My Property

The other half

~Malia~

I watched in admiration, as Lorenzo stroked Ayana's hair back, letting her drift away into her dreams. He was so soft with her, in a way a father would his own child.

"She's probably tired from all the fun you two had today" Lorenzo smiled, raising his eyebrow at me.

He slowly backed away from her, raising her blanket up to her neck. She was sound asleep, tucked in comfortably under the covers.

"Has it always been just you two?" I whispered cautiously, hoping I wasn't overstepping in any way.

"Not always" he responded, placing a light kiss on her forehead, "long story short, our parents believed our Mafia to be more important than family."

"and do you believe the same?"

Lorenzo gazed up at me, hesitant with his own response. From what I know, Ayana is his only family, I was curious to know what was more important to him.

"Mafia is family",

Was the most ridiculous answer he could've given me, I feel everyone in this suffocating community, have no actual touch with the real world.

"And Ayana?", I asked with a tone, deliberately dominant.

"Well she'll be apart of that life when she's old enough" he whispered, which confused me, as to why is sounded so secretive.

What If she doesn't know? That her life would be leading up to torture. No child ever thinks to themselves that they want to be part of a gang when they grow up. They have other childish dreams, onces which they should be given to explore.

"I'd never want to force her into it" he admits, weighing down on the corner of her bed, "However In the end when you come from a family that have put themselves in the danger zone for nearly their entire life, that danger is bound to follow you close behind."

The thought of feeling as if you have a knife pointed at your back, not knowing when it's going to strike, sent a rush of fear to flood through me. It would be unbearable, what some would call a curse.

I wonder how Romano does it, he never seems to be affected by anything. He puts on a brave face, always ready incase he's about to get stabbed in the back.

"Could you bring 'Timmy' from the room next door" Lorenzo asked, looking around for it on the bed. "It should be on the floor".

"Sure",

Ayana loves that ugly ,stuffed bear. When I first met 'Timmy', I called it a bear and Ayana ignored me for a day cause she kept saying how disrespectful my first impression was.

I walked out into the corridor, into the room next door. Grabbing 'Timmy' off the ground, bringing it back to Ayana. It smelled like it was currently rotting, as Ayana refuses to wash it.

As I was about to walk back into the colourful presence of her room. A light sparked from the corner which caught my eye, it was coming from a door that I've never seen open before.

Curiosity lurked towards me.

I entered the room, it was different to the others as it was much larger. It was decorated from the ceiling to the handle of the door, plated with such extraordinary designs. I lined my finger over the wooden desk, letting a pile of dust run over my finger. The place was old and looked as if it hadn't been cleaned in decades.

I opened the first draw on the desk, exposing random sheets of papers. Pens and pencils, random and ordinary things.

The thing with curiosity is ,it could lead to something life changing or unfortunately leave you in disappointment.