Facade

26|| no more

song : I Don't Wanna Live Forever - Zayn, Taylor Swift

~ Gabriel ~

A feeling of great pleasure or happiness; The dictionary definition of joy.

I had to google it because that short, little word is the explanation of the silly grin I've had on my face since last night and the giddy sensation I've felt all of today.

All of today until I had to come here.

My day was fine, nice even, replaying the events of last night on a loop and ignoring Bea as she asked me why I'm not as miserable as I usually am.

Alejandra and I texted throughout the day too, making the joy stretch into the night, even as I fed my sister, made sure she was showered and soundly sleeping by ten pm.

All of the joy was taken with a text.

Underground. One hour.

Not an invite, but an order.

One that I have no choice but to follow, as it came from Chris' idiot of a father who just so happens to be my father's right hand.

Instead of waiting the forty minutes till the meeting time, I grabbed my keys, phone and gun, tucking it into the back of my belt before putting on my jacket and shoes to walk the five blocks.

The underground is nothing more than a large market place right off the main street called Essex.

It used to belong to a family with a chain of stores in Manhattan until it was bought out from under them when Pecido began spreading into the states.

More specifically, when they infiltrated this state and this city.

This all happened when I was around two years old and the trip from Mexico to New York was not one that I care to try and remember.

The uprising of the gang and the titles we earned were made by my father and me once I turned five.

He had gone back to Mexico the year prior to handle some "family business" back in our old city.

When he returned a year later, he was a new man. One that reeked of danger and in turn, power. It was then that I was brought here for the first time.

The abandoned marketplace.

The underground.

A large, one story building that takes up the entirety of the block.

On the outside, it's nothing more than a quiet, old rusted building without use anymore. On the inside, it's everything you'd expect out of a gang like ours.

Chaos.

When you first walk in, it's dark, only shadows of old furniture making themselves visible in the already barely visible space. The main floor still consists of old supermarket shelves and rusted shopping carts.

Those are merely for show.

Once you walk to the back room and find the cellar in the back left corner of the storage unit, that's where all the action is.

Entering down the darkened steps, there's another door that meets you at the bottom, resembling that of a speakeasy.

Once you're in, the lights hit you.

The rooms of the underground space are lit by dim, greenish colored bulbs beaming over certain areas and sections in the connected space.

The space in question is much what you'd expect it to look like.