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“Doppio! Quickly! You must hurry and stop them from finishing that replay!” The Boss’s voice echoed loudly against Doppio’s ears, overbearing his own thoughts and drowning out everything else around him.
However, despite the urgency of their situation, Doppio made no effort to move from his place, still staring down at the body below him. Instead, the young man turned his gaze to the ocean, ignoring the bloody scene strewn about the cliff side.
“Why have you stopped moving? Doppio? DOPPIO!”
What did he stop moving? Doppio knew the situation was dire. He knew the Boss’s secrets were on the line! This was the closest anyone has ever gotten to finding out about them, the blood of one of their pursuers stained Doppio’s sweater and yet...
“...no.”
That word.
That singular word left his mouth far too easily.
“No? We do not have time for this! That man is about to reveal my face! Our life! You can’t let that happen!”
Doppio’s head hurt. His body hurt. Everything hurt.
“So… so, what!? So, what if they figure out what you look like!?”
“Doppio that secret—”
Doppio found himself pulling at the strand of his hair, practically ripping the intricate braid he had woven into shreds from the stress.
“YOUR IDENTITY HAS BEEN WIPED FROM EVERY DATABASE WE COULD GET OUR HANDS ON! Who gives a damn if they see your mug!? It’s not like they can get any information out of it? What is Bucciarati going to do? Really? Interrogate it!?”
The Boss wanted him to move.
“That is enough! Lower your voice—”
The Boss wanted him to stop them.
“NO, I DON’T THINK I WILL! I have been yelled at, beat up, ripped apart, and am now bleeding all the hell over, and for what!? Because some asshole happens to have the oh-so fucking perfect ability to discover something that in all honesty, doesn’t even fucking matter!?”
The Boss wanted him to do everything!
But… The Boss never asked what Doppio wanted.
“My Doppio… listen”
Tears. Hot, wet tears burned against Doppio’s eyes. The ones that manage to escape mix with the blood on his face—
The blood.
There was so much blood.
“Don’t ‘my Doppio’ me. I have had it! With the secrets, an-and the hiding, a-and all of it! I c-can’t do this anymore! I’m done!”
“It’s understandable that you’re upset...”
Understandable!? That he, Doppio, was upset!?
He wasn’t just upset.
Upset was such a passive word!
Passive and dismissive of everything—
“I QUIT!”
Doppio shouted at the top of his lungs. Might as well use them while they were still in one piece.
“Quit? You can’t quit!?”
The Boss objected to this. Of course, he would. Doppio never got to make the decisions. He never got to go where he wanted! And what Doppio wanted was whatever the hell the exact opposite of this is.
Oh, he wanted a hotel bed and the most expensive fruit drink on the menu so much right now.
“WATCH ME! Don’t bother calling this number again because I won’t be answering it!” With that snap decision, he took the phone in his hand and chucked it as far as he could down the cliff side. His plight was not close to being over however, as the incessant ringing from the blasted thing could still be heard.
Dururururu!!!
The phone just kept freakin’ ringing.
Originally, Doppio planned to ignore it, refusing to give the Boss even another minute of his day as he fled the scene. But—
Dururururu!!!
“SHUT THE HELL UP ALREADY!”
Doppio cried out, lashing at anything he could around him.
He was exhausted. His body teetering every which way and the sky spun around him anytime he looked upwards for too long. Gripping the sides of his head, Doppio tried his best to drown out the phone’s ringtone.
The young man was angry. He was pissed , and he didn’t want to have to engage with anything around him. All he wanted was for a moment of silence.
Just a single moment for himself so that he could know that the thoughts going through his head were his.
Was that too much to ask?
Dururururu!!!
“Stop… please just stop.”
Desperate, Doppio closed his eyes and prayed for it to be over. With the stimulus from his eyes shut down, everything else became easier to focus on.
The phone ringing may have become louder, but everything else surrounding it had also gained a sense of clarity. The sound of the waves below the cliff side was the first to pull at Doppio’s attention. The wind brushing up against the coast, the salty air stinging his nose and the warmth from the sun’s rays started to compete with the Boss’s phone.
What reason did Doppio have to stop them?
With each breath he took, the ringtone started to fade to the back of his mind, eventually becoming nothing more than white noise to the rest of the world he was so enveloped in experiencing.
Due to the life he had lived, the time Doppio had spent on his own, taking in the outdoors and just… existing had dwindled with each passing year. Never had he realized how much regret he had held within himself, but when the young man reopened his eyes, the view of the sunlight reflecting on the ocean’s surface and the colors dancing on the water in a multitude of shades only served as a painful reminder how much he had missed the beaches of Sardinia.
Solemnly, he returned his attention back to himself.
“I’m going to take some time off, Boss. I don’t know how long I’ll be, but I need some time to myself for once. I hope you understand.”
Doppio knew he couldn’t stay in Sardinia much longer. No, this beach needed to be evacuated immediately unless he wanted to get dragged back into the affairs of Passione once more.
No.
Not until he was ready .
For all intents and purposes, Doppio was taking a vacation and until it's over, he will not be accepting any calls, voice mails, e-mails, or any other form of communication.
Against the wave of nausea that hit the young man —who was still suffering ill effects from his fight with Risotto— Doppio pushed himself to start walking back down the long stretch of road back to town. His body may be giving out, but his mind could not be any more energized.
Several new thoughts soon flooded Doppio’s head. Thoughts of places to visit, new sights to see that the Boss had previously dismissed for him to not have time for. Soon, Doppio realized that he was thinking too small, as most of his ideas stemmed from places he had been to in Italy.
Why not travel abroad?
The farther away he got from this damned country, the better!
He lightly chuckled to himself, with all the possibilities opening up for him to go and a bank account stuffed full of laundered money, he could go wherever his heart desired.
Hell, Florida was sounding pretty good this time of year...