Soldier of Time

LV: The Prisoner (2)

Hanibal’s voice grew lower and deeper, and the young woman breathed faster under the scrutiny of the assassin’s gaze. The girl cast her eyes on the glass of water and said almost in a whisper, “Mr. Steven had said that I could talk to him when he came...”

Hanibal, still sitting, made a signal to be brought closer to the young woman, Esteban, who was moving the chair obeyed.

The Deer saw Esteban, who was looking at Rudy with concern very seriously. Hanibal got up slowly and with visible pain and said, imitating the way of speaking of Rudy.

“Mr. Steven says many things,” the young woman closed her eyes tightly and squeezed the glass, terrified. “But that does not mean they are true...”

When Hanibal said that the Deer raised his free foot and very gently kicked the killer’s leg, this gesture caught the attention of the blond young man who turned his head to see the Deer.

The smiling Deer asked him, “Can I finish my water?”

Hanibal’s control over people was scattered, something was wrong with him, and the Deer had sensed it.

Hanibal looked at him and smiled back, took the glass of water from Rudy’s hands, and gently but with great effort gave the Deer a drink.

The girl was still standing where she was, and the Deer from his prisoner chair said, “Rudy, is your name, right?” The young woman nodded, still showing fear. “Why don’t you let me talk to Hanibal alone, would you? Off you go.”

The girl nodded quickly, and she felt the words of the Deer cover her and drive away that dangerous aura of the murderer. She left the room. Hanibal watched this with total surprise and with an amused smile as he sat in the chair and looked at the Deer.

“Now you give orders to my men,” Hanibal said gently, kicking Slevin’s calf. “What a daring Deer.”

The Deer adopted a smirk and said, “Everything is based on good leadership. You have never had that.”

“You know what I have and what I don’t have.”

“I know you always work alone.”

Hanibal smiled.

“That’s true, this thing of having a group is exhausting, my first and last time, I assure you. In the war, I followed orders, and even there, I was like a lone worker. This guiding thing is someone else’s thing. Steven, for example.”

“Yes, you mustn’t be very good with people.”

“No, in fact, Steven was always in charge of that part. Which reminds me.”

And with those words, Hanibal made a sign to Esteban, who hit the Deer’s face with force. The Deer jerked so violently that he fell with the chair tied to him to the ground. Hanibal whistled at the violence of that blow as he motioned for Esteban to pick up the Deer.

“I’m sorry about that, but it was necessary,” Hanibal said, smiling.

The Deer looked at him with a mixture of anger and confusion, but he calmed his face to smile again. Ignoring the pain that that blow presented. He asked, “Why am I alive?”

Hanibal snapped his fingers and, pointing to the Deer, said, “You were dead, you know. The plan was simple, and Steven wanted to kidnap you to keep you captive until the thirty-day deadline passed. But I was going to kill you anyway. He was fine with it, but things changed because you had to kick Steven out of the car.”

Hanibal leaned forward slowly in his wheelchair. The pain in his torso did not let him move calmly.

After joining the tips of the fingers of both hands in front of his face, he said, “You know your nickname shouldn’t be the Deer. It should be the damn cockroach, you are impossible to kill you know, I had two chances, and I let you go because you seemed fun to me, that paid because when you beat me, you let me go, and we were supposed to be even, now I was going to really kill you.”

“Steven said I shouldn’t play with you, so I decided to kill you because you cause a lot of trouble, but when I determine to blow your head off, you come up with something to save yourself. You are a nuisance, Deer,” Hanibal continued while looking at Slevin casually.

The blonde watched the Deer firmly as he smiled and said, “Your body hurts, doesn’t it?”

Hanibal leaned back from the chair once more.

The Deer continued, “Not having your doctor kills you, right?”

“You threw Steven out of the van because you knew he was the only one who would keep you alive right?”

The Deer sheepishly smiled as he looked at his captor, and he smiled back as he flicked his index finger in front of him.

“You’re really fun, you are. However, this image of Arrogant Deer does travel fast. What happened? Did you grow another pair?”

The Deer smiled, looked at him, and said, “It is not that, and it is that these last days have been so violent that there have been changes.”

“As which? Talk to me. I want to know you better.”

The Deer kept smiling and looked at Hanibal, who was staring at him and said, “The great Hanibal King is working for someone, and he is so afraid of that someone that he hired a team of new people. You didn’t even use the claw, boys. Instead, you brought in new people.”

The Deer said, looking at Esteban across the room, “Do you think I work for someone?”

“I don’t think so, I know so,” The Deer said with confidence. “You, buddy, I forgot your name. Tell me, do you know who you’re working for?”

Hanibal looked at Esteban for a second from his wheelchair, and he looked back at him.

After that, he looked at the Deer and said without smiling, “So what if I work for someone? I’m still the one who fights...”

“Perhaps,” The Deer said calmly, “but that means that you are not the meanest dog in the yard. Not from this yard, at least. Tell me who controls your leash.”

Hanibal stopped to think for a second, he looked at the ground with fixation, and his eyes widened.

He looked at his hands and, placing one on his forehead, and sat down to say, “So I’m not the baddest dog, am I?”

“You tell me.”

Hanibal raised his gaze to the Deer, this time, and he was not smiling or anything.

He was just looking at him with a more serious expression, trying to know something about him, and said, “You won’t survive this. I’ll kill you. You’re alive, so I can get Steven back because I need him, but before Steven returns, you will be dead. I’m sorry, but it is what I have to do.”

The atmosphere changed drastically, and Hanibal now looked at the Deer with eyes that he had not shown in a long time.

The Deer looked back at him with full attention when the killer said, “You are a good guy. And contrary to what you may believe, I do not feel pleasure in killing you, not thus tied and defenseless. But it is something I must do. I do not decide. Even if I do. Even if I choose it, it is not my decision, not really.”

“I do not understand you.”

“You must not understand. I’m sorry, Deer, but our last battle will be left without a decision. It’s a shame. You are a fun guy.”

“We can still fight. We are both here.”

“No, actually, none of us are here. You are dead, and I am. I stopped being me two months ago.”

After those words, Hanibal pushed his chair towards the door, Esteban rushed to take him, but the murderer stopped him. Once at the door, he sent for Rudy. The young woman arrived terrified and looking at the murderer with fear.

He smiled calmly and said, “Don’t worry, and I won’t hurt you. You can talk to him all you want and see him all you want. But don’t touch him, ok?”

After those words, Hanibal took the hand of the Deer behind the chair and, bending it violently, forced him to open it and release the click that he had taken from the floor.

The Deer smiled and said, “I had to try.”

“If you didn’t try, you would have offended me,” Hanibal answered as he smiled back. 

After that, he placed his hand on his shoulder, and before leaving, pushing his chair with difficulty, he said, “It was a pleasure, Deer. It really was.”

And with those words, the killer left the room. The young woman looked at him as he walked away.

The Deer looking directly at the ground of that place, said, “Things are never really what they seem.”

The young woman looked at the Deer, and he, with kind eyes, smiled at her and said, “When I die, leave this place. For your own good. You better go.”

The girl nodded slowly, and honest tears rolled down her face. The Deer was going to die, he felt it, and that sensation ate at him inside.

In the mines, very far from where Slevin was, a young woman was watching the sea through the window of a boat. She had men’s clothes on, and she was hugging herself as if she was embracing an idea.

A half-smile appeared on her face, and the young woman said very softly and slowly the word that echoed in her mind, Slevin.