Devil Woman

The important thing is not to be big, it's to be up to it.

He had just left me alone, in the middle of a room full of sharks.

And strangely, behind the enjoyment of having pissed him off, I felt something else. Like a white marble in the middle of those ocean blue ones, I had the impression that this feeling had nothing to do with my body.

Why, even knowing that this man was a monster, did I feel guilty seeing him pissed off to the point of exploding? Explode like a volcano filled with lava, burning everything in its path.

I had completely forgotten about the pairs of eyes that were watching me.

Some looked at me with their mouths open like a gaping hole of incomprehension, others tried in vain to hide a smile of amusement or perhaps of admiration.

Suddenly the man from earlier, the picket of the office, began to laugh. Serious, filled with sincere emotion, his laugh filled the room and, like a wood fire on a winter's evening, he warmed the 'atmosphere.

You see Aldo, I told you that this girl had a temper

My brother, you told me she was a warrior but in front of me I see a lioness, replies Aldo, starting to laugh.

As the conversations resumed and I was no longer specimen two, I took the opportunity to slip away.

In what seemed to be my bedroom for a little while longer, I flopped onto the bed and pressed my head against the pillow.

If I could have been absorbed by this piece of fabric stuffed with goose feathers, I think I would not have hesitated for a moment.

A desperate little moan escaped me.

How long was I going to stay here?

Having absolutely nothing to do, I decided to wash up and put on my pajamas.

I had spent an hour in my bath recounting all the choices that could have led me to where I was now, yet I couldn't see any that could have had any influence on my relationship with the Russians.

Maybe it was just a misunderstanding?

Not impossible, not coming from the biggest mafia in the world.

I got out of my bath and put on my pajamas while still thinking. I was sure the answer was there somewhere, yet I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

I just felt like I was looking for a needle in a haystack and I hated it. I hated being patient. I liked having everything, right away.

This was one of my many faults.

Once the jumpsuit was on, I looked at myself in the mirror.

The reflection brought back to me the image of a most banal young girl. Brown eyes, brown hair, fair skin. Absolutely nothing about me was synonymous with exceptional beauty.

I looked down at my thighs, nightmares of my days, half naked.

I wanted so badly to sink my nails into them and scratch them bloody. I wanted to tear off this fat that existence was rotting me.

You are crazy my poor Elisabeth.

Although I knew that my attitude was completely stupid or even synonymous with pure madness, I couldn't help but stare at her unsightly and demonic thighs.

I looked away using all my mental strength.

I have to get out of here before I lose my mind.

The poor girl that I was began to run through the maze of corridors. Running away from myself, from my reflection in this standing mirror.

To the right, to the left, I no longer thought. I was guided by a primitive instinct.

Survival instinct.

Suddenly I stopped in front of this door and I understood.

My body had just carried me towards a door and I knew it was no accident.

I needed to find myself there, subconsciously I knew very well where I was running.

It's late and it's been, yes, already a few months since you left. Years or centuries, seconds without you are always eternity.

Despite the darkness of the night, I could make out its shape very clearly through the glass door of the living room.

I slid the door open and walked out.

The air whipped my face, in the distance I knew the mixed guards not knowing if they should stop me or let me.

But despite all these obstacles, I moved forward. I advanced until I found myself facing the large fountain, the ghost of my memories.

As before I saw the reflection of the moon in the calm water. Big, round, white. I stared at the celestial body as if it had been the first time I had seen it.

I leaned over slightly and touched the cold water with my fingertips.

Going back and forth in the fluid, I returned to a time when everything was simpler.

I ran in the meadow, the tall grass whipped my bare ankles.

For the kid that I was at the time, that was my conception of paradise. Running in the tall grass, the smell of lavender filled the air and the typical sun of the region burned my bare back. My sister, my model, my family, was running after me, she was going to catch up with me for sure. Even though I knew I was going to lose, as always, this frantic race I didn't care about. C It was the holidays and I intended to take advantage of it.

I laughed as I ran and laughed again when I fell under his weight in the grass. My skin was scraped and full of dirt but I laughed out loud.

On our return to the hotel, she had wet a corner of her t shirt in the water of the small fountain directed by the marble mermaid and she had patted my knees.

According to her, water was magical, it could heal all the wounds in the world.

In reality, it was rather the moment that was magical. But at the time I didn't know it yet.

I opened my eyes again and turned my head towards the small wood of the estate. I had the impression of still hearing his laughter making the air of the Mediterranean vibrate, resonating in my heart of stone which at the time was still frail. and fragile. I had the impression that she was still there, in the woods, hiding and that, at the first opportunity, she was going to appear and start chasing after me.

Like the good old times.

I sighed as I sat down on the edge of the fountain.

Those days were long gone. I had to get used to the idea that my sister wasn't there, ready to pounce on me and shout that I was the cat.

She was gone yet I had the impression that she was everywhere.

I plunged my hand into the cold water, it made me shudder with all my being.

I was going back and forth in the water, blurring the tranquil reflection of the moon.

Lost in my thoughts I didn't hear footsteps approaching, that's why I jumped when I felt a jacket land on my shoulders.

I turned in fright to a man who was unknown to me.

I didn't want to scare you, he said to me, sitting down.

You didn't scare me, I said defensively.

I'm starting to understand why you fascinate my family so much, he laughs.

His features were the same as those of Vladimir themselves similar to those of his father.

The resemblance was disturbing for me, who absolutely did not resemble my parents. With my sister, we used to be told that we had the same air of mischief in our eyes, but our resemblance stopped there.

It's sad, come to think of it, to think that the only thing that connected me to her when I looked at myself in the mirror was a glint in the back of the look that had been tarnished and hidden for years.

You are his brother, I whispered.

Yes indeed

He smiled and a dimple formed in his full cheek. I had the impression of seeing him as a child playing with his brother.

This dimple was the vestige of his childhood spent most certainly in violence and murder.

My name is Vinchenso but please spare me this fossil and call me Vin.

I smile.

Speaking of vestige, I'm Elisabeth, I say, holding out my hand to her.

To my greatest astonishment he did not squeeze it but took it in his own before kissing it.

Elisabeth, I am delighted to meet you.

I blushed at his remark, fortunately camouflaged by the darkness.

What are you doing here so late?

I needed to get some fresh air

You should go back to your suite, it's cold at night.

I nodded and stood up, followed closely by Brother Ivanovich.

Anyway, I couldn't have stayed here forever.

Hatred is when you fall in love with another's suffering.

Sir, she's outside, we have to bring her inside? One of my men asks me.

I got up and walked to the bay window that stood behind my desk.

I looked through and after my sight had adjusted to the darkness I peered into the darkness.

She was standing near the fountain in her pajamas. It seemed as if she had just woken up and, pushed by the call of the moon, she had gone out without worrying about her outfit.

Leave it there, it does nothing wrong. I said waving a hand to tell him to dispose.

My eyes were still fixed on his silhouette bordered by darkness. His gaze was lost in contemplation of the reflection of the moon.

She remained standing like this for a long time as if nothing else existed but this fountain.

I found myself wondering what she could be thinking. What did this water remind her of, which, like a canvas, imprisoned the moon among its irregularly calm waves?

It was strange for me to see this girl who used to be a flame, powerful that threatened to burn everything around her, calm almost dead.

I had inquired about her. She looked like an ordinary girl at first sight.

Married mother and father, in the last year of study, not known to the police, rarely sanctioned in her school where she also had average results.

At first sight she could have been embodied by any seven year old teenager. But I had seen something this morning when she had entered my office. I had seen in her a surplus of determination.

I who used to rub shoulders with a lot of people I used to identify them at first sight and often it turned out that my opinion was far from being wrong.

In his case, I was sure that so much assurance was just camouflage.

Said like that, it certainly seemed out of the ordinary but it was actually rather typical. The nicest were often the meanest, the happiest were the saddest and those who were always smiling depressed at night.

It was the story of hundreds, what am I saying, millions of people.

But with her it was different.

I knew she had built a wall and I wanted to blow it up.

I wanted to see her suffer. I wanted to destroy her. I wanted to see her weak at my feet, me whom she had dared to provoke.

I wanted her to pay.

I was so absorbed in my ideas of revenge, in the idea of restoring my honor, that I did not see my brother approaching.

He put his jacket over his bare shoulders, victims of the night wind.

Alala, my brother what a gentleman!

I went to pour myself a glass of vodka. I poured the ocher liquid into my crystal glass. When it was half full, I went back to my observation post.

As I sipped my drink, I was annoyed to see that they were still there, the two of them, sitting on the edge of the fountain.

What a great soul brother! I exclaimed, my voice full of sarcasm. You have always been the savior of these ladies.

I don't know why seeing this scene disgusted me.

I didn't want to see her with my brother's jacket over her shoulders.

Not that I felt any jealousy towards my younger brother, I was sure, I just wanted to see her sad and not cheering her up.

I pressed the red button on the intercom. Immediately one of my guards answered me.

Call me brother.

It's almost one o'clock sir...

Do I look like I don't give a fuck? I asked coldly.

No no of course not Mr. Ivanovich

Then call me my brother

Very well sir

I cut off communications with my henchman and peacefully sipped the booze while waiting for my brother to come.