Beneath the Black Rose

It was raining the night Alessia met him.

The streets of Palermo were slick with sliver,and puddles mirroried the orange streetlights like melted stars. She huddled under the broken arch of an abandoned shop,her coat thin and damp. Another shift at the bakery,another night walking home with barely enough coins for bread.

She didn't notice the black car until it stopped right in front of her.

The window rolled down slowly,revealing a man in his late twenties.

Black suit,dark hair,colder eyes. Like glass over ice.

"You shouldn't be out here alone," he said. His voice was smooth.Controlled.Dangerous.

"I can take care of myself," she replied,though her shivering betrayed her words.

He stepped out of the car,holding an umbrella.He didn't smile.Didn't ask. Just walked over and extended it above her head.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Alessia."

"Mine's is Raffael."

She knew who he was before he said it. Rafael De Luca.The eldest son of the De Luca maffia family. A name whispered in fear. A man wrapped in shadows.

And now he was standing in front ot her,looking at her like she wasn't invisible.

Rafael came back the next day.And the next. He never asked why she worked twelve-hour days or why her hands were always red from scrubbing dishes. He just stood outside the bakery after closing and walked her home in silence. One night,he brought her a single black rose

"Why black?" She asked.

"Because it's rare. And you...you are not ordinary."

Alessia didn't believe him.How could a girl with holes in her shoes be rare?

But still,she kept the rose in a glass jar beside her bed.

Two weeks passed.

Rafael was a storm that didn't leave. He was quiet,observant, and never touched her. Not even her hand.But his presence wrapped around her like smoke-heavy,intoxicating.

"You kill people" she whispered one night as they sat by the docks.

"I protect my family."

"By killing."

He didn't deny it.

Alessia should have run. She knew who he was. What he was.

But instead,she leaned her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes.

"I'm tired of being afraid" she said.

"You don't have to be.Not with me."

It happened the night someone tried to rob her in the alley behind the bakery.

Rafael appeared out of nowhere-faster than lightning,deadlier than fire.Within seconds,the attacker was one the ground,groaning in pain.

"Don't look,"Rafael told her,his voice tight with fury.

But she did.She saw what he was capable of. The quiet rage. The precision. Later,he took her hands and started into her eyes.

"I'm poison,Alessia."

"You're protection."

"You're light."

"You're darkness," she whispered."But you're my darkness now."

He kissed her.

It wasn't soft.

It was desperate.

Like he had waited a thousand years.

Alessia never asked about his world. But one day,it came crashing in.

The bakery burned down. She arrived just in time to see the flames rise like devils into the night sky.Her boss was on the curb,sobbing. Everything gone.

"I'm sorry," Rafael said,showing up behind her. "They were sending me a message."

"Who?"

"The Mancini family."

It was te first time Alessia saw him unmasked. A man at war. Not just others. With himself.

"I want out,Rafael."

"I can't walk away from the life"

"Then i can't stay with you."

His silence cut more than his words.

She didn't see him in days.

She cried herself to sleep,holding the black rose-now dry and fraigle.

Then,one night,a letter slipped under her door.

"Come to the church at midnight. I'll be waiting."

She found him at the altar,dressed in black,alone.

"I made my choice," he said."You."

"But your family-"

"They will survive. Without me."

Tears welled in her eyes.

"But i'm poor.I have nothing."

He stepped closer,lifting her chin gently.

"You have a heart strong enough to love someone like me. That's everything."

They left Palermo at dawn.

No suitcases.No bodyguards. Just each other.

He held her hand like it was the last thread keeping him sane.She leaned on his shoulder like he was home.

Somewhere over the border,he looked at her with the faintest smile.

"You saved me,Alessia."

"No," she whispered."You saved me first."

One year later,in a quiet town in southern France,a small flower shop opened.

In the window sat a single black rose in a glass jar.

And beside it,a note in perfect cursive:

Even in darkness,love grows.

By:Lost_girl