1. Sixteen years ago

Her father tapped her a few times and she turned on her bed, pulling her pillow closer.

“Heyy, wake up.” her dad called lowly, but the urgency of his voice couldn't be mistaken. She fluttered her eyes open before staring at her father with sleepy eyes.

“Dad. What's…”

“Shhh. Be quiet, Cielo” her father interrupted. His tone was low, but strong enough to let her know something was wrong. She stared from her father to her brother that was standing a few feet beside him looking uninterested in what their father was saying. She sat upright on the bed, rubbing her eyes with her palms as she waited for her dad to speak again. She still felt sleepy.

“Let's go." Her father stated matter of factly and helped her get out of the bed. She got down from her bed quietly and put her legs into her flip-flop slippers before her dad pulled her out of the room.

They walked into the lobby where they heard a loud banging on the entrance door. She wanted to scream, but not for her father's hand that went instinctively over her mouth, muffling her scream. The banging on the door increased as her father increased his pace, making his brother quicken his steps too. They got to the back of the door and their dad looked back before pushing the wood aside, giving way to a secret exit. She stared at it in awe while their father punched in some codes. She used to play almost every day around that wall, but she never noticed it was a secret exit. She never thought of it.

Her father pushed the door open and she peeped outside. It was still dark, though the moon was out in the sky serving as an illuminant.

“Enzo, I want you to take your sister out and run until you are very far away from the house.” their father stated, kneeling to their level.

“But why Papa?” She asked, staring at him with the beautiful eyes of a seven year old. She had the same almond eyes as her father.

“No questions, Cielo. Just do as I say." Their father responded and they both nodded. He took out a gun from his coat and handed it over to Enzo.

“Use it to protect yourself and your sister.” Enzo nodded at his father. He knew something was definitely not right. He knew they were in danger, but he also knew it was better not to ask questions.

Their father pulled them into a hug and kissed them on their foreheads before pushing them out gently. He stared as they ran before locking the door. He knew that was going to be the last time he would ever see them again. He placed the wood back in its former position before going back into the house.

The banging on the door continued heavily. They had been banging for over ten minutes and he knew that very soon, the door would give way. He always knew this day would come. The day when they would come for blood.

Taking quick and quiet steps to his room, he went to his drawer beside the bed and took out his gun. His wife was still sleeping peacefully on the bed, oblivious to the death that was knocking at their door. She had been diagnosed with stress induced insomnia and had taken some sleeping pills to help her sleep.

He stared at her beautiful face and was only interrupted by the noise of the door falling to the ground. He kissed his wife hurriedly, before taking out the safety from his gun. He slipped out of the room, locking it as he left. The entire house was still dark as it was night time and he had switched off the light, but he loved darkness. He loved the peace and calmness it brought to his soul. Moving stealthily in the darkness, he walked back to the sitting room where the men in black were.

The order was clear. Take out Matteo Verrilli and his family, and so far, the men in black were known for keeping orders.

Enzo and Cielo ran as fast as they could away from their house. It was still night, or at least, the early hours of the morning. It was still dark, except for the light from the moon that shone, leading them as they ran. They hadn't said anything to each other since their father told them to run. They knew something was wrong, but they never knew that that was going to be the last time they ever saw their parents.

“I'm tired” Cielo, the younger child of the Verrilli family complained after they were at a safe distance away from their home.

“Me too.” Her brother agreed and she sat down on the floor by the road.

“Why did Father give you a gun?" She questioned her eyes on the gun in her brother's hand. She was quite young, but she knew what a gun was and what it was being used for. Her father made use of it a lot, and she knew that.

“To protect you of course.” Her brother, Enzo replied and she scoffed arrogantly.

“I can protect myself.” She stated, making her brother laugh. “We are going to see Papa and Mama again, right?" She asked after they had sat in silence for over a minute.

“I Hope so,” he stated unconvincingly.

****

“Matteo, I know you are somewhere in the dark, and you can hear me, so come let's wine." One of the men in black said while the other moved silently in the dark. He could see both of them from where he hid. The men in black were known to be a very deadly assassin duo. They were based in Venice and executed high profile cases, but this was the first time in as long as he could remember, they got to Palermo, and he was the one to be taken out.

Matteo Verrilli was the two sides of a coin. Vicious and deadly when he needed to be, peaceful and living when the situation demanded. He was the head of one of the biggest crime families in Palermo, The Verrilli family. Palermo was known for three crime families who marked territories and controlled the city. The Cherisi, Rossi, and the Verrilli families. They never maintained a peaceful relationship with each other, but somehow, they never went to war.

Rossi had always been the deadlier of the three families until their current heads took over.

Matteo was a very ambitious young man. Growing up in one of the deadliest crime families in Italy, he was a visionary young boy with dreams. At nineteen, he had already cleared a drug shipment worth over five million euros, he had killed more men than most of the men at forty so it was just right to hand over the running of the family crime business to him. But that was where the trouble all began.

He had an older cousin who had wanted to ascend the throne. Older than Matteo with a five years gap, but he was weaker in strength and achievement. It was almost like comparing a child at five to a crawling infant. Alessio, Matteo's cousin was a lazy drug abusing adult. His father was the head of the family and when word got out that his father was considering voluntarily stepping down, he set his greedy eyes on the seat.

Matteo fired the first bullet at his paid killers, missing one of them by a margin. The noise of the gunshot woke his wife up. She picked up a gun from the nightstand and hurried downstairs to her bed wears. She walked quietly into the sitting room and when she locked eyes with her husband, he signaled her over. She had barely covered half of the distance between herself and her husband when a bullet caught her in the stomach.

“Nooo” Matteo yelled shouting sporadically as he watched his wife down by the gun of the assassins. He walked out of the hiding, firing with every step he took forward. One of his bullets caught one of the assassins and he groaned loudly. His partner noticed and ducked under the furniture. From his new position, Matteo stood vulnerable against him. He fired a quick bullet that caught his abdomen, making him drop down, groaning painfully.

“Where are the children?” he asked, standing over Matteo who was writhing in pain.

“vaffanculo” Matteo responded in Italian and he released two quick bullets into him. He searched every part of the house and when he couldn't find the children, he returned to his partner who was almost bleeding to death.

“I can't find the children anywhere,” he reported to his partner who hissed out in pain.

“Fuck the children. Get me out of here, I'm dying. " The bleeding partner replied.

All that happened sixteen years ago. Matteo Verrilli and his wife were murdered in their house while his children were nowhere to be found.

Sixteen years since that incident occurred, nobody heard anything about Matteo's family. Alessio had since taken over as head of the Verrilli family.

Enzo and Cielo weren't killed that night, but nobody knew if they were alive or not. Nobody cared.