Piccoletto

Total Darkness

Luca woke up to a familiar thump that repeated itself almost every second. At first it was deep and comforting, coming at a steady rhythm. But with every thud, Luca became more alert and began to wake up. He was heavily confused, as his blurry vision began to reveal a dark path underneath him, and the more his eyes opened the worse a sting in his side got.

Luca let out a groan as he realized the reason why his side was hurting so bad was because it was being dug into something hard. Luca tried to move but realized he couldn't. In fact, he realized that he was almost upside down and facing the ground.

Suddenly, a flood of memories awakened him. Flashes of being caught between the water and Ercole, running and being slammed onto the ground, reaching out for a rose, and finally hitting his head on the concrete before blacking out. That meant- that meant he was still with Ercole.

A rush of panic flooded through Luca's veins, and he began thrashing wildly about with a wail. Ercole realized that Luca had woken up too late. Luca's heel had already collided with the underside of Ercole's nose and Ercole let go to grab it. Luca fell over Ercole's back, the way he was being carried.

"ARGH!" Ercole roared as he turned around to see Luca at his feet. Luca was flat on his back, curled up as he reached for his forehead, which had scraped the rocks below. He realized where he was and what had happened. Abandoning the blood on his forehead, he scrambled up to his feet only to realize that he was much weaker than he thought.

Before he could even stand, Ercole's fist collided with his chest, and Luca fell back onto the path.

"Don't even try fighting back, Piccoletto," Ercole bellowed as he wiped his hooked nose. "You've already lost, now come on."

He reached down and grabbed a fist of Luca's hair, forcing the smaller boy to stand up with a cry. Ercole had to admit that Luca looked terrible. Cuts littered his body, his unbuttoned shirt revealing a blackened bruise reaching around his torso.

"Let go of me!" Luca screamed, kicking and thrashing against Ercole's grasp. "Let go!"

Ercole didn't have to do much to get a hold of him. All he did was sweep him up against his chest the night prior in the familiar headlock.

"Don't fight, Piccoletto," Ercole whispered menacingly into his ear. "You're too weak."

Luca didn't listen. Instead, he just kept his eyes tightly shut, trying to focus on taking his next breath through Ercole's meanuever.

"Now, I'm going to let you go," Ercole said, untightening his position over Luca. "And you can either come willingly or I'll carry you over my back. So what's it gonna be?"

Luca fixed his gaze below him, and realized he could barely see Portorosso through the darkness. Ercole had carried him half up the mountain, curling around towards the back.

"Ok," Luca agreed, feeling his face lose color. "Just please let me go."

Ercole dropped Luca, not before making sure he had a strong grasp on Luca's wrist. He began dragging Luca up the mountain, forcing the smaller boy to take steps as big as Ercole's to keep up. Luca had never felt so horrified. In an instant he had been ripped away from Portorosso. And ripped away from Giulia. He turned his head back towards the remaining lights from Portorosso down below.

"What's that?" Luca asked quietly as he tried to lean back to look at what was attached to Ercole's belt. Ercole pulled harder with a grunt.

"It's your rose."

Luca's heart skipped a beat as he reached to grab it, but his hand was slapped away.

"Don't touch my things," Ercole said wickedly. Luca gave up and pulled his hand away.