Chapter 1: Welcomed

Adrian walked down the now unfamiliar dark street towards his old home.

After living by his own for more than 8 years, everything he experienced and all
the things he had to do to survive, Adrian was used to fear, cruelty, betrayal
and dissapointment but nothing prepared him for the upcoming moment.

His homecoming.

In his analytic brain he ran all the possible scenarios, he acted responses,
tried to find the appropiate feelings and the mood he should be in. His mother
would be so happy to see him, his little sister, if she still lived with his
parents would be upset but happy.. but his father.. the reason he ran away. He
would be the problem.

As he stepped closer to the house at the end of the street he tried to decide
what to do if his father was overly aggresive to his return. Should Adrian turn
back and go away again? Should he stand his place and fight trying to appeal to
his father's unknown soft side? Should he cry or have his head up high? All the
different choices were almost overwhelming as fear crept up and clouded his
judgement.

As he approached his childhood home an important question came to his mind: Why
was the house dark? Maybe they do not live there anymore.. maybe they went out
for dinner somewhere or maybe something happened? Could Charly and the boys know
he was coming back home to his family and beat him to them?

Adrian quickened his step full of worry. Sure, Charly threatened everyone when
he got pissed, he even heard he actually did what his filthy lying mouth spewed
once.. but he surely would not have the balls to do it to him! Adrian's feet
were now leaping as his sprint became a run.

The house's front door. Open. Blood close to the doorknob, a blood trail on the
floor going into the house.

Adrian froze for a second, he could feel all his blood drain from his body and
he felt a chill going up his spine. His heart began screaming for his family:
Mom! Dad! Aria! but he knew better.. his current life, the one he desesperatly
tried to leave behind was helping him now to kick his instincts on overdrive and
to stay quiet.

He slowly unholstered his P226 and circled around the house paying close
attention to the windows.. the living room window was smashed in.. meaning that
at least one attacker might be inside.

The house was still dark but he saw some light flickering over the yard. He
could see the backyard light dangle from one side to another hanging by a cable
that went from a nearby lightpost to the house. What got his attention right
away was the sole human figure standing motionless in the partial and
interminent darkness.

It was then that the smell hit him the hardest. Death.

Adrian stealthily approached the figure and in a quick tackle he brought it to
the ground, Adrian quickly put his gloved hand over its mouth and nose to avoid
it alerting the others and hopefully knock him out. The man below Adrian trashed
around and tried to bite him but his leather gloves were thick and resistant.
After several seconds the man stopped. The smell.. he could not put the smell
out of his mind. He turned the man around.. it was Vinny.

Vinny was one of Charly's men, he was unconscious now. Adrian quickly disarmed
him and stashed Vinny's pistol in his spare holdster, he then dragged Vinny into
the shadows to prevent the others seeing him and that is where he found the
source of the smell. Mom...

He suddenly saw some slow movement to his left.. a man was crawling towards
him.. Adrian's eyes opened wide as he recognized the bloody and tattered body
that tried to reach him.

The man opened his mouth and said: "Welcome home, son."

Chapter 2: Firestarter

The shadowed and bloody body of his father was staring right into Adrian's soul.
He was smiling at him, a terrifying wicked grin of desperation and chaos. Adrian
took two steps backs and bumped into his mother's corpse, Adrian looked behind
him at his mom.. God.. who did this? ... Charly...

"Oh.. your mom is surely glad to see you back, Son."

Adrian turned back and saw his father now standing up barely 10 inches away from
his face, he could smell the sweat, the blood and even the hate emanating from
him.

"It's all your fault you know.." The dark figure, once a father, said.

"They came for YOU!, they found us instead and they decided to give you a surprise, by
torturing us for 3 days!! you ******* bastard!"

Dirty fingernails pierced Adrian's neck as what remained of his father clutched
his neck and strangled as hard as he could. Was his father always that strong?

Adrian grabbed his armpits and pushed hard while turning his neck to lower the
pressure off his wind pipe, he then did a quick jab to his father's right side
but he did not even flinch.

Precious oxygen was starting to be sorely missed from his body and his vision
started to get a little blurry.

"Hah! You trying to tickle me? boy?!"

Adrian tried falling to the floor and that movement made the hold give in a
little, enough for him to use his legs to try and make his father fall to the
floor too. He went for it but his father's pose was steady and he could not make
him give in.

"You.. I should have killed you back then! "
"You made us all suffer and now we are all DEAD! DEAD!!!",
his father spat at his face, eyes full of rage.


He remembered the guns he carried and quickly pulled one from his holster, he
did not want to alert Charly or the others of his presence but his own father
was choking him to death.. he knew his father should not be usually this strong,
he was a retired accountant for God's sake!

He shot once into his father left thigh to put him off balance, his knee buckled
a little bit but he still held his stand as if the pain was non-existant. A
maniacal laugh started to emanate from his crazed father's mouth. His grip
getting stronger and stronger and Adrian's consciousness getting weaker and
weaker.

Adrian raised his gun and tried to aim at his father's arm, surely that will
lessen the hold. He pulled the trigger and sure enough, his father's grapple
lessen. As Adrian's vision came back he could see a bullethole underneath his
father's chin straight up to another hole on the top of his head..

Adrian gasped for breath as his father's dead body fell to the floor. There was
no moment to waste, he had to find Aria! He looked to the dark house and now saw
lights inside.. fire! Someone started a fire! Aria!

He took a brief moment to see his mother's corpse and to rest from the
experiencie and sadness merged with his fear and anger.. 3 days of torture..
what had he done? Why didn't he warn them? No time for regrets, time for action.

He started to run towards the house when the sound of a bullet being fired was
heard and he instinctively ducked and zigzaged, three more bullets came and
missed. He quickly determined which window was the bullets coming from and fired
widly at it, hoping for a hit.

He used his right shoulder to bash the backdoor in and went into the kitchen, he
saw Leo ready for him and they exchanged bullets. Pain bursted from the left
side of the abdomen and Leo fell to the floor with a shot to the chest, he could
hear him gurgle as he leapt above his dying body and into the living room.

He found Steve, his pistol ready behind the couch, they exchanged bullets but
Adrian was too fast for him despite the spreading pain on his side, Steve's head
exploded as one bullet pierced the right side of his forehead.

He could feel the heat coming from upstairs and saw Charly at the front-door
with a smiling grin like he just pulled the biggest prank ever. Adrian shot all
the bullets he had left in his direction but Charly was already out the door.
In the distance, he could hear him shout, "Nice try long legs! I hope you like
your gift! hahahahahahaha!!"

A girl's scream came from upstairs and inmediatly Adrian's heart sank, he ran
and ran, half of the upstairs was engulfed in flames now. The screaming
continued as he bashed his sister's room door in.

"Happy anniversary, Adrian, my love"

Leonora shot twice into his chest, blood spurted from Adrian's open mouth.

Leonora? Why was she here?
Aria?
I hope Aria forgives me...mom...

Adrian fell to his knees and looked to his chest and he then looked once more at
Leonora, he could hear sirens far away over the crackling of the fire.

Leonora smiled at him and started to walk towards him, he fell face down
into the room and she just walked over him, her heels nailing into his back.

Last thing he saw was the wedding ring he gave her fall to the floor besides him.

Chapter 3: The Luck of the Despaired