Broken Kings (House of Cards Series 0)

Premier Paso: el entierro

Malcolm felt that the day his sister was buried should have been the day the skys wept and the earth wailed it's tumultous loss. But disgustingly enough, the day was bright and sunny. Birds chirped, lizards scampered and the sun slowly baked the moisture out of the air. He knew that others considered it a good omen that it was sunny out, but it hurt Malcolm to see Adrianna's name carved into a tombstone under the harsh light of the sun. It held no shading of mercy, no way to deceive the eye into not seeing her name in the book of the dead.

His little brother looked sickly, his tanned skin pasty in his grief. Malcolm wished there was a way he could make his brother grieve and let it out, but the little boy refused to cry for some reason. Malcolm couldn't be a hypocrite and scold him for it though, because his own grief had turned inward as well. It weighted in his chest like a physical barrier around his heart. He knew his family was hurting, was needing him and grieving, but he couldn't bring himself to be there. After Adrianna's death, Malcolm had spent the entire time pushing the policia into finding her murders. Even with an anonymous eye witness pointing the finger at Logan and his boys, the cops would make no move on them.

Malcolm kept getting stone walled and he knew what that meant. That the cops had been bought off already and there would be no investigation. So today, after they buried his sister, Malcolm planned on sneaking in the dark of night and stealing his sister's investigation file. If no one else would do it, he would. He was only fourteen, but he no longer felt like a child. There was no more concept of play left for him. Only the goal of seeing those that had done this suffer. Carlitos hadn't been able to come to the funeral, knowing that the cops were still interested in his gang activities and any association with the Vegas would spell disastor right now. Bad enough that Logan and his putas had murdered Adrianna, worst that they knew Carlitos had witnessed the events and was coming after them. So now they were gunning for him, calling in the same cops that were supposed to be there to serve and protect.

Malcolm knew that the street tough had taken Adrianna's death personally. She had been targeted and taken from his car. Though what she was doing there when she was supposed to be in class was still a mystery to Malcolm. He wanted to ask Carlitos about it but knew that it would have to wait until some time had passed. Strangely enough that thought didn't enrage the Spainard. Some part of him knew that gaining justice and revenge would not be a quick task, and he accepted that he could dedicate his life to it and never achieve the goal. That inner silence, the strange and solitary corner of his soul was getting stronger, blunting his pain and grief, and fuelling his drive to do something. It made him distant to his family, and they seemed to accept that he was changing from the bright and happy boy they knew.

Maybe if they knew what he had planned, his family wouldn't have been supportive, but he never even hinted at the dark places he was willing to go. Right at this moment, he wasn't even sure himself what he could do. But he watched as the priest said his hollow words, the flowers were laid over the coffin in a useless gesture to beautify death, and Malcolm made peace with his inner darkness. It was time to  stop playing nice. It had cost too much to take the high road and now it was time to take it to their level.

Walking away from his family and the mourners, Malcolm chose to skip the traditional post funeral feast to go speak to a thug. To say that the street tough Carlitos was surprised to see Malcolm there on this day would be an understatement. Truthfully Carlitos had expected justified hatred towards himself, it was his fault Adrianna had been targeted. Her willing abstinence and good girl image had only sweetened the deal for those putas. But none of the Vegas blamed him, somehow they all understood that it was the fault only of those sick dogs that had done this to their beautiful girl.

"I need your help. I want in." Malcolm said without preamble. "I'm going to do whatever it takes to take them down and I need your help to make it happen."