Chapter 9.5 - Confused

  When I got home I quickly parked in the driveway and jogged to the front door but was stopped by a small envelope sitting on the ground in front of the door. I picked it up and quickly ripped it open when I saw my name neatly printed on the front of it. Nothing could have possibly prepared me for what i was about to read.

Lexi Abruzzi,
   You're family has made a life threatening mistake by ignoring us and deceiving us for many years. We have been forced to take a different approach to deal with your family and get you to cooperate since our warnings have not worked sufficiently enough. We have your mother and father and if you ever want to see them alive again you will have to dig deep into your family history and figure out who we are and then you will do what we want. You have two weeks and yes we are watching you, the rest of your family, and of course that rock star looking boyfriend of yours.
     You will do what we say and when we say to do it. If you call the police or anyone in the government we will take great pleasure in killing your parents, slowly and painfully.

  I could not believe what I was reading, my mind refused to piece any of this together. What could this all mean? What was hidden in my family history that would warrant this disaster? Refusing to believe that any of this was true I sprinted throughout the house for any signs of my parents but they really were gone.

  I didn't dare call the police but I did call Sonya to tell her I would need time off from work for awhile. I didn't explain what was going on, I just told her that it was a family emergency. Then I changed real quick and immediately got on my computer to find any history about my family but after hours and hours of research I was still empty handed.

  It had been a week since receiving the note and I still had not made any progress with locating our family history. About the only thing I had been successful in doing was ignoring all of my calls, including from Colton who called constantly everyday. I didn't want to ignore him but I couldn't talk to anybody right now. It wasn't until Friday late afternoon that I saw Colton again. He let himself in the house and came frantically looking for me.

"Lexi!! Thank god you are alright!" He said running up to me and wrapping me in a hug as I burst into tears "What's going on? I have been worried sick about you and look at how skinny you are! What's wrong?!"

  I apologized to Colton, I felt so bad, and I slowly told him what had happened all the while sobbing like a small child. While I tried to compose myself a little Colton read the note, becoming increasingly pissed. He began screaming and yelling, not at me just at the entire situation.

"How could this happen?!" He yells "If they hurt Luca and Haley at all I swear I will ring everyone of their necks!"

"Lexi, we need to go to my house! I know who can help us, do you want to change or anything first?"

"No, i'm fine. Let's go."I said before we ran to his car.

 
When we got to Colton's house we sprinted inside.

"Sit here for a minute okay hun? Let me talk to my roommates first."

  I sat down in the living room and waited while Colton walked to the kitchen where his roommates were. I could hear their voices (not audible though) in a deep Italian accent, almost like they were from an old school Italian family. The talking stopped and I heard footsteps walking towards the living room.

  When Colton and his roommates walked in I was in shock and became speechless. His roommates were vampires! I don't mean sparkly skinned fiction book "vampires", I mean full fledged, colored bright white eyes, living by night, blood drinking vampires. I have heard of vampires before of course but I had never actually seen one, let alone 3 at one time looking at me like I was going to be their next meal.

  Colton nodded at me and I knew nothing was going to happen, he would keep me safe, even though these vampires were stronger and faster than he could ever be.


"Lexi, I want to introduce you to Nick, Ino, and Loka. They are happy to offer their help," Colton said as he introduced his roommates.

  I "surveyed" his roommates, partially to make sure they weren't going to kill me. Nick had long black hair with blue streaks, glowing white - blue eyes, and he seemed to be the superior one out of the three.

  Ino looked like a party animal with his dark red and orange hair, like fire, and his white - red eyes.

  Loka looked kind of like a snob but she also had black hair but with purple streaks and glowing white- pink eyes.

  After deciding on my own that I could trust them I began to go over the events of the past week. As they all looked over the note I also explained that I have tried locating my family history with no luck.

"Alright Lexi," Nick said after discussing the note with Ino and Loka then sitting next to me "What do you know about your family history? I mean aside from your parents, we need to know anything you know."

"Honestly, I don't know anything about my family history. I have never asked my parents," I said realizing how stupid that sounded.

"That doesn't sound stupid at all," Nick said then added "It's a power I acquired when I became a vampire. I can read minds, we each have some kind of power. Alright, since you don't know anything about your family history we need to get online again." He said as he walked over to the computer "Let me work my magic."

  I was so worried about all of this. Why were these people after my family and how did they even know my family?? I just don't und.....

"I found something!" Nick shouted "Lexi, you might want to come read this...now!"

  I quickly jumped off the couch and ran to Nick, taking his seat in front of the computer. Colton, Ino, and Loka ran over and read over my shoulder what was on the screen. Nick had found an article (many actually) about my great great great Grandparents Isabella and Antonio Abruzzi. Isabella ran from the I.S.S. (Italian Secret Service) and the Mafia for many years after the I.S.S. killed her mother, Rosetta. Isabella rejoined the Mafia some time after moving to Bridgeport and after marrying Antonio she also became an Architect and Antonio joined the military (which was against the Mafia rules.) Years later Mia Abruzzi sold the family business to a man named Vasil Ricci after the tragic shooting of her parents (this had been a family business for over 50 years.)

"This was a family business?!" I thought to myself just starring at the screen "Why didn't my mum ever tell me about this? Did dad know about this too?"

  After reading a few more articles something different caught my eye. Vasil was still a key player in the Mafia but his son, Ricardo, took it over years ago. Apparently he was sick of the way it was being run and of every person that has turned on them or has tried to set them up in the past. For many years now Ricardo has gone after these people. From murder, torture, fires, and even more this guy had one hell of a record!

 "Why didn't they tell me about this?" I said to no one in particular "and what do they want with my mum and dad?"

"We need to find these people," Colton said.

"Let us help locate these people," Nick said

"Really?" I said shocked by the help of people who barely even knew me "But we don't even know how to find these people."

"Leave it to us," Ino said "We can easily track people, we just need to start in Venice."

"Yea, no problem!" Loka said with more excitement than I had heard from her all night "We will be in touch as soon as we know something."

  With that Nick, Ino, and Loka disappeared in a bright ball of light and electricity.

"What the..."

"Teleportation," Colton said interrupting me "It's the fastest way for them to get from one area to another, especially in an emergency."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Three days later Colton and I were awaken by my phone ringing. I jumped up thinking one of his roommates had news already but when I saw the number I handed my phone to Colton.

"Could you? It's the movers with the furniture I have been waiting months for."

"Hello...no she is not available right now, this is her boyfriend...I can be over in 15 to let you guys in....okay, thank you," Colton said, then hung up and handed me my phone back.

"Thank you Colton," I said as I laid back on the bed.

"Of course, now you stay here and relax. let me take care of the movers and I will be back soon."

  With that Colton gave me a kiss, got changed, and left to go to my house as I closed my eyes to try to go back to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  After helping the movers bring out the old furniture and bring in the new furniture and arrange it I went to a couple stores to buy a few things for Lexi's house as a surprise. Then I went to the grocery store to get a small supply of food to take to her house since she barely had anything there.

  As I was checking out and the clerk was bagging the groceries, the new issue of Rebel Yell magazine caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. Lexi and I were on the cover, apparently one of the times I was trying to comfort her after her parents disappeared (which was at MY house no less.) I couldn't believe what the cover said and what was said in the story inside of the magazine! I rushed to take the stuff back to Lexi's house and then sped all the way home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!" I shouted as I saw the cover of Rebel Yell magazine.

"I don't know how anyone could have heard about this. We were the only two that knew aside from Nick, Ino, and Loka and they wouldn't have said anything, I can promise you that!"

"This is a disaster! No one was suppose to find out about this, I was warned!!" I said crying before tossing the magazine down and ran out of the house.

  I ran all the way down to the beach before slumping down and bursting into tears. I didn't know what to do. All of the time and research we did to find out who these people were that had my parents was all a lost cause now. Once these people found out that the whole town of Starlight Shores knew my parents were missing they would kill them.

  Suddenly paparazzi was surrounding me, snapping pictures, yelling questions, and demanding answers. I couldn't take anymore of it, I jumped up and started running away...again.

  I didn't know where I was running to but when I stopped I realized I was deep within the Simlian Forest.  I slowly walked through the trees until I came across a dirt path.

  As I followed the path I eventually walked up to a cabin, it looked fairly new but it was completely abandoned. I decided it would be a good idea to stay here for a little bit to relax my tired muscles and calm down.

  Walking up the stairs I heard a loud crack and suddenly knew this was a mistake as I began falling through the stairs and deep down into the ground.