Flashback

1557 in Italy

Mia mourned the loss of her favourite toy, a home-made doll with button eyes and a stitched smile that made her smile when sad. That smile faded once her brother threw the sweet damaged thing into the fireplace. He felt no remorse while his little sister cried in front of him. He warned her not to wander off on her own and she didn't listen to him. Every time he gave specific rules she didn't listen. But she was just a child.

"don't worry Mia Bella" her mother would say while she kissed her daughter's forehead and hold the small fragile girl close to her in a motherly embrace, "mama can always make a new one" the mother would say to comfort her daughter's ongoing tears that stained her cheeks. She too couldn't understand her son's behaviour. When she said "look after your sister" she didn't mean break her toys and break her heart.

Antonio would stand outside the door to his sister's room and listen. He would be punished for this once his father returned from work. He was always getting into trouble; Antonio was the definition of trouble. He was handsome for a boy only aged fifteen with hazel coloured eyes and shoulder length black hair. His father returned home, Antonio would grin evilly as his father came up to him with his hand held high as he slapped the boy with the back of his hand through his face. A small cut ran across his cheekbone from the ring on his father's finger. It stung but he liked the pain just as much as he liked dishing it out to everyone.

"Go fetch water from the stream and come straight back" Antonio ordered Mia the next morning, his face expressionless and his tone stern. Antonio bent down to her eye level and he held her face in his hands as she fought to look away from him, but he was bigger and stronger than her so she had to look at him. "Do you understand?" he asked her and she nodded in reply. He stood and let her pass him.

She sobbed as she walked slowly down the forest path that led to a small stream with clear fresh water that her mother preferred to the town's well. She sat and lowered the bucket down into the water when she heard someone approaching through the trees. "Who's there?" she asked as the sound of snapping twigs and crunchy leaves came closer towards her.

"It's alright I won't hurt you" a boy's voice said to her which helped calm her down. He came out from behind a tree with a smile on his face. He looked to be around her age maybe a year older than her. He had short black hair and the brightest blue eyes she'd ever seen. "What's your name?" he asked her.

"Mia Bella" she said in a shy, quiet voice. She continued filling the bucket until it was full, then she lifted it from the stream and walked past him. She didn't want to be rude but she was only following her brother's words "come straight back" Antonio said. She'd hate to be in trouble once more and lose another one of her toys if she had any.

"Hey what's the rush" the boy asked and ran to catch up with her. "I'm just trying to be friendly. My name's Michael" the boy introduced himself. She felt tempted to stay and speak more with him but her brother would be suspicious. "I'm sorry I have to go" Mia said.

"Wait! Will you meet me here tomorrow?" Michael asked, looking hopeful.

"Sure of course" Mia replied which made him smile.

1565...

They met by the stream every morning for the next eight years. Mia Bella had changed from being a little girl to a beautiful young woman. Aged eighteen many suitors came knocking on her door. She'd rejected them all, her heart belonged to another.

Michael had grown into a strong young man. They also grew together in love and friendship with each other. One morning Mia met him by the stream where they then ran off to a willow tree with strands of leaves that hung down like a green curtain. "Do you have the knife?" Mia asked him, and he pulled out a knife which was buckled into his belt. He always had a way of making her break all the rules. "You know you shouldn't play with knives" Michael told her while she carved her name carefully into the wood on the trunk.

"I'll be careful" she assured him and once she finished her name, Michael started on his name, which he wrote underneath hers. Mia ran her hands along the bark which was covered in all kinds of carvings, put there over years by the two of them. It was their tree, their place, their memories.

"I wonder what your brother would do if he saw this" Michael thought aloud. Like the two of them Antonio had grown too. He had gotten controlling and strict over Mia, but he was always busy in the shop with their father so Mia could easily slip away without anyone noticing. And whenever she was sad, Michael was there to comfort her.

"He'd burn our tree to the ground and then he'd burn you" Mia warned him, it was no joke to either of them. They knew what they were doing was risky and stupid. They had considered marriage before to spare themselves from Antonio's anger but Michael wasn't exactly the man her family would choose for her. He was an orphaned boy who worked as a woodcutter in the village, poor but kind and loving; and that was what Mia loved about him most.

"We should leave and go someplace else. Just the two of us" Michael said. He had brought this up before, the plan of running away and starting a new life for themselves away from their village. Mia would gladly give up her life there in Italy, the luxurious life for any life with him as long as they were together. "Where would we go?" Mia asked him. "Wherever we want to; the city, the country side, even the forest" he told her.

Leaving everything behind was what she always wanted; to leave her brother behind and start off new with someone she loved, and who loved her. She would miss nothing if she left her parents, except how angry Antonio would be. "Take me to the sea and across the land. I won't be stuck here all my life. I want to live...be free" Mia told him and he held her close to him as placed a single kiss on her lips before saying goodbye for now.

End of Flashback

Author's note:

here it's fiinally here! a full flashback chapter!

other ones coming up later

please review!