Five's A Crowd

seventy seven

I hesitantly skip down the stairs, using my peripheral vision to make sure that Axel is always in my line of sight.

I would hate for him to push me down the stairs just after I've completed something so big, and am about to get rewarded for it.

That would be so embarrassing.

When I reach the bottom of the stairs the rest of my family casually wait around the dining table. All of them are sporting large, happy smiles.

"We'll take you downstairs to the basement if you want, pumpkin," my father suggests gently, ushering me forward, so he can give me a hug.

I follow his action, and fall into his tight embrace. This is family.

I nod my head and wait for someone to start moving in the direction of the so called basement that is continuously being mentioned.

Of course Matteo is the first one to make a move towards the basement, and I quickly break away from my father's arms to eagerly follow him.

I hear a couple of chuckles behind me, but I pay no mind the them, and keep looking straight ahead as curiosity claws my insides.

Slowly, we come to a stop at a random door that I have been too ignorant to open in the last couple of months.

It's worn out, and doesn't have any special features that draw me to it. I guess that's what my family wants me to think of it. Just another worn out door in this lovely new house.

Matteo dramatically takes a key out of his pocket, and shows it to us all, before entering it into  the small space. He twists it, and we all listen to the satisfying click as the basement door unlocks.

I lean sideways so I don't only have the view of my oldest brother. When the door opens I can see that whatever is ahead of us is dark.

"Are they all kept down here?" I carefully whisper, hoping that no one- with the exception of my family- will hear my words.

"Yep," Chase chimes in, pushing me out of the way gently so he can be the first down the creaky looking steps. "All of the scoundrels that have fucked us over, live down here. Then they rot down here. And finally they die down here."

My youngest brother's last couple of sentences are shouted over his shoulder, because he's already halfway down the staircase. And as I expected it creaks, and must feel as wobbly as if looks.

"Ladies first," Matteo grumbles, gesturing for me to go first.

"Is someone scared?" I tease my oldest brother, poking his side as I let out a small laugh.

"No Hazel, I'm not scared. Now hurry up and go down the stairs, will you?" Matteo snaps, but I can see his face begin to turn pale.

I knew he was scared from the beginning! But instead of poking the beast again, I decide to leave him alone. I shrug off his unhappy response, and start to make my way down the unstable stairs.

As I stumble my way down the stairs, I realise just how wobbly they really are. I wish that someone was here to tell me that I was not going to fall off these dark stairs, and die a sad and stupid sounding death.

"Hold on, wait a second... I think I found the lights!" I can hear the excited voice of Chase from somewhere in front of me, and I use that as a guide.

But before I know it, light fills the room, and I'm no longer blindly walking down a steep set of stairs. Instead I can easily see where I am going, and who I am walking towards.

In seconds I have reached the bottom of the staircase and throw my youngest brother the nastiest glare that I can muster. Of course he just has to find the lights when I'm at the bottom of the stairs.

It takes less than a minute for the rest of my family to clamber down the stairs. Only one of them could go at a time, and even then it looks like the set of stairs would buckle under each of my brothers' and father's weight.

It was slightly funny to watch as everyone was so careful.

I looked around the basement in curiosity and scrunched my eyebrows. It looks the same as Noah's basement looked.

Almost identical.

Did every mafia set out their basement the same way.

Levi seems to notice my awe, as well as the sense of familiarity I'm probably feeling, because he begins to tell me about how the basement is set out.

"This is just the opening of the basement. Some people would call it the mouth," he describes briefly. "The low life criminals and men who have participated in minor drug deals will spend their lives here."

I nod my head, understanding what he's saying.

"The second level is filled with those who have been unable to pay debts to us, or decided that it would be a good idea to run away from their deals with us. We like to call it the coward level," my third oldest brother continues to explain.

Yet again, I just nod my head, waiting for him to say more.

"The next part if full of people who thought it would be smart to betray the family. Mainly the ones who worked against us with some of our enemies. They're hated by everyone. Do you understand so far?"

"I do, I do. But where does Noah, Fletcher, and Sierra stay?" I question.

"They're trapped in the final and deepest level for people to have hurt those in the family. There's no chance that they'll die a simple death. When we're angry, it turns out that we can all be very creative."

I felt a shiver run up my spine at my brother's words.

A/N: Hey guys, thank you so much for reading. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE VOTE, COMMENT, AND READ WHEN I GET A CHAPTER OUT TOMORROW. I have a plan for where this book is going, I just need a little support. Also, thank you very much for 79700 reads and over 3k votes - 3058 votes - (I know that it's not a lot,) but to me, it means the world. Keep slaying in life, and I will see you tomorrow night- or day depending on where you live- when I update tomorrow. Bye <3

P.S. Merry Christmas for all of you who celebrate. I'm stuffed full of a lovely Christmas lunch and surrounded by some beautiful presents. When I say beautiful presents, I'm talking about a stack of books lol