Dreams & More

Dreams & More

A hand reaches for my face.

I can feel the roughness, the calloused fingertips but its touch is feather light. Caressing my cheek, it makes me feel warm and protected.

As I start to relish the sheltered feeling, a finger starts to trail down my cheek to my jaw and continuing its journey down my neck.

I feel something again… it's an alien feeling, like my skin has come alive and is dancing to the touch leaving goosebumps in the finger's path. I have never felt like this before.

The sensation forces me to open my eyes and confront the source, and that is when I am come face to face with those daunting grey orbs, blazing with anger and irritation.

"Run Stray Run!!" as I hear those threatening words, my body bolts into action, and I start running.

I am in a jungle and I running as fast as I can, towards what I don't know but one thing is sure and that is I am running away from those grey eyes.

I can hear noises in the background loud growling, swords slashing, people shrieking. I am trying to run away from those noises, leave them behind. But farther I go the louder the noises seem to get, I run in one direction and then another, but the noises keep getting louder and louder.

I can now see the clearing at the Luciano estate, I run faster. Maybe I can go back to my family.

As I reach the clearing everything goes quiet, the voices have gone but so have the people. All I can see is lifeless bodies that lay on the ground like withered leaves. It's a bloody slaughter!

I see a person standing at the other end of the clearing, facing his back towards me. I start running towards the person, as I get closer, I can clearly see the person. My father is standing there alone, surrounded by friends & families lying lifeless around. His expression is unreadable.

As I reach him, he falls on his knees. And that is when I see Lucifer walking towards him, my father is begging Lucifer to spare his life, but Lucifer continues to stride towards him.

My father takes out his gun, and he puts the barrel inside his mouth and shoots himself.

No!!

I try to open my eyes, but the room is too bright, I am finding it difficult to focus my eyes.

I know I was dreaming, no it was a nightmare.

"I think she is conscious, give her a minute"

I am lying on a soft bed in a room, two men are hovering over me. When my eyes meet theirs, they move away giving way to the figure looming in the background. Set Agosti in person.

And then it all came back to me, it wasn't a nightmare it was all real. I had now myself first-hand experienced the terror that was called Lucifer Agosti, and none of the stories that I had heard though years did justice to him.

He was not just a tyrant, but a legend in his own right. Not only he had killed his own father to ascend to Cosa Nostra throne but was rumoured to have single-handedly kill over 100 people during the previous mafia wars.

But that is not where the rumours stopped, it was believed that none of the women who spent the night with him survived. Either they did not make it, or he would kill them after the sexual encounter.

The thought made me shiver.

"We wont harm you little girl, I promise." Set offered seeing my frightened expression.

Right that's what everyone says.

"If we had to do something to you, we would have done it" he continued, seeing my hesitation. "I do not need to offer my word. Do you think you could have stopped us if we wanted to do something?"

That's true, no one could have stopped them from hurting me. I believe him but I still don't let my guard down, eyeing him cautiously. Not that it would help me anyway, if they decide otherwise.

"Let's start with your name little girl" Set demanded

"Omerta" I replied meekly

"I Know your being offered as Omerta, but I want your real name. What do they call you?" he is irritated.

"Omerta, is my name." I say again

He looks at me strangely "You have been named as a tribute from birth, look at the irony" I look at him confused, what does he mean named as a tribute

"I am guessing you know that your name derives from the oath, but it also means a tribute that you pay as a show of loyalty & duty. Like you pay a tribute out of honour and loyalty by staying silent with authorities and all that." One of the men in the back offers.

Well it doesn't matter, does it.

"Never mind" Set shakes his head, agreeing with me. "How old are you?"

"Seventeen"

"Hmmm… what did they tell you? Do you know why you are here?"

Tears start trickling down my cheeks, no I didn't know anything, they didn't tell me anything.

I just quietly shake my head.

"Your bags were packed and kept in the car trunk. Where did you think you were going?" He continues to interrogate, looking at the corner of the room where my trunk and school bag are lying.

"I I assumed the, the exchange program" I say, barely a whisper, controlling my sobs, no one needs to know the family drama.

"Ok." He says casually, his face is expressionless, he is not easy to read. I know from earlier incidents that he barely gives anything away, in fact his smile doesn't mean things are ok. Lucky he is not smiling right now.

"You are expected to just behave, and you will be fine. Don't do anything stupid, and no one will hurt you. You will be fine." He warns me.

I don't think I will be fine, but what option do I have but to follow & oblige. I just nod, not knowing what will happen, and hoping he will keep good on his promise.

"Great! Now that is cleared, freshen up and come out. You need to buckle up, we will be landing soon."

"Landing?" I blurt out, and that is when I scan the room, I am in. It is a moderate size room, with minimalistic furniture and two cabin windows that give the view of the entire sky.

Not that I thought about it, but I would have never imagined by first flight to be like this.

"We will be landing in Sicily in next 30min."

"Sicily?" We had already left New York, left US, I was more afraid about where I was being taken "But I don't have a passport." That is all I blurted out, though I wasn't sure if it was a bad thing or good thing that I will be held by immigration office in Italy & deported back to US.

"You don't need one" he says walking out of the room "Out in five little girl!"

After a couple of minutes, I unwillingly step out, still holding back my tears. I don't want to anger anyone, I intend to behave so that he can keep his promise. I hope so.

I have never been on a plane, but surely this is not standard plane layout.

There are a couple of private cabins, on the right side of the plane with a corridor on the seats on the left side.

The front of the corridor leads to what looks like an open space with the regular plane seats, while on the other end there is a large cabin with glass doors covered with blinds, next to is another door that is labelled as the powder room.

As I start walking towards the powder room, I hear some weird noises, like slurping or relishing a lollipop, but I ignore them. Just then I hear a loud groan.

By the time I am closer to the powder room, I can also hear a series of rhythmic grunts.

"Ah... ah…..ah...ah....ah...ah...ah"

They are coming from the large room at the end, the sounds are accompanied by erratic breathing, as if someone is doing vigorous physical exertion.

With each step the animalistic grunts get faster and noisier, and the breathing more laboured, too loud to ignore.

"AH...Ah….Ah…Ah…Ah..ah..ah..ah.ah.ah.ah"

I am now right front of the powder room door, and next to the double doors of the large room and that is when I hear a gagging sound, almost a gag reflex. It's not as loud as the grunts but it is there, unmistakable. It's like someone's choking, are they hurting someone I think standing in front of the glass door.

I am standing right in front of the glass door now, and that is when someone opens the shutters partially, just enough for me to see the stormy grey eyes looking at me from the other side.

I want to run & hide, but the grey globes hold my gaze, making me immobile. I don't know whether I am there for seconds or minutes. I am terrified but his gaze also makes me feel dizzy.

A soft grunt breaks the spell his eyes have me under, and I take that chance to escape.