Dante remained curled up on the cold floor of the room where he had been locked up. He was clad in nothing but briefs and he felt cold but the cold was not his greatest concern at the moment.

It had been five days without any food for him. All he had had access to was water to keep him alive but Dante doubted if he was even still alive at that point. At times, he just wanted to slam his head in a wall over and over again until he died.

He had lived a life tortuous enough and he wanted no more of it, honestly. The door opened but Dante remained unmoved, thinking it was the man who delivered water to him.

“I see you are still alive and breathing.” It was his father’s voice.

“A tough man just like me.” Luca added and Dante wished he could scream at his father.

The last thing he wanted to hear was that he was like his father in any way.

“So?” Luca crouched in front of his son.

“Are you ready to join the mafia now? Or do you want to die in here?” His father asked and Dante let out a low chuckle.

With a small groan, he sat up on the floor and looked at his father.

“I will rather die in here. I bet I can survive about three or four more weeks though.”

“Really?” Luca asked.

“Yes, Mr. Romano.”

“Fine!” Luca got back onto his feet.

“Don’t give him water to drink anymore. Let’s see how far he can withstand this.”

And with that order, another two days passed and those two days were the real hell for Dante. Not having water right after not having anything to eat for five days left him completely weak.

It was late at night when the door opened. Dante didn’t react to the door opening.

“Dante!” He heard his mother’s voice and his eyes opened.

“Mum!”

“Dante!” His mother cried out and rushed over to him with a bottle of water.

Dante grabbed the bottle of water from her and gulped it down thirstily just as his father walked in with a grin on his face.

As soon as Dante could talk, he asked his crying mother why she had come back.

“Why are you here, mum?” His voice was weak as his mother pulled him into a hug.

“I can’t stand this happening to you, Dante. I had to come back.”

“No big deal. I just had to send her a couple of videos of how you were faring to her friends and the video did get to her so here she is to save you.” his father cackled.

“This is no way to treat your own family, Luca!” His mother screamed.

“I have told you several times to stop raising your voice at me, Maria. I won’t be touching you though. You need your strength to nurse your son back to health ” Luca said and walked away.

For the next two days, Luca stayed away from his wife and son while Dante recuperated. But they only had those two days of peace as Luca barged into Dante’s room the next day.

Dante who had been taking a nap woke and sat up on the bed as his father stopped beside the bed, a menacing grin on his face.

“I have given you enough time to get back on your feet. Now goes the question again, are you ready to join the mafia, Dante?” He asked and Dante felt badly conflicted at this moment.

His mother was in the house and he was sure that it would not be easy for her to run away anymore.

“Get out of bed.” Luca ordered and with a hard look, Dante did as his father did.

“Follow me.” Luca added and Dante did so.

They both walked into the dark room and just as expected, Dante saw the men meant to be killed on their knees. They were four men there.

Without a word, Dante headed over to his chair where he was always made to watch things happen but his father grabbed him by the arm, stopping him.

“You won’t need to sit today. You will be doing the killing.”

“You… You can’t mean that, right?”

“Of course, I mean it. You have been watching for six years right. Time to show me what you have learned.”

“Never! Why would you think I would do this?!”

“Because you have no option?”

“Bring his mother in!” Luca called out in a loud voice and Marie was brought into the room by a man who had a knife to Marie’s throat.

“Stop! What the fuck are you doing?! Let go of her!”

“Kill them.” Luca stretched out a gun to him.

“Go ahead.” he urged.

“No, Dante. Please don’t do it.”

“Oh, fucking shut up Marie. It’s either your life or the lives of these four worthless men.”

“Dante, please don’t!” Marie continued pleading but Dante could not help it.

He could not watch his mother die. His hand reached forward and took the gun from his father. He shut his eyes and let out a shaky breath.

“Do it, Dante. Kill them all already.” Luca grinned.

“I fucking hate you.” Dante let out before pointing the gun towards one of the men.

“Dante! I said stop! Don’t do it!”

“I am sorry, mum.” he mumbled and shot at the first man.

Loud laughter left Luca.

“Finally! Dante! That was your first kill, you are finally a man now. C’mon man, go on. Kill the second one.”

Dante groaned as he shot at the second person and third one in quick succession.

“What do you think? He will do just great, won’t he?” His father asked Mark who was also in the room.

“He definitely will after he gets over this entire emotional rollercoaster he is currently on.”

“Just a matter of time” Luca grinned.

“C’mon, the last one.”

“This is hell! I don’t want to!” Dante threw the gun at the wall and the proud grin on Luca’s face vanished.

“You stupid son!” He yelled at Dante and without one second of hesitation, he grabbed the knife from the man holding Maria hostage and stabbed the knife into her left thigh.

“Mum!!” Dante screamed.

“Now do it! Or I will fucking kill her! And not with the gun this time. I want you to stab him at least ten times!”

“Mum!”

“D-Dante”

“You are wasting my time.” Luca said impatiently.

“The knife.” Dante demanded, his voice shaky.

One of the men in the room handed him another knife and Dante walked over to the last man. He pushed the man to the floor and with no hesitation, he stabbed the man in the chest.

“This is what you want, right?! Does this satisfy you?!” Dante screamed as he began stabbing the man repeatedly.

A pleased smile appeared on Luca’s face as he watched his son stab the man over and over again with rage and anger.

“That’s right. That’s how it should be.”

By the time Dante stopped, he was covered in the blood of the man he had just killed.

“Good job.” Luca commended and walked over to Dante.

“Your friend, James and his little sister, Mireille came by a few times while you were locked up. I know you have missed your best friend already and want to go to school badly but not yet, there’s a delivery you need to do tomorrow.”

“A… A delivery?”

“It will be your first drug delivery and if you don’t succeed at it, your mother’s wound won’t be treated.”

And that was how Dante got into the ‘business’. His first drug delivery was a perfect success and his father smiled at him countless times when he came back.

Dante hated him even more with every second that passed. He heard as his father bragged to Mark about how his son had his blood in him and would succeed greatly.

Dante thought that at least now, he would be able to bargain his mother’s peace with Luca but he had now idea how wrong he was.

It was the next day and Dante had just finished getting ready for school. He had been away from school for too long already and he already missed hanging out with James and having fun teasing Mireille.

He stepped out of his room and was walking past his mother’s room when he heard his father’s voice.

“You heard me, Maria! Hand over that necklace! We won’t keep millions of dollars as a fucking jewelry when I can invest the money and bring us a lot more money.”

“A jewelry? It’s my family heirloom!”

“Heirloom? Such a fancy name. Whatever it is, you should hand it over already. I need it. It’s not like you have a daughter you will hand it over too, do you?”

“I will give it to my daughter in law in the future!”

“Woman, how sure are you that you would still be alive by the time your son decides to get married? You don’t look like you will last long on earth anymore.”

“And that’s your fault, Luca! I look like this because you made me!” Marie yelled back.

All these while, Dante remained by the door, listening to his mother and father argue.

“Don’t raise your voice at me.” Dante heard his father say in that tone he knew his father used when he was about to beat his mother up.

“No!” Dante muttered.

His mother was still recovering from the stab in her thigh. He could not let his father further harm her. He grabbed the door knob and tried opening the door but it was locked already.

“Open up this door!” He yelled.

“Hand it over, Marie. I don’t want to have to beat you up.” Luca threatened.

“I won’t.” Marie shook her head.

“It’s in your drawer, right?” Luca shoved her away and pulled open the drawer and it really was there.

“You bastard! Don’t touch it with your filthy hands!” She yelled and tried to pull Luca away but with a groan, Luca pushed her off him and Marie fell to the floor, hitting her head on the hard floor.

“Lu… Luca.” she groaned out his name in pains.

“I will take care of this.” Luca grinned and walked away with the necklace.

He unlocked the door and stepped out of the room. Dante ignored him and ran into the room quickly.

“Mum!” He got down on his knees beside her and lifted her bleeding head up to his thighs.

“Da… Dante.” his mother gave him a smile.

“Mum! Don’t say a word, I will take you to this hospital right away.” Dante said.

“Dante.” Marie shook her head as she felt the cold hands of death reaching out for her already.

“Please replace the heirloom. Please, Dante. Don’t let him auction the heirloom. Please, it’s a family heirloom. It is not meant for the market.” she begged with quivering voice.

“That doesn’t matter right now!” Dante pulled his frail mother into his arms and got on his feet to rush her to the hospital but as he got to the entrance of her door, he felt her body go limp in his arms.

“M-mum?” He called her name, scared of not getting a response from her.

“Mum?” He called again, the tears in his eyes starting to roll down already.

“Mum!!!” Dante crashed back onto his knees.

“Mum! Please wake up!” He shook her body up.

“Please! Please don’t leave me, mum!”

“Mum!!” He screamed and heard footsteps approaching.

“Maria?” Luca called as he stopped in front of Dante who was clutching his mother’s body tightly.

With the tears rolling down his cheeks, Dante looked at his father and he saw nothing more than a monster, a beast he wanted to kill.

“Maria?” Luca called again.

“You killed her! You killed her!”

“She… She’s dead.” the words slowly left Luca’s lips.

“These… These things happen.” he stuttered.

“Losing one’s parent eventually is a natural thing. Be a man and stop…. Stop crying”

“Stop crying?!” Dante cried even more, the hate in his heart increasing until it filled up his heart entirely.

His father wasn’t human! He just could not be human.

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