27

The sun was beating down on my head and slowly I really thought I had gone crazy, but luckily Tina was there and had noticed everything.

I couldn't give Padraig any answer as to what was going on, but Tina stammered frantically, nervously jerking at Padraig's shoulder.

"There was a corpse! It escaped!", she stuttered and the gypsy immediately took her face in his hands and looked deep into her eyes.

"What did you take?" he wanted to know almost angrily and turned to me, but I just shook my head.

"She's telling the truth, brother. This Fiore was here, demolished Odran's car and after Tina killed him, he just left," I tried to explain and was shocked at the shit I was saying.

"In! Both! Now!" he ordered and after Tina and I stared at each other worriedly, Padraig ran to the Porsche and looked around more closely until his eyes met us again.

"Are you hard of hearing?!"

Immediately we start moving and when we got inside we both sat down on the couch, where Tina took a deep breath and I let my face fall into my hands. I used to be a tough guy, but that was really fucked up. The whole time I had the feeling that Fiore was about to appear behind me as a ghost and as I thought more and more into this thought, I suddenly twitched and Tina screamed out and clutched my arm.

"So, I want to know what's going on right now, and don't you tell me anything about living corpses!"

Padraig sat down in the chair opposite us and stared absently at Tina's hands, which were still clutching my arm. I quickly ripped my arm away from her and moved a little to the side, otherwise I might still be able to join Fiore in the afterlife.

"Listen to me," I turned to him, waiting for his dark brown eyes to meet mine. "Mandy's husband demolished the Porsche with a hammer. I tried to stop him and the bastard threw me to the ground. Tina hit him in the back of the head with a baseball bat and he just fell over on top of me."

Padraig glanced at Tina, raised an eyebrow and grinned broadly.

"I love you, mouse," he breathed and I rolled my eyes in annoyance.

"In any case, Tina suddenly said he had no pulse, so I put him in the Porsche with his hat and glasses."

"Why with a hat and glasses?" Padraig wanted to know and looked back and forth between us in irritation.

"To make him look alive," Tina interjected and the gypsy didn't seem to understand at all what we were planning to do with the guy.

"Why would he look alive? Did you guys want to go for coffee with him or what?"

"My face, Padraig!" I spoke loudly and ran my hands over my face several times. "Of course we didn't want to go for coffee!! I wanted to go to the sea and sink it there and I didn't want to be stopped on the way!"

"Sink it in the sea? How stupid are you? That's the dumbest way to get rid of a corpse ever!"

"Yes, sorry I'm not a pro at dumping dead bodies on the fly!!!"

Since the discussion seemed to be getting louder and louder, we all calmed down and just looked at each other, while everyone was probably busy with their own thoughts.

"So, and then?"

"Then he was gone," Tina admitted, shrugging unknowingly. "We wanted to get a scarf and it either became a zombie over time, was stolen or ran away."

"Stolen?" the gypsy repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Who steals a corpse with a hat and glasses?"

"Maybe a clothes shop. At least more alive than mannequins," I explained and suddenly had to laugh out loud, whereupon Tina giggled too.

"You're in shock!" Padraig interjected, but we only laughed louder, so that the gypsy just shook his head.

"I'm assuming he wasn't dead at all. I doubt that anyone wearing a dead hat and glasses can take a person's pulse properly."

"You're probably right," I said after my fit of laughter and then looked thoughtfully at the window for a while while Tina got up and sat on Padraig's lap, which now gave her the closeness that she certainly needed.

"I'll tell you what. It's all between us and you," he demanded my attention. "You drive the Porsche to the gypsy district and ask for Ronny. He'll fix it."

"All right," I said and felt completely overwhelmed. I would have preferred to just sleep or whistled something.

When I got up and was about to walk past them to the door, Padraig suddenly grabbed my arm.

"And one more thing, keep hitting it several times. Then he'll be dead for sure."

He looked at me with a grin and handed me another of his knives, which I reluctantly accepted. I'd shot people before, but somehow I found stabbing someone more cruel.

"And get your fucking cell phone," he called after me and I quickly left the house to get into the horrible looking Porsche.