CHAPTER 99: HOME

Chapter 99

ROMEO POV

Darkness.

So dark I can taste it — smoke, metal, rot.

Air too thick to breathe.

A single bulb swings overhead, its light stuttering across the walls — stone, slick, red.

The chain bites my wrists. Cold steel. Wet skin.

I try to move but I can’t.

My hands were bound. Legs too. A chair was under me and it was nailed to the floor.

My unsteady eyes drafted across the room and there at the far end was Mamma with her. round stomach and beside her — Papà.

They’re chained too. Same chairs. Same silence. Same position.

We’re lined against the walls like broken dolls waiting for our masters to break us.

"Romeo." Mamma’s small, cracked voice called to me. She’s shaking, her eyes wild, arms trembling against the chains.

Her pregnant belly round and moving with life of my baby sister. "Mamma..."

The bulb flickers again. Shadows crawl up her stressed face. Papà’s breathing was shallow, lips split, eyes swollen.

He was barely alive from. the look of it. Blood was spilling out from his lips and side of his head.

The sound of a door opening resounding through the room before footsteps came through, slow and measured.

A man three times. my size can out —Ivan— and beside his was the bastard boris, who in his gloved hands holding onto a smoking hot rod. The red tip glowing, promising pain.

The heat rolls across the room before he even speaks.

"Good morning, little prince." My stomach twists. The chains rattle.

He crouches low, face level with mine.

The smell of smoke fills my lungs.

Ivan didn’t even glance my way, he just went over to my father who was barely hanging.

"Leave them alone!"

"Ohhh, still not talking?" Boris interrupted, voice almost kind.

The rod lifts. Getting dangerously to my already hurting face. Closer and Closer.

I pull away, but the chair won’t move.

Steel cuts skin. Sparks hiss.

The iron kisses my cheek —

Ssshhhhh—

White pain explodes across my face.

The scream tears out before I can stop it.

Mamma thrashes against her chains.

"Stop! Please!"

Ivan laughs. A sound I’ll never forget.

Low. Joyful. He shadow drapes across Papà, stretching long and thin on the blood-slick floor.

He doesn’t speak.

Just hums — something low, soft. A lullaby twisted by the dark.

Boris steps back, wiping the now cold rod on his sleeve, the stink of burned flesh choking the air.

My skin sizzles. Smoke curls past my eye. Mamma’s voice breaks. "Please—please don’t hurt him, he’s just a boy—" Ivan slowly turns.

Smiling.

"There’s no child this world." His hand slides into his coat, pulling free a small, curved blade that gleams in this dim lighting.

Papà’s swollen eyes twitched as the blade moves fast. Too fast. Steel flashes.

Blood splashes.

Papà jerks, a strangled sound clawing his throat.

Ivan’s hand moves again with precision, like he had. been practicing for this moment— slicing across my papa ribs, again and again, carving him open piece by piece.

I can’t breathe.

Can’t blink and I couldn’t stop watching.

Mamma’s screams bounce off the walls, resounding through my skull. "No! Stop! please Stop!"

"What did we do to you." Ivan tilts his head, watching Papà slump, blood seeping down the chair, dripping into a thick, dark puddle.

"You should have learned when to obey" he murmurs. "When to know a new power is on the rise."

He turns to Mamma next. And I swear my heart stops.

She thrashes, chains rattling. "Please—I’m pregnant—"

Ivan’s eyes glint. "All the better. Twice the lesson."

Papa who hasn’t even made a sound since he was being tortured screamed while whilling "No—ivan NO! please. "

I pull. Hard. The chains bite deep, skin splitting.

The chair creaks but won’t move.

"Leave her alone!" I roar until my throat tears.

Ivan doesn’t even look at me.

He sets the blade against her belly.

She’s crying. Whispering something — a prayer, maybe a curse.

Her voice is all I hear before the slice. Her scream shatters the air.

Blood spills — bright, endless, unstoppable.

Her head falls forward, hair sticking to her face.

The world tilts.

I can’t feel my body.

I can’t feel anything.

Boris walks over, silent now, and reaches into the pool of red.

When he stands, something wet dangles from his hand — a strip of flesh, torn, glistening.

He walks toward me.

Each step heavy.

Measured.

"Your turn, little prince."

I shake my head. "No—no, please—" My head moved to the door, seeing a kid my age standing there like a statue.

Boris grabs my jaw, forces me to face him back and pulling my mouth open. He pushed what he had picked up into me.

I gag, thrash, but he doesn’t let go. The taste — blood, smoke, salt, and horror — hits my tongue.

"Eat."

Ivan watches. "Good boy," he whispers. "Remember this. Remember who owns you."

Papà lifts his head one last time. His voice is a rasp.

"Romeo... I’m sor—"

Boris drives the rod into his face.

The light leaves his eyes.

He slumps.

Silence.

Only my breathing left — ragged, shallow, broken.

Ivan wipes the blade clean on Mamma’s dress, then straightens.

He steps close — so close I can see my reflection in the black of his eyes. "Now the new regime has started." He smirks. "They will never forget us."

Boris yanks the rod free, and the bulb flickers.

The room spins.

Blood.

Smoke.

Ash.

Then darkness swallows everything.

---

beep. beep. beep. beep.

A rapid beeping tore through the dark.

Too loud. Too close.

My lungs seized —

Air. I needed air.

Hands clutched the sheets. Cold. Real.

The stink of blood was gone, replaced by antiseptic and bleach.

Light flooded my eyes.

White. Blinding.

I gasped — a raw, animal sound — and jerked upright.

Tubes pulled. Wires snapped against skin.

My chest heaved like I was still choking on smoke.

"Romeo!"

A voice, sharp, desperate , cutting through the noise. Fingers pressed to my shoulders, steady but shaking.

Faces blurred in and out — white coats, pale walls, movement.

The monitor screamed louder.

beep-beep-beep-beep-beep—

My heart was sprinting. My vision swam.

I saw them again.

Mamma. Papà. Chains. Blood.

"No—"

I ripped the mask off my face, chest heaving.

The machines wailed in protest.

Hands tried to hold me down, voices shouted orders.

"His heart rate’s spiking!"

"Sedative—now!"

"Don’t touch me!" I snarled, half-conscious, half-feral. The sound didn’t even sound human.

Someone shouted my name again — closer this time. Softer.

"Romeo, it’s me. Look at me."

That voice.

I froze.

Eyes darted — through the haze — and found hers.

Wide, tear-bright. Terrified.

The room slowed.

The noise dimmed.

Her hand reached mine — trembling — and for the first time, I realized it was shaking just like mine.

"You’re safe," she whispered.

"You’re home."

My throat burned. My pulse pounded.

"Nonna?."

††

Alright, what a Chapter guys

I’m impressed by myself lol

I can’t wait to read y’all comments on ur thoughts.

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Btw guys should I open a discord server for this book?

Ahhhhhh, hahahahaha Romeo is freaking awake.

I used — in this Chapter a lot 😆