FIVE

Six days Before Benji Yarrow met his end, Orlando Gianni found himself a captive in a twisted game.

The last he remembers was being hammered from the waves of alcohol he chugged in the club. Being Forty-nine shouldn't put a hold on livelihood. It should promote more amusement, more visits to places that fulfill the ego. If not now, then when? When he's finally hit menopause and has been confined to a wheelchair? Five will enjoy his life to the fullest.

But this particular trip ended in his doom. He was captured and stuffed into a car by some kidnapper whose identity isn't clear to him. He was careless. He knows he's a figure abhorred by many, which is why he regrets not dragging his bodyguard along with him.

When he first came to, he was in the backseat of a car. But that brief moment of consciousness was soon knocked out of him by a powerful punch to his face. Then he later opened his eyes only to find darkness. Eternal, perpetual darkness. At first, he thought his mind hadn't yet recovered from all the liquor, but his senses were perfectly fine. He'd been left alone to figure out his way in that broad darkness.

Then he realized his movements were restricted. He'd tried standing, but was rejected by the ceiling. No, not the ceiling. It wasn't solid, and it seemed to have holes in between thin rods. Some sort of enclosure. Five frantically threw his hands around him to see if he truly was stuck, and when the reality finally hit him, he shrunk into a shell. He was in a cage. A cage with an enclosure around its perimeter.

That was then. Hours pass with Five in that prison. His bladder has grown heavy from all the alcohol intake, which eventually thinned out his patience. He rattles the cage and calls out into a void. He needs to relieve himself. He will not be subjected to such inhumane conditions.

"Do you know who you're fucking with?!" Five screams. But he is only greeted by an echo. This drives him even more insane. "When I find out who you are, I will personally carve out your heart, you hear me?" When his rant receives no answer, he frustratingly throws himself against the cage and begins hurling curses in Italian.

Five still doesn't give up. The Verdonni family will find him. They will come for him. And he will put whoever is behind this madness to justice.

More hours pass. Five isn't sure what time it is or even what day. What he does know is his trousers have been soiled with urine. He eventually gave up and eased himself right then and there. By this point, the air has been stained with his filth and muck. He grovels on the grimy floor of the cage, still under the impression that he will be saved. He has no idea what's coming for him.

Much later, when Five has given up on calling out for help, the enclosure is finally removed. He's greeted by a sharp ring of sunlight which he gratefully accepts, and he thinks this is finally it. The Verdonnis have come for him. He will be saved.

The first thing he picks up on is a light shade of . . . brown. Leaves. Tall, bare trees. The ground is toppled with those oak leaves, and the trees tell him he's far off from his usual territory. This isn't New York City. He's in the middle of the woods, in the middle of nowhere. As far as he's concerned, he could be two states over. Now he begins to worry. The situation is much more dire than he'd first realized.

In the midst of scanning the environment, a figure moves into his line of vision. This must be who captured him. This must be the piece of shit who stuffed him in a cage of all things. Five is livid. He throws out some variations of "Did you do this?", "Do you know who I fucking am?!", all to which the figure ignores, as though he were a dog barking up a tree.

The figure squats down for Five to get a look, and he finds his captor is a woman no older than her mid-twenties. Short curly hair, cheekbones, mismatched eyes. Those eyes. He's seen them before. He's not sure where, but he has. And even if he can't remember much, he knows the situation now is more than just mere kidnapping.

The Girl smiles with nothing but her lips. Her eyes remain dead, cold. Hollow. "Hello, Orlando."

This sends chills down Five's back. Before even realizing it, he'd begun hoping this was nothing more than just a capture for ransom, because the way The Girl looks at him makes the hair on his body stand. This must be how the wild works. Preys against predators. Except this time, Five is the prey.

Still, he keeps up the brazen act. "Listen to me, you little bitch. You are going to release me from this cage this very instant or-"

"Fifteen years ago, October 27th. Where were you?"

At first, Five is exasperated at having been interrupted, until he reads into The Girl's face. Pure emptiness. She looks at him with neither malice nor eagerness, but pure emptiness. No emotions where necessary. Five slowly retracts back against the cage. He's trying to dismiss the feeling, but when he can no longer do so, he reluctantly succumbs to it.

Fear. When was the last time Five felt fear?

The Girl waits for a reply that never comes. She gives Five one last look, then moves the enclosure back over the cage. The capo begins to panic when she does so. He cannot spend any more time in that endless darkness.

"Wait! Please-" The enclosure snaps close, trapping him within the discomfort of the cage. A cage he can't escape from, try as he may.

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Days pass. Five is certain this time because he's been losing his senses. The cage has become both his prison and urinal. He stopped caring hours ago, and now he eases himself without even thinking. His mind has gone blank. The isolation has eaten into him, has returned him to a primal state.

It's been long since he last had something to eat or drink. He hangs his head against the thin bars of the cage and keeps his mouth open, as if some meal will be granted to him at any moment if he does so.

Five has given up at this point. The Verdonni family hasn't shown up. Maybe they really have abandoned him. They have casted him aside like they did Ramsey. He was there when Idris gave the order to take him out while in police custody. And now he has taken the ex-underboss's place.

Five begins to laugh. It's an empty laugh, much like everything else about his life. He joined the world of violence at such a young age and has known nothing since then. No family, no friends. Or at least, no genuine friends. He traded it all for a seat under the Verdonni family.

But this is all an excuse Five has conjured. If he truly wanted a family, he would have created one. Rand and Six were successful, and even his late friend Bruno was too, even though he was the most vicious among them all. Now Five has arrived at the very edge. The tip of the cliff. The end of his life.

Few more hours of sitting in darkness pass before The Girl returns. She pulls off the enclosure only to find a beaten down Five. He doesn't even move when he sees her, just sits there and stares off into space.

The Girl rattles the cage a couple times the way an owner does to a sheltered dog. She can see how shriveled and shrew and withered he is. Perhaps a little kindness won't be so bad.

She brings out a bottle of water, but instead of slipping it to him, she pops it open and pours it all over the cage. Five snaps out of his trance when the water hits him. He's parched beyond relief. He gets down on all fours and begins drinking up as much water from the floor as is available. Doesn't even think twice.

The Girl smiles at the sight. The smile soon turns into a grin, and then a chuckle, then drastically snowballs into laughter. She throws her head back and crackles like she's just been told the world's funniest joke. Then she brings the laughter to a conclusion and wipes the tears that have made their way down.

And then it's silent once again.

The Girl fishes out a dog bone and waves it in front of Five who seems to have gotten past the mission to quench his thirst. "Does Orlando want a treat? Bark if you do."

Five grits his teeth at her condescending tone. How did things go south so quickly? "Why are you doing this?"

The Girl tosses the bone to the ground. "I'm just returning the favor, Five." She squats down once again, enough for the capo to get one more look at her eyes. "It must have been so entertaining back then, am I right?"

It finally clicks, just like when the short hand strikes a new hour on a clock. Instantly, begrudgingly, the memories infiltrate Five's mind in ways that flip his stomach upside-down. Has it been so long? Fifteen years ago? When the Verdonni family captured and tortured the Roccis. Those same eyes that are currently staring at him with every bit of contempt - those are the same ones he helped carve out fifteen years ago.

"Cazzo." Five mutters. Damn right, he's screwed.

The last of the twin the Verdonnis sold those years back. She's come for revenge.

The Girl stands up from the squat. "We'll do this with no shackles."

Five is confused at first, until The Girl leaves and returns with a mutt. Except this one isn't the same as every other domesticated dog. It's from the wild; not at all native to the country. A hyena.

The mutt is big, much bigger than any other hound Five has laid eyes on. The Girl busies herself with it for a little while, scratching its ears and patting it where all mutts want to be patted. It nozzles up to her and even licks her the way a normal dog would. The hyena is undoubtedly thrilled to be there.

"We're going to play a little game of tag." The Girl says in the middle of more ear scratches. She turns to Five with a chilling smile. "And you're going to be it."

Five begins trembling with every emotion in the book, but mostly with terror. The teeth on the hyena rival daggers. They're jagged and sharp. One bite from those fangs will leave him begging for his life.

The Girl goes over to the cage and begins unlocking it. "Same rules as back then. Of course, with no shackles, you have a better shot." Five steps out the cage and stands on his feet. But he isn't even given time to get accustomed to standing.

"You're it, Orlando." The Girl tells him. "Run."

Five doesn't think twice. He bolts down the woods as fast as his weakened feet can carry him. Try as he may, he is only human. No match for a hyena. Still, he runs. He runs because his life depends on it.

A futile attempt. The hyena is upon him within seconds. It pounces on him and sinks its teeth into his foot. Five screams out in horror. The pain is so great, he can barely even hear himself scream. But that's all the mutt does. It gnaws on his right foot.

The Girl soon arrives and ends the attack. She pats the hyena on its head, which seems to serve as a command for it to head back to the starting line.

She taps Five with her foot. "Get up. We're not done here."

Five doesn't move. His leg is in agony. But when he doesn't follow The Girl's command, she grabs his wounded leg and begins dragging him back to the beginning. Five not only cries out from the pain, but also because he knows he's going to be subjected to the same game of tag. He sinks his fingers into the leaves and far below to find something - anything - to latch on to, to prevent The Girl from pulling him back. The Girl's strength is far greater, though.

When she hauls him back to the starting line, she plays a laughing track. Waves of perpetual laughter. They surge through the Bluetooth speakers and welcome the capo.

Five is confused, but also feels like a target. It feels like he's being ridiculed. Like it's all a show and the stage lights are all on him. Him, the laughing stock.

"Stand up." Says The Girl.

Five's right foot pains him beyond words, but he hoists himself up and supports his weight solely with his left foot. If The Girl plans on making him run again, then he really is doomed. He won't get far with his right leg compromised. It may as well be a shackle.

"Run, Five."

Tears fall down Five's face in streams. His life has come to an end in the most dehumanizing way possible. He sniffles and turns his blurry eyes towards the road ahead. This is the end.

Five struggles his way across the woods, this time limping. He turns to see the hyena hasn't yet been released, and he takes the few seconds he has left to regret his life.

And finally, the mutt takes off after him. It comes down upon Five with its extensive fangs and tears through his flesh with ease. It rips him right open, neverminding the screams of pure agony the capo gives. After all, why should the mutt care about his feelings?

Now as Five lays there mutilated, drawing his last breath, he gazes upon The Girl in the background. She stares him back, right in his eyes, and from within those very eyes he can tell that the rest of the Verdonni family will be joining him shortly.

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