The night it began

Elena walked sluggishly to the dining room, she hated having dinner with the whole family and her reasons for that were justified. No young lady would enjoy dinner with a half-drunk father speaking gibberish and a mother calling her irresponsible.

So what if she was twenty-two and she had no job? What if she had no boyfriend or fiancé, thanks to her crazy bitchy attitude? Who said you have to be independent by the age of twenty-two? Who said you are late if you aren’t married at that age? Who for God’s sake sets these standards of living? Since when does life have a manual?

She hates it when her drunken gambler of a father curses her and wishes he had a rich son instead of a daughter, she hates it when her mother compares her with other young ladies and tells her that she is cursed. It is even worse when her younger siblings no longer look up to her with respect? They just see her as another useless one in the family.

But what annoyed her most was her perverted maternal uncle always making a pass at her from the other side of the table. He had tried countless times to have her on his bed in exchange for money, and whenever she complained to her mother, she would rebuke her and call her a cursed child born to bring destruction.

At this point, she really hated her life and at times, wished she could end it. Sometimes she thinks of running away from home, but where do she go? She didn’t even have any relatives in the whole of Italy, the nearest place that she could find a person she knew was France, which was a mission impossible.

“You are finally here Elena, oh of course… why wouldn’t you be here? The food is free and I bet you are too useless to provide for yourself at your age,” her angry looking mother spat and shuddered, with contempt in her eyes.

Elena sighed and ignored her; she didn’t want to fight tonight as she didn’t have the strength to do so. Not like fighting would change anything, she would eventually have to sleep under the same roof with them.

Elena couldn’t help but notice that her mother was looking pale like a vampire, or maybe the moon. Yes, she was a light-skinned Italian lady but she used to look less bright, maybe she was running short of blood.

“Mamma, you should go see the doctor, you don’t seem healthy to me,” Elena expressed with genuine concern.

“Yes Elena, go ahead and mock me, insult your mother. I curse the day I gave birth to you, why did my ancestors give me such a useless child, I should have killed you before you saw daylight,” she spat.

Elena sighed and looked down. She regretted saying a word but she was used to all this already, none of the insults or curses was new to her, in fact she received more insults than the air she breathes in a day. She looked at the table and noticed that the meal was a vegetarian dish; she hated vegetarian food unlike the rest of the family.

Her mom knew that, so Elena could tell that she had done this to punish her. Why was she born in such a family? Why did they hate her so much? She was trying her best to find a job and as for relationships, it wasn’t in her power… all the guys she dated just found her too hot headed for them to handle. What was she supposed to do? Change her nature or uncreate herself?

She picked up the fork and looked at the meal with an irritated expression. She couldn’t help but pull a face in disgust.

“I already told you Elena, if you don’t like the food we make here, then you shouldn’t eat! But of course you would still eat it, they say a beggar has no choice,” her mom taunted and laughed softly.

That was it; Elena lost her temper and drove the fork into the table. “I am not a beggar for Christ sake, this is my house too and it is your responsibility to take care of me until I find a job, so stop speaking to me in that manner, Mamma!!” she fired angrily.

Her mom stopped the food she was dishing and stared at her in disbelief. “Hey, you don’t dare to speak to me in that tone, young lady… you can raise your voice when you pay the bills!!” her mother retorted.

Elena who was now breathing heavily like a fish taken out of water exhaled deeply, and then she sat down. She thought of abandoning the meal but she was really hungry, she had not had any food since morning and this was evening already.

“Why blame her Chiara? If you have given me a male child earlier, then I am sure he would have built houses and bought so many cars for me by now, but instead you chose to have a stupid daughter first. Now I have to wait for fifteen more years for my son to grow up and make money!!” her father spat in a sluggish tone, with his eyes narrowed.

He was sitting at the head of the table and anyone within ten feet range could tell that he was drunk. He was stinking of alcohol, perhaps drenched in it. The time was just eight pm and he was already drunk.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Elena looked up and noticed that all eyes were on her, of course… Everyone expected her to go and check it, even her younger siblings. She was treated like a maid in her own father’s house.

She mumbled some inaudible words which were probably curse words and then she stood up. “Who the hell comes knocking by this hour of the night,” she muttered to herself as she walked sluggishly to the door.

“Who is that?” she asked and placed her ears against the door like a naïve teenager. The person didn’t respond but knocked a second time.

“Just open the damn door, Elena… it doesn’t require energy to do that,” her mom yelled from the dining room. You could sense the sarcasm in her voice.

Well, their front door led right into their sitting room and their dining room was at one end of the sitting room, demarcated by a step up floor, so technically they were still in the same room.

“Yeah… whatever,” Elena cursed silently and rolled her eyes.

She turned the door knob and just immediately, someone kicked the door open, almost knocking her down in the process. “Hey, how dare you?” she yelled and then she froze instantaneously with mouth agape. Who wouldn’t freeze at the sight of long rifles pointing to their forehead?

There were three men; well, she saw three at first, and then two more came out of the corner. Five men in black attire all armed with guns of different sizes, some had bandanas tied to their forehead; she didn’t need a seer to tell her that they were thugs.

“Where is the old fool?” one of them asked in a hoarse voice, while smoking a wrap of something that definitely wasn't a cigarette. His eyes were covered with dark shades; who wears sunglasses at night?

Elena didn’t need further explanation to know who they asked about, it was her father. She slowly pointed towards his direction in the dining room while trying not to freak out. She was terrified at the sight of all that fire power. She wanted them to proceed so that she could escape from the door but maybe they had their own plans.

“Move,” the man instructed and pushed her towards the dining room. On a normal day, she would have slapped him really hard for touching her but these guys had guns, not just any guns but fully loaded military grade weapons.

She headed to the dining and the men followed behind her silently. The other members of the family had already seen what was going on, her uncle was quick to hide under the table, he was one of the biggest cowards in the world.

As they approached, her mother signaled to the little kids to go inside and they obeyed immediately. They all looked terrified as hell, even for kids who lived in a toxic family, that was too much for them to handle.

“Hey buddy, why come into my house in this manner? Don’t you realize I have little kids here?” her father grumbled and tried to force a smile, but it didn’t look convincing enough, only made him look like a clown; a drunk clown!!

The man who had asked for him chuckled, and then he brushed down all of the food on the table with the length of his gun. “Do you still have a problem with my mesmerizing entrance?” he asked and the rest of his men burst into laughter.

“What have you done? That was the last food in this house,” he yelled.

“Keep it down you drunken fool, or I will tear apart this junkyard you call a house. Where is my money?” he barked.

Elena’s father swallowed hard with his knees trembling, and then he took a step backwards, while his wife hid behind him. Elena was still standing there, waiting for an opportunity to escape.

“I promised I will pay you back, just give me some time, please,” he begged with quivering lips. He must have realized that this wasn’t a friendly visit.

“Shut up you old fool, why gamble if you have no money?” the man fired. “I want my money, get it right now!!” he growled and pointed the gun at him.

“Please give me more time, I don’t have any money at the moment,” Elena’s father pleaded. “Please put down the gun and let's discuss outside, you are scaring my family,” he added.

The men burst into laughter on hearing that. The sound of their laughter was like thorns to Elena’s ears and all she wanted to do was kick them out of here, but she loved her life enough to even try that.

“If you don’t have the money, then I will have to take something of value as collateral till you pay me back,” the man fired.

“I have nothing that could be of value to you, please just give me more time,” he pleaded with his heart thumping wildly.

The man laughed evilly and began to look around the house, and then his eyes fell on Elena. “Hmm… are you sure about that, buddy?” he asked with a smirk on his face.

Elena noticed that his eyes were on her and quickly, she began to move away. “Hold her,” the man instructed and two of his men grabbed Elena immediately.

“What are you doing? Leave me alone!!” she yelled and tried to break free, but they were too strong.

“Let her go, I promise I will pay back,” her father pleaded and went on his knees.

“Then better do that quickly,” the man spat and kicked him down. “Because until you do so, your daughter will stay with me,” he added.

“What? You can’t do that! Let my daughter go!!” Her mother finally spoke and rushed towards Elena.

One of the men slapped her halfway through and she fell down. “Mom!” she yelled. “Leave me alone!!” Elena screamed and kept pulling to get away. 

She managed to shove one of the men aside and tried to push off the other but she felt something hit her on her forehead, and she collapsed to the floor. Her eyelids were forced closed but she could still hear everything going on.

“Bring her along,” she heard the man instruct and someone carried her up on his shoulders.

She could hear their footsteps as they were leaving, she could hear her mom begging that they let her go, she could hear her father coughing and her siblings crying from inside, then slowly everything started to fade away… First came the darkness, and then the silence, she blacked out completely.

To be continued!