Felicia screamed shortly as she jumped away from the door, and fixing her gaze on the sharp object which flew only centimeters away from her head before it stopped in the hard wood of her front door, she backed away slowly, unable to hold her whimpers back even with her hands pressed hard against her mouth and nose. She felt her knees turning into jelly in the moment she realized that what nearly grazed her cheek was no other than Luciano's most favourite knife. He aimed well, as always. The blade wasn't supposed to hurt, only scare her to get her attention, to let her know she wasn't alone in her house in the second she entered and turned the lights on. The knife penetrated the wood deeply, reflecting the force used to throw it. He must be angry, she thought, but didn't understand why, and why he'd do this to her at all. She had done nothing at all that could have possibly pissed him off.
She slowly removed her hands from her face, but kept them in front of her chest, as if she could somehow slow her rapid heartbeat and protect herself from the next potential attack, even though she knew well, if Luciano wants a strike to be fatal, it will be, and turned around to see him sitting comfortably on her couch in her living room as if nothing had happened at all. He smiled and spoke calmly.
"Good evening, little one, you're kind of late tonight."
Felicia took a deep breath and collected all her courage to answer him. She forced herself to stand straight, but she only felt the numbness in her waist grow more intense.
"Good evening to you as well, brother." The word brother came out empty and affectionless, calling him that was nothing but a sign of respect towards him, without any love for her psychotic cousin in her voice. "Rest assured, I have been at Moni." And she somehow felt herself slowly becoming braver at the thought of Monika. She always treated Luciano as a stupid little boy in need of some disappointment and discipline, she handled him so easily, she never seemed to be afraid of him at all. And secretly, Felicia was jealous of her because of that. Monika had courage, strenght, and she had... this. Luciano appearing in her house and making her completely defenseless in a second.
"What the hell is that knife for?" She blurted out, feeling Monika's protective presence around her suddenly, even though she was nowhere around.
Luciano uncrossed his legs and stood up, moving as slowly as ever, something ominous in every single of his moves. He walked up to Felicia, gave her a smile that she knew couldn't mean anything good for her, but before giving her his full attention, he reached towards his knife and pulled it out from the door without much effort. After that he turned back to her, and she noticed how he kept his precious weapon in his hand, he didn't put it away.
"Take this as a reminder, little Feliciana," he said softly.
"And what should it remind me of?" She slowly took a step back.
"Your debt," he answered, turning his gaze back upon the knife in his hand as he started playing with it absently, his voice gentle. He hoped she would figure out by herself what he was talking about. She didn't. She just frowned, having still no clue at all about what he wanted with all this. Luciano rolled his eyes.
"Yes, yes, I know I let you go with a be more careful but I don't think you're fair to me." He pouted like a child.
"F-fair?" Felicia stuttered. "What is not fair?"
"Well, you see..." he continued talking with a playful tone. "I know that saving your life a few years ago wasn't that hard, it was actually fun, but you've never given me anything nice in return. Even now that you know what I want so much. I feel betrayed!" He looked up at her with a faked sad expression, his fingers never stopping around the knife. "You haven't forgotten, have you?"
Felicia looked at the floor with a heavy sigh. How could she ever forget? The terrible sounds coming from those two men, their death rattles as they fell to the ground and never got up again, the strong, sickening smell of blood... It had been a late night, and all she wanted was to get home more quickly, so she took a different, shorter route, but she never expected to suddenly be followed by two suspicious guys. First she didn't have the courage to run, but when they quickened their pace, she had no choice but do the same, until she eventually ended up running for her life. She could only guess what they wanted from her, but whatever that could have been, she knew it was nothing good for her. So she ran, panting, as fast as she could. Unfortunately then she hadn't known Monika yet, so nobody forced her to exercise to be in shape all the time; she couldn't keep going for too long. But just when she was about to give up her hope for escaping and she burst out sobbing, the men suddenly fell with a groan, and when she couldn't hear their footsteps anymore, she looked back to see what happened, but she also fell, since she stopped paying attention to her way. She managed to push herself up to sit, and pressing her hands down against the concrete for some kind of support, she stared at them long, and watched them struggle for their lives, which pooled redly on the ground under their necks. And those horrible groans... Whoever did that to them worked fast and accurately.
The smell and the sight, after she realized what had just happened to her made her gag, and pressing a hand hard against her mouth, she tried to keep the contents of her stomach down, hunching over her lap, with her tears falling on her other hand that was still on the ground and between her thighs. Her body shook in relief or in a new, greater fear, she couldn't decide. She stayed still and tried to concentrate on breathing, and she was indescribably thankful for the breeze that soon blew fresh air into her face. She lowered her hand and tilted her head slightly back, gasping for air for a few seconds. When she thought she had calmed down and she didn't feel as if she would faint in the next second, that was when she started wondering who had saved her. She wanted to open her eyes and look around in hope to find her cruel savior when she suddenly felt a pair of hands firmly grab her arms, which made her jump and want to struggle for freedom again, but a soft voice convinced her not to resist this time.
"Little one, are you alright?" Little one, he called her little one since she was born. With another gasp, Felicia looked to her side, where the voice came from, and she recognized her cousin with the greatest relief one could ever feel.
"Luciano..." she breathed, and after looking deeply into his eyes for long seconds to make sure he was real and not just a dream, she let herself give in to the shock and finally rest peacefully in his protective arms. That night Luciano carried her home in his arms and stayed with her until she woke up. Felicia couldn't have a restful sleep for weeks after that, but the next day the whole town knew not to ever mess with any of the Vargas women.
"No..." Felicia crossed her arms with a frown, she started feeling unwell after thinking back of the events of that night. "I still remember." Luciano smiled, somewhat satisfied with her answer and her reaction.
"So, my dear little sister, sweetest Feliciana..." All his words empty. "What should I do with you?"
"What do you mean?" she jumped at the question. Sighing, he started walking around, still twirling his most precious weapon between his fingers. She couldn't take her eyes off of it, it was too unsettling for her, the way he handled it as if it were a toy and the way the blade glinted from time to time gave her chills. He had never hurt her before, but now she wasn't sure if he would keep it that way.
"Little Feliciana..." he sighed. "I have sworn to protect my family, but I can't help being upset when my favourite cousin won't help me with anything, and I'm growing really impatient! How long have I been trying to make Monika all mine? Six months? Seven? But all she does is give me false hope then hurt me, your poor, sad brother, when all he wants is some love." He stopped then chuckled, happy with the way he described his desires, but Felicia saw through his lies easily.
"All you want is to have sex with her. But she doesn't even want to hear about that." She stated softly, not wanting to piss him off even more, but protecting her best friend at the same time. Despite Monika's willingness to often make out with Luciano, she never let him too close to herself. It would never have been a problem for her to break his arm anytime she felt he was too demanding. That was another one of the reasons Felicia was so proud of her, she seemed to be the only one to be able to fight him off so easily, and she only felt really safe around her.
"Oh, really?" Luciano stopped and looked at her, even though she said nothing new to him. It simply annoyed him that she didn't show any signs of willingness to help him finally get what he wanted. He is Luciano Vargas, the feared shadow in the night who's notorious for his incredible throwing knife skills that he often uses to get rid of people he finds unlikeable, who watches over the town, and who always gets away with anything at all! Only Monika hurt his pride, since she was the first one to ever be able resist him, and making such big efforts but still accomplishing nothing frustrated, infuriated him to the core after such a long time. And now he was losing his cool with Felicia as well.
"Then talk to her." He forced a smile way too sweet to be friendly on his face.
"Luciano, leave her be." She sighed, begging him softly, uncertainly. "This isn't like that... All you're doing is hurting her, breaking her little by little. You say you love her, but if you really do, then why are you so cruel to her?" She closed her eyes as she spoke, thinking at least ignoring Luciano with one of her senses could give her some courage to speak her mind, not just mutter something that was for his liking.
"Cruel, you say?" she suddenly heard his scornful voice in front of her, making her open her eyes in surprise. "Hurting her? Little one, you have no idea what those things mean." He shook his head slowly, looking deeply into her eyes the whole time he spoke. "You've got no clue what I'm capable of." And she knew that was true.
"Come here." He grabbed her arm and in one swift move he turned her around to hold her down by pressing her back against his chest and with an arm around her waist. She tried to struggle and push him away soundlessly, even though she knew it was impossible for her to escape his hold, she knew it in the second he reached towards her. He enjoyed her hopeless fight with amusement for a short while, then with his free hand he grabbed hers and held it up, turning her palm upward. He slipped his fingers between hers for a firmer hold. Felicia let out a short whimper of distress, and stayed tense against him, pressing her heels hard against the floor in her fear.
"What do you think about this?" He held his knife up to her face to let her see it with a sly smile, but all she could do first was letting out a soft groan of something between annoyance and despair.
"Come on, you're good at this, I've taught you," he encouraged her to speak. It was only then she gave in and decided to take a closer look at the weapon in front of her eyes.
"Excellent woodwork..." she mumbled, not really wanting to talk about the blade. She didn't want to know what it was like. "And the blade is probably worth mentioning as well..." she added anyway. Luciano chuckled.
"If only you knew..."
He slowly brought her hand in his down to let her see it too, and already having a bad feeling, she tried to get away from him again, but it was just as successful as the former attempt, she could squirm as much as she wanted, but she couldn't even pull her hand away. Her weak tugging on the sleeve of his jacket with her other hand had no effect either, he easily managed to press the tip of the knife against the inner side of her palm.
"No..." she whimpered, there was no other sound she could make. She turned her head aside and closed her eyes tightly, hoping it was nothing but a horrible one of his jokes. Luciano could feel her body shake and slide slightly lower against him, if he hadn't been holding her, she could have been on the ground by then.
"Little Feliciana, don't make me angry," he lowered his head a little to whisper into her ear. "It's better for you to stay on my side." He slowly ran the edge of the knife across her palm, cutting deeply enough to draw blood and slowly to make her pain last longer. He listened to her cries of pain with joy, it was so good to hear her wail like that for such a small injury.
Her blood dripped onto the floor, and her shoulders shook as she sobbed quietly even after he had removed the knife. He knew it would never be hard to make her like this. He pulled her hand back to his lips to kiss the wound gently, then he slowly licked the blood off, savouring the sweet taste of his victory over her, despite how easy it was.
"Be good." He spoke softly against her palm, occasionally pressing more soft kisses against the cut that didn't seem to stop bleeding soon. "Convince her for me. I trust you, little one. Now, let's get you some bandage, shall we?" She said nothing. Luciano then picked her up, sat her on the sofa and dressed her wound nicely, showing his caring side as if it hadn't been him who cut her.
The next day when Felicia showed up at her friend's house, Monika found her reason for her bandaged hand a little hard to believe. She had never thought she could hurt herself with a kitchen knife while preparing food, she clearly remembered the few times she cooked for her, she had some crazy cutting skills as if the art of handling knives was something inherited in the Vargas family. They sat down to the kitchen table with a cup of coffee to talk. Talking for them usually meant Felicia chattering and Monika listening to her quietly most of the time, but this time both of them sat at the table in silence, that grew uncomfortable minute by minute. Felicia was staring at her injured hand, sighing heavily at times. Monika didn't understand, she noted her sighs, but didn't know how to ask her, she had told her she was fine twice already. Suddenly, Felicia groaned as the start of something she had to say.
"Luciano said... He told me he was getting impatient."
"I've already known that." Monika said with a shrug. "But he can cry all he wants, I don't really care. He's nothing but a horny bastard."
"I know, Moni..." she sighed heavily again. "But still... maybe you could..." Monika gave her a look that made words unneeded to ask: are you serious?
"Sorry..." Felicia looked down at her lap. "But I don't want..." She couldn't finish, she thought maybe it would be a better idea to keep it all to herself, for her own good. But she didn't know what to be more scared of.
"Don't want what?" Monika asked with a slight frown.
"More..." She closed her eyes for a second then lifted her hand up to her face. "Accidents. With kitchen knives."
It took Monika a second to understand what she meant.
"Oh, fuck..." And with a heavy sigh as well, she leaned back on her chair, covering her eyes with her palm. "That bastard..."
Felicia said nothing more.