Queen Of Killers

Prelude

Prelude

Aliyana Capello Catelli

Present-day

The path to paradise begins in Hell

Dante Alighieri

“Salvatore, I need you. Salvatore,” I scream through the empty church. My heels click on the wooden floors as the harshness of my breath sounds the air with the extent of my madness. My mind reels as I rush down the aisle.

“Salvatore, I know you’re in here,” I yell. His tall form comes from the back door. His black pants and a black shirt with his clerical collar, a stark reminder of all that has happened. The ring on my finger weighs heavily on my hand as I face the man who served me for years, without knowing the demon he chose to protect. His scar stands out as he stops in front of me, intertwining his fingers tightly together.

“It’s been almost a year Aliyana. What did you do?”

I drop to my knees, “It is what I didn’t do. Forgive me, father, for I have sinned,” I say, as my body releases the tightness that has weighed upon it these passing years.

“Oh Aliyana, what have you done?” I look up at the Priest from St Anthony’s church who once served me as a loyal soldier and earned his freedom.

A tear betrays me as I stare into his harsh, unyielding gaze as I once did many years ago. Only then I was a girl touched by the poison of my father and the cruelness of a king. Now I am a queen, wrapped in the robes of hell, soaked in the blood of the innocent and owned by a Venomous King. How far into hell have I fallen?

“Aliyana, tell me.” Salvatore does not know what he seeks when he utters those words. But I look up at the innocent Priest.

“I killed them all.”

There comes a time in life, where even the damned must own up to the truth. There is that moment when we get away from everything. That specific second, where you are standing there and it all hits you. All the lies, the stories you spun, the people you’ve hurt. The ones you betrayed and ruined for absolutely no good reason other than a hope that by doing it your heart will lessen with the pain and maybe tomorrow would be a brighter day. Only it is not the case. I have lived, loved and felt every emotion they taught me not to.

In my 29 years on this earth, I have done things that no sane person could even fathom. My story is not one filled with the love for one man, but the love for many men. A love for a father who always wanted the best for me, even if his ways of showing it were misguided.

I loved him for all that made him. Be it the sliver of goodness that rests in his deep soul, or his thirst for power that caused many to enter the gates of the afterlife. My love for him is... was everlasting, even if he was the snake leading me to temptation.

Then there was the love I had for the 4 boys who grew up with me in Chicago. The brothers I never knew I wanted until they showed me how it felt to belong to something that wasn’t defined by the blood in my veins or the gender that made me. Romero, Michel, Gabriel and Lorenzo were the brothers, who became a part of me until one of them fell and one of them betrayed us.

And lastly, there was the love for two men, both belonging to the Shadows. One set on becoming the most powerful villain of all and the other - who only wished to be with me. But jealousy, hatred, revenge and honor twisted all the goodness and my story became a bitter tale of falling in love with your enemy and honoring your promise to the ones that I swore to protect. My story is no tragedy, nor is it a happily ever after, but it is mine and here I am, still alive, so I can finally tell it.

“Salvatore, I must confess.” I remain on my knees as his fingers unlock themselves and his roughened fingers grip my chin. I lift my head.

“I will listen. Do you promise to confess in all honesty and tell only the truth?” He asks the question he once asked me years ago. Only then I turned away from him, ashamed of all those that I hurt. Now I am no longer haunted by the decisions of my past, I am ready for atonement.

“Yes, I will tell you everything. My confession begins 13 years ago, when we made a pact to take over Chicago, and Elisa Russo was going to be our bait.”

“What was so bad about then?”

I look at Salvatore in his priest attire, a holy man who once almost fell from the crutches of god.

I smile, but it is not happiness that brings the look to my face, more like shame, embarrassment and guilt.

“I lied.”