Somewhere in the far distance, an old clock struck nice. The gentle musical beat-beat-beat of its chimes came to Vivian from a long way off.
She opened her eyes. There was a throbbing going on inside her head with the violence of a hammer beat.
She hurriedly shut her eyes and kept them shut until the clock had stopped chiming and then, more cautiously, she opened them again.
She was lying on a settee. She put her hand to the back of her head and felt a hard lump.
As she slowly sat up, she heard herself give a grunting groan and again she had to shut her eyes. The hammer beat in her head began to lessen and after a minute or so, she was able to sit upright and stare around to see exactly where she was.
She was in an abandoned house, built in the middle of nowhere. The house was rugged and broken down.The abandoned building gave shelter to the soul of passerby, and soon became the hideout place for Lucas and his gang.
The shingles were dark grey and the whole house seemed like it came straight out of a horror movie. It's windows had spiderwebs and the glass was clouded over in a weird shade that reminded her of a fall leaf. The trees just gave an even horrible feel to the house.
Cobwebs hung loosely, its occupants dead or gone. The dust lay on the floor, a teared up carpet on a sagging floor. A stray fly buzzed around a chandelier that stared miserably down from where it was bolted to the ceiling. And open doors creaked as a breath of wind caused it to move on its rusty hinges. A crumbling piece of cloth fluttered through the air, like a bird trapped in a cage. It was an old, forlorn building, without a breath.
She looked slightly behind. It came as no surprise to see a man sitting in a chair. He sat in the shadows. Her eyes were not yet in focus and he was just a shadowy figure.
Again she shut her eyes, her hands holding her head. She remained motionless for some minutes, then getting a grip of herself, she looked and stared at the man seated behind her.
Slowly she swam into focus.
It was Lucas, he was wearing a golden brown suit with black shoes and around his wrist was a gold bracelet that supported a solid gold watch. In his right hand, he held a glass three-quarters full of whiskey, clinking with ice and he regarded her with a tolerant little smile that made her want to jump across the room and plant her fist on his face.
"Hey senorita," he said cheerfully, "I was beginning to wonder if my man hit you too hard. What he did wasn't a proper way to handle a lady."
Vivian's hand cautiously investigated the lump at the back of her head and she winced as the hammer beat started again.
"I bet it hurts," went on Lucas and his grin wided. "You don't look like one of those girls, why is that so."
"Cause am not one of them, you bastard." she growled, faking a Russian accent.
"I thought so. Who are you? where are you from and what do you want or who sent you." he said, stretching out his long legs. "Feel like telling me?"
"I feel like shoving your nice white teeth through the back of your head," Vivian said slowly sitting bolt upright. "But, before I do that, we'll first have a little talk. You and I are going to form a beautiful friendship. My name's Patricia Balu." She lied. "My friends call me Pat. Your name is Lucas Rabenar, but your close friends call you Oscar, right?"
Lucas moved and sat on the chair on Vivian's left hand side, he stared across at her and tried to make up his mind just how much she knew and what she intended to do, then he could decide what to do about her.
"Growing up was never easy for me, not in the least. My father was a simple farmer, while mom spent her life doing other people's chores. Father had this one brother, a selfish, heartless. greedy brother Ivan Ingrid, who's now a Russian minister. When my dad was seriously admitted in the hospital, we did not have any money to pay for his health treatment. And his brother on the other hand proudly gave us a cold shoulder and when dad finally died, he gladly dishonored us, saying that we are longer his relatives and that he had nothing to do with us. His really a ruthless bastard. I would have given anything to tear his throat out. But I was limited and helpless.
Few months later, my mother's death opened up my eyes. I slowly started forming up a mafia gang, causing damage and terrorizing people. I was determined to get back at him and he knew it. I started succeeding in my endeavors and that threatened him. He later issued an arrest warrant and banned us from the country. Now I have a more greater and powerful team, I've planned to get my hands on his money, everything till to the last coin. If not I want to slowly torture him to death. I would easily do it but I can't go back, my men and I are being haunted like a deadly beast on the loose. That's where you and your men now come in."
Lucas laughed. He seemed genuinely amazed.
"And what makes you think I want to help you?" he said and reached for a cigarette in his pocket and lit it.
"Okay I understand, now let me narrate to you this other phase of the story. It will surely change your mind. Not long before I was banned, I used to travel a lot with my boyfriend, doing what lovers do. One night we decided to visit the beach, you know, that one which is along the coastol River. Where boys and girls go to have a little fun." she said. "My boyfriend and I used to have a hide out there and when we want a little extra money, we would go there and wait around. We were not always lucky of course, but the other night we were. You would be surprised at the number of suckers we caught in the course of a year. It used to help quite a bit to increase our income" she said.
She then got unsteadly to her feet. She fetched a clean glass from the table just in front of her and poured herself a stiff whiskey. She drank it, then turned to face Lucas.
"Then there was this one night around midnight or so, we went to take some pictures in our usual hideout. We then heard some weird noise at the shore. Well what do you know, it's Adrian, favorite nephew of the powerful mayor in Cuba. He was with his wife Gertrude busy romancing and having fun. That of course didn't bother us, cause that's what we were also doing, but not until a suspicious van showed up and four powerful, heavily built men came out of the van and attacked Adrian and his wife and stubbed them to death. Just then another guy came out of the van, he must have been the boss, cause he looked pretty different from the other four. He walked over to the dead bodies and commanded his men to get rid of the bodies. From where we were hiding we could see his back not until he turned as he headed back to the van did we see who he really was. You really had some guts for doing that Lucas. And not only did we witness the epic killing, we even have it on camera."
Lucas' heart stood still for a second and then began to race. Somehow he managed to keep his face expressionless.