Page 5 of The Devil's Den

“Let’s go sit on the couch instead.” Dad places a hand on my shoulder, and we walk side by side.

“Hello, anyone home?” someone calls from outside, knocking really loud.

My dad stops moving, and when I look up at him, his eyes are round and huge.

“Who’s that, Dad?”

“Shh!” he warns, his chest moving up and down real fast. And that’s when I become super scared, too.

“Francesco, yoo-hoo!” There’s another loud knock, but more like a bang this time. “I know you’re in there. Open up before we break the door down and cause a scene you don’t want.”

My body jerks as I inhale, my heartbeats pounding hard. We can’t see the men from here. The shutters are still closed since Dad used a key in the back door.

“Matteo.” Dad kneels, gripping my shoulders. “I need you to hide. Go in the back and hide in the closet until they leave. Do you hear me? Don’t come out for anything. And I mean nothing.”

“No. Daddy. Y-you can come with me. We can go together. P-please.” I sniffle, panting while my heart squeezes.

He shakes his head, his eyes full of tears. “I can’t, son. They’ll come for me. But they don’t know you’re here and we’re going to make sure of that. So go now, and remember”—he holds me tighter—“no matter what you hear, no matter what they do to me, you don’t come out.”

“No,” I sob in a whisper, shaking my head, not wanting to go. He has to come with me.

“You have on the count of three before we start breaking things.”

Oh no.

I tremble.

“I love you, son. Never forget that.”

“Daddy?” The tears fall down my cheeks, and when he stands, they only come faster.

He smiles weakly. “You remind me of your mother. Every single day she’s been gone.” He’s crying harder. His tears stay in his eyes, filling them, until there’s nowhere else to go but down.

“I can’t go,” I wail, wrapping my arms around his belly, holding tight. “Please, don’t make me.”

“Hello!” I jerk as one of the men bangs hard on the shutters. “We’re getting impatient.”

Dad pushes me away by my arms, placing his palm over my cheek, staring down at me. “Matteo. Listen to me.” His voice is urgent. Fast. “They’re very bad men. They’ll hurt you, and I’d die twice before I let that happen. Please, you have to go in that closet. Do it for me. Your brothers need you.”

Boom.

“Oh God,” Dad gasps. “They’re breaking the back door. Go. Now!”

My hands shake as he lets me go. “I love you, Daddy.” I snivel, my body shuddering.

“I love you, son. So much. Tell your brothers I love them too, okay?” He closes his eyes and I look at him once again. His tears come even faster.

Boom.

This time, I rush to the back, leaving my dad, running into the closet and shutting the door just as something hard bangs from the outside, then footsteps march in. So many of them.

“Ahh, there he is,” a man says, and then my dad makes a noise like someone hurt him. They keep hitting him I think because he screams for them to stop, the men cursing at him as he grumbles.

He sounds so bad. I have to do something. Maybe if they see I’m here, they’ll leave. But Dad said not to come out, no matter what.

Glass shatters with a heavy thud. “You thought you could fuck my wife and I wouldn’t know? That you’re gonna help her and my daughter run away from me and I’d let that stand? You never learn, do you? I took your wife from you, and now, I’m taking your whole family. You’ll pay for this,” the man says, and my dad screams like he’s hurt.

Oh my God, what are they doing to him?

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