Carlo : Ti salveró amore mio

Chapter 29

"Get up!"

My body jolts upwards from the loud shout, as I sit up Rye stands at the foot of the bed watching me.

And he doesn't look happy.

I thought I was back. I thought I was safe now.

"Get up and back downstairs." He orders pointing to the door. He walks towards me and yanks me to the floor.

"Okay okay." I breathe out and stand up from the floor, only to be pushed back down.

"Go then." He spits down at me.

I push up and quickly go to the bedroom door. Rye follows behind me and tells me the directions to a door that leads to the basement.

Rye opens the door and pushes me down the steps one by one as I nearly trip and fall. There's a tall man standing at the bottom of the stairs and he's looking at me confused.

"Mrs Knight. What're you doing down here?" He asks worriedly, looking at the top of the stairs and standing in front of me blocking me from walking.

"Do not call her that?" Rye shouts at him, making me flinch. He pushes me past the guard and we both walk past different cells until....

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CARLO'S POV:

"Hey mum. Hey dad." Nicola waves with uncertainty to his tied up parents.

We managed to make some rules that they aren't allowed to touch him and they have to be in a chair.

"Hey baby." Lexi cries softly with a smile.

Nicola steps a little closer and sits on the floor with crossed legs and his hands in his lap.

"Ricardo stood up today." He mumbles quietly and Lexi sobs loudly.

"That's great." Tobias smiles sadly at Nicola.

"Why?" Nicola stares at his parents. "Why did you have to be bad people? You're missing out on my life... Ricardo's life."

Before I can listen to their answer a guard comes running into the room. "Adelaide is down here." He pants.

I furrow my eyebrows. "Get someone in here to watch these lot." I leave the room as someone takes my spot at spectating and follow the other guard the way he saw Adelaide.

"She was tripping down the stairs and when I asked what she was doing she was quiet and looking down before tripping to the side and walking away down here." He points down a hallway and I can see Adelaide about to open a cell door.

"Amore?" I shout, getting her attention. She looks down the hallway at me.

She looks confused. "How did you get here?" She mumbles.

"You can leave us." I tell the guard and walk to Adelaide as he leaves.

"Why are you down here, baby?" I ask, slowly getting closer to her.

She points behind her to a wall. "Rye..." she mumbles but cuts off when she sees nobody is there. "I swear he was just there." She looks around the hallway. "He brought me down here."

"You're at home. You're safe." I whisper.

"Oh." She whispers looking off into the distance. She snaps out of her trance and smiles at me. "Okay."

She walks past me and makes her way towards the exit back up the stairs. I follow behind her and watch her walk towards my mum's room. Adelaide knocks on the door and my mum walks out letting her in and when she sees me she lets me in as well.

"What's going on?" Mom whispers to me as we both stand near the door watching Adelaide get a box of paint and a large canvas. She sets everything on the floor and grabs a pencil, charcoal, paintbrush, and a cup of water.

"She's seeing things." I mumble watching Adelaide sit on the floor. "She needs a doctor or something."

"I'll call Charlton. See if he can get here in a few days." She whispers and goes to sit down in her chair in front of her fireplace whilst reading a book.

I go and sit next to Adelaide on the floor and watch her. Her slightly pouted lips, her grey eyes filled with concentration, her hair twisted into a bun at the back of her head and gripped in place with a few hairs falling in her face, and her eyebrows furrowed slightly.

I can't help myself as I brush my fingers against her cheek and tuck the hair behind her ear. She flinches slightly but never looks at me just carries on with what she's doing.

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ADELAIDE'S POV:

I've always been fascinated by art.

The way the colors emerge into each other, or the way the grey led from a pencil slowly gets shorter and shorter with each stroke on a piece of paper. Or the way paint can be mixed with others to make a different shade, or a whole different color.

As a child the room my mother and I stayed in there were art pieces all over the wall and this one head statue. I never found out who the man the statue was made of was.

Mother always spoke about art and how when she was a child it was the one thing that let her breathe.

But as I began to do little art pieces, I would mark my skin instead of paper. What was left was an ugly mistake to the eyes of others, but the beauty hidden was that these would become the marks of my battle. Well... my ongoing battle. They represent the dark times I choose to survive.

Choosing paper over my own skin is one of the most difficult decisions I have to make each time.

But in the end, it is the marker, paintbrush, pencil, pen, that saved me.

I pick up the pencil and start to draw my way into recovery.

Hopefully it'll work.

Carlo sits next to me and tries to make small talk but I reply very dryly. He stops trying and lays down on his back looking at the ceiling.

We stay like this for a few hours, to the point where he's fallen asleep on the floor with his head facing me. My artwork isn't finished so I place it into the corner of the room with my other art works that I've done with Rose.

Speaking of Rose, I look over at her and she's sound asleep. I grab a blanket and place it over her without touching her. She immediately curls to the warmth of it, I walk over to Carlo and go to tap his shoulder to wake him up.

Don't touch him.

I pull my hand back.

Why can't you touch him? Weirdo.

I reach forward.

What's weird is that you're about to touch him.

I pull my hand back.

The voices continue arguing until I grab a paint brush and use the non brush part of it and poke him in the ribs like he's a dead animal.

Carlo jumps up in his sleep and when his eyes meet mine he smiles a little.

"You should go to bed."

He nods his head and stands up stretching a little. "You coming?"

"I'm not tired." I tell him as we leave the room.

"You can watch a movie." I follow him down the corridors. "Maybe Venom?" He suggests.

I look at him confused but nod my head anyways.