Castillo Familia Rituals
Lorelai
I paced my bedroom as I waited for my older sister to remove herself from the bathroom. I groaned as I stopped and hit my fist on the door. “Luciana! Hurry up! I need to get in there before Father summons us to this Godforsaken family meeting!”
I heard her singing to the music blaring in the background and rolled my eyes when a light bulb went off in my head. I stomped to her bedroom door which was unlocked and walked into the bathroom, turning her obnoxious music down.
“Hey! I was listening to that! What the hell?” She turned to me and furrowed her eyebrows.
“I need to shower and you’re hogging the bathroom. We share this bathroom, remember?” I crossed my arms and scowled.
She scoffed turning around to continue applying her classic Marilyn Monroe Red lipstick. Her hair down in curls, looking perfect per usual. I rolled my eyes at her and went to get into the shower. “So what is this meeting about anyway?”
“I believe it’s that time of year again.” I waited for her to continue as the warm water ran down my body. “You know, where we catch up on the family business and bid on summer jobs.”
“Not sure why I’m still included in these meetings. Papa knows I’m only going to work at the yacht club.”
“Well, maybe it’s time to come onboard the family business. You’re seventeen, and you’re a Castillo, Lorelai.”
I stayed silent as I lathered the soap into my hair. “You know how I feel about the family business. The Yacht Club is where I draw my lines.”
“I’ll never understand your thought process, Lor. It’s in your blood.”
I finished up my shower in silence and stepped out, wrapping a plush towel around my body. “I have my reasons,” I said simply.
“Fine. On another note, when are you going to deal with Santino? You know Mom and Dad are going to find out about him sooner rather than later.” She eyed me through the mirror.
I sighed. “Maybe it’s better they do, so he’ll leave me alone.”
She rolled her eyes. “He has a thing for you, Lor.”
I snatched my clothes. “He has a funny way of showing it.”
She took a moment of silence to finish applying her mascara while I went to find clothes in the walk-in closet attached to the bathroom. “Well, if you don’t tell Papa, Armani will take matters into his own hands; and we both know how that will end.”
I pulled my clothes on while I tried to think of something to say. The truth was, Santino was one of Father’s second strings in the family business. He’d been after me for years. I had no interest in this kid and he wouldn’t take no for an answer; and his advances toward me have been getting out of hand lately. After my older brother Armani caught wind of it, I feared that if Santino didn’t back off that there would be bloodshed. My stomach churned, I felt sick thinking about it.
I sat in the plush chair at my vanity and grabbed my brush. “Hopefully, it won’t come to that,” I finally said.
“Suit yourself, Lorelai. You know the risk you’re taking without letting our Father handle it.” Her tone was cold, and I looked back at her as she started cleaning up. “We’re supposed to meet at the vault in a half hour. Don’t be late.”
I furrowed my brows as I watched her finish up and left the bathroom and met my own reflection in the mirror as I tried to think this through. There was no right answer. Whether I involved my parents or let it go, lives were at risk. Who the hell was I kidding? Lives are always at risk at the hands of a Castillo.
***
Entering the kitchen, I watched as my mother stacked the aluminum foil tins full of food. “Morning, Mama.”
“Lorelai. I’m so glad you decided to join us. Your Dad is already down in the vault making sure the agenda is perfected.”
I rolled my eyes. Before I could respond, the door shut. “Familia?” That was the Italian word for family sounding from my cousin Marie, who also happened to be my best friend.
“In the kitchen!” I responded, and she came in bright eyed and bushy tailed. “Mom sent me over early to see if I could help with anything.”
My mom smiled brightly. “Lorelai? Maybe you and Marie could take the breakfast trays down and set the buffet up?”
“Sure, Mama.” I grabbed the trays and waited for Marie to grab the others before I led the way down to the lower level of the penthouse and stopped at what appeared to be a wall of family portraits. I set my hand on the centered portrait of my father. His dark hair and beady eyes, with the stiff jaw line and pressed lips made him appear powerful; and I knew he did it on purpose. Pulling on the edge of the portrait, it opened to a hidden keypad. Entering a code, the wall slid open and I passed through the dimly lit tunnel and descended down a set of stairs. The stairs were backlit with white lights underneath. I came to another wall, pressing my finger tip to the wall. A pair of double doors slid apart on the wall and I entered the stadium seating vault where our family meetings always took place. “Morning, Daddy.”
He looked over, a genuine smile rose on his lips. “Good morning, sweet pea. Have you given any thought to starting your training this summer?”
I eyed him carefully and shook my head.
“Still haven’t changed your mind, huh?”
“No, sir.” I went to set the trays down with my back toward him when Marie spoke up.
“Lorelai and I are the odd balls out, Uncle Armani. Didn’t you know?”
He chuckled. “You’re exactly like your mother, Lorelai.” He looked at Marie. “Sweet niece of mine!” He pleaded. “You don’t want to come work for your Uncle?”
“Hell no! I already completed my sworn secrecy, Uncle.”
The sworn in secrecy was a big deal, and I hadn’t done mine yet. We weren’t cut from the family, but the decision to train and learn the life of what it was like to be a Black Diamond was forced upon us before we turned eighteen. Marie’s parents would give her a trust fund when she turned eighteen, and she was to never be caught in Black Diamond Headquarters without permission from one of the elite members. The consequences were extreme, and would not rule out death depending on the rate of deception. What our parents didn’t know was that we made a pact to never go in the family business when we were old enough to figure out what it all meant, and for Marie and I? We were thirteen. Hell, I didn’t even tell Luciana or Armani about the pact; but growing up watching my parents disappear, growing up relying solely on my siblings instead of my parents for my adolescent needs never sat well with me.
My father looked back to me as Marie and I completed our assignment. “Lorelai? If you’re opting out, we need to complete sworn secrecy.” He paused. “Today.”
I darted a look at him as he took a tone with me, and nodded slowly. “I understand.”
He nodded, his face turned stone cold as he stood up without another word. He left and I met eyes with Marie. We both knew our parents meant business, but this was a pretty big reality. My Father always meant business, but he looked extremely pissed off when I gave him my final word. Both of my siblings opted to follow in his footsteps, and I think he was hopeful that he would have all of his children there to back him up. I sighed, not knowing what to think about his reaction; but I knew I had already made up my mind. There was no turning back.
When breakfast was set and we were all seated, my Father looked at me over his glasses. “Lorelai, I have some bad news for you, Sweet Pea.”
“Lay it on me.” I hated when he beat around the bush.
“We hired a new chef for the yacht club and he came equipped with his own top of the line staff. All good for the club, but your job has been eliminated from last season.”
I pursed my lips. “Okay. So what are my options?”
“Well, I took some time to think about it. You like the hospitality work, so I’m going to put you and Marie in charge of the boathouse rentals.”
I exchanged a smile with Marie. “I can handle it.”
He slid two packets full of responsibilities toward us. "Moving on to the next order of business…”
I ate my food as I looked through the job description and realized this might not be so bad. The rental boats were never fully booked, which meant I could escape and be hidden if I needed too.
When the meeting ended, Marie left with her parents and I stayed behind while my parents left abruptly. Luciana and Armani stood and moved in front of me with their arms crossed. “What?”
Armani sent a daggered glare toward me, wrinkles creased up his forehead, his dark brown hair falling back and to the side. “Did you tell Dad you weren’t joining the family business?”
I nodded slowly. “I did. Why is this coming off as a surprise?” I sat back in my chair, crossing my arms to match theirs.
“We can’t protect you when you bow out, Lorelai.” Armani snapped.
Luciana rolled her eyes. “Armani! She’s not going to be excluded from the family or the protection we can provide. Don’t listen to him. He clearly didn’t read the clause correctly.”
“We don’t turn our backs on family, Luciana. Turning the business away is doing just that…” Armani snapped back, the fury in his eyes intensifying.
The door opened, and our father appeared in a black robe with my mother. “It’s time Lorelai.” I heard him say and stood up to follow my parents to their office. My father unlocked a secret door in his bookshelf that led us to an enclosed staircase. When we arrived at the bottom, we were outside one dock away from the back entrance to the Black Diamond Club. Swallowing hard, I looked at my mother, fear filling my eyes.
“It’s okay, Lor. Go ahead, I’m right behind you.”
I did as I was told and followed her until we reached one specific yacht. Boarding, I was led inside to the lower level. Every passage way we went through, there was a code to enter. My father had this operation under lock and key, but somehow I wasn’t surprised.
Arriving to the unknown destination, Mother stripped my clothes off, and placed me in a silk red robe behind a removable wall and took my hand, bringing me out to a wooden circular table. Candles were lit around the contract handwritten by my father in an off-white scroll paper, burnt at its edges. I shuddered at the image, the burns of the paper told me one thing, this paper was fireproof. There was no burning of this agreement.
Picking up the calligraphy pen slowly, I bit my lower lip before I signed my name with the feather ink pen. I dotted the I’s and crossed my T’s as if I was really crossing my heart and hoping to die if I acted out of conduct according to the fireproof contract.
“Let’s get started, shall we?” My father paused. “This agreement says that you Lorelai Sienna Castillo have agreed to not join the Castillo Syndicate. If you change your mind, you will have to plead your case on why you’ve changed your mind. Depending on the situation, it will either be decided by me or come down to a vote from the family. Neither is your decision. There is a Castillo Family ritual ceremony. When you opt out, I burn this lovely black iron stencil of flocking birds into your right forearm, and you will follow immediately by getting a tattoo of these birds on the opposed arm. It’s how we’ve identified family members for centuries. Once the ritual is over, you aren’t to step foot into Black Diamond territory under any circumstances unless you are with a member or it’s approved prior to the visit. Anything you’ve witnessed up to this point will not be spoken of to anyone outside of our family, do you agree to these terms Lorelai?”
Horrified. I was absolutely horrified that this was even proposed as a family ritual. If you were in, you still endured the pain; only after it was over, you were entered into a brutal training course. I had to take on the pain and the emotional toll of walking in an unknown direction. No matter what path it was, I would have to walk around for the rest of my life with a scar of flocking birds on one arm and a tattoo of them on the other, and I didn’t get a choice in the matter?
How was this happening? I hesitated as I felt my parent’s eyes beaming down over me. They would have loved nothing more than for me to give into their lives, but I couldn’t. To my parents, I knew that the family business was a lifetime commitment. They had organized crime down pat to the tips of their fingers, paying people a percentage of the money coming in and a set amount for each task a member completed. Between Uncle Thad, my dad, and Uncle Matteo [Marie’s father], they were three of the richest men in the world, building their fame off of the world class Black Diamond Casinos. I knew the major details, that the business went widespread in Las Vegas with my great grandfather. I also knew the Black Diamond name brand was spread to strip clubs and into the Castillo Yacht Clubs, which had also spread throughout America all the way to the East Coast. I knew being a Castillo would get me out of trouble if I ever got into any and that we had connections to pull strings in high places, but I didn’t want any part of their connections. I wanted nothing to do with the organized crimes; because in the end, I would get pulled down with them when they were finally caught. My brother was educated well on the business and his claim is that we have family on the inside of the law. Uncle Lorenzo, who is the youngest of my father’s brothers, is only ten years older than me and hit the ground running with his law firm because of our last name.
Coming back to the present, my parents still stood there looking at me. “Yeah. Let’s get this over with…” I whispered.
My father nodded, moving to gather his supplies. I tried to ignore what he was doing as I knew what was coming. Mom took me to the gurney bed and sat me down.
“Lie down,” Mother whispered. She sat next to me lying on the bed. I remember Armani and Luciana telling me not to look when the ritual was happening and that the smell of the burning flesh alone would make me want to run screaming.
I watched my father put the proper protection on in order not to hurt himself, opening the incinerator built of hot flames as he clamped the iron bottom to the flat magnetic field on the end of the wooden stick. Armani was right. I couldn’t look. The more I realized that this was going to hurt, the more nauseated I became.
Mom pulled the restraints around my chest, legs, and around my waist before attaching a ball gag to my mouth to muffle the inevitable screams. Anxiety and vulnerability came down all at once, feeling my breath get caught in my throat. I inhaled deep breaths through my nose and closed my eyes as Mom tied my arms to the railing of the bed, and I grasped a tight hold onto the bars. I heard my father’s almost silent footsteps coming toward me. His hand slid over mine, and he whispered, “Take a deep breath, Lorelai,” before he pressed the iron stencil against my skin. Gasping loudly, I gritted my teeth into the gag as the iron burned into my skin, only to follow the extremely foul smell of my own burnt flesh filling the room quickly.
A panting cry left my throat as my mother tried comfort me by rubbing a hand up and down my thigh. “Shhh…it’s almost over.”
I opened my eyes to watch. I didn’t want my parents to think I couldn’t handle it; but when I saw the heat rising from my skin, that’s when the realization of humiliation and disgust kicked in. This was the exact reason I needed to do this, so that someday, when I met the man of my dreams, my children would never go through this. I would protect them from my parents, siblings, aunts, uncles… hell that pretty much covered it. No one associated or related to the damn Castillos would come near my family and this was my only option to ensure their safety.
When he lifted the iron stamp, he proceeded to spray the burnt skin with a spray that seemed to take the immediate sting away and wrapped my arm in gauze. Once the burn was wrapped, he placed my arm back at my side and removed the ball gag. “How are you holding up, sweetheart?”
I opened my eyes to look up at my parents both at my side. “I’m okay,” I lied. It hurt like a son of a bitch and how I would hide the burn now crossed my mind. A panicked state of mind intensified every other thought running through my mind. What would the kids at school think? I couldn’t wear a bandage or long sleeves every day. I would have to suck it up, act as if it wasn’t there, and play dumb if someone asked. I wanted to run and hide, never to be seen again and I couldn’t. I wasn’t that much of a coward.
‘It’s a birth mark…’ I could probably get away with that as an excuse.
“Good. I’ll give you a few minutes to rest while I get the sketch together.” Dad spoke quietly while Mom moved to the other side of the bed to set up the supplies he would need.
Mom removed the restraints, she gave me a glass of water, rubbing a hand on my back. Lying there waiting for this entire process to finish, I thought about the life my parents led. They were the jack of all trades, but not heroes in the least bit. They ran a military for organized crime; and you were either a thousand percent in, or you weren’t, the in between was a daunting ugly death.
As the roaring buzz of the tattoo gun came to life and pierced my skin, I watched as he carefully outlined the flocking birds and realized that this was always an easy decision for me. The risk of taking on a role in the family business meant I would have to marry an underdog working under my father, we would follow into my parents’ footsteps, and there wouldn’t be an easy way to escape without bad blood shed. I knew I didn’t want that. I would take my chances by flipping the coin to the other side into the unknown, unplanned future.
What did I want? I didn’t know for sure, but maybe this summer or the year coming up would allow me to figure it all out.
Once the tattoo was finished, he sprayed the anti-sting spray and wrapped it up. “Your mother will give you instructions on how to take care of that and, once she does, you’re all done and free to go.”
I nodded and watched him leave without another word while Mom cleaned up after him. There was never a word muttered, let alone a question from her. She did as my father said, without a squander. In some ways, I wondered if she was happy with it this way. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she kept her mouth shut to keep him from becoming angry, or she feared him herself.
Sitting up after she walked away to go clean the supplies up, I followed after a moment. “Mama?” I asked quietly.
“Yes, Lorelai?” she said as she discarded the bloody gauze and used needles into the proper container.
“Are you happy with Dad?”
She turned to look at me promptly. “Of course I am. Why would you ask such a question?”
I opened my mouth trying to speak and a muttered groan of pain left my lips. Inhaling a deep breath, I tried once more...“This life you live, it seems to be one-sided, and directive from one side.”
“What your father says goes, Lorelai. I don’t question it, and neither should you.”
I guess I had my answer. She was obedient and stuck in her ways with him, and nothing would ever change because it was all she knew. Or perhaps it was the luxuries that came with being a Castillo wife. She tagged along, and learned the ropes so she could be a trainer, go to all the black tie events they hosted, and be the gossip queen of their kingdom here in Sausalito. I rolled my eyes at the thought, and silently made my way out realizing this may have been one of the last times I was allowed in here; but I knew what I wasn’t getting myself into, now it was time to meditate. Find out what Lorelai wanted and gun for it.