The Mafia Alpha's Enigma

MARCO'S POV

"Leonard! Leonard!!!"

I called out to my elder brother but there was no answer. He told me to hide in the abandoned castle and promised he would come back for me—but he hasn’t. It was already getting dark, and fear wrapped its hands around me like cold chains. I was too scared, trembling so badly I almost wet my pants. My energy was draining fast, my breath puffing out in clouds in the cold air.

"Leonard!!!" I called again, but silence swallowed my voice. Maybe I was too tiny. I was only ten years old. I walked toward the large wooden door, knocking, pulling, calling again—but no one answered. It was dead silent.

I knew my brother didn’t like me much. He never really said it, but I could feel it in the way he always pushed me away, in the way he’d let me get into trouble just to laugh. Still, I trusted him. He was my big brother. I believed everything he told me.

The wind howled through the shattered windows of the old stone castle. Dry leaves scraped across the cracked floor, sharp and eerie against the emptiness. I stood there shivering, wrapped in a cloud of dust and cobwebs. My small voice echoed into the towering cold walls.

"Leonard? Leo, are you there?" I called out again, my voice barely a whisper now.

No answer.

The silence was too heavy. It pressed into my ears, wrapped around my chest like I was sinking under water. I took cautious steps into a corridor lined with faded tapestries. The floor groaned beneath my feet.

"Don’t cry. Leo’s probably playing a game," I muttered to myself. "He wouldn’t leave me here alone… would he?"

I tightened my little hands into fists. We had followed the winding path behind our grandmother’s house into the woods. Grandma had always warned us not to go past the gate, not to set foot near the old castle ruins. But Leonard—fifteen, reckless, always grinning—had looked back at me with a smirk and said, "Come on, Em. Just for a peek."

And now he was gone.

I rubbed my eyes with the sleeve of my coat. My feet moved on their own deeper into the corridor. The hallway stretched like a tunnel into darkness. It felt like walking into the throat of a beast.

"Leonard! Please, answer me! I’m scared…"

Suddenly, a creak echoed from behind me.

I spun around, heart racing. A thick mist began to pour in from the cracks in the stone walls, swirling low across the floor.

From within it… a figure started to form.

My heart paused.

"Leonard…?" I called, breath catching in my throat.

A boy stood just a few feet away. Same tousled dark hair. Same lean body. Same sharp jaw. Same stance. It looked exactly like Leonard.

But something was wrong.

He didn’t speak.

The fog curled around his ankles like it listened to him, breathed with him.

I felt hope leap in my chest. I stumbled forward.

"You scared me! Where did you go? I was calling and calling—"

I threw my arms around him. The body was cold. Too cold. And hard. My arms stiffened. The warmth I expected… wasn’t there.

I pulled back.

"Leonard… say something. Please," I begged.

And then I saw the eyes.

They were no longer brown.

They glowed. Red. Like burning embers.

And the smile…

It crawled across his face like something alive.

My voice broke. "You’re… not Leonard."

He moved fast.

His hand gripped my shoulder, iron-strong. I tried to scream, to pull away, but I couldn’t. His mouth opened.

Pain.

A sharp, burning pain exploded at the side of my neck. I gasped. My legs gave out beneath me. My vision swam. My fists pounded weakly at his chest, but I was already slipping.

The last thing I saw before everything went dark were those glowing red eyes, unblinking, hungry.

I started to remember my grandma’s warning.

“Don’t go in there,” she had said. “That castle eats people.”

Leonard had just laughed.

“It’s just a building, Grandma.”

“But someone vanished there.” Grandma had insisted.

Leonard had ruffled my hair and said, “Don’t believe everything. Come on, Em. Let’s be brave today.”

Those words echoed in my head… until everything went black.

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