I was breathless even when I never moved from the chair. My throat hurt from the constant screaming. People around us vanished. And my heart beats dramatically increased.

None of that mattered, though.

Fear made me incoherent to beg. Beg for this moment to stop and time to freeze. My eyes burn, tears dry, breath short, but none of them are my worries at the moment.

They threatened the person I loved the most. We both were helpless, even when we were together. The thought of losing one of us petrified both.

I wondered how many people usually witnessed their loved one's dying in front of them or getting killed in front of them. I hated to admit that I was helpless but for how long can my ego stay high, I was destined to admit defeat.

His grey eyes told me stories of the moments we shared, of the years we spent together but never forget to show me life as he has always lived.

Growing up with just one parent showed me that love is infinite, unbearable, and the most beautiful feeling in the world.

His cuffed bound arms reminded me of the time when he fed me with them and caressed me at tough times. I wish I could hold them one last time.

"You're hurting him," I whisper to the mafia. "Don't hurt him." My fear never allowed me to cry.

My father stayed silent the whole while his eyes stayed on me. He wanted to tell me something but never said anything.

He looked old today.

"Please. Giovanni please." I pleaded. "Let him go."

Giovanni looked startled and I witnessed fury on his face. He wants something for us but does not say it.

"Just tell me what you want, okay?"

"You can give me many things, Cedric." His ambivalent statements never cease to mystify me along with his twisted personality. I deduced that ambiguity is concreted profoundly into his nature that most people confuse for single-mindedness.

The experience might have made him an ace in his everyday routine of dealing with people but it failed to educate him about basic human nature. Killing people, orphaning children, torturing innocent lives might be his everyday routine and these things made him a monster.

"But not right now." He finished.

"Look, whatever it is we can always take like two adults and solve this together. You don't need to go to this extent of hurting us," I suggested hoping he would give it a thought to what I just said.

"No Cedric. You are just a spoiled child. You need to learn." I was getting anxious and my hands started to shake and my legs started to tremble.

My breath started to shallow at his next action. He slowly lifts his gun and points towards my helpless father. My father noticed my horrified expression and followed my eyes. His eyes widened when he realized what Giovanni was doing.

"Don't do this," I begged.

"I know this could be the other way around but..." He stopped speaking. I witnessed the helplessness settling on his face but why is he sad?

My breath hitched at the thought of his next move and I prayed to the deaf god to stop this moment. It was hard for me to think, breathe, and act in favor of the situation.

Never in my entire life have I ever entered a situation where I do not where to go. Whom to beg or plead. I did not know what could stop Giovanni or what offers he would accept.

He is not willing to describe the crime we committed for receiving such a harsh punishment or the part we offended him. Maybe it is just an accident that is happening to us but it is wrong and we do not deserve it. This person is wrong and I cannot accept this fate no matter what happens.

"Please Giovanni stop this," I said but everything was ineffective.

I locked my eyes with my father and saw tears forming in it. It broke my heart to see him crying. Whatever sins he has committed, he does not deserve this and I forgive him. I forgive his past.

I have never seen him crying in my entire life and I don't even know what will stop them. The creases on his forehead visible as he controlled the tears from falling but it did eventually, pressuring me to stop the upcoming tragedy.

Giovanni was asking me to see the obvious reasons behind his sinister act of inhumanity towards us but I was blinded by the pain my father was tolerating.

"Do whatever you please with me just leave him." I offered my sacrifice but he decided to pretend he never heard me.

"Pay Eros." I heard him whispering in my father's ear and I shook in my chair.

"Hey! Do not touch him." I saw my father closing his eyes and sighing and I completely lost it. "You bastard, stop."

I felt the cuffs cutting my skin but my fire to save and free my father was far greater than any other pain I have ever felt.

"You fucker. Talk with me." I saw him unlocking his gun and reaching for my father's head from behind and I fought against my restraint.

"Goodbye, Eros."

"Hey! Stop."

His fingers curled against the trigger.

"Talk with me. Don't do this."

I heard him sigh.

"I will kill you. I will kill you."

He closed his eyes and reopened them.

"Please stop. Plea--"

The blood-spattered across my face and I flinched spontaneously. The gunshot silenced my screams and I stopped breathing along with my heart which increased beating.

Father's head dropped from the impact and Giovanni cleaned the blood he collected on his face but I couldn't. His head swings a few times before deciding one position, it bent completely towards his lap.

"NOOO.." I screamed and it hurt my throat.

"Dad," I called loudly and clearly but he did not respond.

The tears I was holding so hard, freely fell once they got their reason to fall. Miraculously, I was free to move but fell on my knee and in front of my father. I desperately held his face in my palms and lifted it to examine.

My body shook with my tears and blurred my vision but I quickly wiped away afraid that my father would worry if he saw me crying.

"Dad," I called again but his eyes were closed.

I shook his face and his body multiple times and remembered that his mouth was sealed so he could not speak. I hissed when I accidentally pulled his tape harder than necessary but he did not react or open his eyes like he never felt any pain.

"Dad please open your eyes." I pleaded. "Tell me where it hurts?"

I removed his disturbing hair that was covering his forehead and closely examined his face. His head kept falling as if it lost its control and support.

I shakily touched the back of his head where Giovanni shot him. "Ah...." I screamed when I sensed the wetness soaking my hand and I fell back when I saw the blood oozing out.

With bravery, I got up and went behind his back just to see the impact which did this to him. The blood was freely flowing from the hole on his scalp and I quickly covered the wound for the blood to stop.

Nothing happened though. He did not wake up and the blood never stopped.

"Call the ambulance," I yelled at the people around us but no one moved even an inch. I did not even realize that Giovanni already left, leaving me behind with my misery.

The tears continued to blur my vision and I continued to wipe them away but they did not know a way to stop.

I tried to pick up my father but noticed the cuffs that were binding him to the chair and tried to break them. "Hey! Give me the key." I asked Brown who was watching me the whole time and helped Giovanni. As much as I wanted to kill each of them, I had to bring my father to the hospital.

"He's dead." I heard him whispering apologetically.

"What?"

He dared!

"He's not dead." I held him by his collar and he never protested. "He's just unconscious."

Accelerated, I removed my suit jacket and looked for any sharp weapon other than a gun. And surprisingly I found an ax at the end of the room.

Why did I notice it before?

Holding it tightly and fixing its proper position on the link chain of the cuffs and carefully but strongly hitting it with the ax and breaking it with just one go.

I could not bear my father's weight and barely managed to catch him before he hit the floor. The dirty and greasy floor. "Dad."

"Open your eyes. Look at me." I held him on my lap.

"Please. You are okay." I panted because of all the emotionally draining exercise I performed in one day.

He lay there, silently in my arms while sleeping peacefully and for a moment I left him as he was, afraid to wake him from his peaceful slumber. But even after all the noises, he did not wake up and it worried me that Giovanni really killed him.

I will never be able to escape the pain of losing a parent again. Though I never had a mother, my father was everything to me, and what I will tell my brother that I was not able to save our father.

What will I do without him?

____________________________

A really sad ending...

Eros Hart is dead. What will happen to Cedric now?