Chapter 3

Nyla POV 

I took one shaky footstep back and dropped to the floor, my legs unable to hold my weight beneath me.

Then it came,the loud scream.

Sharp, heartbreaking,piercing and rawly painful.It tore through the hallway like a very sharp  blade, and I immediately knew who that voice belonged to.

 It was Isla!.

I sprang up,my body reacting even before my brain did. Every nerve screaming, every instinct telling me to run very far but my heart kept  dragging me forward. I ran towards the dining room,my dress catching on my heels which were clicking hard onto the marble floor.

No no no it can't be what I'm thinking,my mind refusing to process what I already knew deep down.

The moment I stepped past the arched doorway, the world shattered before me.

Gunshots.

The room was in a mess of screams and broken glass. Plates shattered, chairs knocked over, blood soaking the silk tablecloths.The violins were silent now,the strings were sliced cut, their players laid dead on the floor covered in blood. Blood stained the floor in wide horrifying strokes.And then I saw them.

Uncle Sal laid quietly with eyes shut.

Father collapsed at the head of the table, a bullet wound in his chest,one hand was still gripping his wine glass like he didn't have enough time to react to it.

Mother lay beside him, half-slumped over her chair, her arm stretched protectively toward Isla, who was….

No. No.

Isla’s eyes were still open, wide and glassy with tears, her perfect blue dress was now soaked in red.She gave me a painful smile,and my heart ached painfully. 

I swallowed hard at a lump in my throat,my scream caught somewhere between my throat and my heart. I wanted to run to her. Shake her. Scream her name until she blinked and said something sarcastic. But my body wouldn’t move. I was frozen in place.

Then, terrifying Footsteps, followed by shouting.

I hid quickly behind the tall curtain near the hallway, just as three masked men entered the room with guns in hand and boots tracking blood as they moved, making sure no one survived.

One of them turned toward the bodies and casually stepped over Isla. 

I winced at the sight painfully and silently,that’s when I saw it.

His sleeve rolled up as he adjusted his grip on the weapon and there it was.

A black crest tattooed on his forearm. Sharp edges. Golden coloured snake with a  dagger coiled through its mouth.

The Valenti family's crest.

I knew that symbol. I’d seen it once when Father pointed it out in an old ledger. Enemies, every last one of them, he had  said back then, they were rivals.They had come for us and succeeded.

I stayed silently as they continued examining the bodies,and when they were done,they turned and left.

I clamped a hand over my mouth as tears burned down my cheeks, my heart thudding so loud I thought they would hear it even as they've left already. My mind screamed for me to run.

I turned to flee,a faint noise interrupted and I  froze again.

“Nyla...”

I turned around.

And there he was,barely alive. Barely breathing….

Father.

His eyes were half-lidded, blood pouring down his shirt. He met my gaze with more pain than I had  ever seen in a man who once terrified entire cities.

“Go,” he whispered,his voice cracking like dry earth. “Run and don’t look back.”

“Dad…” My voice came out raspy.

He tilted his head weakly. “They will kill you...Don’t let them see you.”And then his eyes slid shut.

Something in me shattered so violently that I almost  collapsed all over again,but I ran instead, down the corridor away from the bodies,away from lives that had just been wiped out like it meant nothing at all.

There,just behind the old study room ,I threw open the small wooden panel hidden behind the bookcase and crawled into the tunnel Father once showed us  when we were little.

Only for emergencies, he had said back then.

The secret passage was narrow and cold, the air was  thick with dust and plain silence. As I crawled through it, the final sounds of my old life echoed behind me, gunshots, footsteps… and silence.

Did they come back after I left?I didn’t look back,I couldn't even if I wanted to because if I did, I may never be able to leave.

The tunnel threw  me out somewhere on the far edge of the mansion,through a rusted iron grate behind the old vineyard wall. I crawled out into the cold night, breathless, bloodied, and barefoot.

My feet ache with every step on the gravel road, but I kept moving regardless, one aching leg in front of the other taking steady steps. 

The mansion was far behind me now, but the smell of blood still clung to my skin like a scent I couldn't run away from.

I didn’t know where I was going. I just knew I had to stay hidden,stay safe.

My flare dinner gown which was once white,was now  torn and streaked red at the hem. My hair stuck to my face with sweat. My ribs hurt from crawling, from crying, from everything.

The street was empty with silence pressing in from every angle.Then,a hand suddenly yanked me back.

I gasped in shock, my heart thudding in my chest.Was this one of them? Did they find me so soon?

“Let me go….don’t touch me!”

“Shhh!” a voice whispered harshly, low and urgent. “Stop moving,you’re hurt!”

It was a man,a stranger in dark clothes,hoodie  up.Sharp grey eyes even in the dim night light.

I  struggled  again fighting him off,but his grip on mine was tougher,panic washed through my veins not  until I saw the look on his face.

Calm,concerned, he didn't want to hurt me,he was probably wondering why I was walking looking like this.

I stiffen in confusion.