Back & Forth | Book 1 of Back & Forth Series
Nine: Freedom

“Sta bene? Non si sta svegliando.”

(Is she okay? She’s not waking up).

I finally regain my consciousness. The sound of a woman talking stirs the confusion inside of me. Why is there a woman in my room? Who is she? What did she say?

“Cosa le è successo? Il capo l’ha picchiata?” Another woman asks quietly.

(What happened to her? Did the boss hit her?)

Wait a minute. There’s two of them? Who the hell are they? What are they doing here?

Curious of their conversation, I keep my eyes close as I pretend to still be asleep. Worry is evident in their voices. I wonder why. Is there something wrong? What’s going on?

“Non lo so. Possiamo anche essere qui dentro?” The first woman asks.

(I don’t know. Can we even be in here?)

Huh? She doesn’t know what? What the hell are they actually talking about? Fuck. My Italian is shit. I should start learning the language again soon or else I’m fucked.

“Certo. Ci è stato detto di svegliarla per pranzo,” The second woman replies.

(Of course. We were told to wake her up for lunch.)

Wait. Hold up. Pranzo means lunch. Shit. What time is it now? Is it lunch already? Fuck. That’s definitely why they’re here, to wake me up for lunch. I should be in the dining room already by now. That’s why my stomach is grumbling quietly. It’s already lunchtime. At least that’s what I got from what the women are saying.

“Che sfortunata signorina,” The first woman says, pity can be heard in her voice.

(What an unfortunate young lady).

Did I just hear one of them said how unfortunate I am? Why? This is so weird and confusing. I have to wake up now or else Alessandro will be mad if I didn’t follow the schedule. Actually, why am I even worried about the schedule? He won’t sell me anytime soon so a one-week schedule doesn’t matter. Or is it? I wonder what punishment will Alessandro give me if I didn’t do what he wants me to do. Doesn’t matter now. I’m hungry and the only thing in my mind is food. It doesn’t matter if it’s in my schedule or not.

My eyes snap open and I jump onto my feet in an instant. Frightened screams escape from both of the women standing in front of me. Their eyes wide, showing me how truly scared they are as they hold onto each other for dear life.

“Che cazzo?! È sveglia! Lei è viva!” The woman shouts.

(What the fuck?! She’s awake! She’s alive!)

Indiscernible Italian fills my ears as the women continue to scream and shout at each other while staring at me in fear. Their eyes can pop out of their sockets if they continue to stare at me with wide eyes like right now. It looks as if they want to leave, to run away from me yet their bodies freeze in place from panic.

“Woah! Calm down, ladies. Stop with the cursing. Tell me why you’re here,” I say, also panicking because they haven’t stop shouting at each other while still looking at my way.

A man barges into the room, causing the two old ladies to scream in fear again. They hug each other tightly while turning to the door. They quickly stop screaming once they realise it’s only one of the guards. The man scowls at the women, looking annoyed by the high-pitched screams.

“Scusa,” Both of the woman says, seemingly embarrassed from causing a disturbance in the house. The man turns to me and his eyebrows immediately merge together.

(Sorry.)

“What happened to you? Are you okay?” The guard asks.

Why is everyone asking if I’m okay- Oh my God. I forgot about the makeup! I still have it on when I go to sleep. That’s why the women are so scared to the point of screaming on top of their lungs. They must’ve thought I just got beaten up or something. The guard probably has the same thought in his mind but the difference is, he’s not screaming at my face.

“I’m fine. It’s just makeup,” I say. The man only stares at me. It seems like he’s weirded out by the sight in front of him. How could he not? I literally look like I have bruises all over my face and body.

“Okay,” the man says. He steps out of the room, leaving me with the women again. I turn to the woman. I’m guessing they’re the maids. I hold back my laughter when I see them still clinging onto each other with a frightened look on their faces.

“So, could you please tell me why you’re here?” I ask. When realisation hits them, they let go of each other, smoothing out their clothes awkwardly. They’re now back to their professional selves, looking calmer than they were before. Their free has now long gone from their faces.

“We’re here to wake you up. It’s lunchtime now,” the woman on the right says.

“Okay,” I say.

“What happened to you?” The same woman asks. The other woman nudges her, giving her a glare of silent warning. I smile at the two of them, waving my hand dismissively.

“Non preoccuparti. It’s just makeup,” I say. A chuckles comes out of me as the memory of them screaming in fear after I jump out of bed appears in my mind again. I’ve never thought I’d scare someone this badly before. It was hilarious.

(Don't worry.)

“Grazie Dio,” The two of them mumble and then sigh in relief.

(Thank God).

“Are you going to get cleaned up first?” The woman on the left asks. I nod in confirmation. I definitely need to clean off the makeup and change my clothes first. Wait. Luciano only gives me a new set of clothes today and it’s still in the basement. Shit. I guess I have no other choice than to keep wearing what I have on. I better clean off my makeup so I don’t scare off other maids. The man probably won’t care but the maids might get a heart attack from seeing me. I hope using water will work just fine because I don’t have any makeup remover at the moment.

“Yeah. I don’t want to scare anyone else looking like this,” I say. My gaze shifts to my arms and I stare at my bandaged wrists. Wait. Why are they bandaged? Oh right. I got rope burns earlier. How did I forget about that? Damn. My memory sucks.

“Alright. Would you like your lunch to be reheated?” the woman on the right asks.

“That would be great,” I say. I don’t mind eating cold meals but I guess eating hot food might taste better somehow.

“Okay. I’ll tell the kitchen staff to do it in ten minutes. How’s that sound?” the same woman asks. I guess cleaning off my make up might take a bit longer than ten minutes without any makeup remover. So, when I get to the dining room, my lunch will still be hot enough.

“That’s good. Thank you so much. I’m so sorry for scaring the two of you. I completely forgot about the makeup and my clothes,” I say, frowning apologetically at the women.

“It’s okay,” the woman on the right replies. Despite the smiles on their faces, there’s still a hint of shock in their eyes. They’re definitely not okay. Wait. I can read minds now. Why don’t I read their minds? Let’s see what they’re thinking about.

“We’re leaving now,” the woman on the left says.

“Okay,” I say.

As the two women head towards the door in silence, I focus my mind on them. Hopefully my mind reading ability is working now.

Why is she here? Who is she? She’s crazy for jumping out of the bed like that and scared us. Why does the boss have her in here? He never had anyone else besides his family members and workers to be in the house. Even when he has hostages, he always put them in the basement. What makes her different?

Oh. Cool. My superpower is definitely improving rapidly. I can now hear people’s thoughts clearly as if they’re talking about it verbally. Nice.

Anyways, that’s an interesting information. I’m the first hostage to stay in the guest room of the house, not the basement. I wonder what’s with the special treatment. Alessandro could’ve locked me in one of the rooms in the cold and gloomy basement f yet he didn’t. Why? What’s the reason? Is it for the sake of keeping me in good condition? That has to be the reason. I can’t think of any other reasonable explanation. I don’t think my life story is going to end up like the stories where the mafia boss fell in love with main character he kidnapped. I don’t know why but thinking about the possibility of it happening makes me cringe so bad. Something feels off about Alessandro. He’s hiding something. I have to replace out about it soon.

In the bathroom, I wash my face with the running water from the sink. It’s easy to peel off the fake wound on the corner of my lips. With a disgusted grimace, I throw it into the bin. I continue with the bruises by rubbing them with my hands. Panic rises inside of me when I notice the bruises won’t go away.

Dude. What the fuck did she use on me? These are no ordinary makeup products. The damn bruises are waterproof. Now what the hell am I supposed to do to get rid of the bruises?

I begin to rub the bruises vigorously. They’re fading a bit but it’s still visible enough. If I continue doing this, I’m only going to give myself real bruises so that’s it. I give up. My hands and wrists are already hurting from my attempts on removing the makeup.

In the mirror, I can see the fake bruises still visible enough. I ignore them and dry my skin with a dry towel. Fuck it. Whatever. I’ll ask Luciano for some micellar water later. Hopefully he can get me one before I go to sleep.

Luciano and Alessandro or Alessio already there in the dining room, sitting in their previous seats. The table is already clean from any dirty plates and cutlery. However there’s still a glass of water in front of each of them. A grin appears on Luciano’s face once his eyes land on me. The cause of it is none other than my current appearance and probably my altercation with the maids earlier.

A girl puts my lunch in front of me along with a glass of water. There’s a hint of fear on her face as she glances at me. She then scurries away from the table and disappears behind the kitchen door.

“You scared the maids earlier with how you look right now, I assume?” Luciano says. Amusement gleams in his eyes as he takes a sip of water. The maids’ screams must’ve been so loud. Everyone in the house probably heard their screams earlier. Damn.

“Yeah. I forgot about the makeup and my clothes. I tried to get the makeup off earlier with water but it didn’t work. I also forgot about my new clothes in the basement so I have no other options but to keep wearing this,” I explain.

“I’ll take your clothes later. You mentioned you used water. Did it get your bandages wet? If they are wet, you have to get it changed again now. They need to stay dry for fast recovery,” Luciano says.

I look down at the damp bandages around my wrists. My sudden awareness of the wetness of the bandages suddenly causes me to become hypersensitive about them. It’s so weird to have wet bandages sticking onto my skin. It feels as though they’re going to stick onto my skin forever. I have to take this off now or I’ll go insane.

“Let’s go to the clinic now and change them,” Luciano says.

“Okay.”

We get into the clinic. Luciano doesn’t waste any time to replace my bandages. He takes the wet bandages off my wrists and dries my skin by dabbing it with a towel. He swiftly wrap the bandages around my wrists as if it’s second nature to him. Within a few minutes, he’s done wrapping my wrists with clean and dry bandages.

“There. For your convenience, you need to have some bandages in your room so you don’t have to go back here whenever you get your bandages wet,” Luciano says. Yep. He’s right. I definitely need some of that in my room.

“Yeah. Oh anyway, can you please get me a makeup remover? Micellar water to be exact. As you can see, the fake bruises are still on my skin despite my attempt on removing them with water,” I say.

“Yeah. Sure. I’ll take your clothes and other stuff you need to your room later after we talk with Alessandro,” Luciano says.

“Okay. Thank you,” I say with a smile.

“No problem. Let’s go back to the dining room,” Luciano says.

We’re back in the dining room. Alessio is still there, busy with his phone. I go back to my seat next to Luciano and start eating the spaghetti bolognese in front of me.

“When are we going to talk with Alessandro?” I ask after swallowing the spaghetti in my mouth. Earlier, Alessandro said he’s going for a meeting. I wonder when he’ll be back.

“He’ll be back from his meeting in fifteen minutes,” Luciano says.

I still don’t understand why Alessandro wants to talk with all of us. Oh wait. Is he going to talk about the agreement we made this morning? Maybe he’s going to tell Alessio and Luciano that I’ll be working with them from now on. If that’s the case, will he tell them about my mind-reading power? Well, if it’s not that, maybe he just wants to discuss about my father again. How fucking great. There’s literally nothing else to talk about when he’s the main topic. I’m sure as hell he won’t do anything to save me. He’s going to escape from Alessandro while he can.

“Is it about my father?” I ask.

“No. It’s about you,” Alessio butts in. His gaze is still fixed on his phone screen when I look at him.

Me? If it’s about me, Alessandro is definitely going to talk about the agreement. He’s going to let Luciano and Alessio know that I’ll be working for him with them. Wait. What if Alessandro decides to cancel the agreement and sells me through the auction? Or worse, brothel? Oh no. Please don’t let that be the case. If that’s his plan, I’ll just drown myself in the bathtub tonight and die before he can even do it.

“Did he tell you about what we’re going to discuss?” I ask.

“No. He didn’t tell us anything. We’ll know about that later. For now, just eat your lunch and finish it,” Alessio says, still keeping his eyes on his phone screen.

I can’t help but to feel something odd is about to happen. After kinda used to seeing Alessio look so playful with his smirk, replaceing him looking all serious unsettles me a bit. There’s to be something serious that both Luciano and Alessio aren’t telling me. They’re hiding something from me. What if they actually know about the topic of our upcoming discussion? There’s only way to replace out about it now and that is through reading their minds.

“Oh. Okay,” I say. With my eyes back on my lunch, I pretend to focus on it and continue eating. In reality, I’m preparing myself to read their minds.

I twirl the spaghetti around my fork, deciding on whose mind I should read first. Perhaps I’ll start with Alessio. He’s Alessandro’s twin so he might know more than Luciano.

I begin my mind reading session as I chew on my lunch.

The fuck? It’s actually 100,000 euros? Who the fuck would buy a t-shirt this expensive? I can literally buy a nice car with that amount of money.

I glance at Alessio. He’s now frowning at his phone as he scrolls on it. Why the hell is he even looking at a 100,000 euros t-shirt? Even if it’s made out of a high quality and rare materials, the price shouldn’t be that high. What the fuck is that shirt even made of? Moon dust? Diamond from freaking Neptune? An asteroid? That pricing is unreasonable.

I focus my attention back on Alessio. Perhaps I can replace out something about the discussion we’re going to have later. After searching through his mind the best I can, I replace nothing. Niente. He’s really busy complaining about the t-shirt right now.

With my hopefully normal-looking expression, I put another forkful of spaghetti into my mouth. Now I focus on Luciano. A frown forms on my face when his thoughts enter my mind.

I can’t believe he’s actually selling her tomorrow. He doesn’t even let me spend more time with her.

Holy shit. Is the ‘her’ Luciano referring is me? Oh. My. God. I knew it! They’re lying about it. At least now I know Luciano is lying about it. I can’t believe Alessandro is going to do it after what he said to me earlier. He got my hopes up and now I’m thrown back into the ground. What makes him change his mind? Has my father told Alessandro that he won’t be paying his debt? Is that why? That’s expected from my father. It’s not like I can’t see it from miles away. What kinda hurts me is Alessandro’s change of decision. He is going to sell me tomorrow. Why tomorrow? Why did he even offer me a job when he’s planning on selling me tomorrow anyway? This is unbelievable and unacceptable. I swear if that’s the truth, I’ll make sure he fucking pays for it. Perhaps I’ll just rip off his dick. I don’t care if they’re going to kill me for what I’m going to do.

Silence still fills the dining room, only the clutter of my fork against the plate breaks it. My appetite has vanished after what I got from reading Luciano’s mind. However, I continue to eat, not wanting the two men in the same room as me to be suspicious of me. I look up from my plate at the same time Alessandro enters the room. He’s dressed in an almost black, navy-blue-coloured dress shirt and a pair of black slacks. A grim look is already covering his face as he stares at the three people before him.

“All of you. Meet me in my office in 5,” Alessandro says. Without sparing a glance at my way and saying other words, Alessandro leaves the room again. I try to reach his mind but failing to do so.

What is Alessandro going to talk about with us later? This uncertainty and cluelessness I have now is making me nervous. Luciano continues to stare at his phone, acting like he doesn’t know about anything. I don’t expect him to do anything about me but it sucks that I’m just an object to everyone. Well shit. I actually kinda hope someone would come and save me. Unfortunately, just like any other time, no one will save me. It has always been like that.

There’s only a small amount of spaghetti left in my mouth. My lack of appetite tells me to just stop eating but my logical side tells me to finish my food and not waste it. I choose the latter. It’s not like I’m going to throw up if I force myself to eat the rest of my lunch so let’s finish this up.

While I try to get more information from Luciano’s mind, I continue to eat my spaghetti. I think he’s the one who knows more than Alessio about Alessandro’s plan so I’n going to focus on him.

Why won’t he let me buy her? Why doesn’t he trust me with her? Isn’t it better if he just let me get her? Not anyone else? I’ll definitely take good care of her and keep her safe here.

Did I hear that correctly? Did he just think of buying me? Okay. That’s it. I’ve had enough. That’s too much information for me. I’m not going to read his mind again. That was one of the strangest things I’ve ever heard so far. Never in my entire life I have ever found out someone wanting to buy me. Let’s hope that won’t happen because that shit would be weird as fuck.