Dry Your Tears

Four

 Time ticked by slowly and Olivia felt herself losing any sense of perception or awareness. She was laying on the bed, facing the window that taunted her, teasing her with the fact that one jump, one jump was all it took to end her suffering. She clutched her middle that was throbbing out of hunger but also out of pain of the punches Luca had delivered days prior. Days, had it really been that long already? The memory was still fresh on her mind, the tape repeating itself over and over again, rendering it impossible for her to forget. She saw her face, Aaliyah's lifeless eyes staring back at her, she remembered her blood on her hands as she held on to her limp body. She remembered the deafening sound of a gunshot, Elias stumbling, hands clutching his chest as he fought to live. They were gone, all of them gone, out of her life and she was back where she had started a year ago, as if nothing had happened. 

She couldn't find it within herself to cry anymore, she had done enough of that. Elias, Aaliyah, they were all gone, and their killer would soon walk through those door and touch her as if he wasn't the monster that he was. It's like she had run out of tears to cry, she had run out of reasons to cry, her life seemed to be an endless cycle of pain and misery, with only one exit point. Olivia stared out towards the window, getting up from her curled position on the bed to approach it. Her muscles and joints were stiff, begging her to go back to bed but she ignored it, the pain reminding of what it was like to feel, to feel something other than grief and sorrow. She opened the window, smiling softly as a gentle breeze pushed past her into the room. She looked out at the window, eyes glistening as she took in the beautiful and encompassing greenery that seemed to swallow the Barletta mansion, hiding it from the rest of the world. A heavenly light shone from the sun through the vast canopy of leaves, reflecting brightly on to the window, the light a drastic contrast to Olivia's sombre mood. She sat on the windowsill, bringing her knees to her chest as she carelessly looked over the edge, the mossy green carpet beneath her, inviting her. Though it technically did not favour her, a part of her was happy that they weren't near the busyness of central New York, that they were near the outskirts, headed towards Pennsylvania, it was stupid, because it meant escape would be that much harder. However Olivia had given up on  escape, she had tried before and look how that ended. She had accepted the fact that her fate just seemed to be tied to the demon that was Luca and she was at least happy that she wouldn't be driven crazy by the noise of New York traffic. 

"Olivia!" Someone gasped behind and suddenly she was pulled away, the window roughly slammed shut by Matteo who looked at her with wide and worried eyes. Olivia blinked at him blankly, shrugging before sitting on the edge of the bed. 

"I wasn't going to jump." She said simply, although a part of her wanted to. Matteo's face was still healing from Olivia's violent assault all those days ago and Olivia smiled evilly at her art work.

"Your face looks better." She whispered darkly and Matteo sighed, eyes filled with guilt and apology. He had done wrong by her, he knew that and he deserved more than just a few scratches on his face. 

"I brought you food." He whispered, gesturing to the tray of food he had abruptly put aside when he saw her by the window. Olivia glanced at the food, its smell made her mouth water as she hadn't eaten in over three days but at the same time it made her want to throw up. 

"What did you do to it?" She questioned skeptically but truthfully she didn't care, she would have eaten it even if was laced with cyanide because  even though she had been able to ignore the pangs of hunger before, now that her body had caught a whiff of food it felt like it was turning itself inside out. 

"Nothing! I swear!" Matteo declared, grabbing the tray and giving it to her. "You need to eat Olivia, please." Olivia stared at Matteo and then the food, knowing that she was going to end up eating but she wasn't going to do it in front of Matteo. "I'm sorry Liv." Matteo spoke suddenly and Oliva's head snapped up towards him, eyes watering at the sound of her nickname. What he used to call her.