#buried skeletons

[superhoeva-archived]

𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐮𝐢𝐭

𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 | 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭

𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: the mc go on the search for some answers on a new possible threat.

𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: gabriella adéline carter, marcus alvárez, angel reyes, ezekiel “ez” reyes, che “taza” romero, johnny “coco” cruz, santiago, obispo “bishop” loza, hank “tranq” losa, gracie, michael “riz” ariza, gilberto “gilly” lopez, miguel galindo (mentioned)

𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞: whoops. this was supposed to be out yesterday, but finals have my brain fried. i still hope you enjoy and thank you for reading! <3 (gif credit: @massivecolorspygiant​) 

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠(𝐬): language, some fluff in the beginning, mention of drugs, mention of withdrawal

𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 3.2k

“Pressure pushing down on me. Pressure down on you, no man ask for.” - Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie

After the age of seven, riding was one of Gabriella’s only sources of security. (Other than Marcus and Diana, of course.)

Whether it was in a car or a bike, the desolate space around her as she glided down the road granted her a serene escape from the multitude of stress-inducing situations sprinkled throughout her life. She often wished that the vast emptiness that surrounded her could somehow be folded up and placed in her head, replacing the legions of tension that danced around inside of it every day.

Now was no different as she sat tucked on the back of Angel’s bike.

Despite the helmet covering a good portion of her forehead, she enjoyed how the wind felt on her face as Angel drove down the street, his brother settled on his bike right next to them. Her grip around Angel only somewhat tightened on wide turns, otherwise relaxing as she loosely wraps her arms around his middle. (She never squeezed too tight when she rode with him, knowing that, even if he didn’t admit it, the Mayan had a tendency to be ticklish on that specific part of his body.)

Angel, who secretly appreciated her regard for his sensitive middle, enjoyed Gabriella’s company just as much, if not more. He always loved it whenever she took him up on his offer to hop on the back of his bike and it was rare that he wasn’t holding back a smile at the feeling of her body pressing against his back. Every now and then, her hands would play with the fabric of his button-up if they were stopped at a light, and Angel loved the fact that he couldn’t tell if she realized she was doing it or not.

As Angel, Ezekiel, and Gabriella traveled further down the road, the figures of Taza and Coco appeared as they exited Media Más Bar. The brothers swiftly pulled to a slow, stopping in front of the shiny bikes of the other two Mayans.

Unfortunately, they were exiting without whom they came for.

“Any sign of Dogwood?” Angel wonders, earning a shake of the head from Taza.

“Not a gangster in sight,” he informs the three. “Nothing at the Puta Palace?”

It was EZ’s turn to shake his head. “It was dark.”

Gabriella thinks for a moment, before perking up from behind Angel.

“I think Louie’s old lady still lives above the barbershop,” she recalls, assuming that they resided in the same area she dropped Louie’s son off after a tutoring session at the school. (Tutoring students is one of her favorite past times, the act of being able to support a learning child often reminds Gabriella of her mother.)

The all too familiar sound of revving engines fills the empty street as everyone nods, Angel and Ezekiel allowing Taza and Coco to lead the way to the next destination.

This time, Angel didn’t try to hold back his subtle smirk as Gabriella snaked her arms back around his fluttering stomach.

“Guapo, you seen Louie?”

Taza’s question only resulted in the shake of a head from one of the employees, Angel taking Coco and Gabriella to head up to the apartment with him to look for Louie.

Coco knocks on the door as soon as he makes it up the stairs, annoyed with the fact that they’d spent the majority of the day looking for the man. After a few seconds of silence tick by, Angel pounds his fist on the door.

“¿Hola? Estamos buscando a Louie,” Angel calls out, holding his ear to the door in hopes of hearing if anyone was trying to hide inside.

(Hello? We’re looking for Louie.)

“Es el MC,” Coco continues. “Coco, Angel, y Gabriella!”

(It’s the MC. Coco, Angel, and Gabriella!)

Gabriella looks to both of the men, but there was still no answer. A short nod from Angel prompts her to try and open the door, and all of them were both on edge and relieved when it was revealed that the door was unlocked.

Entering the seemingly abandoned apartment, the sound of cartoons playing on a TV fills their ears.

“Hey, Louie,” Angel tries, cautiously making his way through the small kitchen with his hand securely placed on the gun hidden on the inside of his kutte. Gabriella follows his lead, carefully stepping towards the back of the apartment, Coco staying at the front in the kitchen.

“Anybody home?” He asks, peeking behind a thin, mesh curtain, still finding no evidence of anyone currently being home.

The act of searching the apartment in silence was abruptly interrupted by a panicked exclamation from Coco caused not only Gabriella and Angel to rush back to the kitchen, but also Ezekiel and Taza to hurry up the stairs to see what the commotion was about.

“Shit!”

“Get out! Get out of here!”

The rest of the group arrived just as Coco was reprimanding the ‘shooter’ for his actions.

“Are you gonna kill me?” The child questions as EZ and Taza file inside the room.

Ezekiel takes a moment to help him out of the pantry and Taza turns to look at Coco.

“Should we call for some backup?” He teases, but Coco wasn’t yet ready to joke about the situation.

“That shit stings,” he cries, checking to make sure he wasn’t bleeding. “That shit could have fucking pierced my eardrum or something!”

Coco continues to complain while Angel reaches to the ground and collects the alleged weapon.

“Looks like a .45 caliber Hasbro,” Angel identifies, earning laughs from everyone but the sniper. “You’re lucky to be alive.”

“Ms. Gabriella!” The boy suddenly exclaims, surprised to see a familiar face in this uncomfortable situation.

“Hey,” she smiles, moving over to place a comforting hand on his back before turning towards the guys. “This is Louie’s kid Santiago.”

“Why’d you shoot at us?” Taza grilled the boy, not knowing why he saw the MC as a threat.

“Pop said you were gonna kill him,” Santiago’s small voice responds, and the rest of the room shares a look.

“No one wants to hurt your pops,” Gabriella promises. “Or you. We just wanna talk to him, all right?”

The terrified look in the boy’s eyes doesn’t leave entirely, but it was clear that Gabriella’s words did something to soothe him away from the idea that he was in any danger. Ezekiel then tries to see if the son knew where his father was, but only Santiago shakes his head.

Coco, who was still annoyed with the kid’s previous actions, snatched up the toy gun and stepped closer to him.

“Don’t you use this thing, you hear me? It’ll get you killed,” he declares, throwing the fake weapon into a bowl of water in the sink. “If you’re gonna point a gun at somebody, you make sure it’s real. And loaded.”

Coco was able to dodge the small smack Gabriella wanted to give him for his comment, but not the playful condemnation from Angel.

“Yeah, that’s really good advice to give to a seven-year-old, man.”

“I had to shoot my crazy Uncle Gomez when I was six,” he shrugs, not seeing the big deal with the advice he gave.

“Of course you did,” Taza stated, not all that surprised by Coco as he made his way to the door. (Honestly, nothing about Coco surprised him anymore.)

Ezekiel gifts Santiago with a supportive pat on the arm before following Taza. Coco sends the kid one last look as Gabriella shakes her head with a laugh.

“Be good, okay?” She instructs, earning a reassuring nod from her occasional student.

Angel and Gabbi were the last ones out after leaving Santiago with their own forms of light affections, his father still nowhere to be found.

Arriving at the shelter, Bishop made a b-line for the other Mayans and Gabriella, hoping they had the necessary information they were sent to collect.

“Dogwood know anything?” He questions, only earning a shake of everyone’s head.

“Couldn’t find ‘em,” Taza answers while removing his riding gloves. “Weren’t on the streets, at the bar…”

Angel takes the task of removing Gabriella’s helmet before his own, adding, “Apparently Louie thinks we’re trying to kill him.”

Lifting herself off of Angel’s bike, Gabriella makes her way over to the rest of the group. She slicks down her hair on the top of her head, making sure her low ponytail was still visibly respectable.

“Who told you that?” Hank asks, an inquisitive look on his face at the information he’d just received.

“Louie’s kid,” Coco answers, the irritated look that had appeared back at the apartment still cemented on his face. “After he nearly took my fucking eye out.”

Angel’s laugh doesn’t help Coco’s attitude, the taller man asking, “Are you seriously still talking about that?”

The sniper doesn’t get a chance to answer the question, Gracie exiting the shelter making herself known as she made her way over.

“Gabriella, Caballeros,” she greets, sauntering over to Gabriella and pressing a kiss on her cheek before doing the same to Obispo.

“Haven’t seen you all in a while,” she points out, everyone turning to make their way inside of the shelter.

“Grace of God,” Bishop responds, knowing that whenever they came around here, it usually wasn’t under the best circumstances.

As the entire group turns and follows Gracie, she can’t help but ask the reason as to why you were all here. “So what brings you to wonderland,” she questions, not expecting the company of the MC any time soon.

“There might be a new player trying to move in,” Gabriella informs her, feeling like the opposite of anything good knowing that the new player they were discussing was herself. “From over the fence.”

Arriving at the side door of the shelter, Gracie turns towards Gabriella.

“Heroin?”

Gabriella nods as Gracie swings the door open, everyone stepping inside of the cage-filled room.

The smell was nothing nice as they entered, but that was to be expected. Most of the animals perked up as they tried to analyze unfamiliar scents of the new people.

“I haven’t heard anything,” Gracie states, leading the way through the lines of cages.

“Any spike in your patient intake?” Riz questions. “OD’s felt a stronger push?”

Gracie shakes her head once again.

“Not really.”

She leads the group through another door and into a different room. It was still filled with cages, but instead of stray dogs inside of them, there were people. Their levels of consciousness varied, some asleep while others were up, rocking back and forth. Groans sounded throughout the room as each of the patients struggled through vomiting, shivers, and other merciless symptoms.

“Dios bendiga,” Gilly mutters, as the entire group comes to a halt.

(God Bless.)

“Alright,” Bishop nods understandingly. “Let us know if you hear anything.”

Gracie nods at the request reassuringly as Riz steps up and pulls out an envelope from the inside of his jacket.

“A little donation,” he informs Gracie, who takes it with nothing but gratitude. Riz hands it to the woman, telling her that he hopes it helps.

“Gracias,” she nods, and Gabriella gives her one more quick hug before following the rest of the group towards the exit.

As they begin to file in the opposite direction, Coco stops at one of the cages. “Hey, Gracie, he’s Dogwood, ain’t he?”

Everyone stops around Coco, instantly recognizing the sleeping man as one of the members. Gracie nods at the question.

“Yeah, Tito. Why?”

“When does Tito get cut loose?” Bishop asks, Gracie replying with, “Soon.”

Gabriella thinks for a moment before turning to Gracie with a knowing smile. “Can you make it sooner?”

It turns out Louis ended up being just a phone call away, pulling up a short period of time after Gracie called to let him know that it was time for Tito to be picked up.

“Is that soon enough?” Gracie wonders, everyone watching as Louie’s car pulls up in front of the shelter.

“You’re a goddess,” Bishop compliments, sending a grateful look to Gracie before everyone begins to head for the door. As they all emerge, an expression of full-on panic falls onto Louie’s face. He, along with the man riding with him, immediately headed back for the car, slipping in as fast as their probably trembling legs allowed them.

“What’s that about?” Hank asks, watching Louie skirt away with a puzzled look on his face. All he earns is a few equally confused shrugs.

“Hey, we got this,” Angel nods, Gilly, Coco, and Ezekiel following his lead and rushing to their bikes to make sure Louie wouldn’t get away. Gabriella stays behind with Bishop and the others, knowing that the younger Mayans had retrieving Louie under control.

“Stuping fucking gangsters!” Obispo exclaims, annoyed with the fact that the task of acquiring Louie had been more tedious than he wanted. Gabriella gives him a comforting back on the back as they all travel to their bikes, accepting the offer to ride with Bishop, as Angel was occupied with chasing down the Dogwood member.

Louie’s car was just tumbling over as the rest of the Mayans arrived, many of them finding the situation Louie had gotten himself into rather amusing. Hopping off of the bikes, they all make their way towards Louie, who was now trying to crawl his way out of the crashed vehicle.

“How was your visit to the Upside Down?”

Angel's question draws out some laughs from the group as Louie replies, “Fucking terrifying!”

This only makes everyone smile harder, as it was clear that the man wasn’t in need of any necessary medical attention. Gabriella walks along with them all, Ezekiel being the one to step up and help Louie out.

“Why’d you run, Louie?” Bishop questions as Ezekiel yanks the man off the ground. “You got somethin’ to hide?”

“I didn’t,” he stammers, “I didn’t know she was your baby sister, Coco. She came in with one of our other girls and said she was 21. I had her do a few scenes.”

“Your porn site?” Riz clarifies, and Louie nods, somewhat ashamed of the whole situation.

“Yeah. After I uploaded the shit, she comes at me all pissed off ‘cause I paid her friend a higher rate. You know, anal pays more. Everyone knows that.”

When Angel sends an understanding shrug to the statement, Gabriella smacks him lightly on the arm in irritation.

“That when she showed me her ID and I saw the name on it, man. Saw that she was only sixteen. Said she was gonna tell you, man. Have the club cut off my balls. By then, the clips were everywhere,” Louie continues explaining, shaking his head at his mistake. “I’m sorry. I fucked up, man.”

“My baby sister?” Coco repeats, the reality of the situation hitting him all at once. Some send him an apologetic look while others stare at Louie with hardened expressions. “That’s fucking wrong, man.”

“You should put a bullet in his head,“ Hank suggests, Gilly seeming to have no problem doing to honor as he quickly cocks his gun. Louie flinches at the sound, expecting to feel the searing pain of a bullet ripping through him any second now. However, Taza puts a pause on the situation, placing an arm on Coco’s shoulder as he instructs Gilly to hold on.

As Taza pulls him back a few steps for everyone’s sake, Bishop removes his glasses and turns to Louie.

“Look, Dogwood Crew has always been a friend,” he points out. “We let you deal, we take our cut. We don’t wanna fuck with that.”

“Neither do we,” Dogwood adds, unsure of what Bishop was going to say next.

“Where we at? Twelve percent?” Bishop asks, turning around to Gabriella to make sure he was doing the calculations correctly. She nods at the number, her mind going back to the many rows of numbers in the books back at the clubhouse. “Well, until Coco’s pain subsides, our cut doubles.”

Louie huffs out a breath at the unpleasantly higher number.

“Well, fuck, Bishop, that––that’s like…” he trails off, as he is unable to do the simple math in his head.

“Twenty-four percent,” Gabriella finishes for him, crossing her arms at the fact that Louie wasn’t able to figure it out on his own.

Coco steps toward Louie with a snarl on his face, getting the feeling that Louie felt the cut was too high.

“My pain ain’t worth that?”

Louie stumbles over his words as Coco moves closer, quickly shaking his head to show him that it was no problem at all. “No, no, I mean… Yeah.”

“Anyone new been trying to unload product?” Hank asks, switching the subject to why they were looking for Louie in the first place. “Maybe a woman? Latina?”

Gabriella swallows hard, the image of her close friend enters her mind as Louie answers.

“Another source? Nah,” he denies. “Why?”

“Might be an independent trying to step up,” Bishop informs him. “Need you to dig around a bit. Dunes, El Centro.”

Louie nods accordingly, somewhat relieved to find out that this was the only reason the Mayans MC was searching for him. “Okay.”

With that, the group slowly turns around and retreats to their bikes, breaking out into victorious laughs when they were far enough away from the Dogwood members.

“Fucking dumbass,” Taza chuckles, giving Coco props at what he believed to be an act with a heavy pat on the shoulder. Ezekiel, perplexed by all of the laughs surrounding him, questions the group about what was so amusing.

“I got two sisters, man. Both older than me. And beards thicker than Gilly’s.”

“So, who was the girl?”

“I have no idea,” Coco answers.

Gabriella looks to Coco as he explains the situation to Ezekiel. After observing him for a few seconds, she came to the conclusion that, although he attempted to look genuinely entertained by the shaken state the Louie was left in, her close friend was indeed dealing with an internal obstacle.

“Sometimes the Mayan gods deliver gifts to their faithful warriors,” Bishop claims, everyone laughing along with him.

“Ah, bukkake,” Gilly exclaims. “The god of money shots.”

As the other Mayans joked together, they didn’t get an opportunity to catch Coco’s underlying troubles before Riz caught up with the group, alerting everyone that Alvarez had called.

“Hey, guys,” he calls from the back of the group. “It’s Alvarez. Galindo wants to meet. Don’t sound good.”

A hush fell over the group as they were notified of the impromptu meeting with Miguel Galindo, one person, in particular, knowing exactly what the meeting would be about.

Gabriella bit her tongue hard enough that it was probably bleeding, but the pain had no effect on her as her stomach turned at the thought of seeing the cartel leader.

“You good?”

Gabriella blinked herself back into reality at Coco’s question, sending him a small nod as an answer.

“Yeah,” she breathes out, turning back to him to ask the same thing. “You?”

“Yeah,” he mimics, slightly nodding just as Gabriella had a few seconds ago. Both of them knew that the other’s answers were a lie, but unfortunately, their problems were too complex to solve at the moment. Gabriella and Coco followed the rest of the group in silence, reveling in the comfort of the fact that, at least for the moment, they didn’t have to struggle alone.

[b4kuch1n]

the king shunned, the lion dead, the knight lost, the princess absent. but the wizard lives.

[mayasaura]

Hey since a chapter of Edenites is hanging out on the Ninth House rn do you think they might be able to uuuuhhhhhhhh collect Commander Wake?

[chameleocoonj]

🕸️🎃👻SPOOKY BUGS👻🎃🕸️

[lover-of-skellies]

Imagine with me for a second:

You have some super important item/artifact, and it has enough power to mess with other people's minds. This item could be dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands, and it just so happens that a local wackjob is looking for it

You can't hide the item anywhere in your house, because he'll find it super fast. The item can't be anywhere near you in general, because he's constantly watching

Where do you hide the item?

[leupagus]

Would Hardy say "breasts" or "tits" in his narrative voice, I can't decide

His mobile goes off at half-four on a Sunday; the whole drive up to Kingsgrove Wood he has his mum's voice echoing in his ears that it's God's day, for rest and prayer and not mucking about in the woods. The voice gets louder as he's lead further in by a pair of constables, their torches flailing through the darkness for nearly twenty minutes before they arrive at the scene. 

Miller's there already in a full noddy suit, talking in low tones with Brian as she juggles her phone, her notebook and a thermos just outside the forensics tent. "Go away," she says cheerfully as Hardy finally stumbles into the clearing.

Brian glances over his shoulder, makes a face, and disappears back into the tent. Hardy's about to follow him inside when Miller gets in his way. "Miller," he warns.

"Listen, we're all overjoyed at the prospect of seeing your smiling face at… five oh seven in the morning," she says, glancing at her phone, "But this is why you've got a DS. I can brief you later."

"Brief me now," he says. She sighs and thrusts the thermos into his hands. "This for me?"

"No, lesson learned there, you'll just leave it on your desk until it gets mouldy." She waves her hands a bit — noddy suits don't have pockets — before unzipping just enough to slip her phone into her bra. She then flips her notebook open and peers at her handwriting, nudging him out of the floodlight positioned above the tent. "All right, a pair of adventurous young people were out here 'for a walk' at just past eleven, saw 'something weird' sticking out of the ground, poked around and found a jawbone, which I'm fairly sure wasn't how they wanted their evening to go. They've been statemented and released; Katie's running them home under protest."

"Under protest? Why?" Harford's got better in the past six months or so — Miller's oddly fond of her now, Hardy will never understand people — but if she's whinging again about basic aspects of the job, he's not above giving her a bollocking. He's cut back on caffeine, but shouting makes for a passable substitute.

"The lad was sick all over his own trousers." Miller grins. "And he had vindaloo last night."

Hardy uncaps the thermos and takes a whiff — burnt coffee, which seems to be the only kind Miller drinks. "What about the jawbone?"

"'Human' is about as far as they've got; they're digging up the rest now. We did take pictures of what the area looked like before they got their trowels in — looked completely undisturbed. This area doesn't have much in the way of footpaths; it's part of one of those preserves that's been popping up all over this area the past twenty-odd years. Makes me wonder a bit about how our outdoorsy friends just happened to trip over it, to be honest."

"Seems a bit out of the way, aye." He wouldn't be surprised if this was the most people who'd stood on this ground in the past few centuries.

"Mm. Something else odd. From what SOCO's got so far, the body was definitely buried — about three feet deep — but with the angle of the hill here and all the rain we've been getting—" She makes a complicated gesture; her phone lights up her breasts in a very distracting way. He frowns down at the thermos. "And there's another thing," she adds. "We haven't found the actual… head part. Yet."

Hardy forgets about her bioluminescent chest for long enough to glare at her. "You lost the skull?"

She glares right back. "It's probably rolled down the hill! It's pitch dark! We'll find it, it's just—"

"For God's sake—"

"Oh, don't 'for God's sake' me at this hour, we're doing the best we can!"

"Minus the skull!"

"Which might not have even been buried with the rest of the body!"

He hands her back the thermos, keeping his eyes off her glowing tits. "Find it, all right?"

"Dawn's still an hour off," she shouts after him. "We don't even know how old the body is! It could be from the bloody Bronze Age for all we know!"

[scoutingthetrooper]

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

[danmeichael]

i need to work on my chengxian fics....

[clonerightsagenda]

That being said, if I could choose what to bind my soul to in order to hold myself on this mortal plane, I'd choose a beloved childhood paperback. If we're working off the rules where you end up stuck to something you've sunk a lot of emotional energy into unfortunately it'd probably be my fucking jawbone. At least I could bite people posthumously.

[charlemane]

Mixing materials for darn durability?

I like to darn wool socks with wool, but I understand that it's not the most hard-wearing material out there. Does anyone have any experience or information on whether its lifespan can be increased by weaving it in with other yarns?

To clarify, I don't mean using a blended yarn (I don't have any blended yarns), but like, using yarns of different materials together. When I first started darning wool socks, I used a cotton candlewick thread for the warp, then wool for the weft, but since then I've switched to doing wool both ways. But the socks I've darned haven't been back in circulation long enough for me to tell which method fares better in the long run.

Thinking I might use the next pair I darn as a matched study - one with cotton warp and one with wool - and that way, provided I don't lose either of them, I'll know that they're both getting the same amount of wear and tear. But that could (hopefully) take a while to pay off, so anyone who has advice now, please hit me up!

[superhoeva-archived]

𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠

𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 | 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭

𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: in the search for his son’s whereabouts, miguel’s rage boils over.

𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: gabriella adéline carter, obispo “bishop” losa, johnny “coco” cruz, marcus alvarez, angel reyes, miguel galindo, nestor oceteva, benny, benny's son, ezekiel “ez” reyes, michel "riz" ariza, gravie, luisa “adelita” espina

𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞: new chapter! this one is another favorite of mine, and i hope it is for you too. again, if anyone sees any mistakes in the spanish, feel free to let me know. if you have thoughts or comments, leave them down below! p.s. all of my taglists have been discontinued. follow @superhoeva-library​ and turn on notifications for updates. <3 (gif credit: @angels-reyes)

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠(𝐬): language, death, torture, slight angst, season one miguel (yes, that’s a warning), drugs, fighting/violence, kidnapping (mentioned)

𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 2.4k

“They stack the odds ‘til we take to the street. For the kill with the skill to survive.” - Eye of the Tiger, Survivor

Flores Pequeñas Fashionable Dresses was as busy as ever when the Mayans pulled up to one of the open entrances. As the entourage made their way through the workplace, Gabriella couldn’t help but ask Bishop if he knew why they were here.

What could this man possibly want now?

“He didn’t say,” Bishop answers with a shrug of his shoulders. The answer does nothing to help Gabriella’s racing heart. If anything, it was making her feel even worse.

“Rebels?” Coco asks Marcus, who replies with a quick, “Hope so. Get this shit behind us.”

Angel and Gabriella share a small look, certain that they did not want to find out what would happen if they got caught working with the very people they were supposed to be hunting down. The metal door that led to the Cartel leader’s pew slid open smoothly, allowing a free passage for Gabriella and the M.C. to make their way to Galindo’s pew. Her heart dropped down into her stomach as she was met with the sight of yet another wounded individual tied to the seat.

“Supongo que has vitso esto?” Everyone hears Miguel’s question as he holds up a wrinkled piece of paper in the man’s face. The sweaty, shaken man answers quickly as his eyes rush over the unfamiliar words.

(I gather you’ve seen this?)

“No,” he croaks, out, “no sé nada de eso.”

(No, no, I don’t know anything about that.)

¿De qué, Benny?”

(About what, Benny)

Gabriella’s breath nearly catches, noticing Benny’s slip up. Her eyes closed, only for a moment, as he finally breaks under the pressure of Miguel Galindo.

“Sólo eran niños… jugando,” Benny promises, looking up at the man who held his very life in his hands.

(They were just children… playing.)

“¿Los has visto antes?”

(Have you seen them before?)

A heavy silence falls over the room as Benny hesitates to answer, and, for a quick second, Gabby thought that Benny was going to look over at her. She didn’t want to imagine what would happen if he decided to, especially with her godfather standing just a few steps away. Fortunately, Gabriella was able to catch the smallest bit of her breath back when Benny’s stance remained unwavering.

“Eran niños,” he repeats, tone laced with a pleading that did everything it could to prevent any further traumas. “Por favor.”

(They were children. Please.)

Miguel says nothing further, instead, turning to Nestor who was a little ways behind him. He nods obediently, as Miguel walks over to the group.

“What is this?” Marcus asks Miguel, who was secretly having trouble with not letting his eyes flick over to Gabriella.

“We heard his food truck in the rebel video,” he sighs. “Saw who it was.”

All of the attention in the room was back onto Nestor, who was speaking to Benny, the pot of an unknown liquid in his hands. “Necesitas tener mucho cuidado cuando estás cocinando con grasa.”

(You need to be so careful when you’re cooking with grease.)

There are a variety of reactions as Nestor roughly throws the scolding hot grease onto the vulnerable skin of Benny. A few of the Mayans have to look away as his screams echo throughout the dingy room, others briefly closing their eyes. Gabriella bites her tongue so hard that she’s sure it is now bleeding, but she pays no mind to the pain as she pushes herself between Marcus and Bishop.

“What the fuck, man?” Bishop remarks, turning to the taller cartel leader. “There a reason why you got us watching this shit?”

“The reason?” Miguel repeats, attitude shifting towards one of annoyance. “What, you want a reason? Because this greedy fucking peasant saw who took my son!”

Gianna barely holds back a disgusted scoff, the only thing preventing her from coming face-to-face with Miguel was a stern look from Marcus telling her to keep it together. Before she has the chance to disobey his silent instructions, the muttering voice of Ezekiel snatched Miguel’s attention to the back of the group.

“You got something you wanna say?” Miguel questions cockily. “No, go ahead. Speak up, Prospect.”

Ezekiel takes a moment to glance at Coco, Gilly, and his brother who all decided it was best to keep their mouths shut. With the tiniest of laughs, Ezekiel tells Miguel, “I said, ‘Maybe if you didn’t treat them like greasy fucking peasants, you’d still have your son.”

It doesn’t take half of a second for Miguel to begin his journey to the youngest Reyes brother, Nestor, and another one of his men stepping up as well in support of their boss. Marcus and Bishop hurriedly from a solid wall, blocking the path to prevent anything further from happening.

“We’ll handle it,” Marcus promises quietly, causing Gabriella to look towards Ezekiel. She could only imagine what that would mean. Miguel absorbs the sentiment, finally nodding after a few deep breaths to calm himself.

Not breaking eyes with Ezekiel, Miguel then commands someone to, “Get the boy.”

‘Boy? What boy?’ Gabriella thinks to herself, turning quickly as she hears someone announce, “Coge al niño.”

(Send up the kid.)

Gabriella’s eyes widen as a small boy is dragged out of a smaller door, hands zip-tied and face full of terror, not understanding anything that was going on. The entire group of Mayans begins to realize the possibility of what was about to take place, everyone sharing alarmed glances with the person next to them.

“Papa!” The boy cries out at the sight of his burned father, who was now wailing any and everything to keep his son from receiving the same cruel punishment that he had. “No, mijo. No, no. No.”

Deciding that she could no longer stay silent, Gabriella has to be held back by her godfather as the exclamations pour out of her.

“What the hell, Miguel?! That’s a kid! A child, you sick piece of shit!”

She doesn’t even catch the quiet mutter from Marcus in her ear as he tells her to calm down, as she was still too busy allowing all of the pent-up emotions to crash down on Miguel.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Gabriella cries out, now struggling against the grasp of Marcus and Riz. “Nestor, I swear to God if you hurt him–”

“That was Dogwood,” Angel announces, halting every single person in the room, fortunately including Nestor. “They found the station wagon.”

“Where?” Miguel asks hastily, ignoring the pointed stare he was receiving from Gabby.

“Neat the dog shelter. Over by the canal,” Angel responds, hoping that his impromptu interruption would spare the sobbing man and his son.

Facing Miguel, Bishop attempts to reason with the currently highly-strung man. “Let us run this down before you do anything else here, alright? See what he gives us…”

Miguel reluctantly nods, the disappointment and anger he could feel pulsing off of Gabriella in waves distracting him. He looks to her as he nods, before turning around to whisper something to Nestor.

“You good now?” Riz asks Gabriella, who laughs bitterly as he and Marcus finally let her go, replying with a hard, “No,” heatedly weaving her way through the group and making her way out of the pew. She didn’t bother to wait for the others to catch up as she hurried to get away from the gray, lifeless walls as fast as she could.

She is only able to take a full breath once she is back in the main part of the factory, ignoring the looks of concern she received from some of the workers. The image of the young boy and the sounds of his father’s cries did nothing but remind her of why Los Olvidados was doing what they were doing… it was because they had to.

While Gabriella would never let anything happen to the small bundle of joy currently at the make-shift camp, she was now convinced that taking his child was the only way to make Miguel see the true pain that he, his father, and the cartel truly caused.

The sun above beamed down harshly on the ground beneath it, voiding any chance of comfortability as the station wagon was vigorously searched by the Mayans and Miguel’s men. Every nook and cranny was scoured, most of the men hoping to find something that would provide them with the next lead.

“Send Peña the plates,” Bishop instructs Riz as they begin to move away from the vehicle.

“They were jacked,” Riz points out, mentioning that the tags were from 2010.

“Doesn’t matter. Anything we can give Galindo might slow down the carnage.” Bishop replies distractedly, more curious as to why Nestor and the rest of the men with him were suddenly hopping into their trucks and speeding down the road without any obvious reasoning.

“Where the fuck’s he going?”

The sound of dogs barking catches the attention of Gabriella, who curses to herself when she realizes where she’s seen them before. “Hey, all of these dogs were at the shelter.”

The troubling realization has everyone dashing to their bikes, Gabriella choosing to catch a ride with Marcus. A quick trip down the highway brings them Gracie’s shelter, the first thing they see being Nestor and his men roughly handling the innocent employees.

Bishop’s effort to remove Gracie from Nestor’s grasp ends up with most of the men in the facility looking down the barrel of a loaded gun. Marcus gracefully strides in, Gabriella close behind him as she takes in the scene.

“Not like this.”

With those instructions, a look of understanding is shared between the entirety of the group. “Sin armas!”

(No guns!)

Abiding by the rules of whatever havoc-wreaking game that was about to be played, all of the guns were returned back to their rightful places, and it wasn’t long before the first punch was thrown.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Gabriella sighs, Marcus chuckling at the exasperated look on her face.

Punches and people were thrown every which way, shattered glass from the force of some of the hits now littered across the floor. Gabriella could do nothing but shake her head as Coco and the man he was battling flew through another window and onto the ground outside.

Right in front of Marcus and Gabriella, Nestor and Bishop were expertly sparring, each of them getting in a number of good hits before the two of them felt that the unwanted energy was finally out of their systems.

“This was overdue,” Marcus guesses as Bishop and Nestor take place in a short stare-down with the other.

“Yes, it was,” Nestor agrees with heavy breaths, as Bishop calls for the fighting to continue for a few more minutes. A brief smile crosses over Nestor’s face as he looks towards the brawl.

“I swear,” Gabriella mutters, having seen enough of the overexaggerated scuffle. Marcus and Bishop follow the young woman as she exits the building, wanting nothing more than to get the hell out of this desert.

“We shouldn’t be meeting in public.”

Gabriella bit her lip at Adelita’s statement, silently agreeing that this wasn’t the best situation.

There were eyes and ears everywhere. If one wrong person heard the right information, Gabriella was certain she would be one of many that ended up before Miguel in his pew.

“Well, we are,” Angel throws back to Adelita, who was on the other side of Gabriella.

“This is not a good idea,” Adelita emphasizes, but Angel shakes his head.

“Neither was taking Galindo’s kid without giving us a heads up,” he mutters, finally expelling the more bitter words that had been running around in his head all day. He’d wanted to say them earlier, but the look on Gabriella’s face as she tried to explain herself convinced him to hold them back. Until now.

“You know as much as you need to know,” Adelita sighs, Angel quickly replying with, “Bullshit. We’re the ones that have to deal with the backlash.”

Ezekiel, who was walking a few feet ahead of them with Coco, momentarily turned around to catch the gaze of Gabriella, which was already on him. Luckily, Angel was too preoccupied to notice the look that his baby brother and best friend shared.

“Do you remember what I told you about Ezekiel and Galindo’s wife?” Gabbi questions Adelita, who nods after a moment.

“Yes. Is that going to be a problem?” Adelita asks, both Gabriella and Angel shaking their heads.

“No.”

The next few seconds of the journey take place in silence before Gabriella comes up with a question of her own.

“How is Cristóbal?”

Although Gabriella already knew the answer to the question, she had to ask.

It had been on the tip of her tongue since they’d made it to the square, not wanting Adelita to think that she didn’t trust her with the baby.

“He’s fine,” she nods reassuringly, knowing how Gabriella was still feeling about the entire situation. “For now, he belongs to us.”

Gabriella did everything she could to avoid the eye contact that Angel tried to make with her, the declaration from Adelita sucking out all of the assurance she had when she left the factory today, as it was replaced with a familiar feeling of shame.

“That’s so fucked up,” Angel asserts, only making Gabriella feel worse. “Galindo’s upside down. He ain’t gonna rest till he’s got a basket full of Rebel heads.

“He’ll never find us,” Adelita promises, the three of them stopping as she continues. “We are smoke. Just a name and a voice.”

Before Angel has the chance to respond, a terrified scream rings out and startles the visiting people. Adelita sends an incredulous look to Angel and Gabbi before they all join in exploring to find out what had caused such a sound, jogging up behind Ez and Coco as they also made their way into the crowd.

Politely pushing their way through the mass of people, a sickening and appalling sight is soon revealed, boldly staring back at them.

Laid out before them were the familiar figures of Benny and his son… burnt to a crisp. The smell of incinerated flesh wafted among the cool breeze, leaving a feeling of nausea-induced discomfort in the pit of everyone’s stomach.

Adelita turns to Gabriella, a look between guilt and anguish crossing over her features. The sound of Benny truck playing that same damn song was painfully ironic, and it was only a matter of seconds before Gabriella had heard enough of it.

She ignores the calls from Adelita, Angel, and a few others as she rushes away from the bodies, car keys jingling restlessly in her hands as her pace picks up to a swift jog.

Gabriella didn’t care what time it was or if he was sleeping… She didn’t care who she had to go through to talk to him…

Miguel Galindo would be hearing from her tonight, whether he wanted to or not.

[nocylipcowa]

found a beautiful bird's carcass on the road and obviously i had to pick it up

[kidfoundonstreets]

I DONT HAVE THE IMAGES IRGHT NOW BUT YOU UNDETRNSAD?? YOU GET ?? YOLU GET? IM MADLY I NLOV WITH YOU TIWLIGHTRCADE MY GOOD FRIEND MY COMRADEMY RIDE ROD IE

[hellonoblesky]

The key to the genshin fandom is to be invested in things that will never get screentime and no one else cares about

[lover-of-skellies]

Where the hell is my lens cleaner wipe thing

I'm the only one awake. I put the wipe on my bed, left to use the bathroom, came back, and it was gone. I looked everywhere that makes sense, and I CANNOT find it ANYWHERE

Whatever fucking demon is playing with me right now is about to get punched in the throat, I stg >:(