“Not so fast,” Severu says, stepping neatly between the Titones and me before I can reach them.Severu is a fairly lean man, but he’s got a large frame and wide shoulders.His stance appears relaxed, but I sense a twisting tension in it, like the slightest move from any of us will make him strike.There’s no way I can get past him.Panic climbs into my throat like vomit.Curse is so fucking close.
To me.
To dying.
Oh, God.No.Not when I’ve only just found him again.
A strange thought, perhaps.When on the train just a few hours ago, I was insisting to Curse that I couldn’t wait to start the thirty-day clock on our marriage, simply so that we could end it and that I would never have to see him again.
But that was before.
Before he fucked me like being inside me was the only thing keeping him alive.
Before the phone call from Elio that upended everything I thought I knew about our arrangement and Curse’s motivations.Elio’s words echo in my head even now.So that’s what he decided, then.He decided to marry you.
Elio’s present-moment voice cuts in, slicing the memory away.“Serpico,” he growls from beyond the dark shape of Severu’s body, “my brother might not be at his best right now, but don’t think for one goddamn second that he won’t tear this place apart brick by brick – and the men inside it limb from fucking limb – if we don’t leave with his fiancée tonight.”
“I have no interest in keeping her from you,” Severu replies easily.“I simply want to make sure this favour to yourfamigliaisn’t soon forgotten.”
“So send me a goddamn invoice, then,” Elio snaps back.“Your bill for playing the babysitter.I don’t give a fuck.”
“Not necessary,” Severu replies.“I require no compensation.I only ask that you remember this…this act of goodwill…in the future.”
“I don’t have a short memory, Serpico,” Elio replies.“For goodwill.Or for the men who get in our fucking way.”
“No.No, you don’t.And neither do I,” Severu replies.Finally, he moves sideways, allowing me passage through the hall.And it’s like the sea has parted before me, a tunnel of air piercing through water I didn’t even know was drowning me until now.My lungs stutter under the strain as I run unsteadily forwards.
In the few short moments Curse has been hidden from my view, his condition has already deteriorated significantly.His head nods, bringing his shoulders into a rocking sort of slump.Elio wraps an arm tightly around his waist, bodily dragging him down the stairs while hissing at me to, “Keep up.”
He doesn’t need to say it.I’m right behind them, following as closely as my feet will let me without tangling between theirs and tripping.If there was room, I’d be beside Curse, helping to hold him up.But Elio is in the centre of the staircase on Curse’s right side, and he’s got Curse’s left side mashed up against the banister, using the solidity of the smoothly polished wood to help support – and almost sort of slide – Curse the rest of the way down.
It's agony for me to see him like this.He’s been both the hero and the monster of my story.But no matter what, no matter when or where – kind boy, cruel man – he’s always been utterly invulnerable to me.Seeing him falter like this, seeing him slipping away, his big body bent by the poisonous filth that Alessandro’s pumped him full of, poison that was maybe also meant for me, makes me feel like I’m locked in a nightmare.
When Elio has made it to the bottom of the stairs, I shove myself between Curse’s left side and the banister, gasping at slumping heaviness of him.Even with Elio gripping him by the waist, he’s practically dead weight against me as I wrap my arm around his and try to buttress the bulk of his shoulder with my own.Luca watches us coolly from near the door, not bothering to open it until Elio barks at him to do so.As we move awkwardly through it, I hear Fiametta’s high voice calling out “Goodbye!”before the heavy wood of it slams shut.
We made it out.A part of me can’t quite believe it.Can’t quite believe that I’ve been reunited with Curse.When a tall, grey-haired man with glasses approaches at a run, I hug Curse’s arm tighter and stop walking, unwilling to move closer to this man that I don’t know.But Elio must recognize him, because he lets the man come right up to us, and not only that, but the man actually grabs Curse by the hair, yanks his head back, and shoves something into his nose.
“What are you doing to him?”I ask, clutching Curse’s arm, doing everything I can not to wilt under the limpness of him against my shoulder.Elio adjusts his hold on Curse’s waist, hauling him up higher, providing me a little relief.But I don’t want relief.I want to feel him.
To let him crush me.
“Naloxone,” Elio grunts as the man withdraws.“He’s ODing again.”
I’ve known since I was six years old that wishes are worthless and prayers are never answered.But I find myself praying anyway, the words mouthed silently by trembling lips as the man with glasses urges me away from Curse’s side.I don’t want to let him go, but this other man is tall and strong-looking.With an anguished half-sob, I relinquish Curse’s arm and make room for this other man to replace me.
“Get the car door open,” Elio grunts.“Don’t want to be out here any longer than I fucking have to with him like this.”
My hand flies to the passenger side back door handle of the vehicle I saw arrive from Fiametta’s window, another dark-coloured SUV.Yanking hard, I nearly fall backwards over my own feet as Elio and the other man, who I hear Elio call “Morelli,” trundle Curse’s heavy form into the backseat.
“Give him another dose while we’re driving, Doc,” Elio says as Morelli clambers into the backseat with Curse.“You’re up front,” he tells me.
I don’t want to be up front.I want to be with Curse.I’ll make myself small,tiny, if I have to.Crouch down on the fucking floor of the car just so that I can touch him.But I touched him without warning once.He told me to never let it happen again.
And there really is no room back there with Curse sprawled along the seat and long-limbed Morelli bending anxiously over him.I’d only be getting in the way.
I shut the door on them and do as Elio says.
As soon as I’m in the vehicle, Elio’s off like a shot, careening through Toronto streets.I should probably do up my seatbelt, especially considering the speed at which he’s driving, but I don’t.I spin around on my knees, facing the backseat, gripping my own headrest the way I want to grip the sides of Curse’s face and order him towake up!
