Halloween request: Bruno goes for a walk to clear his head. The night had been just like any other night, however upon his return home he is met with a mysterious woman who claims to have known his father. He's skeptical of her but despite this accepts an amulet that she claims belonged to Paolo and swore to give to Bruno. So many questions rush through his mind but before he can ask she has disappeared. Soon after he's plagued by apparitions and nightmares. Coincidence or is the trinket cursed?
CW: blood, gore
It was one of those nights again for him.
Bruno sighs, his breath visible from the cold night air. Strolling through his neighborhood so late at night like this has become the norm for him since he first joined Passione. Many others see him as a man who can keep his head together, who doesn't seem deterred at the things done in the mafia business. But they would be surprised. Just because he's been in Passione for so long doesn't mean certain things in it don't plague his thoughts now and then. Mafioso or not, he's still human. Even he needs some time just to clear his head.
Even after Diavolo's defeat, and Giorno's new title as Don, however, Bruno still finds himself taking these nightly strolls.
It's just habit now, he supposes.
Just as he turned a corner, he heard something. Or rather, someone.
"You are Bruno Buccellati, correct?" a voice asked. Bruno halted in his tracks, eyes immediately roaming the area around him, looking for the person who just spoke to him.
"That depends on who's asking. Where are you?" he calls out.
"Behind you."
Bruno whips around and sees the owner of the voice, a woman, standing only a couple of feet away from him. Bruno immediately takes a few steps back, surprised by the initial proximity. How is it that he didn't notice her presence if she got this close to him? He didn't sense anyone following him. He didn't even hear any footsteps behind him as he was walking! Did this woman have a Stand power or something? Is she an enemy?
"Who are you?" he repeats. Bruno is keeping his full guard up, ready to summon Sticky Fingers if the woman tries anything.
"My name is of no importance," she says, her tone of voice monotonous, "I am here simply to give you something that once belonged to your father, Paolo Buccellati." That made Bruno pause. What?
"My father?" he whispers. "You...knew him? How? What was your relationship with him?"
A moment passes before she says, "...I was an old acquaintance of his many years ago. Nothing more, nothing less. Now, onto the matter at hand." She then held something out in her hand. There, dangling from her hand, was an amulet. A beautiful crimson jewel hung with a gold chain, the light of the moon reflecting off of its shiny surface.
"Paolo entrusted me to look after this amulet. He told me that if anything were to happen to him, I was to give it to you. And so, after learning of his passing, I went on to track you down so that I may finally leave it in your hands. Think of it as a memento of sorts of your late father."
Bruno glances between the woman and the amulet. Was she serious?
"How do I know if what you're saying is the truth? What is your proof that that amulet belonged to my father?" The woman said nothing at first; she just clenched the amulet. But then, a strange light flickered from it, and Bruno gasped as a vision suddenly flashed into his mind.
He saw his father and the woman in an empty street- it looks like they were talking. Paolo then reached into his pocket and took out the same amulet the woman currently had and gave it to her. Bruno only managed to catch the last bit of the conversation.
"Promise me that you will hold onto this for now," Paolo says, "If something ever happens to me, I want you to give this to my son as soon as you can." The woman nodded. His father then walked off after that.
The vision ended there, and Bruno was left speechless. He just stared at the woman in disbelief.
"Was that proof enough?" She asks. Bruno bites his lip. He's still skeptical. This feels like it's too good to be true. This woman is oozing with suspicion, but that vision... He doesn't know how she showed it to him, but what he saw looked so real. His father was right there, giving that amulet to this woman. A small feeling in him wants to believe it. To have something left of his father to keep...
Bruno shakes his head. Ugh. He just doesn't know what to think.
"Well?" The woman was still waiting for his answer. Narrowing his eyes at the ground, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath before finally reaching his decision.
"...All right," he says, "I'll take it."
He missed it, but an eerie grin formed on the woman's face for a split second before disappearing. She stepped forward and handed him the amulet. Gazing down at it, Bruno still felt rather uneasy but also a bit happy to have something left from his father.
He looked back up towards the woman, wanting to ask just a few more questions, but they quickly died in his throat as he found himself all alone. She had vanished. Looking left and right, Bruno couldn't find a trace of her. Yet again, he didn't sense her movement nor did he hear her footsteps. Very strange.
Clutching the amulet in his hand, and taking one last glance at his surroundings, he continued his way back home.
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He was having a pleasant dream.
He was standing on a beach on a bright, sunny day. The wind blowing gently around him, the cries of the Black-tailed Gulls flying overhead, and the briny scent of the sea reaching his nose. It was peaceful. Soothing.
"Bruno!" He heard someone yell. He blinked. That voice. No, it couldn't be. He turned around, and sure enough, it was him.
His father.
Paolo was walking towards him, smiling and waving at him. Bruno smiled back, and went to approach him, but stopped as he saw something appear behind his father, and his dream soon became a terrible, terrible nightmare.
Behind his father was a big, dark figure. It had bright, glowing eyes and giant, ghoulish hands. The figure then all of a sudden lunged at his father, wrapping its hands around his body. His father yelled and started struggling to free himself. Bruno started running towards them to save him but was stopped as something grabbed onto his legs and made him fall, and he looked back and was shocked. Hands similar to the figure's had burst out from the sand beneath him and took hold of his legs. He went to push himself back up, but more hands came out and grabbed hold of the rest of his body. He was completely pinned down, he couldn't move.
Paolo started screaming. Bruno looked up and saw that the figure was increasing the pressure of its grip. He flinched as he heard the man's bones breaking under the intense pressure, blood starting to spurt out of his body.
"B-Bruno!" Paolo screamed, his eyes filled with fear and tears as he looked at his son, begging for help. Bruno thrashed around, desperate to free himself to save his father, but these hands were too strong. He couldn't do anything but watch in horror as the figure changed its hold on Paolo...
...and gruesomely ripped his body in two, his blood and organs all spilling onto the sand. The last thing he saw was his father's now cold, dead eyes boring into his.
Bruno screamed as he shot up from his bed. His eyes were wide with tears streaming down his face, sweating and breathing heavily. That dream, no- that nightmare, it was...horrifying. He's had nightmares before, but nothing that extreme; this was a first.
A low creaking sound suddenly reached his ears.
Bruno freezes. He slowly looks up, and what he saw made his blood run cold.
There, standing in the corner of his room, was the very same horrible, dark figure that he saw in his nightmare, just staring right at him. A sick cracking sound was made as it tilted it's head to the side, it's gaze never leaving Bruno's form.
With sudden adrenaline rushing through him, Bruno summons his Stand. "Sticky Fingers!" He yells. The Stand goes to punch the figure, but it vanishes into a black mist upon impact. Both he and his Stand surveyed the room for any sign of where it went when it reappeared in front of Sicky Fingers, grabbing it by the throat and pinning it to the wall. Bruno struggled to breathe as he felt the figure's grip on his Stand on himself.
He went to take a step back but tripped and fell back onto his nightstand, knocking down the lamp on it and incidentally turned it on, the sudden light making the figure release its hold with a shriek and disappearing.
Bruno called back Sticky Fingers as he panted, trying to regain his breath, his heart still racing. "Just what the hell was that?" He mutters. That thing was in his nightmare, and somehow it showed up here in real life? How was that possible? What could have happened? He just sighs as he brings a hand up to massage his forehead. He just didn't know.
On his nightstand, the amulet glints ominously.
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