The academy smelled like bleach and metal.
Isabella was 12 years old.
Hands tied. Knees on cold concrete.
Eyes on the instructor.
"Repeat what I told you," the voice snapped.
She didn't flinch.
"Pain is not personal."
"And if they break your bones?"
"They become a lesson."
Smack.
She hit the ground. Split lip. Blood on concrete.
They trained them like animals.
No names - just numbers. No bedtime. No warmth. No childhood.
The first night, a girl next to her cried.
They dragged her out.
She didn't return.
The second week, Isabella stopped sleeping.
The screams from other rooms got louder.
And louder.
Until she couldn't hear anything except the sound of her own breathing.
Controlled. Flat. Emotionless.
---
Flash - Knife Training
She stood in a line of seven. One blade. One target.
One command: "Kill or be punished."
Isabella didn't hesitate.
She wasn't the fastest. She wasn't the strongest.
But she was precise.
---
Flash - Isolation Room
Four days. No food. One bottle of water.
Walls scratched with names.
Luca. Rina. Dax.
All gone now.
A voice in her head whispered:
"Feelings are fatal. Attachments are weapons - but never yours."
So she carved a rule into the wall with her nail:
No one is safe. Not even you.
---
Back in the present - her eyes opened.
She was sitting in the armchair in her villa, drink in hand, nails digging into her palms.
Emma (gently, from doorway):
"You went somewhere again."
Isabella didn't answer.
Just looked out the window.
"How long were you watching me?"
Emma:
"Long enough to know you're not okay."
Isabella (low):
"I haven't been okay since I was twelve."
---
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YOU ARE READING
MAFIA QUEEN
Short StoryAfter the 3 sentries she is born, the only girl in the family. But they are not the ordinary people they are famous Italian Mafia. THE FERRARI FAMILY But they lost her because of the work they are in and because of their reputation. ************...
