Pariah ✔

9 - Betrayal

★ ★ ★

He'd fucked up. A lot. 

With a group of four they'd gone out. Two were supposed to kill Clay; Dezi and Esai himself had gone to Darby's house. After Dezi had entered the place while shooting, they'd stumbled upon three dead bodies. Two whores and an unknown man. Darby himself was nowhere to be found. 

To make things even worse, the others had failed too; they had only managed to shoot some Irish man in the ass. He didn't know what to feel; shame or anger. He had been convinced he and his guys could do this, but now he started to realize that he had overstated his pals. Or maybe he had overstated himself, for he had been the responsible one. He'd wanted to be the responsible one. 

Now, there had been an attempt on the life of SAMCRO's president and they were at the beginning of a gang war. Instead of quietly taking out their rivals, every Son's charter would soon march towards Oakland to wipe them off the map. With one call he'd told his father that the mission had failed. His father hadn't said much. Which he understood; his disappointment had to be enormous. Once again, there was no reason to be proud of his son. 

A few hours later his father called him back, telling him to come to the park by the end of the day. He told him he wasn't mad, he even asked if Alesia would come too. It made him feel more secure, and he sent his girlfriend a text to ask if she could come to the park after work. The weather was good; they'd hung out there before. 

Nevertheless there was a pit in his stomach as he entered the park and met his father. He hated to disappoint him. The harder he tried to prove himself, the harder he failed, it seemed. 

His father hugged him briefly. "Hey, relax, huh? Shit happens, man."

"Yeah, I know," he muttered, looking his father in the eye. "I'm sorry, Pop."

"Because of your mistake, I had to sit down with SAMCRO. Made a deal with him, man. He's gonna start selling us guns."

Esai stared at his father in disbelief. He hadn't seen that coming... "That's good man."

His father took a moment to look around. "That happened because of you, okay? It's okay, man. Let's go get a churro." He wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "Catch you up on what we gotta do."

They walked over to the food stall. Before they could order something, Marcus turned his son towards him. "Hey." A little stunned, Esai let his father hug him. "I love you, mijo."

These words moved him, especially after what he had done. He wanted to tell him he loved him too, but suddenly there was a gruesome pain between his shoulder blades. By reflex he wanted to touch for whatever was sticking out of his back, but his arm felt powerless all of a sudden. Breathing became harder, the pain spread. 

His knees collapsed. Vaguely, he realized his father was catching him, but before he could really feel his arms, he lost conscience. 

★ ★ ★

A horrible scream filled the air. Alesia needed a few seconds to realize that she was the one screaming. Her body responded before her mind understood what was going on. 

Esai — Esai was stabbed by the churro man!

She started to run, the panic traveled to every corner of her body. And Marcus... Marcus just stood there! She came to a stand when the man lowered his son on the ground and handed something to the attacker. 

What was going on? Why didn't Marcus avenge his son? Were they in this together? Had Marcus really... allowed someone to kill his son? Bile crept into her gullet, she grasped her knees and bent over. Puke left her mouth in waves. 

She wiped her mouth, and her eyes when she noticed she had started to cry. This was all so... unbelievable. She just couldn't wrap her head around what was happening. Through a blur of tears she watched the three men. Her whole being screamed to run to Esai and to hold his body. Maybe he wasn't even dead — maybe he was just badly injured! But at the same time she was terrified that Marcus would consider her as a threat. He had looked her in the eye while she was heading over to them, he knew she had seen this! Would he want to silence her too? If he could kill his son without a shred of remorse, why would he give a damn about her? Protectively, she wrapped her arms around her stomach, thinking about the little child that was growing inside her. 

If Esai was really dead, their baby was all that was left of him. 

It felt wrong to leave her boyfriend like this, but the urge to protect their baby made her turn around and run. She ran through the park, dove into various alleys and kept running until her legs could no longer carry her. Crying, she sank down on the ground. 

Esai was dead. 

She had left him to die. 

★ ★ ★