The Luna Legacy - Genesis

Chapter 1 - The Run

"The world is your canvas honey, and one day you will create a masterpiece. You're going to be great baby," my mother used to say in her usual warm and comforting tone. It was her go to phrase whenever one of us kids were feeling like a massive failure, and I used to believe her.

If running away from the only place you've known all your life is creating a masterpiece? then call me Rembrandt.

*Memory of earlier*

"Did I kill him?" Natalia stutters, her hands shaking, eyes wide in fear and face as pale as a ghost. "No, you didn't, you just knocked him out." I lied, trying to display a semblance of composure, though I wish he was dead, if I'm being honest. The truth is that I have no idea if Giorgio is dead. However, Natalia is already panicking for the both of us and I want her to calm down. We both need to maintain level heads if we are going to make it out of here alive tonight.

*Back to Present*

Its currently 2:30 AM and I am on the interstate highways in Massachusetts, destination unknown.  What I do know is that where we end up is supposed to be our happy place, the place that is meant to be our refuge.

The kids are sleeping in the backseat of my 1996 grey Ford Branco, they look so peaceful when they are asleep.  Alex gave me a new car, and by new, I mean I did not own it before he gave it to me, it's drivable! 

He arranged new identities for the kids and me, name changes, new passports, and a chance at a new life.  Our chance to start our new stories and make new memories.  From now on every person that leaves a mark in their lives, on the blank pages in their books, it will be positive, I will make sure of it. 

My sister Sophia Samantha , we call her Sophie, dirty blond hair with light brown eyes.  She is 12 years old but speaking to her you would mistake her for a 30- something year-old.  Whenever we say her age, we follow up with, "going on 30".  She is smart, emotionally intelligent, and much too mature for her age. 

As I drive down the interstate peeking through the rearview mirror at her I feel sadness in my heart. My little sister was not dealt a fair hand in life, and it cuts deep that she is not able to live her childhood the way a child should.  Hanging out with friends and getting into a reasonable amount of trouble. 

Instead, she is on the run with me to a life of uncertainty, because let's face it the grass isn't always greener on the other side. I wish I could just wave my wand and take all her pain away.  I would give anything just so she could have a better life, where all the disappointments and the bullshit of this life doesn't exist.  Thank God for the gift of sleep, because for now she is at peace.

Then there is the boy, this little 6-year-old that I must now pass off as my own son.  My nephew Samuel Anthony jr., dirty blond hair like his mom Natalia, and blue eyes like his father Giorgio. 

Sam the innocent little boy who loves his video games, and superhero movies. The kid who can solve any Rubik's cube in under a minute, with that look on his face like it's nothing major. The little boy that made our lives forever entwined with one of the most ruthless drug dealers in the continental U.S.

My Nephew's father Giorgio, the man has caused my family more pain than the death of my mother, father, and brother combined. The man because of whom we are on the run, he is like a poisonous river that flows into the beautiful, clean blue ocean polluting it with its toxins. 

I would risk everything in this life for these two little ones and I would do it in a milli second without thinking twice. 

This is my family, the only thing that I have left in this world, worth saving, apart from my older sister Natalia.  However, I cannot think about her now, if I do it would only cause me to turn this car around.  I would go back, fight tooth and nail to get her out of her hell, but if I did that, we would never be able to leave again.