Fatalé (18+)

Chapter twenty six

Ilaria

4 years ago

If I could swap lives for a day, I would swap with Ariana.

My only friend at the base. She joined two years ago but I began training with her only six months ago. In those six months, I've learnt that not everyone at this base is as stupid or as cocky as they are made out to be. Ariana was a sweet soul, everything about her made me look forward to my day. People might as well take advantage of her because although she was intelligent, she was also naive. I don't know how she'll last here, but her intelligence surely brought her here. The base wasn't just any kind of base, it was a base for everyone. Everything and everyone is vulnerable at some point and I think that's unfortunate because people like to take advantage of it. I never understood it until I watched it happen around me but if I speak, I get in trouble.

"Bene girls, your journey starts now. It's now or never, one day you will have to learn." Alfonso, our trainer states. Ariana nods her head firmly, like she was determine but I just stare at Alfonso with nothing because I've heard this many times. Alfonso looks at me and nods for assurance. "Your team member Ilaria has been on this mission before, so anyone that needs a little prompting, feel free to speak to her." Everyone nods their head with approval as they turn their heads to me, I exhale out a breathe and blink at him again.

This was my fifth session, a practical session where Alfonso allows us to leave the base for a couple of hours and practice a life of an assassin for one day, get a first hand experience of what it'd be like once we're on the run, killing shit people, using guns and surviving a life without any sort of help. When I first did this, I was scared for my life but remembering Papà's word got me through it. He taught me to be fearless, it was in my fucking blood.

"Ahora, for this session, you need a partner. So girls, pair up. Choose a partner and then, collect your phones." Alfonso announces, and as soon as he does, everyone began to scatter across, walking towards their desired partners. I watch as Ariana saunters to me and when she does, a huge smile spreads across her face.

"Ciao socio! You don't mind, do you?" She asks, I shake my head and smile softly.

"Of course not." I chuckle, my smile spreads across my lips as Ariana shoved her hands in her gloves, and then we both walk to Alfonso to get our phones. When we reached him, Ariana reached for hers while I do for mine too but Alfonso reaches for my arm and pulls me back.

"I want you to take the one I gave you, Ilaria." He says, I glance up at him and say absolutely nothing because I couldn't figure out why I had to take a different phone from the rest of the base. We were all the same, no matter when we joined, we were all the same. My heart beats fast, for some reason I was different in Alfonso's eyes but I couldn't figure out why. But, I don't dispute because I wasn't here to fight the leader, so I nod my head and pull away from his hold. "Thank you." He says softly.

After a short while, Alfonso released us to the location he instructed us to go to. It was a woodland, a wooded area somewhere in Seattle, where no one went. I think that's because the Conti's owned this part of land for us to practice in. There was dummies everywhere, animals and traps. I never understood how they thought this would work but each to their own. Papà never taught me like this, Papà taught me in a unique way. I also had all my uncles too.

"Hey, do you think Alfonso will look for us if one of us ran?"

My thoughts were cut short when I heard Ariana's question, I shot her a quick glance and watch her, was she being serious? She caught me by surprise with that question because no one other than myself ever question that because I thought everyone here at the based loved that place. I blink at Ariana as we walk down the trek, she glances over her shoulder and caught me and as soon as she did, her smile drops.