Metanoia

Chapter 20

A shrill scream wakes me from my sleep.

I bolt upright, darting down the hall in the direction of the one person that high pitched scream could belong to. I pull open her already ajar door and watch as a crying Darcy is cuddled and rocked back and forth like a baby by Lorenzo.

Arlo, who's standing in his pyjamas mouths to me that's it's okay and to go back to bed.

This week has been very hard. Lorenzo has been trying to fix Darcy's sleep schedule by refusing to let her sleep during the day and by placing her in bed with lights off at a firm nine pm.

We each take turns waiting with her until she falls asleep. She seems to take solace in knowing that one of us is there to protect her but as soon as we leave it's only a matter of time before she wakes up, alone and afraid.

I climb back into my bed and close my eyes. I'm excited for tomorrow (well technically today since it's three am) because Arlo suggested that we have a 'family day' every Sunday and that tradition starts in the morning.

Lorenzo was very against this idea. The day after Dante's birthday we received pictures of Darcy when she out alone which has caused Lorenzo to double security. He eventually gave into the idea when Arlo reminded him how beneficial this would be for Darcy.

I wake up at nine and groggily make my way downstairs where everyone but Romeo is. Nobody dares waking that kid up before at least twelve pm on a weekend. Lazy bastard.

Darcy, Alonzo, Lorenzo and Luca sit at the kitchen table while Arlo, Dante and Gabe sit at the counter eating breakfast. Breakfast isn't a meal Lorenzo requires us to eat together so we never did before Darcy came, now it's a daily occurrence.

"Okay, I'm thinking we leave at four and go watch a movie before we go out for dinner," Arlo suggests. "Why would we go out to a cinema when we have one here," Gabe scoffed. 

"It's not the same! It's all about the atmosphere," Arlo rebuttals, earning an eye roll from Gabe. 

"What do you say Darc, ever been to the cinema?" I ask. She shakes her head tiredly, poor kid looks absolutely drained. "Well there's our answer then," I say to no one in particular. 

After breakfast we all part ways. I return to my room and sit at my desk, hoping to get some school work done before Monday. I barely have time to open my notes before I hear a knock at the door. "Come in," I call out.

Darcy, still in her pink pyjamas comes waddling in, holding numerous boxes that pile over her head. 

"Hey bambi," I say, getting up and taking the majority of the boxes from her hands and placing them on my bed. I look and see that they're the lego sets that Gabe bought her, "You wanna build some with me?" I ask, guessing that's why she brought them in here. She nods ferociously. 

It overjoys me to know that she picked me out of all my brothers. I will brag about this later.

We spend hours building the numerous different sets as we talk and laugh. Darcy has become much better at talking to us lately, we have even started to see her bossy side and her sense of humour.

"Hey have you seen-" Arlo barges in my room but stops talking when he sees the both of us. He stares at the peculiar sight, me and Darcy sitting cross legged, still in our pyjamas at three pm in an ocean of lego. Arlo snorts at our green faces from the face masks she insisted on doing.

"There you are," He says to Darcy, approaching the both of us cautiously as to not step on any legos. "Come on you need to get ready," he said while picking up Darcy and placing her on his hip.

"You too," He pointed at me before leaving the room.

I get half an hours of school work in before taking a shower, pulling on my outfit and fixing my hair. Realising I'm late, I rush to the foyer to find everyone waiting for me. Darcy is tiredly leaning on Lorenzo while he's furiously typing on his phone, most likely arranging more security.

We're all squished into Lorenzo's huge SUV as our driver heads towards the cinema.

"What snacks do you want Darc?" Luca asks as we all stand at the concession counter. Darcy, who looks really out of it let's go of her grip on Alonzo's hand and points to the sweet popcorn.

"Not getting anything Rome?" Luca asks as the cashier rings up all our snacks. Romeo silently shakes his head while staring off into the distance. Strange

We all sit at the very back of the theatre, we normally would have rented the whole place out but Arlo wanted Darcy to have the 'authentic experience'. 

The movie starts as Darcy, who has been acting like a living zombie all day perks up and excitedly watches it. She makes it about half way through the movie before she starts to drift off causing Lorenzo to repeatedly tap her cheek, refusing to let her sleep during the daytime.

After a couple hours we finish the movie and exit the cinema, discussing our favourite parts of the film and laughing when recalling the funny moments.

We pull up at the five star restaurant that we often frequent and we are immediately escorted to the Vip area. 

"Yeah and then she asked me how my day was going, I mean who does that?" We eat our dinner as Dante rambles about a girl at the base who is 'totally obsessed' with him but it's obvious it's the other way around.

We're all laughing and enjoying the meal as I look at Romeo, who is again staring off silently into the distance. "You okay bud?" I ask, to which he doesn't respond. "Rome?" This seems to break him out of his trance and he turns back to us.

"That man," he says, not looking at any one person. "What man?" Arlo asks, slightly concerned but still forking a piece of pasta. "That man," He reveals as he looks in the direction of large built man sitting at the bar across the restaurant. 

Sensing that we're all confused he continues, "He was staring at us at the cinema and now he's here," Romeo says anxiously.

As if on cue, the man turns around in his stool, turning to look directly at us but immediately diverting his gaze when he realises we're all staring at him. The man quickly takes out his phone and begins frantically typing.

"Alright lets go," Lorenzo orders, standing up and chucking a wad of cash on the table.

I swiftly pick up a confused Darcy as we all begin speed walking to the door, she wraps her legs around me and buries her head into the crook of my neck, no doubtably anxious by our sudden urgency.

We make it half way to the exit before the sound of gunfire rings through the restaurant.