The Hitman and His Consort

Special Episode III: Childhood Days

Third person P.O.V:--

Once Aura got back to the manor, she took a moment to rest her head against the steering wheel as Diana and Denis’s cries got louder, filled with confusion and fear all three of them were frozen in their seat with tears streaming down their faces. Aura punched the steering wheel multiple times, filled with rage and self-loathing.

“Tía Aura… where did Valya go?” Denis asked, he knew something was off in the air and how Aura acted proved her right, Valentin’s absence sent a very unnerving chill down his spine that it churned his stomach to the point it made him want to puke, but even with that.

His sense of responsibility as the oldest was tested as he ran over a million thoughts in his head, he’s only a child but somehow he knew just how much his world would be shaken without knowing the complete details of what happened, how could such a thing happen? He thought that something really terrible must’ve occurred for them to lose Valya.

And upon flicking through possible conclusions, one thing made sense to his 11-year-old brain: Valya was taken from them by bad guys, that his little brother will end up getting hurt. He could hardly feel Diana’s tight grip on him nor her trembling body as she cried. His world went numb, like he was underwater.

Aura finally gathered the courage to leave the car and open the doors for the kids and carried both Denis and Diana on each arm, running inside the mansion and dropping the kids once they entered the house, “Climb up and back to your room,” Aura whispered, her voice breaking as more tears streamed down her face.

Denis nodded as he held onto Diana’s hand and led her upstairs. Denis didn’t notice it then, but the moment they entered the wooden doors, members of the gang already had their eyes glued on their sullen faces and the smiles melted the second they didn’t see a glimpse of the middle child.

So while Denis leads her little to her bedroom, Aura was walking through the silent and heavy atmosphere of the manor, one of the gang members, Lucia, walked towards her, “… Aura, what happened?” she bellowed, her voice also croaking once she received her the answer to her question after looking at Aura’s face, they didn’t need to exchange words.

Lucia, nor the others within earshot, didn’t want to materialize the words, but it doesn’t make the matter more bearable. Mere seconds passed and Vanessa burst out of the kitchen, a look of disbelief plastered on her face but one gaze at the room and it immediately became crestfallen.

“Aura…” she trailed off, taking large strides towards the woman.

Aura sobbed and bit her lip as she turned away, “He was taken…” she whispered.

The others' heart rates picked up collectively as the weight of those words burdened them it felt as if their heart sunk, Vanessa’s jaw clenched and her whole body trembled, it felt as if her world collapsed in a split second and for a millisecond, her voice got caught up in her throat.

“Everyone take a car, scour the f*cking city,” she ordered in a stiff and dark tone, the others couldn’t act any faster as they practically ran to the garage to follow her instructions, and as the others left Aura also took a few steps to do the same but Vanessa grabbed her shoulder, making her stand still on her spot.

“Not you… Aura, what the f*ck happened? Who took my child?!” she roared, her voice resonating in the whole manor, making Aura cower in fear and shame,

“I…It happened so fast that I—“ Aura began but she was cut off by a squared punch to her jaw, she could only cry and think that a single punch wasn’t enough, knowing that she deserved more for putting Valya in such a dangerous and life-threatening situation, silently whimpering.

“How could you let this happen?! He was with you! I trusted you—Valya trusted you!” Vanessa followed, her voice cracking with the strain on her throat, and yet she still couldn’t express the worry, pain, and fear that was coursing through her veins. It made her knees buckle.

“Get out… I don’t ever want to see you again, unless you find my son and bring him back yourself,” Vanessa spat.

Aura nodded, her lips quivering and her movement dull, running out of the manor and onto her motorcycle. She can cover more ground with that and what’s important now is to track that van and find Valya. It doesn’t matter if it’s her who finds him, she just wants the boy to be found. She’s already proven that she’s not worthy to be part of the Madre Maria.

While back inside the manor, the small hands of Denis gripped the staircase railing, his tears flowing out like waterfalls as he watched the scene, overwhelmed with emotions he can’t even name, buried under the suffocating cloak of ignorance. Feeling more and more powerless as he watched his mother collapse and brought to her knees, uncontrollably sobbing and calling out his brother’s name.

For the first time ever in his life, feeling the violent waves of guilt consuming his small body.

“Mama?” he called out, the first time in all his 11 years of living did he hear his voice echo in the Hacksaw family’s lounge, Vanessa panted as she slowly looked up the staircase, pulling herself up and walking up to hold his eldest son’s small body,

“Yes, my love?” she replied, wiping the tears from her cheeks and sniffing as she gave Denis the most confident smile she could muster.

Denis didn’t buy it, the face his mother put on didn’t radiate any confidence whatsoever, “Mama, where’s Valya now?” he asked and Dina bit her lip, shaking her head trying to blink away the tears welling up in her eyes, stroking Denis’ hair back,

“We don’t know, but don’t worry, he’ll be back soon,” she assured, wiping her son’s tears off his cheeks, sniffing as she did,

“Then why is everyone crying?” he asked, leaving Vanessa’s mouth agape, not so sure what to reply to put her son’s heart at ease. Yet she tried to keep smiling.

“We just… we just miss him so much already, do you miss him too?” she asked and Denis nodded.

“Will he come back soon?” Denis followed, and Vanessa nodded with a big fake smile.

“Of course, your father is coming home today, right? He’ll be sad if he didn’t see ‘beard man’,” she said, using Valya’s words of endearment to try and lighten up the situation, finally latching onto a small and thin line of hope and ease that his little brother will come back just fine, believing his mother’s words despite knowing it’s all a lie.

Every member of the Madre Maria scoured the city, not even minding that there was no one left back in the Hacksaw manor, all they were thinking about is finding their leader’s son, not even knowing where to start.

Lucia, second in command, pulled out the radio that each of the sector leaders has to keep in contact with. “This is Lucia, Aura, I need you to tell me everything, over.” She ordered,

And from the other side of the city, the woman in question pulled over in the alley where she caught up with the abandoned van, looking around and ignoring the weird looks the passersby threw at her, she placed the radio’s receiver close to her mouth, “They took Valya at the bakery and got away with a van, but they abandoned the vehicle, it’s in front of the bookstore close to the red building, over” she described,

They already know what location she’s trying to pinpoint but Lucia debated whether she should inspect an abandoned vehicle or start looking around the area instead, “Okay, I’ll be there, Constance, Barbara, and Eufemia, do you hear me?” she said before calling onto other sector leaders,

“Yes, ma’am,” Eufemia answered,

“Yes,” Eufemia followed,

“Sí,’ Constance also replied,

“Good, I want you to lead searches on foot in that area, the others continue searching in the cars and cover farther distances create a border that intercepts any vehicle leaving the city how you do it doesn’t matter, just get it done, my team will track where that van came from and who used it, copy?” Lucia directed and the others in the line affirmed as they go to their respective roles.

Lucia clenched her jaw and drove to Aura’s given location, the rest of her team patient but determined to finish this mission.

And while a whole criminal syndicate was losing their sh*t looking for a missing boy, that said boy was in a cold damn warehouse somewhere far from the city. Wrists, ankles, and knees bound, lying unconscious as the musty air made it hard for him to breathe, a cut on the right side of his nose just right under his eyes, a wound he got from trying to scuffle and fight his abductors.

The boss of the men that abducted him watched over his serene, sleeping face. Smoking a cigar made the air heavier than it already is.

Raphael Georgio.

A man with an unforgiving and merciless drive and ambition, an uprising businessman who’s determined to get rid of his biggest competition,

“This is their kid?” he asked, frowning at the white streak of hair on the child’s forehead, not the least bit convinced.

“Yes, boss… one of the members has him with them when they went to the bakery,” one of his men replied and he shook his head and scoffed, grabbing the said man’s collar, gesturing at the sleeping child.

“Tell me, does that look remotely like the Hacksaws?” Raphael hissed, about to burn his men’s face with the cigar he was smoking, but before he could, another man steps up to answer.

“Boss, that’s their son, they’re adamant about that even when everyone knows that the kid doesn’t have a single strand of Hacksaw blood in him,” he defended.

Raphael shoved the man he gripped by the off away and tugged at his coat, sighing with a shrug, “Then I guess this is their kid… they probably won’t miss an adopted child as much as the real one but this could work,” he said, turning to face his men,

“I guess all that’s left now is babysit him for a bit, and then we’ll reach out to the Hacksaw, see how much they’ll give for this little sh8t and if it’s not enough…” he trailed off, spreading his arms wide as did his smile,

“Then I guess we’ll take another little s**t,” he said and laughed after, his men joining in as they filled the warehouse with devious celebration.