Crime for Crime

By Illusion

It wasn’t like Ravenna was completely in the dark about what her family did.

There were enough hushed conversations and secret glances surrounding her constantly that if she hadn’t been suspicious, she would have had to be completely oblivious. She had known about it her whole life, or at least as long as it had been going on. While she knew she wasn’t supposed to know anything, she didn’t care. It was her family -- her brothers, her father, and while she didn’t know exactly what was going on, she knew it was something. There were constantly people coming and going from their house, all familiar with her family. Every single one of them ignored her, even when she was right in front of them.

When Massimo got initiated, she had watched the whole thing with Gianni, taking turns peeking through the cracks in the floor down into the cellar. The next year, when it had been Gianni’s time, she watched by herself.

Her brothers were the only people she ever felt close to. She knew everyone else around only saw them as who they were -- killers and businessmen, though the latter was much more Massimo’s deal than Gianni’s, but she knew they were more. With as little as she saw her father, she was grateful for having her brothers around. Massimo was the person who read to her when she couldn’t sleep, and taught her how to read English. Gianni was the one who made her feel safe, who told her that nothing bad was ever going to happen to her.

In hindsight, she shouldn’t have had such blind faith in that promise.

All she had done was go to the market. All she had wanted to do was make ravioli for dinner. For the first time in almost two weeks, her entire family was going to be home for dinner. At least, that was the plan. Between getting some spices and reaching for the tomatoes, it happened. A man had come up to her, said he had been sent by her brother to come get her. There were only a couple problems with that. While no one in her family’s business bothered to look at her, she looked at all of them, and any time there was a problem and they wanted her to stay at the house, it was one of her brothers who came and got her, no matter how busy they were. Not only had that man not been one of her brothers, he wasn’t anyone she recognized either.

Despite her struggles, she had ended up locked in a small room with no windows in a building she’d never been to. A large hand had been clamped over her mouth the entire way, keeping her from screaming. She had bitten it, but all that had earned her was a backhanded slap on the face and a harshly whispered threat in her ear that if she did it again he wouldn’t be so gentle. The whole way there she had kept quiet and calm, tears stinging her eyes, and once she was shut in that room by herself she’d just pressed her back into the furthest corner and sunk down to the floor.

Stay quiet and cooperate and nothing bad would happen. That’s what they told her. There was only so much of that she could do. After one day of being stuck in that room by herself, except for when they shoved a little bread and water her way, she got restless enough to try to pick the lock on the door like Gianni had taught her how to go. It took a lot of tries, but she had gotten it open eventually. That had earned her a man constantly staying in the room with her.

It was quiet and awkward, the two of them there together all the time. Well, it wasn’t always the same man. They came and went, but there was always someone there. They didn’t speak to her, but they stared. It was unnerving the way they stared. She tried to break the silence, break the tension and ask some questions, but they said nothing aside from telling her to keep quiet and hope that her family actually cared about her. That last part was enough to scare her.

Of course she knew her family cared about her. It was just that clearly the men who had trapped her there had something against them, or at least something they wanted from them. After all, there was no other reason they would have her there. She was sick of being stuck in that room, having to let someone know any time she had to go to the bathroom. Not being allowed to take a bath, no clothes to change into. She felt disgusting and gross and so mad about everything.

Being pissed was what made her so irrational. She knew better than to try anything. It’s not like she had any power to work with. Anyone she saw was so much bigger than her, there wasn’t any question about that. That didn’t stop her from trying. Her frustration got to the point where she just had to try something, she was so desperate. It was right at a change between people watching her, and while her new babysitter was locking the door, she launched herself onto him, latching onto his back and wrapping her arms around his neck.

For the briefest moment, she thought she had a chance. She held her arms against his throat as tight as she could, and she thought she was managing to do it. Except then he turned around and slammed her back against the wall. Her head hit hard, and she felt her grip loosen, but she fought to keep hold as much as possible. He did it again, and she felt her jaw rattle, the wind knocked out of her for a moment. He grabbed her arms, slamming her back into the wall one more time and pulling her arms from around his neck, dropping her down to the floor and kicking her hard in the side.

Ravenna didn’t try anything else, after that. Her ribs hurt from where he kicked her and now that she’d tried to get out again, her guard stood watch with a gun. What little patience they’d had with her before, they had even less then. Depending on who it was, some of them even tied her wrists together to doubly make sure she wouldn’t be able to do anything. She had been sitting in the corner of the room, wrists bound together, when it happened.

What was going on, she had no idea. She just heard shouting and scuffling and the man in the room with her was on his feet quicker than she had seen any of them move. Her eyes widened as she heard a gunshot, and she pressed back further into the corner. “Don’t fucking move,” the man snarled, pointing over at her. She shook her head quickly, pulling her knees up to her chest. “Stay there.”

“Okay,” she whispered, staying curled up in the corner. All the sounds she was hearing from outside the door, she didn’t want to know what was going on. For the first time since she got there, almost two weeks prior, she was perfectly happy to stay in the corner of her small, dank room. She watched as he unlocked the door, prising it open the smallest bit so he could see out. It was amazing how much sound the door blocked, because in that brief moment it was open, the screams were unbearable.

He shut the door a few seconds later, twisting the lock back on and not bothering to be quiet about it. She had squeezed her eyes shut when she’d heard the screams that just sounded torturous, so she didn’t see him coming toward her. Her eyes flew open when he grabbed her wrists, hauling her to her feet. “What are you doing?” she asked, her tone panicked. So far, none of them had touched her beyond what they had to. She had heard some of them talking about it in the hall, but there was something said about returning her to her family in one piece. “Stop it!”

“Just keep your mouth shut,” he growled, holding her in front of him, pointed toward the door. She jumped a little as something hit the door loudly, and without thinking she took a step back, bumping into his chest. He shoved her forward, gripping the back of her blouse in his hand and holding her there, and she swallowed hard as the door shook in its frame. Her breath was catching in her chest and she felt like she couldn’t breathe, just standing and waiting and not knowing what was coming.

“Please do not hurt me, please do not hurt me, please do not hurt me,” she murmured, almost chanting as she felt her body tensing in anticipation of what she didn’t know.

“Shut up!” he barked, but she couldn’t help but scream when a bullet shot through the door and into the floor. Her heart was pounding so hard and so fast and she felt like her chest was going to burst, and she clenched her eyes shut as tears managed to squeeze their way out. “I’ll shoot her. I swear to God, I’ll shoot her.”

“No you won’t.” Ravenna felt the smallest relief from the tension and fear taking over her body. She knew that voice, and she forced herself to open her eyes and look up at her oldest brother. It wasn’t as comforting as she hoped, seeing him there. He didn’t look at all like himself. His eyes were dark and he looked rough and tired. She knew he did bad things in his time but he actually looked scary. The gun that moved to press against her temple didn’t help things, nor did the fresh yelp of pain from the hall behind her brother.

“Massimo,” she whimpered, closing her eyes and clenching her fists at her side, trying not to shake. She didn’t want to give any reason for the man holding her there, pointing a gun at her head, to do anything.

“I’ll shoot her,” he repeated, not wavering as his grip tightened in the fabric of her shirt.

“You could,” Massimo said, cocking the gun in his hand. “But if you shoot her, I won’t shoot you.” She felt a bit of hesitation from the man behind her, but she couldn’t bring herself to look. “If you shoot her, I’ll let my brother take care of you. Either way, you’re going to die. It’s just up to you how slow and painful you want it to be.” As if on cue, there was another scream.

Ravenna felt the fingers in her shirt loosen, the man breathing heavily against her hair. She could almost hear the wheels turning in his head as he tried to decide what to do. “Choose one or the other. You’re going to die, there’s no way around that.” Massimo was practically taunting him and that was terrifying to her. Even still, she felt less pressure against her temple from the tip of the gun. “Let her go.”

It felt like an eternity as she stood there with her eyes closed, trying not to think about the guns and where they were pointed. There was only so much she could take of the silence that was only being broken by the sound of all of them breathing, and the whimpers from the hallway. Very slowly, the grip on her shirt disappeared, and she felt herself being pushed forward. She opened her eyes and looked up at her brother, who just wordlessly jerked his head toward the doorway. Not needing any further encouragement, she quickly went out the door that had been keeping her captive for so long.

When she stepped into the hallway, she almost wished she had stayed in the room. There was blood everywhere, and so many bodies on the floor. Well, there weren’t necessarily that many, probably only five or six, but however many there were they had leaked out so much blood the floor looked like it was all going to be covered before they could leave. There in the middle of it all was Gianni, kneeling down over a man who was writhing beneath him. She felt like she might be sick, looking around at all of it. Now that she was paying attention she could easily see the difference, the choice Massimo had been offering.

There were those there on the ground who had obviously been shot. Somehow, the sight of someone with a bullet mark in the middle of their forehead didn’t disturb her as much as she thought it should have. It was more so the people she knew had dealt with Gianni -- those were the ones that turned her stomach. They were the ones with blood seeping from all over, the ones who had clearly been through a lot before they actually expired. The ones like the man who was pinned down to the ground with Gianni hovering over him, as he traced the tip of his knife down their arm before plunging it into their hand and making them scream.

“Gi-Gianni,” she whispered, her eyes wide as she watched him, almost flinching as his head whipped around to look at her. She did actually flinch when she heard a gunshot from the room behind her. There was a dull thud that she was almost certain was the man who had been holding her captive that day as he dropped to the floor. “Stop. Please.”

Everything was overwhelming. After silence except for hushed conversations, no sunlight and being imprisoned for that time, it was so overstimulating to hear the gunshots, the screams, see all the blood. Seeing her brothers overwhelmed her with such joy and relief, even under the circumstances. Especially because of the circumstances. There was no one she had wanted to see more, the entire time she was confined, but she wished it was less terrifying to see them. Gianni was not that different, but Massimo really was.

He barely nodded at her, but he yanked the knife out of the man’s hand and his arm twitched up, the blade easily slicing across his throat. Ravenna sunk back against the wall, feeling like she was going to faint. Her knees gave out and she would have fallen down into the pool of blood nearest to her if Massimo hadn’t come out of the room just in time to catch her. He lifted her up into his arms, and he looked over at Gianni, almost as if the two were having a conversation with no words.

“Take me home,” she choked out, her arms slipping around his neck. She clung to him as he waited for Gianni to move through the maze of bodies littering the floor. It was absurd how little blood he had on him, considering how much there was all over the place. They made their way through the building and out onto the street, covering the distance to their house quickly and quietly.

Once they were there, she strained against Massimo’s hold until he set her down on her feet. Her steps were uneasy and her legs felt shaky as she climbed the stairs up to the bathroom. She couldn’t bring herself to lock the door behind her, not liking the sound of the metal latching shut or the feeling she felt that came with it. All she knew was that she had felt disgusting and filthy before they had gotten there, and then with the added blood on her hands she felt even worse. When she drew the water for the bath, she made it as hot as she could stand, and pulled off the clothes she never wanted to wear again before climbing into the bathtub.

No amount of soap and scrubbing was making her feel better. It wasn’t even that so many people had been killed that day, it was how easily the other men had gotten to her, and had used her as bait, as ransom. There hadn’t been a second thought in his mind when he said he would shoot her. That plus the way Massimo had spoken to him, so clear and unwavering, almost mocking his choice between how he wanted to die. She had never seen that side of him before. Gianni did not surprise her, he had always been different. That was why she had always felt safe when she was around him.

It was just too bad that not all promises were able to be kept. So she scrubbed and washed and when the water turned cold, she did it all over again.