Chapter One

The Nightmare

A teenage boy named Vito made his way down the sidewalk of an almost run down neighborhood. A few uninhabitable houses along with a couple obviously empty warehouses on the other side of the street. He clutched a piece of paper in his mitten covered hands as he tried to make out the address scribbled across it. His warm breath frosting up before his face in the cold air as he walked.

Next thing he knew he felt his body bump into something as he stumbled back a step, his head lifting up to see this huge menacing looking man. To young Vito this man seemed almost eight feet tall, a towering imposing man. Dressed in a blacker than night suit with a matching tie and fedora. The only thing that wasn't black was his shirt under his coat. A slightly faded white as Vito noticed blotches of red stains under the coat. The stranger pulled his coat to cover them when he noticed Vito spot them. 

"Watch where you're going, kid!"

The grown man snarled down at Vito, his voice equally as terrifying as his appearance as his tone shook Vito to his core.

"Sorry! Sir!"

Is all the Vito can muster as the man brushes past him, looking over his shoulder at him. Vito lifts his paper, remembering what he was doing. He was going to see his older brother. Vito's older brother Steven had gotten into some trouble and had hired a couple guys for protection and Vito had managed to gather the address from eavesdropping when his mom was talking to Steven on the phone. He had been told to stay away, that it wasn't safe, but Vito missed his brother, he wanted to at least see him, if only for a moment. 

Vito continued a few more steps, still getting over the chill he felt when he bumped into that man, when he saw the address he was looking for. It was a run down building with makeshift cover for the windows, most likely for enduring a shoot out. He walked up to the door, tucking the piece of paper into his pocket. He knocked but got no answer so he opened the door slowly and stepped inside. When he entered he expected to find his brother and his two guards maybe to greet him, maybe get mad at him, but nothing prepared him for what Vito walked into. 

His eyes went wide with shock at first, then fear as he surveyed the scene. He saw a body by the back door lying motionless. Vito could see blood sprayed across this mans chest as he swallowed hard and panic set in. Wondering if his brother was here as he stepped closer to the body. Wanting to verify it wasn't his brother. He peered over at the fresh corpse and didn't recognize him. A sigh of relief escapes his cold lips. His eyes looking around further as he spots someone on a chair with their back to him, a knife protruding straight up from this person's face.

Vito was already hoping it was just the other guard and that his brother had made it away to safety, or worse was taken to continue to be tortured. His mind raced as he started taking small steps toward the man in the chair.

"Ste..Steven..?" 

Vito's voice trembled, realizing what he sounded like talking to a clearly dead guy, fearing the worst as he crept closer, passing right by one of the dead guards. He hesitantly stepped around to the front of the chair. His face going white before even stepping to the front. He could see the side of his brothers clearly battered face, noticing his arms were bound to the chair, his hands mangled. The same was for his legs. Steven had been tortured horribly Vito thought as he leaned over, already wanting to cry, noticing the A.B. carved into his brothers lifeless face.

Vito's eyes watered up as he let out a silent scream. His brother Steven was strapped to a chair and dead. The sight of his brothers lifeless body, his head draped back as the knife protruded straight up, his limbs mangled and mashed setting in as Vito dropped to his knees screaming for real now. His whole body tensing up as he lets it out, knowing he'd never see his brother again. 

Vito gasped as he tossed and turned as years passed in his dreams now. Mourning for his brother along with his mother. Attending his funeral and visiting his grave every year ran through as his nightmare took it's toll. Now in bed and sweating he suddenly sprung up with a scream.

"AAAHHHHHHHHH!"

That nightmare that had haunted him for the past 10 years just kept coming back, over and over again. Vito panted as he caught his breath in his dimly lit bedroom, reaching for the small table beside his bed and tugging on the chain to the lamp. The light coming on as the glow filled half the room. He swept up his watch and noticed the time then sighed.

"Might as well get this day started."

Vito groaned as he stood up from his bed and began to get dressed. The sun would be up within the hour and he still had to make the drive to his mother Cassandra's house on the other side of town, to Vito and Steven's childhood home. Remembering today was the anniversary of his brother Steven's death and how he then had to go meet up with his childhood friend Joey after visiting with his mother and paying their respects at Steven's grave site.

Vito let out a long sigh as he mustered the strength to get off his bed. Getting dressed and gathering his things to leave. He wrapped his coat around himself and placed his fedora on his neatly brushed hair. Running his fingers over his goatee that connected to his sideburns at the base of his jaw, thinking a moment to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything. He snapped his fingers as he stepped over to a drawer on the end table by his bed. Reaching in to grab his snub nose .38 from within and slipping it inside his inside coat pocket. Heading out of his apartment and climbing into his dark green 1931 Buick Series 50 sedan as he took a deep breath before starting the car and driving out of the parking lot to his apartment and off to his mother's house...