BLOODHOUND ࿐ THE MIKAELSONS

10

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
chapter ten
"cruel world"
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Giovanni delicately strummed the strings of his acoustic guitar, an original melody so sweet filled the air and the tunes sang softly in Ravenna's ears.

This was her sanctuary, her peace. In her big brother's bedroom where she could cling onto his hands so that something kind could exist in the chaos.

He motioned his head for Ravenna to come closer to him. If it weren't for the guitar in his hands, he would've swept her up from her feet and held her tight in his arms, to never allow her to leave and find comfort in his safety, in his love.

She sat beside him and lowered her head in the crook of his neck as he played.

"What do you think about music, bambi? How does it make you feel?" He softly asked, using her nickname only his lips has spoken.

She buried her head deeper into his shoulder, almost as if she were anxious to reply. It wasn't often she was asked questions, especially not about herself. "I like when you play it." She replied.

Giovanni chucked at her response. "You like everything I do." He ruffled her hair and she shot him a not so threatening glare at him for messing up her ponytail.

He rested his guitar onto the floor. "I think it's about time we expand your music taste." He lifted himself up from the bed and crouched down beside his multiple boxes of records, all organised into a specific genre. He flicked through them, passing up on showing Ravenna Korn, Jeff Buckley, Elliot Smith and Deftones. Deciding that he'll play their music for her another time.

Finally, he landed on Radiohead - his favourite.

Giovanni lifted himself up from his crouching position with a groan and waved around the record with a smug expression. "Now this, this you'll like." He twirled around on his foot and carefully placed the vinyl into his record player.

As the record began to play, Giovanni bent to his knees in front of Ravenna and gently clasped her hands. The loud music drowning out the venomous words her parents had been throwing at each other for the past hour.

Even at her young age, Ravenna knew what he was trying to do. An attempt to protect her ears from the fighting and fist throwing that could be heard from the other room. She appreciated his gesture, but she didn't like to feel as if she were dumb, as if she too weren't living in this house.

He looked at her, wide eyes of sorrow burning into her's. At times, Giovanni avoided her gaze. Not because there was a sense of awkwardness, but because her eyes were darkness, completely devoid of life. When he took her in, it was as if staring into the abyss itself. She was a girl carrying a woman's grief and a loaded gun of suffering between her arms.

"Ravenna, we will leave this place together. I promise." He gripped onto her a little tighter.

Instead of words, Ravenna held out her pinky and his frown curved upwards at the innocent gesture.

He hooked his pinky into hers and nodded. "I promise."

☆

For Ravenna, memory was punishment, a tight rope around her neck, and her mind was a museum of a past that she wanted to forget.

This home, it's cursed. Haunted by the ghosts of the past and a grief that had always lived in the walls like mould, a bloodstain of rage in the carpet that would not come out.