Recollection

thirty | baby names

song:  Zero 9:36 - Tragedy

A heavy thud echoed through the gym as the punching bag hit the floor, sand spilling from its ruptured seams like blood from an open wound. My hands ached, my knuckles raw, but the rush of anger inside me didn't settle—it only grew, coiling tighter with every heartbeat. I tried to breathe it out, to pound it out, but all I saw was Alessandro's face when he came out of the OR, his mask of strength cracking in front of the family.

That bitch shot my brother in the back. Twice.

"Two bullets," Alessandro had said in a voice he barely held together. He looked as if he might shatter into a thousand pieces. When I pulled him aside, away from our hovering family, he finally did. His eyes, usually sharp with determination, were filled with something I'd never seen—desperation like he was pleading with a fate he couldn't change. The anger and the guilt. The dam opened and he broke down.

"There's a high possibility he won't walk again," he said, hugging me tightly. "One of the bullets was embedded near his lower spine—a vertebra at the base." He paused, his voice cracking. "I don't know if he'll ever walk, Lia. I don't know. For the first time in my life, I felt helpless in that OR." His words lingered, and they weighed heavy, carving the truth into the air.

Roman hadn't woken up yet. Alessandro suggested an induced coma to keep him under, sparing him, for now, from what he would have to face. Roman was the most hotheaded, the most stubborn of us all. Even though she was carrying a child, Seraphina would not leave his side. Fear haunted her eyes, her hand unconsciously resting over her belly as she stayed near him, tethered to the hope he would pull through. But I couldn't stay. I had work to do. I had to find Korra. I needed answers.

We all knew how the most hotheaded and stubborn Morelli would react when he woke up.

I closed my eyes, panting heavily, my fists clenched as I stared down at the broken punching bag lying pathetically on the floor. But the surge of rage only burned hotter, my chest tightening with every failed attempt to let it out. I needed that fury now, like gasoline in my veins. I needed it to carry me down to the basement where Flynn waited, shackled and waiting for judgment. I needed that anger because it was time I went down to that basement and dealt with Flynn myself.

It was time to face my biggest demon. The only one left. I heard my siblings and cousins bragging about what they inflicted on him. Even aunt Haley joined at some point.

Yet every time I got close, I froze. Outside Roman's office, just steps away from the basement stairs, fear seized me. Flynn was down there. All it would take was one step forward, but my legs felt heavy, my heart beating so wildly I could barely hear over the pounding. I was afraid of him. I was afraid of Flynn. I wasn't scared to admit such a thing. On the contrary, Lidia praised me for it. About expressing how I feel and not shoving it up in the mess of my brain.

There was a strange voice inside my head repeatedly telling me Don't hurt the master.

My heart was beating almost out of my chest. My breathing picked up and my ears started ringing. I thought I was over this shit.