Slurp. Slurp. Sluuurp.
"Dio moi!"
Alia jerked awake and immediately regretted it. Her body was a mass of pain and hurt. Her head hurts. Her chest was so heavy that it felt like she was a lactating mother.
Groaning, she sat up and felt the pain in her center so excruciating and pepperish that she had to wince at the extreme of it.
She held her head with both her hands as if it might fall off if she didn't. She was thirsty and as she swallowed, her mind recalled the last thing that entered her mouth.
"Argh!" She yelled, scratching at her tongue frantically in an attempt to brush away the disgusting liquid she had swallowed.
"Ugh! Ugh! Ugggh!" She retched over and over again as she hoped to be out with the load of the man who had separated her from her beloved family.
The memory had been haunting her nights ever since she was brought here. Just checking, she looked around at where she was, a white bulb illuminated the floral paintings hanging around the room. The deep red curtains that kept away the daylight, the wooden floor to ceiling drawers marked with gold roses. The black marble floor seemed to be sucking in the light.
She pressed her hands on where she lay, and to her relief it wasn't hard stone-cold floor. This was soft, too soft and fluffy red pillows and cushions surrounded her in what was…
"Wait, could it be? Was she home in her room? Did papa redecorate her room in her absence and just the way she liked it, but where did he get the money? The Baron must've kept his word and pardoned their debt?"
Apart from the four-poster bed which kinda felt familiar even though, as she remembered it, those rouge curtains were once yellow with blue floral needlework. Everything felt different. She was running her fingers on the roses stitched on the drapes, a smile on her lips. The thought of seeing papa, mamma, Sofia and the boys; a euphoric drug sipping through her senses.
"Oh dear, I heard it was good, but I didn't expect it to go into your head, or wait" the woman approached her, dropped the tray she carrying by the bedside drawer and started inspecting her eyes and mouth. The shock of it all made Alia congruent. All she could think about was that this person wasn't her mamma or one of the servants. In fact, she knew this person, this monster that was now pretending to care for her.
"I'm fine" she snapped, slapping away Signora Donna's hand. She hadn't cared for her when she was brought to this place. She still remembered everything, how could she even bring herself to forget when the memory haunts her every night?
It had been a day like every other on her family's estate. They had just finished breakfast and were busying themselves with one thing or the other. She was painting a portrait of Andre, the boy who had captured her heart. Even though she knew it was a fantasy, since the boy was like a messenger of the Baron and probably a serf, she still found her dreaming about him. Any day, he came with a message. She would stand at her window waiting to catch a glimpse of him, since girls weren't really allowed to show themselves before a guest unless permitted.
Sofia, her junior sister, was taking piano lessons with their tutor and the boys, Vincenzo or, as he was fondly called Vin, and Alberto AKA Bert, were taking target lessons with their father, Don Marcelo Vinci.
Marietta, her mamma, was directing their remaining few servants on some chores. Even then Alia knew things had changed, 5 out of their 8 servants quitting one after the other, Papa's new habit of staying late in his study drinking into the night, Mamma's smile and cheerfulness dwindling by the day, her brothers getting snappier and angrier by the day and Andre's visits becoming more frequent.
Even as it meant seeing him more often, she knew he never came with good tidings. In fact, things always took a turn for the worse after each visit. Papa would lock himself in his study for the whole day. Mamma would leave the house to one of her friends, maybe to beg them for help or whatever. She never found out.
Through all this, she remained reserved, always sneaking away to visit the cathedral and table their affairs to Dio.
It was around 11am when the doorbell rang and Mr Fares, the butler, opened the door to Andre. She had run out of her room once she heard the doorbell and hid behind the stairs.
Mr Fares tried to take his coat, but he had refused, insisting that he needed to speak with Papa immediately. Something was wrong, yet it didn't stop her from memorizing his features once again as he took off his hat. His curly midnight hair, his azure eyes like the lazurite necklace she had seen once when shopping with Mamma. His lips that day were like petals of fleshly picked carnations and his face… his face was like a flawless stone art with edges sharp enough to bleed.
To her dismay, she hadn't gotten his painting right. She hadn't matched the exact blue of his eyes, or the straight point of his nose, the shade of his lips, the cutting edges of his face or the David curls of his hair. She was a good artist, but she doubted even Leonardo da Vinci could copy the perfection of Andre.
She was still idolizing him when Papa appeared, trying to lead him into his study.
"Per favore, just listen!" she remembered him yelling in frustration. "The Baron is on his way here, I just came to warn you and I hate to be here when he arrives. Addio" his eyes caught hers before he slipped away.
Exactly twenty minutes later, the doorbell rang again, and before Mr Fares could answer, the door was kicked open. Andre might have tried to warn them, but it wasn't enough. Not even a week's warning could prepare or save them from the wrath of the Baron.
Papa had told them to hide, but she couldn't. She was there by the stairs, hidden by the large curtains on the wall, when hunks of the fearsome Scarlet Brotherhood marched in, and the last person she had expected to see, Andre. Vases broke in their wake, objects shattered and clattered to the floor, even the knight armor papa kept at the end of the hall wasn't spared, the walls and mirrors were smashed by their batons as they raided the house, room by room.
She watched as one of them dragged Papa by the neck to the soglia di casa, where the Baron stood leaning on his obsidian gold-tipped cane in a dark silk suit that seemed to glint in the daylight. His red tie clipped by the sigil of the Falcone empire and his bowler hat rimmed by plumes of red feathers.
She watched as the hunk kicked her papa into a kneeling position. A group of them began mounting the stairs and she hid. Her heartbeat accelerated when she heard the slash of a knife on the curtain, and before she could move, a hand dragged her out of there. Blue eyes pierced her as she was pulled away from the wall.
"Andre" the name escaped her lips before she could stop herself. If he heard her, he made no indication as he dragged her down the stairs to where papa knelt begging the Baron.
"Silence!" The Baron's deep voice echoed through the house, cutting off her whimpers and muting Papa.
"You never told me that you had a goddess in your house, Marcelo, or were you trying to keep her away from me?" Before Papa could say anything in his defense, he continued "Search everywhere, wreck it all if you have to, but bring me every breathing thing in this house!"
It took just twenty seconds before the entire family and servants were assembled, each kneeling before the Baron. Mamma held Sofia cupping her mouth to stifle her sobs. Vin and Bert tried to be brave, watching without a sound, but their quivering hands betrayed them. And Mr Fares and the two women who stayed when others left held each other, whimpering. None of them dared look at the Baron, whereas she stared at him with every ounce of defiance she could gather.
The brothers surrounded them and the wisp from the Baron's Cohiba drifted through the air. For a minute, no one spoke, and the prolonged silence birthed a stillness that was deafening. Finally, the Baron handed the cigar to the man beside him and made a gesture with his three fingers.
Another man appeared beside the Baron carrying a plush red cushion where the "Dragon Breath", the legendary obsidian with gold intricate markings, the pistol of the Baron rested. The gun had silenced more than fifty people from the rumors Alia heard, and her papa was about to be added to the count.
Whimpers tore through the group and as the Baron closed his fingers on the pistol, silence reigned once again. As the Baron waved the pistol in their faces,
Alia challenged him,
"Whatever it is my papa has with you or owes you, take me instead and let them be."
"I see you are as fierce as the color of your hair, but dear child, even your papa knows that la morte è l'unico vero uguale tra noi (Death is the only true equalizer among us)" the Baron said, cocking the gun.
"Please! Take my life instead, I beg of you. Let it be the variable to balance the equation, please just leave my fami…" a slap from no other, but Andre silenced her.
"Oh Andre, there was no need for that. The young girl wants me to take her. Fine, she will come with us. Donna will know what to do with her. Now bind her, let's be gone from here"
"My Baron please, she's just a girl. Just give me one week, and I'll pay you back in double. Just let my daughter go."
"Marcelo, she has made her choice. Consider your debts forgiven thanks to her. Scarlet Brotherhood!"
"Sangue e Onore!(Blood and Honor)" They all yelled in unison.
Andre grabbed Alia as the Baron turned his back on her family.