The View in New Orleans

My Father Was a Gambling Man, Down in New Orleans

"Adorn your suit, you pompous idiot."

Cloth fell down from the clothing racks, cascading down onto the floor, the milky white fabric sticking out against the hard colored suits, with red silk caressing the white. It looked like older Spartan armor, as it was pulled out of the closet and straightened out, and laid against the table on the back of the closet, rubbing on the loosely placed mirror behind it.

Looking straight at himself, a young Lalo saw himself in the mirror. The boy could not have been older than 15, barely any hair growing upon his chin, his deep brown eyes studying his closet. He held the robes up, and slowly slid into them, making sure to keep them from any crinkles, smoothing them across his chest as they slid down his shoulders. It hung on the brink of his right one, while falling down and ramping around his left elbow, the rest of the shirt hanging down so elegantly.

He put on his fitted pants, and his shoes, before sliding on his collared jacket around the shirt, the black contrasting with the creamy white, and blood reds that he bore on his chest.

"Are you about finished? I have been waiting for so long, I feel as if I have aged twenty years."

"Why do you have to be so stuck up all the time, Benny?"

"It is Benjamin to you, Laurence."

"Whatever, cut it with the formalities. You should be focused on Father."

"I can do both, it would not hurt you to be respectful, as well as concerned. Grow up a bit, eh?"

"Hm."

The two made their way out of Lalo's bedroom, the discomforting relationship growing apparent the more time the two had to spend together. Unfortunately, they had more, as they made their way to the top of the Casino.

"I will let you have your alone time with him. Just... be careful." Benjamin uttered, showing his first bit of care for his younger brother, his black eyes, and his white pupils staring into his soul as Lalo entered the room, opening the big mahogany doors with caution.

The room was quiet, arid, and solemn. The air hung heavy as he stood infront of his father in front of the opened doors.

"Close them."

He shut the doors behind him, and slowly turned to his father. Before him lie his father, drooling on the pillow, ready to close his eyes, to finally go to sleep upon his death bed. He was sickly, his illness spreading to every corner of his body as he lie limp and helpless in front of the boy.

"There are no need for... pointless questions. You know as well as I, I am as good as dead, boy. "

"I.. I understand."

"Don't be weak, Laurence. Remember all the work I have taught you... but... I do need to request something of you before I go."

Laurence looked up at his father, teary-eyed as he glared back.

"I want you to leave. To never come back, and let your brother rule in peace."

Lalo now had anger boiling inside of him- his father disrespecting him, even when he lie dying in front of him. It was the last straw for the boy, before he finally did it. He defied his father. He yelled back, kicking, screaming.

"I will not leave! This is my home as well as his!"

"You are weak boy. You have disappointing me every step of the way, and you are a hindered! You are a burden! Y-"

Lalo lept forward, cupping his hands around his fathers neck.

"I am not what you think I am. I am better than you'll ever be, and I'll prove it to you. For all the suffering, the pain you've caused me. I'll be better, and I will see you. I will meet you in the gates of Hell and I will come proudly. I will not let you go gently into that goodnight as you lie here, insulting me on your death bed! For all the pain..." He pressed harder on the mans neck, hearing the delayed gasping and desperate attempts

"For all the pain you've ever caused? You deserve to die like a peasant. You are nothing but a bad speck on the world! I will be better than you. I am you. I am your God now, Leonidas Bennedict."

"P-ple-"

Lalo slammed his fathers head back, and choked harder and harder til not a peep was heard from the old man. He did not feel good. He did not feel bad. He felt proud, and he wore it like a medal of honor as he stomped out of the room. Benjamin was nowhere to be found.

"Ben? Benny? Benjamin?" Lalo screamed, dazed in his own anger as he searched, he looked everywhere for anything resembling a weapon. He made his way to his own room, reaching under his bed and grabbing the old sword his mother had given him. He hadn't seen his mother in years- his father had murdered her in cold blood. Yet, he always kept this. A gift. His father knew about it, as he often trained with it, yet could not rid of it. It was Lalo's keepsake- the cutlass.

He grabbed it from the box, swinging it around before beginning to march out of the room, shedding the blazer onto the floor, untucking his shirt and taking off the fitted pants. He looked crazed, a wild man, wearing a toga and wielding a rudimentary sword. But he had a purpose.

"Benjamin! My dear brother! I have a proposition!" He screamed throughout the house, falling more and more into insanity, the weight of the world finally snapping his mind.

"Come out! Why are you so cowardly, Benny? I thought I was your useless brother!"

He then heard it. The shuddered breathing, before a man stepped out from behind him. Benjamin. He held his hand out to Laurence.

"Please, my brother. We can rule together." For once in his life, he demanded pity from his younger brother, allowing himself to submit to him, and showing respect for his standing. Yet it was too late, as Lalo lurched toward him, before stopping.

"Pull out your weapon of choice."

"What?"

"Die like a man you coward! I will not slay a man on his knees, nevertheless my own brother! How did father ever find a weakling like you competent? Nevermind that, he is dead. Longing for you in Hell.

"You dare speak ill of the man that raised you? You wouldn't be here without him, without me. You are worthless. I will kill you and watch your putrid blood run cold." Benjamin said,  as he grabbed a small dagger from his pocket, and beginning to rush at Lalo with anger.

Lalo hopped back, before rolling under the mans feet, dragging him down onto the floor, before throwing his sword to the ground, and forcing Benjamin to give him the dagger.

He pried it from his hands, before flipping him over, staring him eye to eye, his sickly white pupils and his evil black eyes staring into his core.

"You are a traitor! You are sin, you a-"

"Say hello to father for me." Lalo uttered, before driving the dagger into the mans chest, watching the blood spill over his toga, and pooling around him. He stabbed again, and again, starting to sob, breaking down over the body, screaming.

"Benjamin, you fool! It didn't have to come to this!"

He sat, mulling around the body for the next few hours, before finally standing up, and collecting himself. He got himself situated, his clothes tidied, and his hair smoothed. He was the new owner of the casino.

And, his greatest business partner would appear shortly after the incident, a man no older than 18, disheveled and starving at his doorstep, blood all over his body. He was now the feared one.