Pedro dropped the pile of wood he had been carrying into the dormant fire pit with a hearty grunt. "Not that it matters," He called to Aldonza, who was approaching with a similar arm load of cinnamon tree bark. "But I couldn't help but overhear, notice what you did… or rather, didn't do… last night."

"What?" Aldonza asked with a flat, annoyed tone, like the buzzing of a pesky fly.

"Well, you told me that I would be the first person you would sleep with. You know, after what happened and everything…" Aldonza looked up at him, wiping a grimy hand against her similar brow.

"Well I'm terribly sorry to have broken that promise." She replied gruffly, stooping down to rub the sticks together, lighting the kindling with energized heat. "It wasn't exactly what I wanted to do. And you weren't exactly stopping anyone."

Pedro choked on a rough laugh. "Oh, mi gato, but you told me I was supposed to let you do what you do best." She penetrated his cocky smile with a glare, staring up at him through lashes caked with thick dirt and runny sweat.

"So practically throwing your brother on top of me was letting me do that?" She asked in a calm yet loaded voice. The two continued their rounds of verbal Russian roulette; soon, someone would say something irrevocable, deadly, and the fun banter would be merely remembered as a tragic act of stupidity.

"There's more than one way to skin a cat." Pedro defended with a playful tone as he pressed his toes across the imaginary, emotional lines, testing the waters of how far he could go. "It was his first time as a man. Doesn't my brother deserve the best?"

"The best," Aldonza scoffed roughly, swearing under her breath as a few rogue flames burned her exposed, kneeling knees. "What other option does he have for women around here?" The young woman pretended to think, looking around with a finger drawn on her lips before suddenly exclaiming, "Oh, I know! How about down in the village? Maybe he could have the time of his life with the old lady down there who likes to beat the shit out of women! I'm sure they'd have a great time together, maybe he could show her a thing or two about being gentle!"

"Aldonza!" Pedro cried playfully, gripping her shoulders as she stood up to face him. "Please, he's mi hermanito, and you—you're the moon, the stars. It was his first time—come on, don't you remember how you felt on that night? How you wanted everything to be perfect? That's all I was doing for him."

Aldonza backed up from him with measured, yet shaky, steps. "I do indeed remember my first time." She spat in a scary whisper. "I remember crying out to the Lord above to take me from this world. I remember banging my head against the altar as the one stable man I had in my life at the time deceived me and stole the only thing I had possession over." Angry tears littered the corners of her eyes as she turned her back from him, stalking into the trees to gather more firewood. "So yes, Pedro, I do remember." She seemed to spray a warning scent of danger, living up to her pet name.

"Mi gato, wait!" Pedro called after her with a good natured chuckle. He caught up to her and placed his arms around her, only to have her shove a thick log into his stomach, scraping harsh bark against his tender wound and causing him to stumble backwards, landing on the hard, wood-infested ground with a surprised yell. Aldonza's muddied eyes expanded with a mixture of fear and shock as she dropped the pile of gathered wood and bent down to examine her love.

A new hand was wrapping around her neck, adventuring fingers tickling the exposed skin that led to her breasts. "Ahh, I see you're following our little plan." Paco murmured just loud enough for Pedro's strained ears to hear, his woozy mind barely able to comprehend the situation around him.

Aldonza fixed a pointed stare at Pedro before slinking into Paco's strong arms, seemingly melting into them, skin on skin, lips to neck, joining hearts. "I told you I would, didn't I?" She crooned with hidden confusion into his domineering presence. "But you know this is only the first step."

Paco nodded as his hands traveled lower, caressing her lower back before plunging to embrace the round caverns of her firm ass. "Si, that it is."

Juan appeared a few leagues of trees away and sauntered towards her, a knife extending from his left hand as he sharpened it on a piece of rough wood. "Ahh, our little rat is taking care of business." He grinned snidely, throwing the knife in the air and watching it land dangerously close to Pedro's defenseless toes. "Goooooood." He purred, slinking around her before bending straight down to pick up the knife, shaking his assets in the air for the sexy woman.

"Well, go on." Juan told her impatiently, placing a firm foot on Pedro's abdomen and applying heavy pressure to his inflamed wound, watching as it oozed through his shirt. Pedro gritted his teeth, bit his lip, the pinkish skin flattening under his teeth, forced his eyes to stare, without emotion, at Aldonza.

Aldonza returned the gaze, spinning with curiosity and confusion on just whose side she was on in this tangled situation.

"Come on!" Paco growled in her ear, pushing her forward as she emitted a surprised yelp. Juan handed her the knife and clapped his hands together with near glee as their previous leader would be tortured by the one he loved most.

Aldonza fell to her knees on the harsh ground, glaring sunlight sinking through the trees to shed sick light on the situation. "Do it." Pedro told her selflessly. "You heard the men."

The young woman hesitated, staring at the point of the crude knife, the rough metal, the angled blade that, if twisted in her enemy, or perhaps, nearly, her loved one, would be fatal enough to kill. She gazed at the knife and then at Pedro, and back again, again, again, and again. "Who's side are you on, whore?" Juan asked with a quiet, intense anger. "See, Paco, I told you she couldn't do it!"

"Shut up, you bloated idiot." Paco growled with a dangerous tone. "Let the woman do what she promised." He pulled his own knife out of its sheathe on his leather belt and placed it lightly on the small of Aldonza's back, tapping the point of it through her soiled tunic. "She knows the consequences of fighting fire with fire, sword with sword—love with hate."

Aldonza squeezed her eyes closed with a fierce, choking with a strangled sob as she raised the knife above her head, shaking it dangerously close to her temple as she trembled with indecision. With a loud yowl she plunged the knife into the ground just inches away from Pedro's head. "Now!" She yelled, still holding tight onto the tall handle of the knife. Holding onto it for dear life, she threw herself with impressive strength onto the other side of the blade, which was still stuck firmly into the ground, all the while bringing her feet back to donkey kick Paco in the groin. He crumpled over, dropping his knife from the unexpected pain as Pedro scrambled on the ground. Sticking out a foot, he effectively tripped Juan, who was reaching for the blade with an angry cry from being doubly deceived by a lowly kitchen slut and his hated leader.

Pedro reached for the second knife as Aldonza heaved its predecessor out of the ground, just in time to hit Juan with the side of it over the head. He cried from the pain and grabbed onto her legs, pulling with his last ounce of strength and watching with deadly excitement as she lost her balance, falling onto the ground and dropping the knife to her side. "Pedro!" She cried out as she saw Paco grab her fallen weapon and amble towards Pedro, who was fighting to stand from the pain of his now-open wound. At this cry Paco turned his attention towards her and, changing course, sauntered towards her, grinning and licking the blade of the weapon with disgusting glee. "You filthy, lying bitch." He murmured with terrifying anger. He watched as she twisted helplessly backwards on her hands and knees, fighting to tear herself away from the situation in fear for her own life. She continued backwards until she ran into the trunk of a tree, sharply knocking her head into it with a loud, fleshy bump. It was enough to cause her eyes to blur, her head to pound with an invisible, internal pulse. "You swore to me—you told me you were going to kill him."

Aldonza fought to remain conscious as she stared up into the eyes of her soon to be killer. "And you told me you'd be worth the pain!" She stammered with a guttural insult. "Well let me tell you something—you aren't worth a damn thing."

"Aldonza? Hija, is everything okay?" Fernando's aging voice questioned as it floated through the dense grove of trees.

"Fernando, no!" Pedro yelled, now standing fully erect, hand on belly in attempts to stop the blood that was now oozing out of it at a rapid pace. "Ayudame!" He cried out, his hoarse voice piercing the afternoon haze with pleas for help.

"Pedro, run!" Aldonza cried out as Paco fingered the blade, running a finger over it and tapping it lightly on the peak as he considered the various ways in which he could kill his victim. "Please, get away—I have no chance."

"Neither does your lover!" Juan exclaimed as his grip tightened on the pale form of Pedro, a rag now stuffed in his mouth to sufficiently quiet Aldonza's only hope at survival.

"Please," Aldonza pleaded with shallow breaths. "Please, get it done quickly."

"Is that what you want?" Paco asked inquisitively, squatting down so that he was on the same level as the young woman. "Well, isn't that a shame, somebody unable to get what they want. You—I'm going to make you feel it.

"Funny, that's precisely what you did last night." He mused, kicking dirt onto her exposed calves, her dirtied, bare feet. "I want to not only hear your pain, but feel it deep in my bones. Are you ready?" Aldonza closed her eyes with a silent prayer and waited to meet her destiny.

The blade slowly pierced her sternum, its rugged point digging deeply into her flesh, carving out a jagged line as ruby red blood began to stem from the wound, leaking down her chest. "Mark her as she really is!" Juan cried out. "Show the world what she is!"

Paco obediently, slowly, and while licking his lips carved first the W, then the H, the O, R and E until he wiped the blood against her cheek, rubbing it into her skin with his fingers like blush for a corpse. She writhed and shrieked as she was degraded, the knife slowly digging into her skin with heated fury, added pressure.

Anselmo crept through the trees and met Aldonza's worried eyes, which were forced open at the sound of Pedro's vicious yowls as Juan kicked him in the groin, laughing as he tumbled onto the ground, hands clutched around his lower abdomen. She shook her head fiercely as she stared at him, though he continued forward until he was on top of a weaponless Juan. He began to beat him senseless as his brother crawled out from underneath him and towards Paco, who was too focused on torturing his captive than to notice the latest man on the scene. Paco slowly stood to examine his work, like an artist critiquing his work. He cocked his head to the side as Pedro used his last ounce of strength to crawl towards him, wrapping his hands simply around his knees and pulling, so that he was tumbling backwards. The knife fell to the ground with a sickening thud as Pedro collapsed from pain and exhaustion.

"Aldonza!" Fernando exclaimed, pushing his way through the thick foliage towards his daughter. "Aldonza, what happened?"

"Leave!" Aldonza cried with a desperate tone. "Please, papa, leave! Get away!" She howled as she clenched Paco's shirt, swinging him around her with a sudden burst of energy and adrenaline. She picked the knife up quickly from the ground and tucked her elbow into her side, aiming it towards Juan as he promptly threw Anselmo off of him and quickly rushed towards her.

"Now!" Juan yelled, and Paco seized the woman and swung her around.

Aldonza felt her blade enter into Fernando's chest as she was forced to stab him, feeling Paco's strong form push her into her father figure with fatality. "Papa!" She let a fierce, sorrowful yowl pierce the darkening afternoon as he crumpled to the ground, a smile of all damned things arranging itself on his features.

"Thank you for being—" He began, before he blew her a final kiss and crumbled into the arms of death.

"No!" Aldonza screamed in a wretched, high pitched tone. "No no no!" She fell to her knees and cradled Fernando's head, placing her forehead against his and sobbing into his lifeless body.

"Aldonza, come!" A man's voice was crying out to her, though she was too blinded with agony to comprehend, to barely hear. "Hurry, quick!"

A strong pair of arms picked up her limp body, and soon she was seeing visions of the night as her eyelids slowly closed, encasing her in a dark corner of the world in temporary relief from deceitful pain.