Mi Amore

The sensation of her phone vibrating on her bedside table had Lilith alert and wide awake from her deep slumber. She stretched and groaned as she tried to shake the tiredness out of her body and then reached over to her bedside table and unlocked her phone and turned off the loud alarm. Feeling excited about getting to see the early morning sunrise, Lilith removed the covers from atop her body and then sat on the edge of her bed and turned on the small glass lamp that was on her bedside table and then quickly grabbed some clothes from her dresser and ran into the bathroom and quickly showered and dressed. Lilith had put in several days ago to have a day off from work, and she was happy that she was finally getting some time off considering the long and tiresome days that she had put into that damn office for the past two years. She had so much that she wanted to do today, and it all started with going on a short hike through the woods of the national park that her parents used to take her and her little brother Jamie to when they were children. Finished with her morning habits, Lilith left her bathroom and went into her kitchen and grabbed a small pink lunch bag and placed it on her kitchen counter and grabbed two red apples out of her refrigerator, washed them and placed them inside the lunch bag. Wanting something salty to go along with her sweet apples, Lilith walked over and grabbed the step stool that she had in her kitchen and placed it in front of her kitchen counter and climbed up it and opened the cabinet and grabbed two peanut butter granola bars out of the large box that they were in and dropped them onto the white marble countertop below. With her salty-sweet stash waiting on her countertop, Lilith got down from the step stool and placed it back where she had originally gotten it from and walked back to the counter and picked them up and placed them in the lunch bag with the apples. With everything inside, Lilith zipped up the pink bag and grabbed a couple of water bottles from the fridge and placed the cold bottles of water on the counter beside the lunch bag. Seeing as it was almost time for the sun to start rising, Lilith quickly went back into her bedroom and grabbed her phone and turned off the lamp and went back into the kitchen and grabbed her items and went over to the front door of her small one bedroom house, and grabbed her keys and wallet from a small light blue painted wooden table that she had painted almost two years ago, and opened her front door and went outside into the semi-dark, early morning light. As she walked towards her black Mazda 6, she saw old lady Swanson in her purple robe, walking her little white toy poodle down the sidewalk. Lilith moved the cold water bottles underneath her arm and with a smile on her face, she called out to the old woman and said. "Good morning, Mrs. Swanson!" The elder woman stopped mid-step and turned around and looked at Lilith and waved back at her and replied. "Well, good morning, Lilith. I see that you're up early this morning. Are you going to go see the sunrise this morning?" "Yes, ma'am. I figured that I would go and enjoy nature for a little while since I have the day off and all." She replied as she unlocked her car and placed her items into the passenger side floorboard. As she closed the passenger's door, she heard Mrs. Swanson speak up again and said. "I hope that you have fun on your little adventure this morning, Lilith. And before you leave can you please come over to my house later? I made some homemade chocolate chip banana bread last night and I have some saved back for you." Just hearing the words 'chocolate chip banana bread' made Lilith's mouth water. She loved that stuff so much, especially when it was toasted and slathered with butter. And it had been years since she had eaten the stuff. Lilith wanted to accept Mrs. Swanson's gift, but she also didn't want to break the diet that she was currently on. After thinking about it for a second longer, Lilith looked to Mrs. Swanson and replied. "Thank you, Mrs. Swanson. I will come by after I get back and pick up the bread." Mrs. Swanson nodded her head in an approving manner and then waved goodbye to Lilith and said. "Alright dear, that will be fine. I will see you then." The older woman said and ended the conversation and then walked away from Lilith and headed down the street with her dog in tow. Once Mrs. Swanson was out of view, Lilith opened the driver's door and got inside and started the car and closed the door, and drove off towards Westville National Park. The long trip was boring at best and she wished that she had invited her best friend, Maddie along for the trip this morning, but she knew that that was out of the question considering that Maddie wouldn't be caught dead getting up at five o'clock in the morning. Wanting some noise to give her a bit of company, Lilith reached over to the radio and turned it on. As soon as she did the sound of Twisted Sister's We're Not Going To Take It, blasted through the speakers at such a loud volume that it literally made Lilith's ears ring. Quickly, she turned the volume all the way down and breathed a sigh of relief and then thought to herself. 'Note to self, the next time that Jamie asks if he can borrow my car, tell him no!' She huffed in annoyance and her ears still rang from the loud rock music and she wished that Jamie was in the car with her, so that she could yell at him for it. After fifteen minutes of contemplating the different ways that she could torture her little brother, Lilith drove through the entrance to the national park and then parked in the parking lot. As soon as she had parked and turned off the car and got out with her things, she could see at least ten black Mercedes, parked near the end section of the parking lot. She thought it was odd seeing something like that here but then figured that there was a family gathering somewhere in the park. Lilith slammed her car door shut and walked over to the park ranger's outpost and rang the little bell that was sitting on the edge of the window sill. Once she had rung the bell, a short, heavy-set man with salt and pepper hair, dressed in a ranger's uniform came up to the window and smiled at Lilith and asked. "Hello, Miss. What can I do for you today?" "I would like to purchase an adult admission ticket, please?" Lilith asked as she pulled the strap of her lunch bag that was sagging down her arm, back upon her shoulder. The older man nodded his head and then turned to his computer and pulled something up on it, and then turned and looked back to Lilith and replied. "Alright, that will be twelve dollars, please." Hearing what the price was, Lilith opened her wallet and pulled out a ten and two ones, and passed it to him through the slot in the window. The older man collected the money and checked to make sure that it was the right amount. As soon as he was sure that it was, he ripped off a red ticket and passed it through the window slot to Lilith and said. "Here you go, Miss. Have a nice time here at the park." "I will," Lilith replied and took the ticket from him and left and went on her way into the park. As she walked through the park, Lilith turned from where the normal area of the park where the playground equipment was and walked into the woods and past the trees. The sounds of the birds chirping, and the low-lying fog gave the forest a sort of ethereal feeling as she made her trek through. About mid-way through the forest, she stopped and took in some of the sights of the flowers and the logs that were near her. She glanced at them for several minutes and then decided to continue on her way towards the cliff's edge that was near to where she was. However, as she got closer to where the cliff was, she heard the sound of yelling and the sound of someone begging for their life. Curious about what was going on, Lilith slowly and gently stepped closer to a tree and hid behind it and peeked around the tree to see what was going on. She thought that someone was injured, but when she got a good look at what was actually going on, she thought she was going to faint, but held that feeling back as much as possible and watched as at least fifteen men stood around in a circle around someone that was laying, crumpled on the ground as the men kicked and shouted at the person. "THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO PEOPLE WHEN THEY PISS OFF VINCENT GAMBINO!" One man screamed to the person that was on the ground and then kicked their head. Lilith gasped with terror as she watched the person on the ground screamed out in pain and then shifted their body to the side. When the person moved their body, it was then that Lilith noticed that it was a young man of Hispanic descent who appeared to be no more than twenty years of age. His face was covered in blood and his eyes were starting to swell shut. Knowing that she shouldn't move, Lilith stood frozen in place at the tree and continue to watch what was going on. As she stood there in silence, she watched as the men almost immediately stopped their attack on the young man, when a large, cleanly shaven man with slicked back black hair, wearing a black suit came near them and said. "Alright, that's enough boys, I think that you have all had enough fun for today. It's now time to take care of this rat once and for all." Terrified, Lilith stood perfectly still and continued to watch the scene that was currently playing out before her eyes. As she stood there in silence, she watched as the men who were once standing around the young man moved away from him and grumbled to themselves as they went. Once the men had walked away, Lilith watched as the large man walked over to the young man with a sense of bravado in every step that he took and then stopped and removed a handgun from his suit pocket and pointed it at the young man. The young man's face paled when he saw the gun pointed at him and panicked, and then yelled out to the other man. "NO! PLEASE. I CAN FIX THIS VINCENT! I PROMISE YOU THAT I CAN. JUST PLEASE GIVE ME SOME MORE TIME!" The man now known as Vincent shook his head in a 'no' response and then said. "David, I gave you all the time that you would have ever needed. And you did nothing to help yourself out except steal from me even more. I'm sorry, David. But I no longer desire your services." Lilith watched as Vincent smirked at David and then watched as he fired a shot from his gun, hitting David directly between the eyes. David slumped to the ground, and it was then that Lilith let out a horrendous high-pitched wail. All the men that were once staring at David's corpse quickly turned towards where Lilith was standing. Realizing that they had seen her, Lilith ran with all the strength that she had left in her body and then heard as Vincent yell out to the men. "BRING ME THAT b***h!" Lilith could hear as she ran the crunching of leaves underneath the men's feet as the continued to chase after her. They tried to catch up to her but failed to do so as they watched as Lilith made it back to the regular side of the park. Knowing that they wouldn't be able to catch up to her without causing a scene, they turned back and started walking towards where Vincent was impatiently waiting on them. But, as one of the men made it to the tree where Lilith had once been standing, he noticed a pink and white wallet and two unopened water bottles on the ground. The man picked up the wallet, leaving the water bottles behind and walked over to where Vincent was currently standing and handed it to him. Vincent stared at the man who had given it to him with an angered and confused look and then asked. "What's this s**t? I thought I told you morons to bring me the girl." The men grumbled their apologizes to Vincent and then the man who had handed the wallet to him spoke up and said. "I think the girl may have dropped that when she ran." He said as he pointed to the wallet in his boss's hand. "It's possible, Brent. Let's see what she has in here for us. Maybe she has something that we can identify her with." Vincent said and unzipped Lilith's wallet and dug around in it until he found her drivers license. He pulled it out and then dropped the wallet on the ground. Vincent smirked as he read the license to himself and then passed it to Brent and said. "Take one of the guys with you and go to this address and bring that b***h back to my place, and make sure that she talks to no one. We don't need anyone knowing about what happened here." "Sure, boss. No problem." Brent replied as he took Lilith's license from Vincent and put it in his shirt pocket and then turned away from him and picked out someone to go with him. Happy that he was going to make sure that the little bird wasn't going to sing, Vincent turned back to the other men and said. "Clean this mess up and make sure that you leave nothing behind. And while you are at it toss David's body off the cliff. I'm pretty sure that the wolves will love him as a snack." Finished giving out orders, Vincent turned from the scene and lit up a cigarette and watched as Brent and the man that he had chosen to help him out, went to go find Lilith.