The Price ࿊f Peace

☮️: 047

Somewhere in Oakland
Monday August 10th, 2024

Elijah knocked on his older brother's door, eyes surveying his surroundings to make sure no one was following him, his hand clutching his glock.

It was a few minutes before the door swung open, revealing a pissed—scratch that— a livid Camarro who had his phone pressed to his ear, yelling into it. Elijah strongly contemplated just going home at this point.

"..so, what the fuck you mean she 'don't wanna see me?'" Camarro yelled. "That's some ole' bullshit!"

Elijah knew for sure it was Keisha on the other end of the phone, and he wouldn't likely be much help, seeing as it was mostly his fault that they were still into it.

In the past two months, Camarro had only seen Nylah once, and under the supervision of their mother, and two of their uncles. Luckily, Leek had insisted he come with him, just in case, so he wasn't alone, but still. The shit was weird.

Both Keisha and Yalena were getting bolder and bolder, sending letters, making phone calls from random numbers, even having some of their uncles waiting outside of either of the boys' houses at first.

Elijah didn't mind as long as they didn't bother Syara. This had happened before, so he was used to it.

When Elijah was 16, he moved out of his mother's house for the first time completely. He'd had his nights where he wouldn't come back to her home, and most often, if he was gone that long, he was usually doing another bid.

But, after about a month, Yalena went into his room to take some money and noticed his half-filled trash bag of clothes was missing, as were the shoes he'd bought for himself, as were the picture frames of his 'lita, and his jar of money that he'd hidden at the top of his closet—that she regularly stole from— was missing as well.

She, of course, called Camarro first to ask if he knew where he'd went. She needed to pay the rent that month, and she'd squandered her disability on buying games for her boyfriend at the time's PS4, so Elijah's money was all she had at the moment.

He wouldn't tell her anything, so she made a call to her brothers, sobbing and screaming. She told them how Elijah stolen all of her money, packed up his things, and left. And when she tried to stop him, he'd thrown her into a wall, and she hit her head.

Of course, his uncles believed her, and drove around the entire city looking for him, and camped outside of his new house until he came out.

Ron-Ron came out too and made sure they didn't jump him, but the intention was clear. Elijah didn't even bother to explain himself. He knew he didn't touch her, but he didn't care to explain anymore.

He just wanted it to be over.

Elijah ultimately had to run both fades with his uncles, and he fought tooth and nail on the dirt and mud of his front lawn.

This was before he began gardening—thank goodness—he likely would've killed them both had they'd ruined his hard work in the struggle.

Plus, his uncles knew better than to get out of the car now. Elijah'd already gotten out there with them. He'd already proved himself as a grown man at 16, and they were only getting older. If they couldn't beat him at 40, they for sure couldn't beat him at 45.

But, nonetheless, he was used to it. This was shit he'd dealt with his entire life. It didn't even faze him anymore.

Unfortunately for them, however, Syara was not used to it. At all.

She slashed their tires the first night she saw them.

But, neither of the two uncles that were out there were awake to notice. Both of his uncles were sleeping in the parked car as it was 4 in the morning.