The Saints' Devil

LIII

"Frank," Charlie suddenly said, grabbing his attention. He glanced at her, her eyes still trained on one of the resumes given by a possible candidate for the club. She didn't meet his eyes, she continued to stare at the documents. "Could you tell me what happened to your parents?"

He looked at her. Although he knew she'd ask this question eventually, he didn't expect her to be more uncomfortable than he was. He sat the papers he'd been holding down and placed it over one of hers, finally allowing her to turn her gaze towards him. "It's not a happy story."

"I don't think either of us have happy stories."

He chuckled lightly, the mood quickly turning serious. "It was my sixth birthday," he began, looking everywhere except at her. He still remembered the day like it was yesterday, he dreamt about the event every night for nearly his entire life. "My parents...we weren't that rich. We lived in a house where once you fix one thing another thing would break. It was barely holding on by a thread but we made the most of it and even though we didn't have the most," he took a deep breath. "They always took me to a sit-down burger joint for my birthday. It always made me look forward to my birthday."

She listened intently, listened as his voice lowered and strained. "We were driving back, my dad was making some stupid joke like he always did and my mom turned back to laugh with me and then a semi ran a red light and hit us."

Charlie's heart shot to her throat and she swallowed hard. "The car flew and rolled in a ditch, my dad died on impact and my mom...there was a piece of the car that was through her stomach. She looked back at me and cried and just before she died she said she loved me," he cleared his throat. "I was in shock, I couldn't even say anything. I had some head trauma, broke my arm. I was sent to the hospital and my parents were sent to the morgue."

Frank took a deep breath. He was finally able to tell someone the full story. The most he told people was that his parents died in an accident while he was in the car and that was the end of it. "I grew up in a shitty little town and when the judge was deciding what would happen to me now that my parents were dead he decided to dump me to my uncle and all because there weren't enough beds in the orphanage and no one else jumped in for foster care."

"How the fuck does that make sense?" she grumbled and he chuckled lightly.

"Shitty town, I told you. Ain't no one care 'bout the kids there or anyone else," he said. "I was dumped on my uncle's doorstep--never met the man in my life--and he opened the door, looked at me, and shut it. The first two weeks I slept outside and ate from his garbage until he finally let me in. I didn't even spend one peaceful night there, he drug me outta bed the first night he let me in and down to the basement where he chained me up like a dog," he continued, remembering it vividly. "He'd come down and scream in my face, he'd through alcohol all over me, he use me as a personal punching bag and then it was the tattooing."

"Wait," she said, remembering what Eagle had told her a few moments before he had died that night. "You mean it was your uncle who did that?"

He nodded. "Back in the day he was a famous tattoo artist I guess but he became an addict and was in and out of jail and rehab. He was later diagnosed with schizophrenic delusions and was never allowed to tattoo again, not in a shop at least," he explained. "So he used me and tattooed me from head to toe for six straight years."

"S-Six...six years?" she questioned quietly, looking over at him with eyes filled with sadness.

"Finally one night, he passed out in the basement from one of his drunken episodes and I got the keys from him and set myself free but he came after me," he said. "I killed my first man that night and ran away. I jumped on whatever bus or truck I could and ended up here. Eagle found me right outside in the alley between the Garage and Clubhouse, where you'd been sleeping the first few days you were here."

"No kidding," she smiled and he felt the largest weight finally lift off his shoulders. 

He felt free for once, he felt his demons dissipate in her radiance. Finally, he was able to let go and allow his parents to rest easy, all because she walked into his life. "I had nightmares every night," he suddenly said, her smile fading for a moment. "Until you came into my shop."

She was speechless, for once. She stared at him, completely shocked and dumbfounded. Soon, the biggest grin stretched across her face and her hands reached out, lifting his mask so she could kiss him. He kissed her back, long and hard, and she pulled away, completely captivated by this man. 

"Finding Fury was the best thing that ever happened to me," she said, eyes sparkling. "Because I got to meet you and be apart of the one thing my mother worked so hard to protect."

He smiled before putting his mask down. "You've turned the Devil soft."

"You weren't so tough after all," she joked, laughing lightly.

For her, he wasn't.

Hello everyone!

Apologies for the slow updates, my finals are this week and next week and things have been very hectic, not to mention I've been working every weekend now. 

Here's some softness from Frank, please enjoy his development as a character from chapter 1 to now. 

Thank you all so much for your constant support, I really appreciate it. 

Also, I decided to start on Dragon, which is Drake's story, instead of Atom. Atom is simply unpublished and I will start that one up again once I have finished Drake's story. I am hoping Drake's story to be just as long as this one so please join me for the journey!

Please continue to vote and comment, it helps me out a lot.

With care,
D. M. Brightwell