[11:00 PM]
[Oakridge Estate]
Inside the luxurious kitchen of the mansion, the white lights reflected on the marble floor; a strange smell of meat spread in the air.
TAK-TAK-TAK!
The sound of Gabriel's knife echoed back and forth with every move on the meat.
A drop of blood jumped on his white shirt as a reminder of his sin, but will he feel guilty?
I don't think so.
THUNK!
He threw his knife strongly on the cutting board, making its echo spread in the place like an annoying buzz in the ear.
Gabriel moved with a cold face toward his huge fridge, opened it, and once its cold light turned on, a massive amount of meat appeared inside that fridge.
Gabriel pulled a bag of meat—THUD!—he threw the bag on the black marble, closed the fridge behind him violently, and looked at that cold meat in silence for moments.
SKRRRCH!
He pulled his knife fast, took the meat out of the bag, and put it on the cutting board.
TAK-TAK-TAK-TAK! And repeated again.
At that moment, Ethan entered. In his hand was a soda drink, swinging it right and left. He leaned his elbow on the sink, took a sip of his drink, burped, and said sarcastically:
"You don't need all this drama, you know that."
Gabriel replied without raising his eyes from the meat:
"This girl will open the gates of hell on us if we don't deal with all this meat."
He suddenly stopped cutting, raised his head toward Ethan.
"The police are already searching, and I need to close the case... myself."
Ethan raised the can up and drank it all directly:
"Haah… you are overreacting, you know that."
— "…"
Silence.
The speed of cutting increased—TAK-TAK-TAK—then CHAKK!
Gabriel threw his knife very violently this time, moved steadily toward Ethan with a cold face.
Ethan's body jumped back two steps, raised his hands in front of his shoulders, and with a shaky, nervous tone:
"Wooh! Calm down, boss, I was just kidding."
Gabriel stood directly in front of Ethan until the distance almost disappeared between them, keeping his eyes fixed on Ethan's in silence for a while.
Ethan was sweating, trying to keep his eyes steady, but... he lowered them to the ground.
Gabriel tilted his head slightly to the right, looked into Ethan's eyes for moments, then said dryly:
"Take all the meat out of the fridge, put it in a pot, boil it for three hours... then put it outside all night. No mistakes, understood?"
Ethan kept staring at the ground for moments, nodded nervously in agreement, and said in a low voice:
"As you order, boss."
— "Good."
Gabriel returned directly to his work, cutting the meat and preparing the spices and ingredients.
Meanwhile, Ethan moved lazily toward the fridge, pulled the bags of meat, and dropped them on the ground.
Ethan kicked the meat angrily and shouted, complaining:
"Ah, for real! Gabriel, why the hell do we waste all that meat?!"
Gabriel turned while wiping his hands, stared for a moment at the pile of thrown meat, then at Ethan:
"We have to ruin all the meat before getting rid of it."
He stayed silent for a few moments, then said with a deep tone:
"Everything must be perfect."
Ethan put his hand on his face; a small smile started to sneak, then:
"Hm-hm-hm-hm—AHAHAHAHHAAA!!!
OH MY GOODNESS!"
Gabriel didn't seem surprised by his reaction.
He smiled at the corner of his mouth while working and said with a dry but playful tone:
"What's funny?"
Ethan hit his hands on his thighs strongly and shouted with excitement:
"Tell me, please, that you are going to—"
Gabriel interrupted while cutting the vegetables:
"Yeah, now do what I told you."
— "As you order, boss!"
And here Ethan started doing it with all that he had,
while Gabriel was preparing everything for the show.