Back & Forth | Book 1 of Back & Forth Series
Thirty One: Shifting Realities

I’m not sure if I’m actually asleep right now or not. It still feels as though as I’m still awake but I’m not sure. I feel like my eyes are wide open now but I can’t see anything. This is strange.

I blink once and open my eyes again. I look around and replace myself in WHAT?! Federico’s safe house again?! Fuck my life. I thought I was done with this reality and now I’m back here again. Thank god no one’s here so I’m safe for now. I think so.

I look down at my body and replace my body still fully covered with the fur coat. Okay. That’s good. No one didn’t do anything when I was asleep here. I feel normal and don’t feel any pain down there so that means no one raped me.

This sucks. I thought what Luciano did work for me. I thought I was actually sleeping but now I’m awake here. Wait. I think it can be considered as working since I’m asleep in my other reality but now I have my consciousness here so I’m awake in this one instead. Why am I here again though? Do I need to do something here? Why? It’s probably my ancestors. They need me to do something first before I’m finally done experiencing this reality. I hope I won’t go back here or shifting realities like this again. I feel like I’m not getting any sleep in either reality. I just want to get more sleep before meeting my father tonight. I’m not resting despite me probably looking peacefully asleep in my other reality.

Now that I’m here again, am I continuing the previous timeline? I think so. I mean, I’m still in the same clothing as I was before and the sun is already out. If I remember it correctly, I passed out for 30 minutes yesterday but I spend 3 hours in here. So that means one hour here equals 10 minutes in my other reality. If I go by that logic, if I spend 7.5 hours or 450 minutes in my other reality that means I’ve been here for 45 hours?! Nah. That doesn’t sound right. By looking at my surroundings, that doesn’t look like the case. I’m probably just continuing whatever happened last night. Whatever. I’m not going to worry about the weird timing in this reality. I have to figure out what to do now. I guess I’ll check the window first to see where I am and see if there’s any specific thing outside that can help my cousins and Luciano to replace me.

I push myself off the bed and see the door swings open. My heart skips a beat at the sight of Federico standing there. Oh shit. Here we go again.

I cross my arms and scowl at Federico. If he’s going to try to rape me again now, I’m going to do something worse, like making him getting a cramp on his legs or something similar. There’s no way I’m letting him near me again.

“Dude, you have to stop trying to fucking rape me or else you’ll pass out again.” I warned. Federico doesn’t know it but it’s a threat from me. I’ll probably going to give him cramps first before turning him unconscious. That sounds like a good plan.

“Is that a threat?” Federico asked. His eyes narrow as he keeps his gaze on me. I roll my eyes at the accusation. Of course it is a threat. You just don’t know about it.

“I’m just stating the fact. It’s been happening on repeat last night so there’s a high chance that it’ll happen again anytime soon.” I said, shrugging. The statement only seems to make Federico a little angry and annoyed but he doesn’t move from his place. He just stays there by the door.

“It won’t happen again.” Federico said, glaring at me angrily. A smug smile suddenly appears on his face as he crosses his arms.

“Good news for you, I won’t fuck you now but prepare yourself. I’ll be back in an hour.” Federico said.

Fuck my life. I don’t fucking care about his threat. I’m just tired of making him unconscious again and again. It’s getting annoying. It’s not even funny anymore.

I wish I could just kill him now by giving him a heart attack or torture him physically with invisible pain but I don’t think I can do that now. Not yet. There’s something important I have to do but Federico must be alive for it. I guess he’ll stay alive for now.

Oh right. I have to read his mind to get the list of the traitors in our famiglia. I should do it now while he’s still in the room with me. It’s now or never. I have to do this quickly but thoroughly.

“You’re the one who should prepare yourself because I know my cousins and Luciano will replace me. We’re going to fuck you up until you regret being alive at the same time as we do.” I said threateningly with a smirk on my face. This got me thinking. Where are they now? Are they okay?

“If they come here, then good for me. I can make your cousins and Luciano watch you being raped by me in every way possible while being in the same room as us. After that, I’m going to kill all of you together at once. I’ll make you suffer in front of each other first and you’ll see how miserable each one of you all. I’ll spend more time fucking you up over and over again while your cousins and Luciano shout and beg me to stop using you for my own pleasure. How’s that sound?” Federico asked with a grin.

Oh shut up you old man. You’ll only going to pass out and get a heart attack while trying to get to me. You have no chance against us. You don’t know what we’re capable of. You don’t know what I’m capable of. You’re messing with the wrong famiglia if you think you can get away from all this easily. You’ll never escape us.

I make him pass out again, not wanting to hear any more of his annoying voice. Okay. While he’s fainting, I better read his mind now. I scan through his mind for the traitors’ names and get about twenty names. Thankfully, there’s no other capos involved other than Salvo. I also replace Carlo, Lorenzo, and Giulio in the list so this list might be real whether in this reality or my other reality. I have to tell everyone about this.

“Guys? Federico fainted again.” I shouted. Within a few seconds, I see them walking into the room. They don’t say anything as they bring Federico out of the room. The door is locked as usual and now I’m trapped in the room again. What should I do now? Oh right. Tell them about the names. I have to do it now.

“Guys? Where are you? Are you okay?” I asked, hoping they’ll answer right away. I know they’ve detonated the explosives before they went off but I hope something didn’t happen when they’re on their way to me.

“Allura?! Are you okay?! We couldn’t reach you last night. We thought we’ve lost you. Alessandro and Alessio can’t reach you after the phone call ended.” Luciano said. I can hear the worry in his voice.

Shit. I forgot to tell them that I was fine after the call. They must’ve been worried sick about me. At least Luciano did sound like he’s worried about me. I wonder what’s our relationship is in this reality? Is it the same unlabelled relationship like we have in my actual reality? Are we just friends still? Or are we actually dating? Fuck. Why am I even thinking about this? It doesn’t matter now. I should focus on the matter at hand.

“I’m fine. I fell asleep but don’t worry about me. Federico didn’t got any chance to do anything to me again because his men drugged him so he wouldn’t attempt raping me again and again and to keep fainting. Oh anyways, Federico will be fine for an hour. I don’t know where he’s going though. I just made him pass out again a few minutes ago and I don’t think he’s leaving in any minute now.” I explained. They’re probably going to go to the hospital for a check up. Federico is probably worried about his health even though he’s not showing it to me. Too bad he won’t replace anything. That was just my doing. Good thing about that is that I can escape with my cousins and Luciano after they replace me while he’s away.

“Thank God. We’ve been trying to replace you since last night but we haven’t gotten the house you’re in yet. Could you somehow astral project yourself to the front of the house and tell us about how the house look like? It’ll save us time so we can get to you faster.” Alessio suggested. That could work. I just remember I can astral project. Why didn’t I think of that before? I could’ve used that power to check the house and see what Federico’s men did when Federico passed out. It would be hilarious to see him getting drugged by his own men.

“I’ll try to do it after Federico leaves the house. Oh, one more thing. I got the list of the traitors’s names. There are 20 names. I almost forgot to tell you.” I said. My memory sucks sometimes. Thank goodness I still remember all of the names now.

“Tell us. I’ll type the names down on my phone.” Alessandro said.

“Okay.”

I tell everyone all the names on the list. I really hope that’s all the names and I didn’t miss anything. It’s going to be suck if we even left out one traitor. He’s going to report the mass arrest of the traitors to Federico and we might be fucked up. Federico’s going to be suspicious if we suddenly know all the traitors and lock them all up.

“Alright. I’ve got them all. I’ll tell the c to get all of them now and lock them for good in the empty warehouse. We’ll interrogate them one by one after we get you out of Federico’s house.” Alessandro said. Sounds good to me. I can’t wait to interrogate them. Wait. Will I still need to be here until then? I’m not sure. We’ll see about that later.

“Okay. I really hope those are all the names and I didn’t miss any names.” I said, frowning to myself.

“You did a good job already for getting us that many names. Even if you miss someone’s name, I don’t think they’ll be brave enough to tell Federico about everyone’s getting caught.” Alessandro said. I think we should still be worried about it though but I’ll think about that later. Maybe we can get more names from the traitors that we’ve caught.

“Don’t forget to tell us if you’re done astral projecting.” Alessio reminded.

“Will do.” I said.

I get on my feet and walk towards the window. I squint my eyes as the bright sunlight enters my pupils. That was brighter than I expected. I feel like I almost got blinded from staring at the sky.

I blink a few times to recover my vision and look at the driveway. Two black cars are parked there. One is the Range Rover Federico used last night with me when we were leaving the auction and the other car is a Volvo I guess? Not sure which model it is but it’s an SUV. If the Range Rover is still here, that means Federico hasn’t left the house yet. I guess I have to wait longer.

I look around the outer part of the house and see a man standing next to the gate. He has a gun strapped to his hips as he looks around the place in focus. There’s also one man in the security post. Not really sure what he’s currently doing because I can’t see it clearly from up here.

Okay. I have to let my cousins and Luciano know about that so they’ll prepare themselves when they’re rescuing me. Or maybe I can make the guard shoot himself instead. That would be interesting. Now let’s see if there’s any other guards outside.

I scan the front of the house and there’s another man on the other side of the house. He has the same attire and gun as the other man. I don’t think there’s only them. There must be more people in here besides Lorenzo, Bruno, and Federico. I don’t think Federico is that dumb to not have many guards to protect him despite being in an isolated place like this.

Okay. I’m getting that there’s three guards outside the house, four men inside the house including Lorenzo and Bruno and that’s it. Alright. That’s a lot of men to guard one person. I also have to tell my cousins and Luciano about this later.

I keep looking out the window, waiting for Federico to come out of the house. I finally see him walking towards the Volvo and gets into the backseat of the car while Bruno gets into the driver seat and another man takes the shotgun. The gate opens slowly automatically. I look at the post next to the gate and frown as I see someone operating the gate.

Shit. I just remembered the gate is automatic. How could my cousins and Luciano get in here if the gate is automatic? I have to do something about it. Maybe I can try to open it through a quick astral projection and then I’ll go back to my body after my cousins and Luciano get through the gate.

The Volvo backs out of the driveway and then the guard closes the gate again as the car moves down the road and away from the house. Okay. Now’s the time. I better astral project now so I can leave faster.

I lie on the bed and close my eyes. I try to get into my spirit form and then focus on where I want to go. I open my eyes and replace myself in front of the house. I’m standing next to the Range Rover as I stare at the detail of the house.

The exterior walls of the house are painted white with dark blue, almost black, window frame. There’s nothing much I can get from the house. It’s a dull two-storey house. I guess that’s what makes this a perfect safe house.

I look around the house and every corner of the driveway and garden and replace no security cameras in sight. That’s odd. Whatever. It’s not like they’ll see me in the camera doing astral projection.

I look at the guards and they’re still standing in their places. They don’t do anything much other than just standing there with watchful eyes. I walk up to the post and stare at the man sitting in there. He’s currently busy staring at his phone as he types on it. I look at the small desk and see a computer screen showing the footage from the security camera right outside the gate and nothing else. I click on the keyboard to make sure there’s no other cameras in this place. Huh. Nothing.

I glance at the guard and now he’s staring at the keyboard in silence. I smile at the sight of slight frightened look on his face. Let’s mess with him for a bit.

I step out of the small security post quietly and tap on his shoulder. He looks at where I touched him and then stares at my way. He keeps glancing around, not noticing me standing right in front of him. I press my lips together, holding myself back from laughing, and then tug on the sleeve of his shirt a little. I stare at his face and now the frightened look on his face looks even more visible. Okay. I’m done playing with him. I have to look for something else to tell my cousins and Luciano. Let’s go outside of the gate and see what the house looks like from the outside.

There’s something pulling me and after in blink, I replace myself outside of the gate. Oh nice. It works! Now let’s take a look around the area.

I look at the road and not a single car passes by the house. I look around and see no other house around me. I can only see acres of vineyards. I do see another small house at the distance but that’s it. Where the hell are we right now?

I look back at the gate and try to remember the details of it.

Okay. The house number is 3. The gate is made out of wood with horizontal steel panels. The steel part has the same colour as the window frames. I look up and can’t see the house from where I am standing right now. The gate and the boundary wall are about two and a half metres tall so it’s pretty tall. There’s no way you can really see the house from the outside. I can’t see any other significant thing out here. I hope it’s enough information for them to replace the house I’m in right now.

I go back to my body and look around the room. No one’s there with me so I’m good. Let’s go back to work. What does the gate look like? Like that. Okay.

“Guys, I’ve astral projected. The front of the house is like this-“

“Did you just send us a visual memory?” Alessio asked. I furrow my eyebrows at his question. I did what?

“What do you mean?” I asked back at Alessio. Did I actually send them a picture telepathically? I didn’t even mean to do that. I don’t even know if we can do that.

“It’s as though you sent us a picture into our head. We’re literally seeing a wooden and steel gate of a house with number three on the wall next to the gate. Is that the house?” Alessandro asked. What? I actually sent them a picture. Cool!

“Yes! It is the house. I didn’t even mean to do that. I was just remembering the look of the house so I can describe it to you.” I explained. From the sound of it, this might be something new to everyone.

“That’s new. We never thought that we could do something like this. This is a lot more helpful than a verbal description. Did you replace anything else?” Alessandro asked.

“The place is surrounded with vineyards. The house uses electric gate and there are currently about seven men in here. Could be more. They have guns with them. Maybe I can help you guys open the gate through astral projection again. Just let me know if you’re already close.” I explained.

“Alright. We’ll let you know about that later. Luciano is searching for the house now. Federico is not there, right?” Alessandro asked.

“Yeah. He already left with two of his men.” I answered. I don’t think Federico’s going to be back in an hour if he’s actually going to the hospital. A check up needs a lot of time so I think we don’t have to worry about Federico.

“Alright. Wait for us. Luciano found the house and it’s actually nearby. We’ll be there around twenty minutes. I’ll let you know if we’re already close to the house.” Alessandro said.

“Okay.”

I let out a sigh and stares at the white ceiling above me. I fold my arms over my stomach and keep my eyes on the boring ceiling. I hum a song by Chris Grey, Always Been You, as I wait for my cousins and Luciano to come and save me. I keep humming and tap my finger against my arm to the song. I blink my eyes and everything suddenly feels different again.