Forced to Marry

Harmless

My eyes open slowly only to be met with dim lighting and marble flooring. I'm on the floor? I try and sit up as the pain in my head increases and when my eyes refocus I'm faced with bars! Bars?! Why am I in here?! This looks like our house, and the secret prison!
I stand up and catch sight of myself in a mirror that lays slanted on the opposite side of our prison, which looks more like a storage unit.

My hair is messy and my outfit made of Damon's shirt is smeared with blood, that seems to have come from my head. There's a small cut on my forehead that the blood must of leaked out from onto Damon's shirt. Damon! Damon?! Where is he?!

"Hello!" I yell out my voice croaked and crackly as I stare at the stairs and the bolted door!
"Hello! Let me out!" I go to the bars and try to jiggle them free but the feeling of being trapped escalates. Oh no! He knows! He must know! Damon must have slipped up or his brother must have done something!
"LET ME OUT!" I yell my voice booming throughout the room and the bars refusing to budge.

"Mind keeping it down" I turn my head instantly towards my side as the whiplash hits me. And there on my left is another cell combined to mine but blocked by bars, and no other than Damon sits watching me.

"DAMON! You were here the whole time!" I yell and he scowls standing and coming to the bars that separate us.
"Given you've been awake for only a few minutes I'm sure it hasn't been that long" Well his humor is still intact.

"We have to get out of here, why are we in here?!" I say running my hands through my blood stained hair.
"You know why..." is his small and messy response as he looks to the door.

"How could you let this happen?" I ask angrily, it's true! He claimed to be all powerful with so many people to back him up when now we are in a cell and no one knows and no one will help us!
"Catalina! This is not my fault! I have plenty of men who had fallen in line behind me! No way is there not another player in hand who has delayed coming to our aid and resolving the issue" he says but his scowl just makes the situation seem worst than it is.

"Your insane! And unprepared! You promised me you had it under control! From the beginning all you did was talk a big game! I knew it! I knew it was all crap!" I yell unable to hold the claustrophobic anxiety that's building up inside of me.
"Just relax" he says calmly but I can't remain calm as I pace my small cell! I can't remain calm!

"Let me out!!!! PAPA! LET ME OUT! I know you have cameras!" I yell this to thin air but no one responds and I scream out in fury my head hurting.
"Catalina you are wasting your breath, they will not come" He says taking a seat back on his cell floor. But they wouldn't leave us here, he wouldn't leave me here! Despite our differences he's my dad!

"LET ME OUT YOU idioti ritardati con cicche di babbuino per cervelli!" (Retarded idiots with baboon butts for brains!) but still no one responds and the air seems to be getting thicker.

"PAPA! s'il vous plaît laissez-moi sortir! Je ne peux pas respirer donne cette incarcération! laissez-moi sortir je vous en prie!" ( please let me out! i cannot breathe in this incarceration! let me out i beg of you!) but yelling in French instead of Italian seems useless and after what seems like twenty minutes of yelling my voice is beginning to ache and I need water.

"Damon I need water" I say coughing as I sit down on the floor.
"He will come soon and I will get you whatever you desire mi amore" his soothing words aren't helping and my aching headache is getting worse as finally the latch on the door opens and footsteps can be heard. I shoot up watching as my father, Edmond his brother and his father? Romano Azzaro walks down the stairs to meet the two of us.

"What is the meaning of this nonsense?!" Yells Damon as the three approach.
"Plotting against me my son, I don't know whether to be ashamed of you or proud" his words shock me, but altogether I knew they knew.
"Nonetheless, traitors must be punished!" His father adds and I feel a lump of fear develop in my core.

"We had a deal Azzaro, I gave you my daughter and you were successfully deteriorating everything I built" my dad says and I open my mouth to speak but Damon interjects,
"She didn't know! She has nothing to do with it!"
"Oh I know, even though I have my suspicions she does, she is mostly here to make you suffer..watching her suffer" I stare down at my feet unable to comprehend the hateful words and actions of my very own father that I tried so desperately to protect.

"You will give me the name of every man who has helped and aided you Damon, then they will be killed as example in front of you that you are not king yet, and your word is permanent..when they are dealt with you will marry Miss catizone at once and continue with the deal that I made with Catizone" his words shock me. He made the deal?! I thought Damon did! And now all those men would be slaughtered for what?! Some twisted crown! Some terrible politics this was!

"I will not" my eyes turn to Damon as he stands his ground and something fills me with joy that he isn't giving up anyone.
"Did you hear him boy! You give up the names or we will make you!" Edmond says and Damon chuckles sardonically.
"Please coward, if you were a man you would make the square and challenge, but alas you've always been satisfied with being the runt" Damon's words fuel the fire and I stand there my head aching and my insides turning.

"You will talk, one way or the other" Romano says and as he turns to walk away he adds, "no food or water, let's see how long he'll last watching her dry out" my heart stops and I turn to Damon with panic in my eyes.

"Maniac! She'll die! She's dehydrated from the hit she took! How could you let your daughter die?" My father turns back towards him with a sigh,
"At least I will take comfort knowing it was your doing" my heart sinks.
"I hate you" I spit out and his eyes fall on mine.
"Momma would be ashamed of you" my words hit his cold heart as he comes closer to my cell.

"Your mother is dead child, she has been and will be, oh Catalina" he turns away and begins to walk out, leaving the two of us alone as I fall to the ground my tears tickling my face as they fall fast.

"Damon" my voice hitches and he turns to me his blue eyes piercing through my blurry ones.
"Catalina I cant give them up, I'm sorry" he says hanging his head low.

"Don't be, i don't want you too, I just thought he loved me" I say my heart aching and the sobs coming quicker.

I thought deep deep deep deep down he was harmless and that he cared. I thought he wanted me to be there with him always and that I mattered. But I guess I don't...and I guess I never will... I shut my eyes slowly as the stress lulls me to sleep..