Giana
I could feel my heart beating, beating faster than usual. I wasn't scared, or was I? it wasn't Stepan, I kept muttering to myself. Stepan was in prison far far away from me, but Andrei was here. Andrei that was supposed to be dead a long time ago. I didn't think Vincenzo's plan was going to work, I was bait for the lion. Honestly, he could just walk in there and kill him, but Vincenzo always wants to know, he hates not knowing and he wants to know why Andrei was here, looking for me. I breathed slowly as I stood in front of the door. I reached out and opened it slowly. He was there, standing at the window in his usual outfit. He turned and looked at me with a frown on his face.
"you are late"he stated.
I looked up at the clock above the shelf. It was 2 minutes past ten and classes started at 10.
"it's just 2 minutes past" I replied, sitting down. He rolled his eyes.
"homework please" I froze. Damn. I forgot to do my homework, after everything that happened the night before. "miss Russo, did you forget to do your homework?" he asked.
"sorry" I said quickly. He sighed, peeked out of the window before letting the huge curtains fall. It cover half of the window, reducing the amount of light in the room. I raised an eyebrow at his action but said nothing. He didn't offer any explanation either. He just took two huge books from the shelf and dropped them on the table with a loud thud.I looked at him for a moment, before opening the textbook and beginning to do my walk. He took a seat by the window, making it his life duty to stare at me as he did so.
"Let me tell you a story" he said, standing up and walking towards where I sat. He reached out and slammed the book shut. "One night I was standing on a pier, I saw a little girl, watching the waters" I felt my heart skip a beat. Andrei took off one of his gloves and skin crawled at the sight of his disfigured fingers "I was looking for revenge on the one person that made my life miserable, and I found the opportunity, but she was smart, smarter than I'd imagined, trained by my brother, ready to kill at the very command, and so she did, just a little flame to the coat and the entire body goes up in flames". he took off his second glove, his skin looked worse than the first one. "She watched me burn, burn" he screamed, shrugging off his coat.
The images of that night crawled into my head, and I whimpered. Where was Vincenzo? Why wasn't he coming?, the door burst open at that instant and all my brothers rushed in, welding their weapons in the air but Andrei just looked at them with a bored look on his face. Why? He had his gun pointed at my head. Any movement from them and he'll shoot my brains out.
"We have guests, don't we? please drop your guns" he instructed.
"Shut the hell up, bastard and let my sister go" Matteo yelled storming forward, but Dante pulled him back. Andrei pressed the cold nuzzle of his gun into my skin, making me wince in pain.
"i believe as a mafia leader, you understand the importance of being rational" Andrei said addressing Vincenzo "Drop. The. Guns". Vincenzo looked at me, a pained look on his face as he let go of the gun he held and let it fall to the ground. All my brothers followed suit, dropping their weapons one by one except Matteo. Andrei pulled out his knife and slashed my skin as warning. Matteo let go of his gun then and it fell to the ground with a thud. "Very well then, as I was saying before I was interrupted, at first I came for revenge but now I think you'll be of more use, where you belong, with me". Andrei smiled to himself like he just won the lottery.
"Stepan did a great job, an even better job with the other one, he sent her where she belonged."
"don't talk about my mother, he killed her" I yelled in his face. Andrei banged his hand on the table, his face seething with anger.
"She betrayed us" he screamed. I froze, so taken aback and shocked. "Oh, you don't know" he looked up at Vincenzo "I guess some secrets are meant to be kept, so are you coming or not?"
"In your dreams Andrei" Matteo growled.
"Quiet Fratello or I'll give a warning" he smiled at me "on someone else."
"Leave Eric out of this" I warned. He chuckled.
"i wasn't going for Eric but thank you for choosing, it'll feel so good to finally get my hands on that little snake, we had a deal, I'll jail Stepan, and I'll get you, but I guess he was smarter than I thought". Eric lied. He lied about the arena closing. He was probably just running from Andrei.
"I'm tired of talking anyway, bullet or knife?" he asked, "or you could just come with me?". at that very moment the glass shattered, and Andrei fell to the ground in a loud heap. someone had shot him, shot him in the head. I sat, frozen watching the blood sip out of his head. Nothing registered in my head, the screams around me, someone carrying me and people talking.
Flashback
I liked the evening breeze. The way it went about silently, sailing through my hair and caressing my face. I loved to come with my mum, but she was indisposed and Stepan won't let me see her. I could hear the screaming and the loud arguments from inside, it was the man Stepan called brother, but his name was Andrei, mother mentioned him once before. I could hear footsteps, coming softly towards me. They sounded so similar to Stepan's own that for a moment I thought it was his.
"Giana" he whispered so close to my ear as he held my shoulder firmly. It was Andrei. "goodnight". he pushed me for ward towards the edge of the pier and I found myself almost falling into the cold water. He stepped forward, taking menacing steps towards me, his boot making a soft thud on the wood. Before he could reach for me again, he fell to the ground with a thud. Stepan was standing behind him, a gun in his hand and a blow torch in the other. He grabbed my hand pulling me to where Andrei lay, he shoved the torch into my trembling hands.
"burn" he instructed, his voice deep and guttural "burn". I bent the torch low, watching the fire catch on the edge of his cloth. It burned quickly. The flame increasing as the seconds went by, the screams even louder. I just watched and watched.
YOU ARE READING
Giana : Blood, Darkness and Roses (Roses' series)
Teen Fiction"He taught me that when you embrace your fears, they become part of you, darkness became part of me" Growing up with a very sadistic murderer, Giana Russo learns what survival means at a very young age. Watching her mother die, her little sister bei...
