Page 1 of Chula
Chapter 1
Luna
Everything was perfect. Life was great.
Isn’t that the start of every story? Too bad mine wasn’t like that. It never has been, and for the foreseeable future, it isn’t going to be either.
With four hundred dollars and three fucking bus tickets, we’re out of here. Goodbye, Chicago, and hello, New York. I don’t understand why my mom thinks New York is going to be better than Chicago. It’s not. It’s going to be the same bullshit in a different city, and I think we all know that.
Rafe grabs a handful of my hair and yanks me toward him, his face too close to mine.
“You don’t just get to leave, Luna.”
“I don’t have a choice.”
“You do and you know it. You’re one of us. You’re always going to be one of us,” he hisses in my face. I keep my eyes on his because there’s no fucking way I would ever look away from Rafe. I don’t trust the slimy fucker at all.
“I know that. You think I don’t fucking know that? I just need to get Davey settled, Rafe. You know how my mom is,” I tell him, hoping it’ll be enough for him to let this shit go, let me go. He keeps his hand tangled in my hair to the point of pain, but I’mnot going to let him see that. I don’t flinch, I don’t blink. I just stare back at him.
“I’ll give you a few months,” he says. “That’s it, Luna. If I have to come hunt you down, you know I will.” And I have no doubts about his words. Rafe would hunt me to the end of the earth. This is all my fault. Well, mainly my fault. Maybe if I didn’t grow up with a fucking junkie for a mother, it wouldn’t have to be this way. But for Davey? My little brother? I’d do anything. I would burn the fucking world to the ground for him, and everyone around me knows it. That’s why Rafe uses him against me.
I joined the gang Ghost Reapers when I was thirteen, and that’s what I’ve been ever since. I do shit. Bad shit. Illegal shit. You name it, I’ve done it. Most of it I don’t want to do, but you don’t get to say no as a Ghost Reaper. You do as you’re told and that’s it.
“I know you will. I’ll get him settled and I’ll be back,” I tell Rafe. He finally releases my hair, but just as I go to step back, his fist balls and slams into my stomach. The air is knocked from my lungs as I double over and gasp.
“What the fuck, Rafe?” Abby, one of the other girls, yells. He turns to face her, anger painting his features. She quickly shuts up.
Rafe steps closer and grabs my hair once more, tugging me up so I’m facing him.
“That was a warning, Luna. You don’t come back, I’ll find you, and when I do, there’s going to be hell to pay.” I nod my head in understanding. He lets go of me and walks away. I look at Abby, and she gives me a soft, sad smile. I hate leaving here. I hateleaving her behind to this shit. She didn’t want this. She never did. But in this world, we don’t have choices. Not anymore.
I watch them walk away before I turn and start to jog back to the house, if that’s what you can even call it. I’m almost a block away when I hear the shots being fired. I’ve been around gunshots long enough to judge how far away they are, and these aren’t close to me.
I keep jogging until I reach the front steps and walk up them, heading through the front door.
“Where the fuck have you been?” My mom yells as I enter. I roll my eyes, pull the bag of white powder from my pocket, and toss it at her. She catches that shit and smiles. She heads for the kitchen table as I grab the bags sitting on the couch and place them next to the door. Once she’s snorted her line, she’s happy as can be.
She walks over and runs her hand down my cheek as she smiles at me.
“New York is going to be so good for us. That guy I met, John, he’s going to help us out a lot.” She says as she pulls me into a hug and holds me tightly.
“We’ll see.”
“Don’t be that way, Luna. It’s going to be good for us. We can party, dance, do whatever we want.” She’s too happy about this move, and it makes me sick. Davey wasn’t doing great at school here, but it was better. Davey is non-verbal. He has been all his life, and that means I speak for him. Mom sure as hell isn’t going to do it, and she doesn’t even care. In all honesty, I think shelikes that he doesn’t talk because that’s one less thing she has to deal with.
“We have Davey,” I remind her as she rolls her eyes.
“Davey is ten. He’s fine to stay by himself. He does here,” she says, waving her hand around in the air to make her point. She’s not wrong. When I’m not here, she leaves him by himself. It’s scary for me because anything could happen, and how would he get help? He knows 911, but if he doesn’t speak, they won’t know what’s wrong.
I sigh and watch as mom dances around the room when Davey comes out of his room with the tablet I bought him. He had to have something to do, and I went out and found a way to make the money for it. He walks up to me and shows me the screen, and I smile, rubbing his head.
“You made that?” I ask him, knowing he isn’t going to answer me. “You did a great job, Davey. That looks really good. I’m so proud of you.” Davey gives me the smallest of smiles before he takes off back to his room. I drop onto the couch and sigh as mom turns the fucking music up and continues her dancing high around the room.
Chapter 2
Marco
Same shit, different day. I sit back with a joint between my lips as I watch the city go by. Not that interesting on my side of town, though. If you go into the big city, that’s where all the people are. Here? This is where the shittest of the shitty live. The bastards, the druggies, the kids who had nothing growing up like I did.
