Back & Forth | Book 1 of Back & Forth Series

I watch as the housekeepers prepare the extra beds for the night. Or maybe for the next few days. After covering the extra single beds with the bedsheets, they put the pillows and blankets neatly on the bed. I thank them all and then they leave the room quietly. I look at the tidy extra beds on each side of my bed and then I furrow my eyebrows.

Wait. Why are there only two extra beds? Where’s one of the guys going to sleep? The sofa? I don’t think it’s going to be comfortable at all. They’re all tall. My 175cm ass won’t even feel comfortable sleeping in the sofa. No matter how soft it is. Imagine a 190cm+ tall person sleeping there. They would feel the consequences of it in the morning. I guess I have to share the bed with someone tonight. Or maybe not.

The door opens and I see Luciano there. His hair is still a bit wet from the shower. Now he’s dressed in a comfy black t-shirt and grey sweatpants. He smiles and then walk towards the bed. He sits on the bed bench with his body slightly facing me. I only smile at him. Not sure of what to say.

My eyes widen as I see Alessio runs into the room and jump onto the extra bed on the right side of the bed. He looks at me and then grins.

“I’m taking this one.” Alessio said.

“Okay.” I said.

Alessandro finally gets into the room after a few minutes. He closes the door behind him and then go straight to the sofa.

“Where’s one of you going to sleep?” I asked.

“The sofa.” Alessandro said as he lies on it. I frown at the sight. There’s no way I’m letting him sleep there.

“We only have two single beds in the house so one of us has to sleep on the sofa for the night.” Alessandro continued.

“Won’t it be uncomfortable?” I asked. I look at Luciano and we realise that we said the same thing together. We stare at each other for a second before I break our eye contact and look at the sofa where Alessandro is.

“Whatever. A backache won’t kill me.” Alessandro said.

“A pinched nerve might though.” I said.

“I’m not going to sleep anyway. Im just lying down here. I can’t sleep knowing that something dangerous could happen anytime soon.” Alessandro said.

“Me neither.” Luciano said, shrugging. “You better take the bed, Ale. You can fight better than I do so you better be closer to Allura.”

Alessandro sits on the sofa and gives Luciano an ‘are you kidding’ look.

“Bullshit.” Alessandro scoffs. “You beat me in training almost every single time. That proves that you’re a better fighter than I am.”

“One of you can sleep on the bed with me. I don’t mind. I’m not letting any of you sleep there on the sofa.” I said, frowning at Alessandro and Luciano.

Alessandro stares between Luciano and me. He keeps looking back and forth between the two of us and then he narrows his eyes at me. His gaze full of suspicion. I throw him a ‘what’ look but he only continues to stare at me. He then quickly gets on his feet and go towards the bed.

“Fine. I’ll sleep on the bed with you.” Alessandro said. He crawls into the right side of the bed and then sits with his back against the headboard, sighing to himself.

What the hell was that about? Did he think that I want Luciano on the bed with me instead? Hell no. At least not when he and Alessio are around. Wait what?

“Who wants to watch a movie?” Alessandro said. The TV remote control is already in his hand. I shrug at him.

“Your choice. I’m going to take a shower now and get ready for bed. Do whatever you want but don’t mess up my bedroom.” I said, giving my cousins and Luciano a threatening look.

I then crawl onto the extra bed and get on the floor. I quickly go to the closet and take a black t-shirt, black sweatpants, and of course, a clean underwear. I go to the bathroom with my fresh clothes and then close the door behind me.

After I finish getting ready for bed, I go back to my bedroom. I stop in my track when I see the room is darker than before. Uh. What’s going on?

I carefully approach the bed and then look down to see my cousins and Luciano sitting on the floor, playing UNO. That’s not something I expected them to play. I thought they’d play poker, domino, or any other ‘adult’ card games instead. I’m not complaining though. This means I can join the game.

“Can I join the game?” I asked.

“Sure but after we finished this round. Anyways, we allow stacking the draw cards. Draw-2 with other draw-2 cards and draw-4 with other draw-4 cards. No maximum stacking so, be prepared.” Alessio explained with an evil grin. His face suddenly turns dark as he remembers something.

“No mind reading allowed. That’s considered cheating.” Alessio added.

“I won’t do it. I promise.” I said as I take a seat between Luciano and Alessandro. I clasp my hands together, watching the current round unfolding.

“This is going to be interesting.” I said, smiling widely to myself at the thought of how I’m going to win the game. Even without reading everyone’s mind.

I look at the current card on top of the pile. Red-6. I peek at Alessandro’s cards and he only has three cards left. A green-2 card, a blue-2 card, and a draw-4 card. I then take a look at Luciano’s cards and raise my eyebrows at how good are his cards. He has three draw-4 cards and a wild card.

Damn. He’s definitely going to win this round. That is if he decided to be evil and pull out his draw-4 cards all at once. Anyone after him will definitely be fucked up by all the cards he has to draw.

I decided to read Alessio’s mind and find that he only has a green reverse card and a wild card after he puts down a red-5 card. It turns out that Alessandro is next and because he doesn’t have any red or 5 cards, he has to draw one from the draw like. It turns out that he got a yellow-2 card. Now he has two 2 cards Alessandro then looks at Luciano, letting him know that he won’t put the card.

Luciano pulls out the wild card and puts it down on the pile.

“Blue.” Luciano said.

Alessio pulls a card from the draw pile and immediately put it down, revealing a blue-2 card. Alessandro smirks at the card and then puts down all of his 2 cards.

“Uno.” Alessandro said before anyone else could.

Luciano looks up at Alessio with a poker face and then puts down all of his draw-4 cards. Alessio scowls at Luciano but Luciano only grins at him.

“Fuck you.” Alessio cursed. Ooh. Alessio is mad mad.

Luciano continues to grin at him as he draws 12 cards from the draw pile. After Alessio finished taking the cards, Alessandro puts down the last draw-4 card. Alessio’s scowl only goes deeper as he stares at his twin.

“Seriously?” Alessio said. He then throws down all of his cards, rolling his eyes. Luciano and Alessandro do a high five in front of me and I smile at them. Alessio is now cleaning up the cards and put them together into one pile.

“Want to play another round?” Alessio asked as he looked at all of us.

“I’m down.” Alessandro said as he shrugged.

“Let’s do it.” Luciano said.

“How about you? Do you still want to play?” Alessio asked. I stare back at him, suddenly feeling sleepy.

I definitely rather go to sleep now. Yeah, I know I just woke up an hour ago or something from my way too long nap but if I’m sleepy, then I’m going to sleep it off. That’s one of my life mottos.

“On second thought, no. I feel sleepy already. I’m going to bed now so enjoy your game.” I said, holding back a yawn. I push myself off the floor and then crawl into my bed. I pull up the duvet and then get my legs and body under it. I put my head on the plush pillow and close my heavy eyes.

“Alright. If she’s not playing. I’m not playing.” Alessio said.

“Okay. Let me put the cards away.” I heard Luciano said. I then hear everyone getting into their beds while Alessandro lies next to me. Everyone stay silent in our beds. No one letting out any words. Despite the sleepiness I’m feeling, I still can’t make myself fall asleep yet. As I stare into the darkness behind my eyelids, a thought suddenly appears in my mind.

That’s interesting. That is the kind of thing that people ask in a sleepover. At least that’s what I know from movies. I’ve never been in a sleepover before so I’m not really sure about it.

“Weird question but, have any of you guys experienced supernatural stuff? Like seeing ghosts or spirits? Or maybe something moving on it’s own?” I asked.

“Never. I probably didn’t notice it when it happened.” Luciano said.

“I’ve seen a vase fell and shattered when no one’s close to the table. It happened in my hookup bedroom while I was about to do it with a girl. She got freaked out by it and then she stormed out of the bedroom only in her underwear.” Alessio said, chuckling at his own experience.

Damn. Poor girl. I hope she didn’t step on any of the broken pieces. That’ll hurt like a bitch.

“You’ve angered the room ghost, dude.” I said. Just imagine an old man ghost, staring at Alessio in anger from the dark corner of the room. He got angry and even more angrier as he watched the unholy scene happened in front of his eyes. He can’t take any more of that indecency, so he decided to make them stop by breaking the vase.

“It only happened once, though.” Alessio said. Only once? Interesting. I guess the ghost who’s in that room already used to it. I don’t think they enjoy watching it happen though.

“You should be grateful that he’s not tearing the whole bedroom apart.” I said.

“Yeah. Maybe.” Alessio said, shrugging.

“How about you, Alessandro?” I asked.

“I was in my office. Working as usual. I had a document consisting of fifty papers on the table. All the papers suddenly flew away up to the ceiling as if someone thrown them on purpose. The amount of time I spent rearranging the document page by page almost made me lost my sanity. Since then, I always stapled all of my documents just in case a dumbass ghost decided to pull the same shit again.” Alessandro explained. Huh. I wonder if it’s the same ghost that Alessio came across with. That sounds like sn annoying thing to happen to anyone.

“So, this house is pretty much haunted, huh?” I asked, looking around my room.

“I think every house and place is haunted to an extent but people only said that a place is haunted when the ghost shows it existence.” Alessandro shrugs.

Alessandro is right. That’s what I was thinking about the bathroom ghost as well. There’s definitely a ghost in there but we don’t know about it because they didn’t show themselves or we can’t see them.

“How about you? Have you ever experienced weird stuff like that?” Luciano asked.

I suddenly hear a soft thud from the sofa. I push myself up and stare at it. I can see that one of the cushion from the armchair is missing. Everyone goes silent at the sudden noise as they sit in their places. I stare at the air, hoping that I can see whoever it is. No? I don’t think I’m going to be able to see them anytime soon.

“What the hell are you doing in my room? Get the fuck out. Well, I wouldn’t know if you left the room already because I can see you but just leave the room.” I said as I glare at the empty sitting area. Another cushion from the armchair falls to the floor and I deadpan at the empty space. What the heck? I didn’t thought a ghost would be the one that mess up my room.

“Seriously? What do you want from us? I know you’re not an evil spirit or ghost. You’re just doing this because you don’t have anything better to do. That’s understandable though. You’re literally a ghost.” I said.

We stay silent, waiting for the ghost’s response, but nothing else happen. I guess they already left the room. Good.

“That’s a first for me.” Luciano said, still staring at the armchair.

“There’s always a first for anything.” I said, shrugging. I lay my head back down on the pillow and stare at the ceiling. I turn to Luciano who’s still sitting in his bed.

“Anyways, to answer your question, yes I’ve experienced this kind of stuff. Maybe it’s because my house is in the line of spirit portal. Whatever the fuck it is. At least that’s what people said. So yeah, that’s probably why. The most recent one I’ve experienced is the fake flowers in a vase on the coffee table in front of me moved on their own as if someone touched them. I didn’t think it’s scary. I actually find it funny because how bored can you be to be touching a fake flower like that to scare me?

“And then, the other stuff that happened mostly happened in my childhood. I saw a pitch black shadow run across the bathroom and made my towel fall to the floor. Another thing happen in the bathroom while I was washing my face. When I looked in the mirror, I literally have a wet footprint on my shirt like what the fuck? From the size of it, it could be an adult ghost.

“Oh, and one more thing. I used to have a cat and one time she stared into an unused bedroom in my house. She kept staring into the room for minutes. Not moving a bit. Even after I moved her, she walked back to sit in front of the room and stared into the dimly lit room. She even stared under the bed for minutes, unmoving. You guys probably already know that cats can see stuff that most human can’t see so I think that counts as a supernatural activity.” I explained. Phew. That was long.

“That’s a lot. I admit I’ll jump and scream if I saw a black shadow running in front of me at that age. And maybe I’ll do the same thing if it happens now.” Alessio said.

“Can you see ghosts now?” Alessandro asked.

“No. I didn’t saw anything when the armchair cushions fell.” I said. I wish I could see them though. I feel like the ghost look like a normal person.

“Maybe you’ll be able to see more of them in the future. It’s a high chance that it might happen since you’ve seen them when you were younger.” Alessandro said.

Nope. No thank you.

“No. I don’t want it. Actually, I don’t mind seeing a normal looking ghosts that look just like how a living human is. But if I’ll be able to see someone with a deconstructed face or body in front of me, no grazie. That’s an absolute no from me. I’ll pass.” I said, shaking my head. Just imagine seeing the ghosts of the men my cousins and Luciano tortured in here. Yeah. No. I don’t want to see them.

(No thank you.)

“Oh. Anyway. I just remembered about what I got from the capos when we were on the meeting earlier. So far, the most suspicious one of of four of them is Salvo. I got that he has something to do with the missing drugs. Like he’s really involved in letting the thefts happened. Not sure if he has any direction to Federico, though. The others are safe. I didn’t got anything that indicated them as a traitor.” I explained.

“That’s good enough. Thank you Allura. This means we have to be careful around Salvo from now on. Exposing his betrayal is going to be hard because he’s the one who’s in charge of anything drug related. I’ll get my trusted men to keep their eyes on him and gather evidence about his treachery.” Alessandro said. Great. Now we’ve got an improvement. I hope once we got evidence on Salvo, we’ll be able to figure out everything else.

“Okay. I’m done talking now. I’m going to sleep. Good night, everyone.”

I hear everyone saying good night and I close my eyes. I roll to my left side and sigh as I make myself more comfortable before actually sleeping. I keep my eyes closed and within a second, I finally fall asleep.