Lucky Dog 1 translations 09 Giulio route 04

Part 3: Daivan

Chapter 9

Calm Before the Storm

Giulio: …I have finished.

Giulio comes out of the bathroom wrapped in steam and heat.  His body, still wet, is covered with nothing but a big fluffy bath towel.

Gian: S-Sure.  Then…  Sorry, but could you call for something to eat?

Giulio: Yes.  Is there anything…?

Gian: ‘s all up to you!

     

I strip my clothes off in the heat-and-humidity-filled bathroom and rinse myself off with a shower hot enough to sting…

I try to wash away the red-black memories, but…

     

…It’s impossible.  …Shit, had I always been so bad?  All those bodies of our enemies, the blood, it should’ve been a sweet sight, but…

…it fuzzes up, and Giulio’s standing there.  Even now I shiver…

…Will it be the same thing again tomorrow?

…My sanity might splinter to pieces first…

I switch off between a hot shower and cold water again and again until I’d calmed myself, or rather, until I’d exhausted myself, and finally the noise in my head’s quieted.

At some point in time, the table in the room’s been filled with food from room service, encircling Giulio.  For a while, we don’t talk, just put food into our stomachs.

There’s something I want to ask Giulio.  But … I know it’s a topic that’ll completely and absolutely screw over Giulio’s – and my – appetite, so…

I put the utensils aside and once I’d finished drinking the bland, lukewarm coffee, I murmur,

Gian: Hey, Giulio.  About you … you and your grandfather.  Are you two … always like that?

Giulio: …

Gian: I was watching today, but … you’re really as awesome as they say, Giulio.

Gian: But then … just what’s the old man got against you, Giulio?

Giulio: Even if … I am good at killing … it is no good, as it is not something befitting a man of Bondone…

Gian: …

…Crap, I just jumped headfirst into a world of twistedness.  Plus … this twistedness isn’t just Giulio’s.  Is that old Bondone geezer the source of all this offness…?

Giulio: But … I cannot … do anything but this, which is why…

     

Gian: …Whoa!

When’d he…?!  There, hanging loosely in Giulio’s grip is the knife.  …Rather, where the hell’d it come from?!

Giulio’s wearing nothing but a towel…  A really stupid thought comes to mind, and of course it’s not true, but…

…Does that knife leak out of his body like sweat?

Gian: Haha…  ‘Not do anything but this…?’  But we’re the Mafia, right?

Giulio: …Yes.

I purposely use the word “Mafia” rather than “Cosa Nostra” to Giulio, the 100% pureblooded Italian…

Gian: If you can kill, then that’s already perfect.  Let’s do a bang-up job tomorrow, too.

Giulio: …Thank you … very much…

Gian: ‘bout what?

Giulio: Signor Gian … would acknowledge me…

…Acknowledge?  If there were anyone who’d seen Giulio do that and still said he was useless, then I wanna see this person.  Anyone other than the gramps, at least.

Gian: …Guess there’s nothing to do but go at it.

Giulio: Ah … yes.

Giulio nods, like something’d settled inside him at the words I’d blurted out without any deep thought.

…Sigh…  I set the coffee cup down and look up at the high ceiling.

…Is Giulio afraid of the gramps?

To tell the truth, there’s plenty of kids out there who’s been beaten up by their families and have turned out pretty weird ‘cause of it, and I’ve seen quite a few of them.

But … Giulio’s … a bit different, it feels like.  He’s definitely scared of the old geezer, but that’s not all … I think.

I wonder what crazy thing’s gonna get shoved onto our plate tomorrow.  …Or, will it stop at a simple slaughter?  …Or…

Gian: Tss … haa…  Don’t really feel in the mood for drinks.

Giulio: Would … you like me to have them bring something sweet?

Gian: Mm … every day might be a bit much…

Giulio stands from his seat with a whoosh of air.  With just that, I jump startled, then feel embarrassed and a tad pissed off.

He drifts like a wafting breeze over to the shelf where his own clothes are being kept and immediately returns.  And … leaves something on the table.

Giulio: …Would you like to?

Gian: Huh?  …What’s this—

The thing sitting on the table looks like nothing more than a pack of powdered medicine – the kind old men guzzle down when they’ve got indigestion – wrapped in kraft paper.

…But no, an instant later, it hits me.  Drugs.  Can’t tell which without trying, though.

Gian: You … do drugs?

Giulio: Ah, no… Um, not much…

…He uses.  But there’s no trace of Giulio off in la-la land ever.  It looks like the dangerous part’s got nothing to do with the dope.

Giulio: I thought … that perhaps it would provide a change of pace.

Gian: You sure say it easy.

I never thought drugs’d come up as a replacement for desserts.  Never imagined it.  …What to do about this…

---

Gian: Guess … I’ll take a hit…

I decide half-recklessly … or rather, if I refuse here, I feel like I’m more of a kid than Giulio here who brought this out oh so naturally…

I take one of the packets and rip it open with my teeth.

Gian: …Heroin?

Giulio: I believe it is imported from Columbia.

Gian: …The Bondone racket, huh…

Giulio gives a small nod.  …Speaking of, Boss Alessandro’s forbidden the distribution of heroin, but … at the same time, he’s also kind of turning a blind eye.

It’s because if he does something so extreme as completely prohibiting it and whipping up a big fuss over it, everything’d go down the same gutter as the Prohibition.  That’s why he’s leaving a limited circulation of the high quality goods to the captains.

I thought this was in Luchino’s realm, but…  I see, so the powerful Bondone family’s got their own private white pipeline…

…If I shoot this pure powder up … I’ll probably be high in Cloud Nine all the way ‘til noon tomorrow.  That’d be kinda bad.

Gian: Fanculo…

…I half feel like that time when I was a kid I dared myself to smoke for the first time when I stick my tongue out to taste the snow.

Giulio: If you ingest all of it, you will not be able to wake up tomorrow…

Gian: I know.

I lick up the dope I’d powdered over the back of my fist – and over the gleaming trail my spit leaves behind like slug tracks, I sprinkle more powder, which…

Giulio: Ah…  …

Like he’s about to bite me, Giulio’s face…

Gian: Whoa … ah…

Giulio licks up the powder on my hand…

     

     

I can feel the center of my spine shudder through my body.  It tickles?  …No, this is a bit different…

Does dope work this quickly?  He only licked my fist a little and I feel the hit … coming on harder than if someone’d done the same to my dick.

Giulio: Uh, ah … Signor Gian…

Gian: Hey—  …Hey … there’s no more left…

Even without any snow there, Giulio’s still kneeling in front o f me like a gentleman bestowing a kiss to a noble lady’s glove, his tongue never stopping.

Giulio’s body, his tongue, melts through my nerves…

The dope’s gone to my head.  Just from getting my hand licked, I feel like my whole body’s nerves are getting shredded through a grinder of bliss.

My whole body’s like a dick, getting sucked up, mouthed, surrounded from head to toe…  That’s the only way to describe this feeling.  My vision goes completely black, completely white…

     

Gian: Ngh, gah…!  A-Ah…?!  …S…top … that…!!

I stop breathing.  Without drawing breath, the same time my squirming hand brushes against Giulio’s hair, I shove his body away.

Gian: Hah … haah…  Hah…

Giulio: Haa … haa…  Ah…  My … apologies…

Gian: No.  It’s not…

Giulio’s…

His eyes have gone from the dirty-oil-stain-black from before to a black filled with a whole different kind of emotion.  Those eyes are watching my face, covered with a sheen of sweat.

The towel falls from his limp body on the floor.

His completely erect penis beats in rhythm with his heart.  A clear sap starts leaking from its tip…

Gian: Ah … hey…  Uwah…

My bottom half’s in about the same condition.  Even though I haven’t touched it beneath the towel … white comes spurting out.

Gian: S-Sorry.  Stand up.  Come on…

I take Giulio’s hand and pull him to his feet.  Like a parasite, like a completely different creature from the weakly swaying body, his penis stands hard, straight into the air.

…Shit.

… … …The dope’s working.  I’m shuddering through and through…

I hand Giulio his fallen towel.

Gian: …Yeah, it really is no good.

I turn away from Giulio and head for the bed.  …Behind me, I feel Giulio’s eyes on me…  No, something broken in me someplace wants it…

The inside of my spine boils up red.  …I thought Giulio’d followed after me…

…but, Giulio groans from where he is and says,

Giulio: …My … apologies.

Gian: Stupid, I’m not talking about you.  …Drugs are a no.  They’re not my thing.

Giulio: I … I will not use them any more…

Gian: That’s good.  I’m sleeping now.

I bury myself into the bed, before sneaking a peek out at Giulio from within the folds of my sheets.  He’s standing there like a shadow, but…

…after a few inhales and exhales, he slowly moves and heads towards his own bed.  I turn off the lights for the room.

I roll over onto my side.  Maybe the dope’s still working.  I can feel it on my skin, that feeling of weightlessness, like my weight’s evaporated into air.

But … my gut’s a full tank of self-loathing.

The pleasure from Giulio earlier.  Regret at having thrown it away.  Disgust at myself for caring so much about it.

…Is this what they call a bad trip…?

Either way, it’s good I don’t have a razor or a glass cup anywhere near me…

If there was, I’d want to start skinning myself out of revulsion which’d jumble up with the free-floating ecstasy, and…  …I’m never doing drugs again.

I turn back around towards Giulio.  He’s … as usual, lying stiff on the bed without a single movement.

I close my eyes…

…and endure the feeling of a hangover gone a hundred times worse…

…Can I hold out … against something like this…?

<< Back to Chapter 9 – Failure

Onto Chapter 10 – Take the Bait >>