Retrospective: Paris - How things got messy

4.9 Francesco De la Cruz - Rescue

Fall 1993, somewhere in Paris

When Francesco arrived at the address he got from the corrupt police officier, the first rush of adrenaline had ran low and doubts started to spread.
It was just an average appartement building in some of the more ran down the outskirts of Paris.
The area didn't look as if it was populated. Despite a car parked here or there, a lot of buildings were empty and damaged.

It was suspiciously quiet.
But even if - if Mae was really here, he had no idea how to get her out.
She was probably guarded, and he was alone, and his experiences with fights were limited to some scrapes with other students after school picking on Diego and him.
But this was different, these people had weapons.
He swallowed hard when he thought back to how quickly they had taken care of Monsieur Armand, the lawyer.

Shit.
He should probably call the police and let them handle this, but he still didn't know who to trust. He only knew l'inspecteur pendejo wasn't involved, but he doubted that that asshole would listen to him.
And by the time the police would come, it could already be too late.

When he saw a man going inside, he didn't think twice and rushed after him before the door closed again.

Second floor, the middle door, that was the corrupt officier had told him.
But he hesitated. What should he do then? Knock at the door, hey I think my roommate might be held captive here, can I see her?
Sure.
He took a deep breath of the musty hallway air and turned towards the stairs.

But when he arrived at the door from the description, he hesitated again.
It was open.
Who would keep a hostage in an place and leave the door open?
It was awfully silent, too.
For the first time it crossed his mind that the officier might have lied.
What an idiot he was to just simply believe him.
Just when he was about to turn around, he thought he heard something.
Something like... scratches? Knocking?
And a frustrated groan, very quiet, but still, very familiar.
Before he could conciously make up his mind, he was inside, in a tiny entry hall with two more doors leading to the other rooms.
The left one was which caught his attention - or rather the bright orange long hair behind it.

Mae shrieked quietly when she noticed him, mouthing her surprise without making a sound.

Two steps and he was close to her wrapping his arms around her.
"Are you okay?", he whispered. He felt her nod and something wet against his cheek.
He held her a little tighter.
"Shh... stop crying..." he tried to calm her down. Another nod, but she was still sniffing.

Then his eyes fell onto the knife in her tied hands.
"What's that?" He was confused.

"Oh", Mae immediately found her composure back. "A knife - I need to get it stuck into something", she whispered, "so I can cut the ties - " her eyes lit up by a sudden idea, "wait - you can help me..."
She turned around to hand him the knife so he could.
It took more force to cut the zipties than expected. They were thick and the knife blunt, but eventually he managed.

"What are you doing here?" Her concern shifted towards him, now that her hands and feet were released.
"Uh - rescuing you?", he mumbled, somewhat insecure. It didn't look as if she needed much rescuing. Yes, she had been tied up, but she was alone in a room with open doors, and even had access to knives and stuff.
"They said you'd be at the police station, confessing that you - crap - " she paused, and he tried to process what she was even talking about. But she already continued in her usual ferocity; "Franny, we need to get out of here before Not-Louis comes and -"
Before she could finish, a cold voice cut her off.
"I hate to interrupt this heartwarming reunion, but you really should stop wasting time."

A man leaned casually against the doorframe.
Instinctively Francesco took a step forward while holding Mae in place to stay behind him.
The man smirked, but his voice stayed cold. "I do not intend to hurt you. If you behave."

Honestly, Francesco had had enough of behaving, which these men seemd to confuse with letting them bash you around. And he'd have done something probably very stupid, if it wasn't for Mae softly squeezing his arm.

"Okay", he heard her say. She watched the man carefully, but she seemed much calmer than Francesco was. He was still fascinated how she, who was scared by the lamest horror flicks apparently had nerves made of steel when shit hit the fan.
So he tried keep his calm too, and watch what would happen first.
He nodded in agreement.

The man nodded back.
"You both need to go home now, and never tell what happened today", he said. "You can't tell anyone about the kidnapping, signorina, and you", he turned to Franceso, "can't tell anyone that you were instructed to confess to the police, not even that you ever met those men that instructed you. It is for your own safety."
If it was that easy.

"I'd love to, except no one will ever let me", Francesco snorted.
So much to stay calm and quiet, but that clown really made it very hard, acting as if the huge mess they were in wasn't such a big deal.
"Ah, don't worry", the man raised an eyebrow, "I took care of that."
Exactly like that.

"What, so you made all those pendejos magically disappear?", Francesco felt Mae tugging at his arm. He knew it was probably smarter to just shut up, but he was so pissed already for the whole day. Even more now after he noticed the bruise on her check and her chapped lip. He wanted to punch something, someone.
The other man chuckled. "Not magically. But I do have my methods to ensure they won't bother you anymore."
He was probably just another mobster. And Francesco just waited for his conditions in exchange for the service he provided.
"What about the police?",  he asked. If that fucker wanted something in return, he had to at least do his job right.
"The case is closed, and the police forgot you were there today.", the man replied, "signor Santiago was the innocent victim of a gang shooting."
Francesco almost cracked at "innocent", but he wouldn't bother with details like that now.
"And what I have to do now?", he asked. "More confessions? Maybe this time I have organized all those weapons they found in my innocent boyfriend's secret storage?"
The tugging was there again, this time stronger.
Shit - he had let his anger get the best of him again, regardless that it wasn't only his own life on the line. He avoided looking at Mae, who most likely shot him deadly glances now.
But the man didn't even bat an eye.
"You better forget that too", he said, as calm and cold as before. "And about what you have to do now: Go home.", he added.

Just like that.
Go home.
No conditions.
It didn't make sense.
The whole situation was just too absurd to comprehend. As if someone threw them into a crazy game show, and now they sent the moderator to take them out, well done, game over, go home.
"Unless you want to possibly die", the man said, when none of them made a move.

Then Mae took a deep breath.
"Wait... what about Dante?", she muttered.
"Dante?", the man looked at her now.
"He's... he's my friend", she told the man. Francesco noticed she wasn't half as confident as she seemed to be at first.
"These gangsters said he owes them", she continued, "and he tried to pay them back and brought me here... I think he needs help, too."
Francesco got it now. It was Dante who had backstabbed them, and the hot rage boiled up again.

"Are you fucking serious", he snapped. "If he brought you into this situation, there's no one that can help him anymore -" he ignored the tiny voice in the back of his head that reminded him that it was his fault, first of all.
"He was desperate, okay?" And again there were tears. "I know he wouldn't have brought me here if he knew what they really were up to..."
Okay, Mae was naive, but this was bordering stupidity - no, this was stupidity.
"You can't seriously believe that he thought about anything else but his own ass when -"

"He won't have problems anymore", the man interrupted. There was something sinister, final in his voice, colder than it was before.
A vague idea of what kind the man's "methods" were, creeped up.
Francesco avoided to delve deeper into it, because honestly, he didn't want to know for sure.
And Mae didn't say a word anymore. She was as startled as him.
"Now, go." the man said again, more insisting than before.

This time, Francesco followed his request.
He didn't trust that man, but it wasn't as if he had many other choices. And he'd rather take the chance to get out of here now while they could.
Carefully he led Mae out of the dirty kitchen, always keeping his eyes on the man.
Just in case.

They got out without any incidents.
Mae was still dumbstruck.
She had lost all her spirits.
And he felt awful too. It wasn't as if that man said he had killed her asshole friend -
But he did, that small voice crept back, and now she's sad and it is all your fault.
Shut up, that shit only happens in movies, not in real life.
Yeah, like all the other stuff that happened today.
Shut up.
One day worse things will happen.
Shut up, shut up.
He wrapped his arms tighter around her shivering body, but he felt as if he needed her comfort more than she needed his.

"Let's go home before we're getting completely soaked", she mumbled into his shoulder.