The Fire Unleashed ✔

27. Red

As the doorbell rang, both mom and dad froze. Luca's dad, Martin too, looked cadaverous. Just who were they expecting tonight?

"What's wrong, dad?" I asked him to which he didn't answer but signalled to mom for something I couldn't  comprehend.

Before I could see who was at the door, Mamma pushed me and Luca inside my room, and told me to hide in my closet until she comes to get us.

"But mamma, why should we stay here? Are we in danger? You know I'm a big guy now, I can protect you!" I said, but she only smiled at me and gave me one loving glance before she closed the door and went away.

As I heard the sound of her footsteps fading, I could sense something terrible was about to occur – something my parents didn't want me seeing. I looked at Luca to find him looking right back at me with the same concerned look in his eyes. But we couldn't do anything. All we could do was sit in this cramped space quietly until mamma returns.

For the longest time, we couldn't hear a sound. It was as if no one had ever entered the house, yet, the I'll feeling didn't vanish. Mamma hadn't returned, and the house was too quiet for it to be deemed normal. If it was anything we Italians had in our blood, it was being loud. We would easily announce our presence by shouting and hooting like uncultured and unmannered people and anyone would know we're Italians. So, for a household like that to be eerily silent was code red.

Minutes seemed like hours being cramped up in that tight space. The tension surrounding us was making it difficult for Lucas and I to converse with each other. Worry was etched on our young sixteen years old faces, and just when we thought we were about to lose it from waiting forever, I proposed a plan to Luca.

"I think we should sneak out and check up on them. Its weird that no one has returned for so long and that we have to stay here and hide from who ever was at the door."

"What? Are you serious? I don't think we should disobey your mother, she will be very angry about it," Luca responded, his eyes going as wide as saucers as he recalled my mamma's infamous anger bouts.

"We're not cowards, Luca. Why should we have to hide here while the adults are out there dealing with God knows what? And if you don't want to, stay here and wait for mamma to give you an award for this. I'm going."

"Wait, I'm coming! You're such a stubborn ass," Luca called out after me, shaking his head at my hard personality.

I smirked inwardly and quietly opened the wardrobe and stepped out of it. Feeling my limbs stretch to their normal size was so refreshing already. We sneaked out of the room and swiftly turned left to the main living room, only to be met with the most horrific sight of our lives.

In front of us, on one of the couches, was my dad with a gun to his head, while mamma clung tightly to Martin in a corner, crying her eyes out. But what surprised me the most wasn't that, it was the person who held the gun – Roberto Alfonsi, his partner, the one who absolutely adored me.

My dad, Martin and Roberto had been best friends for as long as I can remember, and they had always been together through thick and thin, so seeing him in that position, with a dozen other men pointing their deadly weapons at each one of them made my knees buckle uncontrollably. That was my first taste of betrayal, and I couldn't even comprehend what it was properly.

At first, I thought it was just a prank – a really sick prank – but still, the thought of this sight being way too real was making me nauseous. My young, hotheaded brain struggled to wrap it's way around the fact, the absolute bitter and ruthless fact that lied in front of me – and it rendered me numb.

I wanted to scream, to reach out for my family, to run over to Roberto and stop him from doing whatever he planned on doing with my dad; but the numbness had seeped so deep in my veins that I was not only speechless, but also immobile. And I watched everything happen in slow motion, not knowing that the HD pictures of it would taint the corners of my mind for eons to come.

"You thought I was your friend? That I did all those shitty tasks for you because you meant something to me? How fucking dumb can you be?" Roberto taunted him, his voice doing a complete 180 from when he came over earlier.

That was when I learned it was all an act, so that he could gain my dad's trust and... kill him? For what? What was so important that this man couldn't have without killing my dad?

"Sei uno stronzo. Go to hell, I don't care!!" Dad bellowed in retaliation which earned him a blow in the cheek from the butt of his gun. (You're an asshole.)

"Non hai capito una sega!! I'm telling you I won't let you live until you give me what I want, and you're cussing at me? Don't you wanna live? At least for your son?" He shouted in frustration and confusion, making my dad scoff. (You don't understand shit!)

"If you think you know me even a tad bit, you should know I'm not the kind of person to fall under any sort of pressure. Don't you ever think I didn't know what you were up to, or that I trusted you implicitly. Even if you kill me right now, you won't get a cent of the wealth I built in New York. If you still don't believe in my words, go ahead and try it. Just, don't ever regret it."

Although I was proud of him for standing his ground then, I will never forget what happened after. While I was immersed in revering my dad, an all too familiar, deafening sound was heard, which reverberated all around the house.

The sound of the trigger being pulled.

The Devil had made his choice.