Silvio Greco
Doriane ❌
Philip Peay ❌
Barclay Dixon. ❌
Damiano / Dharma Pawer
Vittorio Volta
~~~
"Hells Bell!"
The familiar humanoid figure materialized itself before you and within a split second appeared between Dharma and an injured Doppio. Her dark but glowing skin seemed to have a fluid-like texture, that was sparkling at places on its body.
"Y/n?" was the only word you heard Dharma utter as your stand touched the man's chest with her bare hand.
His body flung away a few metres and hit one of his men, both of who began wincing and cursing in pain. You felt your head throb mildly, your eyes felt blurring out their vision every once in a while, but that was alright. You had never felt the outburst of energy before that you were feeling now.
Dharma in the distance struggled to prop himself up. "You... Better explain..." he exasperated out the words, attempting to catch his breath in between. "What is the meaning... Of all this?"
"Don't get me wrong," you said walking a few bold steps ahead, your stand still floating beside you. "You're going to get nowhere if you kill him. And I don't want a single scratch on the boy."
Doppio was laying on the floor with tearful eyes, looking up at your stand trying to register into his mind the recent occurrences. The bullet in his thigh had left him limp and bleeding, unable to move. He held his wound tight in hopes of preventing it from bleeding in excess as he watched you negotiate with the enemy, wondering whether to trust you or consider you to be one of them too.
"There you go again, acting like a loyal dog! I am not killing him, darling," Dharma began taking steps towards you as well, "I'm only teaching him who is in charge."
"Don't try anything funny, I'm warning you!" Your stand readied itself in a fierce stance as you spoke the words, staring right ahead with its glowing yellow eyes. The man, however, continued to take slow and steady steps closer to you, with the smirk not disappearing from his face anymore.
"You know," he chimed out, "I was expecting this from you, but a tiny part of me wanted you to understand. I thought you'd be smarter than your beloved brother, my darling."
"Doppio..." You mumbled under your breath while Dharma continued to speak to you, who was slowly approaching closer.
Confused and bruised, Doppio looked at you, without a reply. You called out to him softly once again.
"Stand."
He whimpered a reply silently, "I... I can't..."
"Now, Y/n," Dharma outstretched his hand towards you, painting a pretentious kind smile on his face, "let's not get violent. We can discuss this peacefully, darling."
He continued to take cautious steps in your direction, and you took a few steps behind, this distance between the two of you less than half of how far you had thrown him away using your stand.
"No, Doppio," you muttered again, "your stand. Use it."
"Darling? You are listening, aren't you?" He spoke louder, this time a strange aura surrounding him.
"Use your stand! Doppio!!"
"AMBUSH!"
Before you could react to what you had heard from the man approaching you, your knees felt a sudden, strong pull towards the ground.
"G-ah! What the-" the words came out of your mouth as you hit your knees to the ground, bruising them on the rough concrete of the driveway. You tried pushing against the floor to pick yourself up, but the knees wouldn't budge. You turned your head to see your stand behind you but were soon restricted by your neck being pulled to the ground just as your knees had been. Unable to see anything but the floor and the partial sight of Doppio's bleeding leg, you made one last attempt with your hands. You pointed at Dharma the gun that you had been holding, although unable to see whether you had been pointing it in the correct direction. To your dismay, however, once again the same pull happened, this time on your elbows, pulling them to the ground close to your face, blocking your view. You felt your gun fall from your hand and clatter to the ground. Dharma's footsteps finally got very close to your face.
"Feels pathetic, doesn't it?" he mocked you. "This is why I asked you to cooperate."
He kneeled to close in on you, his knees placed right in front of your mouth, "Had you listened to me, it wouldn't have come to this."
Away from your view, you could hear Doppio struggle with his wound. Dharma's knees had blocked you from being able to see him, so you couldn't really tell whether he had been affected just like you. All you could hear was him whimpering and crying out curses under his breath, with occasional stifles, perhaps trying to move his body.
"What did you do?" You pushed the words out of your lungs, forcing your head out just a bit to try to look at Dharma's face. "Cooperate my fuckin' ass what the hell have you been doing?!"
He laughed, his head moving close to your ear. "Are you seriously that dumb? You should have figured this out by now."
You narrowed your eyebrows as you saw his eyes now facing you as he bent his body, laying his head in front of yours. "You..."
He only smiled crookedly. "Yes," he left your view and straightened himself. "I do."
All you could think of was whether your stand could move or not. You were unable to see it, unable to feel it. You tried to summon it to come closer to you, tried to see through the eyes of your stand, tried to see whether you could call it back and retry to summon it once again - nothing worked. A few moments in and you had realised the worst thing - you couldn't feel it. You couldn't feel your stand exist at all. There was nothing left of it.
"It won't work, darling," Dharma sang from afar. "Stop trying. You've lost all connection with your stand."
How did he...
Doppio, on the other hand, was still on the floor, bleeding and whimpering, desperate to move. He held his right thigh tightly. Dharma left you and walked towards him, then bent to his level.
"Now, kid," he spoke to the injured boy, "I'll ask you a few things and I'm expecting a straight forward answer. Please, cooperate. Who is your Boss?"
"Stop it, Dharma!" You shouted at him, although it was useless for you to be doing anything in that condition.
"Vinegar Doppio. It's very obvious that everything about you is false, everything about you that we see or we've heard from you. Now I'm not going to ask you anything about you, not your real name, not your address, not your origins, nothing at all." He pushed the boy's chin up with a finger, "Just tell me, who is your Boss?"
You could hear Doppio choke on his breath in pain. "Even... Even if I knew... I wouldn't be telling you that... I have no idea who it is..."
"I'm being nice, little boy, don't do that to me," Dharma uttered in a sour tone.
"I said I don't know!" He stated again.
"Okay, okay. Then, how about the way you contact him?" Dharma took a cellphone out and held it in front of Doppio.
You had been continuously trying to push yourself up, but now tired from all the failed attempts you had no choice but to wait and watch - or rather, listen to what was about to happen. Was Dharma going to succeed in revealing the forbidden identity? Was Vinegar Doppio going to die? Your promise of protecting Doppio, what about that? Had you already failed Passione pathetically? On your first official job?
"Here. Show me, how you do it," the man softly spoke to Doppio, who, to your surprise, began to chuckle.
"Boss would never pick up your call."
Dharma laughed a little. "It's not mine. Look at it carefully."
Somehow, even though you couldn't see it, you knew what he had been holding out to Doppio.
"He wouldn't pick Y/n's phone call either," Doppio commented. "Don't you get it, you fucking fool! He doesn't pick calls. He'll call whenever he likes it. If he even needs to, in the first place."
"Hmm, that is a bit of a problem now, isn't it?" You heard Dharma speak, accompanied by the muffled sounds of fabric getting patted.
"Ugh! Let go of me! Get your hands off! Argh-"
Away from your view, two of Dharma's armed men began picking Doppio up, trying to frisk him all over for anything suspicious. He continued to disapprove of them, but they weren't going to listen. The situation wasn't on your side anymore.
"Well, you did break the one cellphone that you had. Luckily, one of my men found a second one in your hotel room."
Hearing that, you could feel your cheeks get warmer, not in fluster, but in fear. A set of footsteps approached and stopped somewhere, then Dharma continued to speak.
"Two identical cellphones, I wonder why." A few clicks and beeps followed his words while you helplessly listened, praying it to be the one that you had given him, praying that it didn't have any important clues. What more than that could you do now? Had you been able to, you would've laughed at your inability to do anything of the situation. How funny it would be, for the young and capable gangster of Vespa to lose this way, relying on prayers. That hurt your pride. That hurt your ego. That hurt.
"Fucking hell!" The man cursed and you took a sigh, unluckily very audible to him, who was now approaching you. Before you could realise, he pulled you by the hair and yanked it, but your head wouldn't move, your neck was still getting pulled to the ground by some intangible force. You whimpered and grunted in anger, wanting to hiss at him.
"Now, darling. Don't be a cunt and explain. Where are the contact details? How do you contact your boss?" He cooed in your ear.
You would've thrown a look of disgust at his face if you had been able to, but you neither had the time nor the ability to do so. "I never contact the Boss. What Doppio said is true. He never calls anyone."
"That is impossible!" He jerked your head one more time, making you wince and hiss. "No network is complete without a communication system! You cannot convince me when you say that Passione works without relaying information to the boss."
"I fucking don't know you fucking asshole!" You shouted. "Let me go! You said we'd discuss this peacefully!"
"Oh, but we are, darling!" Dharma kneeled close to your face. You sat there in an awkward position, hands and legs arrested and immobile. Dharma rested his chin on the floor, coming eye to eye with you and smiled. "Ambush is really painful, I'm sorry about that. It won't let you move, takes you by surprise, doesn't it? Your stand, are you still trying to find out where it went? It's here! Right behind you. You just can't feel it. Spatially."
Your eyes grew at the statement as he continued to speak. "My stand arrests the movement of five joints in your body. Two knees, two elbows, and the topmost joint in your head. Don't try too hard to turn, you will accidentally fracture your cervicals" he giggled in the end.
He stood up once again, then walked behind you. "I must say, it's pretty. Dark and sparkly, mysterious, also a very flattering physical form, I must say. What do those horns signify? What did you call it again? I forgot."
You still couldn't feel it, but Dharma was describing it so accurately, you knew he could see it. It was there, only you couldn't tell.
You closed your eyes once to try and see through your stand. Nothing. Nothing at all.
"You cannot move it without knowing where it physically exists, Y/n darling. Quit it."
"How..." You exasperated.
"You are under the influence of my stand right now. Ambush can feel what you're trying to do. How you're trying to move your stand. It can feel. Relax, I want you on my side. Only, I might have to teach you a lesson."
Infuriated, you continued to force yourself to feel your stand. Nothing was working, however. It was making you tired, but this was not a time to give up. You tried to think of ways to get your stand to move.
Where are you, where are you, where are you, where are you, where are you, where are you, dammit where are you, where the fuck are you, where are you, where are you...
Dharma moved towards Doppio. "Have you decided yet?" He spoke. "Tell me, how do you contact him? I don't have the whole - "
He stopped speaking all of a sudden, making the environment quiet for a moment.
"There you go, you finally reveal your stand. Not a free form, I see. Is that how you killed Doriane?"
Unbeknownst to you, Dharma was now looking at Doppio face to face, at the odd-looking figure on his forehead. Weirdly, however, Doppio was smirking, his eyes were glowing green, and his facial form had changed so much that he didn't look like himself anymore. Only Dharma could see it, and he had just opened his mouth to mention the same in surprise when he sensed something odd.
Before he could speak up, he felt pierced through, like a huge knife had been stabbed through him. His guts hurt, he felt like throwing up, and he did throw up. The blood splattered out of his mouth and some sprinkled onto Doppio's face. Doppio? No, he thought to himself. This was Doppio, but he didn't know why he didn't seem like the same person. Confused, he bent his head down, only to be horrified at what he saw.
A hand. That didn't belong to him. A stand had punched through his body, leaving a wide gaping bleeding hole in him. He coughed up and choked out blood. Soon the entire driveway was filled with gasps and mumbles, some men shouting in horror and confusion, others shouting orders at each other. Either way, everyone was confused. And so were you.
You felt your joints lighten, and you soon propped yourself upright, your knees were bruised and burning, the milky purple dress had been stained red in the hem, but you didn't care. You took your heels off and scurried to turn around and look at the cause of the sudden commotion. You too we're left horrified at the scene before you.
Dharma lay there on the floor with the gaping hole in his torso. You could literally see through the 'wound'. Doppio lay there on the floor, still hurt and bleeding.
"Who... Are you...?" Dharma's choking body struggled with the words.
"Y/n," Doppio whispered. "We have to run."
You nodded at him softly, but were caught by surprise when one of Dharma's men held you at gunpoint. "What did you two do? What happened?"
Not a stand user, you thought. "We didn't do anything," you attempted to explain, "you saw it all, didn't you?"
"Don't you fuckin' lie, what did you do? How is he dead?"
"Y/n we have to-"
"Shut up!" The man shouted, interrupting Doppio. He seemed scared.
"Your boss is dead, dude." You tried to speak calmly. "Let us go, we won't hurt you and your other men."
You bent to help Doppio stand, but heard the click of the gun. The man was ready to shoot at you. Dharma was dead, but these men were still trying to kill you. Why?
You summoned your stand and took hold of him. As soon as Hells Bell touched him, you felt your senses weaken and fade. Your body began to tingle and you felt the outburst of energy once again. You held the man from behind, who was now phased out, half-conscious, listening to your stand whisper in his ear.
"Do you hear that," you spoke through your stand, "the bells, they're ringing for you."
You watched his body redeem, drenching in the blood that had appeared from the Devil knew where. His eyes, mouth and nose leaked red fluid, as he choked on it, unable to breathe or speak. You watched him shake violently as he lost his breath, within a few moments succumbing to a bloody death.
"Y/n..."
"Y/n..."
"Y/n!" Doppio shouted in your ear.
"Huh?" You turned in his direction.
"Let's go! Everyone's gone. They might come back!"
You looked around you, and to your surprise, just as Doppio had said, nobody was there anymore. "Yeah... Let's go..." You helped the boy walk towards the busted car in which he had arrived, helped him sit and then proceeded to sit in the driver's seat.
"We need to see a doctor," you mentioned as you started the car.
"I will be okay, Y/n. It only grazed me."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, I can walk after I bandage this. It's nothing big."
You giggled at him. "You're lucky."
The car sped out of the cottage driveway and disappeared into the darkness of the empty street. Dharma clung to the last bits of his life, asking himself questions.
That boy... Who was he...
~~~
You drove the car through dark and deserted roads, your companion muttering directions every once in a while. Apart from that, the drive so far had been pretty quiet. One, you didn't want to talk about how you had almost betrayed him and Passione unintentionally; two, you had been feeling very weak for a while now and wanted to conserve some energy till you reached someplace safe. Doppio had mentioned that he had a house here somewhere, where the two of you could catch some time and clear things up, then leave before somebody discovers your whereabouts. Your phone was gone, during the commotion, you had no idea where it had gone, hence no means of communication, so you and Doppio decided to stick together from now on and not separate.
The silence was getting pretty uncomfortable. Doppio was occasionally clearing his throat, bobbing his head awkwardly, and you knew he wanted to talk. You stupidly giggled under your breath, catching his attention.
"Ask."
"H-huh?"
"I know you want to talk. Go ahead."
He took a deep breath in, then released it, fogging up the glass on the window of the car. "You never... Asked me..."
You took a glance at him. "Ask you? What?"
"About your... brother," he hesitantly spoke.
You filled your lungs in with the air, then exhaled out the tension from within. The question was important. Knowing the answer was important, but what purpose would it have served to know? Taking one hand off the steering wheel, you picked up one of the cigarettes and a cheap lighter that had been lying on the dashboard of the car. The spark of the lighter momentarily lit up your face, then letting it disappear into the shadows and the smoke.
"I do want to know," you huffed out, "but what difference would it make? He violated his oath to Passione, and that brought him to his end. If I violate mine, I'll meet the same end. Won't I?"
You looked at him for a moment and smiled. He looked back at you, watching you concentrate on the road ahead of you, while smoking away the tension within.
"You've been smoking a lot lately." He gently stated the fact, and you couldn't help but laugh.
"The anxiety is going through the roof in this mission, Doppio, what do you expect?"
He directed you to turn the car around and stop the car at a place. You did so, but frowned at the fact that nothing was visible, and quickly threw in the question.
"Where's your house?"
"It's there, the lights are off."
"There's nothing here."
"It's in the outskirts so there's no lights here. Come, I'll show you."
He stepped out of the car and began leading you, while you squinted your eyes and attempted to see whatever possible silhouette you could make of him, and followed him. He pressed on a few switches and one of them lit up a dim incandescent light bulb, giving you a very murky view of the tiny house in the woods away from the bustle of the cities.
"This... Isn't really my house, but I kind of stay here when I come to Napoli for business, you know. Come in," he sheepishly welcomed you by opening the door to his home.
You nodded and stepped in, awkwardly hovering your hands in the air for anything you could hold, as it was way darker inside than it had been outside. The door closed behind you, and Doppio accidentally hit your back, then grunting in response.
"Ow- I'm sorry!" He released a burst of nervous laughter. "I'll look for the lights, wait right here."
You listened to him clumsily scurry down the path, running into various objects and furniture on the way so frequently, it made you wonder whether or not the house was currently in a habitable state. Your head was now throbbing in pain, but you had to wait for the boy to put the lights on, for you had absolutely zero idea of whether there was a bed in there.
Thankfully, the lights did turn on. Only, they were so dim, you could barely make out the colour of the things you saw before you. Your eyes quickly adjusted to the barely bright light and you were quick to spot a chesterfield ahead of you, to which you practically sprinted without delay.
You undid your holster on the thigh and the one on your bust, which fell to the ground from underneath your dress, then completely let go of your body, crashing on to the dusty chesterfield.
"Ah! Y/n, I'm so sorry! But... It's not clean, let me-"
"It's fine, Doppio," you somehow managed to mumble out the words. "My... Head hurts... Can you let me... Lay here just... For a while?"
He looked at your exhausted form in pity. He couldn't help but smile adorably at you. "Okay, I'll get the water running. Get comfortable."
While walking away from you, Doppio thought he heard a 'thanks', but he noticed that you had already passed out on the dusty couch. Thinking it would be best for you to rest for the time being, he proceeded to walk upstairs to begin taking a shower, and then start cooking something.
The blood flowed into the drain of the bathtub along with the shower waters as Doppio pressed on his wound, grunting as softly as possible. The bleeding had almost stopped note, and he was only attempting to push out dirt from his wound if there was any. He looked at the dust-covered mirror to his side and looked at his body that had been covered in intricate patterns of black ink. The presence of tattoos on his body looked out of place to him. Although the designs complemented his athletic built a lot, his demeanour didn't quite suit them that much. These were supposed to belong to a person far more intimidating - not someone as sober and gentle as him, he thought. That being said, he couldn't even remember when he had it done. The theory that had given to himself was that he had probably been intoxicated when they were done, but the problem with that theory was that such designs would've taken a long time and repeated visits to the artist, and that didn't leave his excuse plausible anymore. As always arriving at no explanation, he once again gave up thinking about it and stepped out of the shower with a towel wrapped around his lower half.
Staring at his wet self in the mirror in his bedroom, he adored the mysterious patterns on his body once again. He took a new fresh towel and began wiping his wet pink hair.
"Where are we?" you mentally asked your stand, who was leading you to a set of stairs that went downwards.
"A pit of darkness," it telepathically spoke to you, "for the souls who belittle others and indulge."
"Indulge in what?"
"Fraud," it stoically responded.
She continued to guide you, and the darkness gradually got more unnerving as you followed her. Slowly, you began hearing screams of agony and whips of something getting beaten. The hair on your body stood up.
"What is that?"
"The cries of the souls that dwell here."
"Why are they screaming?"
Hells Bell turned in your direction, her dark figure sparkling in the thick darkness, with only her big bright eyes glowing straight at you.
"They are getting beaten."
"Why?"
"Because they deserve it."
The cries of the unknown people got louder and louder, until it became unbearable for you.
"When will it stop?"
"Never."
You woke up gasping for air, and took a few minutes to realise that you had fallen asleep with your arm resting on your nose, blocking your airway. You shook your head at your pathetic self and stood up, trying to recollect the recent occurrences.
"You're up?" Doppio peeped out from the kitchen doorway. "I'm preparing a light dinner. You should go and freshen up."
"Yeah, I..." You pressed your forehead, still struggling with the now milder headache, "I'll do that. How long was I asleep?"
"About an hour. So, the house is really tiny, so there's only one bathroom and that's upstairs. I've kept pyjamas and a clean towel on the bed in my room. Feel free to shut the door if you like."
You walked into the kitchen and spotted him all fresh, with a tidily tied up pink braid, stirring up food in the pan. "Your leg?"
"Oh, this? It's fine, I did some dressing. Go and take a shower, Y/n! You need it!" He playfully pushed you and turned you around, chuckling.
"Alright, alright, mom!" You ran away upstairs.
You had been feeling dirty and sweaty from the fight, and he was right, you desperately needed a shower. You quickly shut the door to his room, took the towel from his bed and leapt into the bathroom.
~~~
Her heels clicked rhythmically against the concrete driveway that had been tinged with blood. She approached the dead body of Dharma Pawer, then sighed at the gory sight before her.
"Where are the rest of his men, she questioned the man standing beside her.
"We found just one." Another man walked in, pulling by the collar one of Dharma's henchmen, who was shaking in terror.
The woman caressed his cheek and pushed closer to his face. "What happened here?"
He stuttered in nervousness. "D-Damiano... He got run through with something... I... Don't know how... I saw it happen... But I don't know how..."
"And the other one?"
"He... Started spilling out blood, from everywhere... Every whole in his body... He died choking on blood... No one hit him... I... I don't know how..."
"Stands," the woman muttered to herself, pushing a wisp of dark wavy hair behind her ear. "Where are they now?"
"I... I saw them drive off, that is all. Nothing else..."
The woman walked away and stared at the broken gate. She sighed deeply and began lighting a cigarette to calm her nerves.
"It's going to be hard from here on. We lost them."
"Should we tell them?" The man who had now walked up to her side asked.
"No, they shouldn't be bothered by this. Or it'll be the end of us. Get the car ready, we're meeting Vittoria."
"Sure, Doriane." Without another word, he swiftly stepped away from her.
She huffed out a thick cloud of smoke from her lungs.
"That fucking brat."
~~~
You stepped out of the shower in the towel and eyed the clothes that had been placed by Doppio on the bed. A decent pair of pyjamas and a large white shirt with the face of Mickey printed on it. What adorable tastes for a mafia person, you thought to yourself as you wore the outfit. Scrubbing your hair dry, you unlocked the door from inside.
It must have been the towel on your head that the sounds that you were hearing from downstairs were unintelligible to you. Though you were sure the voice belonged to Doppio, you couldn't quite make out what he had been trying to say. You opened the door slightly to listen to it more clearly, but it wasn't really helping.
"TuuuuuRuRuRuRuRuRuRu!!!"
You took a few steps outside the room, thinking of calling out to the boy and asking him whether he had asked you something?
"Doppio? Did you... Did you s-"
"TuuuuuRuRuRuRuRuRuRu!!!"
Perplexed, you decided to move to the kitchen downstairs to find out what he had been saying.
"TuuuuuRuRuRuRuRuRuRu!!!"
The bizarre call got louder this time then everything went quiet. You continued walking downstairs, lowering one soft step at a time, giving pauses in between to listen carefully.
Mumbles and whispers. That's all you could hear now. Even more unintelligible than before. A few more metres and you'd soon reach the kitchen door. However, for some unexplained reason, you found yourself feeling uneasy and reluctant to peek through the doorway.
The whispers got louder and louder, but you still couldn't make anything of it. Finally, you leapt into the kitchen in a defensive stance, hoping to protect yourself, should anything attack you.
"Oh! You're done? Come, the food's ready too."
You blinked silently at Doppio, who was now taking off his apron and preparing to serve the food at the table.
"You... Okay?" You fumbled with your words. He looked at you and raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, Y/n, the bullet didn't go through my leg. I'm fine."
He came behind you to push you forward. "Here, sit! Gnocchi's getting cold." He took a seat beside you and began serving. "It's funny to see you in my clothes!" He almost flustered at speaking out the comment, to which you laughed.
"Funnier part is that you're huge! How are you so young yet so big?"
"Genes, I guess! Here, this one's yours. There's more."
The quiet dinner in the dusty old house in the woods with minimum lighting around was not the kind of aesthetic you had expected from Vinegar Doppio, a person of the mafia, but it sure did make you feel somewhat comfortable. Somewhat nostalgic even. A part of your childhood where there had been similar situations, not because of ill-maintenance, but because of trouble. Trouble that being in the mafia business none of you could avoid. Now, however, your little family of gangsters had grown so powerful, it didn't have to worry about such petty issues. The truth, however, was that no matter how far you had come from those days, those were still a part of your origins.
Noticing you quietly stare at the surroundings, Doppio nudged you. "Are you alright? I'm sorry, it's not really this dusty. I keep making frequent visits to places, so this place doesn't remain that tidy."
"N-no, it's fine, really. I was just... Well... I'm sorry that you... You had to think that I was betraying you."
He laughed to ease the tension in the air. "I've forgotten about that already, Y/n. I must have freaked you out as well. I'm sorry too."
"Look, just so you know, you don't have to talk about my brother's death yet. I'm still thinking about it, but we can talk once the mission is over. I hope that is fine by you as well?"
The boy gently placed the glass of water on his lips and took a tiny gulp. "Yes, I'm good. I think we should first discuss how much you know about the traitors now."
You nodded in response. "Doppio, it's going to come as a shock if you know about these things, but I'm expecting that you are unaware just as much as me." You took a while to chew up the food in your mouth and continued to speak. "Dharma, er, Damiano, or whatever, he mentioned a name. Solido Naso. Does that mean anything to you?"
Did you see that green flicker in his amber orbs again?
"Solido... Naso... Hmm... I haven't heard of that name. Who is that?"
"Well, apparently it's the boss, but as of now, he doesn't exist. That's what the guy told me."
Doppio frowned his eyebrows and put his finger on his chin. "How could he just choose a random name and claim that it was the Boss?"
"Well, he said that the Boss once had a woman... Uh, I don't know if that was his wife or girlfriend... But there was one. He even has a child. Nobody knows where they are as of now."
He rose from his seat to place his plate in the sink. His shoulders seemed a little tense and you couldn't help but feel slightly uneasy.
"Did he tell you the name of the woman or the child?"
His face was hidden in the darkness as he faced the wall washing his plates in the running tap water.
"Yeah, while I was in that cottage, before you crashed in with your car. Donatella Una, I think. That is all he knew of."
The turning of the tap caused a screech and the water stopped running down. Quiet filled the dark atmosphere of the room. "Hmm. Let's work this further tomorrow, Y/n. You can sleep in my room."
You wanted to object and insist that you would sleep down in the living room on the chesterfield, but some strange and uncomfortable aura emitting from him made you decide not to speak anymore. "My head hurts. I guess I'll get some sleep after all. Good night, Doppio. Thanks for the food."
You left the plate on the table and quickly walked away from the scene, heading for the bedroom upstairs.
Making yourself comfortable on the bed that belonged to the pink-haired boy, you couldn't help but wonder how his sheets were much more softer and sweeter in scent than yours. He was just a young boy, a very messy one too at that. There were so many uncanny things about him, but you were too tired to think about them. You turned in the bed trying to shut down the curious thoughts in you, but noticed a sparkle coming from the dresser, riling up that curiosity even more.
One of the drawers was partially gaping open as it probably had been stuffed clumsily with a lot of articles. You got up from the bed and decided to adjust it up just so that it could shut itself properly.
Ruffling through the contents of the drawer, you noticed the coin-like object, realising where the sparkle had been coming from. It didn't take you long to recognise what was the coin of your gang with the insignia of the wasp on it. You picked it up and smiled, thinking of back then when you had mentioned to Doppio the option of leaving Italy and serving for Passione under you. You didn't know why you had advised him so - he wasn't your family member that you cared about him so much, it hadn't even been a month since his arrival into your life. You barely knew him and he barely knew you. Yet, the worries for his well-being existed in you, and that seemed to have no explanation - so far at least. You placed the little coin back into the drawer and proceeded to push the drawer shut.
But that curious mind of yours; it doesn't seem to get enough of anything, does it?
Kept very far aside from the random things in the drawer, you spotted a bunch of papers kept in a neat stack. They were browned up from ageing, covered in dust, and tattered at multiple places. Without giving a thought, you put your hand in and pulled out the stack that had been flimsily tied up with an old thread, which quickly came off, clattering all the contents to the floor.
~~~
"So, this woman," you spoke to Dharma, who was clicking a few buttons on his phone, sending a text message to someone, "the Boss' wife? How did you find out about her?"
"Ah, Donatella Una, did I mention her name before? Well, let me just say my contacts are very strong, darling."
"And you still can't figure out who the Boss is?" You chuckled in mockery. "Not only that, you can't even tell where she is now."
"She was last spotted in Sardegna." He quickly replied, almost snapping. He turned towards the man standing beside him, gesturing him in a way, who then clicked a few times on the laptop that he held in his hand, then turned the screen towards you. What the monitor showed you was the stoic, expressionless photograph of a woman in thick brown hair parted down the middle, the picture probably taken as a passport photograph for documentation. You almost sneered, then cackled in amusement, unable to stop yourself from the occasional guffaw.
"What?"
You took a while to catch up with your laughter. "I'm sorry, but... If that is the Boss' wife... I have to say, he's got quite the taste! She's a fine woman from what I can see in the picture."
Dharma smirked back at you, enjoying the comment. "I agree! He does have good taste in women! I wonder how she bagged him."
~~~
The clattered papers on the floor were now clumsily scattered. One sheet, in particular, caught your attention; exactly speaking, a photograph. An old one, that had lost most of its colour from the edges, but the main highlights of it had surprisingly remained intact, protecting itself against becoming the subject of the harsh oxidising environment. You kneeled to the floor, carefully picked it up and began examining the contents of the photograph.
"Costa Smeralda"
"1985-6"
You whispered to yourself, reading the little details on the picture, then carefully observing the face of the woman in it. Her unmistakable thick brown hair parted down the middle, her almost stoically placed face, her entire appearance, although very youthful now, still could easily give away the fact that this was the same person that Dharma Pawer had been talking about.
"Donatella... Una..." you uttered the words softly. Thousands of alarms began ringing in your head, thousands of questions began arising in your mind.
Why?
Why was a picture of Donatella Una that was clearly many many years old laying in a corner of Vinegar Doppio's room?
A click of the door startled you and you jerked your body to turn around, but felt a sharp hit behind your neck, causing you to immediately feel all your senses fade away.
Fainting to the ground, you somehow managed to muffle out the words through your barely moving lips.
"Dop... pio..."
~×~
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A/n: Oh Holy hell I've been doing bad. Covid symptoms are getting worse, but at least I can breathe! My sister is doing pretty fine now, but the rest of us are not. I can't smell, I can't taste, and my appetite is gone! I miss food, now......
Oh boy, how are you liking this is far?
Yes I accidentally published the incomplete chapter once again. Loooool I'm so stupid I'm so sorry!
Oh wait hey! So it's currently 3 pm here as I'm publishing this chapter, and this morning around 8 there was an earthquake. I almost peed my pants.
So my life's been getting a lot of action lately, hasn't it? Haha!
Anyway, I'll see you guys next chapter! Stay home, stay safe, take care!!!!