14. Sold...

Everything happened so fast that Marco didn't even realize it until she had another right foot to the stomach, and she let out another painful cry. The huge fat man who was probably three times the size of the lady, the three infelici porci schifosi, that stood with him, all four of them, against one woman who looked slightly malnourished. And he felt something stirring up inside of him, something burning deep down within him, and that burning, was climbing its way up to his chest, and then into his fist, and as the man raised his leg to strike her again, a furious right hand landed on the back of his neck, and with one firm pull, Marco yanked the man and shoved him on the counter.

"You…" the other three men leapt forward, but with a swift flick of his wrist, a pistol was in his left hand, and he precisely and sharply swung a shot at their legs, causing all of them to yelp and cry out in pain as they fell back to the floor next to the lady.

"Now that's not how you treat a lovely Signorina" he shoved the pistol into the man's mouth, pressed him down with his elbow, causing the man to tremble and choke, balls of sweat soaking up his shirt. The lady staggering up to her feet, moving away from the men that laid there groaning and grunting in pain. "Please, let him go, you'll only get me into more trouble." she held onto his arm and begged. What was the point in saving her now, when she'd be badly beaten for this after he's gone? He was just making her situation worse, now she'd receive a double beating for this mess.

"Please, let him go, you don't know these people. I owe them money, so I deserve every beating I get, so please don't make it worse for me." she cried, tugging at his arm even more, but it felt like she was tugging at his chest, for that was where he was feeling the ache. She was begging him to stop, but it only fueled his rage, it only made him want to put a hole through the back of the man's skull even more.

With a hard gaze, he pulls the pistol out of the man's mouth, and she lets go of his arm. "How much?" he suddenly asks. But didn't get a reply, for they were all confused as to what he was asking off, so he pulled the man by the collar again and hit him hard on the counter again.

"Didn't you frigging hear me? I said how much does she f*cking owe you?" he pointed the gun to his head again, and the man trembled all over again…

"A_A h_h_hundred and fifty..." the man stutters.

"A hundred and fifty million?" Marco asks...

"t_thousand" the man stutters again.

"What did you say?" Marco wonders, thinking he was probably hearing wrong.

"A_ A hundred and fifty thousand." the man managed to mumble the words… "Are you f*cking joking with me right now?" Marco asks again, his anger growing even stronger. "A f*cking hundred and fifty? You beat up a woman this much for a freaking hundred and fifty thousand?" he instantly smashed the butt of the gun into the man's head. He really couldn't control it.

Who the hell beats up a woman this badly for a hundred and fifty thousand Euros? He just couldn't understand this. And to think that this kind of scum was running wild on his streets.

Right there, right then, he shoves the man to the side, and brings his phone out of his pocket, hands it to the man and tells him to punch in his account details. "W_W_What are you doing?" the lady quavering behind him inquires. But he doesn't give her a reply, he just collects the phone back from the man and… "I said, What are you doing?" she asked again, but he still wasn't giving her a response.

"Now you take your filthy fat self and walk out of here, and never come anywhere near her again. I just transferred three hundred thousand to you. From now on, she no longer belongs to you." He states, the warning and danger was clear in his voice.

"Because you just sold her to me."

...

Walking out of the salon with her, Zeno tried his best not to say a single horrible word since she'd asked him how her hair looked. His mother, before she passed away, always told him that; if you don't have anything good to say about something, then it's better to just keep your mouth shut. And this was exactly what he was trying to do, but it was a really hard task to do…

"I mean, why in the world did you suddenly decide to change your hair color? And among all the colors you could go for, I mean, we have almost a hundred shades of brown and black and red and orange and even blonde that you could choose, why in the world did you just sit down, and decide to dye your hair blue? Ocean blue?" He was ranting on, and she didn't seem to have a care in the world.

"What's wrong? I think it's pretty cool. I wanted a change, and you know I don't like flashy colors, I wanted something cool and calm, so I chose blue." she shrugged, and his mouth fell wide open.

"You don't _ You don't want something 'flashy'? You don't want something 'flashy', and your choice was blue? Brown is calm, Ash-Black is calm, hell, copper is calm, but you choose blue! Blue is the epitome of flashy!" He just couldn't understand her own method of reasoning. How could she call blue calm?

"Uh-uhn, Pink is flashy, red is flashy, orange is flashy, white is flashy, even blonde is flashy, but blue is calm." And that was it, he couldn't argue with her further, there was no way he would win against her. She had a different way of reasoning.

"Just get in the car, and let's go home, but if papa asks about this, I didn't come here with you, okay? You came here with little Johnny. I had no part in all of this." He dramatically draws an invisible circle round and round her head with his palm. She rolls her eyes and lets out a weary sigh.

"How old do you think I am? Why would papa care about what I do with my hair?" she hissed as he opened the car door for her to enter.

"I do know you're not old enough to go crazy. I mean you're just sixteen." He states, and she instantly withdraws herself from the car, and turns around to face him. There was a sudden kind of change in her expression, like some kind of demon had taken over.

"How old did you say I am?"

"Y_Y_You're_"

"Stop stuttering, and tell me! How old did you say I am?" she asks again, moving closer to him, breaking the little space that remained between them, she was so small in front of him, and yet her gaze was so intimidating, making him feel small, and it made him wonder; how old is she? He had no idea.

"S_Sixt_ I mean _Eighteen"...