Chapter 2. Incident

Fabio looks at his boss seriously as he pours himself a drink and downs it immediately, swallowing hard as he purses his lips.

"Anyway, I don't care where you get them from, all I care about is that you keep bringing in fresh meat."

"Of course, sir..."

"Have you found what I asked you to find?"

The man tenses up and quickly shakes his head... Vittorio looks at him with that typical sharp and dangerous gaze.

"No? Is it that difficult to get what I asked for? The day after tomorrow is Wednesday. Do you know what Wednesdays mean in this place?"

"Of course, sir, I know very well. But it's not that easy, sir, it's a bit complicated, to tell you the truth."

"I don't give a damn about your complicated matters. I want that order tomorrow, and I don't want any complaints or excuses."

"Yes, sir."

"Now get out of here..." he orders as he takes another drink.

[...]

Bianca smiles as she rides her bike home. The young woman pedals while observing everything around her, trying to be careful since the bike isn't hers and the last thing she wants is to damage it and have to pay for it.

The young woman brakes suddenly when she sees a line of cars moving down a busy avenue. She didn't like going through those places, but it was necessary to get home faster. Besides, it was safer.

As she waits for the cars to move forward, the young woman looks ahead, eager to continue on her way.

As Bianca waited, many cars sped by, and among them, one passed by and a glance was cast at her very quickly due to the speed of the car. However, they did not continue to look at her and the car disappeared down the avenue.

Seeing that it was her turn to cross, Bianca sets off and continues on her way home... It takes her a few minutes, but she finally arrives. She smiles when she sees the small, almost dilapidated house. As soon as she enters, the first thing she sees is a somewhat tired smile.

"My dear girl, you're home."

"Grandma, what are you doing out of bed?" The young girl kisses her grandmother's forehead sweetly.

"Your grandfather has already fallen asleep, but I stayed up to wait for you and warm up your food.

"I can take care of that perfectly well. Remember, I'm a woman now, and you're not here to help me. I'm here to help you."

Since her mother died of an overdose, Bianca had been cared for by her maternal grandparents. As she never knew anything about her father, her grandparents had taken care of her since she was a child.

She believed it was the best thing that had ever happened to her. She remembered little about her mother; what she remembered most was that she yelled a lot and threw many parties with horrible people she no longer even remembered.

But those days were behind her now, as her life was much better since her grandparents had been taking care of her, or rather, now she was the one who protected and cared for them. Since they didn't work, she was the one who had sacrificed her life to help them.

And she didn't regret anything. She didn't have the best job, but at least she earned good tips to support her grandparents' daily needs. The most important thing was that they had their medication.

"No way, if I can do something useful, I'll do it while I can. I know you come home very tired from work, at least let me help you with something, my girl.

"It's okay, Grandma. I earned a lot of tips today. Tomorrow I'll buy a lot of things before I go to work."

"You work so hard," the old woman's eyes immediately clouded over, and she automatically hugged her to stop her from crying.

"Stop it, Grandma, I don't want you to be sad about this. I'm fine."

The old woman nods and pats her granddaughter's back.

"I'll make you dinner. You go take a shower."

The young blonde watches her grandmother walk sadly toward the kitchen and sighs. What she would give for her grandparents to be more comfortable and in a much better place than this. But her mother had made a mess of her life, and she had even lost the house she had because of her vices.

Her grandparents had to keep their old house in order to survive with a 7-year-old girl. Bianca's eyes cloud over, but she shakes her head. This is no time to get melancholic. If the three of them are okay, everything will be fine.

She goes upstairs and heads straight to her grandfather's room. Seeing him sleeping peacefully in bed, she smiles with relief that he wasn't complaining about his ailments that night. She goes to her room to find only an old bed.

She walks over to sit on it. It wasn't the most comfortable, but she preferred her grandparents to sleep comfortably. She was young and could put up with it.

After eating a good dinner made by her grandmother, Bianca says goodbye to her and heads to her room. As she lies down, she looks out the open window. Her room is very hot.

She closed her eyes and thought that tomorrow would be a better day.

[…]

"Come on, Grandpa, you know you have to take these medicines for your ailments.

"You're wasting your money on this nonsense. You shouldn't buy these things. It's your money, use it and have fun like a girl your age," the old man said angrily.

"Yes, it's my money and I spend it how I want. That's why I bought your medicine, I know you've run out."

Bianca leaves the bag of pills on the table while she argues with her grandfather. It was always the same problem with him. But he had to understand that she was happy if they were by her side.

"I bought food, so we'll be fine for a couple of days. And with these medicines, you won't feel any pain at night," she kisses her grandfather's forehead. He was grumpy, but sweet. "Take your medicine and don't make my grandmother angry."

"You do so much for us, daughter. We're old now."

"And I want you to be with me for a long time. What would I do without you two?"

She smiles at them both and then looks at the time on her watch.

"I have to go to work, it's getting late."

[...]

"Don't carry her like that, you could hurt her, and Mr. Vittorio doesn't want a bag of flesh covered in bruises."

"I know..."

Fabian watches his employees remove the body of a young blonde woman from the car. The man smiles maliciously, since he won't be having his throat slit after all.

"Are you sure she's a virgin?" The two men look at each other as they consider how to answer. "What's going on? Is she or isn't she?" Fabian becomes enraged.

They leave the blonde on a sofa, and he looks at her closely. The young woman meets his boss's specifications. Blonde, thin, and with a baby face.

"Looks like she is," he looks up at the idiots. "Or not? Where did you find her?" He looks down at her clothes and frowns. "Shit, what the hell?

"He asked us for a girl as quickly as possible. It was the only thing we could think of. We couldn't find anyone else."

Fabian frowns as he realizes that his employees are a bunch of useless pieces of shit.

"But you didn't have to kidnap a damn exchange student, damn it! What the hell have you done?" He points at her with both hands.

"She meets the specifications she asked for, it was the fastest we could get," Fabian shakes his head as he looks at the girl.

"She's not of age, she's not... it's no good if she's not of age, the boss won't be pleased with this."

Suddenly, the young woman begins to react. Fabian stands still as he watches her wake up, then looks up at the idiots who are doing nothing.

"Do something, you useless pieces of trash."

The blonde opens her eyes abruptly when she hears that unfamiliar voice, and when she looks around, she realizes she is surrounded by three men.

"Ahhhh!" she screams deafeningly and instantly jumps to her feet to run away.

"Grab her, don't be assholes."

The two men run towards her to grab her by the waist, while the blonde kicks and cries like a little girl. This infuriates Fabian; that's what he gets for hiring useless people.

"Who are you? Let me go, please. Where is this place? Please, please, my parents can give you a lot of money for me, please."

"Sir..."

"Put her to sleep. I don't want to hear her stupid little girl screams."

As the other man tries to put the scarf over her face to make her sleep, the young woman realizes what is happening and struggles abruptly, managing to free herself from one of her captors. She pushes the other one and runs away from the three of them.

Fabian just shakes his head as he rubs his face impatiently. His employees run after her and one of them grabs her from below. The girl stumbles and falls face first onto the pavement, hitting her forehead.

After that, she doesn't move anymore, and Fabian's employee stays on top of her, but when he sees that she isn't moving, he calms down.

"She's fainted," Fabian walks toward them, but notices something on the ground that makes him frown.

"Shit, they've ruined her."

They turn the blonde over and see that her nose is broken, her forehead has a large red bruise that is starting to turn purple.

"Damn, she's dead," Fabian mutters.

"Boss, she fell and hit her head. It wasn't my fault."

Fabian was furious because now he didn't have the promised package and, on top of that, he had a dead body to get rid of.

"Pick her up, clean up, and get rid of this girl as soon as possible. Then find the right girl, and I don't want any more deaths or mistakes."

He turned away, leaving the mess behind him, thinking they were a bunch of useless idiots. However, he needed them for the job.

"You're going to have to make up for your mistake, or you'll pay for it with your miserable lives. I want the blonde here tonight, and she has to be a virgin, or else I'll castrate you both."

The two men swallow hard as they look at each other, then at the dead woman.

"What the hell are we going to do with this dead girl?

"She's no use to us anymore, let's take her back to her school. We'll leave her lying around somewhere and let her parents take care of her." They grab her by the legs and arms to carry her back to the car.

"Where are we going to find a virgin?

"We can't go to school, it's obvious that they're all still girls.

"What are we going to do? If we don't get what Mr. Vittorio wants, he'll kill us, or worse, Fabian will finish us off."

[...]

That night, Bianca finished a little later than usual, but at least she was rewarded with a good tip that she would add to her savings. She wanted to move to a better place with her grandparents, a more decent place.

The young woman rode her bike carefully; at that hour, there were still many cars on the street. She rode her bike when the light allowed her to, while the cars were stopped at the red light.

But as she rode distractedly, two pairs of eyes watched her pass by. Then they looked at each other and nodded.

As the light changes, the car turns in the same direction Bianca is heading, driving at a safe distance from her while watching her.

"I think she fits perfectly.

"She must be older, it's very late and she's still out on the street.

"What if she's not a virgin?"

"It will make up for the other murder, it will prevent them from cutting off our heads or frying us in oil."

The driver nods quickly.

They see her stop at a traffic light.

"We'll pick her up at the next one, it's more secluded."