Straight through the Heart

Chapter 43

tap-tap-taptaptap---taptaptap---tap.

"Can you stop?" Rob glares at me with his tired eyes. 

I pause my drumming fingers before getting up from my chair. I pace back and forth, almost burning through the carpet floor. 

"Can..you...stop...that?" Rob sighs loudly. 

"Whatever princess." I grumble and decide to leave this room with this angry troll here. The twins nap in the corner as we all wait for the Lucian's trial to start.

I jump back from the door as it swings open. Dante nods slightly as we get all follow him to the trial room. We approach the room and find some seats close to the front. This room reminds me of the Ministry of Magic trial room from Harry Potter. Many people from our main and extended Ricca family are seated in a circular fashion. The ones who cannot make it appear as anonymized floating screens above us as they watch the proceedings.

 A seat in the center is occupied by Lucian. 

I gulp as he watches my moves creepily as if he is not aware of his current situation. His demeanor seems confident and calm. It gives me the creeps. 

It also seems surreal. Lucian, my sadistic and cruel captor, sits there comfortably as if he's about to get some goddamn tea. His clothes are still bloodied and tattered from when we all captured him. He has dried blood crusted into his fair hair. Honestly, he looks shitty but his confidence never wavers. 

My mother steps up to the front and states, "Lucian Barsetti murdered many of our family. He has captured, threatened, and experimented on our members. He has done countless of disgusting things to our family and to humans...." She continues to list what he has done in specific details. I almost want to plug my ears as she reaches the child experimentation and trafficking he was involved in. 

And it pisses me off that Lucian just sits there with a small smile as if he's proud of every thing she's listing. 

"Why the fuck are we even giving him this trial?" I yell-whisper to Niccolo. He has an equally dark expression and merely shakes his head. 

"We aren't barbarians. We have a system, no matter how much a piece of shit the person is. It's mostly for the records." Lorenzo whispers closely to me. 

"They're not going to just sentence him to a quick death, right? I want him to..." I stop before I get too graphic and emotional. 

Niccolò pats my back gently and squeezes my shoulder as if to tell me things will work out. 

I try to pay attention, but Lucian distracts me. I feel a wave of anxiety pushing to overwhelm me as I sit here staring at my captor. Rob seems to notice my discomfort and squeezes my hand tightly. 

"Lucian Barsetti you are sentenced to the Pit for life." My mother rules as she stands grandly. Her cold eyes show no remorse as the words leave her lips. In a blink, all the screens fade out and it's only the members present here. 

The trial is done.

I'm not surprised he got the Pit. It's literally a pit that goes so far below ground filled with our worst offenders. Each prisoner is punished with solitary confinement or some other type of psychological or physical torture. The Pit goes down for miles and there's barely any light peering into it. I have only heard rumors of the place. It's an old prison that my great grandfather used to use for sport, but we didn't use it again until my uncle Leo's generation. 

I think after my Uncle Leo assumed the head position he changed a lot of our hits and assassinations. The society now is too heavily watched under technology and we have grown along with the changes. That's why we have trials for legal purposes, but it's a working system. A lot of the underworld's worst criminals are now put there. The Pit will keep Lucian alive, but clinging closely to death. It's a punishment well deserved. It's also where we have our specialists shake all his information from him.