... his nineteen year old daughter Lexi sleeping fitfully, no doubt replaying the images in her dreams, giving testament to Gods mercilessness and inept willingness to spare the poor girl just a few hours sleep away from the horrors of the days past.
Mrs. Shannon Sullivan (who slept spooned to her younger daughter Molly) knew Frankie's agony at being a parent desperate to protect their child from this ...this...
HORROR
... indescribable and unrelenting. Yet her pain could not reach his, for BOTH of her children were alive, and with her for the moment. She did not have to witness the events as he did that day...the day the world died and the remnants scattered to hide.
Where are you god? You awful fuck!
His mind yelled into the silent darkness ...
the fire
... it was impossible to escape these thoughts, especially when sleep was gone.
Sleep, precious, daddy will watch you, you'll be safe under the light of the fire...the fire...
Geri Sullivan was in the minivan listening to her ipod trying to drown out the world and all that's transpired since the day she was suppose to go with her friends Natty and Michelle to the Providence Plaza and Shopping Mall Center to get some Fruitees Shakes, scour the Lady Solewear, watch the nerds try pathetically to pick up dates outside the Off-Topic, and hopefully just god willing Blake Coltier would show his face and apologize for standing her up the night before and beg for another chance so that she could salvage her position as a senior by blowing him off completely, of course only for a few days to let him sweat it out and then spend her last year of Highschool (which she should have graduated a year before but failed to do so) as first lady of senior class. Shannon had begged her to sleep next to her and Molly for the night but the stubborn girl just huffed and stormed into the minivan with a sour look in Frank's direction, sour and vastly unforgiving.
Frank looked towards Adam Donovan propped up against a tree a few feet from his silver RAV4 a rifle in his arms pointed away resting against his left shoulder, no doubt exhausted from the trek it took to arrive at this site, guns blazing and firing in every direction till they were safely away ...
the fire
...he had kept the rear for both vehicles on their escape, ridding lonely for the first time since the whole world had died. From the rear view mirror Frank could see how badly Adam wanted to cry...as bout as bad as Frankie did now, all the events of this last day proved that it was far from over for these survivors. Far from fucking over indeed...
Slipping down the bench onto the ground, he leaned his tired head against the seat and stared at his sleeping daughter, her beautiful face marred by dirt and tears, a face that belonged to the only piece of his heart that he had left, having felt the terrible break that shattered within his breast not more than a week ago when it all fell apart. That beautiful face, those cat eyes draped with dark hair, that slender form of a girlish youth yet harvested by the dregs of time, now faced with her father, the uncertain future of futile efforts and harrowing losses that would plague them for long yet to come, if that future would even come. The only way was...to survive...
the fire
...survive.
II.
Franklin Ferro, known to his friends as Frank Freddy, to the FED's as Frankie Two Irons, Frankie The Crow, a man who'd never had qualms about killing. This of course was a sad statement for the FBI, as Frank never killed an innocent person in his life, of course the lines of innocence are drawn differently by one person after another, he followed one of the most basic rules handed down wiseguy to wiseguy in what he and his called "This Thing of Ours" and that was to keep the killing amongst their own kind...it was always simple, take a vow, get your button, don't break the vow, and if you break a rule, break it right or guys like Frank Freddy would be the last you'd ever see before the devil carried you to Sheol.
It wasn't the life he'd wanted but given the history, he was one of the few who had no choice in the matter...a nine year old boy abandoned outside a Loftmart Superstore in the middle of a southern California desert hovel like Yucca Valley, with his twin sister Fiona, was not a prime candidate for a cushy lifestyle. No, that day mom left them both to find for themselves was the day that birthed a survivor, a killer...it all began when four men pulled up in a van, snatching the two off the road, a night filled with depravity and agony that found the two young children once more left on the side of the hot desert road. Scarcely able to move naught but his right arm, Frankie crawled to his sweet twin and held her in her final breaths before someone would dare stop and offer help. The last time he'd ever be near her...to this day he could not find what paupers grave they'd given her, no picture, nothing but a tiny little keepsake being a torn piece of her shirt sleeve when the paramedics had tried to separate them that one final time. Since then, he'd found himself escaping sexual abuse in a children's home in Chicago, to living on the streets of New York... his only ace card was the fact that not only was he full blooded Italian, but that he spoke fluent in the dialects of his grandparents on both sides, mother being Sicily and father from Naples. He had grown hard, rough, and with the edge to do what ever it took to survive.
At age thirteen he met Jean Capolongo, brother of John Capolongo who in six years would become the Boss of the most prestigious family in New York, thus officially becoming the Capolongo family. Floracuzo family enforcer Ercole de Fitti had introduced him to Jean as a prospective look out for the girls that walked Mason Ave at night to make those dollars these mobsters coveted so dearly. All he had to do was whistle if comes were rolling down the road, or shout off if a customer was getting too rough with one of the girls. De Fitti would have made Frankie a Floracuzo associate had he not been pinched by the FED's for trafficking speed, then been taken for a ride the moment he was free... a term meaning to be taken somewhere and killed... Ercole was not a talker, but Dominic Floracuzo was young, ruthless, and sure as hell not taking any chances. The Santana's and the Croface's were not seeing eye to eye with anyone associated with the Capo's or the Floracuzo's so going there was not an option, and the Marlomarese didn't even know he existed, so Jean was the only friend Frankie could turn to for work...
Ferro quickly rose through the ranks of the Capolongo associates, even marveling at the great year he had when he met Sophia Santana, half sister of Freddy Santana (often called Freddy Spictana) cause American Italians associated the name Santana with Spanish ancestry, but the name had originated in Sicily long before Spain, then Mexico, and Latin America. John and Jean warned that Frankie should choose someone else cause the girl was only half Italian and no respecting family would take a Half-Ginzo like his son would be, but Frank didn't care, an Italian girl with milky white skin, and Irish green cat eyes like Sophia's was too good to pass up.
They married, and the same year his son was born, so were his twin nephew and niece, children of Freddy Santana, who ended a century long feud by naming Dominic Floracuzo godfather to his son, and Diego, (Dominic's younger brother) Godfather to his daughter. The Capolongo and Floracuzo's stropped arguing with the Santana's and Croface families. The Five families got peace and watched amused as the world believed the mafia dead, when in truth, only the weaker fucks went down. A great year indeed for the families, and now Freddy who'd joined the Santana's and even became Freddy's underboss shortly after the commission opened the books finally.
His only shame at the time had been knowing the truth of his nephew and niece, the nights Frank and Karen, (Freddy's wife) spent alone together, knowing full well they were not in love, but wanted to sate their lust with each other...the only time he'd ever been unfaithful to Sophia.
The world seem to fall apart when Freddy was arrested by the FBI on RICO violations and to keep a distance between the media frenzy that followed and the family, Frankie was ordered to give Vinny Gallo the reigns of the family as acting boss, and to remain as Vinny's underboss for the time being. As soon as Gallo learned that Frank was calling the real shots while he was simply a lightning rod for the FED's, Vinny had two of Frankie's closest friends killed and set out a hit for Frankie as well...
Seeing this coming, Ferro took off for Southern California, strangely where all his hell began, in Twentynine Palms and Wonder Valley were he could hide with Sophia, Lexi who had just turned eighteen, and their seven year old daughter Amber. Their son, who'd disappeared to San Francisco a year ago following a fight they'd had about his sexuality and desire to change his gender, refused to hide with them while a feud played out between the factions until the FBI cleaned up a few broken records, and all could be set back in line...Frank couldn't help but worry that the day was fast approaching that federal agents would haul him away for his own trial that would leave him in prison for the rest of his life...he could see his daughters futures now "Growing up Ferro" reality TV spectacles.
These worries went up in flames the morning Frank came home to sleep off a hangover after spending a night drinking with the Marines at a farewell party on Sun Valley Dr...noon approached and he was jolted from his sleep by the sounds of screaming outside of his window.
