Her Five Protectors

FIVE

When Athena wakes up, she finds herself in a big, beautiful room. She looks around it totally confused when suddenly her eyes falls on the bedside photo and few other photos that are hanging on the wall. There is a girl who looks exactly like her.

She must be Ariana!

Whereas Athena is hopeless looking, Ariana is full of life.

Suddenly the door opens and Luciano enters.

"Thank God that you are up." He says with a relieved sigh.

"How are you feeling?" He asks. But Athena just stares at him. Luciano does not seem to mind her silence. He just moves forward and touches her forehead to check her temperature.

"Glad that you are not burning up anymore. We were so worried."

"Ariana...Why don't you go freshen up or something? Dinner is almost ready." He tells her with a gentle smile on his face. Athena has noticed that he tends to smile more than his brothers. He leaves the room in silence after pressing a small kiss on her forehead.

Athena gets up from the bed and moves towards the bathroom. Her eyes hurt a little as she stares around the huge bathroom that screams godly richness. Nevertheless she strips out of her dirty clothes. She frowns staring at her reflection in the mirror.

Her ribs are sticking out of her flesh. She looks horribly thin and small. Almost breakable like a glass. Her hair is a mess and there are black circles around her eyes. Her cheekbones are a bit too much prominent on her face. She manages to rip the bandage off her head. Her head is still hurting but the pain is is bearable. There is a nasty bruise but it has slowly started to fade.

After a little struggle she managed to turn on the weird looking taps. She carefully enters in the bathtub and washes her body thoroughly with the use of beautiful scent products.

She wraps a fluffy pink towel around herself and slowly gets out of the bathroom. She moves closer to the third door in the room and opened it to reveal a walk-in-closet. It was filled with many clothes and other girlish things. She grabs the first thing her eyes falls on. It is a ankle length black skirt and full sleeved white satin shirt to go on. She tucks the shirt in the skirt and looks in the mirror with wide eyes.

The fabric of the clothes feels nice on her skin. She looks a lot different and maybe a little pretty.

She frowns.

Who was she kidding? Pretty and her?

Searching through the footwear section, her head spins a little after seeing the variety of items. They are mostly heels and few pairs of sneakers. After a little hesitation, she slides on the simple black flats.

She brushes her wet hair and leaves it down for air dry. She jumps a little as a knock sounds on the door. The door opens revealing Romeo this time.

"Dinner is ready." He informs her. Athena nods and follows him out.

"Ariana...How are you feeling?" He slows down so she could catch up with him. They both walk together. Athena shrugs her shoulders a little. After a little walking, they finally reach the grand dining room. Vincenzo and others are already present there waiting for both of them.

Romeo sits down but Athena remain standing looking down at the floor like a lost puppy. Vittorio looks at her with interest and stands up to face her. Athena flinches a little as he extend his hand up to touch her face.

"She is not wearing any make up. Are you all sure that she is Ariana?" Vittorio jokes.

Athena feels like the color completely drained from her face. She clenches her muscles to control her fearful tremble.