13 - "You are free"

"Patrick Norton, one of the members of one the most powerful families in the world, was found almost dead in jail last night." "Apparently, the victim was burnt alive while he was having a shower." "According to the police, there are no witnesses of the attack." "Currently, Patrick Norton is hospitalized but doctors claim that although he is out of danger he will never have a normal life." Oscar could not believe what he was whatching. The news appeared in the front page of every newspaper and in every television channel. In that moment, when Oscar could not help to keep his eyes on the television, his mind was full of questions. As the the news broadcasts were giving more information, several questions appeared in Oscar's mind. However, the wierdst thing was that all those questions seemed to lead to a single name: William. Suddenly, someone knocked on the door the same way as he did the first time.

The next morning was strange in jail. Every prisoner heard how the prison officers started shouting when they found Patrick's burnt body in the showers. And everyone was surprised when a helicopter came to prison to take Patrick to the nearest hospital. Everyone but William; a William still dressed up as Malick. Everything that was neccessary was going to be made to safe Patrick's life. Everything that was neccessary to safe Alexander Norton son's life. But William knew that show was not neccessary. He knew Patrick was not going to die. If William had wanted Patrick to die, he would had been dead for hours. But not in this case. Suddenly the image of Patrick being burnt away appeared in his mind. But, in that moment, he did not remeber it as memory that made him feel happy. In that moment, that memory horrified him. He felt it was something that should not belong to his head. It felt like if someone had cut that memory out from a cruel and heartless person and it would have been posted in his head. He felt devastated and disgusted. Was regret what he was feeling? Before he could answer to that question, he heard: "Malick, your sentence is over. You are free." He felt good while he was going out of prison. That was what everyone should feel when they were walking the same way as William. Even the feeling of the sunlight in the skin seemed to feel different outside than it did inside. He was free. But deep down, he knew he only was physically free. Nobody would be able to release him from the actions he made inside jail. Nobody would be able to release his mind from those terrible memories. Those memories will remain in his mind and dreams forever. When William was far enough from prison, he took off the wig and through it into the rubbish. Then he desired to take off and through his memories away as easy as he did with the wig. But it was impossible. It was strange that when he was free, he felt like a prisoner condemned to drag his memories as heavy chains for the rest of his life. In that moment, he started walking to the only place he could go to. He walked towards the only place he was welcomed. He went to the only place William was still alive. When he arrived to that strange and monotonous neighborhood and made sure he was in front of the right door, he knocked on it the same way as he did the first time.

12 - The first name to cross out

In a grey and rainy day, Patrick was at the showers, trying to take off  his worries with water. It was late at night and there was an strange silence in prision. Nothing good comes with silence. The enviroment was dark and wet at the showers. This place was made of grey tiles which seemed rather black in the darkness of night. Every shower was separeted from the other by a litlle wall that only covered the private body parts. Over the showers there was a row of little windows through which the moonlight entered lighting just a little part of the room. Suddenly, Malick appeared behind him at the wall some metres away from the showers.
"You scared the hell out of me, son of a bitch!" said Patrick while he was trying to breath normally.
"I didn't mean to" said Malick. His pitch was different. Patrick could feel Malick was in a strange mood. Under the moonlight his face looked different. It seemed Patrcik was talking to a different Malick and that worried him.
"What the fuck you want?" ask an impatient Patrick.
"Why you entered in prision?" ask Malick with the same wierd and low pitch.
"Are you crazy? You perfectly know why I am here. Someone charged on me drug trafficking. What the hell is wrong with you? What is this all about?" Malick could feel how Patrick was getting more and more nervous. He knew Patrick was nervous when his mouth turned into a curse-words dispenser.
Suddenly, the tap of the shower turned off and stopped draining water. Patrick felt how his heart started beating harder than ever. He experienced within his soul that horrible feeling. That horrible feeling it is felt when the situation is not under control. It fills you in of fear. It paralyse every muscle. Therefore, that fear grows as it is obvious somenthing hideous is going to happen and the body is totally paralysed. That horrible feeling can make the most brave man in the world be terrified. In that moment, Malick talked again.
 "No... You entered prision because you and a group of men went to a mansion, entered in it and violently killed two people"
 In that exact second the tap of the shower turned on and after a few seconds it turned off again. Suddenly, Patrick percieved a strong smell.  What the shower drained it was not water, it was petrol. He was so shocked and nervous he could not move a single muscle.
"But you know what, Patrick? You should've killed... three"
Before Patrick could even react, Malick lighted a match, looked at Patrick's terrified face again and threw it to the showers. A huge flame that lighted the whole place appeared from the wet floor. The blue and heavenly moonlight turned into the hellish light of fire. Patrick burnt. He was surrounded by flames. His deafening screams could had been heard miles away. But Malick knew nobody was going to hear them. All that Patrick could see was a hurtful orange light. All that he could feel was the fire burning every metre of his skin. Suddenly, the tap turned on and the shower drained enough water to extinguish the fire that surrounded Patrick. He burnt just for a few second, but it seemed an eternity.
While an steaming Patrick was on the floor, sobbing like a hurt dog, Malick walked towards and hung besides him. When he made sure Patrick was looking at him, Malick got rid of his red hair. He took off what it seemed to be a wig. Suddenly, a ghost from the past appeared right in front of Patrick. A ghost that should no be in the world of the living. A ghost Patrick made sure to make dissapear time ago. His shocked face was obvious even when it was unrecognisable. He could not believe what he saw. It was impossible.
"Yes, Patrick. It's me, William. And yes, I'm alive. And as I suppose you know, because I cannot even imagine in how much pain you are right now, so are you. I want you to know that I decided to let you keep your weaked life for two reasons. The first reason is that I want you to feel for the rest of your life what my parents felt when you burnt them. Letting you die would haven been a gift you don't deserve. The second reason is that I want you to send a message to those people you call 'family'. I want them to witness the extent of my mercy by witnessing your deformed body. I want them to feel a constant terror cause they will never be secure. And I want them all to know I'll soon destroy all of them. I will make all their lifes so miserable they will end up praying to die. And you, Patrick, will be a silent witness of my revenge."
Willam stood up and started walking leaving behind him a dying Patrick laid on the floor. While he was going back to his cell he remembered that terrible night when his life drastically changed. Just like in his nightmares, the images of his parents came back. A couple of tears went down William's face. But, it was different. He felt a different feeling. He felt relieved. He was closer to achieve his purpose. Pretty soon all those miserable people would suffer the same fate as Patrick.

11 - The greater, the weaker

There he was. A glorious king sat on his throne made of bones and dead bodies. And Malick was right by his side. He was sat on God's right side. That was how Patrick was feeling. He was empowered. He achieved his goal to became a king within jail. He was earning great amounts of money. A money that went out of jail thanks to one of the Sin City's protitutes. Then it ended up in Julius hands who gave a part of that money to his brother, Alexander. That way they were making millions ruining people's life. But that is what they seemed to be best at. They were experts on taking benefit from people's suffering. Unfortunately, people who make those horrible and disgusting actions always recieve their punishment. And if they do not recieve in the other life, they will recieve in this one. If God do not judge them, someone else will do it and the last might not be as benevolent as the former.
The great empire Patrcik built up within jail was perfect. He made sure to have everything under control and do not fail with the merchandise, material or human. However, when a big empire is built, it is easier to destroy. When the target is bigger there are higher possibilities to hit the bulls-eye. An empire takes a long time to be built up, but just a minute to be destroyed. It starts with the dissapereance of a bit of drug, a prostitute who transmits a venereal disease, drug which is not good enough and the empire that cost so much effort to built is over. Out of jail these mistakes might have been describe as "things that might happen" or "unfortunate consequences". But within jail, these "unfortunate consequences" can kill you. The increasingly unstable enviroment could be felt within jail. Everyone started to get mad and becoming angry including Patrick's closest prisoners. He saw how his empire was going down in front of his eyes. Everything started to fail and he did not even knew why and how. Suddenly, Patrick turned into a strange man. He became suspicious and paranoid. He feared he was the victim of a plot. The only person he trusted was Malick. He was the only who stayed by his side when everyone was gone.

10 - A loyalty proof

There was a weird feeling in prison. Everyone knew what was about to happen and everyone should take a side. Along those days, Malick and Patrick started to get closer. Little by little they started trusting in each other. But Patrick was not a kind of person that trusted in people very easily. His father taught him that. He needed something more. A loyalty proof. Patrick knew how many prisoners were on his side, but he did not know if Malick was one of them. The present king of drug bussiness in prison was a fifty-year old man that was known as The Executive. The reason why he was known by that nickname is not the obvious one. He was not exactly an executive. Prior to his entrance in prision he was a hired assassin. And when he murdered somebody he used to cut the troat and stick the tongue out so it looked like a tie. Therefore, Patrick was confronting a really dangerous man. Someone that was not afraid of anything. Someone who had a cool mind. But Patrick also had those qualities, he thought. He had showed them before. It was a rainy evening, and everything was weirdest than it used to be. Everyone was specially nervous and Patrick felt it. He was with Malick in their prison cell when, suddenly, The Executive and two of his prisoners entered in the prison cell. They closed the cell's door and offered a game to Patrick in order to show who deserved to be the king and who deserved to be the fool. The Executive took a weapon out of his trousers and explained the game to Patrick. They were going to play the Russian roulette, The Executive said. Everybody knew what that game was about. And so did Patrick. His expression showed a deep terror. Malick was shocked. That man always seemed very brave and self-confident. But aim yourself and aim somebody else were different things. For Patrick pulling the trigger to kill someone was easy, but the possibility of dying was something Patrick was not used to. But if he wanted to control the bussiness in prision he had to do it. He accepted the game. And suddenly, when Patrick was about to seat on the chair to confront his uncertain fate, Malick said something that shocked everyone in the prison cell. He wanted to play the game instead of Patrick. The Executive accepted it. Therefore, both of them seated on the chairs with a table and a weapon in the middle of both. The Executive took the weapon, put a bullet in the chamber and spun it. He started and aimed himself with the weapon. A click and nothing. Empty. It was Malick's turn. His heart was beating so hard he could hear it beating inside his ear. He pulled the trigger. The click sound like heavenly music to his ears. Empty. The Executive grabbed the weapon and Malick noticed it was more difficult to him to pull the trigger. But finally The Executive did it. Click. Empty. Malick wanted to cry of terror. He knew he was going to die. He aimed himself with the weapon, closed his eyes and heard a shot. But he was not the one that shot. Whe he opened his eyes he saw The Executive's prisioners dead on the floor and Patrick aiming The Executive with a gun. Malick could not believe what was happening. He was alive and Patrick won the game.

The next morning, The Executive was found dead in his prision cell with his neck cut and his tongue out, like a tie. Therefore, Patrick became the king of prison and Malick his loyal friend.

9 - A bird caged in a mansion

As Patrick was walking into prison, he enjoyed his last seconds as a free person. He would know how a caged bird feel. Cryings that we tend to turn into music. But his music would not be heard by anybody. It is like you start to live another life. You get off of everything to enter in completely different world. A world is not made for everybody. A world that in many cases destroys you. But there is nothing worse than hope. You always hope to go out of that place that is made to torment you. It is like a bird that sings to escape from his cage hoping that one day someone will open the cage's door. At least, Patrick's father made sure that his cage was as nice as possible. He bought off everyone who was necessary to send Patrick to one of the best prisons of the world. A prison for lucky people. A prison to feel safe. But nobody is enough lucky to be comfortable in prison. He shared his prison cell with another boy. He was really young, Patrcik thought. He was a fit boy and his red hair was so intense that it seemed he had a wig on. His name was Malick and he was there because he stole a car. Malick asked Patrick why he was there and he answered that someone charged on him drug and human trafficking. They spent the whole day talking about each other's lives. Malick said that he lived in the poor side of the city and that his family was really poor. Malick used to steal cars and then he sold them in order to make money. He did not knew to do anything else. He grow up stealing to survive and that was what he was good at. On his behalf, Patrick told Malick his different life. But he did not told everything about his family bussinesses. Patrick also told Malick what his plann was. He was going to become the new drug king into prison. He planned to take drug from the street into prison in conyugal visits he would made with a prostitute from Sin City's club. But to be better than the present king you have to offer something else. And that is what Patrick did. Apart from drugs he also offered conyugal visits to prisoners with prostitutes from Sin City's club. His brother would be in charge of making whatever was necessary outside of  prison. There was just one problem. The present king would not easily stood up from his throne to let Patrick seat on it. But Patrick was ready to do anything to be the new king and be last one standing in the war that was about to start.

8 - Turning point

It was really satisfactory to see their faces and how they felt insecure. They thought the happy life they were living was going to last forever. They thought they could live in their little paradise of money and corruption forever. But they were completely wrong. That was what William was thinking while he saw from one side of Patrick's parent's mansion the police arresting Patrick . He saw how the car took Patrick to jail, where he would spend the rest of his life. William and Oscar made sure of that. They anonymosly charge on Patrick drug and human trafficking, enough crimes that will make him change his happy life for a more monotonous one. But, he would not be the only one. Little by little they will send to jail every member of William's family. But, in that moment, William felt very happy he was achieving his goal. It was the first time he felt happy in a really long time. But there was that strange feeling again. William did not knew exactly what it was. But he felt guilty. Maybe his mind was not ready yet. Oscar told him that a revenge like that would need a cool mind and a cool heart, but maybe his heart and mind were not ready. During the six months he spent training his body and mind, he made himself many questions. He ask himself if that revenge was consuming his soul. He ask himself if revenge was all that mattered and if he should leave everything else behind. He tried to avoid those thoughts and concentrate in that fact that his revenge was working. When he arrieved to Oscar's house he told him their plann worked. Patrick was on his way to jail and there was no way he could escape from his awful fate. But, Oscar did not seem to be quite satisfied. He asked William to sit down. William was scared. Maybe his family discovered them. Maybe someone saw him in the graveyard or at Henry's mansion while the police arrested Patrick. His heart started beating so fast that he thought his chest was going to explode. But, suddenly, it stopped when Oscar said what he just discovered. Oscar hacked William's house security cameras and watched that Patrick was one of the men that entered in his house that horrible night in which William's life was destroyed. In that moment, Oscar saw something in William's expression that he never saw before. William was furious. He was full of anger and fire. The memories of that night started to appear. Those memories that only appeared everynight in his nightmares. But William was not sleeping. He remembered his father surrounded by fire and his mother's deafening screams of pain. It was like if he could still listening to her. His eyes became lakes of sandness and hate. Suddenly, William stood up and went to his bedroom.

The next morning, Oscar could not find William anywhere in the house. He disappeared. But, suddenly, when he went to the dark living room, he noticed that the  cupboard where he had all the documents that contained everything someone would like to know was opened, and all the files and documents were spread all over the floor.

7 - Flashblack

A minute becomes an eternity when you are waiting for something. And six months was a very long eternity. William was not exactly an anxious boy, but he could not wait any longer to see the ones who destroyed his world suffer. Anger keeps you going on. When you think about leaving your purpose, there it is that burning fire that keeps you strong and motivated. "Why is not the sweetness of hapiness the petrol that keeps our heart beating? Why is not the warm of love the thing that keeps us alive? Did I forget those feelings? And if so, could I get them back?". Uncountable questions run around Willam's head. But it was part of the training. Someone who takes a revenge do not have feelings. The inner self must become ice. An unbreakble ice no warm feeling could thaw. Sympathy nor humanity are allowed in revenge. This is something William had to learn. But it is not an easy job to take off feelings from the soul. It is like slowly ripping your heart, take off all the skin and then put it inside again. Therefore, everytime the heart beats it stings.

Meanwhile, Oscar recovered all the information he could. Fortunately, he had all the passwords to enter into the confidential files and documents of the family. He kept all of them when he was Henry' partner. In those times, everything was written down in paper. The Internet, what an invention. Nothing better than the Internet to have all your dirty secrets hidden. That was what they probably thought. But know, all their dirty secrets were Oscar's property. It seemed that, after Henry´s death they distributed the empire between all of them. Alexander became the head of it and of course, left the second position to Julius. Alexander was perfectly capable of running the bussinesses, Oscar thought. Julius was too impulsive and type of person who do not take consecuencies into consideration. But, on the other hand, Alexander had a perfect cool head, just the one someone needs to turn Henry's empire into the world of corruption. While he was in the glamorous throne, his twins Erick and Patrick and Julius were on the grounds, gathering the money that came from drugs, prostitution and extorsions. But Oscar needed to know what role each member of the family of them had. Therefore, he spent a month following all of them to every place they would go. And, surprisingly, he did not last too much time to achieve his goal. Apparently, Julius and the twins had a night club called "Sin City". Not too original, thought Oscar because that was where the magic took place. Many grils were brought to the night club in lorries,transported as merchandise . And the woman who took care of them was Caterina. She was in charge of deciding whoever of these girls were worthy of working there as prostitutes or not. In addition, they bought the mafia that controlled the human and drug trafficking. And last but not least, María. She was a women fully integrated in the upper class society. She planned different events in order to gather money for humanitarian organizations. At least, that was everybody beleived. Actually, all that money went to the same place. It did not matter if it was from prostitution or from people's charity. That money was full of dirt. So, this is how they build this whole complex of corruption and greed. But this would not last for long, thought Oscar. He told everything he discovered to William and both of them decided what their first step would be. And they agreed to start from the bottom. Therefore, their first victim would be Patrick.