Chapter Thirteen

أقسى من الحجر

Tougher than a stone

Rose

My whole body shakes in fear of what I have in mind; fear of losing him. As I turn to look at the amount of people here who are also shocked at the sound, I start to risk my life and run back towards Elia. People are currently going towards the other direction so I push through them, wanting to arrive as soon as possible.

Once I arrive at the scene, I see the car burning into flames—making my eyes widen. I look around, seeing how people are staying as far as they can from the car while I keep on getting closer; wanting to see if there's anyone inside.

As I get closer, I see a burned dead body at the same spot where I last saw Elia. My legs weaken at the sight—feeling tears forming and gliding down my cheeks, not completely believing what I'm seeing. When I almost reach the car and try to shout out his name, someone starts pulling me away from the fire, leaving me falling down onto the ground with sadness consuming.

''Are you okay, miss?'' I hear someone faintly ask but I stay still, looking down on the ground with regret. Why did I leave in the first place? I should've stayed. I should've just taken his gun and shoot those men or at least try to get him out of there. I thought to myself.

''Chiamare i vigili del fuoco!'' Someone shouts from afar as I stand up, having the urge to get out of here and leave this place. My heart couldn't take the slight pain—continuing to walk down the road, ignoring people who bumps into me because for all I know, I can't keep on thinking about Elia.

I continue to walk further away with the aching pain in my chest before stopping near a wall, pressing my palm for support. Tears continue to stream down my face, showing the amount of sadness I'm feeling. For some reason, I can't accept the fact that he's gone. We just met... we were just trying to open up with each other.

My mind keeps on playing images of him—smiling, laughing, chuckling, looking. His brown eyes somehow haunts me with his stare, weakening me more. I walk down the road, turning left, trying to get away from the amount of crowd and I realise that I'm going towards the subway, not caring where I'll end up being.

As soon as I turn right, my eyes widen in surprise, seeing Elia on the escalator. He has his hand on the side as he keeps on looking straight; not even glancing towards my direction. My heartbeat raises at the sight of him—making me continue to stare at his back, even though he passed me a few seconds ago.

I quickly run down the escalator, taking the one on the right to run after him. My eyes couldn't look away from his figure but as I run up the escalator, Elia is nowhere to be found. The amount of people are increasing as I stand in the middle; trying to look for him.

He's alive. He must be. I thought, running my fingers through my hair, frustratedly.

With a deep sigh, I continue to walk out, looking around as I do so.

After a couple of hours, I start to give up on myself. There's no sign of Elia and if it was him, he couldn't have just walked away without looking at me or even noticing me. I walk into an empty dark alley, sitting on the ground as I lean my head against the wall; not knowing where else I should go.

The sun is setting soon and it's definitely not safe to wander around in someone else's country at night. I look down, sighing once more—not really knowing what's exactly going on at the moment. Was it Elia or was it someone else? I keep on asking myself. He looks exactly like him; it couldn't be someone else.

I look up and see a familiar face looking down at me. My body flinches in respond, surprised at the figure before standing up and looking straight into his eyes—as he continues to look at me. I let out a breath, realising that it's not Elia but Elis, ''You scared me.'' I mutter.

''What are you doing here?'' He asks, looking around, ''Where's Elia?''

My eyebrows furrow in disagreement before I let the tears escape. Elis continues to look at me in confusion and watches me in surprise as I fall down on my knees, covering my face with both of my hands; leaving him in an uncomfortable state.

To my surprise, I feel him wrapping his arms around my body—assuring me that everything is going to be alright. He rests his chin on top of my head, soothingly rubbing the back of my body. I continue to cry, knowing that this is all my fault. If I didn't leave, none of this would've happened.

My eyes wander around on his body before stopping at his leg, seeing that his leg is stuck and his arm bleeding due to the crash. He tries to get his leg out but as soon as we start to hear gunshots again, we start to panic. Elia turns to look at me, ''Get out of here, Rose.'' He says, earning a confused look from me.

''No, come on. I'm getting you out first.'' I try to pull him but he stops me from doing so.

''Get out of here, now! Go, now!'' He shouts, making me hesitate, ''Rose, please, go!'' He says, this time almost sounding as if he's pleading.

''It's my fault,'' I mutter, slowly pulling away from Elis's hold and he looks down at me with a frown on his face—not understanding, ''If I didn't leave, he wouldn't have—'' I stop, afraid of saying the next word.

Elis clenches his jaw, ''What happened, Rose?'' He asks. I look up into his eyes, realising how he actually care for his little brother even though he doesn't show it. Despite the problem that they have, they will never stop loving each other; that's for sure.

I keep quiet, looking away.

''That explosion—'' He starts, ''—was it him?'' From the side, I see that he won't stop clenching his jaw.

''I'm sorry, I should've saved him.'' I reply, shaking my head in disagreement.

The both of us stay quiet for a few seconds before he takes a few steps back, ''You should have.'' He answers, frowning. Then, he starts to walk away towards the other side—leaving me standing here by myself. I quickly run after him, touching him by the shoulder as soon as we're close enough.

''You know what, you should have saved him. He didn't deserve to die! He did everything to save you and you—'' He stops, looking at me with anger controlling over, ''—what did you even do? Did you run away? Leave him there? Who are you, Rose? What are you worth for?'' He looks down at me before continuing to walk, pushing my hand away from his shoulder.

I continue to run after him, ''I didn't know what to do!''

''Be there for him.'' He turns, ''At least die with him—you wouldn't have to take the guilt.'' Then, he walks down the road; making me look down at my own hands. What am I becoming? I sigh.

I sit back down on the ground, covering my face. Tears won't stop appearing as I keep on thinking about Elia, about me and where else should I go? I have nowhere to go. I have no one. My body stops moving all at once when I feel someone tucking a strand of hair behind my ear; making me look up at the figure immediately.

My eyes widen at the familiar figure—seeing him smiling at me as he crouches down to my height, ''Why are you crying, amore?'' He asks, running his index finger down my jawline before wiping my tears with his thumb; sending tingles down my spine.

I quickly wrap my arms around his neck, pulling him close for a hug. Instead of earning a hug back, he groans in respond—making me pull away, seeing him frowning in pain. I look at his arm and see that he has a few blood stain on his shirt on top of the bandage dressing.

''You're here,'' I mutter under my breath, cupping onto his face—looking straight into his brown eyes.

''I'm here,'' He replies, showing off his dimples.

''But you were—'' I furrow my eyebrows before remembering that I didn't even know who was in the car or what happened before the explosion after I ran away. Elia could've escaped.

''You thought I was dead?'' He stands up, pulling me by the hand—making me stand in front of him. The messiness of his hair shows how he has been through a lot today and the tiredness in his eyes just show how he has enough of all of this bullshit.

I look down at his leg, ''What about your leg? You were stuck.''

He shrugs, ''I was the one who blew the car up. I saw you running back for me. I saw the look on your face when you saw a dead body—you were scared. Terrified. I couldn't help it but watch you fall down and cry, it was the first time that I've ever seen someone go weak like that for me.''

My cheeks heat up in embarrassment as I look down, trying to hide away the blush, ''I tried to see how you would react if you see me again so that's why you saw me at the subway station. I didn't leave you, Rose. I followed you here.'' He adds, caressing my cheek with the back of his hand.

''I thought I lost you,'' I say, pulling him close for another hug and this time, he responds back by wrapping his arms around my body—snuggling.

After a few minutes, we finally pull away; satisfied at the fact that we're still here, close to each other. ''Thanks to you, I now know how my brother feels when I die. That bastard, he loves me.'' He chuckles, making me smile; missing the sound of his laughter.

We just end up looking at each other—not really knowing what else to say. I look up at him while he looks down at me due to our height. They're not much of a different but he's still taller than me. ''By the way, we're leaving. Right now.'' He says, pulling me by the wrist as we walk towards a black SUV.

''Where are we heading?'' I ask, before getting in the car.

He looks at me, ''Home. We're going to back to California.'' Then, he pushes me softly inside before getting in afterwards. I look at the driver's and the passenger's seat to find two bulky men with black sunglasses looking back at us—earning a nod from Elia.

The man starts to drive the car, making me sit back on my seat—looking at Elia immediately. ''Now you call for backup?'' I ask, earning a chuckle from him as he shakes his head, taking out his phone from his pocket and throwing it out of the window; leaving me staring at him as if he has lost his mind.

''Sometimes things get a little messy so that's when I can't handle it my own, I mean, I almost died.'' He replies, taking out a new phone—turning it on.

''Do you always have a plan B in your mind?''

''C, D, E. Name it.'' He answers, inserting a passcode and giving it to me. I take it quickly, just before it could fall, ''That's yours. It would be easier if you have a phone so I can easily call you—incase anything happens.''

I look down at the new phone—not realising that I'm spending quite some time staring at the black screen, until Elia's index finger starts to appear, clicking onto the home button, ''When you own a phone—'' I look up into his brown eyes and see that we're extremely close to each other, ''—you start using it.'' He smiles before backing away.

''I don't need—''

To my surprise, he presses his finger on my lips; stopping me from speaking another word, ''—you might need it one day. Trust me,'' His finger slowly falls down, ''Besides, everyone needs a phone, fiorellino.''

I start to look down at my phone, slowly getting a hand on it—even though it's a bit confusing at first. Without me realising, Elia has been staring at me while I was too busy setting up the phone; and he seemed to find a little bit of enjoyment at my frowns and sighs.

Once we have arrived at the airport, Elia takes a leather jacket from the trunk—wanting to cover the blood stain on his shirt while I stand beside him, looking at the briefcases that's at the back; knowing that they are weapons in there. All of a sudden, Elia takes a small gun out, showing it right in front of my eyes, making them widen in surprise, ''Want one?'' He asks.

I quickly pull his hand down; earning a chuckle from him, ''There are people here.'' I mutter.

''It's called the mafia for a reason, amore. I own everything,'' He whispers next to my ear, pointing at a couple of policemen standing quite far from us as they are too busy having a conversation. I clear my throat, knowing what he meant.

We walk side by side and I start to realise how quite a lot of women are busy staring at Elia as he continues to walk, obliviously. I shake my head, remembering how I was like that when I first met him—somehow, I feel lucky. Other than the fact that I almost got killed or dealing with the mafia.

Someone bumps me by the shoulder, making me turn around to look—seeing that the man is also looking back at me. My eyes widen as soon as I meet his pair of blue eyes and the similarities of his features in my dream; but he just looks at me with confusion written all over his face.

''Sorry,'' He mutters before walking away quickly.

That couldn't be him. He can't look around his twenties—that's highly impossible. Is he someone related to him? I thought. Elia wakes me up from my trance by waving in front of my face, ''What?'' I ask.

''You alright? Who was that?'' He asks back, looking straight into my eyes; wanting to find answers but I just look back at him with confusion before backing away slightly.

''Who was who?'' I pretend to ask.

''No one.'' He replies, ending the conversation there.

After a couple of hours, we're currently on board. I start to zone out by watching a kid playing with her stuffed doll while her father is busy reading a novel—making me only stare at the kid. Suddenly, her stuffed doll falls onto the ground and she asks for her father to pick it up but he ignores her successfully.

Sighing, I see her picking it up before turning to look at me. I start to smile at her but she looks away immediately. Wow okay, I thought.

An unknown man walks down the aisle, looking straight at Elia and I. I furrow my eyebrows at him—questioning why is he looking at us that way. The smile on his face seem fake and meaningful. When I turn to look at him, he is still looking at me; before sitting down at his seat.

I glance towards Elia, seeing that he is also eyeing the man, ''Non hanno mai mi danno una pausa.'' He mutters under his breath, sighing deeply before looking at me, ''Stay here,'' Then, he starts to walk down the aisle.

''Sir, you have to get back to your seat.'' He ignores the stewardess by waving his hand at her but she keeps on following behind him.

My eyes continue to eye Elia until I realise that he's heading towards the unknown man.