The Unknown Family

Silence

X A V I E R

I've always hated silence; but I've also welcomed it.

In my childhood home, silence brought with it nothing but trouble. The impending doom prepared to pounce at an given moment and destroy any hope of joy or excitement that was building within those tainted walls.

However, silence in the house also meant that no one was getting hurt.

My mother would not emerge from her bedroom the next morning all bloodied and bruised, though, it didn't mean it wouldn't happen later in the day.

My brother would not be sour faced and dull due to there being no training for him to complete.

My sister wouldn't be sat in a quiet corner with a book, growing her intelligence beyond her level. She wouldn't be prepared for the sexist and rude comments made at her; only for being born a girl.

I would not hide away in the gym or the library, with either Carlos or Gloria training me the only ways they knew how.

This silence meant that mi padre was not home.

Those times when he was, led to my intelligence in reading books, people, and emotions thanks to my older sister. And my ability to fight, track, torture and kill thanks to my brother.

Those were the times where I felt like a loved child. Even though I had no regular childhood, I still felt loved by my mother who I could turn to with my problems, my brother who taught me how to defend myself and how to protect the family, my sister who taught me to read and be a proper gentlemen and the way to treat a woman.

Yes, I welcomed the dreaded silence.

I made Liv go home last night, to which she put up a fight about. But the moment a nurse told me she's not left the hospital all week, I threatened to drag her home myself.

With that, she booked a room at one of her Mafia's hotels down the road and is staying there, Andrea, Leo and Rina with her.

And me?

Well, I'm sat in a very uncomfortably silent room with Giovanni Vitale, Vito Vitale, Luca Vitale and Theo Vitale.

Severely outnumbered and injured is not the way I wanted to go.

Deciding on taking the easiest person first, I turned to Theo.

I mean, he did nearly kill me.

"Is there a reason why you all came in here just to sit in silence?" I asked, looking at the hospital gown Theo was also wearing.

A reminder that maybe, just maybe, I don't have the upper hand with this brother.

"We're analysing you, obviously." Theo shrugged, his eyes still not leaving me in an investigative manner.

"Anything interesting?" I joke, trying to get a reply off the others.

"Very." Luca all but snarls.

"You're special to my daughter, that I can see." Giovanni starts. "You've already killed for her, and have spent years together."

Then Vito speaks, clearly hating every word he says, "And from what Teodoro has told us, you've also had sex with her."

Okay, I really don't have the upper hand.

"I would like to point out that it was a hundred percent consensual." Not the best thing I could've said, but it was better then nothing.

The day after the mafia ball, was Liv's eighteenth birthday. And we didn't do anything till the evening. So really, they have nothing against me besides sleeping with their daughter/ little sister.

They have something on me.

"We know that." Luca chuckles darkly, "You think you'd still be alive if it weren't."

"So... what else do you guys want?" I questioned hesitantly.

"When was your first kill?" Giovanni starts.

"I was six, I vacuumed up my hamster." I replied, still a little traumatised from that day.

My god did Señor Squiggles scream when he got shot  up into the nozzle.

As soon as I said my first kill, Luca burst out into fits of hysterical laughter.

"You are a member of the family of the Spanish Mafia Don, and your first kill was a hamster!" Vito says in between his own chuckles.

"Don't laugh!" I fake cried, "Señor Squiggles died a painful death!"

"SEÑOR SQUIGGLES!" Luca screams as he falls off of the arms chair he sat in, laughing as he laid on the floor.

"Papa! Can we keep him?" Theo begged as he looked towards Giovanni.

"We'll see." Giovanni, unlike his sons, didn't falter at all.

"Right. Of course, of course." Luca mumbled as he sat back down in the armchair, his face still red from laughing as a large grin was smacked across his face.

"Who was your first human kill?" Giovanni rephrased his question.

"My father, I was thirteen." I answered, my smile immediately wiped away from my face.

Shock flashed across Vito and Giovanni's faces momentarily, but they covered it up a second later.

Theo and Luca however, remained stunned.

"Why?"

"I'm not comfortable saying why." I replied in a respecting tone.

It's Liv's father, so I'm not exactly gonna tell him to do one, am I?

"Does Liviana know at least?" Vito asks, acceptance in his tone.

"Yes." I answer truthfully.

"We can live with that." Giovanni says, "How many people have you killed?"

"136." I answered without hesitations

I remember every single kill, down to the final detail.

"And what are your intentions with my daughter?" Giovanni asks, finally getting to the point.

"Well, to put it simple, I want to marry her, I want her to be the mother of my children, and I want to grow old with her. If she accepts of course."

They all sat there stunned for a moment, not expecting such a direct answer.

"Erm... welcome to the family then." Giovanni says after he recollected himself.

"Welcome to the family Señor Squiggles!" Theo cheered while Luca began laughing again.