Chapter 13: Rusty Gun

"They sye that time 'eals all things, they sye you can always forget; But the smiles an' tears across the years, th... they twist my 'eart-strings yet! 

Fiona sang to herself, locked in the cramped storeroom. She knew the whole drivelling song by heart, it seemed. 

She heard a sound on the door as if someone unlocked the door, she crawled backwards, still half drunk. 

 several seconds went by but no one actually entered the room, "Hwello? Somebaady?" 

She gathered the courage to check out the door herself, "who opened the Dorr? " "Hwello?"

She stepped on a broken beer bottle and fell on directly on her right arm injuring it severely, "Sheet! Gawddamn it!" 

Bradley heard the voice and decided to check what was up, he took slow and precautionary steps making sure not to bump in a ghost. As he navigated through the dark, he found himself standing the middle of corridor. 

A solitary figure was coming towards him from the other end of the long, dimly lit corridor. It was Fiona. As she came closer, he saw that her right arm was in a sling, not noticeable at a distance. 

They were perhaps four meters apart when Fiona stumbled and fell almost on her face. A sharp cry of pain was wrung out of her. She must've fallen right on her injured arm. Bradley stopped short. Fiona had risen to her knees. Her face had turned redder than ever before, her appealing expression that looked more like fear than pain. 

"Are you hurt?" "No, before that why are you here?" "How did you get out" "How did you get this injury" "No again! Why are you here" Bradley started a question parade, asking questions involuntarily. 

Suddenly a shadow fell on him, even before he could react, he was already hit by something solid on his head. 

"Owww, my body aches" Bradley cried with pain, as he woke up in the corridor, probably 5 am. Sun was not still up. 

He saw Fiona wake up and run outside the pizzeria, He stood for several seconds wondering vaguely what to do. The choice was simple but for Bradley nothing is simple. 

Bradley turned round and began to trace back his steps. As het turned it occurred to him that Fiona had only passed him three minutes ago and that by running he could probably catch up with her. 

He could keep on her track till they were in some quite place, and then smash her skull with a stone. The piece of glass in his pocket would be heavy enough for the job. But he abandoned the idea immediately, because even the thought of making any physical effort was unbearable. He could not run; he could not strike a blow. 

"Screw it, no more pain in my ass" he spoke to himself. 

Angelo woke up and came to check on Fiona, "There is no fucking way, she escaped again!" Angelo yelled; his voice was heavy while his face looked red. 

Angelo stood in disappointment, "Corteo, don't tell me you did this" Angelo spoke slowly with disappointment on his face. 

"I promise I didn't do a thing!" Corteo replied with a straight face. 

Bradley took a long sigh and spoke, "Me neither!"

The group stared at each other with confusion and suspicion, glaring to each other eyes trying to find one hint of a lie. 

"Well... whatever Vanetti and Lucas will return today, wish for good some good news" Bradley broke the silence with an awkward smile.

Corteo stared at him with disgust, "such a stupid dude!" he muttered.

Meanwhile, a black car stopped at the pizzeria, "Is that Vanetti and Lucas?" 

"Yeah, seems like it." 

Vanetti and Lucas stepped out of the car, Lucas half asleep leaning on Vanetti's shoulder. "All this driving is killing me" Lucas cried with a broken voice. 

"Vanetti! learn how to fucking drive! I am not driving all night ever again just because you didn't have a set of another fucking suit!" Lucas added.

"Ha Ha! I Vanetti of Venetia thank you for your service" Vanetti replied in a sarcasm.

"Acting like royalty or something? scumbag" Bradley spoke in a sarcastic tone.

Vanetti threw Lucas in Bradley's arms and proceeded to hand a scripture given by king Pius to Angelo, "Here, Pius agreed on becoming and ally". 

"Great" Angelo replied, his face shining with a smile running through his feature. 

"So, you really did something by going with Lucas?" Angelo questioned Vanetti. 

"Not really, I was at Venetia" Vanetti replied to Angelo.

"Obsessed dog" Bradley interfered in sharp voice.

"Where is Corteo?" Lucas questioned, his eyes rolling all over the room trying to find Corteo. 

"Here" Corteo replied from the kitchen. 

"Almost time to open the pizzeria" he added.

"Another obsessed dog" Bradley interfered. 

 As the group enjoyed their conversation, a voice came loudly, "Any young man here named Angelo?"

Angelo in surprise rushed to the gate, "Yeah?"

"I have a message for Angelo from Sir Melvyn" The man replied.

"Are you the fine man?" He added.

"Yes, it's me" Angelo replied.

The man passed a notice to Angelo, He turned round and ran back in the alley leaving a bag there. Angelo didn't understand a thing behind this interaction. 

"Strang man" Angelo said with confusion on his face. 

Angelo opened the bag and found twenty-five handguns in the bag! He picked up the bag and kept it on the couch inside, "Holy shit! These are fucking guns!" Angelo exclaimed, his hand on his forehead. 

Corteo came rushing, "Guns? Where? How?" 

Everyone stood in shock staring at bag for solid five minutes. 

"Who in the name of god is fucking Melvyn?!" Corteo interrogated in a scared voice. 

"These were supposed to reach seven days later!" Vanetti muttered. 

Angelo turned to Vanetti grabbing his shirts collar, "Why the fuck did these guns reach here on my fucking name, moreover, why did you order these?!" 

"We don't want to look small in front of Pius, do we? Vanetti replied with a smile on his face. 

"We are not going to depend on him for all the things, I ordered the guns on your name because the supplier asked for a simpler name which he could pronounce without stuttering" Vanetti added. 

All four stared Vanetti as he spoke their face depicting their emotion of shock. "When the fuck did you order these?" Bradley asked Vanetti.

"Before we left of course" Vanetti replied. 

A smile stretched on Angelo's face, He picked a revolver up swinging it like a toy, "You finally did something great, Vanetti!"