando le dispararon. (We don't know, but what is certain is that José was with Zuno when they shot him.)

A second silence, then his authoritative voice echoed in the bathroom.

- Find José, I want to see him in the half hour before deciding.

- But...yes I put all the men on the spot, ended up answering the haggard voice to the orders of his superior who fumed inwardly.

And before answering, Felix felt the need to hear the answer to the question he was about to ask despite being aware of it, like a reminder of what he was:

- What are they looking for?

Having to be honest with him, his interlocutor said in a very small voice as if he feared being punished:

- You.

Because yes, he was the source of all their evils, and the dangerous threat that was about to wreak havoc soon.

Felix Antonio Vergas.

Leader of the largest illegal organization based in Mexico City.

"Las llamas del infierno".

Original as a denomination. Isn't it true ?