Free The last game by Fernando Trujillo Page B

asked
Hector.
    “I told you that the game didn’t matter to
me.”
    Dante slammed his fist down on the table.
“Spit it out, you bastard!”
    “The doctor thinks he’s better than us
because he gave the game to Judith on a plate. He’d already won
it.”
    “And how did you know that, stinkpot?”
    “Because I saw him cheat”
    “What?” Dante snapped, his face a grotesque
mask.
    Hector´s words had started a raging fire in
his already cinder dry brain. “I don´t know which one of the two of
you I detest the most? You, a filthy suicidal maniac, or this
rotten cheat sitting across the table. What a joke, you giving me
moral lectures. I can only hope I get to see you in hell, because
you´ll get it all back then.”
    “ It´s true I´m not perfect.” Alvaro
admitted. ”I´ve cheated, but it was for a good case. I´ve helped my
brother and a pregnant woman.”
    Dante´s rage continued. “You´ve robbed us,
you dirty cheat. And don´t forget you only helped your brother
because you got him into trouble in the first place.”
    “I´m still a thousand times better than you,
Dante. How many lives have you ruined?”
    “And how many have I helped?” he asked with a
malevolent smile on his face. “You´ll regret what you´ve done here.
I´ll make you pay tenfold on the other side.”
    It was a threat no one could take seriously,
least of all Alvaro. What was done, was done. They were all going
to die. But he still felt he´d done the right thing. And that
feeling was going to stay with him.
    “Finished.” The girl said, standing up on the
table.
    Everyone looked at her as she took some tiny
little steps across the felt and stopped in front of Judith. “You
win. Well played. A little kiss?”
    The girl reached her arms out and looked at
the winner with a dazzling glow in her eyes. Judith leaned forward
and kissed her on the cheek, and when her lips touched the girl´s
skin, Judith´s shadow turned the other way.
    Alvaro suddenly felt weak, all desire to
move, disappearing. He watched Dante return tamely to his seat and
understood instinctively that it was a trick of the girl, that was
manipulating them so that they´d stay quiet while they paid their
debt. The end was near.
    “Judith.” Alvaro said, wanting to fare well
her while he could. “I´m happy that you´ve won. Use those eight
years well.”
    “Don´t worry, I will.”
    “ I . . . I won´t forget you.”
    “And I won´t forget you.” She said, as she
put her hand under her flowing dress and made a strange movement,
before pulling downward.
    Alvaro´s heart nearly stopped as he saw a
Velcro mould fall to the floor. Judith kicked it away, the
silhouette of a slim woman standing before them.
    Alvaro, on the verge of death, had seen the
world he´d lived in collapse around him.
    “What a vixen!” Dante said. “How do you feel
now, Doc? Are you happy you helped this bitch win?”
    Alvaro didn´t hear him. His mind had
imploded on seeing Judith as she really was, incomprehensible
images and sounds storming through his mind. The last thing that
his brain recorded was the face of the girl coming close to his
mouth and whispering. “A little kiss?”
     
     
    * * * * *
     
     

EPILOGUE
     
     
    Albert’s knee has been painful for more than
ten years. He walked slowly, with a walking stick, and the first
Wednesday of every month, he went to the bank without fail, to
collect his pension. He took his time normally, enjoying the
pleasant stroll under a warm sun. Sometimes, he stopped in the park
and sat on a bench for a long while to rest his tired bones.
    That Wednesday was a beautiful day, the
sky clear, a gentle breeze cooling him. But he went past the bench
in the park, walking quickly. He was nervous and in a hurry. It was
the first time, in the eight years since he’d retired, that Albert
hadn’t strolled to the bank.
    He entered the building with a wrinkled smile
on his face. He’d been waiting for this moment for a long time. So
long, in fact,