Chapter 5

12:37 PM

Los Angeles

December

(Warning: mentions of suicide,fight, attempted suicide, drugs,mentions of self-harm, if you're sensitive to these topics, please don't read this!)

"Are you enjoying your lunch?", Leon asked, looking down at Noel' s homemade meal, he's eating a food he's never seen before.

Noel quietly nodded his head as a response, taking a bite out of his food in silence.

Leon is so bored he's decided to engage in conversations with someone, but he's gets no reaction out of him, it's like he is made of stone, just like him.

Unlike being arrogant and too direct with people, Noel is the opposite, he speaks when spoken to, respectful, and obidient.

Leon takes a bite out of his salad, he never has such an appetite, unless he's in a stressed mood.

Leon looked out the glass wall, he's sitting down at the lunch area, where you can order your food from chefs, have free drinks for your own purpose, and can relax without a doubt.

"Leon, long time no see, amigo", a guy out of nowhere yelled out, he went up to them, pulling a chair before turning it backwards, sitting down while resting his chin on the edge of the chair. He glared at both of them, he stared at Leon deeply.

°~12:42 PM~°

What are you doing here?", Leon asked him confused, taking another bite of his salad.

"It's been a long time since I've last seen you, you were 24 maybe? But I know it's been a long time since I've seen you", the man said, casually. He turned to look at Noel, he had a smirk on his face. "Hey, I know you, you were working for Descend. Noel Rodriguez, correct? You were a hot topic after the stunt you pulled on him", Leon's eyes flew open in shock, it can't be...

Noel's eyes were locked to the man's dark eyes, he looked at him blankly.

"I didn't know that", Noel replied to him, somehow keeping his composure together.

"Leo, he stole thousands of dollars from EXCEED to pay his debt to someone, I think around 157 grand. And Vincent's wife divorced him to be with Noel, but he refused. And you told W.I.N shit was about to go down on the massacre that day, remember that, Noel? Gabriel didn't want to include EXCEED due to the fact that he wanted to kill W.I.N himself, but then he joined the shithole he made either way", he explained through as if he was reading a newspaper article.

"That's interesting to hear", Noel kept his composure, not feeling bothered by people trying to get under his skin.

There was massacre in Miami three years ago, where Descend and Ascend allied together to shoot up a mall, along with EXCEED.

There was bloodshed of dead corpses, 107 of them, 30 were injured.

People don't know who caused such a fucking mess that day, nor they still know now.

Along those dead bodies, she was there lying in a pool of blood.

She couldn't be saved, she will be never be saved, she's dead, it's his fault, his fault, all his fault, she died instead of him, it's all of his fault, how cruel. His fault. His fault. His fault. His fault. His fault. His fault. His fault.

"I know you forgot about her, to you she was just a useless toy. When she died, you pretend she wasn't even a part of your life. Tu no teneís corazon", He snapped Leon out of reality, his words fueled him with sudden rage, he glared at him profusely, the man continued smiling without shame.

"Well then, I guess I'm gonna leave you two alone, I have to talk to my aunt now", the man stood up and walked away.

As he walked away, Leon got out of his chair, his hand was placed on his shoulder, as the man turned around, Leon gave him a hard, solid punch in the face causing him to fall on the floor with bloody lip. Noel came up to him and stood in front of him, the man looked up at Noel with furious eyes.

Everyone around the room stared in shock, some gasped, and some were trying to interfere to stop the chaos that was happening.

Leon narrowed his eyes, the man slowly stood up before Parker came inside the room, his eye widened in shock.

"Hey! What the fuck, man? What the actual fuck is happening?", he asked, astounded.

He ran up towards the scene but a lot of coworkers were trying to restrain the man from punching Leon in return.

"MOVE YOUR GODDAMN ASSES OUT OF THE MOTHERFUCKING WAY!", Parker hollered loudly, the man got closer and tried to punch Noel, Noel catches his fist before he raised his fist and gave him directly hard punch on the side of his face, his head moved to the side.

°~1:26 PM~°

"Stay back!", Noel ordered him, the man still tried to get towards him and also noticed Parker wanted to help but was being pushed away by the employees.

At this rate, Noel pulled out his firearm in the air and pulled the trigger twice, making loud bangs across the room, people started screaming and running away from the scene.

Security guards rushed inside, they escorted the man out of the building, he looked at them both once more without saying a word.

Leon stood there looking as if nothing happened, Parker ran towards them before going to Leon, he smacked the back of his head aggressively.

"What the hell was all that, huh? Baby, you gotta tell me. I just came here to talk to you, then you want to jump somebody the next second?", Parker acted like a mother, he noticed Leon's aura around him wasn't as alarming, as if he was gloomy.

"Look at me...", Parker commanded, placing a hand on his shoulder, Leon didn't look at him, just stayed silent.

Noel turned around to see Leon's eyes, he looked just fine, maybe he's really trained to hide his feelings.

"I'll just go home at this point...Tell her I' ll do the rest tomorrow", Parker nodded his head, Leon started walking down the stairs to take his leave, going back to his comfortable home.

°~6:27 PM~°

"No Princess, I can't take you to the forest, it's dangerous out there", Leon said, he was playing dolls with his sweet little dove, Zoey. He's trying to forget all the words from getting to his head.

"But I want to go, I need to help you, brother!" , Zoey exclaimed, moving the doll closer to the doll Leon was holding in his hand.

"Let the gentleman take of this mess...wait...Zoey", Leon started to laugh delightfully, Zoey also laughed along with him.

"What happened, Dad?", she smiled happily, Leon put the doll down on the floor.

"What happened next?", he asked her, she smacked her palm of her hand to her forehead.

"She ran to the horse, and went to run to the forest", she explained, she seemed disappointed he forgot the part they were playing.

"But what do I say?", Leon looked at her with soft eyes, smiling slightly.

"Umm...I forgot...Dad, stop laughing!", she said as Leon giggled joyfully, with a grin on his face.

"You've been so happy lately, did Mom talk to you again?", Leon's body froze for a second, then he sighed.

"She's been talking to me, she told me that I need to take care of you more, and that she wants to protect you. But she's busy flying with the birds in the sky", Zoey's eyes sparkled in surprise, she does know her mother is dead, or kind of. He had told her that her mother is a pretty, elegant dove in the sky. And she turned into a dove when she died, that she talks to him every now and then.

"I want to talk to Mom! Where is she?", she asked him happily, Leon titled his head a little before laughing once more.

"She's not here right now, she'll talk to you again later, ok?", he suddenly heard a knock on the door, it opened to see a servant peeking her head to look at them both.

"Dinner is ready, Sir Cashmere", she told him politely, he stared at her softly, he stood up leaving a whole entire mess with Zoey on the floor.

He picked up Zoey with his hands, carrying her around his shoulders, she giggled happily.

He left Zoey's bedroom to walk towards the dining room. As he ate the meal with his daughter, she asked him a question.

"Do you love my mom?", she asked him, he paused for moment before he responded.

°~6:54 PM~°

"I do love her...", he let the words out, the aura around him felt quite bothering, as if monsters where looking through the walls.

"Why don't you say you love her all the time like you do to me? She loves you too, right?", Leon remembered what the man said, those words, they were getting under his skin.

"She does...", Leon replied, he felt the urge to run away, but he refrained.

"You told me that she will be always in my heart, but what about yours, Dad?", Leon restrained himself from saying rude to her, he looked up the ceiling before sighing in frustration.

"She's not in your heart?", Zoey asked with a shocked expression, Leon's anger felt the urge to burst out of his head.

"Please tell us talk about-"

"No dad! Do you have her in your heart?"

"I-"

"Do you have her in your-"

"FUCK, ZOEY WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO SHUT YOUR MOUTH?!"

Leon hollered at her in a cold, naive, and horrible way, his eyes widened in astonishment when he realized what he did, he raised his voice at his daughter for the first time in his life.

Zoey stayed quiet for a moment, tears streamed down her cheeks, her red, sad eyes looked at Leon in sorrow.

"You hate me!", Zoey yelled while she hopped her seat before running away from the dining room to the hallway.

"Wait!", Leon sprinted behind her, he followed her until she reached her room, she opened the door while crying nonstop, she wiped her tears with her little hands.

Leon holded the door, she backed away from him in fear.

"You hate me...you don't love my mom!", she cried out painfully, sobbing.

"No, I hate you...", Leon looked at her, stepping forward until he crouched down to stare at her beautiful brown eyes, just like hers.

"You hate me...", Zoey continued sobbing, she felt so weak to have her dad raise her voice at her.

"No...I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...I don't hate you", he moved her curly bangs out of her face, he hugged her tightly.

"No...I don't hate you...", Leon's tears swelled up in his eyes, he started to burst out in tears.

"Dad...I forgive you", Zoey tears dropped down on his shirt, he sobbed silently as he hugged her, so guilty of his actions.

"Leon...", someone peered through the door, Parker.

"Uncle Parker, he's crying...", Parker frowned at her remark, Leon slowly turned around to look at him with red, puffy eyes.

"Leon, want to talk?", Parker asked, politely.

Leon slowly stood up, he slowly walked over at Parker.

He looked back at Zoey, she nodded her head signaling for him to go, Fionna later entered the room, they both started to walk towards his bedroom.

°~7:26 PM~°

"Look at me...", Parker commanded, Leon ignored him blankly.

Parker waited for him to reach the room and opened the door for him. Leon got inside and decided to sat down on his bed, Parker shut the door before sitting down next to him.

"Hey...I've seen you've been off these days...", Parker told Leon, putting his hand on top of his.

Leon couldn't hold back his tears, his hidden sadness came to light, he teared up in front of him while lowering his head.

He wiped the tears off his face with his other hand.

"Hey, talk to me. I'm here to listen to you, alright?", Parker tried to comfort him, rubbing his back lightly.

"I'm...I'm the worst person out there", Leon replied, he seemed out of breath, he's having a panic attack.

"I...I screamed...at her", Leon started to open up, he felt as if he couldn't breath.

" Go ahead...Take a deep breath for me, ok?", Leon did as told, he inhaled and exhaled slowly.

"I...miss her", Leon confessed to Parker, he sniffled as he tried to hide his face.

"So...that's what has been bothering you, got it. You haven't forgot about her then, and that's ok. It's ok to not forget so easily, I know she was everything to you, she actually made you happy for the first time in your life, smiling and giggling with her around. She was gone, you lost yourself again, you can remember her, but don't let it control your life, ok?", Parker gave him advice, he slowly wrapped his arms around him, Leon tried to push him away, but he couldn't, this is what he appreciated, support.

"No...", Leon told Parker to stop hugging him, but Parker leaned towards his face and kissed him lightly on the cheek.

"I love you, you're like a brother to me, we have done a lot of dumb shit together, I don't want you to suffer like this. I can be a jerk, I know that, but please don't let her always be the reason you're stuck in this state...", he continued, his head resting on Leon's shoulder.

"Come here, big guy...", Parker plop himself down to lay in the bed with Leon on top of him, laying his head on his chest.

"You seemed really tough and strong...but you want to cry on the inside, don't you?", Parker stroked his dark hair gently, Leon still was crying silently.

"Why did she have to die? Why? I didn't want her to die. She had to stay by my side...", Leon asked Parker while sobbing, Parker sighed, he went through a lot as a kid, mostly emotional abuse, usually the reason he doesn't show emotions at all is because of his past.

He's never been given love nor satisfaction, he had to be satisfied in his own way, drugs, sex, cutting himself, you name it.

He's always been out of his mind, until he met her. After a long time, he wanted to propose to her, he bought a ring that day, the day she passed away. He was excited like a little kid, after that he shut himself out of the world, locking himself into his room for days, went into drug addiction, tried to kill himself more than once. He only wanted to get her out of the dark, twisted place she was in, she ended up staying there.

She used to put him in his place, he listened, always drag himself into stupidity to protect her. He did everything he could to not let a fly touch her again, he failed her. It really wasn't his fault, it was going to be a fateful day either way, him getting killed or her.

Leon went to therapy for a year, after that, he quitted and decided to deal with it on his own, he took care of Zoey after two months out of rehab. The kid really changed him afterwards, he found his spark again, his smile, his laugh, he wanted to do the same thing like her mother, to protect her.

"It's ok to make mistakes, baby...No one has to judge you for it", Parker reassured him with a genuine tone, usually he acts really aggressive towards him, it's not one of those days right now.

°~8:24 PM~°

After a while of comforting Leon, Parker got up and left the room, leaving him on his own.

Leon somehow still felt...empty. He got up to look at his drawers, he found a bottle of sleeping pills, he took off the cap and poured down the last handful that it had, he grabbed a bottle of unopened booze under his bed. He shoving the pills into his mouth before chugging down some booze down his throat.

He threw the empty bottle of prescription in the trash can. He placed the booze next to him, he doesn't want him to be like him. His family, not like them, always being nice to you to later crush you down like a snowball. The yelling, screaming, crying, dying, humiliation, complaining about their life is not the life he wants with Zoey. He 's been triggered to want to fall asleep forever.

He laid his head on his pillow, looking out the ceiling, the lamp being lit up, so quiet, so calm.

He wants to feel quiet, but this quiet is disturbing to his senses, he'll be quiet completely after the next day, right? His mind, his body, his presence, his soul, his heart can finally get the rest he needed, the rest that will never end.

Before anyone knew it, he was unconscious alone in the darkness.