Gods and Monsters (Mafia Romance)

O N E

Alicia's P.O.V.

Whenever I hear a whisper for some reason I'm always so interested in trying to make out what the person whispering, says. I don't know if this is because of human curiosity or because I'm some long lost sister of Gossip Girl, but it's true. Even when I'm asleep, if I hear a whisper I will wake up. Yes, I am a light sleeper too, but this is not the point here.

The whispers coming from right outside my room, besides from waking me up in the middle of the night and creeping the hell out of me, seemed to trigger my interest and curiosity...

Curiosity killed the cat, says Nica, my foster mother, all the time. And satisfaction brought it back, I like to remind her, every chance I get. 

So, quietly I got up from my bed and tiptoed to the door. I could still hear some whispering, but it was impossible to understand a single word. 

Slightly opening the door, to help my eavesdropping just a little bit, was a risk I was willing to take. Worst case scenario, I get caught and pretend that I was only up to go pee or something. Biting my lips in concentration, trying to be as noiseless as possible, I slowly turned the doorknob, and opened the door, so little that it still looked closed. The whispers though, I could now hear them a little bit more clear.

But my victory didn't last long... 

Seconds later, the whispers stopped and all I could hear were footsteps. 

"Sweetheart? Why are you up this late?" 

I was too startled by the sudden open of the door and the foreign woman standing right in front of me, clearly confused, to find the proper words that would answer her question. 

My eyes quickly scanned her whole slim-but-curvy body, her long, wavy, dark brown hair, and her beautiful face, and finally locking with her honey-green eyes. I swallowed hard when I saw her eyes. Their resemblance to mine was insane! 

"I- uh- I-" Was all I managed to say. Good job Alicia. Great job really...

"Were you having those nightmares again?" She gave me the sweetest and most caring smile I had ever received in my life. 

"What?" I finally managed to let out a single word. Barely... 

"Would a bed time story help you sleep again?" Her smile grew even wider and she caressed my hair, as I remained still, watching her. 

"Where's Nica?" I asked her in a muffled voice, after a few seconds that felt like a century.

"Who's that?" She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion once again, but with her sweet expression never changing a bit. "Come on, let's go to my room and read the story, alright? It was just a dream." She took my hand and lead me out of the room, in a hallway of a foreign house.

What's going on?

We reached a door on the other side of the floor, and she opened it, revealing what seemed to be the master bedroom. We stepped inside and she closed the door. 

"Baby, it's you?" Came a man's voice from what I assumed was either the bathroom or the closet... 

"Yeah, Sissi had a nightmare again." She replied. 

Sissi... Why did she call me that? Only my brother and Rosie call me that, because she  used to. But no one else. Not Cheryl, not Kylie, not even Cindy. Only she  did and I don't even remember.

The woman sat on the bed, under the soft covers, and motioned for me to sit next to her. I didn't move. I just stood there, looking around the room. 

It was big with stone-built walls and wooden furniture. It had large windows that covered almost a whole wall, and I could see a balcony outside those windows. I looked for a balcony door but I didn't see any. Probably one of the windows is actually the door... I noticed a baby crib by the other side of the bed and my interest immediately peaked even more.

I started walking towards it, when I heard him again. 

"Princess did you have a nightmare again?" I abruptly turned around, facing the man. He was tall, built up and very handsome. His dark hair was wet, same as his upper body, and he was only wearing a pair of black sweatpants. I opened my mouth to ask a very graceful what the hellbut nothing came out. 

Suddenly noise was heard from downstairs. The woman's face fell as she looked at the man, almost panicking. He on the other hand, looked terrifyingly calm, though his previous friendly and playful expression was now replaced by a serious one. In fact, so serious that I started to panic too. 

"What's going on?" I asked in a small voice, glancing from one of them to the other. 

The woman swallowed hard and gave me what I believe was supposed to be a reassuring smile. It wasn't convincing at all. "I'll go check." She said, getting up from the bed.

She hadn't even made one step though, before the man rushed towards her, grabbed her tightly by the arm, making her gasp in shock, and dragged her further into the room, where they started an intense whispering-conversation.

Meanwhile another noise was heard from downstairs. 

Trying not to panic, with everything going on here, I walked towards the baby crib and glanced inside, seeing a sleeping baby, dressed in white and pink. I couldn't help but smile at how peaceful it looked... 

I have no idea why I put my hand in the crib and very lightly touched the baby's tiny hand with my finger. But, when it unconsciously grabbed my finger and held it tightly like that, my smile grew and my heart melted. 

Unfortunately, that heartwarming moment didn't last long. Noise was heard from downstairs for the third time and I just noticed that the man was not here anymore and the woman was pacing anxiously around the room.

Soon though, the door opened and in walked a little boy, around seven years old, with the man right behind him.

I curiously looked at him, as the woman hugged him, like it was the last time she would ever see him. He looked bizarrely familiar...

"Mom who's downstairs?" the boy asked, rubbing his eyes. He had probably just woken up. 

"Shh! Nobody." she whispered, caressing his hair. "Go sit there with Alicia, alright?" 

The boy nodded and walked towards the bed, where I was sitting as well. He sat next to me and kept looking at his mother as I stared at him, trying to figure anything out. 

"What?" He asked me, annoyed, a few moments later, and I quickly turned my head to the woman, who was now looking for something in the bedside table's drawer. The man was apparently out of the room again.

The woman took something out of the drawer and put it in her robe's pocket, after taking a quick but deep breath. She looked at the boy and I and smiled wickedly, before standing up and walking towards the crib. 

I watched as she took the baby out of the crib and whispered sweet words at it, before kissing its forehead and hugging it tightly. Walking towards the boy and I, she handed the now-awake baby over to her son and took a small medicine bottle and a tissue out of her pocket.

She took a deep breath, reading the small letters in the back of the bottle, and carefully spilled on the tissue a small amount of the content of the bottle. 

The door opened again, and the man walked inside, locking the door and moving a dresser right in front of it, blocking it from opening. The woman looked at him, about to cry and he gave her a small nod, making a few tears come out of her pretty eyes.

"Mommy?" The boy muttered in a small voice.

She quickly rubbed her eyes, stopping the tears and changed her expression, smiling at him. "Everything's fine, don't worry." She caressed his hair. She glanced at the baby in the boy's arms and then at the wet tissue on her hand. She took another deep breath and lightly pressed the tissue over the baby's mouth and nose and held it there for a few seconds.

The baby started squirming and the boy moved it away from the woman, with a confused and scared expression on his face.

"What are you doing?" I asked her, my eyes and mouth were wide open in shock. 

"It's so that she won't cry..." She explained with a weak smile, and caressed the baby, whose eyelids had just started to close. "I want you both to promise me that you'll be very very quiet, okay? You will close your eyes and your ears, when I tell you, and you'll be completely silent!" 

"Okay, I promise!" The boy answered in a small voice and I, not knowing what to do, simply nodded. 

"Good!" She smiled sweetly, got up from the bed and walked towards the man, who was looking for something in the dresser, with his back facing us. 

She put her hands on his shoulders, and he slightly turned his head to face her. They started whispering something, the man still unnaturally calm, the woman anxious and scared, but both of them... determined...

They both turned to face us a couple of minutes later. The boy and I were looking at them the entire time, curious and scared, and the baby was asleep. 

Noise was heard again, but this time not from downstairs. 

The woman took a deep breath and came to the bed, where we were, as the man was standing in front of the closed bedroom door. 

She grabbed a pillow from the bed and took it out of the pillow case. She took a pair of scissors from the nightstand next to her and started cutting the pillow open. Feathers were spread everywhere around it, as she put her hand in the destroyed pillow, looking for something. She finally took her hand out of it, holding something tightly. I couldn't quite see what it was. 

The man looked at her and she nodded. He then left whatever he was doing, by the door, with his back to us and walked towards the windows. He took some sort of remote-control out of his pocket and one of the windows opened, like a door.

The woman took the baby from the boy's embrace and held it. As she walked to where the man was, by the windows. 

A noise was heard again, much closer now than any other time. 

The woman anxiously looked at the man, then at the boy and I. "Come here!" She said lowly and motioned for us to move. 

The boy and I looked at each other, before he finally got up and walked towards them, with me following him. 

They lead us outside to the balcony. The woman opened a small, metallic door on the wall, and where someone would expect to be power cables or water pipes, was actually a small, empty storage-room or cupboard of some sort. 

"Come on, get in buddy." The man helped the boy sit in there and then the woman handed the sleeping baby to him. "Your turn princess." He then told me. I stood there completely stunned. "Come one, you need to get in there too, babygirl." He said sweetly to me, caressing my hair. 

"I'm not getting in there!" I finally muttered. 

What is going on?

"You have to, sweetie! You'll be safe in there." The woman said as well. 

No, I have claustrophobia! 

Footsteps were heard from inside of the house. The woman looked at the man, terrified.

"Alicia get in there right now!" I jumped up with the sudden change in the man's voice, and I quickly did as he said, crawling into the cupboard, next to the boy.

They both knelt to be on our level and the woman kissed the boy's forehead, then the baby's and then mine. Then the man did the same, but I flinched away, when he tried to kiss my cheek. "Please don't be scared of me, princess..." He muttered, caressing my hair. 

I turned to face him again and felt a little bad about the hurt look on his face. But it didn't last long, since I remembered that I still had no idea what was happening and nobody was telling me anything!

"Here, take this. I want you to have it okay? It belongs to all three of you, but I'm giving it to you to keep, alright Sissi? Promise that you will never lose it, it's very important!" The lady gave me a small box, leaving me dumbfounded. "You have to promise me, Alicia! You all will understand when you grow up." She insisted.

"Okay I promise..." What else could I say? 

Someone started banging on the room's door and now voices were heard too. 

"Cara-" The man put his arm around the woman's waist, after taking a quick look into the bedroom. 

She gave him a quick nod and then turned to us again. "Promise that you will always stick together, love and look for each other!" 

The boy and I both nodded. My anxiety was growing way too fast... 

"Good! Now close your ears and and sing our favorite song, but in your mind, not out loud, okay?" She said serious. 

"Whatever happens you stay quiet and –for God's sake- you stay in here, until we tell you otherwise! Just like you promised before, alright?" The man added and the boy and I nodded. 

"We love you so sooo much, don't ever forget that!" The woman said, closing the cupboard's door.

The banging on the door inside became louder and the voices were now yells. I heard the balcony's shutters closing and then the sound the window made when the man opened it with the remote-control before. 

"Close your ears Ali." The boy muttered, crawling closer to me and hugging me. 

I didn't move for a few moments. I heard yelling and loud noises from inside, and then the boy started murmuring the rhythm of a song I knew too damn good. 

I closed my ears and my eyes too, and reached for his hand to hold.

"Αν θυμηθείς τ' όνειρό μου, σε περιμένω να ΄ρθείς.

Μ' ένα τραγούδι του δρόμου, να ΄ρθείς στ' όνειρό μου.

Το καλοκαίρι, που λάμπει τ' αστέρι, με φως να ντυθείς."

(If you ever remember my dreams, I'll be waiting for you.

Singing a street song, you'll come find me in my dreams. 

In the summer, when the stars shine bright, you'll be dressed up in light.) 

(this is not the most accurate translation, I changed it a little so that it would make sense in English)