JESUS DRUMMED HIS FINGERS on the outside of the car door to the beat of the music. Santiago was in the passenger seat and watched the vibrant greenery blend together as they whizzed past. Alejo sat by himself in the second row while the girls had commandeered the entire back row and half of his for their mobile movie set up.

Alejo reached beside him to grab from one of the chip bags resting on the folded chair.

Marisol slapped his hand away, “I asked you if you wanted some when we were at the gas station pendejo. You’re not getting mine.”

“Come on, Jesus get your girl.” Alejo waved at his friend.

“Mari!” Jesus called. The girl gave him a dour expression. “Enjoy your chips, baby.”

“Screw all of you.” Alejo waved his hand dismissively, as they laughed.

They were about six hours into their road trip, the California border fast approaching. Marisol did as she always did and took full control of the event planning. Before they had even loaded up the car she had their travel route, driver rotation schedule, and hotel reservations.

It would be insane to anyone else to throw everything in the car and take a nearly entire day to drive to have a conversation.

This was not something he wanted to do over the phone.

Aside from that he was not sure who he could trust. Santiago was not asking either Eliana or Rosenia for their help anytime soon.

At the very least if this did not help him find the answer he needed they would still get a much needed vacation out of it.

“Are you sure?” Marisol said far too loudly as she half hung out the window. “We can go with you.”

Her face screwed up in suspicion.

She meant well, she always did. Someone had to be concerned about the reckless fools.

Santiago used to call her the nanny much to her chagrin. Ever since elementary school she would chase them around to scream at them for breaking one rule or another.

“I’m good. I’ll meet you guys at the hotel.” He gave a two fingered salute and trudged up the rocky path.

The forest teemed with life, birds sang and insects chirped in a discordant yet oddly peaceful symphony. The wood paneled buildings resembled some modern minimalist attempt at a cozy lodge. Door gave a ding as he entered the building. The polished woman behind the counter gave him a smile.

“Hi, how can I help you?”

“I’m here to see my mother. Guadalupe Santiago.” He said.

“We don’t usually take visitors.” She said apologetically, “It’s part of the detox program.”

“I know, but, uh, It’s a family emergency.”

She chewed her lip for a moment before she turned to her screen. “Okay, I’ll let it slide this time but next time you’ll have to wait until the end of the two weeks. You can always leave a message for the staff to pass along.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

He followed her across the property and they passed by a rather large pool where a couple of folks enjoyed the sun. Behind the glass panel of one building, he saw a pair playing at the billiard table.

They reached the door of Lupe’s room. The receptionist gave a polite knock. “Mrs. Santiago, you have a visitor.”

There was silence for a lingering moment before the door cracked open where her green eyes peeked out. When she spotted Santiago she flung the door open and pushed past the woman.

Guadalupe threw her arms around the boy's shoulders. He laughed and hefted her up so her feet no longer touched the ground. “My baby boy, I missed you so much. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay mom. I know.” He held her gently as she wept into the crook of his neck.

Most of that night she had tried to blot from her memory with drugs and drink. Nothing could wash away all that blood. Twice now she was helpless to save the ones she loved. She had promised his father she would protect him. Yet she was the reason he was never safe.

It all happened so quickly. A blur of fighting and broken furniture.

Her screams had drowned out their approach. When they came bursting through the door strong arms had clamped around her pulling her away. In a blink he was gone.

She did not know when they had let her go though she remembered her back against the wall. The flick of the TV sent a shimmer of colors over the growing pool of blood. Alejo was there. He wept over the body of her son.

Yet here he stood now. Alive. Those deep green eyes with flecks of brown alight with joy.

She stepped back to steady herself and get a good look at him.

It had not been a week yet, Santiago already saw the difference. Her skin no longer had the deathly pallor. There was a brightness in her pale green eyes.

“Come in, Sheryl is out at the pool.” She beckoned him into the room. Reminded him of a hotel suite with two twin beds neatly made. She pulled out a chair beside one the small desks they had and the other for herself. “I’m so happy you’re here.”

That was the truth.

How could she not be overjoyed to see her son alive and well.

“You been doing good.” He said.

Lupe smiled, “I have. Been going to therapy.”

“Yeah, me too.” He snorted. “Was looking everywhere for you.”

“I’m sorry if I had known—I couldn’t go back to that house.” She swallowed to dislodge the lump in her throat.

“No one told you I ended up in a foster house? I thought they had to at least tell you that much.”

“I wasn’t staying at any one place for too long after—” She stopped short, turning her attention to straightening the stationary.

“What happened?”

“They tried to put me in a psych ward after I tried to kill Oscar.”

Santiago laughed, she glared at her son. “Sorry, not laughing at the psych ward. How’d you try to take him out?”

Guadeloupe back pressed against the wall the sickening scent of copper heavy in the air. The blue and red flash through the window cast distorted dancing shadows of the disarray within. Alejo sobbing and the dull static nose from the television filled the silence.

Oscar fumbled to his feet, eyes bleary as he looked over the scene through his bloody and swollen eyes. For a moment, there was a brief flicker of emotion across the beaten face.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

His voice a low rumble. “Lupe, I didn’t mean for this—”

The whine of sirens neared. Oscar shook his head ambling through the kitchen towards the back door.

“Oscar.” She croaked as she staggered to her feet after him, “Where are you going?!”

“I got three strikes, Lupe. I can't be here when the cops show. I was never here.”

“You…were…never…here.” She murmured as she watched him shuffle aside the overturned kitchen table.

Santiago was dead. The son she carried in her belly for nine months. Taught to walk and talk. Cared for when he was sick. Wiped his tears when he cried. Was dead.

He laid there beaten and bloodied ridden with bullet holes and this was all he could say. This man she had let into their lives. The man she thought she loved despite his transgressions against her. Who had helped raise her son. He saw Santiago laying there and could not even muster a word of apology.

“You didn’t mean for this.” She echoed, breathing erratically as she walked over pulling a knife from the wood block. She crossed the kitchen as he opened the door his back to her. She shrieked as she buried the knife into his back.

Oscar hollered in pain as he tumbled down back steps into the lawn.

“You didn’t mean for this!” She shrieked, kicking him soundly in the ribs. “My son is dead! MY SON IS DEAD!”

Grabbing up the skateboard propped against the stairs she smashed it over his head. Flinging the pieces the man reeled on the floor as she clambered across the yard for something else to strike him with.

“I LET YOU INTO OUR HOME! I BELIEVED ALL YOUR BULLSHIT!” She dragged over the large terracotta planter hefting it up high enough she could slam it into his back with a heavy thud.

Oscar forced himself up to his knees and it rolled off him as the fold up chair collided with his head.

“YOU BASTARD! YOU KILLED MY SON!” She swung wildly until he caught the chair wrenching it from grasp, catching her by the throat.

“You stupid bitch!” Oscar hissed constricting both hands around her windpipe.

Guadelupe swung her leg up kicking him between the legs. As he doubled over she wrenched the knife still buried in his back out taking another swipe at him.

Oscar stumbled back over the planter and she fell on top of him. Both hands clasped around the knife as she tried to bring it down. His hands were clamped over her own. Sweat streaked down his bloodied face. Even in the shape he was in with the wound in his back bleeding profusely she knew he might still overpower her.

Guadelupe did not care.

Screeching like a wild animal she bore down on him with every bit of strength she had.

The officer ripped her from on top of the man, her legs thrashed about in the air as she fought in the grasp. “NO! NO! NO!”

Two officers fought to wrench the knife from her hand. Oscar did not hesitate he leapt over the fence disappearing down the darkened alleyway.

Lupe was cuffed in the back of the police cruiser she wailed as she thrashed about kicking at the doors to no avail.

“The rest was a blur. I guess they let me out and I went and got numbed up.” She bowed her head, unable to meet his gaze.

“So you’re where I get that psycho from.” Santiago nodded sagely.

Lupe scowled up at him, “That’s not funny!”

“I wasn’t joking. You were always either high and happy or sad and sober. Never really seen you get pissed.”

She laughed dryly, “You might not have seen it, but it happened plenty. I can’t sit there and pretend I was any less toxic than he was.”

“You’re nothing like him, mom.”

“I’m worse because I kept letting him back into our lives.” She shot back, “I should have been better for you. I was weak and you suffered for it.”

“Ma,” He rested a hand on her shoulder. “You did what you could.”

“I should have given you up. I should have given you to a family that could have given you the life you deserved. I was so selfish.” She buried her face in her hands.

“Shut up!” He snapped.

Guadeloupe startled and looked up at him..

“Don’t fucking say that.” Santiago growled, “We’re family. Doesn’t matter how bad shit gets. We stay together.”

“What did I ever do to deserve a son like you?” She smiled warmly, running a hand along the soft line of his jaw. The youthful roundness of his face as she remembered has started to give way to the pronounced cheekbones and square jaw.

“You loved me.” He said simply.

She smiled, “That was the only thing I ever did perfectly.”

He nodded, eyes clouded as his mind began to wander.

“What’s wrong?” Her smile melted into concern, “Did something happen?”

“I’m fine. I promise, but some things have happened.” He said.

Santiago did not know why it was so difficult to talk about all the things that had changed. It had such a finality to it. As soon as he acknowledged it there was no going back to things as they were before. That should have been a good thing.

“You got your powers.” She said softly, “I remember the bridge.”

“Mom, you know I never ask you for anything.”

“I know.” She teared up, taking one of his hands into hers.

Santiago did not care for the idea of pushing his mother like this especially given her progress. He did not want to be the reason behind yet another mental collapse. All he wanted was for her to come out on the other side of her sickness but this was about more than just them now.

“I need to ask you about some things, and I need answers. It’s important, people are getting hurt because of me. So, I need you to tell me the truth. No shutting down.”

“That’s a fair ask.” Lupe let out a long breath, “Tell me what you need to know.”

“It’s about dad, about how he died.”

She bowed her head, “I don’t know all the details.”

“Tell me what you do know.”

The first bit he already knew. The Calaveras were a powerful family of witches who raised his father. He left them at some point, and they were not happy about it.

“The kind of life he had, he didn’t want it for you.” She gave his hand a squeeze, “It didn’t have anything to do with him. He shouldn’t have even—”

She stopped biting back tears and closed her eyes for a long moment. “The things these people do for power. After the former head of the family passed without choosing a successor. It turned into a bloodbath.”

“They came after him.” Santiago said.

“No,” Her expression somber as she stared at his chest no longer seeing him. “He went after them.”

“Brother turned against brother. Even parents turned on their children in hopes of gathering enough power to take control of the family. Eventually the scales would tip, and one was set to take the seat.” She shook her head as if to shake off the thought, “I didn’t know much, except that he was despicable. Murdering his own children and wife. But they all feared him.”

“Dad stopped him.” Santiago said.

“More than just him.” She nodded. “To set things right he wiped out all those who had been so vile as to turn on their own. For as strong as Vicente was, it was too much for any one person. He restored the balance to the Calaveras, but it cost him everything.”

“Rosenia and Eliana have both reached out to me. They want to train me to use my powers to protect myself.”

Her eyes widened, “Eliana came to you.”

“She’s the one who saved us on the bridge.”

Lupe could not help the laugh that came at the thought. “I don’t know what saved us that night, but I can assure you it wasn’t her. She’d have cut my arm off to let me drown before she’d even think of saving me.”

“She said you two weren’t friends.” Santiago for a moment saw the flicker of the lively woman he had such fond memories of. “You two used to fight?”

“Fight?” She said with disbelief, “I mean I could throw a punch. But fight Eliana? The only reason she never disemboweled me was because of your father.”

“That bad?” Santiago leaned in a devilish smile, “What did you do to her that she hates you so much?”

She buried her face in her hands, unable to keep a straight face with his adorable grin. Lupe leaned in close to whisper as though Eliana might hear. “I stole your father from her.”

“Mom!” He gaped, “You homewrecker.”

“Ay!” She slapped him playfully, “I didn’t do it to spite her. The heart wants what the heart wants.”

“I guess I should consider myself lucky you stole her man otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”

She laughed cradling his face, “I guess so. I can’t bear to imagine a world where you are not my son.”

He rested his forehead on hers, “You know she’s the one who brought you here.”

“I figured when I woke up in California. My guess is this is where she’s going to try to bring you.” She folded her arms across her chest, “Rosenia is a good woman. Your father trusted and respected her. Coventry is neutral ground recognized by the families. You’d be safe with her.”

“You’d rather I go with her then.” He said.

“I would, yes.”

“She lied to me. Told me you were dead.”

“What?” Lupe gasped.

“You might think highly of her but the feeling isn’t mutual. She had no intention of bringing us back together.” He said.

Everyone had their own hidden agenda. He was no better. Santiago did not trust either one. Still he knew that at some point he was going to have to make a choice in who he wanted in his corner with all that was coming.

“Now let me ask you this,” Santiago met her gaze evenly. “If dad was here. If he had to choose someone to put his faith in, with the fight that’s coming to me. Who would he choose?”