the mold-soot family lore

Who I am

Nightmare POV:

I grew up in the mafia, I learned everything I know from there. I never went to school or had play dates. No, the only play dates I had were torture sessions I would hold which I called 'play dates'. That was my form of intimidation. I made things look nice and 'cutesy' yet very ominous. A high false sense of security is what I used, it would put fear into the people around me but not enough for them to not let their guard down. That was my way of working, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
I joined the mafia after my family died. They had died in a fire while they had been locked in the basement, too bad I was the only one who made it out. Truly a great coincidence. Too bad that candle tipped over, too bad. I was immediately brought in after as I, now an orphan and a rich one, was useful. I could lead people in with my sob story and leave the rest to the others. To be honest, it was a fair way of living. I had always been mistaken for an older age, even at 8 I was often mistaken for a 12 year old. It was probably because of my height, either way I used it to my advantage. I was good at adapting to those types of situations, I knew how to lure people in and play with them as if they were puppets. I also knew the price of failure, and that was not a price that I wanted to pay.
I never made a lot of friends. When I was younger I was rather extroverted, but no one wanted me too close in fear of becoming one of my puppets themselves. I spoke to the boss most of the time, he was a kind-ish man, but he understood. He would buy me toys and candy as long as I did my job. It was a constant exchange of work for 'chacharas', or useless little things.
He died, though. That's what happens in the mafia, the second someone else wants to take charge they do it. If they can successfully kill the boss and cover it up, then they can take over. But they always need a witness, someone that will confirm that before the previous boss's passing they had passed the organisation onto the next.
I was the witness.
The boss had become ill, I simply did not want him to suffer any longer. So I played my role, and confirmed that the new boss was indeed the new boss. No one cast a second glance, probably because I was the witness. No one wanted to get muddled up into one of my games, so they let it go, let the new boss take their place. The new boss, Ace, was a real wild card. They always wanted something, but it was never clear what they wanted. I was Ace's right hand, always making sure that I did my job and did it well. I was around 12 when they took power, instead of toys and sweets for payment I got money. And a LOT of money, more than what my family had. Ace was a bit of a sadistic freak, they made it clear that they wanted to hear the screams of who we had captured every second of every day. I can't remember much of that time, but to be honest I don't want to. I don't want to imagine what I had done to make those people talk.
Ace made our mafia strong, made it feared. We were now known as the Mafia of Cards, probably because of their name because Ace you know?
The levels of the mafia had been split up into card suits from strongest to weakest: spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. Inside of each of the suits there were the card numbers assigned to each mafioso, king being the highest and two the lowest. The most important, the executives if you will, were the aces. The most valuable went in the same order as the suits, Ace was the Ace of Spades. I was the Ace of Hearts, and the other two switched out and in a lot.
I was rather happy with my job until I was around 15, and WF came into my life.We had met for some important drug deal and went out for drinks to settle a price. I remember WF drinking, xe really had a thing for alcohol. I had gotten water, I was never one to drink and either way I wanted to stay sober to settle the price. We had talked for a while, him often changing the subject to his wife Gertrude or how he doesn't age normally while I always brought it back to the drugs. I could tell he was new at this but as long as the deal went fine I didn't really care, he was young after all, around 17 I believe so I might as well cut him some slack. It took a while but we eventually settled on a price, I looked down at the table of the bar only to see the amount of drunken, empty bottles that lay on the table. Yet the man beside me didn't even seem the tiniest bit drunk.
"So, you're a drinker huh?" I raise my eyebrow, giving a slight glance to WF while I drank another sip of water.
He laughed, "At least I don't go into a pub and order water, what type of maniac orders water?" He retorts, a smile growing on his face as mine goes beet red of embarrassment.
"What wrong with ordering water?! All I'm doing is making sure I don't get liver cancer, you have fun when you're dead with a bottle of booze in your hand. I'll be happy and healthy with my bottle of water."
"Healthy sure, but happy? I doubt it," He takes another swing of whatever monstrosity it is he's drinking.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Do you really think you're going to happy, mafioso? Happy ruining the lives of others for your own gain. I think you're destined for a life of despair to be honest," he turns his head to look at me, his deep eyes pouring into mine as I'm at a loss for words. His cold gaze quickly turns into a smile as he looks at the watch on my wrist, "Oh well look at the time, I have to go now. Have a lovely night, mafioso." I watch as he walks away, slightly swaying his head from side to side,
I turn back to my bottle of water, "Stupid drunk, I hope you succumb to liver failure soon you scum bag."