“Alessia…… Alessia come here.”

  The old woman’s voice went silent again and she waited. She only needed to call once.

  The thin walls of the old home could not contain any sound and no matter where someone was, asleep or not, when Nonna Conti called out, you came right after.

  Alessia groaned and rubbed her eyes. Whatever sleep she had gotten had not been restful. Even though she had just sat and driven most of the day it had been exhausting. Spending any length time with her mom was like handling an unpredictable dog that could get vicious and bite all of a sudden without warning.

  At least you could put a dog like that down at anytime. She had been stuck with her mother for over thirty years with no end in sight but Alessia was used to her mom and she managed to cope.

  The horror of what she had witnessed yesterday was slowly eating away at her. Her mother was able to use dark magic and she had used it on a child and this had pleased her greatly. She was living with a monster and Alessia realized she really did not know what else her mother was capable of.

  She swung her feet out onto the worn floor and stumbled up and towards the door. Her mom was waiting, for now, but any trip to the bathroom would have to wait, she was expected to go straight to the old woman.

  The worn door creaked open as Alessia moved into the den that her mother used as a bedroom. It might have been the largest room in the house but it was so crowded with her mothers things it felt quite small.

  This was due in part to the old woman who had the ability to overwhelm such a space but also because of the haphazard nature of the clutter in the room. It was part apothecary, part bedroom, part library and then who knows what. A large old fashioned dressing area divider made of a tarnished dark wood covered one corner of the room completely.

  Alessia has no idea what was hidden there but she was sure it was not fancy dresses or makeup. She spent as little time as possible in this room and she would never dare to come in by herself. The old woman would know and she would be punished for sure.

  When, if her mother ever died, Alessia planned to make sure that the home was still insured and then she would have someone burn the house to the ground. She would take nothing from it, it would all burn.

  The old woman sat at her desk by the window. The horrible terracotta bottle sat on a small table next to the narrow bed.

  Of course the old woman would sleep right next to it Alessia thought, her mind picturing an ancient lizard resting on a rock, unmoving with fixed expressionless eyes. This is how she would sleep, a soulless cold blooded creature conserving energy for its prey.

  “You must go back to the farm. Today. You tell the girl that if she wants to save her friend then only Nonna Conti can do this. You tell her where she can find me”.

  “Mama no, it’s so far and I don’t want to drive there again. It will be too much for you to do this so soon.”

  “No, only you go. I don’t need to go now, I have done my work. Now they will come to me, once they know what has happened to the boy”.

  Alessia felt relieved, it was much better to go on her own but she mustn’t show this.

  “They won’t believe me, some crazy lady from the city that they don’t know shows up and says that their friend is cursed. That is just crazy. No one’s gonna believe this now. Mayve sixty years ago but not now”.

  The old woman smiled. This, all of this was pure joy for her Alessia realized and she probably did not even sleep last night. She was wearing the same clothes and even at her age, after everything that happened yesterday, she was alert and energetic.

  “Ahhh. You’re right. They won’t believe you and they will demand that you leave.”

  Her smile grew, her few remaining teeth appeared in the opening between the parted lips, yellowed and crooked with her tongue tasting the air behind.

  “But soon. Soon they will doubt and wonder and with each day those doubts will grow. It won’t take long and then…..then they will come begging and they do. ……they need to know exactly where to get on their knees. Now go.”

  Amos woke feeling weak and quite groggy. His eyes were quite sensitive to light and his thoughts were quite muddled. He had faint memories of numerous bad dreams from his fitful, restless sleep. They were of nothing he could explain.

  The images and the actions from his dreams were muddled and hard to distinguish save for one element. He had kept dreaming that the old woman from the restaurant was watching him. She had been sitting at an old desk in a dark room and some how she was watching him.

  As he became more aware of his surroundings he looked over and saw that Jim was sitting on the old green armchair next to the couch and that he was watching him with concern. Jim looked rough, unshaven and fatigued as if he had not slept well either.

  “I’ve closed the shop today, I don’t want any distractions while you rest up and we figure out what’s wrong with ya. Do you feel any better?” Jim asked hopefully.

  “Ahhh….I don’t know. My head still hurts and my eyes are still bothered by something. I am thirsty though.”

  Jim got up and gave him a glass of water and then let the boy rest while he tried to make a simple breakfast that they both might eat.

  While Jim was in the kitchen he saw his friend Dan making his way around the old truck in the lane to the back door. “Thanks again Dan for coming so quick. Something is wrong for sure. This boy has been healthy since the first day I met him. Something’s hit him and I don’t know what it is.”

  “I came as quick as I could today, if I can get the samples to the lab in the next hour my friend there can run the tests and we could have results by end of day. Where is the boy?”

  Amos was reluctant to provide the urine sample but do so without much complaint. When Dan asked to take a blood sample both Amos and Jim were surprised but Dan insisted. “If we’re gonna do this then we best be thorough. No sense if comin back tomorrow just to try something we coulda’ done today”.

  After he was done an exhausted Amos laid back on the couch and Jim went to see Dan off. As they were standing in the laneway Jim had questions for Dan as well about the blood test.

  “Was that really necessary, I thought all we needed was a urine test?”

  “I’ve seen a lot of things over the years Jim. There’s two things I know about kids. They like to try things they shouldn’t and they will lie right to your face bout it.”

  Dan saw the angry expression move across Jim’s face but went on anyways. “Everything you told me about this kid doesn’t sound good. Breaking into apartments, runnin’ around with guns, tryin’ to get money however he can, livin’ in a squat with a young girl and drivin’ a car with no license. Jesus Jim, who’ve you gotten yourself mixed up with.”

  Dan let his words hit Jim and then he turned and walked towards his car parked just beyond Jim’s truck. He paused with his arm on the door handle and turned back to Jim. “Look, I know you like this kid and you want to help em but so far, he seems to be living like all of those other street kids I had to drag into the hospital. They were all the same, up to no good and overdosing on something.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “I hate to say it but why would this kid be any different? Maybe he just hid it from you and now that he is on the run he is having withdrawals?”

  Jim shook his head no and started to speak. “Dan look, you don’t understand, I know his kid and I …”

  Dan cut him off “You’re right, I don’t know him and I spoke to soon. Let’s let the tests tell us what kind of kid he is insteada’ me just guessing at it. Let me go drop these off, the sooner I do, the sooner we will know. Sound good?”

  Jim waved to his friend as he backed down the lane towards the street and then turned back towards his apartment, his did not like to think that his friend could be right but unfortunately, almost all of his arguments made a lot of sense once you put them together.

  Once inside the kitchen his doubts go the better of him and he went to Amos’ bag lying on the floor where they had dumped it after getting back last night. After listening for any sounds coming from the boy Jim picked up the bag and went to the kitchen table.

  He did a quick search and then Jim took the time for a more thorough inspection. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for other than drugs or the common paraphernalia a drug user would carry to mix, cook, shoot or snort whatever it was that they were doing.

  He found nothing of the sort. Just clothing, the metal baton and the old revolver along with ammunition, some money and some personal items. Jim put the bag back together and sat down on his chair filled with guilt, worry and doubt.

  He wasn’t sure what Dan was going to find but if he had to bet his life on it, it wouldn’t be that the kid was using drugs. He had trusted his instincts this far in life and as far as he knew, Amos was one of the good ones.

  If it wasn’t for the guilt for what they had done to that boy then Alessia would have enjoyed her trip back to the farm. It was another lovely summer day and without her mother in the car she had the windows down and the scents and sounds of the peaceful countryside were everywhere.

  Alessia wished again that she could have, would have spent more time with Silvio after his dad had disappeared. Maybe things would have been different. She would have been closer with the boy and he would not have felt such shame over having his Dad abandon him and his mother.

  His loving old Nonna took every opportunity to tell Silvio what a codardo senza valore his dad had been and at the same time, the old lady managed to make the boy feel as if it was somehow his fault.

  What a mess they were all in now and over what? Alessia had asked around as discretely as she could to find out why the boy and the girl were so wanted by the local gangsters in the North End.

  She had been shocked and rather delighted to find out that the boy had just shown up out of the blue to rescue some kids from Giorgio’s restaurant downtown and that they had beaten him, tied him up and robbed him. That bastard deserved every bit of what he got.... Alessia smiled at the mental image of that fat slob beaten and trussed up on the ground.

  He often came into the bar she worked at and he would make rude comments to her all the time about her body, her looks and why such a girl like her would be lucky to have a chance with a guy like him.

  Whatever his faults were, Giorgio was very useful at hiding money for la Famiglia and often moved a lot of it, along with weapons and drugs through his restaurant. Any attack on him was going to be taken very seriously. Why can’t they ever just let things go…they always make things so much worse than they need to be.

  Alessia thought again of her husband and sons. If only her mother would have just left them the hell alone. Her knuckles tightened and the gravel started bouncing and pinging the old Mercedes at a frantic pace as Alessia, lost in her thoughts and succumbing to her inner torments, had floored the accelerator.

  As the heavy car started to lose its grip on the loose gravel road and slew back and forth Alessia managed to slow down and regain control. Whatever happened in these next few months, she was determined that she would make a change. It was not too late for her or Silvio. She just had to leave. Somehow, she just had to get the hell out of that neighbourhood.

  This time she did not hide up along the grass laneway, instead she turned down the driveway of the farm and came to a gentle stop where the old truck had parked yesterday. Within a minute the young girl that she had seen go into the house yesterday came crashing out of the house with a big smile on her face.

  When the girl saw Alessia getting out of the car that smile vanished immediately and the young girl narrowed her eyes and stared at Alessia, searching her face for clues as to who she was and why was she here.

  “Alanah, who is it dear?” A moment later the older woman that Alessia had seen yesterday as well came out on the porch. “Oh, hello…. We weren’t expecting anyone, why are you here, are you looking for eggs or milk to buy.”

  “No, no. I don’t want anything, and I don’t want to bring you any troubles, but I need to talk to the young girl here for a moment.”

  “What the hell do you want? Who are you and why do you know who I am?”

  Alanah’s bullshit detector was primitive but effective. She just did not believe that people came to her, especially people she didn’t know with anything good. Therefore, almost everything was bullshit and this woman, coming all the way out here was no exception.”

  “Relax, I don’t wanna drive all this way out here for no good reason unless I bring a picnic. It’s such a nice place no?” Alessia smiled and she was trying her best to charm the young girl and the older woman who was also now looking at her with open skepticism on her face.

  “Cut it out, why the hell are you here?” Alanah had her hands on her hips and was thinking about yelling for Randy. He was on the other side of the barn with Simon but if she gave it a good try he would hear her and come running. Alanah just didn’t like asking for help otherwise she would have called out the moment this woman had started talking to her, she really had no business looking for her.

  “Ok, ok…I’m gonna tell you and then I’m gonna go.” Alessia paused for a moment and looked from Andi to Alanah and then let her gaze rest on Alanah. She liked this girl, she had spirit and she was going to be a beauty.

  Her mother would really take her time breaking this girl into pieces.

  Alanah and Andi both noticed the strange woman shudder as she looked at them. She really was quite an oddity out here Andi thought to herself.

  She was very pretty and was either southern European or perhaps middle Eastern. Based on her accent, Andi was guessing that she was Italian. She had a very peculiar old world sort of way about her but she could only have been in her early thirties so she was still quite young.

  “Get on with it lady or better yet just go, I really don’t want to hear any of your crap.”

  “Alanah please, she drove out here to tell you something, give her a chance.” Despite all of the negativity in the world, Andi was still an optimistic person and she usually did try to see the best in people”.

  “Your friend has been cursed. My mother has cursed him for what he did to my son and now your friend is going to get very ill. There is nothing for you to do but to come to the North End and beg Nonna Conti for her mercy. Only she can lift the curse.”

  Andi stood and just stared, her mouth open and her eyes, unblinking and unbelieving at what she had just heard.

  “Oh for god’s sake, get the hell out of here with this crap. I mean it, get the hell out of here ..NOW.”

  Alessia tried to call the young girl down. “I know this sounds crazy but it’s true. Once you talk to your friend you’re gonna believe me.”

  “That’s it….” Alanah wheeled and strode into the kitchen only to re-appear a moment later with a battered aluminum baseball bat. “Get back in you car and get out of here…”

  “Ok, ok, I am going.” Alessia stepped back carefully to her car and opened the door and climbed back inside. After a moment the car started and she reversed backwards onto the lawn and then pulled off down the driveway. As Alanah and Andi stood watching from the front path the Mercedes slowed and stopped and the woman stepped back out onto the driveway.

  “Why the hell are you still here?” Alanah was confused and angry, she really did not like how this woman had known to look for her here and that she had also known about Amos. As the young girl started towards the car her thoughts were still trying to catch up with everything that had just happened.

  What had she meant about her son, there was no way she was Giorgio’s mom…..oh shit.

  Alanah stopped advancing towards the car and lowered the bat as the realization set in.

  Alessia recognized the change in the young girl and came forwards with her hands out in front of her and stopped at the end of her idling car.

  “Look I mean you no harm and what my son did to you, I had no idea he was going to be doing this and I think you both taught him a lesson no?”

  “He will be fine but your friend will not be. He will need to find Nonna Conti soon and maybe she will show mercy.”

  Alessia took a good look at Alanah. “Don’t you go with your friend. She will hurt you and you will never be the same. Your friend is probably lost forever. You need to save yourself and do not go near her, ever. Do you understand me?”

  She could see that the young girl was filled with fear, with doubt and a lot of anger. She had to leave now, she could not do anymore for them, she had warned the girl, that was enough.

  Alessia kept staring at the young girl, she could see two men coming from the barn and walking towards them. It was time to go. She saw her younger self in this girl. Alone, unsure and angry. Trying to face the world with little to no help and the odds against you.

  Out of habit or perhaps superstition Alessia lowered her voice and looked directly at Alanah.

  “I work at a private bar on Salem street, just above the Libertine restaurant. Call the restaurant and they’ll give you the number. Call me when you’re ready. My names Alessia and I will help you.”

  Alessia got back in the car and drove away slowly. She was worried that Nonna Conti would sense her betrayal but she felt that the risk had been worth it.

  All her mother would really care about is that this girl was told where she and the boy need to go when they become desperate enough to do so.

  As long as Alessia had done this then the old woman would be satisfied.