07

Part 7

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Kelsey.” Bibana called out as she left the cafe, leaving me to lock up. I didn’t know why she left me incharge, didn’t she know I was the most irresponsible person around? I mean, I could take care of my teddy bears, but myself…not at all. And not only did she leave me by myself, she left me responsible of the cafe, crazy woman.

Not wanting to be left alone in a deserted cafe at 2:00 am, I hurriedly wiped the counter, changed into my regular clothes, grabbed Skittles from the back room, then left the cafe, making sure to lock up. It was crazy, how today turned out to be such a long night. My shift started from 10:00 am and ended at 6:00 pm; but today, Pam, who covered the evening shift decided not to come, the irresponsible beetle! Leaving me to work with Bibiana until late at night. And now I was all alone, walking down the deserted streets of Florence.

Normally, I had no problem walking alone, but the problem was, Severon was on the loose. I mean, the crazy dude just visited me, ordered me to stay away from strange men, then left the cafe as if he was the bloody king of the place.

Well he is the king, I mean, he owns the cops.

I wished he owned some teddy bears, maybe then he wouldn’t be so boring and scary. But whatever, I had no problem with him as long as he left me alone, and gave me non-toxic candy.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on ends just as I neared my apartment. Clutching Skittles tightly to me, I turned around to see who was following me, but no one was there. My heart started hammering against my chest as I gazed around my surrounding, trying to see who was watching me. But there was no one. Just the dark, empty streets of Florence, slightly illuminated by the street lamps. The windows of the neighboring apartment buildings were dark, telling me that I was the only idiot walking the streets at this hour.

However, despite not seeing anybody, my fear did not abate. I still had to walk a couple of blocks until I reached my apartment, so I decided to sing; maybe singing would alert the security guards to watch out for me.

“Jelly bean, jelly bean, you look very green.” I started to sing, turning my head left and right to check for anyone who looked suspicious.

“Jelly bean, jelly bean, please smile, don’t be so mean.” I wrote this song in school when I was in kindergarden. Nobody in my class really liked it, but it always helped me when I was scared, even though the lyrics were not exactly…normal.

“Jelly bean, jelly bean, do you have the flu?” I kept singing, feeling better as I neared my apartment.

“Jelly bean, jelly bean, look, now you’ve turned blue!” I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw my apartment complex.

“Jelly bean, jelly bean—“ My voice died in my throat as a pair of head lights nearly blinded me. I put up a hand over my eyes to shield them from the strong glare of the car’s headlights. The car stopped right in front of me. Where had it come from? I did not hear any vehicle running about all this time, and suddenly there was a car in front of me.

Before I could run away, the back door of the black car opened and a man dressed in all black got out. It was like my mind froze, not registering what was happening. The man pushed me inside the car, then slammed the door shut. It was only when I was in the car, did my brain unfroze, and I let out a shrill scream. I wanted to wake the whole of Florence up with my scream, but a hand clamped over my mouth, preventing any sound of escaping.

Not one to give up, I begun fighting with my captor. Using Skittles—my bear—as a weapon, I begun hitting the man who had his hand over my mouth. However, the man did not remove his hand from my mouth. I slammed the teddy bear where I assumed was the man’s face, and didn’t stop hitting until I heard my captor swear.

Realization slammed into me as I recognized the deep, rich voice, which seemed to be following me around everywhere. Struggling to turn around to see if it was who I thought it was, I saw Severon glaring at me.

“What the fucking hell is wrong with you?!” He snarled, his golden eyes flashing dangerously.

I tired to speak but my voice was muffled. I glared at Severon, telling him to remove his hand from my mouth through my eyes, but the man was dumber than a cartoon charatcer. Thinking I had no choice, I bit Severon’s palm, causing him to let out of volley of expletives. He instantly remove his hand, letting me breathe a sigh of relief. Damn, I should’ve done this instead of using my precious bear as a weapon.

“You did not remove your hand,” I explained, when Severon continued to give me evil eyes.

“You are in so much trouble,” he uttered dangerously.

“Yeah, I kinda figured that out when your minion pushed me in your car. By the way, what the hell is wrong with you, why do you keep following me? If you don’t have anything better to do, you can give my bears a bath every week,” I offered, looking out the tinted window, trying to see where we were going, but was only met with darkness.

“You really need to learn to behave yourself around me,” he stated, his eyes hard.

“I’ll behave myself when you’ll leave me alone,” I replied.

“Well, guess then I’ll just have to tame you by myself,” he muttered, running a finger down my cheek.

“Excuse me?!” What in the bubblegum hell was he talking about.

“Why don’t you stop talking for a moment and relax, you never relax,” he said softly. His back and forth temprament was starting to make my head spin.

“What’s that suppose to mean?” I held Skittles tightly.

“Exactly what I said. You never relax, you are always moving around, kinda like a mouse. You should relax sometimes, it’s good for your health,” he replied, still in that same soft tone. I didn’t know why, but that tone of his was doing something to me. It was surrounding my mind, like a thick, peaceful fog, hypnotizing me. And a small part of me was beginning to agree with him; compelling me to listen to Severon and relax. But thankfully, it was only a small part, so it was not very effective.

“Relaxing is impossible when you have a maniac stalker following you.” I gave him a pointed look. “And what do you know about my health, Dr. Evil,” I spat.

Severon laughed, a laugh that told me I was inviting trouble. “Oh dandelion, you don’t know evil.” He cupped my cheek and caressed it with his thumb. “But you will, and you will be scared, very scared,” he said in a matter of fact tone.

I pushed his hand away, causing him to grit his teeth. “Dude, I once saw my fifty two year old neighbor naked, nothing scares me anymore.” I told him.

“You think you are fearless but you’re not. Mark my words, dragonfly, you will fear me.” He circled my neck with his large hand, but I did not feel an ounce of fear.

“I’ll never fear you, Severon, but I will fear your wife and kids. No wait, I won’t fear them, I’ll feel sorry for them, because they are going to have a monster for a dad and a husband.” I had not meant for those words to come out, but it was as if my stupid mind had decided to take matters into its own hands and used my mouth to tell Severon exactly what it thought of him.

Severon’s reaction was instant. One minute, he sitting next to me, and the next he pushed me down until I was lying against the back seat, with a gun pointed to my head. The look on his face was pure rage, his eyes flashing golden lava, rage oozing from every pore.

“You are right.” Severon gritted his teeth, his body trembling with barely restrained fury. “I am a monster, and you’ll soon exactly what this monster is capable of.”

Don’t be scared, Kelsey. Don’t be scared. I chanted in my head; but still, a stream of terror trickled through a deep crevice in my brain and slowly seeped in my bloodstream.

“P—Put the gun away. You want me to think you’re powerful and scary, well hiding behind a gun is cowardice. Even my teddy bears are braver than you.” Somebody really needed to shut me up before I had myself killed by Severon.

I thought Severon was going to shoot me when he narrowed his eyes, but thankfully, he put the gun away, causing me to let out small breath of relief. However, he did not let me up; he kept my body pinned, using the force of his arm to keep me down; so much so, that it felt like he was crushing my ribcage.

“You son of a beetle, let me up.” I tried to wriggle myself out of his grip but it was like a piece of heavy metal was on top of me.

“Stay fucking still or I am going to slice your throat. You’re not getting up until we reach our destination.” At that moment I cursed the day he was born.

Silence reigned thick and heavy as I tried to prevent myself from wriggling under Severon’s grip. With no words being exhanged, no insults being traded, I focused my mind on the car. The car took two sharp left turns, before taking a sudden right turn and coming to an abrupt halt.

Fisting my blouse in a tight grip, Severon hauled me up to a sitting position, before opening the door and dragging me out. In my attempts to remove Severon’s hand from my shirt, I dropped Skittles back in the car. Oh no.

“Where in God’s chocolaty hell did you bring me?!” I shouted.

Severon didn’t bother answering my question with a verbal answer. Instead he gave my blouse a hard tug, resulting in me staggering over to him. Shifting his grip from my shirt to my arm, Severon continued dragging me along with him.

After a minute, I saw where we were. It looked like some kind of an abandoned building. The windows were smashed, jagged remains of glass hanging from the panes. There was some ugly graffitti sprayed on the walls. The door looked to be made of metal, shining in the sparse moonlight.

I opened my mouth to order Severon to tell me where we were, but before I could so much as utter a peep, he led me all the way to the metal door. I thought he was going to knock, but Severon pushed open the door and entered.

The inside was as horrible as the outside. There was a foul, pungent stench in the air, making it difficult for me to breathe. The walls were colored with awful graffitti and charcoal. A few large, wooden crates were placed in every corner.

However, the place itself did not get my stomach churning. No, it was the sight that greeted me, that made the coffee and pastry I had for dinner difficult to hold down. There was a man sitting, tied to a wooden chair. I couldn’t recognize his face due to all the blood that was coating his skin. His shirt was torn open and there were deep gashes all over his chest. His hair was matted with dried blood. My eyes lowered to see the man’s ankles bleeding where the rope was digging in. The sight was absolutely horrifying.

“Di—Did you do this?!” How could Severon do this?

“Yes, I did, dragonfly.” Severon held me in front of him, my back to his front.

“Wh—Why?” My eyes widened.

“Because I can,” he replied casually.

I wrenched myself free from Severon’s grip and turned to face him. He had a wicked smile on his face. I knew it, he was nothing short of a criminal—a killer. I had no idea how he had the police under his control, but even the cops wouldn’t let Severon get away with murder. I needed to call the cops, I just needed a phone, because mine was dead.

“Yo—You won’t get away with this! I’ll call the cops and they’ll arrest you. They’ll put you in jail for life!” I screamed.

Severon laughed, a rich mocking laugh that had unwanted tears pricking my eyes. I was wrong, I was not fearless. I was scared of a lot of things, but right now, I was afraid of Severon. It was like there was no humanity in those golden irises as they looked at me with malice.

“Oh sweetie, you can call all the cops you want, trust me, no one is going to arrest me. But they will arrest you…if I tell them to,” Severon said.

“Yo—You can’t do that, you are not that powerful.” My tears were betraying me, flowing down my eyes in steady streams.

“Oh, are you crying, dandelion?” He cooed and stepped forward. “Are you scared of me now? And dandelion, you’ll be surprised to know how powerful I really am.”

“You are nothing but a criminal, a murderer!” I shot back.

Severon chuckled darkly. “Dragonfly, I am more than a criminal, do you know what I actually am?” He was taunting me, playing with me. He was enjoying seeing me weak. Sick son of a beetle!

“You told me you were a doctor, but now, I know you were lying, tell me, who are you?!” I demanded to know, not caring that tears were continuously leaking from my eyes.

“I am doctor, I didn’t lie about that, little mouse, but I am something else as well, do you want to know?” I wanted to hit something hard.

“Just tell me!” I screamed. “Just tell me who are you?!” I had lost all rationality, wanting nothing more than to know what Severon wanted to tell me.

Since the day I had the misfortune of meeting him, I had never been truly afraid of Severon, despite everything he’d done to me. But when he spoke the next words, it was then that I truly feared the man standing before me.

“Dragonfly, I am the Mafia.”