Iris Giorgianni is no ordinary girl. She's living a double life: a neglected daughter at home, but a fighter on the streets. As the leader of The Sangue - one of the most wanted and well-known gangs in London - Iris has a reputation to uphold. Only...
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Trigger warning: Some topics spoken about may be difficult for viewers.
SHOCK WASN'T even the right word to describe what Iris was feeling at that particular moment. Something in her chest erupted into a tight knot, spiralling her into a deep fear that progressed through her body. There were few things that she was scared of in life: her father, perhaps, and occasionally those spiders with the really thin dangly legs – but this. This was something else.
The fact that Hunter, Hunter of all people; so pure, so ready for a great life ahead of him – was a victim of something much, much larger, and could vanish of the face of the earth without any suspicion of authority was absolutely terrifying.
Iris remembered the time her father knocked her mother unconscious, a swipe of blood on the floor where her head lay as meticulously placed almost as if an artist had painted it there. That moment would haunt Iris' nightmares for years after that – despite her seeing pools of blood from gang fights later on. Domenico Giorgianni wasn't a man that was particularly violent. He didn't look violent, at least. But that small swipe that stained the floor a dark, murky brown for weeks after until the floor was redone – was a reminder that anyone, anyone had the potential to hurt someone.
Which meant that Hunter could have been taken by someone far more powerful that her father. It meant that Hunter may not even be alive.
Levi had sat on the floor, his back against the tree and his eyes looking up to the sky, statuesque but breathing softly in and out of his chest. His fingers were earth-stained from digging them into the ground, threaded together on one knee as they desperately tried to hold on. Iris expected him to stay in that position for the rest of the day – in an eerie state of tranquillity, but after a minute he opened his mouth and spoke. "My mom was already unemployed. Depression does that to you. It pulls you out of the things you're supposed to do and tells you that you can't do it; that you don't have the effort, or the mindset to even get out of bed. She had a job once – working at a launderette, showing people how to work the machines and shit – but one day she just sat at the kitchen table and didn't say anything."
His hazel eyes couldn't look up at Iris; but she sensed it was because he was in his own bubble. He'd never spoken to her about his past before, and it was likely that he never had with anyone, either. As she watched the way his body fidgeted nervously and his entire demeanour change into a new state entirely, she was immediately grateful that he had decided to trust her with everything.
"I tried to talk her out of it, but it was pointless. 'Mom, you gotta go to work, you have to. You need this job, you can do it.'" Levi mocked himself, laughing humourlessly. It was a sharp, cold laugh that made Iris sad for what he had been through. "Course it wouldn't work. She never listened to any of us – but that wasn't her; it was the depression. Like this...this monster that had infested in her body, taking over her mind and forcing her to be a kind of motionless, broken woman that didn't even kiss her boys bye in the mornings. Stupid, I know. But I'd say that to Hunt. He was much younger, so he didn't understand what depression really was. 'It's temporary'. I'd say. Shit like that. Lies, lies I knew weren't true. 'She's just a bit sad, Hunt. Life is stressful'. So he would nod and go along with it, believing mom would magically go back to normal. I could research it and speak to her doctors and get those fucking useless leaflets, but at least I knew. Hunter couldn't. He trusted me. And I didn't tell him the truth."
