ARIA MORETTI

She ran into a horde of men rushing into the house and screamed.

Whatever it was, she could soon tell that she was the least of their problems. They shoved her off as soon as they saw her and almost crushed their small house with how rapidly they dashed through the rooms. Soon, her father's panicked yells reached her ears, and she quickly jumped back to her feet to go help her father. There were five of the men, and they all forced themselves into the room, filling the tiny space it comprised with their frames.

It was almost confusing at first, until someone flicked on the lights and it sent her father into an even bigger panic. That was when she saw him on the floor and far from the bed she had left him in. Both his hands were over his head to shield himself as he screamed, and the men were kicking him.

"Leave my father alone," she screamed, rushing to bite into the arm of the man closest to her. Her teeth sunk into his skin, and enough of it for her to taste his blood in her mouth, until she felt something that sent her to the floor faster than she could blink. Even then, she tried to stand up, but two quick, successive slaps sent her back to the floor and caused her to reel where she lay in pain, the taste of his blood replaced by the taste of hers as she wondered why the room had suddenly gone dark.

"It's alright, boys," a commanding voice spoke, and her father's screams toned down a bit. "How is he? I always thought all the old man really needed was a bit of some shaking around. Get me a seat."

The light came back into the room, and Aria only then understood why the room had gone dark. In reality, it hadn't. She had only shut her eyes tight in the same way she had on the night her mother Elena and Mabel were killed. Then, it saved her, because she hid under the bed and waited for the storm to pass. This time, she doubted that it would.

The sound of a chair being dragged against wood soon screeched in her ears, and she struggled to sit up and see what would happen. As it turned, the men had the least interest in her. They had come straight to business, and whatever it was, it had everything to do with her father.

"Marco," the same voice that had brought an end to the storm, now called her father's name in a softer, almost affectionate tone. "Sorry to visit like this Marco. It's rude, and-"

"That's why you need to pack up with all of this and go." Aria shot, jumping to her feet.

All the heads in the room turned towards her, including the head that had uttered the only words that meant so far. He had a bit of a slick smile upon his face, his right eyebrow furrowed in a manner that was almost teasing. A better word to describe it was cocky, but she was in no mood for thinking about anything that wasn't her father, who was shivering on the ground and crying to himself like a small, scared child. He was saying only one word.

"Please. Spare her. Spare them. Don't kill them."

His words were going unattended because nobody was listening to him. It was a doubt that they genuinely wanted to.

"What other fire do we have burning here?" He asked no one particularly, his eyes fixed on her. Around them, his men started to laugh.

Aria did not care in the least. She wanted them to leave.

"I am the fire that will burn you if you remain here."

The man only swung his head to the side, and a third slap across the face sent Aria back to the floor she had just gotten up from. This one hit the very same spot on which she had received the first one, and it hurt so much she thought she would start to bleed. From afar, she heard her father continue to cry and beg people that weren't there. Then the man spoke:

"Marco even has a girl that's got a better pair of balls than he has. I think she's got a better brain too."

She grunted and jumped up to fight, incensed by this comment on her father.

"Leave the girl," The man said with a wave of his hand, dismissing her without another thought. "We are here for you, Marco. You coward burned our warehouse down with your stupidity, and you're going to pay."

"He didn't. He only drives his truck around."

The man scoffed, and turned to Aria with an expression that showed he was slightly annoyed. "Nobody is talking to you, girl. We're only here for your crazy father."

"He can't talk. That's why I'm answering."

Again, he looked at Aria with that cocky expression of his, and there was a smile on his face before he spoke again. "Give Marco another shake, boys. I need him to start talking."

They did this far too eagerly for Aria to stand still. Punches on her father without regard for where they were going to hit. Kicks all over his body as he shed tears and called for help from his memories and not the men that were harming him. Sitting and watching all this was one man, a sadistic look of pleasure on his face.

Aria tried to get to her father, and got a shove and two more slaps for it. By now, she was smarting from the pain, and aware that they were not going to stop unless her father died, or she did something to pacify the man who was overseeing the whole thing. To do this, she mustered all the force she could, dove between two of the men, rushed towards her father and threw herself upon his body. Her face was now streaked with tears, and she was screaming for them to let him go through chattering teeth.

"I'll pay what he owes. Please just let him go."

She paid for this action, taking several painful kicks to the side that only stopped when he raised his hand. The beatings instantly stopped, so that the silence that followed was only disrupted by her father's cries from below her.

"Did you just say you will do anything?"

"Anything."

He fixed an eye on her before continuing. "Your father will be spared if you agree to serve me. To do as I say and follow my every order without question."

Aria only needed one look at the broken man beneath her to decide.

"I will. I will do as you say."

"It is done, then. Let's be on our way, boys. Take the girl so we can assume Marco has paid a bit of something."

Before long, and long meant what felt almost endless to her, she had been shoved into a car that moved until she lost track of where she was, and was only aware that she was being driven into a big mansion. The whole time, her mind remained on the last image of her crying father as the men tossed him back into the bed they had gotten him out of.

It was the sight of the tears streaming down his face that made her decide.

She would endure all to save him.

Aria thought she was entering into a whole new world.

The gates were so big that their sheer size made her forget her imminent problems-a suffering father who was now going to be left alone, and the path of uncertainty that lay wide before her for the smallest fraction of a second. The guards standing there were just as distracting, for she had hardly seen men who were so mechanical, so devoid of life that they moved as though they were born and bred for opening those gates to the man who owned them.

All they did was stare and salute as the car passed.

"You won't be passing these gates for a long time," the man announced, sitting comfortably in the owner's corner. He was a deliberate man, that one, because all the five men he brought with him were in a different car going before this one, which was occupied by only the driver in front, himself and her.

She did not answer his words too, far too frightened of the ice in his voice to want to say anything. Yet, their eyes met, and she found a cruel look waiting for her beneath the pools that were his. It was as though he was the Devil, and she was his captive.

The vehicle moved forward before stopping in front of one of the biggest mansions she had ever seen. It towered high in the night sky, and white lights glowered from it so that it appeared almost otherworldly. Once it did, the man got out of the car door which his driver held open for him, and vanished inside of the house. She stood outside, dumbfounded, and even thought of how hard it would be to slip off and run away. Only the sight of a woman dressed in a housemaid's uniform coming towards her could manage to distract her from these things.

"Welcome. Don Nico Romano has asked me to prepare you for him. Come with me."

Clueless and unaware of what to do, Aria hesitated. It all felt like a trap waiting to spring up on her, and something from within wanted her to renounce her promises, run back home, and to dare the man to do what he would if he could. But her father...

Her lip disappeared into her mouth and her teeth pressed hard on it. A short distance before her, the woman stood waiting, and Aria clenched her fists before following her lead into the big mansion.

It was unlike anything in the place she had come to know as home-it smelled of lavender and rose and the air conditioners hiding high up in the walls pumped a cool wind on her skin as she walked past. The walls were white and the lights reflected off them in a colour that was beautiful, but there was something foreboding about the place that made her wish she was back at home, and with her father.

"He has asked me to give you this room. You should like it..."

And before she was done talking, the woman pushed the doors open to reveal a large room that was big enough to be half her apartment. There was a queen size bed in the middle of the room, and everything on the inside seemed to promise her comfort and luxury. They both stepped inside of it, and Aria stood right in the centre, refusing to believe she would be treated so well by that man.

The doors slammed shut, and Aria turned to see the woman looking straight at her.

"So Don Nico brought you here?" She asked, and Aria thought there was something fiery about her eyes before nodding to imply yes.

"He wants to teach you a lesson, then. And the best thing you will do for yourself is to learn it."

The woman she spoke to found herself oddly suspicious of her, and for good reason. "Why are you telling me this?"

"He hardly brings a woman into the house. Somehow, you're here. I do not know why, but I will only ask that you be wise. Act as you should, and you will be fine around here."

The words were no threat, nor were they spoken in a way that meant it was one. There was indeed something motherly and comforting about her heavily accented voice as she heard it, and Aria found herself liking the woman for this single tip she had just gotten.

"You should also bathe and wait and get ready for yourself to be called upon. As for more clothes, they will be given to you the next morning."

"Why should I wait to be called upon? What does he want me to do?" Aria asked, now confused. She had her suspicions, and hoped they would be far from reality.

"Don Nico wants you with him tonight."

At once, Aria's eyes widened.

"What does he want me for?"

Aria felt Anita's eyes go cold. "You shouldn't bother if you think it's sex. Don Nico will not try to sleep with you tonight. But he wants you for a reason you might never know until you find out. I will come to you when he wants you around. Enjoy while you can."

Slowly, and with these words, Anita withdrew, leaving the newcomer alone in the room. She could only swallow and sit and wait for what would happen while disturbed that she was now a part of a game whose rules could be anything.

Anything at all...

**

Aria could hardly remain in one place while alone. The room was a pretty, tidy place, but she felt caged within the walls, an animal in a zoo.

What was all this? What had she just done?

It was all to save her father, but now she did not know if she could go through with it.

She was still debating when a knock on the door and her answer led to Anita coming again, her head peeking through the open space in the door. “He wants you now.”

The simplicity of the command left her dumbfounded, and she let herself be led through an endless labyrinth of hallways that only ended before a mighty, mahogany double door that parted to reveal a grand room with red curtains and carpets. It was a room so large that she was almost lost until she stared straight down and found herself staring into his eyes.

He was simply unbelievable, this Nico Romano man, the one Anita called The Don. For the first time, she took a good look at his face under some good lighting, and that slick, jet black hair of his that had been drawn into a tight ponytail. His blue eyes were sharp enough to cut diamonds, and so was the trace of his jawline. He sat composed in this seat as though he was Lord of all, with twenty men or so gathered around him, ten on each side. There were also several guards behind him, armed with sunglasses and guns.

“Come,” She heard him say, his voice reverberating around the room.

Treading the carpet proved to be a long walk for Aria.

Her shoes pressed into the softness, and she felt her heart race as she covered the distance between the door and where he sat, one step after the other. It was not a long distance between the door and where he sat, but it felt endless and unsure for her, so that she lost the feeling of life in her legs as she moved, felt them quiver when she passed the other watching men, and almost crashed to the ground as she came to a halt before him.

Her eyes stung, and she did not know why, except that they hurt even worse when she tried to look up at him. Her skin could feel the other pairs of eyes watching her as well, like a specimen under scrutiny as they dissected and tore her apart. Not a single one of those eyes mattered as much as his, though, as she had made the deal with him and only him. It meant that his words were power, and she was subject to whatever sentence they pronounced.

There was silence for so long that she took a quick peek at his face and found him looking at her. His blue eyes showed nothing of the calm that the heart feels at the sight of that colour, but showed cruelty. It was the same with the smile on his lips, the smile he wore as his men gave her father what he called ‘the shaking’.

“This is the girl I told you all about. Daring, feisty, dutiful, strong… you name it. Here she is.” He grinned.

And all of a sudden there was a round of applause, a clear mockery to Aria. As they clapped, Don Nico held out his hand, and one of his men handed him a small bowl of grapes. He took one, tossed it in his mouth, and crushed the tiny fruit, all without that cruel smile leaving his lips. At last, he spoke again.

“Kneel.”

Aria felt her legs stiffen in response, and she watched him stare at her with an expression that communicated his unwillingness to ask her twice. Then she remembered her father.

Yes, she was doing all this for him.

Slowly, her knees bent until they pressed into the soft carpet that had paid her homage since she stepped foot into this room, her eyes on him the entire time. Her heart pounded with anticipation, not knowing what he was going to do next, and she tried to think of what she would not have given to be anywhere but where she was, waiting on his next order.

It came quickly, too.

“Strip.”

Her hands shook where they hung at her sides, and she clenched her jaw. Then she looked him straight in the eyes and shook her head. No. It was not going to happen.

“I knew you would,” he laughed, and then handed the bowl back to the guard. Then he rose up, charming as an angel with how his muscles ripped beneath the fabric of his dress shirt, which was tucked into a pair of cotton trousers. He rolled up the sleeves of that shirt, exposing a golden watch before bowing down so that his face hung right before Aria's. It no longer had that smirk, but the cruel look was well retained, so that he went from looking like a charming angel to being a charming devil.

“Yes or No?” He asked.

Aria started to shake her head.

“Yes, or No?”

“No.” She spat.

“A stubborn one we have here,” he grinned, before asking one last time. “Yes, or No?”

“No,” she said and then spat upon his shoe.

He recoiled as though he had been gravely harmed, while their ears were greeted by the sounds all the men around them made. To Aria, this was a sign that she had made her mark, and that they knew she was a different breed, stubborn to the end. Once more, she looked up at him and dared to smile.

Her victory lasted until she saw him reach to his waist, where a shiny belt held up his trousers and kept it stuck to his trim frame. He unbuckled it and drew it out in one slick motion, holding it in his hand and standing over her. The belt hung from his hand like something predatory, dangling as though it had a life of its own.

“Yes or No?”

Her pride kept her intact, kept her standing despite her fear of the pain she imagined she would feel once he struck. It was why she jumped up to her feet and attempted to attack him. It was a grave, sorry mistake.

He moved aside with the ease of someone who could have seen her coming in slow motion, so that she fell to the other side, leaving him unharmed. Around them, the watching men started to cheer, and it only served to trigger Aria and drive her into a bout of madness.

She jumped to her feet and with a yell, started to try to hit him, while the men sitting around cheered. Her moves made it clear that she was not the reason for their excitement, because her fists met empty air and she was doing everything but touching Don Nico.

It took only one move from him, one quick touch with his hands to send her down to the ground where she lay, heaving and breathless. Again he stood over her, victorious.

“A stubborn one we have here.” He announced.

Aria would have gotten back on her feet, but his hand went up in the air.

The belt was realer than fiction while hanging up there as she saw it. It coiled, uncoiled, furled, twisted, shook and breathed before it came down. Then she shut her eyes and waited for the pain, but it never came. It was only the sound of his voice that she heard, speaking in a baritone.

“I have not hit a woman before,” he began, and as she opened her eyes to look at him, he was slipping his belt back around his waist. “Not ever, and though this one tempted me to, I think we have seen enough to say that her sheer bravery is commendable. You all know I commend bravery, even from my enemies. I could spare those who show it.”

Murmurs of agreement followed his words.

“Young lady, get up and serve us.”

Aria heard him loud and clear, the tears streaming down from the sides of her eyes. His words jumped out at her, and at the same time, she remembered what Anita had said to her:

‘I do not know why, but I will only ask that you be wise. Act as you should, and you will be fine around here.’

She knew he was a part of the Mafia.

She knew he would kill her if he so wished and decide whether to dissolve her body in acid or to leave it where it would be posed as a lesson to be taught to all who did not want to learn. She had written enough articles over caffeinated eyes to know all that.

For now, and while she was alive, she could still return to her father and care for him. He needed her more than anything else in the world. He was already too damaged by the loss of Elena and Mabel to be stable enough. How much would he take if she lost her?

She had to please him, not disobey him.

Even if it was just for her father.

Slowly, and for so long she thought it would take forever for her to do what she wanted to, she got to her knees and knelt before him.

“Forgive me for my strong headedness, Don.”

“I would never hold any offence against a brave person. You are forgiven,” he commented, and all the men went into a round of applause as he returned to his seat. The bowl of grapes was returned to him, and he popped another one of the fruits into his mouth, his eyes staring down at her.

“Serve the men and go away,” he told her, sweeping his hand through the air.

It was with a feeling of relief over the unsmeared pride in her chest that she walked off, her face unashamed as the men mockingly clapped and cheered and hailed her bravery. The return journey was just as long as the beginning, and she pushed the doors open, and shut them behind her.

With a silent decision, she made her choice.

She would lear,n to live with the beast and not disobey him.

She was in his power, anyway.