Back & Forth | Book 1 of Back & Forth Series

I take in a deep breath as I regain my consciousness. I open my eyelids and see that everything is dark. Did someone turn off the lights when I sleep?

I look around the room and me heart stops at the sight of my surroundings. Shit. I’m not in my room anymore. How did I get here? Where are my cousins and Luciano? I don’t think I’m in their house anymore. No fucking way. This can’t be real. Does this mean that they failed to protect me? How did anyone even be able to kidnap me from the house? There are lots of guards there. How did the kidnappers go past them? And how did I even fall asleep through the kidnapping? Did they drugged me?

The weird thing about this is, I have a feeling that the men, my cousins and Luciano are fine. Better than okay. So, I don’t think there was a fight going on before I woke up here. Wait. Am I having a lucid dream? One of those way too realistic dreams? Oh. Or maybe I’m having an out-of-body experience. Does that mean I’m astral projecting now? If that’s the case, I’m fucked. That means I’m getting another ability. This is getting ridiculous. If my ancestors or I don’t know, I myself keep discovering more superpowers, I’d rather turn myself into a cat for the rest of my life. Only if I can shapeshift in the future though. I can’t keep up with all these powers. How did I even end up here? Whose house is this?

I look around the dark room, not sure of what to do. Alright. I better do something to find out if I am either kidnapped or dreaming or astral projecting. I get out of the oddly comfortable bed and go towards the door. I take in a deep breath and open the door. Oh. It’s open. So, does that mean I’m not kidnapped? If I’m kidnapped I’m one hundred percent sure that they’ll lock me in the room. Now, I have to figure out if I’m lucid dreaming or astral projecting.

I take a cautious peek into the hallway and find that it’s different than my family’s house hallway. I’m definitely in someone else’s house. Who’s house is this? Should I get out of the room? I’m scared if it turns out that people can see me. What will happen if they catch me in here? Could they even catch me and keep me locked if I’m actually astral projecting? If I’m only lucid dreaming now, I can just wake up like nothing happened. I guess it’s better if I go out and search through the house. I might get something important here. That’s probably why I’m here in the first place. Dreaming or not.

I carefully step into the hallway, looking for any people around me, and there’s no one there in my line of sight. Okay. I think I’m good. Oh wait a minute. Did I actually teleported here? Not astral projecting? I have to figure out if I’m invisible or not. If I’m invisible, then I’m astral projecting, which means I’m in my spirit form and I can go around without getting caught. But if I’m not, then I either teleported myself or lucid dreaming and I have to be more careful because I can be seen.

Should I go find a mirror to see if I’m invisible or not? Or does that only apply to vampires only? Or is that the same thing with spirits and ghosts? Dude. I’m not even a ghost. Why did I even think about it? Wait. I’m in my spirit form if I do astral project now. That should mean that I’m pretty much the same as a ghost. Let’s look for a mirror in the hallway. I’m not going to risk it and turn on the light in the bedroom I was in. It’s going to be suspicious and if they can see me, then I’m fucked.

I keep going down the hallway because that’s where I feel like the mirror is. I keep walking and walking and then see the mirror there at the end of the hallway. Good. Let’s see if I’m invisible or not.

I jog towards the mirror and jump in front of it. Aw shit. I’m not invisible. This means I either teleported myself or lucid dreaming. If I did teleport myself, how did I accidentally do that while I was sleeping? How can I go back to my house? I frown at my reflection, pondering on what I should do now. Should I just go and explore the house? It’s going to be risky but I guess I should do it. I’m definitely here for a reason.

I look in the mirror again and see a man walking around the corner towards me with his eyes glued to his phone.

Oh shit.

I run back to the room I was from and quickly close the door. I’m panting and feel my heart racing inside of my chest and it suddenly stop as the door suddenly opens. I stare at the man in front of me with wide eyes as he points his gun and flashlight at my way. His eyes search around the room and now he’s completely ignoring me. He takes one last look around the room and then steps out of the room again as he closes the door.

Oh my god. My chest. It hurts. That was scary. I thought I was seriously going to get caught or die. This means that I’m actually invisible. How did I see my reflection in the mirror though? That doesn’t matter. I better look around this place now. I got a feeling that this might be Federico’s house. Let’s see if I can get something important from here.

I do a controlled breathing first, calming down my nerves, and then sigh as I step out of the bedroom. I walk down the hallway, following wherever my feeling tells me to go. I jog downstairs and see that it’s still dark outside. What time is it now?

I keep walking through the house and then step into a room. I immediately realise that the room is an office. It’s a more modern looking office than Alessandro’s office. I go to the table and check the time on the clock. Oh. It’s almost midnight.

I take a look at the stack of files on the table and search through it. These files belong to Federico. I can see it from the names on the files. I keep browsing through it and everything is in Italian. There’s no way I can read all of these. I don’t think my real-time translation power works on texts. Maybe not yet. These words are still in Italian no matter how long I stare at them.

I continue to search through the files, hoping that I get something in English. I stop moving through the files and gape at the file title.

“What the fuck?”

I look up from the files and see a boy, probably around my age, looking at the files with wide eyes. Now that I know I’m invisible, the files probably locked like it’s kinda flying now in his eyes.

“Is this real or am I fucking dreaming?” The boy whispered to himself. He regains his composure and then glares over my shoulder. I slowly put down the files and stare at him. Let’s see what he’s going to do now.

“Who the fuck are you and what are you doing in here?” He asked, keeping his angry glare at the painting behind me. What should I do now?

A mischievous idea pops in my mind and I smirk at the though. They’ll absolutely scare him away. I really need him to leave so I can make sure the file I saw earlier is true.

“I’m here for revenge!” I said in my deepest, scariest voice. It seems like he heard what I said because the fake bravery on his face immediately falters. I hold myself back from laughing at his frightened expression. I look at the files and smile. Yep. This is definitely going to scare him more.

I throw the files towards the ceiling and let them all falls to the floor. The boy scrambles from the room, leaving me to myself again. Good.

I quickly get down on the floor and search through the files for the one that I found earlier. I immediately find it and stare at the big bold letters on the cover of the file.

Allura Bianca Marino.

Why the fuck does Federico have a file on me? Did he immediately try to find out about me after he got the information that I’m Alessandro’s cousin? Let’s see what he got on me now.

There’s my full name, date and place of birth, my parents’ names, bla bla bla. I skip the pages of general information and stop when I see a page full of my pictures. Most of them are from my social media account. I keep flipping through the pages and find pictures that seems like they were taken by perhaps a private investigator. Wait. These pictures are taken when I was still in my home country a few days before I got kidnapped by Alessandro. Does this mean Federico knows about me before Alessandro kidnapped me? How? This is weird and suspicious as fuck.

I flip to the last page and deadpan at the picture of me. This one was the picture that intruder took of me when I was in the garden this morning. I don’t look bad or anything. The picture seems like one of those paparazzi pictures. This means that the intruder is Federico’s man. I have to tell everyone about this when I get back.

I put down the files and then look up to see the door swings open. I freeze in my place as I see the boy from earlier, Adriano I guess, walks into the room. Behind him is an man who looks older than Uncle Emiliano. This is definitely Federico and Adriano is his son. He’s actually not that bad looking. He looks, average. A bit more on the attractive side to be honest. But that doesn’t mean I want to be bought and raped by him. Federico is fucking sick in the head. He’s literally involved in That’s fucking weird.

Okay. I seriously need to leave now. I think that’s all I need to know. How do I get back to my body though? I have to figure it out soon.

I push myself off the floor and look around the room. Oh shit. I forgot there might be security cameras around the place. I have to delete the footage first before I figure out how to get back or else Federico might see the invisible me looking through his files.

I tiptoe silently past Federico and Adriano. When I already out of the office, I quickly walk towards wherever my mind is leading me to. I hope it’s the security surveillance room. I keep walking and then stop in front of a door that literally has ‘security room’ plaque on it. Okay. I’m at the right place.

I put a random number to unlock the door and it actually works. I step into the room and both of the security guards look at my way in confusion. Now what should I do? Oh right. I have a mind control power. I hope it’ll work the same just like how it is when I’m in my body.

I focus on the two guards and try to make them delete the security footage from the office. It turns out to be working and now the footage has been erased. Good. Now I can finally leave. I go back to the door and stop in my place when Federico steps into the room, fuming at the security guards.

“Show me the footage from the office within the last twenty minutes.” Federico said. The guards look through the recording but find the footage missing. Federico curses and I smirk at his frustration. Okay. Now let’s leave this place. I feel like I’m going to pass out soon.

I slide out from the room and then I quickly go back to the bedroom I came from in the second floor. I lay back on the bed and close my eyes.

I’m back in my body now. I’m back in my body now. I’m back in my body now.

I open my eyes and immediately see the familiar ceiling of my bedroom. Oh thank god. That was easy. I thought I was going to be stuck in my spirit form and won’t be able to come back into my body. I look at my right and see that Alessandro is asleep. He said he won’t be sleeping earlier. That’s a good thing that he finally fall asleep. I don’t want him or anyone to be sleep deprived while trying to protect me now that I know Federico won’t try to kidnap me any time now.

“Are you okay?”

I take in a sharp breath at the sudden voice coming from Luciano in the silent room. I turn to him and see that he looks sleepy. Hasn’t he sleep yet?

“I’m okay. I did an astral projection accidentally while I was sleeping and I ended up in Federico’s house. His son thought I was a ghost because I’m invisible. I was also able to get in Federico’s office and found that he might have known about me before you even kidnapped me. I also found out that the man I saw in the garden turned out to be Federico’s man because Federico has the picture of me when I was walking in the garden.” I explained.

“What did you just said?” Alessandro asked. What? He’s not asleep? I thought he was already sleeping.

“I think you’ve heard me. Federico might already know about me before I got here.” I said.

“We should keep our eyes on him. He could try to do something to Allura in any moment.” Alessandro said.

“Yes. Absolutely.” Luciano agreed.

I turn around when I hear a loud snore from my right side. I push myself up from the bed a bit and see Alessio sleeping with his mouth open.

Damn. That was a loud snore. What time is it now? I check the clock and see that it’s still 3.12 in the morning. So I didn’t wake up immediately after I got back from Federico’s house? Interesting. I thought I supposed to be awake right after. Maybe it’s because I was asleep before so when I get back I’m just going back to sleep again.

“You guys want to know what’s interesting? I was at Federico’s house around midnight and I definitely got back around half past midnight. Now it’s three in the morning. I thought I woke up right after I got back from there.”

“Interesting. Now go back to sleep. From what I understand, you haven’t really slept yet so you better go back to sleep now. You’ll be starting you self-defense training with us in a few hours. You have to be awake at six so we can do as much training as we can in a short period of time.” Alessandro explained.

At six? That sucks. I usually wake up at seven if I want to wake up early. At six? That’s way too early. But whatever. I’ll do it as long as I can finish the training fast.

“Okay. I’m going back to sleep now. Good night.”

I close my eyes again and I’m immediately taken back to my dreamless sleep.