Aldo B.

Guerrero’s

Secrets

1
Acknowledgements
I thank both of my parents for being there, lying in wait for
something to come out of my lazy mind and giving me some ideas
when they got bored. My uncle, for he was the one who read it and
said it was written the way it should, of course, that was with
another essay, which isn't this one. Three of my cousins, because
they read it first and said exactly the same thing my uncle said, and
correcting my mistakes.
Writing it was very frustrating whenever my ideas ran out and
had to stop for various days until new ones formed, it was tiring of
course but it was rewarding on the end, finishing it was, I guess the
biggest achievement I have accomplished. Luckily, this will be
getting sales, with it having someone buying it would be just great.
Maybe a set of two loyal dogs who stood resolutely by my feet
when I wrote, even though they got bored, they just wouldn't go
away, they’d bring their small dog toys and gnaw them round and
round, fighting for them and barking loudly, they would latterly
proceed to bite each other, at which time I had to stop laughing and
intervene.
Marcus isn't actually based on me, I left him without any
description so the reader, which would put you in place, imagine
him the way that suits them best for the story to flow.
A very minute minority of persons helped me, but it was worth
it, I enjoyed every second of typing in this computer and thinking
about what I was going to write next.
I should thank too some singers I heard while writing, mainly
it was Depeche Mode, though they aren't from this era, I still like
their music and played it tirelessly through my writing course.
And obviously I thank every single person that reads it,
because without readers, it would have all been in vain.

2
 The acknowledgments were written both when I started the
story and when I finished, and it is worth saying whoever tolerated
me during this time, is very patient.
I wish you a good time.

3
To my parents, for their encouragement and my uncle, for
his constructive critics

4
Act 1

5
There are secrets, that, should remain, secret.

6
No matter what.

7
And No Matter Who

8
Part 1

9
Pandora’s Box

10
 Prologue

The
desolated alley-way was cold an gray. Fog
swirled around filthy and ill-looking trashcans
with discriminate hate. The brownish walls, odd
and dirty stood narrowly near the other. Small, crying pools of
sewage water rested on the cold and querulous black asphalt. The
blanket of night, stained with bright tilting dots, impassively
sheltering the path with its lustful shadow. Floodlights expelled a
distasteful ghost of glow upon the livid scene, roaming painfully
through the menacing place.
Ominous lonely steps sparked into the stinking air. Fast steps,
straightforward ones.
Stephanie, a sixteen year old teenager, with a hair that
cascaded softly down to the middle of her back, shielded with a very
light red and a golden brown color. Her light-colored, pale skin was
soft, like an exotic silk from the far east. Eyes that shed a care-less
gaze, overlooking the symmetrical face they adorned so gorgeously.

11
Tall the body her soul lived so happily at was, as people told her,
perfect.
Nevertheless, the mind that inhabited her brain was focused on
something way more important than in the fact that she was a
defenseless girl walking through alley-ways at night.
“God, where the hell am I?” she asked herself, opening the
door to terror, which swelled rapidly through her body.
“Oh uh, this isn't good.” She stated latterly with heavy
resolution.
A couple of hours before, she had been told a secret. The
memory was instantly summoned arrogantly to her brain.
“A secret” she remembered her father saying, in a dying
whisper “fanatic persons would kill to know” his gaze swayed lazily
upon her with inquire and concern “are you sure, you would like to
know it? Promise me you will protect it.” he asked with a moribund
sigh.
She thought it well, staring sorrowfully at the old person who
lay there, almost motionless on a bed, the fire crackling behind,
coloring the elegant carpet with a depressed scarlet glow. The stars
peering through the window, on a sad night.
“Yes father, I promise.” she hesitated to an answer, the red and
golden rags that hung from the poles of the bed sighed with a swift
movement, bewildered by the words. The warned her of the danger
with a passionate burst, she ignored it.
“Very well,” he said with a raspy sough “as you wish” and
pointed dramatically at an old red desk.

12
 Her gaze turned to admire the mighty furniture, “what should I
do with it?”
“Open it”
“It is…”
“Locked” he anticipated.
“Yes.”
“But, yet, I told you to open it”
“I can’t”
“Find the way.” He said with a smirk, that faded slowly in a
relieved face, a dead face. The glimmer of his eyes turned off
nostalgically, then shimmered along with a last breath, a last sigh, a
last taste of life.
“No.” Stephanie said while collapsing to the ground,
trembling, with tearful eyes.
Death had come and left, and with it, the life of a living, which
now, accompanying, it was. To the world of death, leaving countless
souls with a bitter feeling, the taste of lone.

13
 Chapter 1

The
running, intermittent blasts of expensive shoes
flapping violently against the hard floor. Panting,
the monotonous repetition of rapid inhaling
towards desperate and fearful lungs of the pursued.
The park was fighting against a dim light, emanated by the
serene, incandescent and white plate standing on a background of
stars.
A mangled shadow danced spasmodically with the wrathful
gloom that slept peacefully over the vivid green public area. A
second stain on the infinite darkness paced silently behind with
overconfident calm. As they ran, obviousness jumped into sight
14
violently, the latter was in pursuit, a lion behind its prey. What failed
to become obvious was the reason this lion walked so resolutely
behind the next meal.
The moon was scared, hence a burst of light it emitted, but, no
further warning of the incident to come.
The murky blot tripped and stopped hard. The blemish on the
background opened the door of opportunity and stepped through it.
A pistol gleamed under the warm touch of moonlight that lingered
with a earnest gaze.
An impassive aim, a click as the trigger was pulled, releasing a
deadly sputter of light, which poured effortless upon the harassing
obscurity.
Light takes eight minutes to travel the distance from the sun to
the Earth. But it took only eight seconds for the victim to bleed out
and die in a welter of his own life.
With a drowned shout, the prey died in a last, watery breath.

15
 Chapter 3

His head hurt, his eyes hurt, his ears hurt, and all the alarm
could do, was bleat irritatingly.
“God damn it” he bleated in response to the clock’s request,
than, latterly added “I hate this hour”
He stood, the room was immaculate as always, the cleanness
welcomed his mind and sheltered it temporarily. His feet dared
touch the blue carpet beneath them, it cushioned them coldly. He
massaged his eyes in a try to scare off the pain that then invaded the
couple.

16
 This was him, an excessively normal teen ager whose parents
wanted to get rid of, hence ditching him in a beached campus, in the
middle of a small valley.

“You are simply not going to that trip” said his mom.
“But the ashes are by now far away, the airplane
should be able to get to Europe!” defiantly discussed he.
“Your grades are low, the ashes are not far away and
the conference has been canceled by those Germans, you
can’t go”
“What about next week huh?”
“Next week there are exams kid” interrupted his father
that abruptly exploded into the conversation. That small
room was choking him, with strange decoration and a bitter
color that did not welcome the pleasure to view.
“Exactly”
“What!?”
“Exams are to prove you know, I can prove it right now
and right here.”
“Shut up, you won’t go until your grades are higher”
“But that subject is way unimportant, no one cares
about it, I mean, we are in high school, and the only
homework about it was to write in that agenda, oh, no, that
17
was last semester, no one told us to continue with the
assignment!” claimed he.
“So?” responded his parents, unison inside both.
“The class is once a week, it’s like a small ant before
the whole house, it hurts none”
“Yet, it is a six”
“It isn't fair!”
“Well, life isn't fair, start waving a nice goodbye to
Toulouse”
“I will go when I win the lottery, and not even a cent of
it will go to you!”
“Continue dreaming, it is no good, you’ll never win it
nor anything better” said his mother calmly. The blood in
his veins boiled with anger, yet he stayed himself and left
rapidly.

Teachers hated him, though, he thought, had done nothing

wrong.
Why? Asked himself quietly with displeasure.
He walked the long path towards the classrooms, until his
journey was halted by gray, steel stairs, twenty of them, piled on top
of each other like hungry rats. The morning hour shone proudly of
its short period of life-time. Marcus, for that was to which word he

18
answered, rattled upstairs with heavy noise and no interest in
keeping it low, even if he posed some of it, he was too tired to show
it.
On the second landing, for there were three, at the ending, the
beginning and the one you must surely guess. On the third one from
the closest to the ground, a set of transparent doors stood. Light
poured out of them gracefully, lighting the darkened veil. He
entered, not sure of his grades, though, he didn’t care.

He choked out of the building inside the moving welter of

heads. Between them, a peculiar one, which neither ran or showed
happiness or joy. He was left aside by the gathering crowd of
juvenile faces. The sun, on its powerful throne, now bright amidst of
the sky. He morphed into a lonely laggard as the noisy blot
clambered enthusiastically down the steep stairs.
He heaved an unconcerned sigh, he drifted closer to the middle
landing of them all. The lines of ended grayness filled his sight, as
he approached slowly bumping up and down with every step.
He was alone on the pile of rectangles. A wire grappled his feet
and made him fly, levitating weightless for a second. Gravity pulled
him rashly again to the floor. Wearily he fell.
He lay there painfully looking at the sky with a dazed stare.
While his gaze was facing the powerful sun, a beautiful girl rushed
close to him and aided him.
“Oh!” she exclaimed in unison with the deep bang of the crash.
She hurried and clambered gracefully upstairs to where he leaned.

19
She came upon him and laid her delicate hand over his face to
rattled it gently “are you okay!?”
“Ummm,” he groaned back. Marcus looked at her on the eyes,
there suspended on the air over him, the sun irradiating a divine
aura, intensified by the hair that cascaded delicately on her back. A
skin softer than silk, symmetrical face and small nose, eyes that
sparked feverishly with life.
“OH God!” he said with a startling start, hence making his
rescuer jump back swiftly scared.
“What!?” she demanded aghast.
“It hurts.”
“What hurts?”
“My back, your leaning on me, putting weight on it.” groaned
he.
“Sorry” she apologized with shame.
“No, no, it doesn’t matter, as long as you don’t continue doing
it”
“Right”
“You are” he paused for a long sigh, and then resumed
reluctantly “beautiful” he heard himself saying it, but never did he
feel himself saying it.
Silence veiled around them, the couple sat there, staring at
each other with inquire and curiosity.
“Err…thanks,” said she, hesitating to say more.

20
 “Yeah, well” he stammered “I think, I should get going
somewhere”
“I have to leave too”
“Nice meeting you…” he stopped for her to assimilate what to
say next.
“Stephanie”
“Stephanie… what?”
“I prefer not to say it”
“Why not?”
“Well because,” she stopped to allow the next words a glimpse
of reflection, after such thoughts prohibited her a revelation, her
brain replaced the dialog with a “bye”
“Bye,” he knelt and proceeded to a stand, which he arched to
fight the pain, fruitlessly to him “wait! Where do you live?”
She stopped over the red floor “not here” she answered not
even turning her head, then left. The seconds ticked away, died and
their spirits became minutes, which in their memory, only showed a
figure, which died on a shadowy ember.
“Nice meeting you Stephanie” he repeated to himself alone,
and sat down again with a sigh of depression and a whiff of love.
He won something better then the lottery, way better.

21
 Chapter 4

The
corridor missed a taste of decoration. The
immaculate passage ran and died into a door,
ramming into light or darkness in times of night
and moon. Brown cardboard bulletin boards stood midways upon
the wall of sad blue which continued from the ceiling to the middle
22
of the aisle’s sides, marked with a thick and livid, black line. The
gloom-tinted fringe bore a dull gray, that flooded unto the floor.
Polished highly, the flatness on which he stood was riveted with
marble-white stains. The ceiling, was the opposite, round lights shed
a glutton glow into the hall.
This corridor was deserted, as was Marcus, his heart maddened
within his rib cage, resisting to be subjected from feelings. Crying
restlessly inside him, his stomach felt a way that had never been
before, times had it tasted bits of it, but not the whole munch, he
thought. And hence did he walk, hence did his steps echoed through
his mind, as if of hers, hers who had vanished into thin air.
He felt desperate, he had to find the reason she had come. He
closed to a dull staff that walked without a destiny. He thrummed
rapidly the words.
“Have you seen a girl? Stephanie is here name, came here in
the morning ”
“Hey kid, I don’t know, why don’t you ask at reception huh?”
“Right, great idea” after he had left, the staff grappled a radio
and murmured into it “Jimmy? Camera thirty three is out of service
why don’t you…” the rest was lost in time..
Thus did he hear the words, thus did he walk to the place
strangers come, and thus did he ask the same question.
“Have you seen a girl? Stephanie is here name, came here in
the morning”
“Let me check,” said the secretary that sat comfortably there
innocently loosing time.

23
 “Thank you” replied him with a lie.
“Nope, nothing about her, do you know any surname?”
“No”
“Then I can’t help you”
“Yeah, I never thought you could, just confirming my hunch”
he grumbled lowly.
He took off into the security cameras, where he asked the same
staff he had clashed with on the hallway permission to check some
tapes.
“Sure, have this” he allowed Marcus an old and obsolete
computer.
“Where is the tape of the entry stairway?”
“You mean camera thirty three? Right there” he said pointing
with a greasy finger at the worn out screen.
There was the crowd, coming out in black and white
resolution, a wave of pixels rose insignificantly upon the little
square and vanished on the shores. Then the moment he tripped
over, he looked at the video of him, and noticed a detail before static
washed the image in a swirl, converting it into an ‘out of service’
picture, it was a black wire, the one he had just tripped over with.
“What?”
“OH, yes, someone plucked out the bloody cable, video
recording is spoiled for number thirty three, sorry buddy”
He sighed again, he was desperate, to find what was the reason
she had come and the reason she had left so abruptly.
24
 He strode to his dorm, where he could have peace,
unfortunately, he didn’t.

Chapter 5

The
beach was silent, only the clash of the waves
roamed on the sounds. The luminous dagger
stabbed the line of blue and pink, the fusion, the
horizon, ditching yellowish glow dim upon the bleeding, robed sky.
The ichor fell with terror from atop, littering the blueness of the
water with scarlet tint.
25
 The flour-like sand on which the constant harassing attacks of
the undulated mountains of liquid moved along the shores in a white
pathway. On one side, a resolutely solid, old gray wall. Some
bitterly colored bushes played sentinel by the foot of the façade. On
the other, a crystalline blue sea, on the middle, a ten meters wide
coast that extended out of the powerless reach of sight.
After having some futile attempts to forget what had happened,
and having all that almost accomplished, ruined by his roommate.
“What did you say about this morning?” he asked.
“Nothing, just met a girl”
“Okay” and then would stay shut for a while.
“Was she cute?” just when Marcus had been able to subject the
memory.
“Shut up!”
“Okay”
“What did you two talked about?”
“Aarrrgh! Who got punched your eye huh?” he asked, knowing
this would get his companion angry. Though, it made him concerned
and enigmatic.
“You wouldn't like to know.”
After half an hour he would again half ask: “And so what
did…?”
“I'm out, forget it.”

26
 “And here I am,” he said to himself with a heave. He sat there
lonely doing nothing, staring blankly at the soothing sea. Stephanie
was the only thing that roamed his mind.
“Why am I so obsessed with her?” he asked himself “only
minutes, only minutes was that time I met her, and I can’t forget”
now he was starting to scare himself at how weak he was. The ivory
sand cushioned his thinking.
“Hey” came from behind, a small overconfident voice,
seductive and beautiful, like the breeze the ocean blew upon the
floor.
“What the…” said he when turning violently. Thus did he
watched the beauty and perfection in the eye, did he startle when his
gaze unto hers found.
“What are you doing here?” he stammered.
“Non of your business” she answered while kicking a smudge
of sand unto him.
“Tell me, I—I am probably going crazy, no one saw you, I
mean, it was--was as if you had never been there at the stairs and…”
“Well, I believe you are exaggerating, I was there, I exist”
“What's your last name then”
“For your own safety, you should not know”
“Well, better tell me something”
“No”
“Why not? What is it that you are hiding from me?”

27
 “Nothing”
“Is it bad?”
“I don’t know”
“How come can you not know!?”
“You are acting childish before this, is it you can’t understand
the graveness of this issue, I’m not kidding, you better stop asking.”
“Okay, okay, my bad, it is just curiosity, you know, suddenly
someone appears an you fall in love, but NO, she won’t even tell me
her whole name!”
“Look, don’t misinterpret me, all the background information I
have is, simply, secret, it is for my safety you see,”
“Are you in that much danger? W—damn, I shouldn’t ask it.”
There was a long ominous pause. The song of the sea and the
humming of the seagulls snuggled them close, but yet not to a touch
or a caress. The gentle patting of the waves and the daggers of gold
upon the shore reflected on them, embraced them, a couple of
unwarned. She sat down, her bluish pants kissed the floor beneath,
the streaks of sad green and pure white dwelled bitterly on that shirt
that hid a slim, beauteous, godly body, delicate but strong,
straightforward and resolute.
“Yes”
“Who is it that you are afraid of, whom you run scared and
hide behind a veil of mystery?”
“If I told you, it would be the danger that would too fall on
your strong back”

28
 “I don’t care, I want to share that fear with you, beautiful face”
The luminous daggers hurled by that ball of fire stabbed her
face, bouncing off with a divine bright, that was robbed by that
lovely set of eyes, the small nose, the garnish lips and the infinitely
soft skin. The neither blond nor red and neither brown or black hair
ignited with fury, blinding Marcus’ eyes. She smiled the white-as-a-
summer-morning-cloud teeth and blushed politely.
“It is very soon,”
“In how much peril is it that you are now?”
“You wouldn't be able to imagine it”
“Tell me, is it my money I am risking?” trying to make an
accurate guess.
“Your life”
“What!?” his eyes expanded in disbelief, unable to recognize if
this was a joke.
“Yes”
“Stephanie, if you are at stake, let me hold your hand as into
your doom you are taken”
“I can’t ask you that, I can’t ask anybody to do that and stop
talking like that..”
“You don’t have too, I am offering”
“Today we met, but if I told you, after the sun comes out the
next day, I guarantee you wouldn't remember anything about this”
“Why not? You are unforgettable, and I just met you.”

29
 “Because you would be dead”
“Why are you alive then?”
“I know how to keep it going.”
“Hold my hand”
She hung her hand, upright from the wrist, and the hand
looking down, royalty-like. He took it gently, it felt warm and
heady.
“Now” said he and added “your eyes are beautiful, see that
dying sun, plunging towards its watery grave, going deep, slitting
the throat of the robed sky?” while pointing at the setting light.
“Yes”
“You need a thousand beautiful sunsets to equal the
pulchritude of a nymph, and a thousand nymphs to equal a goddess”
“Ah”
“And, a thousand goddesses to equal your unrivaled eyes”
“Ah, cheap poetry, it is the worst I heard, ever you know?”
They looked at each other, with her eyes sparkling. Force
invisible pulled Marcus forward, until the blackness of her eyes was
everything he saw. They kissed, and it lasted. They kissed on the
shores of water, and on the shores of danger. Yet, he didn’t care, and
neither did she.

30
 Chapter 6

The
sun hung high in the blue and clear sky, though
it didn’t fly neither close to the mountains that
bore it nor the land that would bury it low and
hell wards. Light poured rapidly from it and flooded the surface of
the public square with a rushed glow. Marcus walked, careless, as it
31
was his way through the intricate maze that people formed. Clouds
morphed from the thin air that swam on heaven. They blotted out the
sun as if it were an insignificant, bright stain, ruining the celestial
decoration.
He paced, creating a trifling echo that died away upon the
concerto of voices and sounds.
What raced through his mind was of lesser importance to him
than his careless walking.
What homework had I for tomorrow, thought he, or for the
next day? What may I have gotten in the math exam? The sun is
hammering my head, I don’t know where to go, wait, is that a white
truck that just stopped abruptly on the sidewalk?
Thus did a white truck, immaculate as white can be, park
abruptly on the sidewalk with an agonizing, aging, old and bleating
creak. Balaclavas shielded those malicious heads of a threesome of
men that were brave to down of the truck jump off. Multiplying the
number times two and subtracted the half would equal to the men
unclad, that brave were not to jump off the truck.
Trio of pants and jackets and a sextet of un-poetic, assassin
gloved hands. With shouting language and violent moves was what
described the way in which they flowed through the moment, and so
was the way they closed on Marcus.
“There he is!” exclaimed the one that was neither the right nor
the left.
“Run, don’t allow him escape!” said the latter of the previously
mentioned.

32
 “Catch him!” yelped the remaining, repeating what his
companions had ordered with a different set of words.
“Eh?” inquired that who was the prey with unwarned, careless
attention.
Hence they opened their path to that unwarned. And he,
waited, clueless of the face-hidden men that in his chase were.
“Oh uh…” exclaimed he again as he came to a conclusion of
thought that the violence that against he was coming, was real and
harmful. But neither could he run, for the way was closed. The
balaclavas came closer until they had him in their claws.
“Gotcha boy, you’re coming with us!” exclaimed the one that
from the righted hand had come.
“You will want to never have met that lil’ girl”
“Who?” exclaimed he who’s was being mangled.
“That one you kissed yesterday” answered both of the men
mangling him, dragging him lazily and violently towards their truck.
“Stephanie?”
“Hell yeah, that one”
“I don’t follow”
“You’ll see”
An thus did they carried him forwards, reluctantly and choice
less he followed. Until he was close to that hollow square that was
the door to a gloomy and choked room.

33
 “That was fast, I thought it would take you guys some more
time”
“He resisted non”
“Then make him come in”
“Will do” and pushed him inside with a powerful punch, in, he
got yanked upwards and once sat in a flimsy chair, got beaten until
blood came out.
“Do it again”
“Yeah boss” a jab came fast and crashed his chin.
“What do you want?” asked he with painful and dolorous
panting.
“Well, we want you to get away from her, yes, Stephanie, you
see, she’s got a secret, that, you can’t get, and we definitely want, so
if you get it first, we kill you, and if we get it, we kill her”
“What!?” he replied to the hangman with an invigorated spat
“you can’t kill her, kill me instead”
The interior was flooded with darkness, swirling round them,
only their eyes and a dying ray of light made the view. On top, metal
roof with squares and rectangles, like a car unfinished. The top was
white, but barely in allowed itself to be sighted.
“There is a problem with that buddy, you don’t have the
secret”
“I’ll have it, just… just don’t kill her, please!” he begged, and
the kidnappers mind was turned.

34
 “Okay, okay, you get the secret, we don’t kill her, you don’t
get it, we kill both, your deadline is next, next Wednesday, which
would give you,” he paused to do the math “fifteen days, exactly
fifteen days, at twelve o’clock”
“That is sixteen days” corrected one of the covered men.
“He won’t be seeing her today” replied the butcher and latterly
“oh, and no word of this to your girlfriend or the fatal fate shall
doom you both”
They launched him outside and vanished with the smoke of
tires.
Now he was scared, but resolute, to self-sacrifice and
discovery. Fifteen days, he could make it, and then, Toulouse
wouldn't matter, nothing else would, because he would be dead.

35
Part 2

36
Deadline in Sights

37
 Chapter 7

The
alarm rang with its demanding shouts and
laments. The number five hundred enviously
occupied the green screen of the small and
insignificant, gray cube.
“Day one” he said to himself.
He started thinking, what was this secret? Why was it so
important? What would happen if it fell on enemy hands? Who
where the enemies either way? He tried to get the deadline erased
out of his mind, but discovered he couldn’t.
He climbed out of bed lazily and wearily. He washed his teeth
with haste, for the wearily feel, had gone. He dressed rapidly, for he
had strangely overcome haste. Opened the creaky door with a swift
swing, he produced a shadow unto the hall, the deserted hall, dark
and forbidding. The souls were yet sleeping happily within their
lairs.
He walked upon the unwelcoming floor, having his arms
abreast, the cold air invaded the passage with livid and restless
waves. The winter pasted to him, morphing into a heavy burden.
Came out, were greedily was grappled by sinuous winds and
trembling currents.
He was out to clear his mind, but only questions and doubts,
fears and laments blurred into his brain with a rapid flush of air that
hummed a whisper into his ear.

38
 The moon and the sun were fighting with might and main over
the clear celestial battlefield. With gloom and light, they fought, and
though light is fastest than anything in Earth, murk is always first, in
every place. The sky came down with its bluish robe, a cobalt blue
descended upon the ground, painting the horizon that ended on tall
mountains and plains.
The gaunt floor as son to soil and dim green grass, to bushes
and rising herbs. This, Marcus thought, looked more like Los Cabos,
except from the beach, which was beautiful.
He jogged and trotted, he ran and sprinted, quickly to be on the
field.
A soft cloud of steam formed as he breathed, accelerating
outwards, gaining advantage, of him. His hands, pain-clad, were
urging him to cover them with gloves.
The rancid weather was bitter with grief and wrath. With sloth
it crawled arrogantly over the earth.
On a small and protuberating hill, there was a workshop that
lonely stood. Now, from the eyes of Marcus, it was the only thing
that stood, the campus had long abandoned his sight behind a high
slope, and the field was nothing but a huge green patch.
The white-aluminum-built-cube that over the hills was the only
thing to stand emitted a sound, a shout, and a cry of pain, which
reluctant to cease to exist, echoed through the valley.
“What the hell!?” Marcus asked himself after the invisible
ghoul had left.
“Help!” yelped loudly the cube in a desperate attempt,
flippantly, this too became extinct.
39
 Marcus, adrenaline pumping brusquely through his veins, ran
towards the office. Every step, flapped atop the soil, throwing
geysers of dirt upon the air.
When to the workshop he had gotten, footsteps he saw, too
much for his liking. There where peculiar ones, with streaks and
lines, there were simple ones, with only the form of a shoe, and there
were barefoot steps. He walked in, a small tone sounded announcing
his arrival. Aluminum sill and pipes were scattered all around in a
metal fuzz. Some cameras lurked underneath the shadows that
encumbered the corners atop.
“Help!” said again the voice with a hope that died.
“What happened, who did this!?”
“Boy, I would say you are in trouble” said he “I see my time is
nearly over, I realize you are here, yet you can do nothing to save
me from the death I deserve so much, here I lay dying, and I can
give you only one thing, I am weak now that mine blood wets the
dust that is underneath me, but you have to check my pocket, there
will be a letter from mine murderer, take it and read it, fast and far
you should be by the time I die”
“What pocket?”
“The left one”
Marcus stretched a trembling hand which had been drinking
fear and now menaced to collapse. There, hiding in the precipice of
clothe, a flimsy paper he found.
“Leave my corpse here, or mine death shall be vain”
“But…”

40
 “Leave!”
Marcus took off running, looking back over his shoulder. In
the time he had been there, he saw many of blood, but no bullet hole
or knife. This was planned for him, and for him only.
The letters that on the paper were scribbled, were arrogant, and
gave him a startle, he couldn’t tell and he knew what that meant.

41
 Chapter 8

The
breeze galloped freely upon the blue sea, which
was stained by a couple of boats, crashing unto
the white sands of the shores. Dawn stood up
from the couch on the horizon, the sea was rose-tinted. The sky had
little clothes on, wearily moving atop the land. The sun shooting
angry glances on the beach, shedding it with its light.
Marcus didn’t know what to do. Where should he start?
Someone had been killed just to give him a small and dirty piece of
paper. Was she still alive? Later, he thought, he wasn’t going to go
anywhere by only making questions. He trotted towards the sea,
again to think.
“Steph…?” he asked when he saw movement near him.
“Yes” came a solemn reply.
“Where do you sleep?”
“Oh not this again”
“I’m afraid”
“Of what?” said the shadow from which she melted out.
“Something happened today”
“What?”
“A dead man, this—this is a tragedy”
“A greek tragedy”

42
 “No, a real life tragedy”
“People die everywhere, here and now, today and yesterday,
people will always die, it’s in their nature, we are going to die, I am
going to die, you will, everyone will, but no matter, we are a plague,
to the land and sky. It doesn’t matter if someone leaves this life, we
are all going to keep them company, today or in fifty years, so what
is it that torments you so much, was it someone you knew?”
“No, he died because of my fault.”
“What do you mean?”
“I met him today, and he told me the last words of an innocent
man, he died to give me something, I fear, this can happen to you”
“Why would it?” she was strong, she was not going to let a
dead man take the secret, she would let no one take it.
“I need to talk to you about it, it is—rather strange, but, ah, it
was going to happen either way”
“What would happen either way?”
“Yesterday, I was sort of kidnapped for a minute or two, they
told me you had a secret, that I had to get it and tell them about it,
that way, it would be me the one that died, not you”
“I—I told you this would happen”
“We’re dammed, both of us”
She sat by his side and embraced her legs by the knees, her
gaze was lost in the unending waves of the water. With their white
crests the waves crawled lazily unto the shores, trying to grapple her
in their fresh and watery welter.

43
 “We can’t give up”
“But—but they won’t know I told you this, they aren't gods,
they don’t know everything”
“They can always find out, one way or the other, remember
that friend of yours? The one with the black eye?”
“Yes”
“And do you remember the murder you told me about a few
moments ago? I bet you were alone, were you?”
“Yes, how can you know that?”
“I know their modus operandi, I too have suffered under them,
I wanted to spare you, obviously you were stubborn and foolish,
now you are going down too”
“I hate when you simply evade the questions I make”
“They threatened your buddy to tell them when you went out
to run, they punched him, he yielded not enough, he was coward and
selfish, he told them, so an assassin did the job specifically for you
to find it out, hence you would come tell me”
“Is this secret important?”
“Two dead people aren't sufficient for your little mind to find
out how great it is?”
“Actually just one”
“Two, one was near Ochoco Forest, in Oregon.”
“At least tell me what this secret is,” he begged.

44
 “But we have to go far away from here,” he sat beside her, the
couple looked at each other, he moved forward rapidly, he ended
with a kiss, which ended in a drowned and confused “fast” from her.
“Now will you tell me?”
“Can you keep a secret?” he nodded and she told him, he
would remember that day for the rest of his life, which wasn’t much.

45
 Chapter 9

They strode quickly through the dull interiors of the

campus, through the guts of the corridors and
past the fangs of classrooms. It was he now with
the gaze lost and the hands with a swift tremble.
“Relax”
“How can you tell me to relax, it was you who said we were
going to die”
“Then stop thinking about it, it is the worst thing you can do, it
makes you nervous and doesn’t allow you to think clearly”
“So what is next step?”
“I’ll go tint my hair”
“There is no time for vanity right now you see”
“It will make it more difficult for them to identify me”
“They will know you tinted your hair”
“Not for an hour or two”
“That isn't long enough”
“When you are in this situation one hour is a lot of time, in an
hour or two you can rent a car and get us two-hundred miles away
from here”
“But that is too fast, I mean I barely drive”
“You have a license right?”
46
 “Err…”
“Right!?”
“No, I thought I wouldn't be using it, I hardly have to walk
around here, and hardly ever get out of here, why would I need a
car?” and added “Do you have a license?”
“It is a very easy way of knowing my location”
“Dear God, now what?”
“Stealing, is a way out of here”
“Stealing huh?”
“Yeah”
“Okay, so, while I steal a car that can speed up to a hundred
miles per hour that is rental, you go tint your hair?”
“Exactly,”
“If I get caught?”
“Then call a friend that can bail you out of jail”
“This sort of thing makes me realize no one cares about me”
“Someone does”
“Who?” his eyes sparkled for a second in high hopes.
“Your mum”
“Your wrong”
“I'm kidding”
“I knew it”
47
 “I care about you, if I didn’t, I wouldn't be trying to help you”
“You’re helping yourself”
“I trusted you as far as telling you my secret, that is the highest
trust I can give, be grateful,” she kissed him “steal the car as soon as
you can, I’ll be waiting for you near the mall”
“What mall?”
“The nearest one”
“And if they get you?”
“They can’t”
She ran towards the doors nearby, she opened them and ran
amid the grassy plain, the blanket of green streaked by a bricked
path. Until a fence devoured her beauty and was lost in the distance.
“Am I supposed to get to a car rental on foot?” he asked
himself “maybe she’ll let me ask for a cab”
He escaped the gullet of the building upon the extensive
parking lot. He turned around, the sun was burning the plain with an
unstoppable rage. The heat convulsed atop the concrete, plundering
the soil with transparent waves, Marcus sweat. They blanketed the
submissive wind and air that had been there first, for they covered
the streets and lands, on one of the asphalt paths, there was a
yellowish, mistreated and abused glum car. He ran towards it and
said:
“Why are you here?”
“Because maybe some people might want a trip to the city”
“I want one”
48
 “You are lucky,”
Aha, he thought compliant.
“This is my last one, I am running out of gas you see”
“Shut up and drive”
“Okay okay”
“Lord start the engine”
“I have had some very demanding clients throughout my
career”
“You call this a career?”
“Hey, I’m the driver, and it is my turn to tell you to shut up”
the engine reluctantly grumbled to a lazy start “an it is a career, you
know how many streets and alley-ways I have to memorize?
“How many?”
“You wouldn't comprehend” the old man, heavily tanned, had
a mustache that decorated his face, thin lips and coal-black eyes,
summoned a reminder from his brain that said the pathway he had to
take towards the city.
“At what time will we be there?”
“I don’t know exactly”
“Less than an hour?”
“Uff… yeah”
“Okay, then drive”
And he drove.
49
50
 Chapter 10

The
car rental office was quiet and dormant. Snoring
under the city sounds, the moon killed the
vigorous sun minutes before Marcus’ arrival,
giving him the cloak of gloom.
The taxi abandoned him on the cold street, plenty of lampposts
emanated an incandescent yellow, bleeding light on the blackness of
night. Impacting harmlessly on his face, giving life to half of it and
allowing death to take over the remaining, helpless part. He walked
silently through the welter of murk.
Mutilating the all-covering veil, a window with a whitish,
streaming silver poured on the middle of sight.
“Stephanie” he prayed to himself “you are crazy for this plan,
but I don’t care” by saying her name, images invaded his mind, and
when they left, bravery was awoken.
“Mrs. Jam—”
“Don’t dare complete the surname you bastard”
“You have to pay ma’am otherwise I cannot lend you the car”
“But this prizes are insane, how could anyone pay them?”
“You want to take a new Escalade, of course prizes are high”
Now Marcus knew the cashier was occupied, it was his chance.
He leaned against the low wall supporting the hypocrite window and
crouched so the staff wasn’t able to catch a glimpse of his felony. He

51
slipped into a shadow and melted away towards the patient cars. He
watched stunned, as he admired the mighty cars, that there were
waiting, now he understood why the prizes were high. There, under
the aluminum ceiling were lined up perfectly and pleasantly three
cars, a Bugatti Veyron, a Koenigsegg CCR and a Lamborghini
Murcielago, this nearly made him puke.
“This is going to be difficult” and then rebuked himself “I have
to stop talking to myself”
He came close to the Bugatti and leaned. If he broke the
window, the alarm would sound, if he had something with which to
force it open it would be easier, unfortunately, ha hadn't.
This left him with only breaking the window, once inside he
had to hack the engine to a start and then get the hell out of there
before anyone could stop him.
He raised his arm, elbow looking perilous at the polished and
well cared piece of glass. With a sigh of will, he plunged his
articulation at the transparent piece. It broke in a howl of a thousand
shards. Small strings of silver bounced off them as they flew
effortless though the inside.
No alarm.
“Uff” he sighed with relief.
He opened the door from within and sat down on the most
heavenwards part of the luxurious couch. It cushioned his slothful
stumble. An alarm yelled desperately for help.
“Oh uh”

52
 He peered on the bottom part of the driving wheel morbidly
looking for wires. He knew a thing or two about this, but an
unorganized fuzz of color lines tricked his mind with skillful
cunning. He took the only one he was certain of and toyed with
shaky hands with the others.
“Wait here Mrs. Jam—“
“What did I told you about my surname?”
“Okay, wait here ma’am, I’ll go check what is going on” the
cashier left the old and cranky woman inside and came outside, the
wind punched him in the face, trying to protect the unforgivable
robbery.
“I hate this clients” he heaved to himself and added “why do
we rent this cars, it is so stupid” he journeyed towards the stock. His
uniform was flapping against his body in an attempt to hide
themselves of the ruthless wind.
“C’mon c’mon!” Marcus begged to luck, which had pity on
him and gave him a second more of time. He was hidden by the
driving wheel, for he was crouched beneath it trying make the
tranquil and powerful motor start.
“Ah, probably another defective alarm” the cashier said while
grappling his cold, metal lantern.
“Yes! Ha!” the engine roared to a menacing start, on the gloom
it seemed to be a wild boar coming awake, its lights pushed the
darkness aside and arrogantly looked upon the employee. As an
untamed animal lurking grimly for its prey it advanced, and with a
smirk, attacked. Steam was born at the aft part, like a goat preparing
to strike. With the force of a bull it rushed forward and to the exit.

53
 “What the hell was that?”
“Yeah, Wahoo!” he exclaimed. The air restrained him against
the seat, wind stampeded inside and crashed on his face. He was
glued to his seat and thought “Stephanie is going to like this” with a
playful grin.
The gates injected him on the flowing avenues, he accelerated
towards the nearest mall.
The interior was luxurious, it presented bicolor leather on the
seats, the cushions on the seats gave them a more modern touch, on
the central console there was a clock and various others buttons that
controlled everything in the car. Machined aluminum shielded the
doors and was itself sheltered by leather, and with several switches
on the velocity lever.
The speedometer skyrocketed as he stepped on the pedal, the
motor growled furiously and ran even faster.
“This is real fast, I wonder what would happen if I crashed?”
and scolded himself again “damn!”
A cube raised itself over the night sky. The Bugatti arced
closer, burning the black wheels and leaving a wake of steam to
remember its might for a moment until it faded, and only the echo of
it remained.
The orange lights shifted on the brilliant back of the car,
flashing like paparazzi photos.
Stephanie was already waiting for him on the very entrance of
the mall. She was wearing a celestial white dress that cascaded down
her slim body all the way to the knees, reveling her gorgeous ankles,
her clear calves and the swiftly tanned skin. It hung from her
54
delicate shoulders from elegant straps, her arms were bare and wore
a small collection of bracelets. A leather, brown bag also was
attached to her skillful hand. Her eyes were now green, a vivid green
that disguised the real endless eyes, her hair changed, a powerful,
godly blonde killed the emotion-less color that had been before.
Blushed high cheekbones supported her fair-eyes. White and
perfectly lined teeth smiled at him and made his mind exited and
fear-less. Though a dark veil covered the sky and enviously kept it
black, her head glowed brightly and defiant to the ever-living stars.
He rushed outside of his expensive cocoon and courteously
opened her the right door. He caught a glimpse of light-bending
heels.
“The night exists not by your side”
“Quickly get us out of here”
“Your wishes are mine orders, your highness,”
“Stop it!” she yelped with a happy smile, his heart melted at
her feet.
“O goddess”
“Do you love me?”
“I loved you yesterday, when we talked and kissed, I love you
today, when I'm speaking you this, I will love you until the end of
my days, when my corpse burns in a cage of in a pyre and mine
flesh is smoke that transforms into thin air upon the sky and my
bones are nothing but ashes buried deep and towards hell, I will love
you”
“You and your cheap poetry” and chuckled with a lovely sigh.

55
56
 Chapter 11

As the car accelerated away into the outskirts of the city,

her utterly perfect beauty surprised him, as it was her
way. She smiled, the teeth had light of their own, a
glow that warmly embraced him. Her eyes were vividly colored, and
never seemed to end.
“Why am I so in love with you?”
“Because I got you this car”
“How fast can it go?”
“For you, light-speed”
“No really”
“Here it says” he squinted and exclaimed in awe “two-hundred
and sixty miles per hour, isn't that fast?”
“I want to see it run, until it can no more”
“Your call” he grinned and stepped on the pedal with
overconfidence. The car jerked forward at face-tearing speeds.
“Whoa!”

57
 “How come were you able to steal this?”
The Bugatti flied above the street. No bumps no irregularities,
wind yelled in his ears, urging him to stop, his nose could hardly
breath, all the air was mutilated away as it came inside from the
hollow framework.
“Turn on the lights would you?” she demanded him with
kindness.
“Your smile would be enough!” shouting above the screams of
the crowding air. She laughed at the compliment and asked “Like
this?”
“Wow, stop it, I need my eyes to drive, I won’t see if they
melt! I am going to melt wholly!”
“I can’t believe you drive so well, with so much
overconfidence in yourself”
“Me too, I can’t believe we haven’t crashed”
“Wait up, a truck is near, slow down”
“Yes, yes, what have you got in your bag?”
“A few maps, some food, a gun, essentially cash and
something else”
“How much cash?”
“Eight-hundred”
“Where did you get so much? Did you steal too?”
“Heritage”

58
 “Oh, heritage from who? Or would you rather not answer my
question?”
“I rather not” her eyes lost the happiness, they became glum,
the sparkle stopped shining.
“Sorry about that, perhaps I should stop asking you this things”
“No, no, it’s—it’s okay, I am very sensitive when referring to
this topics”
“It’s wrong to make you sad, cheer up, let’s get past this turtle
and I’ll see if I can compensate you”
“Shut up, you don’t need to compensate me, you are stuck in
this because of my fault”

“But I am stuck in this with you, and that is the only thing that
matters”
“You mean that?”
“Yes”
Her eyes enlightened again, her mouth opened in a smile and
her face renewed the glow it bore so delightfully. She opened the
bag she carried so restlessly and opened a map.
“That gets my spirits up again”
“Dear God, I can’t overrun that truck, I blocks me, what the
hell is wrong with it?”
“Maybe it doesn’t know where are you”
“I don’t think—“
“Careful!”
59
 The truck stopped in front of them, it plunged towards the
flimsy car, Marcus turned the wheel desperately and evaded the
white metal wall.
“This guys don’t know how to drive”
“Just keep yourself in the road, there is a tunnel coming up
ahead”
A shadowy circle stabbed the middle of a huge mountain with
a powerful thrust, it impassibly devoured the road through its deep
gullet and with gray concrete lips.
“Do you think this is a trap?”
“Maybe”
She reopened the bag and sold it a map for a gun.
“Lord! The gun was serious!”
“Of course it was,”
She balanced the black, deadly and cold object with effort and
aimed its barrel to the front.
“How many bullets do you have?”
“Thirteen rounds”
“Was this too heritage?”
“Yes, never fired it before, I fear it may get stuck and fail to
fire”
“Oh, how lucky I am”
“Yes, seventy year old bullets won’t do us bad”

60
 “What if we only make them madder at us for menacing and
kill us faster?”
“We kept it serviceable, relax”
“I hope so because we are about to enter”
“Slow down, but keep your foot on the gas”
“Yes ma’am”
The car was disguised with a obscure and fine silk, flawless it
hugged the polished metal with a caress.
“Keep your eyes open” she whispered with a trembling voice.
“Aim the gun outside”
The light of the lamps was sent to fight with the eerie forces,
but it left its wife a widow when it never came back from the
unending war.
All of a sudden, a set of twinkling eyes speared the Bugatti
with silver arrows. The black bull charged out of its lair, the horns
pointing at the helpless car.
“Turn left, turn left!”
“Get down!”
The machine yanked sideways and upwards while the right
door bent and groaned agonizingly as a shield being hit by a heavy
rock with great force. Sparks rose and painted the chassis with
orange. Oil rushed out to help and ignited in a fiery ball that curved
along the fair-lines of the luxurious car and the ill boxy van. The
heat escaped in a deafening shout and a warm touch. Glasses
shattered and tires rolled and bounced out of the site.
61
 The car fell heavy on the left wall of the tunnel. Shards and
burns scattered around, Stephanie was bruised and was bleeding,
swiftly but yet some lacerations. Marcus didn’t care what he had, he
cared for her. He exploded out of the rubble and gazed at the
motionless, black-clad truck. There was very few activity within.
“Marcus!”
“Wait there, I'm going”
“Please, I am trapped, I can’t open the door!”
He limped at the opposite side of the plundered Bugatti, the
door was bent inwards.
“You will have to exit through the other side, there is no door
in it!”
He limped and whimpered around the dying car that now lay
on its back.
“Help!”
“Grab my hand! I’ll pull you out!”
She stretched out for his limb and was pulled out with amazing
force. Once out, he helped her walk towards a gap.
“It is the same Escalade that old woman was so irritated to
get!”
“You mean at the car rental?”
“Yes”
“I told you they were everywhere”
“Hand me the gun”
62
 She passed him the gun, he hugged her and used his body as a
human shield, they leaned against the curved wall. She grappled him
strongly by the arms.
“I thought it was you the expert one with them, I thought you
didn’t fear them”
“When you are alone, you cannot fear the center of your life,
when you are with someone, you can fear whoever you want”
He kissed her in the forehead and aimed the barrel
threateningly at the damaged door of the van.
“Trying to escape huh?” said a raspy and evil voice from
behind the blazing fire.
“Get away from her!”
“Do you know the secret?”
“Yes, but I rather die than letting you know it!”
“Then, your wishes are my orders!”
A tall man with a balaclava was produced near him, he was
night-clad with dark robes, only the clear skin around his eyes
revealed where he was.
“Back-off!”
“No!”
Marcus pulled the trigger, with a click, light was released into
freedom, it showered a pure string of gold that connected perfectly
with the attacking figure. Blood sputtered as the impact made the
shadow stagger and fall, glorified in its death.

63
 “C’mon!” he told her, grappling her gently and firmly and
helping her run near the Escalade. He lifted her upwards and cradled
the delicate body all the way until the truck. Marcus opened the back
door and placed her inside as an autumn leaf falls cushioned by the
wind unto the land.
Then he hopped into the steering wheel and turned the key
forward. The engine snored to a start. The tires rolled and the
vehicle exhaled carbon dioxide o the aft.
“This one is better, more spacious it has more consoles”
“But less speed”
“And better use all of it, ‘cause there is another car after us”
“Ah me!”
“At least if we crash, we don’t get so damaged”
“Now I see why the prizes were high”
“More comfortable”
“It has a GPS”
“Why didn’t you steal this one instead?”
“The Bugatti was faster,” he said while accelerating nervously.
“Oh”
“Have we lost the car yet?”
“Yes”
“Are you injured, wounded, hurt, something that wouldn't heal
by itself?”

64
 “I'm fine, you?”
“Me too, but probably the bad guys aren't, poor bastards”
And while the van raced to lose itself, the attackers called for a
meeting.
“That boy has one hell of an eye, and an aim, he hit Wilson in
the aorta, he bled out a couple of seconds ago” said the first.
“They have stolen our Escalade” said the second.
“They have survived” said the third.
“I was willing to give the girl a chance, but it seems to me that
they refused it, they won’t give us the secret, so let that bloody
secret lay buried deep in the soil within their graves!”
They shouted in agreement and retired to the second vehicle, it
was them against Stephanie and Marcus, and they were sure to win.

65
 Chapter 12

It was daybreak and he was tired. The sun was awaking and
stretching out its arms upon the celestial bed. Emanating a
reddish light that tinted the desert plain.
“Stephy?”
“Yes?” she replied with a joyful but yet dormant voice.
“It is morning, my—my eyelids are closing, I can’t—can’t
drive anymore, could you help me?” he yawned.
“Of course, hand me the wheel”
“You have to come over here and grab it”
“O, look, a fast food restaurant, lets order some breakfast”
“Wait!” he squinted and strained his eyes “isn't that the
Vantare Platinum Plus?”

66
 “You mean the mobile mansion?”
“Yes, that one”
“Well, once I read about it, they say it is way too luxurious for
mortals, just like us”
“You are not a mortal”
“Stop saying I am a goddess”
“Come near, I need to whisper you something”
She put her ear close to his mouth, her hair smelled like some
perfume from the house of the gods. He kissed her ear while he
parked the Escalade on one of the coal-black asphalt parking lots.
His sight was blurred, on the restaurant he only saw red.
“Can you ask for the food, dear? Make it a lot, I’ll be staying
out here to—err throw some rocks”
“Seems fair, fast food is cheap”
Stephanie entered the restaurant, the immaculate bicolor floors,
the cheerful tables full of happy and complete families, the towering
collage of colors that sprayed the view behind a glass and a grease-
stained bar with machinery on the background and a menu atop
greeted her when a small bell giggled when the door closed.
“If I robbed the Vantare Platinum Plus, would she be mad at
me? It has plenty of fuel if it has been refilled lately, it is even more
difficult to damage than the Escalade, way more comfortable,
spacious and luxurious” he nodded happily to himself and uplifted
his chest, proud of his doings “she will love me for this”

67
 “I would to like to have five more burgers and some french
fries” said Stephanie awhile.
Marcus strutted nearby the gigantic door and forced it open.
“I bet no one saw me! This owners are rich but definitely
distracted, who would bring this thing to a roadside restaurant?” he
came inside, his mouth hung wide open and his eyelids gave him no
further trouble.
White, leather, cushioned sofas stood on the sides, smooth,
polished wood-paneled walls with elegant and polite lighting with
show off designs were the skin of the guts to the metal monster,
consoles, oriental rugs, TVs, arrogant electronically devices,
innovative compartments, this, he thought, was more luxurious than
the sheik’s private yacht, than the most expensive of hotels, more
elegant and brilliantly designed than Saddam’s palace! And it could
move! Marcus felt his knees would fail under his weight, he sat at
the mere behind of the steering wheel, which, he thought again, was
like an airplane cabin but with clear leather designs and soft walls
with conceited glasses, it felt like the kings throne.
“Oh, Stephanie, she is out!” he punched excitedly the claxon,
she turned aghast and smiled, she clambered inside and close the
door with carefulness.
“Are you deliriously crazy?” she couldn’t subject her smile
“what are you waiting for, look for the keys on top of you!”
“Right” he sent his hand quickly, it rose like an enchanted
serpent, grappled the keys, stabbed the silver hole and heard the
engine rumble and advance.

68
 Seconds grew old and morphed into minutes, and while they
were leaving their childhood, the duo wounded out of the parking lot
and again into the road.
“What did you get honey?”
“Food for three days, but this place is amazing, I wonder if it
has cable”
“Sure it does, just look at the bedroom”
“Wow!” she said once she had entered “I can’t believe it, how
much does this thing coast?”
“Two and a half million dollars”
“That is certainly a lot, look at the bathroom!”
“Where to you want to go”
“Wherever”
“Vegas?”
“Exactly, let’s go to Vegas! We can gamble there all right!”
“This has been easier than I thought it would”
“Why don’t we eat first before discussing the simplicity and
monotony of life?”
“Did you buy burgers?”
“I bought the whole menu”
“Then I am hungry”
In the long and weary time they munched their food, she gave
him a box, a small, red, golden tipped box, it was heavy. It was the
69
size of a children football. In it, she told him, lies the key to make
the secret I told you, powerful.
“Do not open it, never, until it is necessary,”
“Why are you giving this to me?”
“It was my father’s, and I want you to keep it”
“Thank you, for this honor but keep it, after all we are together,
remember?”
She smiled and held his hands “go to bed, I’ll drive this until
you have rested, you drove it while I slept”
“I will lock the door” he stood, kissed her, hugged her warmly,
as if she was his whole life, and, to him, she was.

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Part 3

71
Love and death, absolutes in life

72
 Chapter 13

On the inner part of the recreational vehicle, the smell

of burgers and french fries swarmed through the
flow of air. Liquid gold streamed amid the windows
and hardened over the pedantic carpets and rugs. She lay in bed,
wearing that white dress that adjusted so beautifully to her body.
With her left arm supporting her hind head, her right one lying upon
her flat abdomen, right leg outstretched and hanging perilous from
the bed and her left leg bent so her delicate foot, soft and warm
touched the right knee. The light cried and shed teardrops of glow
that bathed her face with a milky caressing. Gazing at the walls with
emeralds in her eyes. Clothed with godly robes of incandescent

73
morning sunlight, she lay there, being admired by her loyal
companion.
“Hey” he saluted calmly.
“Hey”
“How was your little ‘nap’”
“Just fine, what day is it?”
“I don’t know, day one was when I stole the car, it was
midnight when we crashed, daybreak when we stole this titan,
midday when we lunched, then night when I woke up and you came
to sleep and again daybreak, so it is the third day, morning”
“When was your deadline?”
“In fifteen days, but after the remarkable crash I guess they
sliced my time, probably they want to lynch us both as fast as they
can”
“Are you afraid of death?” she interrupted.
The stopped talking and processed the question within his
enclosed mind.
“No, as long as it is fast and as long as you are alive, are you
afraid of death, Stephanie?”
“Should I be? With you by my side? Should I fear or laugh?”
“Death is something we cannot fight, we cannot prevent it, we
cannot know when it will take us, but you decide, whether to fear it,
or face it, it is your choice”

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 “It is strange to think that death has happened to us, just not
now, how, it can take us with no warning, and leave all the persons
that loved us alone and sad, bitter it is to think, it will”
“Forget it, you told me to leave the things you don’t need or
that you can’t change behind and this is something you can’t
change”
“How close are we of Vegas?”
“How far are we from Vegas”
“How much?”
“At least half the way, if I hadn't lost the Bugatti we would
have gotten there in an hour, but this thing is way too slow”
“Two hours minimum”
“Have we got enough gas?”
“Yes, half full”
“Or half empty”
“Whatever”
“If we weren't in the middle of a desert I would ask you
outside”
“You can take out your contact lenses, I think they have
already identified you”
“They aren't contact lenses”
“But your eyes were brown before you entered the mall” he
said in discomfort.

75
 “Those were contact lenses”
“And what about your hair? Is it really blond?”
“No, actually, I don’t remember what color it originally was,
but so what, don’t you like me this way?”
“You look prettier, way prettier, why were you hiding your
eyes, they are so beautiful, just like little emeralds clothed with the
most brilliant of stars, so endless, so perfect, it was the worst thing
you can hide, it is a natural wonder, coming down from the sky”
“Why are you always so adulatory?”
“Because it is the first time I meet an angel”
“Stop it!”
“Oh, I like it when you smile, it feels like cocaine in my body”
“Have you tried cocaine?”
“Only when you laugh”
“Shut up!” she said with a jest smile and added “I hate to
receive compliments”
“I never receive compliments”
“And you never will” mirthfully she said, thus placing her
finger mischievously on this lips.
“Lets re-rout, why not go to Seattle instead?”
“I love the idea!”
“Then, what are we waiting for?”
“Seattle has trees and cafes, it is cold,”
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 “I like that climate, cloudy, rainy, misty, it is perfect, only one
problem is at hand”
“You have to expect trouble, what is it?”
“We barely have enough fuel to get to Vegas, Seattle is—”
“Don’t worry about that, how much ethics do you have?”
“Well, absolutely none”
“Then, move aside, when a car comes, no, just, drive to Vegas,
you said we could get there, right?”
“Yes”
“Then, step on it”
The pushed the metal pedal, it failed to resist and surrendered
under his weight, and so it fell back, and the vehicle moved closer to
his destiny, drifting across those arid sands and bushes, with no life,
but heat that hauled the wind heavily over the plain. And they drove
nearer and faster, to their fate.

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 Chapter 14

Las Vegas, the city of lights, with electrifying

marquees and boiling with activity streets full of
tourists and gamblers, casinos, the sentinels and
patrons of the fair-city in the huge deserted and arid plain of Nevada
welcomed Stephanie and Marcus. The couple gazed at the high

78
towers of the buildings, overshadowing the streets and blotting out
the sun with their might.
One of them wondered at the other:
“Where should we stay?” she said.
“Wherever we want! The school gives us identification cards,
though they are very glum, they are usable, with your money we can
check in into a hotel and stay there for a while, look at the casinos, I
can’t wait to see this place at night!”
“Fair enough, why not start looking for them?”
“No, I already know what hotel, it is perfect, the Bellagio”
“I think it is too expensive”
“You have plenty of money, eight hundred dollars, we can
gamble too if we run out of it!”
“What would you gamble if you don’t have any money?”
“We can, steal”
“You have very strict ethics,”
“If I had them, you wouldn't be seated right there, you wouldn't
be here, remember, I stole the Bugatti”
“Fine choice by the way.”
“Oh! There it is!”
“Tall building, look at the lake, look at the people, amazing
that group of fountains”
“These parking lots are all full, greedy tourists”

79
 “There! There, that one is empty!”
The huge vehicle grabbed the space with a swift turn, Marcus
got down and reminded her of the bag. Her beauteous, slim figure
flowed harmonically down the set of stairs.
“What the hell is this!?”
“What?”
“This heat! For god’s sake it feels like a group of whiny
children climbing over you crying for a piece of candy!”
“You don’t know what that feels like”
“Speculating, it must feel worse than this”
“Much more terrible than this,”
“Be fast to get inside”
“I will”
“Be fast to get the money out”
“I will”
“Be fast to receive my kiss”
“I—”
He lifted her in his arms and walked ecstatically through the
hideous climate that blanketed over him with lust. They entered and
a ball of fresh, cooled air wagged out from the inner building to
crash unto their weary bodies. The inside was a cavernous, needless
opening with heavy decorated walls the way as to resemble a castle.
The marble tricolor, archaic floors ended in pallid, beige walls with
white and arrogantly detailed, stone arches and hidden hoses of
80
lights that sprayed the opened room with dim and polite light that
spread along the gigantic dome. Titanic chandeliers hung from the
celestial roof. A fashioned collage of paints stained tastefully the
ambience and fresh currents of air swam around calmly.
“I want a reservation for two days in the Tower deluxe king
room please” approached Marcus.
“That would be four hundred and…” the gaunt looking
concierge shot a discriminate gaze at the innocent, illuminated
screen and continued “thirty eight dollars, sir”
“Here you go” Stephanie replied whereas surrendering the
green pieces of damaged and lamenting paper.
“We need you to fill out this fo—“
“If someone gave you a thousand dollars. Would you ask
why?” Marcus disputed and answered the hypothetical question he
had made “no, so give us the keys and I assure you, we will leave in
two days, fill out the forms by yourself, here, have more money”
and he gave up twenty two more green stained papers.
“Very well sir, here are your keys, take that elevator and to
your right, there you shall find your Bedroom”
“Thank you very much”
“I wish you a wonderful visit to the wonderful city of Las
Vegas!” he clasped his hands and nodded with his dark-clad face.
“Stephanie, what a wonderful name, so delightful and pleasant
accommodation of words! It makes me feel, in heaven!”
“You adulator, I knew you had a weakness for blond hair.”

81
 “I have a weakness for you, my love”
“Just walk me to the room” she smiled, sighed and giggled
with relief while staring at the ceiling, he hugged her around her soft
and bare shoulders, with his height he looked down at her from
behind and slowly, moved forth his lips towards hers. She turned
and looked at his eyes, and moved forth her lips and gently embrace
his. He closed his eyes when she did, everything was dilatory, the
floor moved sluggishly and it was then, that only she existed.
“Mister” the cashier said “you are stopping the line”
Marcus’ mind jerked back to reality, she was still there with
her eyes closed, and he joyfully ended the love interaction.
“Oh yes! Sorry” he patted easily on Stephanie’s neck “Stephy,
maybe we should continue this on our room, don’t you think?”
“Yes” Stephanie replied dreamful with a delirious sough.
“Then come, you of the godly tunic”
“The nightingale sang”
“It did, certainly, it did” he lied, knowing, only the Reaper had
sung to him.

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 Chapter 15

83
Dim
light dwelled joyfully inside the fresh and
immaculate, gigantic bedroom. Comfortable
and warm décor stood extroverted
everywhere in sight, with a panoramic, wide view of Las Vegas,
overwhelming with contemporary, rich, dark wood tones, combining
exquisite furnishing and artwork, resplendent with modern looks, a
bed worthy of a king, a twenty-seven, flat inch television, various
sink vanities, luxurious carpets and tasteful arrangement of objects,
Marcus realized the recreational vehicle in which they had come was
nothing compared to this expensive suite.
“Does Olympus suit you, mine goddess?”
“This place is—is, very nice!”
“I can’t wait to see the sun setting behind the mountains, I will
check if there is a bottle of champagne”
“You do that, I’ll take a bath”
His eyebrows uplifted and crowned his forehead with accent of
curiosity.
“Really?”
“It’ll be locked”
“Ah well, no matter, then close the curtains”
“Sure will”
She entered the bathroom swiftly and closed the door with a
vain swing. Marcus sat down over the bed, he closed the curtains,
darkness materialized, it rose and swirled inside the room with a
cold blooded accuracy and efficiency. He turned on the king-like
lamps that played sentinels to the giant furniture. The wooden poles
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that enclosed the comfortable bed carried as a burden a thin and light
weighted robe. The lamps tilted to a dim, golden start that revealed
the television control. He grabbed the plastic polyhedron and turned
the device on with a muffled, rubber click. The screen washed over
its dark grayness and echoed amid the bedroom the artificial sounds
of voices.
He lay down and sank flippantly atop the fashioned furnish.
Marcus placed a vast arrange of cushions beneath his head and
relaxed over the luxurious room money had obtained him, he
admired how the lights played and danced on top of the white and
green, submissive carpets, over the pallid walls and the sullen but
yet detailed, roman-like decoration.
The bath tub started crying, teardrops fell dead unto the
slippery bathroom, the mirror blushed with steam and exhaled it
outside by the bottom of the flimsy door.
Minutes went by, walking emptily and unsatisfied on the
avenue of time. And minutes continued walking, until a crowd had
formed. While growing old, one of them turned, and howled terribly.
The door patted itself and created a drowned sound. Marcus
morphed into an alert guardian. He knocked on Stephanie’s door,
she replied to this pushy act with this:
“You won’t come in pervert” she joked.
“No, where is your bag? I need your gun, lock your door from
the inside, use something to protect yourself”
Her voice froze, no joy remained, for concern, fear and
survival had killed it ruthlessly.

85
 “I will, my bag is on the closet” trembled within and fought to
breathe and bore a sound, it hardly did.
Marcus paced silently near the bag and extracted the gun, he
yelled:
“Who is it?”
“Room service!”
“We don’t need you, thanks, just got here, go clean elsewhere”
The doorknob rolled ominously forth, it whirred with fear.
“No, I think you really need it, I’ll give you a small, new guest
surprise!” said the raspy voice.
“Do not come forward! I am armed”
The door opened, a strange shadow blotted the light,
plundering it and leaving nothing but a blur.
“Sir, your new guest robes, it’s on the house, it is a welcome
gift, oh, what the—!?” the employee was staring at the gun, holding
a set of elegant white robes in his right hand.
“I, this is a water gun, I bought it to prank my—err—son, you
should’ve seen the look on your face!”
“Very funny sir, just be careful with your ‘pranks’ you scared
me to death”
“Thank you for the robes, very nice.”
“Your welcome sir, have a good day”
“Likewise”

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 Marcus closed the door, petrified at the mistake.
“Marcus? I don’t hear gunfire, who was it?”
“Just room service, they gave us a set of robes and slippers”
“Thank God, I thought it was them!”
“Me too honey”
“Just call me Stephy or Stephanie, you gooey names don’t feel
right”
“What a humble and charming person you are, has anyone told
you that?”
“Only you, my father used to, but not the way you do”
“I wished I had met your father, he seems like a good man”
“I haven't talked to you that much about him”
“No matter, he still seems like a fair man, why don’t you tell
me about him?”
“You resemble him so much, I would feel like telling my
father a story he lived”
“Feel free to say whatever you want”
“He said that the first time I fell in love with someone, but not
so deeply, just the type you feel when you are a sixth grader”
“When you speak of this things, it makes me feel that you
aren't as enigmatic as you were when I first met you when I fell on
the stairs”
“Or at the beach”

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 “So, tell me about the complicated and intricate story of your
life up to this point”
“It is a very, very, very long one, you will be bored in a matter
of seconds”
“I promise I won’t”
“Well, I was born in Mexico,”
“O really?” he sat again on the divan and wondered, imagined
with every word that came out of her fair-teethed mouth, and the full
lips that surrounded it.
“Yeah, Guadalajara, I never really like that country, the
teachers always said it was mega diverse and all that load of crap,
but the only panorama I saw was a cheap copy of a desert. It was full
of criminality, the government was corrupt, it dealt with drug dealers
and the mafia, I think those guys had more honor than the mere
president, a lot of taxes, the schools were a poor excuse to an
educational institution, you know? I just so desperately wanted to
get out of there, until we moved to California when I was four”
“I see”
The evening passed until the sun was too tired to stand and
prepared to lay rest behind the mountains, he laughed at her stories
while she was still showering, they held hands in the obscurity when
she was out and wet with the white robe, and they admired the
orange-tinted sky, breathing on the balcony on the sunset, but they
did other things when the light had gone.

88
89
 Chapter 16

At night, contrary to what the Reader might be thinking

from a misinterpretation of the previous sentence, they
paid the Cirque Du Soleil “O” a visit. Stephanie was
wearing a star-clad white dress, immaculate, it shone its greatness
with controlled shouts of light whenever she moved. It cascaded
graciously down her perfectly curved torso, her proportioned legs
and left her amazing calves to breath. It did not shelter her
shoulders, they were too magnificent to cover. With her long hair
shielding part of her clear, tanned, youthful back, she walked past
the aisles of the theater with a giant, bluish pool in the middle. He
was wearing a smoking he had bought a minute before entering the
permanent circus.
“You have a professional taste for white, it fits you
breathtakingly well!”
“Thank you, your smoking makes you look bigger”
“Where are our seats?”
“This row, in the very middle of this row”
“Perfect seating, now we can admire the wholly wonder of this
artists!”
“These seats are the most pedantic, circus seats I have ever
seen!”
“Well, we wasted all the heritage in them, they are worth it”

90
 “I was forgetting about our bankruptcy issue, what are we
going to do?”
“Go to whoever handed you the money of your father and ask
for more”
“That is a problem, the lawyer lives back at Los Angeles,
unless you want to go back”
“No, no, look, this is a casino, I will find out how to count
cards and we’ll gamble some spare money,”
“That is the problem, no more spare money”
“If I told you we can steal, would you rebuke me?”
“No, I steal all the time, but who?”
“Surely there are some beggars on the streets”
“That is so awful, I steal people that can recover from it,
robbing to a blind man has just fallen so low”
“Just a few coins”
“What if you act as a beggar and get a few coins! That is an
excellent idea!”
“But what if they see us!?” he whispered.
“Then we get the hell out of there”
“Like if they hadn't gotten cars”
“We have a gun, and a stolen RV, we can win”
“Let’s just enjoy the show, we think about this crazy plan of
yours later in the night”

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 “Okay” she placed her hand on top of his knee, and he placed
his on top of hers. They enjoyed the rest of the night, every second.
For this was their last together.

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 Chapter 17

With
its dusky fingers, the star-clad sky plunged
restlessly above the building. With
diamonds hanging from its eerie tunic, it
swirled above with displeased snorting, blowing cold winds, and
staining itself with wobbly clouds. Atop a high building dwelled a
table wearing red clothing, stolen disposable cups, dishes and
cutlery, there also stood candles, that exhaled a shimmering aura,
and a set of burgers and french fries with some sodas.
“I am impressed, from where did you get all of this?” she
asked when he pushed her gently through the hollow framework of
an open and apprehensive, creaky, steel door.
“The dishes and disposable silverware have been stolen from a
cheerful party celebrated to a four-year old, the candles from a
church and the food from a man that abandoned his meal at a fast
food restaurant when he paid the restroom a visit. I must admit we
can live without money”
“For today, and tomorrow, but what will happen when you
have to sleep the day after? Where will you rest? Where shall you
hide when they come rushing for you?”
“You are speaking like if you are about to die and leave me
alone”
“You never know.”

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 “Stop talking about death, better eat something.”
“No, you need to be prepared.”
“I won’t be prepared, you ain't gonna die.”
“Nonsense.”
“I'm stuck in this because of you, I'm gratef—”
“Now you are blaming me!?”
“No, I was sayi—”
“Well, I you hadn't been so pushy, maybe this would be my
problem and you would be that selfish, arrogant and pitiful stupid
teenager you where a week ago!”
“Can I spea—what!? It was you who came into my life to
threaten everything I had, I would be safe and comfortable without
you, and look who is calling me selfish and arrogant!” he punched
the table with his powerful and enraged fist, the malicious force
patted the refreshments and candles off their place and stumbling
them to the concrete floor.
“I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you, incompetent bastard!”
“And this is all about a meaningless red box and a sixteen-
word sentence.”
“Watch your words!”
“Why!? What is it that the red box is so important to you!?”
“Inside this cube, there lies the key to the true sense of the
sentence.”
“The so called ‘powers’ of this sentence, what are they?”
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 “The key lies within this box, I told you that.”
“Then open it!”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I promised not to.” Her gaze, bewildered, poured on top of
him as a heavy burden. Tears where born, and gushed silently out of
her eyes.
“Don’t.” he said “not this again, Stephanie, I—I don’t know
what to do, at night I wonder what is behind that door, lying so
patiently in wait, and I ask myself, What if it is better than this side?
And I look upon the balcony, or the knifes, even the sink, so many
entryways, so many chances to leave this suffering for good, and
only one thing that keeps me here, you”
“There is a balcony, we can both—throw ourselves.”
“Is that what would make you happy? Joyful? Is it? Once you
cross that framework, the door will close, leaving you alone with
whatever lies there, waiting for you. What if it isn't what you
needed? Neither happiness nor joy? Are you willing to take that
risk? Risk everything for an unknown answer?”
She shot a calm gaze at the balcony, a waist-high, gray, solid
wall was the only thing that stood on her way, to happiness, to relief,
or endless suffering and grief. She paced slowly towards it and
climbed graciously to the inquiring top.
“If I die, would you die too?”
“When I met you, an angel came to my mind, and when you
told me, the sentence, you became a light, a bright and warm, cozy
95
light, my surroundings went dark, you were the only bright dot. I
feared many things, that the endless gloom might take me with it,
that my shouts for help weren't heard, and that my death wasn’t
mourned. But your light was always there, warming the
impenetrable dark, resisting the strongest of winds. It induced
bravery into me, now, your glow is turning dim. I am afraid, you can
turn off, I won’t see my hands, my feet and, my soul, then I shall
turn off too and surrender to the veil.”
“You and your cheap poetry.” She said with a sad smile, the
moon shone on top of her, grappling her hair with a lingering
moonlight. He took her delicate hand. The soft skin was trembling,
her fingers held his strongly. She knelt painfully, sobbing and crying
loudly. He lifted her and placed her comely body on the floor. He
hugged her head.
“Everything will be alright.”
“You are my dim light too! I'm sorry I called you those things,
would you forgive me?” her eyes stared sorrowfully at his face.
“Of course I will,”
“It’s just—all this problems and I—I don’t know where to run
anymore,”
“At least I know who to run with.” He said while cleaning her
tearful face with a nearby serviette.
“Do you mean that?”
“Whenever I say something, it means, I can steal, I can shoot at
people, but you will never ever hear a single lie from me.”

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 They lay there for the rest of the night, watching the moon and
feeling the breeze, enjoying the last moment of peace.

97
 Chapter 18

That
material, was called aether. According to
greeks, it was the fifth element, from earth,
water, fire and air, this was the one heavenly
objects were made of. According to Hinduism, there were also five
elements, each of them respectively eight times subtler than the last,
they are listed in this order, earth, water, fire, air and aether. To the
Babylonians, this was too an element representing the sky. In several
other beliefs, it also acts on behalf of a void, often, it has been
described with the characteristics of “lighter than light itself”.
Hence describing it as a nonexistent material, but, scientists
didn’t have in their possession was that seven centuries ago, four-
hundred and twenty-seven cubic millimeters of the renown material
was found near Marrakesh, then lost near Ravenna, found again on
the small island of Crete by a couple of fishermen. This precious
chunk, as they called it, was sold to a damaged pirate ship. Aboard
this, a hostage taken from the Greek mainland recognized the
material and corrected the mercenaries that it was a heavenly
material, they thought he was trying to cheat on them to keep the
“diamond” as they referred to it, and slit that poor old man’s throat.
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Afterwards, ignoring the wise advice that had been given to them,
they sold it for a retail prize at a village near the Pyrenees.
From there, the trip gets to a greedy byzantine emperor that
ruled over Constantinople, and from Constantinople back to
Marrakesh were it finally got lost for good.
This has been the only known apparition of aether in all the
known history of man, which is, not so much. Modern scholars
claim that the famous fifth element doesn’t exist, other say that it is
the matter, fluid or void that occupies the space between the planets
and stars, while a minute minority of citizens claim it is the Universe
itself.
Aristotle wrote once that aether is incapable of change and
always follows a circular trajectory. Since the only known sample
was cased in a red box to double the prize when the savage seamen
sold it, the first-hand description of its semblance has been lost.
On this very moment, it is within a brown leather bag being
carried by a girl who’s name starts with an S.
Countless thinkers tried different perspective attacks towards
the enigmas that this red, jewelry-like container holds abreast, and
everything could be solved in a blink of an eye, unfortunately, it
hasn’t. the most desperate and abrupt of them had fought endlessly
to have a small peer at it.
Nevertheless, whether there has been a terrible
misunderstanding in this matter, for if it is the void that fills all of
the Universe, then shouldn’t there be a lot of it? The answer is a
resounding no, that theory was discarded decades ago.

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 Leaving all the questions unanswered, aether is priceless and
powerful, to weak minds, it is the obvious life dream, although, they
haven't got a clue of how to use it, for that, you too need a sixteen-
word, godly arranged, harmonically and beautifully poetic sentence,
thus making the case a reciprocal issue, without the sentence, you
don’t understand the aether and without the aether, you can’t
comprehend the sentence. And soon, a person would find out.

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 Chapter 19

As the lights shone among the mortal men that walked

across the sea of machines and tables with a red and
golden sea bottom and an artificial sky that hangs over
it all, sounds and clicks, shouts and bells swam like lazy fish among
the metal luminous reefs. Biped sharks lurked while sitting on
comfortable, red leather chairs for a huge shoal of golden salmon.
Over green, watery platforms, square marine creatures with scarlet
and black spades and diamonds acting as their own scaled skin
waited to be grabbed by seven Scyllas and a dishonest Kraken. And
this, was only, the King Midas Casino. The heaviest and most
expensive of decoration encumbered the lake of brave and savage
animals wearing the ultimate disguise of the Versailles Palace and
The Royal Palace of Madrid.
“Can’t I just try the betting machines?”

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 “No” said her, rebuking him mildly “we need the money, and I
didn’t spend twenty-two hours worth of planning the escape
researching how to count cards and hand signals for nothing you
slothful idiot”
“Okay okay, jeez, calm down already.”
“Just go give it try, show me it wasn’t in vain.”
“Whatever.” and rolled his eyes.
“This is our very last ten dollars, here, have this chip, use it
wisely.”
He summoned a memory to his mind, it came, gushing out
thoughts:
‘Basic card counting assigns a positive, negative, or zero value
to each card value available okay? That means that an Ace may
mean to subtract a one when you find it. When a card of that value is
dealt, the count is adjusted by that card’s counting value. Low cards
increase the count as they increase the percentage of high cards in
the remaining deck, while high cards decrease it for the opposite
reason, because tens and Aces are good for you and fives, fours and
sixes are good for the dealer, you subtract accordingly to the card or
add to the count, can you understand that?’ he saw Stephanie in his
blank mind telling him that while reading it from Wikipedia.
‘Yeah,’ he had said. ‘But first, you must learn when to hit,
which means taking another card, when to stand, staying with the
cards the dealer gave you, when to double down, to double your bet
awhile accepting another card and when to split, when you receive
equal cards and dividing them to different counts and doubling your

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bet. You must not bust, or otherwise accept defeat.’ And he
answered:
‘I know all that.’ When he got to that part of his memory he
turned back and waved at her, who was waiting patiently for him to
immerse deeply into the greedy, metaphorical, casino waters.
“Can you repeat to me the table?”
“It is very long, damn, I told you to listen, but you were too
hypnotized by the game in TV, rendering you…” she thought
sarcastically “more stupid”
“Don’t be so hard, just tell it to me.”
“I don’t remember it you nit, stop bragging.”
“But…”
“But nothing, go out there and win some money, lazy idiot.
Use logic.”
“And what if I screw it?”
“You ain't taking this seriously, are you?”
“What do you mean?”
“That, again we are stuck, and you, with the opportunity of
leaving this misery, preferred watching a basketball game!”
“Not this again.”
“It was you who wasted all our cash for two nights in the
Bellagio, two V.I.P. tickets to the Cirque Du Soleil and fancy
dressing!”

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 “You have the money, you should’ve stopped me, but wait,
you DIDN’T! You enjoyed every piece of it!”
“Of course, once bought, what else could I’ve done!?”
“YOU could’ve—”
“Excuse me sir.” said a man with a green vest in a submissive
tone.
“What!?”
“Could you please lower your voice? You are starting to upset
other guests.”
“Oh, we are so sorry, perhaps we shall continue or discussion
outside.”
“That would be wonderful sir. Off you go!” and shoved them
calmly to the door. Outside, she began screaming at him.
“This is unacceptable, being chased by some lunatic criminals
and the only thing you do is waste money!”
“Sorry, I am going to compensate you for all my doings, I will
enter that casino and cheat on it to achieve two thousand dollars in
the same night while risking to get caught and punched by those
gorillas playing security!” and strode inwards reluctantly.
He sat rapidly at the first of the tables that there were waiting
for him. On them, three persons and a dealer were waiting for the
next round.
A mid age, green eyed, smoking, red-haired, pale woman
wearing a light, violet dress that flowed down close to her black,
leathered shoes with high, echoing, heels.

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 A fancy and elegant, dark eyed, expensive wearer with an old
shot mustache and a shaggy, black and gray, senior-like population
of hair about to die and leave their immaculate, fleshy floor empty
and vacant.
Then, there was a wise-looking, asian-like, old businessman
with a coal-black smoking, a bald head and thin ears, a pale nose
and gray eyes holed his face and decorated it with a keen, but rather
strange gaze.
The croupier dressed with an immaculate white shirt, shielding
within a dark green vest, and atop it all, a casual, rookie and juvenile
face with blond hair. He juggled the cards skillfully but yet, with
nervous hands.
“I'm in.” said Marcus and sat down, confident at the
inexperience of the dealer and trying to hide his furtive intentions.
Everyone placed their bets:
The woman said “I'm feeling lucky you know?” and allowed a
golden chip to slip out of her hand, actively putting a thousand
dollars on the table.
The fancy man said “Well, I am doubling your bet Sadie!” and
allowed a silvery streaked, golden chip to slip out of his hand,
actively putting two-thousand dollars on the betting, rectangular,
yellow outlined box.
The businessman said “I will win you all, and win lots of
money!” with an excited yelp, and with his stained hand produced
five of the pure golden chips.
Marcus only chuckled ashamed and put carefully a white chip
within the borders of the betting square. Only five dollars.

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 “Is that all you al going to bet, you blat?” asked the asian
descendant businessman with a distortion modifying his altruistic
words,
“If you are going to call me a brat, at least pronounce the r.”
“Shut up!”
“Relax, relax you guys, here have your cards.” Interrupted the
croupier.
The plastic rushed towards him, a happy couple of cards with
elaborate blue robes lied before him, he forced them to face him
with their eyes. They posed a red and proud K and an A.
A happy smirk drew a furrow amid his face. He was happy for
his luck, but a deep sense of loss traveled among his thoughts when
he realized he had won only an insignificant amount of ten dollars.
He shot tranquil gazes at his adversaries, they were all facing
their cards.
“Will you hit?”
“No, I stand.”
The up-card of the dealer shone with a radiant and humble,
bewildered J, he subtracted three for he had gotten a King and an
Ace. He lurked in wait for the rest. Sadie hit, and the rest stood,
which meant the man behind the table had more than seventeen.
This has begun very well, he thought, I should’ve placed more
money, well, no matter, a start is a start, and a hell of a good one!
“Very well, now—” he was interrupted when everyone opened
their hands, Marcus did it slowly and with pride.

106
 “I busted, damn it!” and punched the table with an uncontained
and angry fist.
“Calm down Robert, I told you I was lucky!” she said, but
latterly realized what had the croupier achieved, and the happy
sparkling of her eyes went down.
“Oh, look at the blat, he got a pletty good hand thel, luckily,
his bet was only five bucks!”
The croupier had a twenty with two Jacks, beating everyone,
but Marcus.
Robert, had a twenty-three formed of a nine, a four and an
ashamed ten, obviously the thirteen had come first, Sadie had a
nineteen a ten and a nine, and the one who called him a “blat” had a
seventeen, an eight and a nine.
Hence his list went like this:
Two Jacks, two Tens, an Ace and a King equaling minus four.
Eights and Nines didn’t count, but fours did, and they added a
one, minus three, he couldn’t have a glimpse of the shoe carrying the
decks, so he kept his result and acted accordingly.
Hours passed, he changed tables various times, but the black
and round seagull drifting above kept an eye over him, and it was
called “The Eye In The Sky” he reached an amazing four thousand,
dollars and earned the attention of various guards. But under cover
of cheating, tiredness took over the persistent mind, and that new
mind, started its dominium with a mistake.
The green table had its guests, addicted guests waiting for
cards. With a renewed apathy, Marcus sat down, in his right hand

107
holding a glass of whiskey. While he was getting money like a
bureaucrat, betting whenever it was worth it and ascending
exponentially across the money chain, he found a trivial crack in his
time and bought sunglasses to show off his face.
Morning light poured through the doors. A pure river of white
and ghostly glow cascading from the apexes of the mountains,
which, so tall, scratched the sky and made it cry. Teardrops splashed
among the glowing river, a beautiful and colorful, transparent
spectrum gushed out and speared the gray robes of its father with its
curvature. Revolving those clothes, they staggered sluggishly and
found the lake from which the stream originated. Building a dam
and blockading the flow. The salty teardrops splashed on rocky
grayness and died away in a short and drowned yelp.
And so, no more light poured in, but only a cloudy sky settled
over the desert city. But the inner lamps fought against it heroically.
Marcus received his cards. He lifted them with a strut. They
revealed an eight and a two. He forgot what that meant. The liquor
churned down his fleshy throat. His head hurt, and his eyes hurt.
“Okay—I place, all of this—and a bottle of—forget it, this is
my bet.” The floor moved and the count was high, he tried to direct
a dazed look at the dealer, but discovered he couldn’t. He threw
drunk-like all the chips at his disposal, for he doubled down, and, in
exchange, received another card, following obediently the rules. He
grappled lazily the rectangular polygon and bent it to reveal a shiny
A. His card counting skills came back, to him, this was now a
routine.
“Yes! Take that you bastards! He!” he glanced at a couple of
men wearing black smokings and an underlying lilac shirt. He better

108
control, this guys kept an eye on him, fools, he thought, idiots, how
come hadn't they discovered me cheating? He did the math
accordingly to what the other naïve players gambled. He should bet
little now. He made his bet, a five chip bounced off the table.
He got a nine and a four, he hit, and received a Jack, thus
busting and losing five dollars. He felt comfortable within his
bubble of fortunate winning and cunning. He was good at this. He
got up and looked for Stephanie, he couldn’t wait to tell her how
much money he had won.
He changed his chips on the casino cashier.
“I’d like to change this, you know, for cash?”
“Yes sir, can you give them to me to estimate the exchange?”
“Sure, here you go” he let go a full bag of tokens.
“Whoa! That is a lot! Let me see, in a second I will bring you
the cash, is that fine for you sir?”
“Fine, thanks.”
He felt warm and slim hands grab him on the shoulders. He
turned nervously. A yellow hair swelled into view, and twin emerald
sisters rammed at his gaze.
“Hey,” and she saluted him with three fingers.
“Steph!”
“We better get moving unless you want to get caught.”
“Here sir, two thousand and three hundred forty-two dollars
cash, wait, I need to find something in which to give it to you, we

109
don’t want it to fall right!?” said the cashier with a cheerful
interrupting tone.
“Okay, thanks, make it fast would ya?” and he turned to
Stephanie.
“Whatever you say sir.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Well, suddenly, you win two thousand dollars without losing,
and all of them in Blackjack, shouldn’t that sound strange?”
“It was exponential, you see, whenever I bet a ten, I get a
twenty, and then I get a twenty on the box, and get a forty, and from
the forty an eighty, and sometimes from that eighty I catapulted to
two hundred and forty, you know? Because I made a blackjack, and
so on, it shouldn’t sound strange.”
“Yeah, and you made the five bucks bet when the dealer won
with a blackjack.”
“It was luck, I faked it by drinking whiskey. And I had two
thousand in one bet! I should do this more often!”
“Let’s get out of here. Do they give you all that money in
cash? Really?”
“Yeah, King Midas Casino’s policy.”
“They are going bankrupt.”
“I don’t expect them to last much.”
“Here’s your money sir, have a nice day!”

110
 “Thank you.” He stretched his hand and grappled the bag with
the money, it was heavy.
“Excuse me sir? My friend and I have some questions for you,
do you care asking them?” came a deep voice from behind. Marcus’
skin crawled with fear.
“In a moment.” He answered in a thin and shaky voice, he had
been caught in the act, not everything in his life would be perfect, no
matter how short his life was. He looked at Stephanie, her blank
stare revealed whatever was waiting for him when he turned. He
handed her the bag with the money. Perfect and delicate hands
controlled the wave of trembling with experience. Intelligently, she
exchanged the heavy object being placed at her limbs’ reach for the
gun she had with ability hidden all night and turned nervously. Her
feet flapped furiously as they slapped at the floor betrayed.
“Run—run!” he whispered. Then, Marcus turned.
“She has the money, get her!”
“NO! take me, leave her!” said Marcus in a futile attempt to
protect the love of his life, he thought his commentary would make
the men in front of him chuckle, thus giving Stephanie more
distance between them, how run could they run either way? He
thought.
“Sorry lad, we’ll have to take both!”
“You can’t if you are dead!” Marcus laughed maniacally and
pointed the black-clad pistol at them.
“Whoa boy! Relax, you—you can take the money and—
gotcha!” he got his handgun out of an unseen pocked inside his
smoking.
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 “You won’t shoot a guest!”
“Guest my ass, this is what happens to robbers and cheaters!”
The man’s companion’s eyes’ prideful brilliance and might
turned off as a thundering sound slit the throat of the air and pushed
the sparkle out of his face. With blood coming out of the recently
made wound, the air howled desperately and spat deafness among
the men. The duo that Marcus beheld morphed into an army of one
as the one on the right staggered. Red and watery zombies
resurrected from his back and gushed out aghast. Sputtering they fell
to the ground where the painfully dismembered limbs of the blood
drops flew light weighted and splashed elsewhere.
With a hole in his chest and his back, the man staggered
slowly, an ashamed and blushed liquid clambered vividly out of his
mouth.
The glass doors behind Marcus wailed and utterly yowled as
they broke into small bitter pieces when a metal enemy crashed at
them. And death, life’s foe, crashed at the remaining guard. Sending
him precisely upwards and away, launching him like a rubber toy
against the wall.
Marcus turned, dropping the gun and raising his hands. If he
was next, he preferred to know it. A balaclava man welcomed his
sight. Holding a smoking and bifurcating shotgun.
“Hello,” he said
“Who—who the hell are you?”
“Just your savior.”
“What?”

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 “C’mon boy, we got plans for ya, and first is, that lil’ thing we
asked of ya a few days ago, you remember, don’t ya?”
“Oh uh!”
The man tackled Marcus strongly before he started his escape.
The next thing he remembered before unconsciousness was a small
talk he had.
“Oh god, you are from those that took me captive didn’t you?
Well, let me tell you something, yesterday I thought death was
something better than this, if you are going to give me that, I’ll be
happy to get it!”
“Oh, and happy you’ll be boy! But first, some friends have
questions for ya, then you’ll be happy, along with that gal that is
with ya, you’ll see her in hell! Boy, I am anxious!”
Then, Marcus got dragged to a truck, hit and taken somewhere
he didn’t know. He was so close to happiness.

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Act 2
114
There are persons.

115
That are good

116
And others that are evil.

117
The knack is, to know the difference

118
Part 1

119
Trust the ones you know, and give strangers a
chance

120
 Chapter 20

Dark
was a perfume the inside of the truck used.
Dark was the cloth it used. Cold was its
breath, as it breathed on Marcus’ face.
Three balaclava men were its teeth. And mystery was its face. A
transparent black veil did not impede so much the way he glanced.
Marcus was able to yet have a glimpse of the men and what they
were holding.
“Hey, we can discuss this you know? Like civilized people?”
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 “Good try kiddo, but, I rather not, specially the way you
cheated on us the last time. Enough of this, I am tired of your
tricks.”
“But I have only tricked you one time.” Marcus said
defensively. To which, the man on the other end of the conversation
answered:
“You admit it, and this is the reason, I don’t know what to do
with you. Your girlfriend, she escaped with cunning, as it is her way.
But you, naïve brat, surrendered to us. If you so eagerly want to die,
why didn’t you fight?”
“Obviously I didn’t know it was you.”
“And you where supposed to get for us that secret, remember?”
“I do, and I know a part of it.”
“A part? Only one? How many are there?”
“To my understanding, two. One of them is within a red box.”
“A red box eh?”
“Yes, aether, an unknown material to mankind ever since the
fourteenth century.”
“That is the secret?”
“No, that is the material within the box.”
“An what is, that part that you are aware of?”
“A sixteenth word sentence.”
“And what does this sentence say?”

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 “I can’t understand it, the key to it, lies, again, within the red
box.”
“I understand.”
“You do?”
“No, but, you have betrayed her, now that you told me this. I
want you to tell me, where is that red box.”
“Inside the hotel Bellagio.”
“Idiot, good bye!” and threw him out by the back door. He hit
the asphalt.
By the ambient, he could tell it was just after dawn, when light
is still gray and night hasn’t left completely. By his surroundings he
could tell it was a park. A river by his left side and a grassy slope
that rose upwards and was stopped by a wall of leafy and healthy
oaks.
The truck choked out of its dormant state with a roar and
exhaled a cloud of smoke by its one nostril. Its red eyes glowed back
to life and sped backwards and away from Marcus’ now uncovered
face.
His hands and feet were still tied to each other like a married
couple. In a matter of hours, he would be found and untied. But it
could be a matter of days until he found Stephanie or she found him.
He didn’t know what to do. A wave of desperation came when he
thought of her. With those shiny emerald eyes. And that star-clad
golden hair. He wondered if she was still using the white dress, she
looked so beautiful in it. The skirt that left uncovered her godly
tanned calves. Her feet moved her graciously to the street. If the

123
minor breeze blew, the tunic would crash at her legs and show how
breath taking they were, even beneath a veiling white.
“Hey!” someone said in a faint sough. An early jogger, Marcus
thought.
“Who is there, help me! They left in a black van!”
“Stop whining.”
“Help!”
“Are you sure they left?”
“Stephanie? Is it you?”
“Of course it is me you idiot.”
“How did you find me?”
“I followed them when they took you, it seems the blond tint is
coming down, probably we will know what color my hair has been
before I started my tinting spree.”
“How come can you be so calm? I was kidnapped!”
“How come can you be complaining when I just saved your
life?”
“I saved myself.
“I can’t stand you, have you noticed?” she asked in
mischievous falsehood. he was untying his hands by now, with
every move she made, a burning sense came to him. The handcuffs
should've been there for a long time. Therefore asking:
“How long was I captive?” and he grasped his hands
querulous.
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 “Not a lot, maybe a day or two, are you hungry?”
“I bit, yes.”
“Then get over it.”
“It did, and so, where are we?”
“Somewhere in Oregon. Ochoco National Forest or something,
very nice this place.” She finished untying him.
“And you came here, exactly how?”
“Driving, how else? God, I should by a shirt saying ‘I am with
stupid’ don’t you think?”
“ What I think you have a multiple personality problem.”
“Why is that?”
“One night, you were threatening to jump off a balcony, and
the next day, you are happily insulting me.”
“I am always insulting you, but you know I am not serious.”
“Yes I know that, but, the suicide thing, is a bit more serious,
perhaps you should ask for some help, you know, when this is
over?”
“No, now are you going to get up, or turn to see me and thank
me, or are you going to remain there rubbing your wrists?”
He turned reluctantly, she was wearing exactly the same
things, her hair was untidy and mildly knotty on the edges. Yet, her
face smiled radiantly as always.
“When was the last time you slept?”

125
 “I can’t remember.”
He stood up slowly, with his hand he gently caressed her right
cheek. Then, they hugged. Electricity passed through his body,
making him feel comfortable and strong as she snuggled in his
brace. She looked up and unto his face, she moved hers closer, until
their lips touched. He carried her to the top of the slope and placed
her like an autumn leaf falling from the trees unto the grass. Her
unwashed hair irradiated another flare of golden daggers from every
glowing thread.
“You look…”
“I'm sorry, I haven't had enough time to take a bath, you know,
one day, I was telling you how to count cards, and the next I passed
a day inside a car and other things, I know I stink and—”
He kissed her again in a passionate way.
“That doesn’t matter at all.” He said in a calm and soothing
voice. He glanced at the panorama the low hill gave him.
The soil extended far away out of view under the cover of
leafy trees. The foliage was thick. And as the sun peered from out of
the mountains, curious to touch land, with its yellowish fingers
patted the ground’s vivid grassy coat so as to make it shine from
within as a feverish soul. Four cabins stood guard of its public
gullet. Wooden and dark tiles were their helmets
“Did you keep the money I won?” he asked.
“No, it was difficult, I couldn’t keep it.”
“Why don’t we ask for help?”

126
 “We would be asked what are we being chased for, and what
where we going to say?”
“That we are rich, they are kidnappers.”
“No, we don’t have money, remember?”
“We had what happened that made you lose it?”
“I had to buy something to pursue them, it was cheap, and I
lost all of it.”
“And where is it?”
“Out there, near the woods.”
“Is it fast?”
“Hmm, no.”
“Does it have gas?”
“Hmm, no.”
“What kind of car is it?”
“Some very old model, at least it can move. And it is a car,
isn't it?”
“Well, let’s get going, the faster the better.”
“But where are we going? They will follow us everywhere.”
“They are driving to Las Vegas again towards the Bellagio.
That won’t take a minute I am sure of that, well, unless they can fly
at a supersonic speed.”
“You don’t know them, we were there, obviously they left
someone looking for me, since, I wasn’t taken. They will call him
127
and make him burst into our room and when he searches it and finds
only wet towels, they will be very, very, very mad.”
“And how much time will that take?”
“Half an hour in the most optimist scenario.”
“Why haven't they killed us already?” he asked as they were
running down the slope.
“They need us, well, they need me, but you are with me and
therefore know something, as you are the only one who has get
caught, they release you in order to get the box from me and tell
them everything you know.”
“They are stupid, don’t you think? They released me twice,
and haven't realized I tricked them.”
“They won’t make the same mistake thrice. Next time you are
captured, say goodbye to life, they will kill you immediately if you
don’t tell them.”
“Why not kill me with a rifle right now?”
“Because they need you alive, in case you decide to reveal
them the secret, but anger will get over them if you don’t tell them
what they need you for, and hence will put a bullet in your head.”
“Oh, now I understand.”
“Good.”
As they sprinted forward, the dark tiles rouse to meet them.
The small village comprised of four, elongated, one-floored cabins
felt cozy and safe. On the edges of it, there stood a wall of obese tree
trunks. With a dark smell it repelled the recently born light that

128
came from the mother sun. Fog swirled round the broken branches
and dead, brown and pallid leaves. The forest was quiet and gray.
Marcus run as fast cautiously with a furtive, front stare as his gaze
wandered freely among the trees and walked high-spiritedly over the
ground.
“What a place to hide a car don’t you think?”
“I warn you, the way I wasted the money won’t be to your
liking, so brace yourself.”
“I don’t have to brace myself, I just spent eight hours gambling
and doing math to earn the money, it was like a day of work.”
“You haven't slept in two days.”
“An you haven't slept in four. One question, why did it took
them so long to get here?”
“I saw them pulling into motels more than once, but it never
came to my mind why.”
“Never? And where did you pull in? to wait for them?”
“In the parking lot. Where else?”
“I bet they were driving really slow—” something interrupted
his sentence. A thundering sound snapped from somewhere hidden
in the thick forest. A metal projectile hit something, and all of a
sudden, he fell to the ground.

129
 Chapter 21

130
The
aether continued its way across the
Mediterranean, but when it got back to
Marrakesh, thirteen poets were hired to write a
sixteenth versed poem about the precious material found within the
red box.
Ashamed by the aether’s magnificence. Four of them jumped
off a cliff. Nine remained hypnotized by such enigmatic and
mysterious material. Until, to such a torture to continue watching it,
two committed suicide, each of them, with a Muslim sword slit their
throats.
Seven sat in a circle talking about the poem they were hired to
compose. Without any words but an exceedingly amount of
inspiration, four of them commenced writing rhymes and poems.
But only one of them wrote a breathtaking essay. Only nine words,
the poet took a minute quantity of aether and placed it in a glass of
water. Seven words came out of the amazing result. Bravely, the
philosophic pioneer drank the dangerous formula.
He recited, a sixteenth versed poem to the very brink of
perfection and collapsed. Too beautiful to be written, the six
remaining and awestruck men remembered only the first word of
every verse, which, in the fear of being forgotten, was scribbled on
paper as fast as they could. Stunned, they realized, that the sentence
made perfect sense, though not even close to the godly harmony and
rhythm the complete poem had, the words revealed the solution to
The Problem. With a deep and profound sense of loss at not
remembering everything said by the dead man, the poets drank and
even smaller portion of the aether, to no effect but strong
hallucinations and augmented physical strength, they decided to kill
each other.

131
 By the time the Muslim leader that had hired them got to their
thinking room, he only found seven bodies and a sentence on a piece
of paper. As he was a man of honor, he paid them posthumously, put
their bodies in boats and set them on fire along with golden chunks.
Yafar, for that was his name, after the funeral games had
finished, read what was on the paper. He mumbled it for seven days,
resisting thirst, hunger and sleepless nights, until eventually, he died.
The sentence was read by his son, and re-written artistically, he
enclosed it in a roll and sent it to his uncle on the southern coast of
Spain.
His uncle was undignified and ordered the red box and the roll
both be buried deep within the land or be burnt into thin smoke and
forgotten forever.
Unfortunately, one of his subjects opened the roll, and
intrigued opened the box. Days passed without a remarkable event,
but the subject wouldn't return. On a fair Saturday morning, a patrol
found a dead body on the beach. Yafar’s brother hired scientists to
make a bolt according to the sentence so whoever found the box
couldn’t open it without knowing the sentence and whoever knew
the sentence wouldn't know what it meant without actually seeing
the aether.
The box was again ordered to be buried or burnt, it was buried
along with the roll, and lost for the next seven centuries.

132
 Chapter 22

133
“Get up damn it!” she swore while shaking
Marcus up from the shallow pond on which
he had fallen strangely as a firearm rang a
bullet off its gullet. The accurate shot had impacted the crust of a
tree, it shot shrapnel crazily and made Marcus close his eyes
reflexively, thus provoking his eyes evading a branch on the floor
over which he tripped clumsily.
“Oh god! Please tell me you have the pistol!”
“I do, now get up, fast, we can get to the car!”
“Just give me the gun!”
“Here, run, run!”
He gripped the weapon as strongly as he could and focused his
bewildered gaze into a loose aim. Another thunder sliced through
the air. Metal pellets arced among the sound wave, cutting the wind
the way a needle stabs the skin and injects liquid in the blood, the
bullets injected energy on the tree trunk and hard wood gushed
outwards in a crackling moan.
“Come here boy! Gotcha this time eh? No escape for ya, secret
or death!”
“Stephy, we need to talk.”
“What the hell do you mean!?”
“About this—this crazy running away.”
“Oh.” She said relieved, and added “yeah, we do, but right
now, shoot at them.”
“I think it is only one.”

134
 “Why should they send only one?”
“I don’t know, I can’t even understand why are they so
obsessed with this thing of the secret you know?”
“SHOOT!”
From the barrel of his gun, a blazing flame leapt and from it, a
metal ovoid boosted away in a straightforward trajectory. Tired from
flying, the bullet laid to rest upon the ground, and as a sheltering
blanket over a comfortable bed, a soil geyser rouse from the land
and back again it fell.
“Ho! You gotta gun!? I didn’t know it, now I should kill ya
faster!”
“Oh uh! Now he is angrier!”
“They were mad when you tricked them unto your release,
they won’t hesitate in killing you.”
“Why?” he asked imploringly to the sky with an outworn
glance “Damn, I hate this topic of conversation, it repeats so much
in our lives!”
“Look, there it is!”
“What? The car?”
“Yes, why else would we be running amid a forest while
chased by a maniac killer, for fun?”
“Boy!? Didn’t you say death would be a good thing to you?”
yelled the pursuer.
“That was for you to think if you killed me you would be
doing me a favor and didn’t, reverse psychology idiot!”
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 “So you don’t know the secret?”
“No, even if I did I wouldn't tell it to you!”
“Get inside!” Stephanie interrupted. He sprinted forward at the
rusty, reddish figure standing on the middle of a small, foggy
opening within the thickly dark foliage of the overlooking trees.
Standing like an old, damaged and dusty ruby. They entered rapidly
as the last thundering wave rammed at their ears like a wild boar.
The car sparkled off a fire flame of fire that stabbed it with force.
Shielding its guts with the scarlet-scales coat, a blazing orange cloud
pinged off the dragon skin. The attacker was left behind in a welter
of smoke and raised dirt that jumped heavenwards as the tires spun
out of control.
“We will get ya arrogant boy!”
Marcus peeked outside through a filthy and nostalgically
hollow, rubber framework. Aimed the gun back at the tail of the car
and pulled, for the very last time in his life, the trigger, which
obediently allowed an overwhelming splash of light that with its
small muzzle spat happily away.
And as they sped fate-wards, a hole, on the center of the door
swallowed the glow of the radiant sun that was now visible outside
of the greedy walls of the forest. And so a hole had been made, not
only to the metal, but to the flesh. Blood streamed out from a wound
and a life would meet its foe, death. And clothes were wet with red.

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 Chapter 23

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A
story of love, hate, fear, curiosity and enigma came to an
end. A woman with a secret, comes over to a beach, to
meet a guy, which she deliberately trusts based on his
actions and devotion to her. She handles her recently acquired
follower a secret. A red box and a simple sentence. A clandestine
organization of five men, aware of such exchange follow the couple
to achieve the knowledge there contained.
On previous events, a man is shot, another one is poisoned, and
the last one is stabbed. Fanatics to their beliefs and promises of great
wonders, they are blinded by the tales and legends that so orderly
follow the duo of objects.
And as religious persons, such as the ones that created the
eight Crusades and the Holy Jihads, on which countless innocents
died for faith, the actions of the five pursuers is just and echo to
these wars, though to a lesser extent, still fighting over someone to
get something holy and magnificent to themselves and with the same
objective in mind.
She threatens to suicide due to how this words and the red box
boggles her mentality. He yet remains strong for he doesn’t care
about the secrets that there lay, but cares about her.
The couple is pursued and cast away from their natal city, their
odyssey commences as they steal cars and recreational vehicles, as
they fight under tunnels and inside casinos, where a member of the
defending couple earns two thousand dollars with a previously used
technique, which more skillfully, gave more money. Stories of the
people who have counted cards is endless, and more lucrative. The
male accompanying the female achieved a perfect count, and though

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not included in the narration, he did lose money, but thanks to eight
hours of hard work, he won his payoff.
Kidnapped, he is driven to the Ochoco National Forest and is
kept an eye by his girlfriend who loyally follows.
From the money won at the casino, she buys a car and explains
him how she got there. She also explains the power of good
organization of the five men, they left someone back at Vegas to
check if they were truly gone or were just hiding. When he lies to
them about the real location of the box, they call their man to check
if his words are true, when eventually they discover they aren't, a
man is sent to kill him and her and recover the box.
As Odysseus, they undertake a journey to freedom, whether
this gets to them while they live or when they both die. They live for
each other, if one dies, the other is devastated, as it happens in
every relationship.
Her perspective to him changes over the days as their romance
grows and the dangers is higher. They don’t give up until they have
nothing else for which to fight or live for.
From an unknown place, it changed lives, some dramatically,
some very mildly, and, is never revealed. The aether came from an
unknown source, and was known only by a few. After traveling
through space and time, across Europe and through the centuries, it
remains untouched, and, untouched, it should remain.

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 Chapter 24
140
Pain
was sprayed calmly over an abdomen.
Irritating the skin, it sputtered blood, warmly
it crawled inside clothes. With hands over the
wound, and desperately concerned glances shot amid the inner cabin
of the car.
“Don’t you give up on me!” rang within the particles of air.
“It hurts.” In a faint voice.
“No matter, you can make it!”
The red car fought against its rusty engines to push it faster.
The sun was above all, leaning on the sky. The clouds slightly
moving as they looked upon the couple with pity, they held their
cries but yet plundered the blueness of the sky with glum, drifting
faces.
“Stop the car.”
“What?”
“Stop the car.”
“Why?”
“There is no point in continuing this, we will never get
somewhere in time.”
“We have to try!”
“No, when I die, I want to have a proper—proper good bye.”
“But—but!”

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 “Please…”
The car stopped softly, they stormed off the inside and, one
knelt and the other lying down moribund, they spoke.
“Stephanie…” he started, she nodded, her eyes dull and pallid,
full with tears and grief, it was happening again to her. With her
eyelids blanketing half of her sparkling emeralds, a mouth
trembling, consoling him with part of her perfectly lined white
pearls as teeth. A smooth skin that covered her slender hand, which
gently slow, was covered with blood. She felt every heartbeat, like a
ghost vanishing into thin air, every breath he took, fading, the light,
turning off, morphing into mere obscurity.
“Stephanie,” he resumed with dying embers coming out of his
sorrowful throat. This was it, the end of the way, the dead end, the
other side of the door, and it was beautiful with her by his side, he
added “ever since I met you, you were flawless, perfect, like a the
sun that hangs above us. Watching over me, like a naïve baby, you
tolerated me without hesitation. The day I asked for a room back
then at the Bellagio, I thought, we are being chased by devoted
maniacs, and the only thing we do, is loose time, why are we so
careless? It came to me, our last days, and I asked myself What
would I do if this where my last days? Do what I did, exactly the
same thing, I was sad at the campus, I was never appreciated by
anyone there, always ignored, then you came, and those days were
the happiest of my whole life, I thank you for that.”
“Don’t—don’t!” she tried, but, the words stuck inside her
throat in a painful knot, the painful knot tried to escape, like a wild
horse being chased, it was only liberated by sobs and loud cries.

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 “Stop it,” he whispered lowly with affection “if, you where
asked ‘What would you do in your last days?’ What would you
say?”
“To do whatever that would make me happy, free and
relieved.”
“Then do it, free yourself from me, make yourself happy by a
new start, relieve your life from the secret forget it!” he said
boasting his strengths to their maximum, soaring his voice up to the
heavens that levitated above, sprinkling light.
“I can’t—I can’t! I—I love you! Don’t leave me here!”
“You need to go on with your life, escape from these men,
leave the past behind, behold the future up-front!”
“You were that future!”
“No, my death is a new opportunity, you wanted to be new
again, this is your chance!”
“If I were you now, lying on the grass, wetting it with my own
blood, would you do the same?”
“But that, is not the case.”
“And what if it was?”
“Stop it, now you will do what you have always wanted, leave
with me here along the box, the man that killed me shall take it, I
will tell him the sentence, and you will be left alone, here, starts
your new life!”
She kissed him, the way she had never kissed before. It was
long, burning feverishly with passion. Nothing else existed. The

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surroundings were dark, only he was there to return the kiss, only
them mattered. She stopped, tears poured out of her eyes. He held
her abreast, the morning breeze blowing softly her scent into his
nose. She wept loudly and trembled.
“I love you, I will always, love you.” He said, his words
echoed in her mind, here was someone, she thought, would never
leave, and now, he was almost completely crossed the hollow
framework of an open door. There was no more in seconds, he
would never answer her back, kiss her, hug her, never again.
“Good bye.”
“Good bye.”
She caressed his face again, she was leaving him, right there,
thinking, minutes ago, this looked so straightforward, such a brilliant
tomorrow. And now, it was fading, she would never see him again.
She hopped unto the car, gave the box to his trembling hands,
knowingly, once she had fully exchanged, this was over, a new
beginning. She handled him her wrist band, and stepped on the gas
pedal. Her car slowly vanished out of his sight, slowly and
mournfully, another car stopped by, a balaclava man came down.
“Is this the box kiddo?”
“Yes, it is.”
“The sentence, tell it to us.”
After a long sigh, he told them, awestruck, one of them aimed
a gun at his face, and said.
“You said this would make you happy? I will end you misery,
finally.”

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 He directed a glance at the dark and deep barrel. He was
looking at death itself, and in a click, everything was gone, black,
peaceful, painless. He didn’t feel the bullet, nor saw the muzzle
flash, but felt, finally, relieved. On the distance, Stephanie heard the
explosion, she jumped up from her seat, but continued. A dead man,
a dead love. She drove onward, she felt, finally, relieved.
In the sky, a dove looked at the dawning sun, flying to her nest,
preparing for the coming day, and so was Stephanie, preparing for
the coming life.

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