They killed my parents, captured my sisters, and broke my brother’s mind before killing him. No amount of pain would be enough for them.
“What do you think?” the voice said. “Your back takes nicely to the whip, but they’re healing a little too well for me. We could switch to the iron, or maybe some jolts of electricity?” I was convinced the man who was torturing me was the Cavetti patriarch himself, Angelo Cavetti. His attempts to lower his voice were fruitless because even if it wasn’t him, he was who I’d blame for my anguish. He jabbed my ribcage hard with an elbow. “Well, speak?”
“I…” My lungs burned as I fought for breath. “I’m g-gonna… ki…” I sputtered out a cough, spewing blood from my lips. “I’m gonna kill y-you. Your chil… children will watch.”
A quiet roar preceded the whip snapping against my back again, followed by a splash of lemon juice. Again and again, until I was shaking with pain. My body began to convulse, despite my begging my muscles not to betray me.
A screaming whine started to sing through my ears and it made me think of Lucia’s screeches down the hallway as she fought to try and save Antonio’s life. If I could have covered my ears, I would have.
It felt like it was coming at me from all angles and the worst part was that it was only the sound. I couldn’t see them, couldn’t get to them, only claw at the door helplessly as my brother died.
Suddenly, there was a sizzle behind me, followed by a dark, cackling laughter. “The iron is nice and hot, and so is the water,” he said. “Iwasgoing to give you a choice, but now I think we’ll just marathon through our options and see what we come up with.”
Footsteps drew closer to me as my heart beat faster and faster. I had so little awareness of anything in my space with my vision waning and the screaming in my ears wouldn’t stop. The body stepped into my fractured field of view, and rough fingers gripped my cheeks. He forced my head back until I was looking directly into his eyes – Angelo Cavetti – the devil himself.
“I’ve just about finished playing around with you, so before I torture you until there’s nothing left of you, why don’t I tell you a little story.” I took a deep breath and forced all the strength from my body into my mouth. I wanted to spit in Angelo’s face so badly, but all I could muster out was a weak dribble, sending my own spit sliding down my chin. “Well, don’t you feel silly for even trying?”
“F-fuck you!”
“Your sisters sure are pretty,” Angelo said. “Those beautiful, thick lips and their slender bodies. I can’t wait to wreck them.” I fought against my chains, trying to do anything to free myself from Angelo’s hold, but nothing would do. There simply wasn’t anything left in me. “Perhaps I’ll use these very chains. Latch them to my bed with the binds that held their brothers in death and pin them down while I do what I want with them.”
“I’ll f-fucking k-k-kill you.”
“I’d love to see you try when you aren’t even going to make it out of this room,” he replied.
He lifted the iron in his hand to my face and I could feel the heat emanating off of it before it even touched my skin. He pressed the button to release steam, sending a cloud of smoke blowing into my face, and I closed my eyes to block it out. The metal surface grew closer and closer to my flesh and I opened my eyes just in time to see Angelo’s smile grow wider.
And then there was a knock on the door.
Angelo seemed prepared to ignore it at first, but then there was another round of knocks, more forceful and demanding. Angelo sucked his teeth in irritation before stepping back from me. He set the iron on a table just out of my reach and walked over to the door. He cracked it, at first, leaning out and quietly murmuring to whoever was on the other side, but then he thundered out.
“What? I’ll do no such thing!”
“Father, see reason,” a voice replied, Romeo’s, with a sense of direction in it. “This marriage is a turning point for us. This is what we fought for all this time, what Gianni wanted. We can’t turn our faces up at it.”
“I see no reason to negotiate anything,” Angelo barked in response. “We have ways of forc…”
“That’s not what this is going to be,” Romeo demanded. “This is the deal we’ve struck. I will see to it with or without you.”
There was a silence that was so tense it permeated all the way over to where I was hanging. There was plenty unspoken in the conversation that they both knew and I didn’t, but it didn’t stop me from memorizing every single word they were saying. If I was lucky, I’d be presented with a chance down the road to leverage what I heard against them, or maybe if Natalia ever made her way back down, I could use it to talk myself out of my cell.
“You had better not be up to something, Romeo,” Angelo hissed.
“What would I be up to?” he said back. “My entire life has been dedicated to building this empire, and with Gianni gone, it’s more important than ever. That is why we must do this. That is why we must give just a little.”
At that, Angelo looked back over his shoulder at me. His glare stabbed into me like a serrated knife, and I was certain it was a look of death. “Fine,” he said without looking back in Romeo’s direction. “When?”
“Within ten minutes,” Romeo replied.
Angelo let out a low growl at that, but still said, “Fine,” and walked away from the door.
He made his way back over to where I was hanging up and reached towards me. Was the torture over? Was he pressed for time now, so my death wasn’t going to be the long, drawn-out torture he was hoping for, but rather a quick snap of the neck to get it over with? Ten minutes - was that when someone would be coming to collect my dead body?
I kept my eyes open and searing into Angelo as he moved, holding his eye contact. He reached above me and started to finagle with my shackles. He freed my right hand first, then my left, sending me crumpling to the ground. The relentless torture had left me without the ability to stand, barely to sit up, but I craned my neck to look up at Angelo.
“You sure are lucky,” he grumbled. “I’d have had you meet the same fate as your brother if it were up to me.”
What?
