Chapter One
Save The Hero
Episode One: God Is a Comedian Playing to an Audience Afraid to Laugh
Main Cast:
Gabriel Mancini
Carmine Mancini
Martino Mancini
Frankie Mancini
Robert D’Ambrossio
Louie Faiola
Joe Notoranni
Brian Rossi
Scene A
I sighed full of pleasure as my boyfriend Robert rolled off of me and to the side.
“I swear every single time we do that…Wow,” Robert said out of breath. “Wow, Gabe.”
I leaned over and kissed him softly on the lips. “I am glad that I can fulfill your every whim and desire.”
“Every whim, every desire,” He said to me as we begin to kiss passionately. His cell vibrated furiously on the dresser behind him.
“Please don’t answer,” I groaned as he broke the kiss to get the phone.
He kissed me softly with an apologetic look. “It’s Daddy Mancini,” He said and pressed talk. “Hey, Christian. What’s up?”
I noticed his face change and grow serious. I took that as my cue to leave out of the room.
“Damn, dad, always ruining some part of my life,” I muttered to myself as I walked out of the room.
I headed down stairs to Robert’s Kitchen looking for something to grub on. His fridge was bare except for the expired milk Carton and some pizza that I almost was positive was the same pizza we ordered a week and a half ago.
“I swear, I need to get you a maid, babe,” I said with a laugh. I heard movement behind me. “Hey babe, we should order…”
I turned around to see a man with a gun pointing straight at me with an evil look on his face.
“You’re one of Christian Mancini’s sons, aren’t you?” He asked me and I nodded as I took a step back. “Martino, I bet. You know you owe my people some money?
“I…I’m not Martino,” I stammered out nervously. “I’m Gabriel. Gabriel Mancini.”
He looked at me with a confused look and then a smile crept upon the face. “The prodigal son,” he said with a laugh. “You know you are the smartest one in your family. You are the only one not involved in this kind of work. I hear you are very smart for your age. 4.8 GPA? Smart kid.”
“Thanks,” I said still not sure if I should scream out for Robert or not.
“But apparently not smart enough,” He said walking closer to me. “ Robbie is screwing you isn’t he?”
He laughed to himself and shook his head. He walked closer to me and pointed the gun to my head and pinned me up against the cold fridge door.
“Please no,” I said as I heard the gun click as he got ready to shoot me.
“One thing I hate more than a Mancini,” He said to me. “Is a faggot Mancini.”
I closed my eyes and I heard a shot ring out. But I felt no pain. I reached up and touched my forehead but there was no wound. I heard a thud and I opened my eyes to see the guy laying dead at my feet and Robert standing with a gun in his hand.
“You alright?” He asked me with a concerned look on his face. I looked down at the body below me.
I nodded softly unable to speak. That was the first time somebody pulled a gun on me.
“Alright, go upstairs and get dressed,” He said to me. “I got to call some people to get rid of this mess.”
I walked past him but he grabbed my arm.
“Hey,” He said to me. “Are you sure you okay?”
I wasn’t able to look him in his eyes. I just pulled away and headed up the stairs to his room.
Scene B
“Yo…Carmine, you seen my…” Martino said as he walked into Carmine’s room to see him having sex with his girlfriend or at least some girl he didn’t know. With, Carmine he had a different girl for each day of the week. “Charger.”
Carmine sighed and climbed off the girl and turned to face his brother. “Dude, seriously there is a concept of knocking.”
“Sure, you would have heard me from the loud music playing and the fucking?” Martino joked as he closed the door behind him.
Carmine looked at his girlfriend Melanie with a annoyed look as she began dressing. “What are you doing? I’m not finished.”
“We can do this again later on today, baby,” She said kissing him softly on the lips. “I do need to get home before my parents notice I haven’t been home all night. But I want to get to know you better.”
“What’s to know about me?” Carmine asked her with a scoff. “I like to eat pussy and fuck beautiful women.”
Melanie rolled her eyes and folded her arms. “I mean, more about you as a person and a brother.”
“Well, you know my last name so I am sure you know all about my family,” He said to her a know-it-all look.
“But you’re three brothers,” She said in amazement. “You are Quadruplets.”
“Yet extremely different,” Carmine muttered to himself.
“How so?”
“Well, I am the baby quad so I tend to be the one they look out for even if I don’t need it,” Carmine explained. “I like the women as you know about me. Really popular with them. Martino is the second youngest and tends to be the one always in trouble with money with gambling and drugs. Frankie is kind of like the big brother. Highly aggressive and the leader and tends to get us out of the shit we get into. Then Gabe…Gabriel is different. He is smart, talented, gifted, charismatic and compassionate. The angel of the four of us.”
“He doesn’t get involved…with…you know,” Melanie said unsure of how to word it.
“Nah, he steers clear of it,” Carmine said. “With good reason though. I can’t blame him. He is rarely here.”
Melanie noticed Carmine’s distant look and grabbed her keys. “So are you going to school?”
Carmine laughed at that question. “Call me when you want me to finish fucking your brains out.”
Melanie sighed. “I honestly can’t believe I like you,” She said as she walked out. “No class whatsoever.”
Carmine grabbed his cellphone and dialed one of his other girl’s phone number. “Candy…What do you say you skip school…Come see me…and we can have some fun.”
Carmine smiled to himself as he arranged another few hours of sex to occupy him for the day.
Scene C
I looked up to see my brother Martino running towards me as I sat in the library working on my English paper.
“Gabe, how much you got on you now?” Martino asked me bouncing from one foot to the other.
“What are you betting on now?” I asked him with an aggravated look on my face. “More horse races?”
“Nah, card game in the locker room during gym next period,” He said to me. “I kind of spent $4000 yesterday with a gambling bet I lost and for this lady I was with.”
“Still sleeping with prostitutes, I see,” I said with a laugh. “Come on, you thought you would have learned to stop that when you contracted Chlamydia from that one tramp.”
“I did learn,” Martino said with a grin. “Learn to use a condom from now on when fucking them. Look, I might look like you, Carmine, and Martino but you know how nervous I get around women.”
“So you pay for sex? You do realize that’s kind of pathetic, don’t you?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “I know you got your wallet on you,” He said to me. “You never leave home without it and at least 5 g’s in it. I just need 2 g’s for the game and tonight we are supposed to go to Club Diamond downtown.”
“We…as in who?” I asked him.
“Dad, his associates, including Robert and us four,” Martino rattled on and my face darkened.
I hadn’t spoken to Robert since last night and ignored his texts all morning long as he tried to figure out if I were okay.
“Wait…the four of us? Me included?” I asked as I remembered what he said. He nodded. “Oh, no. You mean the three of you guys. I am not involved in this.”
Martino pulled the chair out beside me and sat down at the computer. “Gabe, whether you like it or not. You are a Mancini and that comes with overwhelming power and responsibility.”
“Doesn’t mean I have to accept it, though,” I said stubbornly. “We have had this talk before.”
“Not exactly,” He said to me. “You think we don’t know about you and Robert?”
I almost choked on the crème savor in my mouth. “What? How do you know?” I asked him.
“Frankie and I trailed you one night last week when you disappeared like you usually do and saw you go to Robert’s house,” He explained.
“That doesn’t explain anything,” I said still reeling from this revelation.
“Well, we noticed that you disappeared a lot at the engagements dad threw that Robert tended to always be at,” He continued. “Robert would make his usual bullshit excuse and then you would disappear 20 minutes later with some excuse about homework. Bullshit, this is high school. Even with teachers like Mr. Almaretti , there is not that much homework in the world that you always have to miss out on the engagements and then you two always return around the same time.”
I looked down at the keyboard. It was no secret about me being gay. But I didn’t want them to know that I was involved with someone close to us that was almost like our fifth brother. “Does dad know?”
“Nope,” Martino said shaking his head. “And he won’t know, if you gimmie 2 gees.”
“Are you blackmailing me?” I asked with a surprised look on my face.
“Of course not, brother,” He said pinching my cheeks. “Just merely making a business proposition…brother to brother.”
I sighed and handed him the money out of my wallet. “What does my relationship with Robert have to do with anything tonight? I am not going.”
“You might want to rethink that,” Martino said with a serious look. “Now, you know the three of us are okay with you’re sexuality and shit. But we are a powerful family. People want to take us out left and right.”
I flashbacked to the night before remembering the guy at Robert’s house and his cold dead eyes looking me dead in the eyes.
“Dad can only protect you so long without you accepting your rightful part in the family as a Boss of the four points of New Jersey,” Martino said. “Tonight is the night that we get our rightful parts of Jersey while he focuses on his parts of New york. If you deny it, you deny any protection he can guarantee you from enemies. If you deny it, you deny the will and he will deny you as his son. Then you will just be a mere boy who can be attacked at anytime. With knowledge of your avoidance of the life, you are a huge target right now, Gabriel.”
I saved my paper on my computer as the bell rang signaling next period. “I can handle myself. Oh…and whoever else you owe money to…Pay them back. I had a gun pointed to my head last night because of you and I am not really a big fan of having my life flash before my eyes.”
I grabbed my bag and headed towards the exit of the library leaving a very concerned brother wondering what was going to happen.
He got a text message from Dad on his phone telling him to meet him at Club Diamond. He growled in frustration as he hoped to gain more money in his card game but he had to leave.
“Fuck,” Martino yelled out gaining a dirty look from people around him. “Oh, go fuck yourselves.”
…….
I looked at my cell to see a text message from my father notifying me to meet him at Club Diamond. “Yeah, right,” I said turning the cell off. I headed towards the school lounge to get some food before I left to go to the park I usually went to during free time.
Scene D
Frankie watched his father’s associates counting money they had obtained the night before here at Club diamond.
“Always the first one here, Frankie,” Dad said as he walked to the both that Frankie sat on.
“You know me, I always got to set a good example to the man I idolize,” Frankie said getting up to hug his father. “How you been dad? I haven’t seen you in three weeks.”
“Tired as hell, son,” Dad said with a sigh. “I swear, I have idiots working for me. Do you know Antonio fucked up that hit on John Capricio’s eldest son. He took out the baby son instead.”
“Damn,” Frankie said noticing his father’s disturbed look. “You think they are going to try and retaliate?”
“Of course they are,” Dad said with a sigh. “He has four sons of mine to choose from. I want to get you boys out of harm’s way because now I have to take out his whole family.”
Frankie was about to comment but Carmine walked in holding his girlfriend Lisa’s hand.
“Dad, I was having some seriously mind-blowing sex,” He said as the two of them took a seat across from Frankie who flashed him a disgusted look. “Can we make this quick? I have been interrupted twice today and I am not feeling that.”
“I think when dad sent the text this morning, he meant just the four of us,” Frankie said to his brother. “Not four of us plus one slut.”
“I am not a slut,” Lisa chimed in. “I am his girlfriend.
“Not his only one,” Frankie muttered and got a kick from Carmine.
“You’re jealous because you don’t get Grade A pussy like me bro,” Carmine teased. It was always a fact that Carmine and Frankie had a very tense relationship. Frankie was more serious and organized while Carmine was goofy and tended to be highly disorganized.
“It’s okay, son,” Dad said to Frankie who looked like he wanted to punch Carmine through a wall. “Who is this beautiful lady with you, Carmine?”
“This is Candy aka Lisa,” He said giving her a kiss. “My baby doll.”
“What about Melanie?” Frankie added and Carmine’s heart skipped a beat.
“Melanie Souza?” Lisa asked him with a skeptical look on her face. “I can’t believe you lied to me. You told me she was just a fried of Martino’s.”
“Yeah, like Martino could get a broad like Melanie,” Carmine said with a laugh. “Look, I fuck her every once in awhile. It’s nothing. It’s you that I love.”
Lisa slapped him in the face and got up to leave passing by Martino as he walked inside.
“One of Carmine’s I presume?” He asked taking a seat beside Carmine. “What’s this about?”
“One of Dad’s associates killed the wrong son of some guy and now the guy might try to take one if not all of us out so he wants to get us away from Jersey for awhile,” Frankie explained.
“Oh, can we go to Brazil?” Carmine asked with an excited look. “I swear they have the hottest women there.”
“The best drugs too, huh,” Frankie said ribbing Martino who flicked him off.
“Martino, you are still using?” Dad asked him with a stern look. “I don’t mind recreational use but you tend to go over board and you have already been caught with drugs at school, son.”
“I got in under control, Dad,” Martino said as Robert rushed the club looking around at them.
“Where is Gabriel?” He asked with a panicked look on his face.
“Hello to you to, Robert,” Carmine said sarcastically. “I am sure he is on his way. Probably off reading a book outside. It is his free period now.”
“Yeah, dad sent us all texts,” Martino added. “Letting us know to meet him here.”
Frankie noticed the panicked look on Robert’s face. “Wait a second. There is something you are not telling us.”
Dad looked sternly at Robert. “What is it, Robert?”
“I have heard through the connects that they intend to take out Gabriel in place for Capricio’s son,” Robert said with a grave look.
“Why Gabe and not one of us?” Martino asked. “I mean we all have screwed over a Capricio one time or another. Gabriel is innocent.”
“Just like his son was,” Dad said as worry began to sink into his face.
“As stubborn as Gabe is, he probably disregarded the text message from dad,” Frankie said as the mood got more and more nervous around the five of them.
“Robert, send Brian and Louie over to the school and have them pull Gabriel from school,” Dad said looking at Frankie, Martino, and Carmine who had the same look on their faces.
They could sense something was about to go wrong. Dangerously wrong.
Scene E
I walked towards my car trying to fumble with my keys in my pocket. I dropped my fries out of the bag as I struggled with my keys and cell with a bunch of books in my hand.
“Damn it,” I said annoyed as I got to my car. “Mcdonald’s it is then.”
I climbed inside my car and put my stuff in the passenger side of the car.
“Damn my lips are dry,” I said reaching down to get my chapstick from the ashtray.
I looked back up in the rearview mirror to see a person was sitting in my backseat. Before I could react, they pulled a rope around my neck and began strangling me.
“FUCK!” I yelled out as I kicked and squirmed and I could feel the life slowly draining out of my body.
TO BE CONTINUED
