#life kinda sucks when both sides of your extended family are snakes instead of people

[teabutmakeitazure]

fellas is it psychopathic behaviour to remember in great detail who wronged/wrongly treated my mother during the lowest time in our lives and made her cry and such and how they did so to my family even though I have no other memories from those years and it's a massive hole in my memory and life and to have made a mental list of all those people and extended family members so that I know who to help and who to fuck over when the time is right?

[alyssaiswriting]

Dead Man

Inspired by: ok so I recently saw Miss Bala and I loved it so much I couldn't get it out of my head so yuh this is inspired by that (there are no spoilers)

Before you read: This story is about Mexican drug cartels in Texas near the Mexican border. Also, you and Zabdiel grew up together.

Warnings: This story will contain, drugs, guns, violence, sexual harassment, and death so please don't read if you are sensitive to those things 

Summary: You’re in the wrong place at the wrong time (Y'all already know I suck at summaries lmaooo)

Word count: 2866

“I know mom, I'm just locking up then I'll head home," you say into your phone as you start turning off the lights of your family's restaurant.

You've just moved back home after 4 years of being away for school. Your parents needed help with the restaurant so you came back for them. "did you check the temperature of the freezer? I need it cold enough for the meats" your mom says.

"yes mother, it's cold, can I hang up now?" you roll your eyes, grabbing your keys and bag.

"OK, be careful y/n," she tells you this every night, you always walk home from the restaurant since it's only a couple blocks away from your house.

You step out of the building nodding even though she can't see you "ok Ma, see you in a bit" she says her goodbye and you hang up the phone.

You step out of the restaurant building and lock the door before dropping your phone and keys into your bag. The street is empty at this hour a few cars tend to pass by but for the most part, this area stays clear of people after 10.

It's currently midnight, the night sky at its peak darkness and you're lucky for the street lamps.

You suddenly become very aware of the sound of fast footsteps that echo off the walls of the buildings making you look around in search of where the noise might be coming from. As the footsteps get closer your heart pounds faster, you start taking out your keys to get yourself back inside the safety of the restaurant but when you turn around you're nearly tackled by a frantic man.

Your keys are knocked out of your hand but you're too scared to even notice "please help me" he begs "they're after me" he cries.

The man is so obviously on drugs and you're so taken aback by the whole situation that you don't even know what to do at the moment.

All of a sudden a truck come speeding down the street and the man before you is too busy trying to explain to notice- that is until it's too late.

The truck doesn't even fully stop before 3 men are jumping out. All three men have medium deep skin, two have bleached blonde hair that's kinda grown out while the other has buzz cut dark hair.

"You really thought you could run Sammy" one of the blonde headed men laughs. The man who you assume is Sammy turns away from you.

"Please I'll get you the money, I'll make it up to you somehow" Sammy is begging.

"Ay Sammy boy, you know the boss isn't that forgiving, you stole from us even though you knew it would cost you your life," the other blonde haired man says.

You - not wanting to be involved, slowing start backing away from the scene.

"I made a mistake! Please" Sammy cries.

"You know it's not up to me," the second one who spoke says as he quickly pulls out a gun and shoots Sammy right before your eyes. Blood splatters as Sammy's body falls to the ground, you watch as slowly starts pooling around him. You don't even realize your screaming due to your ears ringing from the sudden loud noise.

"Get her," the one who just killed Sammy tells the dark-haired man.

"No no no please" you start backing away as tears fall from your eyes. You turn to run but you don't even make it 3 feet before you're being grabbed and dragged back to their truck. The man grabs your pursing throwing it back onto the sidewalk.

"No, please let me go" you're screaming, thrashing, kicking, trying anything to get away. But it's no use as you're pushed onto stomach down on the backseats of the truck, you try kicking back at the man but he traps your legs down with his, you feel your hands being tied together as you cry into the seats.

You're lifted back up, your back pressed against the front of the man who grabbed you "if you don't shut the fuck up I'm going to shove my gun down your throat and I won't think twice before pulling the trigger" he snarls in your ear.

You suppress a sob, too scared to make a single sound now. You're shoved into the back seat, the man sliding in beside you.

You now take notices of the other two men in the front seat, the man who shot Sammy is in the driver seat not even taking a second to glance at you before starting the car and speeding away from your parent's restaurant- away from your life. Your body is shaking as you start going through different scenarios of what these men might do to you. 

"What's your name?" The man in the passenger seat turns to look at you. You don't respond you only glance at him before quickly looking away.

"You don't want to tell us your name?" He questions, you still don't say a thing, instead, you keep your eyes straight ahead at the dark road, tears falling from your eyes as you start driving down the road of your family home.

"It's okay, we don't need to know your name nena" the man turns in his seat.

As you pass your house you can see the light to the living room on, probably your mom waiting for you to come home. You swear you can feel your heart physically break in your chest as you drop your head and silently start praying. whether you were religious or not at that moment it didn't matter, it just felt natural to ask someone\something for help.

"shield her eyes," the driver says after 10 minutes of driving,  the man beside you covers your head with a black fabric, you don't even fight it.

A couple of minutes later the truck is stopped, you listen as doors are opened and slammed shut before you the door beside you opened and your forearm is gripped tightly as you're pulled out of the vehicle.

when the fabric is pulled off your head you realize you're standing before a giant warehouse and as you whip your head from side to side you notice it's in the middle of nowhere.

There are two men standing at the entrance of the building, the same man that killed Sammy nods his head "Sup Nick" he extends his fist "Yashel" Nick nods bumping his fist with the man who you now know goes by Yashel.

He then looks behind Yashel, he acknowledges the one who asked for your name in the truck earlier "Yashua" then he looks to the one holding you "Jaime", they both nod in acknowledgment.

"Tell Julio we had a witness, should we put her to work or kill her?" Yashel asks, Nick nods and gets out his phone. Your heart drops at Yashel' words, knowing exactly what he means by work "no" You start repeating as you try to pull away from Jaime's hold. "Let me go!" You scream, Yashel turns around pulling out his gun and aiming it at you, "we're giving you a chance, but I could kill you right now" he threatens.

You stop fighting, looking at the gun before looking at Yashel, his face is stone cold as he threatens your life. "I'd rather die than work as some warm hole for your people" you spit.

You can see Yashua behind Yashel smile at your words. "Feisty," Yashua laughs, "we like that" he winks.

"He wants to see her first, take her to him," Nick tells the men. Yashel doesn't take his glare off you as he shoves the gun back into his jeans. Yashua leads the way as Jaime pulls you even when you try to pull back, digging your feet into the ground not wanting to enter the building. But it's no use Jaime only pulls harder making you stumble forward as you walk with him.

The warehouse is empty not a single person in sight as you're brought to the elevator, all 4 of you enter the elevator, you can hear your heart pound in your ears as you start going through ways to escape or mentally beg any higher power to come and save you.

You start thinking back to where they took you from, the front of your parent's restaurant but you left nothing behind but your purse and phone, nothing to lead someone to where you are now. Maybe Sammy has obvious ties to these people and they'll know exactly who took you. 

Tears fall from your eyes once again. "You know" you feel Jamie come up behind you close to your ear "I really hope we don't have to kill you, you'd be a lot of fun," he says in your ear and you nearly vomit at the thought of being helpless and at any man's mercy. "Leave her alone, Jaime" you hear Yashel say behind you making Jaime pull away.

Soon the elevator doors open and you're brought out, this floor is full of people, your eyes catch sight of tables filled with packs of cocaine, and other smaller packs containing something you can't see, on the other side of the floor there are beds where some women look to be sleeping.

They take you past all that, you all enter a large room where a man is sitting at a desk, another man stands beside the desk, his attention on the a machine that is counting money.

The man sitting down looks up at you all, "leave us Chris" he tells the man by the machine. Chris nods and turns off the machine, acknowledging the other men with a nod as he leaves.

"Untie her," he tells the men before looking at me "sit down here bonita," the man tells you.

When you're hands are untied you don't make a move for the chair so Jaime grabs you, forcing you to sit on the seat.

" defiant aren't we?" The man raises an eyebrow. You don't respond "look if you cooperate we might be able to work something out, I mean after all, it was dark outside maybe you didn't really see anything," he says making hope rise in you.

"My names Julio Mendoza" he introduces himself, looking at you expectingly "y/n  y/l/n" you respond softly.

This man isn't as old as you'd expect some gang leader to be, maybe late 30s, he's cleanly shaven with dark eyes and darker hair, his skin is a nice shade of tan. He's dressed nicely, you take notice of the many large rings he has on his fingers, your eyes linger on a small snake tattoo that wraps around his thumb and when he lefts his hand up to scratch his temple you notice how the snake goes down his inner wrist.

Julio suddenly let's out a laugh so loud you jump, "do y'all know who you've brought me?" He asks the men behind you, you frown at his words.

"Does the name hector y/l/n ring a bell?" He says your uncle's name only adding to your confusion.

"The leader of los lobos," Yashel says, you turn to look at him, "who's los lobos?" You question looking back to Julio. "Hector runs the drug cartel on the other side of the city, I run this side, I want both" Julio walks over to you, he pushes a strand of hair behind your ear before cupping your cheek. "I think we're gonna keep you for a while, y/n"

You shake your head "no please" He let's go of you looking up at Yashel, "drug her, and put her to work, watch her make sure she doesn't get herself killed, she won't be any use to us after that"

"No" you cry as Yashel and Yashua grab at each of your arms lifting you up "no, please I'll do anything please" you beg but Julio isn't hearing it.

"Please" you shout as you're being dragged away, but then the boys stop as someone else walks into the room.

"What's going on?" You hear a voice ask. Snapping your head around you let out an inaudible gasp, Zabdiel's eyes meet yours as his mouth opens agape.

"The boys brought us a little present, she has ties with los lobos," Julio says smiling at the man you once knew. "I'm going to try to use her as a bargaining chip, the other side of the city for her life" you whine pulling at Yashua'a hold but he doesn't let up.

Zabdiel looks at you before looking back at Julio "where are they taking her?" He questions

"Oh we're gonna rent her out" Julio waves it off, a sob escapes your mouth as you shake your head.

You look to Zabdiel, his eyes meet yours before turning back "what if we can use her for something else?" Zabdiel steps closer to julio's desk.

"Z, have you seen her? She can bring in good money" you hearts pound in your chest. "No" Zabdiel shakes his head "I just think it'll look more natural to have a man and a women in the car to look like a couple when taking the drugs across the border. Less suspicious" Julio squints at Zabdiel before looking at me.

"You sure you want her? We haven't had time to break her, she'll try to escape" you swallow the lump in your throat.

"I can handle her" Zabdiel nods.

"what about Stephanie? you two work well together, no?"

"no, it's fine, I mean she's already here" Zabdiel gestures to you.

Julio gives Zabdiel a knowing look, "oh I see, you want first dibs?" You can't see Zabdiels face due to him being faced away from you.

Julio laughs "ok, but only because you deserve it"

—————

You're seated in the passenger seat of a car, your hands and legs tied with plastic ties, Yashua buckles you in before squatting down beside you outside of the car.

"You escape and your family will pay, so don't be stupid" he slaps your thigh once before standing to his full height and slamming the door.

You look into the rear view mirror to see Zabdiel loading bags into the trunk, the only sound you can hear is the sound of your breathing, and your pounding heart due to Yashua's words.

When Zabdiel gets into the driver seat he doesn't say a word as he starts the car and pulls out of the warehouse parking lot.

He doesn't say anything till we're 5 minutes from the building. "How did you get yourself into this mess y/n" he sighs.

"Me? Zabdiel what are you doing here?" You snap. "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time but you're working for these people?" Your voice cracks.

"You wouldn't get it" He shakes his head, his jaw clenching.

"What wouldn't I get?" You question. Zabdiel doesn't say anything, instead, he pulls off to the side of the road, shutting off the car.

He takes out a pocket knife and you flinch back slightly, Zabdiel frowns at you before using the knife to cut off the zip ties.

"Things have been different since you left" he says. "My dad got sick, my mom hasn't been able to hold down a job, we were struggling, I needed to find a job with more pay, Julio offered that to me" you don't speak so Zabdiel continues "I've done a lot of things y/n, bad things and I can't leave even if I wanted to" he lifts his hand up for you to see a tattoo a snake wrapped around his thumb leading down to his wrist like the one Julio has. "They own me"

You look away from him not responding, Zabdiel sighs putting his head down and you know he's thinking about his next move for you. 

The car is silent as memories of you and zabdiel's childhood play in your head, like all those times you both went to homecoming together from 7th grade till 10th before Zabdiel got a girlfriend. Or the time after prom when your date left you at a hotel cause you chickened out on having sex so zabdiel picked you up and took you to McDonald's. He refused to take you home unless you laughed at his jokes. Zabdiel was always funny and he knew if you didn't laugh then something was really wrong.

You remember all the Christmas' and New Years' his family spent with yours, how much your parents loved them.

Your heart pounds in your chest at the thought of how your parents must be feeling right now, not knowing where you are or if you're even still alive. It's like you can feel your heart physically breaking as a sob is released from your lips with out your permission. Tears starts streaming down your neck.

Zabdiel lifts his head, reaching over to grab your hand "hey" he calls for your attention and instinctively you look up at the sound of his soothing voice, " I know you're scared but I'm not going to let anything happen to y/n, I will protect you with my life"