Prologue
720 Words
The Night the Sky Burned
The rain began just before sunset.
By nightfall, it had become a relentless storm, washing over the hills that surrounded the Moretti Estate.
Lightning tore through the sky, casting fleeting shadows across the sprawling mansion where music and laughter drifted into the darkness.
Inside, the grand ballroom glowed beneath crystal chandeliers.
Members of the Moretti family filled the room in elegant evening attire.
Business associates, politicians, and close friends raised their glasses in celebration of Don Antonio Moretti's sixtieth birthday.
To the guests, it was a night of joy.
To fate, it was the beginning of a m******e.
Seven-year-old Isabella Moretti sat on the marble staircase, her legs tucked beneath her as she watched the adults dance.
She loved watching her father laugh.
It happened so rarely that every smile felt precious.
Across the room, her mother caught her eye and smiled.
"There you are," she said, walking over. "I've been looking everywhere."
"I was watching Papa."
"And what did you discover?"
Isabella grinned.
"He smiles more when you're beside him."
Her mother laughed softly and kissed her forehead.
"You're far too observant."
Before Isabella could reply, her father crossed the room carrying two slices of cake.
"I've been betrayed," he declared dramatically.
Her mother raised an eyebrow.
"Oh?"
"I asked the chef for a slice."
He held up the second plate.
"He insisted your daughter would never forgive me if I ate cake without her."
Isabella giggled and accepted the plate.
The three of them stood together, sheltered from the world beyond the mansion walls.
For a moment...
Nothing else existed.
Then every light in the ballroom went out.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Confused murmurs spread through the guests.
A heartbeat later...
An explosion shattered the front gates.
The blast shook the entire mansion.
Glass rained from the windows.
Women screamed.
Children cried.
Another explosion followed.
Then came the unmistakable sound of automatic gunfire.
The celebration dissolved into chaos.
"Everyone down!" someone shouted.
Guests threw themselves behind tables as armed figures burst through the entrance.
Faces hidden.
Weapons raised.
The first shots echoed through the ballroom.
A violin crashed onto the marble floor.
A chandelier swayed violently overhead.
Someone pulled Isabella behind the staircase just as bullets tore through the room where she had been standing.
She searched desperately for her parents.
"Mom!"
No answer.
"Dad!"
Smoke filled the air.
The smell of burning wood spread through the mansion.
People ran in every direction.
Some never made it.
A hand suddenly grabbed Isabella's wrist.
It was her father.
His white dress shirt was stained with blood.
Not all of it was his.
He knelt in front of her, gripping her shoulders with trembling hands.
"Listen to me."
His voice was calm.
Too calm.
"No matter what happens... you keep running."
Tears blurred Isabella's vision.
"I don't want to leave you."
He smiled.
The same warm smile she had loved since she was old enough to remember.
"You won't."
He slipped a small silver locket into her palm and closed her fingers around it.
"Protect this."
Before she could ask why, another volley of gunfire echoed through the hallway.
Her father's expression changed.
He looked past her.
At someone approaching.
Without hesitation, he pushed Isabella behind the grand piano.
"Stay hidden."
She crouched in silence, clutching the locket so tightly it hurt.
Heavy footsteps echoed across the marble floor.
They stopped only a few feet away.
Through the narrow space beneath the piano, Isabella saw polished black shoes.
Then a gloved hand.
Lightning flashed through the shattered windows.
For the briefest instant, silver caught the light.
A signet ring.
Engraved with the head of a wolf.
Before she could look any closer, part of the ceiling collapsed with a deafening crash.
Dust and smoke swallowed the room.
Strong arms lifted her from the floor.
She struggled.
She screamed for her parents.
No one answered.
Wrapped in a dark coat, Isabella was carried through corridors filled with smoke and fire.
The rain poured through the broken roof.
Flames climbed the walls.
The mansion that had once been her home disappeared beneath the growing inferno.
As the gates faded into the distance, she looked back one final time.
The sky above the estate burned orange against the storm.
She closed her eyes.
And the darkness took her.
- Writer
