Salvatore.

Seven

Athena thought her heart was going to stop beating right there and then. In shock the phone fell from her hands, leaving her mouth slightly agape. She gripped Demitri closer to her chest; her γιαγιά had placed the toddler into her arms when she went to answer the door. Athena could feel her mouth go dry and she heard the sounds of her families screams fill the house. In that moment she was frozen, it felt like someone had pressed pause on her and let the chaos around her continue. Her head was spinning.

She had no idea what was going on.
Who would want to hurt her family?
The sound of gun shots became more frequent and the screaming continued to get louder, but Athena was held hostage by her own fear.
She panicked; her family, her aunts, her cousins, her γιαγιά, what happened to them? Were they dead? Her stomach dropped.
The soft sobbing coming from the child in her arms brought her back to reality, she looked down at her nephew and knew she had to make sure he didn't get hurt. He was only a baby.
She took a deep breath and tried to control her wobbly knees. Clutching Demitri close to her she pushed past the double doors and slipped into the hallway, she tried to make a run for the back door, but saw that a man in a black shirt was a blockade in front of the exit; he had his back to her and hadn't noticed her yet, but she definitely took notice of the gun in his hand.
Silently she hid behind a wall and tried to think, she knew they couldn't get out through the front door; they were trapped.
"Think, Thea think."
And then she realized, if they couldn't get out; then they were going to have to survive long enough for someone to come and help them.
"Shit, the phone."
She scolded herself for being so careless. As she was about to go back into the kitchen she heard voices coming from inside and she stopped.

She heard a crashing sound and then she heard her Aunt Anastasia voice. She heard her pleading for her life.
"Please, please I beg you please. We haven't done anything wrong!" He Aunt has started to sob.
"This is between my brother and Giovanni; no one else - "
The sound of a gun shot caused Thea to flinch, she thought she was going to be sick. Tears started to fill her eyes and they began to spill as she watched red liquid seep out from under the kitchen door. She clasped her hand to her mouth to stop her from screaming.
She could hear Demitri's cries becoming louder and she rocked him softly and hushed him through quiet sobs.
She that knew whoever these men were, they were closing in on them. She looked up towards the ceiling as is asking god for an answer; and that's when it hit her.
"This is either going to be the best idea or the worst." She thought to herself.

She carefully checked if anyone was near the stairs and silently crept upstairs. When she stood on the top floor she felt like she could finally breath again; it felt like all those time she'd sneak behind her brothers backs to hear what they talk about, only this was 1000 times worse and she had enough adrenaline pumping through her veins to fuel an entire football team.
She snuck into one of the bedrooms and noticed her γιαγιά's old dresser, it was the same one Athena would hid in when she was a child and would play hide and seek with her brothers and cousins, she was so small she was engulfed by all the coats and no one could find her for hours. In her crisis she was praying it would come in handy. She quietly squeezed herself and Demitri in, she sat him and on her lap with her hand over his mouth.

Her heart was beating so fast she thought it was going to leap out of her chest and flung itself out of the window. The dresser wasn't fully closed, but it was open just enough so she could peak an eye out and watch to see is anyone was near.
The only thing she could hear was her rapid heartbeat and Demitri's soft breathing, the rest was silence, this silence gave her time to think; but she didn't want to. Thinking meant acknowledging what happened downstairs, it meant coming to terms with the fact that most of her family was dead. And she couldn't deal with it. It couldn't be really. Her γιαγιά's house was meant to be a safe haven, some kind of middle ground; but now it felt like the seventh circle of hell.

Loud footsteps broke the silence and caused Thea to sink into the back of the cupboard, she brought the little boy closer to her - if that was even possible. The footsteps were coming up the steps and she watched as the shadow of the person crossed the hall. Athena stopped breathing. She shadow was talking - no, whispering; but Athena couldn't hear it clearly. That was till it came closer, the shadow was at the door and it was turning to come into the room.
"Athena? Are you here? Do you have Demitri with you?"
It was Melody, her voice was strained and full of worry; Thea felt a wave of relief wash over her. Melody wasn't hurt.
Demitri has heard his mothers voice and started to wriggle in Thea's arms, she wanted nothing more then to reveal herself from the cupboard but something wasn't sitting right.
And she was correct.
From her cupboard Diana watched as a man with a black shirt came from behind Melody and shot her, in the back of the head. 
As quickly as she could she shielded Demitri's eyes; but she wasn't fast enough to cover her own.
The man shot Melody point blank, no warning, nothing. And there was blood everywhere, it managed to slip between the crack in the cupboard and hit her face.
She had blood on her. She had Melody's blood on her, she had Demitri's mothers blood on her.
Athena thought she was going to vomit; she had to look away. Tears fell from her eyes like a waterfall, falling in a puddle on the bottom of the wooden dresser.
"Why was this happening?" She thought.
And no logical explanation came to her mind.
She struggled to not make a noise, all she wanted to do was scream till her vocal cords snapped and cry till she ran out of tears. But he was still in the room.
He was one of the men that had destroyed her family - not that it was picture perfect to being with; but they had still somehow managed to fuck up the fucked.

She knew she had to keep it together, if not for herself for Demitri. So she took a breath and swallowed the large lump in her throat, and as she went to check if the man in black and left she thought her eyeballs were going to pop out of her skull. Staring right into her green eyes was a pair of dark brown ones. Their were piercing and held her attention he entire time.
She thought she was going to faint. The only time the main in black broke eye contact was to look down at the cowering boy in Thea's arms; his eyes softened and he looked behind him to Melody.
The woman he had just killed.
Then his gaze went back to Thea.
"This is it."
Those were the last things she could think of, she was going to die and the only thing she could think of was that that was her final moment.
As she stared longer at the man waiting for hims to end her life, she noticed the healing wound above his eye. And somewhere deep down, somewhere Athena's dark thoughts dwell she was happy he had suffered pain; considering how much he had caused for her family.
She wasn't going to beg for her life. She hated to admit it but she had given up. And just as she thought he was going to reach for his gun to end it all another voice came from the hall.

"Santiago did you find something?" Another man in black walked in, Thea couldn't see what he looked like; only his boots.
There was a pause, a deadly pause.
"No, oddly enough this is an old as fuck closet so I thought I might find a fur coat, you know; pimp myself out. But it had nothin'."
The brown eyed man replied, standing up he turned his back to the dresser and walked towards the other man.
The other guy chuckled and patted him on the back, they both walked out; not before the brown eyed man slyly gave a look towards their cupboard and winked.

Athenas whole body was shaking and she finally vomited on the other side of the cupboard.
She had just met a psychopath.