Page 22 of Dreadful

“What about my father? You’ve put this off long enough. This is your last chance. I’ve beenwaitingto use this razor on the man whoactuallydeserves it.”

He chokes, and his voice is garbled as he fights gravity’s weight. “C-claudio. I-it w-was C-laudio. P-poison."

“Claudiopoisonedhim? But that’s not his style. My uncle loves his guns and his car ‘accidents.’ Why would he change up his MO?”

“S-seriously that’s all I know.” Terror and pain flood his pale cheeks. If he could get out of this, he would.

“Cazzo,” I whisper and shake my head before answering him. “I believe you.”

Relief makes his muscles sag, flattening his inverted face. “P-please l-let me dow—”

I drop him, but he only manages to get half another gasp out before I cut his throat down to his spinal cord.

Scene 6

SILENT SCREAMS STILL ECHO

Sever

Blood fountains from Vinnie’s severed neck, pouring down his face and into his dimming eyes. It splatters onto the floor but misses my shoes. I’ve done this enough to know exactly where to stand to avoid evidence splashing all over my clothes.

His head hangs at an odd angle, like a morbid clown’s painted smile in the middle of his neck. The drain in the floor siphons the rivulets of blood away with a sputtering gurgle that matches Vinnie’s.

When the room is silent, I wipe my razor on the dead man’s tracksuit before stuffing the folded blade in my pocket. I snatch up my cane from the chair and plop into the seat, the weight of everything I just heard making me feel heavier.

“Well, that was informative,” Raze chimes in behind me as he presses the button to lower the body to the ground. “You think everything he said was true?”

I nod again. “He knew his life was in my hands. The man’s always been a squealing pig, not a loyal one. Too bad for him, his answers just pissed me off more.”

Raze grunts his assent. “So that girl…you still don’t know her name. Will you be able to let it go if you never find out?”

My cousin doesn’t get it, but I don’t expect him to. I’ll never be able to let her go. I don’t remember much about that time, but I remember those days when she talked my ear off, keeping me sane. I remember those nights where she suffered a fate I couldn’t understand that young, and I still can’t stomach as an adult. And I remember her calling for me, pleading for me to help, right up until those dogs silenced her forever.

“No.”

“You were just kids, man,” Raze tries to reassure me. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“Doesn’t make it easier.”

Raze sighs. “Let’s focus on today, then. Where do you want this one? Same place as the others? After you’re done adding to your sick obsession, of course.”

I smirk at the reference to the macabre collection I have upstairs. It reminds me of Tallie’s cemetery sketch. Creepy, meticulous, and fucking perfect. I’d hang her artwork on my wall right above my sculpture if I could.

“A new row, this time. The bodies will be harder to find if they’re spread out, and I still have a few more questions I need answered before this comes to a head.” I nod toward Raze’s phone. “You recorded everything, right?”

Raze scoffs and flashes the screen. A video is paused with Vinnie lying on the ground during one of his confessions. “I may be your right-hand man, but you sure think I’m amaledettoamateur sometimes. Caught the whole thing. Those drugs made him sing just as pretty as advertised. I’ll have to do some editing work to delete the questions about the girl. If we have to show this to someone from the Family to prove you have the right to avenge your father, we don’t want people thinking you had other motives.”

“I don’t care if they know I have other motives.”

“Well, you may not care if you live or die, butIdo. If the Family thinks you did this for your father, you’ll survive. For the girl? Not so much.”

The girl has always been in the back of my mind, but in our world, avenging my father’s death is a classic “occhio per occhio” or “eye for an eye” among loyal mafiosi. Going after the Boss in the name of an unaffiliated girl would never be honored by the Family. As long as I use my father’s death as a cover for my revenge, I’ll be able to get justice for her, too.

I twirl my cane in my hand before jabbing it in Raze’s direction.

“You’re the only one I trust with this, Raze. Don’t tell Roman or Tiero when you go to the tattoo shop.”

“Never, man. But I’m not going today, anyway.”