Nero sat silently neat the fire place on one of the couches, he had in his time re-arranged the furniture, so that the couch he was sitting on was against the wall away from any windows and was pointing at the now locked door. The old throw rug had been useful as well as make shift cloth to cover the windows so the glow would not be seen easily from outside, the smoke from the chimney would be dragged by the winter wind so you would have to get close to know there was a fire. The room was dim though even with the fire, the flames made shadows which licked the nearby walls and floor, it was almost like being home for a split second. With a long exhale Nero blew out a large puff of white smoke from the cigarette in his hand, one of the very few pleasures he had left in the world. It had been a couple months since he felt safe even in the slightest, and it was nice to relax a little bit even if his paranoia kept him looking towards the door for possible intruders. Letting the smoke fill his nostrils Nero allowed his eye's to close, the image of the locked door with a wooden chair trained under the knob left his visual sight. Before Nero knew it he had dozed off and fell into a pretty deep sleep.

[i]Nero sat at the side of the fire in the woods almost casually across from a younger man of approx. fifteen, the boy was medium size with a little muscle to him, brown long hair and green eye's. Almost silently he ate the meal that Nero had prepared as he seemed quite content. Most would think that the scene looked as if a strange Italian man had kidnapped a younger boy for terrible pleasures, but in reality the young boy across from Nero was in fact his one and only son. This has been the first time they had gone on a camping trip in years and it was hard to say Nero was not enjoying it. The truth of it all was that Nero's work with the Agency often kept him occupied, which in a lot of cases he neglected his son Ciro. While Ciro understood why this had to be, it was hard knowing that with his mother passed on that he was alone for most of the day and Nero cherished the moments he did have with his son.

[b]"So Ciro how is that young lovely girl doing that you told me about? What was her name, Alisha I think it was?"[/b]

Ciro looked up from his meal towards Nero with that look he knew too well the look that Nero had just very likely brought up a subject in which he was unaware of something. Ciro however smiled and looked at Nero and spoke in a half American half Italian accent.

[b]"We ended up just being friends Dad, but its okay you know I am glad she chose friendship out of no wanting to talk to me at all"[/b]

[b]"Oh I am sorry I wasn't aware of that."[/b]

Nero felt that awkward silence between them as they both become silent again, this unfortunately is how life was between him and his son, they were not as close as some fathers and sons out there. But the fact of the matter simply was that they at least tried to have a relationship, and that was better then nothing at all. Nero was about to say something else when he heard something snap a stick in the woods behind Ciro, both of them looked in that direction wondering what had made the noise. Probably just a deer or something, not like they were not common among these woods, but just as a precautionary Nero got up and decided to have a look. Grabbing his hunting rifle Nero checked it and then walked behind Ciro telling him to stay put and keep an eye out. Nero disappeared a small distance into the woods quietly and looked around the area, he did not see anything around or hear anything else.

[b]"DAD!"[/b]

Almost instantly Nero's heart was beating rapidly as he turned tail and ran as quickly as he could, upon reaching their small camping site, the entire area was filled with people that were horribly disfigured and bloodied. On the ground Nero saw that Ciro was on the ground with one of them over top of him, Nero charged blindly as he ran up and ripped the person off of Ciro and tossed him bodily away. However Nero realized that the boy on the ground was not Nero was another one of the disfigured people, and then in a flash the boy reared up and bite Nero in the neck.[/i]

Nero opened his eye's as he flung from the couch panicked as he drew his gun from its holster and looked around, slowly his current location came back to him as he looked around a little less wildly. Realizing it was nothing more then a dream Nero slowly sat down setting his pistol beside him on the couch, reaching into his inner coat pocket Nero removed a torn picture of his son Ciro and looked at it, a small tear formed in his eye as he sighed deeply and put his hands over his head. Closing his eye's he just sat there and let the tears roll for the first time in a long time.