Elementary Virtue: The Prophecy (16 page)

During her inner struggle, she forgot Saul’s and Leyla’s presence completely. Only the ice cream and her victory over her evil inner voice were important. She was physically and mentally no longer present. Leyla suddenly noticed that something was wrong looking at Ana, who was staring at the ice cream as if it was a snake with two heads, attacking her any moment. She remembered Ana’s eating disorder. What the hell had she been thinking? God, Ana had been in a clinic due to an eating disorder and she smashed her a huge bowl of Ben and Jerry's in her face, no wonder that she was freaking out. Even if she made a mistake, she didn’t necessarily have to be tortured. Leyla got up, going to the other side of the table taking the spoon out of Ana’s cramped hand. She put the spoon in the bowl hugging Ana, "I'm sorry, I didn’t want to hurt you. I don’t want you to relapse because of me. I'm an idiot." Meanwhile, even Saul had finally realized what was going on.

Leyla looked at him over Ana's shoulder, well guys were a bit slower than girls, which probably explains why they sometimes react strangely or not at all in an obvious situation. Anyway, he had got it in the meantime and grabbed Ana's hand. Ana felt like waking up from a bad dream being overwhelmed, feeling Leyla’s hug and Saul's hand. She allowed the embrace looking at Saul over Leyla's shoulder. He smiled encouragingly. His brown eyes were sparkling as if he wanted to tell her 'you see everything is fine I am here for you and even Leyla doesn’t hate you. You are not alone.' Leyla freed herself from the embrace and looked at Ana, who had her eyes fixed on the ground. Ana whispered barely audible without looking, "Leyla, I didn’t say anything to him only about the Island. I couldn’t help it to slip out on the phone because he was annoying me." She looked up, expecting Leyla to look angry and was quite surprised to see her understanding look. Leyla patted her arm, "Don’t let it get to you, we all make mistakes sometimes, after all. We are human no robots. Besides, Gabe is the most manipulating ass I've ever met. Believe me."

Ana shook her head sadly, "Still, I should have told you from the beginning about my strange brother. I’ve made myself an accomplice in this plot."
"Forget it. I know how Gabe can be intimidating." Ana sighed, "You may be right, and this stuff that he takes gives him the idea to be invincible. He becomes delusional. He scared the shit out of me," she added softly. Leyla looked stunned, "What stuff?"
"I don't know some blue pills, he orders from a certain Gary. I overheard him. If he takes the stuff, he is even a worse version of himself. He stands for hours on the terrace, somehow letting it rain, creating storms and stuff. I know it sounds crazy. He turns in circles with a crazy smile on his face, and sometimes he loses it completely. Lately, he destroyed a building because he didn’t stop the storm. Carmine appeared, and they had a fight. Carmine said something about Gabe pulling himself together and that the Savior had to be prevented from doing something. He said something about a volcano, but I didn’t quite understand." Ana looked at Leyla with anxious eyes, "Like in some crazy fantasy movie and to make things even worst I delivered them the information they needed. That he is on this damn island they suspected him to be. They seem to know even where he is. Even if I didn’t know that, so they don't have it from me."

Leyla squinted, "Tell me everything you know Ana so that I can warn Gregory. I would do anything to protect him," she glanced at Saul. The way it looked he had no clue what they were saying. He looked slightly shocked. Ana noticed her gaze and squeezed Saul’s hand, "Leyla will tell us everything she knows about this crazy story, so she will be able to warn Gregory." Saul was puzzled. He didn’t know what they were saying. What had he gotten himself into and who the hell was Gregory? Still it was somehow exciting because he loved fantasy series and now he seemed to be in the middle of one himself.

Ana turned her gaze back to Leyla, "They have somehow found out that he is in Solanto with a Circus named Motta Benedetto. They have their spies everywhere," she reached for Leyla’s hand, "I overheard Gabe saying, that he is gathering some of his people to go to Sicily. They want to keep Gregory from doing something. I haven’t really found out what it is. Anyway, the locals apparently don’t have as many powers as Gabe does. Still their goal is to destroy Gregory. Although I still don’t understand how a single boy can be such a threat to them. I heard Carmine and Gabe saying some crazy stuff like one can fight fire only with fire and that they need to throw the Savior into the crater of the volcano. Because a prophecy says that, everything had to do with the volcano. It was the only way to destroy the Savior. They can apparently not kill him just like that. I had no idea what they were talking about, but I think that this Savior must be Gregory, right? I'm sure that you can explain everything and then warn him. So that he can hit the road before this bunch of crazy, dudes including my delusional brother show up in Sicily." Saul looked from one to another in disbelief, “Is there a hidden camera somewhere?" Leyla gave him a wary look with a cheesy smile on her face, "Unfortunately not. I wish we were on hidden camera, but we are talking real stuff. Actually as real as it comes."

Then she turned back to Ana, "When are they going to leave?" Ana thought about it for a moment, "I guess he said something about the autumn break, so no one would get suspicious asking strange questions if all of a sudden some students were missing at school." Leyla nodded, she suddenly looked very calm and determined. The notion of panic that had previously shown on her face was gone, "I will warn him and gather the Akandos. He can use whatever help he can get." Saul looked at her stunned, and then he said, "Who the hell are the Akandos? Would be very nice to explain what I have gotten myself into here. Because I feel that Gandalf is knocking at the door anytime now." They both looked at him surprised as if they forgot he was there. Great, he thought. Leyla took a deep breath, "Well, I think now that you have been involved in this mess, it does make sense if you know what it is all about, doesn’t it? But, I am warning you. Keep yourself out of it, even if you know what's going on because the Vultures are the kind to walk over dead bodies." “Who are the Vultures?" Saul lifted his arms in a gesture of sheer despair. Ana looked at him, shrugged, and then they both looked at Leyla waiting for an answer.

She told them everything she knew. Except for some details, she thought were not relevant in her opinion. For example, that Gregory had been compromised because of her, at the summer festival, as she was there with Greyson. That he lost control because he was acting jealous and became negligent. First, she didn’t say anything about it because she still felt guilty, and second because she rescued him later on. So, the matter was balanced. After all, these two didn’t have to know everything, right? When she finished, they were both speechless. Saul was even a bit pale, it seemed, and they both stared at her with wide eyes, “What's wrong? Did you become speechless all of a sudden?" Saul grinned, "Wow, that's all I have to say." Ana nodded, "Yes, I think that about sums it up." Leyla shrugged, "What about some ice cream now? I don’t know about you, but Ben and Jerry's always calm me down amazingly." She looked at Ana, "Or, is that a problem for you?" Ana shook her head, "No, no problem at all, compared to what you've just told us." She pushed a heaping spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. Saul leaned toward her and kissed her softly on her cheek, "You're damn right girl. Who knows if we're still alive tomorrow, if I listen to that shit. I think, we should enjoy the moment."

Leyla looked at them, and it gave her a small stitch in the heart. Who knew what the future would bring, and how could she enjoy the moment without Gregory. He was thousands of miles away? She could hardly wait for the two of them to leave so that she could call him. She hoped to reach him, because she had to warn him and she knew exactly where she would spend her fall break. Pretty bad news for her lately rescued bank account.

All the way to the stone pit, Antony was feverishly pondering how he could convince Gregory to forget about that stupid duel with Keanu. He had a queasy feeling about the whole damn thing. This day would end disastrously if he didn’t do something to stop them. Except the fact that Nonna Tiziana would kill him if he admitted that, something happened to the long-awaited savior, and on top of that, that someone of his or her people would kill Gregory. He could vividly imagine what she would do to him. She'd torture him by no doubt or even worse, and for that, he was too young. He didn't want to die, and he was going to put an end to this madness. So, when they arrived at the stone pit, Antony waited until Gregory took off his helmet turning off the Vespa. Antony grabbed a large stone. Like they were lying around hundreds of them in the stone pit, and when Gregory turned around, he quickly knocked him down hitting the stone over his head.

The blow came unexpected, and Gregory fell like a tree. Antony dragged him back to the Vespa, and heaved him face down on the saddle, "Sorry Bro, but I didn’t know what else to do, and as you apparently are tired of living, you hardly mind me hitting you, knocking you unconscious and stuff." Then Antony walked up and down nervously. He hoped that he hadn't seriously injured Gregory. Shit, he saw that Gregory was bleeding heavily on the temple. Remained to be hoped that he hadn’t hit him too hard. He couldn’t stop from walking panicking around, where was damn Keanu? Wasn’t he even in time for his duel the stupid moron? Shit, shit, and shit again. He rummaged through the pockets of his cargo pants for his phone but instead found cigarettes and a lighter. How the hell did it get in his pocket? Valentina was apparently smoking again secretly, they both stopped some weeks ago, and they had a bet going on. So, she tried to cheat on him, the little brat. Looked like he took the wrong pants off the leash in his rush and despair this morning. Or, they were someone else’s pants. Anyway, they weren’t his. He decided quickly to start smoking again after glancing worried at the still spaced out Gregory. He lit a cigarette and started to cough heavily. Man, he was no longer used to that stuff. Suddenly someone grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

At first, he thought Gregory regained consciousness and wanted to smash his face. He lashed out with his burning cigarette until he noticed that he had the scowling face of Keanu in front of him, "Hey, boy what's going on? Did someone assault you? You're totally beside yourself," he shook Antony slightly, and then he let go of him. Antony staggered backward when he surprisingly let go off him. He threw the half-smoked cigarette to the ground stepping on it with his foot, "No, we haven’t been attacked." Keanu took a closer look at Gregory lying unconscious on the Vespa, still bleeding. "What happened? Did you have an accident?" He looked at the Vespa, which as far as he could see was not a battered victim. Antony scuffled his hair in despair, "No, damn it, I hit Gregory with a stone."
"What's wrong with you? Are you crazy? Why did you do something stupid like that?" Keanu looked sternly at Antony. Gregory moaned and got slowly to his feet. He touched his head, saw his bloody hand, and looked reproachful at Keanu, who was standing in front of him, "Man, what did you do to me? Stroke me down before you even said hello? What kind of a sick thing was that?" Keanu had his arms crossed and seemed unmoved, "Ask your buddy here!"
"Antony?" "Yes, Antony looks like he struck you down because it wasn’t me for sure." "What are you saying?" Gregory looked incredulously at Antony, who guiltily inspected his dusty shoes, "You knocked me down? Are you out of your mind?" Antony shrugged, "Apparently!"
"I thought you were my friend," Gregory looked accusingly at Antony. Keanu still stood there with his arms crossed over his chest, "A legitimate question," he said grimly, and both looked to Antony.

Antony retreated, "Sometimes friends must do something drastic to bring each other back to their senses, and you two are certainly not behaving normally at all. In fact, if I think closely about it, I am the only normal one around here. Do you want to defeat the Vultures? But, you also want to kill each other, which is absolute nonsense. So, I thought that if I beat him down, you two will stop that stupid duel. I admit that it probably was not one of my most brilliant ideas, but tough times sometimes require tough measures." He looked desperately from one to another, and Gregory realized for the first time since he knew him how young and insecure he looked. He stood there ruffled and confused, no malice in his green eyes, only despair, and kindness. How had he ever seen a resemblance to Gabe in him? Antony was a true friend who wanted to prevent Keanu and him from killing each other. His methods of prevention were somehow questionable and quite painful.

Gregory touched his hurting head. The guy had slammed down on him with full force, "Now calm down again dude. It looks like you have granted me a laceration out of sheer pacifism. You could have told me how you felt about the duel. But as it seems you are not into words that much. What If you had hit me too hard? Have you thought about that genius, what then?" Antony looked taken aback at Gregory, "As if you would listen to me. I tried to talk to you at that gas station, but you didn’t give a damn. Now you are giving me the blame for the whole mess? Or, what?" Gregory shrugged grinning uneasily. He knew that Antony was right. Antony glanced at Keanu, who still watched him with folded arms.

Antony had enough of these two obviously crazy guys. "You know what? You two idiots, then kill each other, be my guest, I don’t give a shit.” He turned and walked briskly to the Vespa. Gregory realized that the key was still in the ignition. Someone had to stop him. Otherwise, the guy would take off. "Don’t you want to hold him back?" He heard Keanu’s grim voice beside him. "Why should I hold him back? Hold him back yourself." Looking at Keanu's gloomy face, Gregory sighed, "Ok, I'll hold him back, even though my skull is about to explode." He quickly followed Antony, who had arrived at the Vespa, “Hey, wait where are you going? I thought you were my backup!" Antony set out to push the Vespa from the stand, “Forget about that dude, have a good time with your crappy duel without me. I'm hitting the road." Gregory tried to stand in his way because Antony got on the Vespa by now. The engine of the Vespa roared, "Get out of my way you bat shit crazy would-be suicide." The Vespa shot forward, and Gregory just managed to avoid being run over jumped to the side. Antony sped down the road. Great, Gregory thought watching him get away. He hoped that he could get a ride back with Keanu after they had talked the duel over. Otherwise, he was screwed.

Keanu’s position was unchanged He stood there like a statue, his arms still folded with an indefinable expression on his face. The dust swirled up through Antony's Vespa, shimmered through the dry heat, and gave the situation the kitschy touch of an old Western movie on TV. In Gregory's imagination, an impressive number of Redskins dashed out of the bushes, with wild war paint on their faces. They grabbed Keanu handcuffing him. Then they took him to their village, where they tied him to a stake. He saw their tents in his vivid imagination before Keanu cleared his throat and brought him back to reality.

"I suppose you still want a duel with me, even if your aggressive second has taken off?" His voice was dripping with sarcasm, and Gregory almost laughed aloud. Well, the situation was not without a certain humor, depending on how one looked at it. He shook his head, "No honestly I want to talk to you, and I admit that the idea of the duel was pretty stupid because ultimately we are indeed on the same side, right? I think I was hurt in my vanity and my pride because you've always criticized me. I'm honestly sorry." He looked at Keanu noticing his surprised expression, "Respect, I wouldn't have believed, that you had the balls admitting such a thing." He nodded impressed, "So what are we going to do now till Antony probably comes back with the cavalry? He is truly convinced that we are going to kill each other and is scared as shit about it." Crap, Gregory hadn’t thought about that, Antony close to a nervous breakdown would inform first thing Giacomo and Donna Tiziana and bring them to the stone pit. "What can we do to stop him?" "You can’t do anything, let things take their course and hope that Antony will see Tiziana first. She will know how to calm him.

Now back to my question, what do you want to do? Do you fancy a sailing trip?" Gregory looked at him somewhat confused, "You want to go sailing with me?"
"Why not, on a sailboat on the open sea, we are just the two of us, and if Antony should come back, he is no longer able to find us."
"And why should I go sailing with you? Don’t we have anything better to do? I want to cooperate and learn everything there is to know about how to save that damn world and my ass as well!"

He looked at Keanu, who was ignoring him as well and got into the car. Well, he would certainly get his attention one way or another. "If HE had someone to support him back then, rather than to fall for a traitor, the job probably would have been done a hundred years ago and you no longer needed me." Keanu's head snapped around, "what are you talking about?" "I am talking about Lorenzo Belmont. When were you planning to tell me about him?" Keanu squinted intently, "When you're ready." "Damn, I'm ready, or do you want to wait until I'm dead? For your information, then it will be too late." Keanu nodded thoughtfully, "Maybe you're right." He opened the car door pulling out some Ray Ban shades and threw them at Gregory. "Put them on. We are going to visit someone." Gregory was confused, that was not the answer he expected, "I thought you would tell me more about Lorenzo, and we’d go sailing?" "Don’t ask so many questions and put the damn sunglasses on, or they'll know immediately what is going on. We must be careful because the beast is dangerous." "What beast? Who do you want to visit?" Keanu threw him a dark look, "The real reason for my negative image towards women and at the same time the most insidious person that exists of the female species. Her name is Giada di Benedetto." "Aha, another Di Benedetto seems to be a popular last name around here on this island." He didn’t want to tell him about his conversation with Donna Tiziana and tried to act clueless. "Is she related to Giacomo?"

Keanu looked at him almost pityingly, "You really don’t have the slightest idea whom we are dealing with, do you?" Gregory shrugged, "How am I supposed to know anything. Enlighten me then!" "The Di Benedetto family owns half the island, a real mafia family out of the textbook. The people from the circus Motta Benedetto on the other hand, are moderate Mafiosi if you know what I mean." "No, I don’t know what you mean I don’t have the slightest clue about the Mafia and the Savior legend. So, far I haven’t had the pleasure to meet any Mafiosi."
"Believe me, it is never a pleasure, and by now they have emerged to the north of the country, as the government had the great idea to put some important mafia bosses in jail to the north. Unfortunately, some of their fellowship followed their bosses and brought their criminal activities to the north. So, you should be happy if you’d nothing to do with them so far."

"Why should I? My step-parents are certainly no Mafiosi and as far as I know there only are problems between the Mafia families, regular people are not being bothered, at least what I have heard so far."
"Not quite Gregory, perhaps in the north, but here we often have different rules. If you have a thriving business, suddenly members of the Di Benedetto family or one of the other influential families show up at your doorstep and ask for some protection money. Otherwise, they’ll threaten your family, burn your business, or do something else not very nice to you. Fortunately, most of the di Benedetto, Maltese or however their names don’t have any Akandos or Vultures amongst them." He laughed bitterly, "Probably their genes refused to function properly with all their wickedness. A bloody bunch they are."

Gregory looked at him thoughtfully, "If many of these Mafia guys originally descended from the three Onendas having landed here, they were supposed to have the ability to control at least one element, or am I wrong here?" He stared at Keanu's sharp profile. The wind blew his hair from his face. Then all of a sudden his face lit up, he threw Gregory an amused look, "Yes, that is what one would think, right? But it isn’t the case, and I don’t know why in Canada it seems to work quite well. The descendants have the ability to control the elements and elsewhere in Europe it apparently works. Only here on the very Island the original Onendas landed, the descendants don’t have any supernatural abilities. Quite ironic, isn’t it? Who knows maybe it is part of the prophecy, or maybe we should rather call it a curse?"
"Then tell me more about the curse."
"Be patient we will come to that soon enough.” He threw a clean towel at him to wipe away the dried blood from this temple. ” First of all, you have to get the whole picture." Finally, some light would be brought into the story for once Gregory thought, as he was all ears.

"The Sicilian descendants don’t inherit the gene or the ability or whatever we want to call it in most cases, which is a good precaution of nature. There are however some few cases in which the descendants around here have very strong skills, but it is very rare. Sometimes they have very weak abilities and are always in search of people like me trying to exploit them," his voice was full of bitterness. "I see, that’s where your opposition against any relationship comes from, Tiziana told me that you almost died because of this girl, Giada, wasn’t it?"
"This old crow just can’t keep her mouth shut," Keanu squinted angrily. Gregory grinned, because he was right, "But as to your reaction to my remark, I assume that the old crow was right?"
"Of course, she's right, and since then I have completely lost all confidence in the so-called weaker sex." First Gregory though that Keanu would leave it at that and wouldn’t say anything more about it, when he continued as if nothing had happened. "As I said the Sicilian families usually have no control over the elements and guys like Giacomo do only what is necessary not to pay any protection money.