The Swing Chapter Fifteen

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Slowly I fell down to the ground, feeling around with my hands trying to save myself from blacking out. Chose sides? I wanted to chose Tom's so bad, but I was in their hands like Ace had said. There was no telling what they would do. Ace paced around the kitchen with his head in his hands. He let out a deep breath, "Chalice, I know this has got to be really hard on you so I'm going to make it easier." He walked over to me and kneeled down and picked my head up with his index finger and looked me in the eyes. "I never would have put you through this. What was in Tom's head by dragging you along, I don't know. You have to realize though that if he really loved you he wouldn't have let you even think about living a life like this. I didn't chose this life, none of us did, it was given to us and we hide it because of the pain it can cause." I looked down to the ground and then back into his eyes. They were truly caring and sad. "And which ever side you chose, this is your life now because you know about it. If word ever got out, if you ever told anyone, the mafia would search for you and then." He didn't need to say it, I knew what he was going to say.2

"So, Tom knows about this feud." I was speaking it all so I could help it sink in, to admit what I hated.3

The dread words, "Yes."4

"I thought the mafia didn't except non-Italians?" I said it to see if that could get me out. 5

"At one time, yes, but now anyone who knows must join so we know they wont tell."6

I ran my fingers through my freshly dyed black hair. I got up off the ground and scraped the dust from the kitchen floor off my now cut up jeans. I walked to the other side of the kitchen and leaned on a counter. My memories rushed through my head. Ace deserved my hate, my death if he chose to take my life, he deserved to see me as his enemy. Tom however did not deserve what he was about to get, "Ace, I'm on your side." I dropped to the floor as I blacked out. 7

I woke up in Aces bed, his hand was holding mine. "Hey." He smiled, but it was fake. "That took a lot of guts." As I remembered what I had just done, I realized it was the right decision. Not only could Ace kill me, but Ace was trying to protect me. As much as I regretted what I was thinking, it was true. Tom had put my life in danger and never told me the truth. Tears streamed down my cheek as Ace quickly reached over to wipe them away. "I know you love Tom and," He looked down as if he was in shame.8

"What?" My voice was scratchy, I probably hadn't talked for a while. I looked over towards the window and it was dark outside.9

"Well, these past couple of months my duty was to protect to you. You had rejected me," We both laughed at that, but secretly we both knew it was just to make the situation seem better then it really was. "You uh, became my friend, you got extremely smart," He was hinting at how I had figured out the notebook was a secret, "and being smart got you into this, but all of that made me like you. Although you were right to reject me, I'm trouble. So why did you chose this side of the war?" He looked up at me questioningly.10

"You are trouble, part of the reason I chose this; because I have no idea what would happen. Also you tried your best to get me out." I was still having trouble with facing that fact that I had chose the enemy of Tom. "So, what am I going to do?"11

"Your part in this is to get Tom to us." He stuttered that out figuring I probably wouldn't like that idea very much and I didn't, I hated it. "It wasn't my idea, but your the only thing that can get us what we need." I knew that when I thought about this, I had condemned Tom to death.12