Really Got a Hold On Me

The Devil, Lucifer

                  Zenith's POV::

     I walk inside Manuel's house and look at his wife whose sitting on the couch. She looks up at me, knowing some things wrong. I sit down on the couch. "Zennie told me you had to go see her again last night," I say.
    "It gets worse every night," she tells me. I nod and look at the bruises on her arms and face. I don't understand how someone could lay their hands on the one they're supposed to love the most.
    "I need you to go across the street and hang out with Zennie and Nack for me," I tell her. Her brows furrow in confusion.
    "What's going on?" She asks.
    "He's done too much damage. We might be a gang, but most of us in it aren't heartless like him; we can allow him to make us look like it. He'll never get a change to hurt you again," I tell her.
    "Okay," she says, knowing what's going to happen. She gets up and walks to the door. She opens it and stops for a second. "Be careful." I get up and walk to the office.
    Manuel looks up and grins at me. I lean against the wall and look at him with hard eyes. "Where were you yesterday during the shipment? Carlos tried getting ahold of you and it went to voicemail." He shrugs. 
    "I was...finishing business," he says.
    "Shooting Vito?" I ask. He looks proud of himself. "You have terrible aim, you know? He didn't die, he's in coma."
    "He would be dead if you hadn't gone soft towards his daughter," he says. I scuff. "You didn't finish the job," Manuel says. I take the gun out of the wait band of my jeans and place it behind my back as I lean against the wall. "You're always supposed to finish your assignments, not get attached to them." My jaw clenches. "How has that been? Being with the girl whose father you were supposed to kill? I wonder if she knows...obviously she doesnt, she wouldn't be with you anymore if she knew. It would be a shame if she were to somehow find out." I can feel my body shake with rage.
      "Shut up." He chuckles, getting up from his seat.
    "And what about that daughter of yours? It just suck to now have that distraction. It would also be a shame if some things were to happen to her."
    "I SAID SHUT UP!" I yell, pointing the gun at him. He laughs, crossing his arms. All I see is red.
    "Your like your father. He let emotion cloud his judgment. He was a good fighter, but your mother ruined him," he says. I shoot his shoulder. Blood immediately spears across his shoulder and through his white t shirt sleeve. He hunches off, clenching the wound.
    "She didn't ruin him. She changed him into who he was meant to be." He forces himself upright, giving me the perfect shot at him. I look away as I pull the trigger, the sound of gunshots calming my nerves. His body makes a thump when he falls to the carpet.
     ××××××
                 Astra's POV::

     I walk into the hospital room and look at my mom who is clenching my father's hand tightly, her head rested on his stomach as she sleeps hunched over in the chair. I place my hand on her back and rub a little to wake her up.
    She slowly moves her head and looks at me with tired eyes. "Hey," she says, forcing a smile.
    "Go home for a little bit and get some sleep, mom," I tell her. She shakes her head frantically. "You look terrible. I want to dad alone anyways and Esteban and Dante are coming by in a little bit too. If anything happens or changes, I'll tell you."
        She looks back at him and nods. I hand her her jacket and lead her to the door. As soon as she far away enough, I close it and walk to the seat she was just in.
    I've never seen my father look so lifeless; hell, he would never even let us see him sick. Its hard to see the strongest person I know laying in a hospital bed and pale as a ghosts. Tears escape my eyes.     
     "I'm so sorry," I cry, resting my head in his hand. "This shouldn't of happened to you. I love you, so much dad. You to wake up for us, me mom, Esteban, and me. We can't live without you, we love you too much. You need to see Esteban and I grow up more. Us get married and make more stupid mistakes. You need to grow older with mom, you guys say you're getting a divorce, but I don't see how that is possible with you two. I need you."
     ×××××××
   
      I sit down on my bed, waiting for Zenith to come back from the bathroom. After "talking" with my dad, I feel slightly better, but still in emotional agony. Zenith cokes back and gives me a small smile; I cab tell it's fake.
    "What's wrong?" I ask him. He shrugs, sitting down next to me. I don't allow him to pull me closer. He sighs, looking away from me.
    "The man who shot your father is no longer a worry," he tells me. My brows furrow together. "It was Manuel, my leader."
   My lips part in shock. "Why-how did you know so easily?" I ask, my eyes searching his. He notes down in his lip nervously.
    "If I tell you, I'm going to loose you," he says.
     "Just say it." He nods.
     "A long time ago, my father was in this gang, at the time it was ran my Luis. Vito, your father, was apart of The Merciless; their name says it all, they show no mercy, and now is the leader. He killed my father and Luis. That whole generation got wiped out by them, and I lost my dad. When I found out the whole story, I wanted revenge for my father. I wanted your dad dead, so when the Los Asesinos was reborn, I wanted to take action. I told Manuel about it ad he wanted revenge for what he was once apart of. He was the one that came up with the whole plan.
    He told me to get close to you, so I could get closer to your dad and then make my move. But...I couldn't do it as soon as I met you. You were so fragile and sweet, Vito raised you to be that way. Then I started gaining feelings for you, and I told Manuel I wanted out, that I didn't want to do this anymore. He wouldn't be me, so I decided then that I just wasn't going to do it, even if it got me killed. I never expected that he would take manners into his own hands, Astra. I thought that if I just didnt do it, then he would just let it go. I was obviously wrong."
       My vision blurs with years as I look at him. He wanted my dad dead, he was going to kill him. All these years I didn't know what my dad did for a living, I should have known it was something illegal.   
     "Leave," I force out. Tears brim his eyes as I tell him to go.   
    "Baby, I-"
     "Stop! Leave, Zenith," I cry. He nods slowly, standing up. I watch as he walks to the door, grabbing my pillow and clenching onto it.  
    "I love you."
    ××××××
     
    I sit on the couch with tears running down my face, looking out the window. The front door opens and Dante comes in with food in hand. He stops in his tracks when he sees me. He damn bear drops the food as he rushes over.   
    "What happened?" He asks.
    "D-did you know? About my dad?" I ask. He looks at me in confusion. "The Merciless." His eyes grow wide.
    "How did you find out?" He asks. I squeeze me eyes shut as more tears come. "He didn't want you to know; he didn't want you to see him as a bad guy."  
    "Manuel, the leader of the Los Asesinos, he's the one that shot him," I tell him.
    "How did you find that out? How do you even know about the 
Los Asesinos?"
    "I got involved with the wrong person, Dante," I say. His jaw clenches. "He's apart of them, and it was his plan a long time ago to kill my father." I continue explaining everything Zenith told me, and how we got together. "If I had known, I would never been with him."
    "Its okay, you didn't know."
     "It hurts," I say as I cry. "I so stupidly fell in love with him." Love. I never knew I loved him, looking back now it's obvious I did. It was my first time and I couldn't recognize it.
    "It wasn't stupid, it was just a mistake." He rubs my back as I sob.
   "They say you never know when your entertaining angels, but I also never know when you're entertaining the devil," I whisper.
   "You're right about that. It just takes a long time to find an angel in a world of darkness." I pull back and look at him through teary eyes.
   "I had an angel, I just sold my soul to the devil." 

   AN: He finally told her. I'm deciding where I want the next part of the story to go, so be prepared for pretty much anything 😂. Please comment and share! Believe in yourself -Vaeh