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LANDON
Standing at the front door, I closed my eyes for a brief moment and took a deep breath, promising myself that I would do anything to protect Imani and Ana even if that meant risking my own life. Poison might’ve been known for killing people, but we protected those we cared about, too. That was what I would do now.
When the doorknob rattled again, I pulled open the door and aimed my gun at … my parents. Dad stumbled back a few feet until he reached Mom’s side. She stood next to him with a thin springjacket curled around her body, shivering.
“Landon,” she said softly. “It’s been so long.”
Dad walked closer to me. “Son, how are you doing?”
“What the fuck are you doing?!” I shouted at them.
Dad opened his big mouth to say something, but Mom beat him to it. “We’re back. We realized our mistakes and wanted to tell you that we’re sorry. We want to be with you again. We’ve been trying to contact you for weeks now.”
It sounded so real, but it was a fucking lie. Now that I had been without them for so fucking long, I could see right through her.
“Get out of here!” I said, refusing to move from the front door.
Once they knew that I wasn’t fucking moving for them, Mom’s friendly smile turned into a menacing scowl. She was never happy. Never fucking happy. I hoped that wherever they had run off to, it was shittier than the Redwood slums.
“This is my home,” Mom said. “And you will not take it away from me.”
“This isn’t your home,” I said between gritted teeth. “I paid the mortgage payments for the last three years with Poison’s money. I cleaned the house up after you left. And my friends—my family—live here now. You’ve done nothing but destroy this house and use me for years, all because I wanted to protect you from that monster.” I pointed to Dad and stepped closer to her to show her that I was through with it. “It took me all this time to realize that you’re a monster, too.”
Mom went to slap me, but I stepped away from her and took the safety off my gun. Mom and Dad might’ve been family by blood, but Imani, Ana, and Poison were the only real family I had.
I would do anything to protect them from people who threatened us.
Anything.
“I’m your mother, Landon. You don’t scare me,” she said, baring her teeth.
“I don’t give a fuck who you are to me. I’m done with you and him.” My hand tightened around the grip of the gun, the rage boiling inside me. They thought that I would let them come back after everything they had done to me, after all the pain they had caused. “You guys fucked me up! Dad shot me, and then you guys fucking ran away. You taunted me, calling me over and over and never leaving a fucking message.”
“He’s just a scared little boy,” Dad said to Mom, resting a hand on her shoulder. “Put the fucking gun down, Landon, before you shoot someone.”
“Just like you fucking did to me?” I asked, shaking my head in disgust. “And this shit isn’t about me being afraid of you. This is me protecting my family.”
Mom scoffed. “You think that girl you have is going to stay with you forever? You think you can be loved for all your faults, Landon? Because she’ll be gone the moment she graduates from high school. She’ll—”
Knowing that she was going to derail me again if she kept talking, I pressed the muzzle right against the bottom of her chin to shut her and Dad up. I forced her to look up at me, to see that I was dead fucking serious. “If I ever see you again, I will kill you, and I won’t hesitate.”
I wasn’t only living for myself anymore. I wasn’t going to take this abuse.
Imani had shown me that I deserved better.
“You’re full of shit,” Dad said, grabbing the front door handle and flinging the door open. “I’ll do what I—”
I aimed the gun at him, pulled the trigger, and ended his life.
Nobody threatened my family.
