BREAKING THE CYCLE OF REINCARNATION

'Damn! It would've been so much easier if I was some kind of a maggot or worm.' Alex complained to himself. 'Although in that case I wouldn't have been able to travel all the way to his room.'

He was on his biting and drilling task, probably, for over half an hour and currently covered in Old Tony's blood or some other juice that came from the wound. Alex could not tell how deep it was, but he methodically kept attacking the same spot over and over while trying to break it open with his forelegs.

Finally his efforts were rewarded. He felt one his legs sinking through 'the wall' in front of him and even Old Tony twitching in his sleep after that, hopefully because of the pain caused by him. Not waiting for a special invitation, Alex squeezed another leg in and continued to bite, stretch and rip the spot until he was completely thought.

At this point he stopped and tried to catch his breath, but then realized, he did it completely out of habit. While psychologically he felt as if he had ran a marathon, physically there was not the slightest discomfort or fatigue. But he clearly could feel the change in the atmosphere around him.

'Alright. Now then … how do I make a mess in here?' Alex grinned to himself and tried to 'feel out' his surroundings with his legs, 'Can I make a web in here? Actually, how do I do it?'

From what he knew he had to produce 'the web thing' from his bottom side, but after some intense squeezing and pressing … he only pooped.

'Well, at least I took a sh*t in your head.' Alex sighed in embarrassment and the only option left was to continue with the biting and tearing.

But what and where? Needless to say it was completely dark in there and he had no idea where the most sensitive parts were.

'It is probably impossible for me to get to any vital points, but there has to be at least kind of important nerve somewhere in here, right?' Alex felt he found some kind of a weaker pipe-like part and sunk his mandibles deep into it.

"Arrrgghhh!" Old Tony woke up with a scream.

Alex, on the other hand, felt the whole world around him trembling and shaking, as if multitude of earthquakes happened at the same time.

'There we go!' He inwardly smiled and energetically continued with even more vigor.

"Sir, what happ …" Frank, half naked, ran in the bedroom only to see his boss convulsing and screaming down on the floor, clenching head in his hands.

"It's emergency! His bedroom, quickly!" Frank didn't think much and immediately called Tony's doctor, well, it was Vincent, the 'specialist' with a medical degree who managed villa's 'medical facility'.

After throwing phone aside, Frank picked Old Tony up as if he was a small child and put him on the bed. Old man continued to scream and periodically stopped to gasp for air while wailing.

Couple of minutes later Vincent arrived. A short, fat man, with currently disheveled hair and pale face.

"Another attack?" He asked Frank and with large strides approached Tony and to inspect him.

"No idea. After I heard his scream, I ran in and found him on the floor." Frank said, "There is no one here and I think it is unlikely someone could pull something like that from outside."

"We don't know sh*t about psychic attacks or whatever that was yesterday." Vincent snorted in response while lifting Old Tony's eyelids one after another, while checking his pulse at the same time, "Most likely not a stroke, but he is in much pain. I'll give him a shot, but we should get him to a proper hospital."

"He checked himself couple of weeks ago. He has no tumors and his health is fine." Frank said.

"His health was fine!" Vincent corrected, "Ok, he'll pass out in a second. You're the second in command and make decisions in such situations, I'm just giving my opinion."

"Can't we really do anything here? With all the equipment you have downstairs? You know he hates hospitals and wouldn't approve bringing him there because of some minor event, just like yesterday." Frank asked with furrowed brows.

Regardless of all his weird obsessions and the dislike for the hospitals, Tony did regular full heath checks. And the last one was two weeks ago, so there shouldn't be any major issues. On the other hand the weird incident with the kid yesterday made Frank reluctant to bring Tony to the hospital straight away. In addition to Tony's dislikes, he himself could not control the situation there hundred percent – the risks were too high and if there was an option to avoid them, he would very much prefer to stay here.

Vincent understood Frank's inner struggles and said, "Look. Let him rest. Maybe there was really some kind of a residual effect from that attack. Both of us will stay here and observe, but just in case – get the car ready."

Frank nodded, picked up his phone and sat next to his boss. He did better than getting a car ready – twenty minutes later Vincent heard a chopper landing somewhere nearby.

Alex was oblivious to all of this. When the earthquakes stopped, or rather when Old Tony stopped moving, he didn't stop at all. He methodically destroyed what he could define as 'the more important parts' in the Tony's hearing system. He was completely covered in blood and gore, although he couldn't see it himself, and kept attacking relentlessly knowing he could be stopped at any moment when the old bastard would get professional help.

Old Tony woke up in the late afternoon. His head was heavy and somewhat dizzy, and he had hard time remembering what transpired last night.

"You're awake." Vincent stated the obvious seeing boss opening his eyes and grabbed his hand to check the pulse.

"What happened?" Tony asked while shaking Vincent's grab off.

"Quarter past two I found you on the floor screaming." Frank already stood next to the bed, "How do you feel?"

Tony furrowed his brows, gently massaged his temples with tips of his fingers and said, "I'm not sure I remember."

"That's because of the sedative I gave you." Vincent said, "I strongly suggest we get you to the hospital as soon as possible. The painkillers will soon wear off and I'm afraid …"

"I'm fine!" Tony's bark interrupted him as the old mobster crawled out of the bed.

He grabbed his robe from the nearby chair and put it on while slowly going towards the balcony. After few steps he stopped, thought for a moment and said, "No. You might be right. Let's get me to the hospital after the breakfast. I'll eat on the balcony. I'll have something light … get me some fruit salad."

He was an old mobster and during his eventful life he learned to trust his instincts. And currently his instincts, despite the splitting headache and muddy thoughts, screamed 'danger!'.

Alex woke up soon after Old Tony did. Of course, contrary to Old Tony, he didn't know when he passed out and what time it was now. He also didn't know that the sedatives Vincent gave Old Tony, knocked him out as well.

Feeling his surroundings slightly shaking and swaying, Alex knew his victim was on the move and thus – still alive. Therefore he had only one thing left to do – to bite back in.

To his satisfaction, Alex soon dug to another frail pipe-like part – he still fondly remembered how 'lively' the old man reacted when he destroyed the first one. But Tony didn't share that sentiment.

When Alex bit the nerve this time, Tony was doing some breathing exercises on the balcony by making deep inhales and long exhales, and at the same time admiring the view of mountains in the distance wile supporting himself on the railing. The sudden pain made him loose his balance and he awkwardly stumbled over.

Both Frank and Vincent watched how their boss with an agonizing scream suddenly disappeared behind the balcony railing in shock. Frank, of course, was the first one to react and a split second after his boss 'left', he jumped over the railing, but contrary to Tony – on purpose. The fact that they currently were on the third floor didn't hold him back one bit.

When Vincent looked down, he saw the sight of Tony convulsing on the ground. The old man was growling in pain while blood flowed from his nose and mouth. The unnatural position he landed in obviously showed he broke his spine, maybe even in several spots. Frank, on the other hand, didn't have a scratch.

"Get down here!" He yelled at Vincent who froze for a moment, but then understood Frank didn't want him to jump down, just to hurry and run over.

"How bad is it?" Frank asked a minute later when Vincent arrived huffing and puffing.

"This … hu … hu … I think … hu ...hu … get to the choppa …" Panting heavily Vincent tried to reply, but Frank already was instructing other people around him.

"Wait … hu … hu … watch out … watch out to not move him too much … hu … his spine …" Vincent huffed out and Frank nodded.

"Got it!"

At that moment two people with stretchers ran over and Old Tony, who already lifelessly lie on the ground, was carried away towards the helicopter. The whole villa was a mess, people running all over, shouting orders at one another, almost fighting it out.

But there was one person who watched these events with a smile. Sicilia came to her window to see what all the ruckus was about and now, watching her father being carried away soundlessly muttered 'finally!'. Then walked over to a cupboard and fished out a bottle, opened it and generously poured herself an amber colored drink.

When he started to ravage the nerve, Alex felt Tony falling, probably to the floor, but then the old man continued to move and scream, thus – he was probably 'fine'. Therefore Alex also didn't stop.

Only a long while later he finally realized that not only Old Tony didn't move anymore, there was a strange silence all around and the atmosphere had become colder as well.

'Wait! It's not the atmosphere! The body! The old bastard is becoming colder and harder! Hahaha! I did it! I managed to kill Antonio Begano! Hahaha! F*ck you … die, insect, my ass!' Alex screamed with joy inside. Unfortunately, even though he wanted to shout out loud, he simply couldn't. And soon his ecstasy settled down and he felt the dark world around him becoming even darker and colder.

Feeling his strength leaving him, before passing out for the last time, Alex though, 'I must say, while I loved my first, the second life ended great! I wonder if I will be ever born again … and if so … who or what will I be …'

The past days greatly changed the perspective on how he viewed life and, if he had to be honest with himself, he really wanted to be born again while carrying over the memories and experience of the previous two lives. Thus in a weird way, he was even looking forward to the second death.

Alex passed away not too long after Old Tony died. He would've loved to see how it actually happened and he would've loved to see the expression on the face of the medical examiner who, after finally finding the cause of death, stared stupefied at the tiny corpse of the spiderling which against all common sense for some reason was found deep inside Old Tony's right inner ear.