The Four Mafia Men and Their Prize by M C

The Four Maha Men and Their Prize 73- Darkness Hen POV Darkness, Hemmtiful darkness, | am surrounded by a sea of darkness, | feel like Tam falling. It is light and | can’t feel any of my body parts. More swirling darkness, | don’t know how long I have been in this dark abyss. It's quiet and peaceful. But | can’t help but think something is wrong. | can’t shoke the feeling of dread and despair.

My heart feels heavy against the floating andlingness of my body.

More darkness, more silence, more of this dreaded feeling like something is not right.

Then | heard something. It’s faint. Heep, Beep, Beep. Wint is that sound? Beep, Beep, Beep.

| try to move towards the sound. My curiosity in getting the better ofnow. Beep, Beep, Beep.

As the sound gets louder, | feel like my body is being drowned. So much pressure on my chest. Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep.

1 Try la slike the presoff my body. The endless swirl of darkness in becoming brighter. There are now colors of grey swirling into the wild. Heep, Heup, Beep.

| see a brightness in the darkness. The noise in getting loader, and the pressure of my body is easing slightly as | feel myself floating towards the light. It calls to me. The noise gets louder with every inch. | close my eyes tightly to the brightness and then my eyes begin to flatter and | find a white sterile light above my head, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep.

| take a minute to center myself and blink away the black spots in my vision. | notice the clean white tiles on the iling. I smell lursh cleaning supplies and antiseptles. With a little effort, | can move my head slightly and notice Tubes going up to a few machines. Beep, Heep, Reep. | continue to blink, trying to rid the thoughts of the darkness. | slowly move my extremities. It takes a lot of effort but | can wiggle my toes and lingers slightly.

Heep, Heep. That's the noise. A heart monitor. What the fuck happened? | start to feel my body and it’s sore.

Every breath | feel my hugs taking and it hurts. My limba feel stiff and henvy as if my blood was full of lead weights. | feel like I've been shot. Beep, Beep, Jeep, Oh shit! It all starts to flood linek: The mall, lunch and the carousel, the explosion, the gunfight, the SUV in the parage...Him... that bloody cocksucker.

FUCK! Auroral Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep... The heart monitor begins to speed up with the rhythm of my heart that | feel is about to pop out of my chest. Beep, beep, heep, beep, beep...

A woman in purple scrubs and a man in a white cont walk in hastily along with Charlie and Jason on their tail. Oh, thank you! My down at the sight of familiar faces. Beep, beep, beep.

heart “Aurora” | try to say but it comes out garbled. There is something in my mouth. What the fuck? | try to reach up to remove it, but a gentle warm hand stops me.

“Sir, please don’t try to talk. You had to be intubated. You were shot in the back twice and one bullet pierced your lung The tube is helping you breathe while you heal.” The man in the white cont said. They continued to do their tests and 1/4 73 Darkness check the machines once more before leavingwith my best friends.

Jason takes my hand and squeezes it. He looks like shit. Bags under his puffy red eyes, light scabbing litters his face that looks to be healing, and a few stitches on his hairline. Charlie is behind him. He doesn’t look much better. Bags under his eyes like he hasn't slept in a few days. | look at both of them and beg them with my eyes to tellwhat is going on.

Jason sensing my urgency begins to speak: “Aurora was taken. Whoever ambushed us, took her. | got there too late. | couldn't see who it was, and then | found you with so much blood. Your heart stopped twice during your surgery. We lost 9 of our men. Kai is tracking down another lead but so far everything we have learned is just more dead ends. It's been three days Ben. Three fucking days and we have no real leads. | thought we lost you, Ben!” He squeezed my hand again, closing his eyes in exhaustion.

Three fucking days? Shit! If | believed in God, | would pray that Aurora was okay. Three days at the hand of the monster | saw would be a miracle.

| raise my free left hand slightly, the tubes in my hand make it a little inconvenient. | try to sign pen” and luckily Charlie sees it and quickly goes to the cabinets at the other end of the room and returns with a pad and paper.

Jason removes his hand and allows Charlie to helpplace the pen in my very weak hand. | need to tell them before | am swallowed by the darkness again. | feel so tired. The doctor must have givensmore medication. | will myself to write very slowly what | need to tell them: DIMITRY MARCO | see Jason take the paper and | hear a hiss of his breath. The last thing | see before | allow myself to fall asleep is Charlie's evil smirk and the raging fire in Jason's eyes. | feel another squeeze of my hand and hear Jason faintly say “Get ssleep. We have plans to make,” and | chuckle to myself because shit is about to get real.

There is going to be a blood bath. I smile at that thought. We will find you Aurora.

Then there was darkness. Beautiful darkness.

Jason POV | watched as Ben closed his eyes again. Charlie had left to make sarrangements and | decided to stay for a few more minutes. One of my best friends, my brother by choice was fighting for his life. | have always welcomed death and have sent Death many permanent guests, but seeing Ben fighting for his own life was heartbreaking. | don’t believe in God, but | found myself praying to him to save Ben for the last few days.

Seeing Aurora get shoved into an SUV, the fear in her eyes and then seeing Ben's lifeless body covered in blood hauntsevery t| close my eyes.

| get my phone and dial Kai's number. On the second ring, he picks up “Yeah?” *Ben woke up” | say softly.

2/4 11:41 Tue, 20 Feb 73-Darkness “Shit! Thank goodness, How is he?” Kal exhaled a nervous breath. We were all on edge. “He's okay. The doctor gave him another sedative. He was sluggish at first but Doc says he is going to be fine.” “That's great!” Kal says breathlessly. Kai doesn’t cry; | am pretty sure he was not born with tear ducts but Kai and Ben have a special relationship and this has been exceptionally hard on him.

“I have snews,” Jason starts. “Ben saw the asshole who shot him and took Aurora... It was Dimitry Marco.” “FUCK!” Kal roared. “Yeah...” | say defeated. “I am going to skin that knucklefucker asshat constipated turdsicle alive Kai ranted. He continued to plot all the devilish ways he wanted to destroy that human piece of trash. We said our goodbyes after Kal said he would get with the Nerd Herd now that we have confirmation of who was behind it. We can start making real plans, | texted Charlie and Kai and told them to keep everything top secret right nose. We don’t know who to trust and Marco is probably banking on Ben being dead or at least still unconscious. We have to take advantage of this while we can.

Sadly, Dimitry Marco was not your average gangster. He was the second most powerful matia family afterand my boys. But he had a whole other level of sadism. He and his family made their fortune in really shady businesses. Nothing was off the table for him. He employed scum and certified psychos just like him. He didn’t value any human life and looked at women as cattle.

He had a huge enterprise, a massive army of men, and one of the most loyal customer bases. He had property all over the world. Just trying to locate the correct property where Aurora is could take weeks. He was a brilliant businessman, a literal prodigy genius with an 1Q just two points less than Ben. We couldn't just storm his property blindly. It was going to take stime. Our only comfort was knowing that he was keeping her for himself. He wouldn't have gone through all the trouble he had if he just wanted to sell her off. This was calculated and planned.

The door to Ben's room busted open and in walked Grammy with her bedazzled cane that Aurora had surprised her with at her last visit. She walked in and engulfedin a hug. | squeezed her tightly and she letjust be in her presence. | didn’t cry, but | certainly felt defeated.

She pulled away, took my face in her hands, and kissed my forehead lovingly, | got up and gave her my seat.

She took Ben's hand in her wrinkled one. “Dimitry Marco shot him. He is the one who took Aurora.” | practically whispered.

Her face turned hard as stone and she looked atwith daggers in her eyes. “Get that motherfucking cunt and bringback my Aurora. Bringhis head. His family has always been a disgrace to the Mafia legacy. He has crossed the line of no return.” She looked back at Ben and | muttered a simple “Yes Ma'am.” Grammy has spoken and | have every intention of following her request.

| left her with Ben, knowing he is in the best hands. | went up to my room and laid down on my bed allowing my eyes In close. We are going to cfor you Aurora, | sent a silent message into the heavens. Hang on forbaby, | thought as I let darkness consme. Beautiful Darkness.

11:41 Tue, 20 Feb t