The Reapers

A killer. That is what most people refer to him as. You see, my father is a dangerous, formidable Mafia Boss, so people believe he is a cold-hearted monster, but in reality, he isn't. Behind closed doors, he is a loving father to 8 children. My eldest brother, Damon, is 20 years old. He is passionate about school and has a superior education. Shortly, he will be working for my Father and the organisation. Next, we have the twins, Luca and Callum. They are only 11 but are such devilish children. They are aware of the Mafia but don't take it seriously yet. Then we have my 7-year-old sister, Melody. She is the youngest child and doesn’t quite understand the Mafia. Last but not least, there is us, the quadruplets. We are 16 years old and are often referred to as ‘Miracles.’ Phoenix is the oldest of us four, he is the leader. Followed by Maddox, he is the muscular and athletic one. Next, we have Jayden. He focuses on reconstruction skills. He is good with his hands... but not so much with his brain. And finally, there’s me. Unfortunately, I’m the only girl in the group. Luckily enough, I possess all of my brothers’ qualities and more. We all have a dominant position in the Mafia.

My father is a single dad, raising 8 children on his own while managing a million-dollar company and a high-priority Mafia. Unfortunately, our Mother passed in a car accident 5 years ago. I don’t remember much other than her being a hardworking, intelligent woman who dedicated her life to us. Moving on, people often call me stubborn, headstrong, bold and independent and selfish. Let’s be real, they are right but what they say doesn’t bother me as long as my friends and family are left out of it. Now, on to the story.

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Another Sunday morning dawned; I was sleeping peacefully until a sudden uproar of noise filled my room. I leapt out of bed in fright to see my two brothers, Maddox and Jayden standing around my bed laughing and shouting. I tackle Maddox to the floor playfully and pound him in the chest. I look up to see Jayden running down the stairs. Maddox yells helplessly as I chase after Jayden. We sprinted through the kitchen as he yelled: “no Harli stop, I’m sorry!” I laugh as I gain speed on him. “I’m going to kill you!” I shriek. We’re halfway through the house and I take a shortcut as he heads outside. I leap onto his back, knocking him onto the grass forcefully. He yelps in pain. “Never do that again!” I groaned. He nodded in agreement as I pulled him up. Before we knew it, the rest of the family were outside watching us. “What’s all the yelling for?” My dad asks, confused. I explained what happened and he laughed amusingly.

I was in a nice and sound sleep and BOOM; the noise was everywhere! I wake up in a shock to find my two brothers, Maddox and Jayden standing around my bed shouting while banging stuff. I leap out of bed to attack Maddox, he is on the floor yelling, I give him a few good punches in the rib cage and look up at Jayden, he is already halfway down the stairs. I leave Maddox, groaning on the floor yelling at Jayden to help him. I run down the stairs following Jay through the kitchen, “NOOOO STOPPPPP! I’m Sorry! HARLI!” he screams.

I laugh and scream back, “i’m GOING TO KILL YOU!” He runs outside and I take the back entrance to sneak up on him, I leap onto his back, tackling him to the ground. “Ahhhhhhh helpppp! Nixxxx, Maddddd, helppppp!” he yells into the soft green grass. “Never do that again”, I growl. I give him a few extra punches in the gut. “ARGH”, he groans. Maddox walks outside groaning as well. That's when everyone starts coming out of their rooms to see what the racket was about. “What happened?”, dad shouts towards us.

“They woke her up”, Phoenix says simply.

“I warned you guys”, Dad replies amused.

“Ohhhhhh Shoot!” Mad yells suddenly

“What now,” I say rolling my eyes

“It’s 8.50, we are gonna be late for school!”

I quickly run to my room and get changed. I’m wearing my usual outfit. A black fishnet with some denim shorts, my favourite flannel tied around my waist, my cons and a cute little half top. I grab my bag and keys and run to the car followed by Nix, Madd and Jay. We all hop in Bella, my 1969 z27 Camaro. We drive through the back roads to get to school faster, there's no speed limits or traffic there (at least not ones they enforce). We get to school at 9.15, only 15 minutes late. I walk to my first class (already late, no need to rush), I’m in history with Mr McKelly.

“You’re late, Miss Costello,” he says

“I am aware, sir” I reply

“EXCUSE ME?!” he exclaims

“You’re excused”

“Detention after-school”

“What about it?”

“You have a detention after-school, Harli”

“Ha, I love how you think just because I have something doesn’t mean I am going to go to it”

“Just sit down”

“Gladly ma'am,” I say saluting him.

I find my seat in between my 2 best friends, Sage and Jesse. Sage is my cousin; she gives me a fist bump. Jesse is my childhood best friend, I’ve known him since I was 3, he gives me a big hug. When I sit down, I go to talk to them but Mr McKelly has some sort of announcement for us, so I turn to the front and listen.

“Everyone, we have a new student… Axel De Luca” he says

“Hi?” Axel says, quite obviously uncomfortable

“Here there is a seat over there”, Mr McKelly says pointing to the seat right next to me. Axel walks slowly through the aisles and stops at the seat to the left of me, dumps his bag and sits down. Leah and Ivy, two of our school’s biggest hoes, staring at him so I say, “Hey girls, you guys have a little drool”, pointing at the side of my mouth. The class laughs and Ivy scoffs, “let’s concentrate, shall we?” says Mr McKelly.

It felt like an eternity, we finally got through History and Math and its recess now. I caught wind that there was another new guy that came along with Axel, I wonder what he looks like. I walk out of the cafeteria after getting some snacks to go find my friends when I hear two people arguing. I sneak around the corner to catch Axel and some other person that must be the other new guy yelling at each other. “Perché Diavolo lo porters a Scuola?!”

“Non so che non stavo pensando”

“E un cugino di pistola che non puoi portare una pistola a scuola. Sai cosa direbbe il padre se lo sapesse?!”

“Stai, zitto bene!”

“Devi andare a casa”

“No”

“Patire!”

“No!”

I run in between them before a fight starts and yell, “Oh mio dio state zitto entrambi!” They both looked at me shocked, “Tu parli Italiano?”

“Si”,I reply, “but boys come on, stop arguing, literally everyone can hear you!”

“Listen girly…” the boy says, he doesn’t get time to finish because I punch him square in the face… HARD. “Do NOT call me that” I hiss. Axel laughs. “Listen okay?”, I say, “I don’t care that you have your gun at school, trust me you’re not the only one, just, don’t shoot one of the many jerks that you will be so tempted to shoot at this school, okay?” Axel and the other boy look at eachother, “uhhhhh”, murmures Axel.

“I gotta get to class, cya!” I walk off, smiling.

“Wait,” the other boy says, “What’s your name?”

“You’ll find out” I yell back

I keep walking down the hall but I can’t help but think, the other guy is okay but holy crap Axel is HOT DAYUMMM, but I can’t let myself give in, I just need to get to class and forget this happened. But then there is the case of him having a gun, hmmm I wonder, I don’t know, I should just leave it.

Later, I have Geography. I walk in, later of course, and take my seat after ignoring the teacher slamming me about being late. The teacher says they have an announcement, we have 2 new students and sure enough it’s Axel and the boy he was fighting with. “Everyone, this is Axel and Blade De Luca, they are new here, I hope you make them feel welcome.” The teacher says something to them like find a seat and they did, either side of me. There were plenty of other seats but they chose those. Still looking ahead, I say towards them, “Cousins or Brothers?”

“Cousins”, Axel replies, quietly.

“Do you guys do not notice that every single girl in this room, apart from me, is drooling over you two”, I chuckle.

“Yep! Im lovin it!” Blade replies, while winking at Ivy who’s staring at him from across the room.

“Playboy?” I turn to Axel and ask

“Unfortunately,”, he replies

“Ughhhhh greatttttt another one”

“I can hear you guys”, Blade says casually

I laugh and reply with, “I’m aware”, with a cheeky smile.

“Oi! Listen up kids!” Miss Wilson yells towards us.

“What” I snap

“Ugh, we have an assessment, they must be done in pairs which I have already chosen. There will be no changes or complaints.” she says

A wave of groans and complaints spread across the classroom. “Ivy you’re with Blade, Leah — Jesse, Sage — Molly, Harli — Axel, Jordan — Blake, George — Kate….”

“Welp,” I turn to Axel, “now you’re stuck with me.” I smile.

“Oh, and this is to be completed at home, there will be no class time to do this assessment.” Miss Wilson adds.

“Here, give me your number and i’ll text you my address,” Axel says.

“Okay,” I reply, “oh and also I am calling you Axe for now.” Axe laughs, followed by Blade who’d been listening in, “you’ve been told,” Blade laughs.

*The Bell Rings*

“I’m out,” I say

“Text you later,” Axe says

“Deal cya,” I run to the car and wait for the boys to come.

On the way home, Phoenix was driving, I couldn’t concentrate enough to drive, whenever I tried thinking about something else my mind kept drifting back to Axe. He’s different, mysterious, cute, not to mention he is HOTTTTT ASSSSS, the way he smiled at me just made me want to melt. Obviously, I was blushing and smiling a bit, because Madd looks at me oddly and says, ‘why are you smiling?’ I replied with a simple shrug of the shoulders, apparently that was the wrong thing to do. ‘ stop the car,’ he barks, the car comes sliding to a halt on the side of the road, everyone who had been listening to our conversation turned around and stared at me, it didn’t help that I was surrounded, Madd repeats his questions and I say, ‘is it illegal to smile now?’ All I get are 4 nods as replies. I grunt and slouch back into my seat, hoping that it will eat me up and I won’t have to deal with this, but it doesn’t and I do. I close my eyes and open them again, I find 3 pairs of curious eyes staring at me, its kinda freaky. This time it was Jay who repeated the question, ‘I dunno’ I say, trying to give the most innocent and simple answer there is. ‘HAR!” Nix yells.

“What” I say, trying to sound confused, it clearly didn’t work very well.

“Tell us now or else,” Jay says. I couldn’t help but giggle.

“Or else what?” I say. All three boys leap onto me tickling me, this is my one weakness, always has been, I scream for them to stop but they continue, eventually they stop and ask me what I was smiling back but as I reply with a sharp nothing they go back to tickling me to the point it hurts to laugh and move. “Stop,” I surrender, throwing my hands in the air, “I was smiling because I met someone, he’s new at school, his name is Axel De Luca.” As soon as thewords come out of my mouth, I instantly regret them.

The drive home was silent, I awkwardly sat in the back, slumped up against my seat, I could literally see the anger radiating off my brother’s. We pull into our driveway, even though we have lived in this house since I was born, I still gasp every time I see it. We have massive black iron gates that lead into the driveway. We have a fountain in the middle of the roundabout, parking lots out the side, which are currently filled with Dads 1958, red and black, Mustang and Phoenix’s black, 1978 dodge charger. The garden is amazing, bright, perfectly cut, green grass with heaps of beautiful flowers lining the edges. The house is one of the most breathtaking things there, (apart from the cars) its 4 stories tall, a mansion in other words, there are windows everywhere, our house is what’s classified as ‘old’ it was built in 1847 by one of my dad’s distant relatives and was passed down to the oldest child, its huge and since my father’s ancestors were all mafia bosses they are secret passages and rooms everywhere, there are some not even my father know about, I remember when we were kids we would find heaps and hide in them and father would never find us. I love this house. Nix stops at the stairs and tells me to get out, he sounded a bit grumpy so instead of arguing I just got out, as soon as I shut the door they went speeding off, I should’ve expected that. Crap. I know exactly what they are doing. I storm inside and throw my bag at the wall, I walk into dad’s office, “What’s wrong, Har?” he says worriedly.

“The boys, I finally like someone and they are going to kill him! They do this every time, it’s not fair!” I yell, I don’t know why I am telling him this since he is usually the one watching but I had to tell someone. Surprisingly he gets up and offers to drive me to where the boys are. He must have some ulterior motive but for now, i’ll leave it be. We jump in his car and take off, the way dad drives we should only arrive a few minutes later than them.

We finally arrived, “they’re still at school!” I exclaimed in surprise. I wonder what they are doing and then it processes, football tryouts are today, my brothers never have to try out because we all know they are amazing players. Axel must want to do football; oh, I hope they don’t kill him. I leap out of the car with father in tow, I run through the empty halls, it’s weird being here when no one else is. Eventually, I hear a strangled yell and a few grunts, that must be them. I follow the noise into my old homeroom, as soon as I fling the door open, I see Axel, Blade, Phoenix, Maddox and Jayden all on top of each other, throwing fists. I hear the occasional snark, ‘stay away from my sister’ and ‘i’m going to kill you’ coming from one of my brothers, but it was the reply that had me shocked, ‘Why would I want to stay away from her’ Axel spits, throwing his head towards me. They all get up, Jay and Nix take Blade to the side, watching as Madd and Axe start fighting. There is no holding back, the punches being thrown are to hurt and cause pain. They are serious. I run in between them before anyone gets seriously hurt. Obviously, it wasn’t a very good idea, I get 2 blows either side of my head just as I scream at them to stop. NOW i’m angry. I lower my voice, ‘I said stop’ I growl. Both boys whimper back, repeating their pleads of forgiveness. I first turn to Madd and give him a nasty punch in the forehead, he staring to the ground howling in pain, I then turn to Axel who now has his hands up at his face as a shield, I punch him in the gut then in the face, hard, as well as Madd, he drops to the group groaning. I lean down to both of them and unbeknownst to them, I take their car keys. I leave with a headache and get in my car, as i’m driving off they meet me on the side of the road, trying to apologize once again, they still hadn’t noticed what I did. I look over to them and roll down my window and say, ‘Have fun getting home boys,’ while dangling their car keys out my window. Dad was sitting beside me laughing, also completely oblivious as to why I am doing this or what happened inside. I had been too fast for him and he couldn’t find me so he managed to find his way back to the parking lot and stood next to the car. I rev my engine and speed off, leaving all 5 boys staring in amazement as I drive down the road, with their keys.

I get home and sit in the living room, specifically because when the boys walk in when they eventually manage to get home, I am going to be the first thing they see. I’m such a great sister. I smile to myself when I hear the door creak open and watch as Jay stomps his way through the hallway, he turns to face me, a look of annoyance on his face, not annoyance that it happened, annoyance that he knows he can’t tell anyone because if father were to find out they would all be in a world of pain and Axe and Blade would be dead. I laugh again, ‘bitch’ he says.

“I love you too, Big Bro!” I yell after him. Next Phoenix and Maddox walk in together, Madd’s arm slung around Nix’s shoulders, he stumbles through the living room. Phoenix can’t help but chuckle when he notices Madd giving me a death stare and my smiling face, I wanted to give him a little more of a push so I bat my eyes innocently and say, “What took you so long?” I burst out in fits of laughter in my seat. Phoenix joins in laughing with me, Maddox let’s go on Nix’s shoulders and stumbles his way up to his bedroom. Phoenix stays and we both laugh together, Nix is probably the closest out of all my brothers, we get along really well, we are the only ones in the family that know more than 3 languages. All my siblings apart from Nix and I only know Spanish, Italian and English. Us, on the other hand, know Spanish, Italian, English, French, German, Africanns, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and a very old language called Tamil. This way we can talk to whoever we want and more importantly we can talk to each other without anyone knowing what we are saying, which is extremely handy.

Later that night, Father started to question what happened with the boy I like. None of us like lying to our Father but in this case, it was necessary, “Oh, Axel ran off with his cousin. The boys didn’t chase him because I stole their keys.” I quickly say. He chuckles,

“and you boys didn’t follow him?” he says in a surprising tone.

“She stole our keys,” Jay intervenes.

‘Ohhhh, yeah hahaha” he laughs, “now, I’ve been meaning to talk to you four about something, come with me to my office.” We all exchange questioning looks; Dad never really takes us to his office unless it is really important. When we get into the office and sit around my father’s desk, he shuts the door and walks over. “Hells Angels are back.” That’s all he has to say to get us talking, ‘what?!” I burst, he looks over to me and explains that Ricardo

Moretti died, he was the leader of Hells Angels, meaning his eldest son becomes leader. I’ve never actually met Ade but I’ve heard of him. Ade was the only child of Ricardo and he was plain old evil. Now that he’s taken over, he thinks that he needs to get ‘his’ land back. There is no way in hell that it is happening, father would never let it. “I’ve never met Ade,” Jay says, “or even seen him before.” We all nod our heads in agreement. I have to admit, no one knowing his identity is pretty smart. I try to think of who has recently moved here, when it hits me. “Holy crap!” Everyone’s heads snap to pay attention to me, “I know who Ade is,” I say when they continue silently staring at me, I start to explain. “So, the new kid at our school, his name is Blade, I heard him arguing in Italian about Axel having a gun on him. Think about it! It all adds up, his name is Blade so hecan be using an alias that’s still close to his actual name, he just moved here, they carry guns and they speak Italian.” I sit in silence for a few good minutes for the boys to process what I said. “Holy sssss, your right! That makes sense!” Phoenix says, the rest just nod in agreement. We continue talking about what we should do.

The plan is pretty simple, as much as I think it should be a stealth mission, they boys disagree, we meet with them at school and explain how things work and that we are the leading mafia and we know about them and their little plan. Off-course, they all think that it is going to scare them out of time, but I feel like they are going to be seriously mistaken. I go along with the plan anyways since none of them are listening to me that it isn’t a very good idea. Father calls Uncle Enzo, Sage’s dad, and awares him of his plan, by this time I had already texted Sage informing her on their plan which she also doesn’t agree with. I also text Jess telling him about the plan as well, he is being a boy, agrees that it will work. The plan will take place tomorrow, I tell them. I’m going to need a good sleep for this. It’s 11 O’clock, which for me, is an early time to go to bed. I walked up to my room and collapsed onto my bed. I love my room, I gotta design it to my own taste. I’ve got black walls with pictures of me, my friends and my family spread across it. My desk sits in the corner of my room, next to my desk I have a bookshelf. My bed is huge, it is King size and super comfy. My favourite part of my room is my couch, it is extra soft so every time I sit on it, I sink into it. As a teenage girl involved in a Mafia, with 4 older brothers that are not scared to kill, I have plenty of secrets and I need places to keep my secrets. I have little hidey spots, safes and secret compartments but my favourite is the one that is behind my bookshelf. When mother was alive, she made it for me because she knew one day, I’d need it to hide. There is an eye recognition, finger scanner and code which only I can open, once it opens, I step into an elevator which goes below the basement. Inside there is a buffet, bookshelf, lots of different safes, a gun range, an armoury, lots and lots of food, a massive TV and a massive bed to go with it. I love sneaking down here and relaxing, it’s my space. With that though I drift off to a peaceful sleep.

This time when I wake up I am not woken by someone, I lazily open my eyes and smile, I can hear the birds outside my window then I remember the stupid plan that I am taking place in today and close my eyes again. Nix knocks on my door, “Har you awake?” I grunt as a response and he laughs. I look at the clock, it says 8.17, I should probably get up. I pull myself out of my bed and pick some clothes out of my closet, once I am dressed, I make my way downstairs to join everyone else eating breakfast. I got to take my first bite when Melody yells out from the top of the stairs, “Harli! I need your help!” She sounded anxious. I get up and walk back up the stairs, I walk over to her room and neel down in front of her, “What’s wrong, Kiddo?” She gestures to me to come in and shut the door. Once I do that I sit on her bed, she walks up to me and whispers, “I need something pretty to wear,” I ask why and she tells me that she likes a boy in her class. I now understand why she was so quiet about it; I tell her that I will take her out shopping today. I tell her to get dressed, when I get back downstairs Dad asks me what she wanted, I tell him that she needs some new clothes immediately and that she won’t be going to school today because I am taking her shopping. I know father doesn’t approve of skipping school but he can’t be bothered arguing with me, so instead he says, “Don’t forget to get to school in time for the plan.” I nod and wait outside for Melody, when she comes out, she gives me a sneaky smile, we get into the car and drive off to the shops. I can tell she is excited and honestly so am I, I am always busy with either school or the mafia or going out with the boys and I never get to spend time with her. This will be fun.

By the time we arrive at the shops Mel is jumping with excitement. So am I. We walked in a start going from store to store looking for a dress, 2 hours in we have already bought 7 different dresses, 2 skirts and a jumpsuit. The next store we go into is new, it’s called ‘Deja Vu’. I was amazed at the clothes it had, I loved it, not only did it have things for me but it also had things that Mel liked. She came running up to me with a beautiful black and pink dress in her hand. I nudged her to go try it on while I looked through the older isles. When she came out all I could do was stare in awe, it was the most beautiful dress I had ever seen and suited her perfectly. Once we bought it, she turned to me and said, “Your turn,” at first, I was confused, “What do you mean ‘my turn’?” She points towards the dressing room and tells me to try on the things she gives me. I let in and walked into an empty stall, all of a sudden, a black dress flings over my stall door, I try it on, to my surprise I like it and it fits perfectly. We continue picking outfits for each other to put on, in the same store, we keep buying and trying on and buying and trying on until I eventually see the time, I curse, Mel wacks my hip giving me the eye, I apologise. We purchase our last items and leave, if I was with the boys or on my own, I would be speeding through the backroads but I have Mel so I go with the speed limit. I drop her and all our bags off at our house and leave. This time a race through the back ways, it only takes me ten minutes to get to school, I lock the car and rush inside, I text Jay asking him where they are, he replies with ‘behind the old woodworks shed’, I run across the field towards the shed, a teacher yells at me but I ignore her and continue running knowing that she’s not going to do anything about it anyways.

When I arrive the boys start with the plan, “We know who you are and if you haven’t already figured it out, we are the Reapers and no one is going to mess with us,” Axel looks at me and cock his head to the side, implying that he didn’t actually know. “Listen, unlike these idiotas I am well aware that you guys aren’t leaving anytime soon no matter how much we threaten you, so what about I offer a truce?” I say, completely straying from the actual plan, luckily, I have Sage that backs me up. Blade turns to Axel, Axe is onboard but I think it is going to take a bit more to get Blade on board so Sage says, “What about we keep each other informed on other gang activities and potential threats, because Blade I know that you guys don’t have an as extensive tech room, what if we both keep an eye out for each other?” They boys all look at us shocked, obviously for different reasons. Nix pulls me and Sage away, “What the hell is wrong with you?!” one of them yell, I can’t be bothered arguing with them so I pull myself out of their grip, walk over to Blade and say, “Do we have a deal?” with my hand outstretched towards him.
“We have a deal,” he replies, shaking my outstretched hand. Instead of going back to the others, I grab Axel’s hand and lead him back to the school.

The final bells rings and everyone gets up to leave despite our teachers’ desperate pleas for us to sit back down so he can dismiss us. I walk out the door to find my brothers staring at me, anger radiating off them. I try to walk past them but they block my way and grab me by the arm. “You’re coming with us Har,” Madd says, I look up at him trying to figure out where they are taking me but he gives me no clues. They chuck me in their car and start to drive. After a while, I figured out where they were taking me, ‘Why are you taking me to the base?” I say but all I get in return is the silent treatment plus a sideways look from Jay. We arrived at the base; the boys took me straight to the top floor which holds my father’s office. I always thought it was a bit extreme to have a whole floor as an office, but I’m not going to complain. They don’t bother knocking on the door we all just walk in, father looks up, phone in hand and gives us an annoyed look. “I’ll call you back,” he says into his phone, “‘mind telling me why you just barged into my office and interrupted me?”

“I think you should know what Harli has been up to father,” he says, pushing me into the leather chair that sits opposite my dad. I look up, take a deep breath and tell him what I did.

After I finish, he is silent for around 15 minutes, eventually he pulls himself out of his chair, shaking with anger, he glares at me, I stand up with him and let out a small whimper. “Why would you disrespect me like that?” he growls, I open my mouth to answer, but he talks again. “Do you know what you have done?!” he exclaims.

I take in a deep breath, ‘Father, your idea was not going to work, we would’ve ended up with another war. Think about the benefits this gives us! We have more intel and we have a truce that means we don’t have to worry about what they are doing! I don’t regret what I did, I hope you understand.” As soon as I finish I walk out of his office quickly, I get to my room and call Axel, I don’t know why but I wanted to talk to him. x