Falling Angel | a Mafia Story

Chapter I

"This is what I'm gonna do,

gonna runaway, gonna make that move"

The thing about the Mafia is that once you are involved in it you won't get away. Its long, sharp claws dig deep into your life with a death grip.

And if you are brave or stupid enough to actually try and pull away, it will tear you apart until there is nothing left of you but bloodied shreds.

Many have tried leaving and many have died in the process.

So, the best thing to do is to not get involved in the first place. To stay as far away as possible from everything even remotely associated with the Mafia.

I have never been given that option... I was born into it, so growing up, there was nothing that I could have done about it.

My father, Silvano D'Angelo was London's most vile and feared Mafia Boss when I was born.

He led with an iron fist, ruling big parts of the city, but his ruthless reign came to a sudden end around the time I started Middle School.

Out of nowhere my father's lifelong rival Don Caressio pulled his empire out of the dust, starting a blood craving feud between the families that would take many innocent and not so innocent souls.

After too many street fights, betrayals and attacks to count, my father's mafia clan was scattered and the Caressio's managed to take over conclusively, making Don Caressio the most powerful man in London.

My father was as cruel a parent as he was a Mafioso, so I had hoped his take on the family would change after Don had taken the crown from him.

And so, it did! But to my dismay it did not change for the better.

My father's undying greed for power drove him insane over the years and he ended up getting into some deep trouble, gambling with big amounts of money and trying to keep up with Don. Who had turned out to gain even more power than my father ever had, not even on the peak of his rulership back in his golden days.

I was the eldest amongst three siblings, and after yet another unsuccessful attempt to flee from the family's grip my mother had taken her own life in her blinding desperation to be free from my father.

As a result, I had to grow up instantly to hold together the broken pieces of this family.

Miraculously, my eighth-year old self somehow managed to put food on the table, keep my brothers out of trouble and my dad off of my brothers when he was having one of his drunken rampages again.

I had kept up that life, if one could even call it that much, for as long as I physically and mentally could, but as much as I loved my brothers and despite his cruel demeanour in some twisted way even loved my father... I knew that I had to get out of there or else I would eventually break.

I can still remember the talk I had with my brother Dino.

"Anabelle, I am deadly serious! You have to finally stop throwing yourself in front of us every time Pa loses his bloody temper. We are old enough to look out for ourselves by now, and you have to start looking out for yourself, just once."

He and I were sitting at the kitchen table and he was gently dabbing the swollen cut above my left eyebrow with a wet cloth.

The past week had been extraordinarily tough on my father. Don Caressio's son, Antonio had taken his father's place after he himself had settled down in his residence back in Italy, enjoying an early retirement life.