Dreams & More

A hand reaches for my face.

I can feel the roughness, the calloused fingertips, but its touch is feather-light. Caressing my cheek, making me feel warm and protected.

As I start to relish the sheltered feeling, a finger starts to trail down my cheek to my jaw and continue its journey down my neck.

I feel something again… it’s an alien feeling like my skin has come alive and is dancing to the touch, leaving goosebumps in the finger’s path. I have never felt like this before.

The sensation forces me to open my eyes and confront the source, and that is when I come face to face with those daunting grey orbs, blazing with anger and irritation.

“Run Stray Run!!” as I hear those threatening words, my body bolts into action, and I start running.

I am in a jungle and I run as fast as I can,, towards what I don’t know, but one thing is sure, and that is, I am running away from those grey eyes.

I can hear noises in the background, loud growling, swords slashing, people shrieking. I am trying to run away from those noises, leave them behind. But the farther I go, the louder the noises seem to get. I run in one direction and then another, but the noises keep getting louder and louder.

I can now see the clearing at the Luciano estate. I run faster. Maybe I can go back to my family.

As I reach the clearing, everything goes quiet, the voices have gone, but so have the people. All I could see were lifeless bodies that lay on the ground like withered leaves. It’s a bloody slaughter!

I saw a person standing at the other end of the clearing, facing his back towards me. I started running towards the person. As I get closer, I can see the person. My father was standing there alone, surrounded by friends & family lying lifeless around. His expression is unreadable.

As I reach him, he falls on his knees. And that is when I see Lucifer walking towards him, my father is begging Lucifer to spare his life, but Lucifer continues to stride towards him.

My father takes out his gun, and puts the barrel inside his mouth, and shoots himself.

No!!

I try to open my eyes, but the room is too bright, I find it difficult to focus my eyes.

I know I was dreaming, no, it was a nightmare.

“I think she is conscious. Just give her a minute.”

I am lying on a soft bed in a room, two men are hovering over me. When my eyes meet theirs, they move away, giving way to the figure looming in the background. Set Agosti in person.

And then it all came back to me, it wasn’t a nightmare, it was all real. I had now myself first-hand experienced the terror that was called Lucifer Agosti, and none of the stories that I had heard through the years did justice to him.

He was not just a tyrant, but a legend in his own right. Not only had he killed his father to ascend to the Cosa Nostra throne, but was rumored to have single-handedly killed over a thousand people during the previous mafia wars.

But that is not where the rumors stopped. It was believed that none of the women who spent the night with him survived. Either they did not make it, or he would kill them after the sexual encounter.

The thought made me shiver.

“We won't harm you, little girl, I promise.” Set offered after seeing my frightened expression.

Right, that’s what everyone says.

“If we had to do something to you, we would have done it” he continued, seeing my hesitation. “I do not need to offer my word. Do you think you could have stopped us if we wanted to do something?”

That’s true, no one could have stopped them from hurting me. I believe him, but I still don’t let my guard down, eyeing him cautiously. Not that it would help me anyway, if they decided otherwise.

“Let’s start with your name little girl”, Set demanded.

“Omerta” I replied meekly.

“Really? Come on, tell me your real name. What do they call you?” he was irritated.

“Omerta is my name,” I said again.

He looks at me strangely “Like the oath of Omerta”. I looked at him and nodded. He seems deep in thought for a minute but then shakes it off.

 “Never mind.” How old are you?”

“Seventeen”

“Hmmm… what did they tell you? Do you know why you are here?”

Tears started trickling down my cheeks. No, I didn’t know anything, they didn’t tell me anything.

I just quietly shook my head.

“Your bags were packed and kept in the car trunk. Where did you think you were going?” He continued to interrogate, looking at the corner of the room where my trunk and school bag were lying.

“I I assumed I was being sent to live with my Nana,” I say, barely a whisper, controlling my sobs, no one needs to know the family drama.

“OK.” He says casually, his face is expressionless, he is not easy to read. I know from earlier incidents that he barely gives anything away. In fact, his smile doesn’t mean things are OK. Lucky he is not smiling right now.

“You are expected to just behave, and you will be fine. Don’t do anything stupid, and no one will hurt you. You will be fine.” He warned me.

I don’t think I will be fine, but what option do I have but to follow & oblige? I just nod, not knowing what will happen, and hoping he will keep good on his promise.

“Great! Now that it is cleared, freshen up and then come out. You need to buckle up, we will be landing soon.”

“Landing?” I blurt out, and that is when I scanned the room, I was in. It is a moderate-sized room, with minimalist furniture and two cabin windows that give a view of the entire sky.

Not that I thought about it, but I would never have imagined my first flight to be like this.

“We will be landing in Sicily in the next 30min.”

“Sicily?” We had already left New York, left the United States, I was more afraid about where I was being taken. “But I don’t have a passport.” That is all I blurted out, though I wasn’t sure if it was a bad thing or a good thing that I will be held by an immigration officer in Italy & deported back to the US.

“You don’t need one,” he says, walking out of the room. “Out in five little one!”

After a couple of minutes, I unwillingly stepped out, still holding back my tears. I don’t want to anger anyone, I want to behave so that he can keep his promise. I hope so.

I have never been on a plane, but surely this is not a standard plane layout.

There are a couple of private cabins on the right side of the plane with a corridor on the seats on the left side.

The front of the corridor leads to what looks like an open space with the regular plane seats, while on the other end there is a large cabin with glass doors covered with blinds, next to is another door that is labeled as the powder room.

As I start walking towards the powder room, I hear some weird noises, like slurping or relishing a lollipop, but I ignore them. Just then heard a loud groan.

 By the time I am closer to the powder room, I can also hear a series of rhythmic grunts.

“Ah…… ah…..ah……ah…….ah……ah……ah”

They are coming from the large room at the end, the sounds are accompanied by erratic breathing as if someone is doing vigorous physical exertion.

With each step, the animalistic grunts get faster and noisier, and the breathing more labored, too loud to ignore.

“AH...Ah….Ah…Ah…Ah..ah..ah..ah.ah.ah.ah”

I am right in front of the powder room door, and next to the double doors of the large room. That is when I hear a gagging sound, almost a gag reflex. It’s not as loud as the grunts but it is there, unmistakable. It’s like someone’s choking. Are they hurting someone?

I am standing right in front of the glass door now, and that is when someone opens the shutters partially, just enough for me to see the stormy grey eyes looking at me from the other side.

I want to run & hide, but the grey globes hold my gaze, making me immobile. I don’t know whether I am there for seconds or minutes. I am terrified, but his gaze also makes me feel dizzy.

A soft grunt breaks the spell his eyes have me under, and I take that chance to escape.