HuskerDust Oneshots

The Breaking Point

TW: Abuse, Anxiety Attack, Blood, Death, Depression, Grief, Emotional Manipulation, Traumatic Memory, Violence.

March 15, 1924. New York City 
Anthony had woken from his sleep with a start. He didn't know what time it was, but it was clear it was the middle of the night. He glanced across the room at his older brother who was face down in his pillow snoring away. 
He climbed out of his bed quiet as a mouse and went to seek out the comfort of his mother. 
As he rubbed his eyes and stepped out into the hallway, he saw the light downstairs in his father's office and heard hushed arguing between his parents. 
He knew he wasn't supposed to go into his father’s office but he was scared and just wanted to be held in his mother’s comforting embrace as she sang him Italian lullabies. He descended the spiral stairs and took quiet steps towards the office as the argument got more and more intense. He could hear his mother crying as she told his father off in Italian. 
Just as he reached out for the handle, the door flew open; his mother ran out not taking notice of her youngest son near her legs. 
Then a shot was fired. And the kind, beautiful blonde woman Anthony called his mother fell to the floor face first; blood quickly spilling from her chest and onto the hardwood floors. Anthony stood frozen in the shadow of the hall. His mother's blue eyes bore into his own as blood began to spill from her pink lips. 
“Antonio”, she choked. 
“Mamma!” Anthony cried, running to her side despite not being able to do anything to save her life. She raised a shaking hand to his freckled face and weakly smiled at him. He could feel his father’s glare from boring into his back, but he didn’t care. 
“Anthony, il mio dolce ragnetto”, she said. It came out barely above a whisper. Anthony was sobbing, loudly, uncontrollably. 
“Mamma, per favore alzati!”, the eight year old sobbed. She ran her thumb over his cheek. She knew she didn't have long. She began to memorize every detail of the face of her youngest son. As much as she knew this moment would haunt him for the rest of his life, there wasn't anyone else she'd rather see in her last moments, with the exception of her other two children of course. “Mamma, alzati! per favore devi alzarti!” Anthony screamed in vain.
“Non posso, amore mio. Devo andare ora”, she mumbled. 
“No mamma, per favore, non lasciarci”, Anthony sobbed harder. 
“Devo farlo, tesoro. Dovrai essere forte per me adesso. Ma non dimenticare mai che amo te, tuo fratello e tua sorella. Promettetemi che vi prenderete cura l'uno dell'altro. Puoi farlo, Tony?”. Anthony desperately wrapped his small hands around the one she held on his cheek as he quickly nodded his head. 
“Si mamma, lo prometto”. A smile graced her lips as she coughed out blood. 
The shot and Anthony’s anguished cries had woken Arackniss and Molly. When they were at the top of the staircase, Arackniss quickly pulled Molly into his chest, shielding her innocent eyes from the horror on the bottom floor. 
With her last breath, Anthony’s mother breathed out one sentence to her younger son. 
“Prendi tuo fratello e tua sorella e scappa, angelo mio”. Her eyes slowly closed and her pink manicured hand fell from Anthony’s cheek. 
“No, no! Mammina! NO!”. Anthony’s sobs could be heard echoing through the massive house.
He looked behind him to see his angry father holding the gun that had just killed his mother, and the large muscular figures of his bodyguards moving towards him. 
Run, my angel, his dead mother’s words ran in his head. That was enough to give him the adrenaline to pick himself up off the floor and he ran as fast as his little legs would carry him. 
The two muscular men caught the small boy in seconds and dragged him back into his father's office as he screamed his lungs out. He caught a glimpse of his older brother at the top of the stairs holding Molly. 
“Grande fratello, aiutami! Per favore! Aiutami!”, he cried. But Arackniss just retreated into the shadows with Molly as Anthony was tossed into the office and the door was shut. 
Arackniss would never admit it for years, but it broke his heart to hear his baby brother in so much pain and to be punished for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time that night. He was too afraid of their father's rage to help his brother when he desperately needed him. 
Their mother was buried a week later. Anthony was never the same after her death. He retreated into himself, kept quiet when their father was around, and obeyed his every command. He learned how to kill without hesitation, how to keep calm under pressure, how to sweet talk potential business clients for his father. The one thing he never learned was how to cope with what happened. 
All Anthony truly wanted was to see his mother again and apologize for everything. He wanted to be held in her arms again like a child, have her stroke his hair and forgive him for all his bad decisions, to tell him that he was still her little boy and that everything would be okay. He wanted her to forgive him for getting her killed…