Afraid

Chp. 41

Amaya's POV

After being assaulted, after watching my sister die in my arms, all that was left of me was a shell of a woman who used to be.

I stayed in the hospital for three days. 

Darius had inflicted serious damage to my body. 

Fingerprints covered my upper arms like sprinkles on a cake but instead they were bruises. My neck was swollen and black and blue. I had kidney contusions that made me pee blood for a couple days. The bleeding didn't stop so the doctor had to go in and correct the problem with surgery. 

Tumbling down the stairs didn't help ease my pain. That fall caused a few ribs to break and my concussion was now a full blown problem.

My worst mental problem was that Oscar wasn't there asking me those questions. It was Cesar.

Even worse on all of us, Oscar was most likely dead and I couldn't help find him or his body.

Lupe had come in to see me but she was acting weird so my mom kicked her out after a while.

Cesar and his friends came to tell me all the new leads they were following on both Oscar and Lil Ricky.

Santos poured in like an open faucet.

I enjoyed everyone taking the time to come see me. But we all had bigger problems than me.

We had to bury my little sister in a plot next to my father. Her premature death was more important than any pain I was feeling.

I sucked it up all throughout church, the funeral and wake, even the burial. I put up that stonewall that everyone needed until Katia was resting six feet under the Earth.

My mother put up her brave face for the masses but for me she cried. We cried silently together at night so Lilia and Sara wouldn't know how much all of this was getting to us.

Twelve years later and we both grieved the same way.

People poured in and out of our house for weeks giving us platters and casseroles of freshly made meals.

Christmas came and we all sulked around the house. No one wanted to open presents, Mami didn't cook her big dinner like usual. We didn't have family over like I expected. 

It was really a sad day in the Sanchez house.

Post surgery was really setting in for me. 

I could walk around finally without a big amount of pain. 

Sara and I would walk from our house to see Ruby and Luisa, they kept us in the loop of what was going on. We'd walk to Cesar and Oscar's house but by the time we got there I was too tired to walk back, so someone always drove us home. We'd go to the store and pick up snacks and fun things to do.

It became my therapy.

Principal Del Toro gave Mami and I an extra week to deal with our emotional damage but I wasn't cleared to go back from my doctors so I was placed on a leave of absence.

Great thing because looking at my computer made me want to vomit. I didn't know how I could teach for eight hours a day, five days a week like that.

New Years was a week later. A new start for most people. For us it marked three weeks since Katia left us.

Mami had finally had enough and we were all to open our presents but she had one exception. We had to open them at Papi and Katia's grave. No one was going to complain about that.

One by one we sat down next to the tombstone taking turns giving each other the gifts we had purchased. That left Katia's presents left to be open.

"Now I want each of you to open one thing of Kat's. Then we collectively will decide what to do with them."

Following Mami's instructions each of the three of us picked out one.

She had gotten the fanny pack I bought, earrings from Sara, a new stretch book from Lilia and a spa kit from Mami. We all looked around at each other like we didn't know what to do or say next.

"This is Freeridge, someone will just come and take this stuff. We should take it home. We can put it amongst her things in our room." Lilia finally says breaking the silence.

"I second that." I say.

"That's a great idea."

"Can we go? That person is looking at us weird." Sara whispers to us all.

"What person?" I say, swiveling my head around.

Sure enough, there was a person 10 yards away starring at us with a look on their face.

From here it just looked like a hooded person. 

A green hooded person.

"Fuck Prophet! Go! GO! In the car now!"

Mami grabbed Sara's arm and Lilia grabbed me. We made a run for it as fast as we could through all the tombstones and grass. 

Getting into the car the person was now walking swiftly towards us. Not running but fast enough that Mami gunned the gas out of the cemetery.

We got on the main road back to the block, when I started making calls. 

One to Uncle Marc, cousin Marco, another to Sad Eyes and our Santo Tios. 

I was not fucking around.

Killing a Prophet, the Prophet who tried to kill me not once but multiple times didn't just clear my mind but let me wander into a new place of having a fucking greenlight now.

It wasn't safe for any of us to be here. 

Too many Prophet$ would be getting out of jail in the coming months. 

We needed to hid out. 

There was only one person I knew who could disappear and never be found.

Lil Ricky.

Time for a call, old pal.