Till My Last Breath

Prologue

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"Bastard, you lied to me!" a very unfamilair voice shouted. I covered my ears and went deeper into my blankets. Ma had ordered me to not leave my room, till she comes to get me. So I did just that. I huddled myself in my bed and pressed my hands on my ears tightly to block all the noises coming from downstairs.

"I never lied to you Rick, you were my friend. I could never betray you like this!" I heard my Papa say. His voice sounded weak, I've never heard him like this. He was always brave. He was my hero afterall. But hearing him like this made tears to roll down my eyes, I quickly wiped them. I will not cry.

"Oh you piece of shit, do you think I am stupid?!" the same unfamiliar voice yelled, "You knew I had in and outs with some illegal stuff and you were fucking jealous of the money I was making since it was thousand times more than your shitty salary, so you called out the cops on me. They raided my whole fucking house and closed all my illegal pubs. Do you know how much loss I am in right now, you bastard?!

"For Christ sake Rick! I didn't do such thing. Trust me! I've known you for years why would I do this to you. For money? I don't need money. Believe me when I say this, it is someone else who did this to you!" Pa yelled back.

I heard a soft knock on my door, I sucked in a shaky breath. The knocks became vigorous, someone was pounding from the other side. My ten year old self, left the safety of my bed and clamped my sweaty hands together. The voices were still shouting downstairs but I could only concentrate on the continuous knocks at my wooden door.

Maybe it was Ma? Maybe she came to tell me it is all over and everything is just fine.

I tiptoed on my feet to reach the handle, I grabbed the metal handle and slowly turned it to unlock it. I opened the door a bit and peeked my head from the small gap, the person I saw made me calm down.

"Sophy! What are you doing here? Ma told us to not come out of our rooms! Now c'mon get inside!" I told my five year old sister who had red puffy eyes, she was clutching her favourite doll closer to her. When she got inside the room she hugged me tightly.

"Matty, what is happening down? I am scared," Sophy started to cry.

I kissed her head and hugged her even more tight and replied, "Everything is gonna be fine Sophy, we will be fine. I promise,"

And then we heard a noise. It was loud. Very loud almost echoing through the walls. And then we heard a scream. It was my Ma who had screamed. Without thinking twice, I left my room and pounded down the stairs, my heart beat ringing in my ears. When I got to the last step, the scene ahead of me made me fall down on my knees and fresh tears started to spill uncontrollably.

Papa was laying down- unmoving, there was a very deep hole on his chest and there was blood everywhere. Ma was sobbing and taping his cheek but he did not move.

"Alesso! per I'amor di Dio, please wake up! This cannot happen, you cannot die! You can't leave me like this!" Ma yelled.

"Papa...." I whispered my voice lost. This was a dream right? This cannot happen. Papa can never leave, he had promised me. There were so many things we had to do together. He promised he would teach me to play the guitar that he had gotten me for my tenth birthday just a month before. So he cannot leave me like this, this is a dream-a very bad dream. I'll wake up sooner or later and then when I'll wake up I'll give him the biggest of hugs and tell him how much I love him.

"Matteo, what are you doing here! I told you to not leave your room!" Ma's alarmed and red teary eyes met mine.

"Oh look, who we have here. The bastard's child. How lovely!" The man smiled at me but his smile was not even close to comforting, if anything it made me want to throw up.

"Matteo please go to your room! per il mio bene, please!" Ma screamed at me still clutching my Papa's unmoving body close to her.

"Ma, I am not leaving you!" I shrieked.

"Awh, look at the love between y'all, but sadly it won't last for long. I'll kill everyone of you! I'll destroy everything that Alesso was always so proud of, I'll end his family which he loves so dearly," he grinned showing his yellowish teeths," Oh I am sorry, I meant which he loved. Unfortunately, he is not with us anymore. But don't worry, I am very generous I'll send you all to him," he pointed the shiny black looking thing at me, "Wouldn't you want to see your papa?"

"You are so cruel! He is only ten! I swear if anything happens to my son I will kill you with my own bare hands, you've already killed my husband, I won't allow you to take my child away from me as well!" Ma told, she stood up on shaky legs, she looked tired, she looked she couldn't bear anymore. Her clothes were drenched in Papa's blood.

I was lost. I was shocked. I just wanted this dream to end.

Noise of sirens blared in the air. The ugly man's eyes went wide and he looked very angry, " You little fucker! you called the cops didn't you?!"

Just in time, few men rushed inside our house. They pointed the same black shiny thing at the ugly man's head, one of them said, "Do not move or we will shoot you, drop your weapon,"

The man raised his hands slowly, keeping his scary eyes on me the whole time. I heard small steps coming down the stairs, I knew it was Sophy, her footsteps stopped behind me, she clutched my back and whispered, "I called them, Papa had told if anything bad happens to call them, he had given me a number,"

I nodded my head, not knowing what to say her.

"Matty, what happened to Papa, why he not moving and why is Ma crying?" she whispered in my back her voice small and shaky.

I gulped and closed my eyes tightly it was all a dream. All this will end. I just need to wake up. Papa would now come anytime to wake me and like he does every morning, will tickle me. What was happening now was not real. Only a bad dream.

"Matteo!" I heard my Ma scream. I quickly opened my eyes to see something small coming my way, subconsciously I pushed Sophy away from me and moved. The small metal thing touched my skin and I felt pain. The kind of pain that I was not able to handle. I screamed the loudest I have ever in my life and then everything just went black.

     
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