“Think whatever you fucking want,” Dante hissed, his face twitching in a deep grimace as his broken hand continued to bleed.“You think you’re targeting bad people but all anyone sees is more bodies on the streets.Do you think you’re a saint or something?Am I supposed to believe you can turn into a giant monster and that you’re fighting corruption like some kind of fucking?—?”
“I’m trying,” Tadeo cut off, “to protect this town.That state left us all for dead.It’s been ten years of this shit.We were all abandoned for the criminals to turn this place into a war zone.All I’ve wanted is to run them out of town because none of you ever could.”
Elsewhere, Joana was climbing back into the driver’s seat and groaning, taking the door then slamming it behind her.Dina was still staring at the gas pump they were parked beside and the taped paper over the dispenser that read that they had no gasoline.Minutes ago, Joana had gone into the attached convenience store, leaving the angel behind with the local radio finally working to broadcast a young woman informing listeners that there were reports of disruptions to certain oil pipelines but that authorities were looking into the issue.“Not a drop,” announced Joana as if Dina could understand.“And no sign of the gas coming back anytime soon.”She jerked the gear stick back, setting the vehicle into reverse and inching it back to angle it toward the road.“So, we’re fucked, or at least the people are.”Setting the car back into forward driving, she waved a hand at an extremely tall truck passing by with eighteen wheels.“Those are fine.They’re getting their gas before passing through town, but within a day or two, there’s going to be chaos.”
Dina asked quietly, “Why?Can’t you all… walk?”He thought to speak now just to prove that he wasn’t mute; he hadn’t answered Joana earlier, after all.
Harshly, Joana reeled in a breath and said, “It’s too complicated to explain.”She turned the car into the main street and murmured, “I’m going to head out to see my dad now.Do me a favor and don’t tell Tadeo.”When the angel parted his lips, Joana added, “I’ll tell him myself.Later.”
The star in Dina’s head, Apsinthos, replied: ‘Be cautious around her.’
‘Why does she think we want to kill Tadeo?’Dina asked.
‘She must think you’re here to stop the end times, but that means she knows Tadeo is the anti-Christ and that he must die to prevent the apocalypse.’
“Right now,” said Joana, “we’re going to the club.”
And Dante panted and panted, finally replying to the anti-Christ, “So what now?Are you going to kill me for being corrupt like all the others?If you will, just do it.Stop wasting time.”
Tadeo shook his head.“I need more information.Why was the gas cut off?”
“I don’t fucking know,” said Dante.“Why would I?I’m just a soldier.I wasn’t even going to get sent up here, but they decided last minute that they needed more men.I don’t know shit.Don’t believe me if you don’t want but it’s true.I don’t know shit.You couldn’t have picked a worse guy to torture for answers.I have none.We were sent to this shithole after being told that criminals have some kind of machine or person massacring the soldiers stationed here.The gas is cut off probably to keep any criminals from escaping during the confrontation today, but I don’t know.That’s not normal.We’ve never done that before.”
“The only people the gas cut-off is going to hurt is innocents,” Tadeo mumbled, crossing his arms and turning back at the door, thinking of the children he’d seen.“There aren’t a lot of criminals left here at all.”
Joana parked some streets away before stepping out of the car and shouting over at Dina to follow.As the angel crept out onto the sidewalk, he heard the hooting of some men from another vehicle, sharing beers and nodding their heads at a woman who walked past in a shimmering dress.Above, the moon was settling into its dark cradle, peeking out only a sliver of itself, whereas the clouds were oddly dim.In his head, Apsinthos reassured, ‘Do as she says for now.’Dina nodded obediently, then spun around, following after Joana, who had just taken to walking toward a corner.‘Good.’
Past a few streets, they made it to a rectangular, dark building with a sign over the door with cursive lettering and neon lighting.There was a line of humans outside it — the longer-haired ones wearing dresses and the short-haired ones primarily in pants; the angel glanced down at his long shorts and sandals and began to feel extremely cold and ashamed.Before he could verbalize this to either Joana or even Apsinthos, the girl had hurried past the line, nodding at a figure in black by the doorway.He’d been in the middle of speaking into a phone, though he waved a hand, allowed Joana to breeze past him.“Who,” the man said, twisting the bottom of his phone away from his mouth for a moment, “is this?”
“Just an angel,” answered Joana, and the bouncer quirked a brow but seemingly decided not to waste time arguing.
Nonetheless, Dina felt suspicious eyes climb up his body as he stepped into the club, and there were some whistles behind him, which only made him feel more naked, more ashamed.
Dante was laughing: “What now?”He grinned weakly, his teeth reddened, at Tadeo.“I don’t have any information to give you, and you’re pretending to be a vigilante while torturing someone who came to get rid of whatever was slaughtering our soldiers.It’s so stupid.This is so fucking stupid.There are criminals here.Do you think you made them all run away?They’ve just learned to be quieter about whatever they’re trafficking through this place.If there weren’t any criminals left here, then who is paying off the soldiers you’re killing?”
‘It’s too loud in here,’ Dina thought instantly.‘Too crowded.’
Bodies were pushing up against him from every side, the bass of the music thudding against his heart and head.Flashes of light, of every color, were blinding him every other second, and though he was rather tall, tall enough to see over the heads of quite a few, he was half-blindly following Joana ahead of him.She swerved in between every dancing figure, expertly avoiding their swaying arms with ducks and sidesteps, whereas Dina was just taking each hit.The stench was sweat, was horribly earthly, was salted, and horribly damp.Just as the crowding grew less and less dense — a bar with a hundred glass bottles behind a long counter came into view.Almost two dozen people were there, many coming and going between the dance floor and the bartenders, but at the center, there was an older man, dressed in a red button-up, rosary on his chest, darktejanahat on his head, and there was a short, wide glass in his left hand with a square block of ice among sunny-orange liquid.
There were three other men at his sides; one nudged the central figure before he turned back and looked at Joana.With a grin, he gestured her over and said, “Joana, there you are.What fucking mess we’re dealing with, no?”
“Hi,” Joana greeted, “uncle,” though he was nothing of the sort.And once she’d neared him, the man pulled her into a one-armed hug, patting her back, then kissing her cheek.
“Who’s this you brought with you?”He stared at Dina over Joana’s shoulder and smiled amicably before Joana pulled back.
“I don’t have updates on the captured soldier yet,” Joana said.“My guess is that the state is trying to take on Tadeo because he’s been killing too many soldiers, so they think he’s with the traffickers.But that doesn’t make sense to me.I was wondering if all that Tadeo is doing is disrupting trade — the legal kind — and the other side of the river is getting involved.Where is my dad?Is he not here yet?”
“Don’t sound so sad,mija,” the man said.“Nothing to be worried about yet.We have gasoline, oil, and we’ll be selling it at a good price to the people if they come to us.We will take good care of them.”He grinned, then squeezed her arm.“And the state knows he’s working for us.”The traffickers.“Even if he doesn’t mean to.”The kingpin, of the traffickers, laughed warmly.
Joana ran her tongue over the gums at the back of her lower teeth, tasted blood.‘Keep having him kill our competition,’ he might as well have said to her ears.‘Keep controlling him for us.You will be rewarded handsomely, girl.Aim him in the right direction.’And there would be peace, but only because the turf wars had ended, and now the town was in the iron grip of one group, one man, a kingpin of substances and bodies and blood.
“Have a drink,” cheerfully urged the kingpin, “I won’t tell your dad.”Without missing a beat, he teased, “Just how I don’t tell him about you and my daughter.”
Tadeo, slowly, said what Joana had told him they should ask as they left the house: “What can we do to get the gasoline back?Who can I talk to?I’m not a criminal.I have no shame.”
“I wouldn’t know,” said Dante, and an odd silence followed, broken only by the drops of his blood falling from his hand.“I’m just a soldier.How many times do I have to tell you?You’re so fucking naive.You think you can just end things by killing the right people.”
“I have one last question for you,” Tadeo said, and when Dante didn’t reply, he asked it anyway: “Do you want to live?”
