The first few minutes are completely awkward. The six of us stand stiffly as everyone doesn't really know what to say.
When my own father looks uncomfortable, then shit is real.
Dante being Dante, he casually says, "How's everyone doing?"
Dante and I are sharing a seat on a bed. I am currently bandaging his shoulder. I stop as everyone, including me, stares at him.
"Figures," Tony coughs.
Still, Dante does break the tension a bit. My dad looks straight at me, "Can I have the Key?"
"Sure," I hand it to him. I kind of figured somebody would ask so I took it out as we entered the tent. Speaking of the tent, I feel like I'm in Harry Potter's tent where it's charmed to look bigger on the inside. When I entered before with Jacob, we were in a hurry so we paid more attention at his laptop than anything else. Now, I notice everything. It's a lot bigger than I expected. Plus, he has electricity somehow installed within the tent. There is no carpeting or anything super fancy, but the tent has a lot of furniture.
My dad glances at the Key for a minute before giving it to my mom. She loops it on a chain and wears it around her neck. She makes sure to tuck it underneath her clothes.
"What are you going to do with it?" Tony and I ask the same question.
"What we should have done from the beginning." My mom says vaguely.
"Like what? Destroy it?" I wonder. I've grown to ask many questions. I'm no longer the obedient, shy daughter. I have a mind of my own. I'm sure my parents and siblings see that too.
My parents exchange a quick look before my mom responds,"You must have wondered where this Key even came from and how it was made. Yes, someone from Gio's bloodline created the Key. Anyways, there hasn't been any ruckus over the Key until now. I'm sure you would like to know why."
We wait.
"The Skeleton Key has always been a closely guarded secret of the Ricca Family. That is, until Leonardo, your uncle, divulged the secrets to the Acerbi Family. The head of the Ricca Family holds the Key, and obviously, Leo was upset over the fact he was not made the Head..." she continues, but what she says I already knew. However, judging from my siblings' expressions, they did not know the whole story behind it. I cannot read my father's expression, but I assume he knows everything too.
"Anyways, we are going to throw the Key inside the vault. That has been the best decision we can think of." My father sighs. "We know what we are doing. Yes, there are information, secrets, and weapons that could be useful. Yet, those will also be dangerous and be our downfall. Plus, I know a person or two who has poured over almost all the information, so that knowledge is not lost." His eyes land on me when he says that.
Okay, I may or may not have lied about not reading everything inside the vault. Well, almost everything. I have a life, and reading dusty old books and files is not the greatest thing to do. I have learned some very interesting things though from my last session. Still, there is not a single file on the Acerbis, well nothing recent and of use. There are some good information, but I kind of already knew.
All the information stops at a certain year, a year that has always bugged me.
I may or may not have failed to mention that I have eidetic memory. Well, it's more of a semi-photographic memory. I can remember and memorize almost everything that I read. I don't have any autobiographical or experiential memory ability where I can start describing what I did at the age of two. I just have the tendency to remember and recall information I have seen and read, but it's not always 100%. For instance, when I was learning that stupid Computer Science class, I knew everything I could based off the text, but that did not mean I understand it completely with all its programming and etc. Yet, for econ it is quite simple since all I need to do is read and regurgitate.
However, I never told a single person, not my family or Pearl or Sky.
I really don't know why, but it's just been my little secret. The one secret I always liked to keep to myself.
"Who?" Dante's curiosity totally perks his entire body.
"I'm sure the person would like to keep his or her identity a secret." My father responds.
"Who updated all the information in the vault? And what about the weapons?" From all the time spent there, I never did see any weapons.
"The weapons are better left there."My father states. "Also, the information was updated by me."
"What?" I blurt.
"Well, all the information is taken care of by the head of the family. I have to personally deliver it with the Key. Also, there is a committee or organization that does the researching and everything." He says. Now, this is all new news to me.
That must be why all the information stopped when I took the Key.
"So that's it then? Throw the Key back where it came from and all is well?" Tony says with an incredulous look.
"Well, Key or not, Alfredo Acerbi wants to be the Capo de tutti capi." My mother interjects.
"He wants to be the Mafia Boss of the strongest Family? Isn't he already? i mean, Acerbis have wiped out the other mobs. Even our strongest links." I whisper to Dante, who is sitting to my right.
"Well, we are still the strongest." Dante whispers in reply.
"I guess." I sigh. I think about all the casualties. "It sure does not feel like it."
"Where have you been?" Tony asks mom.
"I've been gathering connections and intel." She indirectly answers the questions, though not completely.
"And what did you learn?" Leo finally speaks.
"We have world-wide connections," she nods. "they are all willing to help. The intel is not as useful for our current situation-" she pauses as her cell phone buzzes. My parents glance at the screen before saying, "we must go."
They leave abruptly.
"What the hell?" Tony grimaces. "They always treat us like that."
"Well, i'm sure whatever has come up is important." Leo says, but he sounds doubtful.
"Whatever." Dante rolls his eyes.
We exit the tent and glance at the destruction all of us participated in.
"You know what I don't understand?" I frown.
"What?" Tony asks.
"No, nevermind." I change my mind.
"So...what are we going to do with them?" I ask. Everyone glances toward the group of hostages.
"Kill them, torture them. Take your pick." Dante shrugs.
"Ouch." I jump back.
"I didn't do anything!" Dante raises his hands in defense.
"Your cold heart has burned me. You're worse than Alfredo." I overexaggerate.
"Don't compare me to that douchebag." Dante scoffs. "I'm better than him."
"Not when you so coldly disregard the hostages as humans." I point out rather heatedly.
"And this is why your hands have always been so clean." Dante rolls his eyes. "That soft heart will get you killed."
"Now, now..." Tony comes between us. "Family don't talk like this against each other. Unless, you forgot you guys are family?"
"What's your problem?" I shout angrily as I look over Tony's shoulder at Dante.
"You want to know what's my problem?" He shouts as furiously towards me.
"Dante Romio Ricca! Vivianna Shay Ricca!" Leo raises his voice sharply. We gulp and stare down at our feet, embarrassed.
"Really!" He shakes his head. "You really want to start this right now? Now, of all times?" We wince a bit.
Leo runs his fingers through his usually well-kept hair. His hair is now kind of floppy and makes him look years younger. I bite my lips to prevent myself from giggling at his hair. Seriously, it's usually slicked with gel and combed nicely but right now it's quite hilarious.
"Do I have to tell you two rugrats to apologize?" Leo looks at us.
"Sorry sis. I don't know what came over me. I guess I'm more out of it from the fighting and stress and whatever and yeah...." Dante sighs.
"I'm sorry too. We kind of provoked each other." I try to give him a fast hug because of both of our stenches. However, he hugs me tightly, making me almost faint from the smell. "Nice english you got there..."I gasp in haggard breaths as soon as he lets go of me.
"I has great English." Dante grins.
By the time our little spat is solved, the hostages are gone. I'm pretty sure I know what they are going to do with them. The poor souls.
"Where are the 'rents?" I search for their familiar faces.
"Inside." Tony replies as he polishes his guns.
I frown at the death and destruction pretty much everywhere.
"Spring cleaning!" Dante chirps.
I only shake my head at his morbid sense of humor. The four of us head back to what is left of our house and try to clean it up a bit. However, after a few minutes we give up from the amount of work we need to do.
We take off our protective gear. My brothers take off their dirty clothes and start stripping into their boxers.
"Leo!" I shout over and point at his back. "You're bleeding." That catches the attention of Dante and Tony too. There isn't a lot of blood but it's certainly noticeable.
"Oh, that explains why my back is sort of sore." Leo frowns as he lifts up his white tank top. It's luckily not soaked completely through.
"Oh it's just a bullet wound, a shallow one too," Leo shrugs.
"Shallow or not, you need to get it treated." I grab his elbow as we head to the infirmary. Well, the ballroom to be exact since we did not have enough space in the infirmary.
"I can treat myself, you know." He rolls his eyes at me.
"did you just roll your eyes at me?"
"Of course not, my dear sister." An innocent smile crawls onto his face.
"Fine, Mr. Big Boy." I push him slightly ahead. "Do what you think is right." I huff.
"Sheesh, someone is in a bad mood." Leo mutters under his breath before walking away. I choose not to reply.
I need some quiet me time. I sigh in relief as I enter my bedroom; it's intact. The first thing I do is grab fresh clothes and take a nice and much needed shower.
****
The knots and aches in my body hits me hard, but the shower helps a lot. The fresh clothes feel heavenly on my skin. It's great to wash the grime away from my hair, skin, and nails. Gosh, sweatpants are also the greatest thing to ever exist.
As soon as I exit my bathroom, I instinctively take my gun out and point it at the person in the room.
"Sheesh, you gave me such a fright." I lower the gun as soon as I realize it's just my mom.
"What are you doing here?" I ask her and pocket the gun. "I thought you had some important thing to do."
"We should probably talk some more. I haven't seen you much since I dropped you at Elite." Her eyes shine sadly.
"We've done a lot of talking recently. Yes, I know not one-on-one with you. Still, I'm tired and drained from today. As much as I would like answers, I must ask you to talk with me another time? Sorry." A huge yawn escapes to prove my point.
"Alright. It's fine." My mother stands up from my bed and pecks me on my forehead. I am surprised we are now the same exact height. It's a bit weird.
"You grew." She gasps a little. Her eyes tear up a bit. Gosh, she was always the more emotional one.
"Yeah, I guess all that milk helped." I chuckle. I absolutely love milk.
"I guess it did." She pats the top of my head before exiting.
Ahhhhhhh. I let out a nice sigh as I crawl into my bed. It doesn't take long before I fall asleep.
________________________
A/N
I know, it's short :P
This is just an aftermath, relaxation chapter.
Get ready for the date hehe
And thank you guys for all your comments, support, votes, reads, etc etc !!
I can't believe I managed to hit #1 in Action no matter how short the duration was!!!!!!!
Really, THANK YOU!
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*Also, this week is the last AP week. 1 down, 3 more to go! Who's taking Gov, Econ, or Stats AP! Good luck to everyone taking APs.
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<3 you guys, bye!