The Night Before.

"Man, I hate myself."

Vito had been trying to sleep for what felt like an hour, but no matter how much he tried to close his eyes and rest, it was as if his mind was dead set on reminding him about what he did and this in turn brought a discomfort within him.

"I really did try to kill him. It normally isn't like me to resort to killing someone. I mean true I have thought about killing some people in the past but that was only when I was angry at them for wronging me deeply."

"Did Terra becoming the representative hurt me that much? I wonder how it feels like to have that title."

"What's the point of living? If the world doesn't revolve around you then why even exist in it in the first place? If good things happen to some people and only misfortune happens to others then does that mean that we are merely a character in their story?"

"I thought it would be me," Vito said now raising his hand toward the ceiling, there were white little specs on it that he imagined as stars. "I thought this was my opportunity, my moment, my story."

"So why the hell did Terra Vian become the representative? If there was a god then this would be some sick joke to play with someone's emotions, making them feel valuable. Only to have them tossed aside in the end."

Vito clenched his hand into a fist and threw it down the side of the bed, where it had hit near the war. At that moment the little white spec on the ceiling began to give a different glow of light.

Each spec was unique in the sense that they glowed and moved about on the ceiling in different sizes. It seemed to be that Vito had hit a light switch near that area that he was completely unaware of.

Flicking the first switch had turned on the lights on the white specs above but looking at the wall where it was, there were still 2 more switches left to be flicked. 

 Going in order, Vito flicked the next one.

The lights that were above had all begun moving around in a similar pattern. Out of the many different lights, 8 became apparent as planets as their order and color matched that of the solar system and the remaining lights sparkled around them as moons and asteroids.

Even a little asteroid belt was floating in between Mars and Jupiter.

All these planets were aligned just for Vito to see but there was something strange missing. Despite rotating in order, there was no sun that could be seen for them to orbit. 

"That's strange, perhaps the first switch serves as a night light of stars, the second switch would show me the planets, and then the third switch would show me only the sun?"

Flipping the third switch, Vito was surprised to find that not only had the sun begun to construct as it took the combination of multiple white specs to create it, but that the planets were aligning in an unusual way for Vito to admire.

They had aligned in such a way that the opposition of Mars could be viewed. The opposition of Mars is an event that happens every so 15-17 years and on such an event the sun and Mars are placed on opposite sides of the earth.

"17 years, has it been that long already? There should be an opposition happening sometime this year too and yet this night light of mine was like my own little planetarium, allowing me to see it before it happened. Thank you for letting me see this," Vito spoke to the wind in his room coming in from the opened window.

"17 years huh? That's exactly how old I am right now and it is almost time for another opposition to occur. I just hope it comes before I turn 18, otherwise, it won't be as poetic. I just wish my mum was here to see it with me."

As Vito stared at the ceiling, he couldn't help but reminisce about the moments when his mother would tell him stories about how his father tried to make moves on her.

Her family owned his grandpa a debt they could not pay. In exchange, his mother offered to pay the price of that debt and clear her family name. His Dad who was just a boy, close to his age fell in love with her heroics and wanted to marry her.

He was rejected.

She kept on rejecting his advances even when her family told her it would benefit them if they had close ties with the Gotti. That they could live in peace knowing that she'd be safe and that she could protect them in turn. But she wasn't interested in relationships with him or anyone.

The grandpa laughed at the thought of Vito's Father failing to get a girl. "I'm worried for my genes," he said. "Perhaps this is where the bloodline ends." He would constantly make fun of my father for his failures, but positively to make him try harder to prove him wrong.

Vito's mother was brought from her family to live with them in their mansion. Normally you would expect a woman to do the housework, but she was shouting at men and telling them to sweep and clean the the dishes. That she didn't want to live in a dirty house and she would go back if she was not pleased with them.

She was ordering around mafia members to do these things and they had to do it. Vito's Dad wanted to make a good impression on her, so he told the mafia that they couldn't be rude to her at all. And she definitely took advantage of that.

She would eat what she wanted, say what she thought, and occasionally leave the mansion to go home to her parents for a week or two. It was a disaster for the Gotti family.

Occasionally Vito's Dad would contemplate what he was doing wrong and how he could change, his father spoke to him and said that it wasn't about change. He had to show the girl that he meant everything he said and that she could trust him. Her image of the mafia was bad people who only hurt others but after spending time with them, she started getting more comfortable and even going home less often.

He encouraged his son to keep chasing what he loved but to never be forceful about it. With those encouragements, Vito's father eventually won her over. It took six months for her to even get comfortable with him and four more before he could start making moves again.

She was frightful and wary of him but it wasn't too long before he made an impression that stuck and built the foundation of their love. It was something about him bringing flowers and chocolate to her prom which was scheduled near Valentine's Day since they attended different schools.

Vito had never paid attention beyond this part of the story because he was disinterested in hearing about the romance of his parents. "No kid would want to hear about how they came to be," he said.

"Still, looking back now, I wish I let her finish it."

As Vito was in his own thoughts, he was snapped out of it by the sudden disappearance of the lights above his head. Everything went dark in his room, so much so that it scared him at first.

"Did I hit a switch?" he wondered, "No, I couldn't have, my hands were on the bed. Maybe the light show is over and in order to conserve energy it switched off automatically. There must be a timer on it."

Vito's assumption seemed reasonable but it was only because he doubted how much effort would be put in to show him the view that he loved to see the most.

The lights had gone off, but when they came back on again, they had all gathered together to form one largely shaped sphere of a planet painted in the color red. The little specs of light were now one giant construct of the planet Mars floating around his ceiling.

Vito's eyes marveled at the sight as his mouth hung open for just a few seconds before he said, "Whoever designed this sure knows what I want even better than me."

His mother loved the stars and on the day she was born the planet Mars was shining brightly in the sky. She would talk about them every night she could and she would put Vito to sleep in bed.

"Now that I think about it, I remember something about my father booking a Planetarium to watch the stars with her. But the only stars he could see were in her eyes."

"It was one of the ways he won her over and he had bragged about that achievement to me several times over."

"The memories. They keep coming back to me now. Life was more peaceful then." And thinking about his mother had led him to rethink her death as well.

It's been slightly over 1 year since her death. She was fine the day before but suddenly got weak and died the day after. Vito's mother was his father's greatest source of light.

And losing that light had blinded him if only for a moment. He began to get paranoid and could only imagine that a ploy took place from one of his competitors to poison his wife. This blind hatred caused him to go to war against other Mafia families and this in turn started a gang war.

If he couldn't find out which family did it, then he would simply eliminate them all. But that way of thinking backfired and put the Gotti in the miserable position that they were now, making them go from the second strongest to the weakest.

It took too long for him to get to his senses and by then it was too late. Though still powerful, the Gotti are nothing compared to their prime.

"I miss when times were simple," Vito gasped as he tucked himself further into the bed.

As Vito tucked himself in, he tried to go to sleep but experienced a strange headache that was keeping him awake.

"Argh! What is this!!? Why does my head hurt?"

His head felt like it was spinning for a few moments and the next thing he knew, he was remembering the times when his mother would take him out somewhere, he was watching his younger self holding his mother's hand down the hall in the aquarium, but the memory was stiffy.

He couldn't remember why they were there or when this happened, some details of the memory had even blurred themselves out, and seeing this had caused Vito to experience a small panic attack.

He grabbed at his chest area and could feel his heartbeat escalate, he was now panting and sweating, and despite being in what felt like a memory he felt like he would lose consciousness if not go insane from failing to recall these memories.

Vito went spiraling around and almost screamed out loud when he soon felt the intense pain in him subsiding. His shoulder was glowing and despite not knowing what was going on, he felt strangely at peace.

The room became clearer and he could finally remember when this happened. "It was my birthday."

As Vito stood there watching his younger self, he saw multiple duplications of his mother and him walking around different locations at once with their hands held together. "These are all memories. Memories of my birthdays."

As Vito watched each scene that had passed by him he began to remember that these weren't just normal memories but that these were the gifts his mother would give to him only on his birthday.

"No other experience in life could give more joy than the ones you do with your loved ones." These were the words his mother used to say on his birthday, these were words she would repeat to him as she dedicated the entire day to putting a smile on her boy's face.

This was how a mother would show her love for her son, by being there for him.

Vito stood in the middle of what seemed to be a park as he watched the memories of him and his mother disappear one by one, each time she would bring her hand to his face and say some words but he was too far away to listen to what they were.

Finally, the last memory came towards him as he saw his younger self sit down on the bench next to him crying after crapping his knee. His mother had bought some ice cream for him to cheer him up and had placed her hand on his face as she uttered the same words that every memory of herself had said before her.

"I Love You." And with that, she vanished.

Vito had remembered a past that he had long since suppressed after his mother passed away. These memories had reminded him just why his father had gone so far to seek revenge and why he was so eager to prove his self-worth.

"Maybe, I tried too hard. And it took me this long to remember why I did all this in the first place."

"Everyone has a story and yet I went so far as to think that I was the only one deserving of such a title. It makes me feel like an idiot now. *sigh* I guess when I wake up in the morning, I will have a lot of apologizing to do."

And maybe even get Cyrus to help me investigate my mother's death to see what truly happened to her. But for now, let me just close my eyes and rest.

With this, Vito was now falling fast asleep and the glowing sensation that was on his shoulder had finally dimed down and allowed him to sleep.