Abilities

In Italy, the temperature usually doesn’t crack 90 during the summer months, but the fall is typically a beautiful time of the year to travel. September begins the rainy months that last three or four months, but the temperature hovers around the 70s and the sights are beautiful. The hills come alive as vines burst with full ripe grapes and wineries prepare for harvest. All the while, olive trees are netted and thrashed to collect that year's crop. The afternoon showers are common, but the occasional storm may lull you to sleep.

Two guys crept around the Tuscany hotel. Mitchel carried a backpack and wore a University of Cincinnati Bearcats athletic cap. He was a built young man. He wasn’t a power lifter in the weight room by any means, he wasn’t a 250-pound football linebacker, but he was toned. Sure, his shoulders were big, but the rest of his body was lean muscle.

Behind him followed a pudgy friend. His pants sagged low and he pulled them up with every other step he took. His face was covered in a grizzly beard that slipped into his mouth when he sucked in air.

“I still don’t understand how you did that. The money just poured out?” asked the pudgy one.

“I told you not to worry about it. I got us the money now let’s forget it. Now shut up and keep moving,” responded Mitchel.

The two guys slipped around the hallways of the hotel past a couple of bellboys and maids walking the halls, all of them too hard at work to notice the two guys, they were practically invisible. The hotel was a five-star luxury establishment called the Albergo Villa Casanova. It was more modern than most hotels in Italy, but it did have the European tradition. The couple that owned the hotel had done a beautiful job over the years of renovating the place. The suites were overly large, the bathrooms were stunning, and the beds were as comfortable as any. It was a perfect place to stay when traveling to Pisa, Lucca, or Florence.

“You got the key?” asked Mitchel.

“Yeah,” his friend dug into his back pocket and pulled his wallet out. The guys walked up to the room’s door. As he searched his wallet for the hotel room key, Mitchel was on lookout duty. Mitchel never let his eyes rest. He scanned the hallway from the left to the right and then back. He looked at the end of the hallway, and checked each door to make sure they remained closed.

“Hurry up, John.”

“Got it,” he said as he pulled the green key card out of his wallet.

Mitchel snagged it away from him in the blink of an eye. He was so quick that John couldn’t even react in time before Mitchel had the card in the lock. He lifted the card out of the slot and after a second the red light turned green and the door lock snapped open.

Mitchel put two feet into the room and stopped. John was tugging at the bag on Mitchel’s back and hadn’t realized he stopped walking. John’s face slammed into Mitchel’s shoulder.

“What are you doing?” asked John, but he didn’t need an answer when he saw the woman lying on his bed. “What is she doing here?”

“Go wait outside,” said Mitchel. John stood motionless. He stared at the woman lying on the bed. Mitchel looked back to John and nodded him out the door. John threw his hands in the air and turned away.

“I’m gonna get another room,” John said as he opened the door. “Oh, hi, Karen.”

John closed the door behind him. Mitchel smirked at John’s annoyance with the woman. Mitchel moved to the window and closed the curtains. He flipped open the cap to the air conditioner and turned the down the temperature. He slipped the bag off his left shoulder and stopped. He watched Karen. She rearranged herself on the bed, but was just getting more comfortable. Mitchel dropped the bag to the floor.

“What’s in the bag, Mitchel?” she asked.

“What are you doing here, Karen?” responded Mitchel.

Karen laughed and nodded. Mitchel smiled, but it wasn’t a sincere facial expression. Karen sat up on the bed and placed her feet to the side. Her dark hair was pulled up. She started messing with it pulling out pins and a rubber band. She dropped it all on the table next to the bed and her hair fell to her shoulders.

“You robbed another ATM,” she accused him.

“You didn’t come alone,” he responded.

Again, his response had her laughing but each chuckle was obvious with her annoyance. She leaned to the table and flipped the light on. She stood up and walked closer to him. When she stood parallel to the foot of the bed, Mitchel took a step back and sat on the dresser. She stopped and looked at the bag.

“How did we get here?” she asked. “We had something special, Mitchel. It was real, wasn’t it?”

“Nothing about it was real. You did nothing but lie. Everything was a lie.”

“The feelings were real. At least, mine were. Were yours?” she asked him as she took steps closer putting her heel through the strap of the backpack that lay on the ground. “I’ve never felt anything like that. I know you love me.”

“No,” Mitchel grabbed her by the wrists and continued, “I used to, but not anymore. Get your foot off the bag.”

She slowly lifted her foot off the ground, which was still in the strap of the bag, and all she could do was smile innocently. He pushed her back and grabbed the bag off the ground and hooked it around his back. With the bag slung around one shoulder, he stepped closer to her. Their feet were positioned between each other’s. He got his face close to hers. They could taste each other’s breath. He looked deep into her eyes, occasionally looking at her lips while tucking his own back.

“How many are out there, Karen?” he asked. “You know what’s going to happen.”

“Mitchel, it’s getting worse.”

“You haven’t seen anything yet,” he said with a dark voice. “How many?”

“Four. There are four men down the hall,” her head dropped down, her eyes buried into the carpet, and she could only shake her head.

“Well, looks like you’ll have a few more calls to make.”

Karen closed her eyes. Her head slightly moved side to side as Mitchel turned to walk away.

“Are you going to tell your father that you aren’t in Italy to study abroad?” she asked. Her question caused Mitchel to stop moving. The door was only slightly opened. He stood there staring at the doorknob that was inches away but impossible to reach for. He turned his head until he could see her in the corner of his eye.

Mitchel pulled his hat off and ran his fingers through his hair. His brunette locks hung lower than his ears. Once his hair was pulled back and out of his eyes, he fitted his hat back to his head. “What’d you do?”

“Nothing. But next time you talk to him he’s going to tell you an old friend stopped by to say hello, a cute prissy, flakey type of girl…so…hello,” she said with a serious tone and expression on her face. She was not the Valley-girl type that she had acted like when talking with his father back at his Ohio home. She was sophisticated and serious. Very smart in a calculated, manipulative way.

Mitchel’s eyebrows stiffened and his glare shot through her. His breathing picked up. It was deeper and moved in and out heavily. He let the bag slide off of his shoulder but he grabbed the strap by hand on its way down to the ground. His upper lip began to twitch but before he lost control, he tossed the bag to the foot of the bed, opened the door and shot out of the room. He slammed the door behind him.

Karen dropped onto the bed. She sat still. Staring into the mirror on the wall behind the dresser, her hands came together and moved up to her face. She placed her elbows on her knees and leaned forward as her eyes watered. She turned her head and focused her eyes on the bottom of the door. The small crack between the yellow carpet and the door breathed in fresh light from the hallway.

Flashes of black sparked underneath the door. The electrical storm on the other side caused the lamp in the room to blow out. Karen sat in the dark. She couldn’t turn her eyes away. In the small crack of space, there were dark bolts of electricity and the sounds of crackling energy. She began shaking her head. She slowly pulled her cell phone from her pocket. She pressed three numbers but couldn’t do anymore. She tossed the phone on the bed and her head crashed into her hands. The flashes of black, and the sounds of the voltage were separated by screaming. The screams of her men, her friends. It stopped and she sat in silence.