A LITTLE TOUCH OF ROSE - EPISODE 39

Rico’s standpoint

She’s here.

That was the first thing my mind told me the moment I inhaled the air of the living room. I took another wheeze and smiled, my heart clenching when I perceive the one faint scent.

She was here.

I shook my head in an attempt to stop myself from letting the tears slip. I have been through a lot all my life, faced a whole lot of issues and challenges and was brave in the front of it. Death didn’t scare me, blood excited me, and fear had never been a thing for me ever since I turned sixteen. Unfortunately, it came back.

For the past twenty one years I had live dreading the day I would have to put an end to everything. The moment she conceived I felt fear once more but it went away after I successfully hid her from me. Yet, as each day went by, the force grew stronger and stronger and I knew that one day, it would become impossible to resist it. I dreaded the day, didn’t want to even live to see it, but alas! There I was standing at the top of the stairs leading down to my best friend’s sitting room.

I knew she was with him, ever since her son took the hit for her. I almost felt happy when I thought she was hit; at least it wouldn’t be me who did it, but, he just had to save her. I was grateful to him and yet again, resentful. I also knew that Rosita was back in the house. The tracker said she went to China and Zed and on vacation when there was something as big as this? I knew then that it was completely hopeless. Rosita wasn’t making any move because there was none to make.

The moment the hopelessness settled in, I could no longer resist and there I was. The white living room was empty and eeriely quiet. Rosita must have evacuated all of them so she would face me herself. Guess she wanted to fight. The part I truly dread.

I slowly and cautiously climb down the staircase, looking around ready for anything. I took careful strides to the middle of the sitting room, straining my ears to hear any sound at all. But I knew that if she really wanted to sneak up on me, I wouldn’t hear her. She was very good at the act of stealth.

My ears caught faint sounds, too low to hear what it was. I followed the sound, still looking around to make sure she don’t sneak up on me. The sound was coming from the kitchen. As I got closer, I recognise the sound as moans, sex moans. I tilt my head in confusion and walked closer. Slowly, I pinpoint the voices as my daughter’s and Zedekiah?

Okay, what?

“Zed, I swear, if we get caught by your mother or Brayleigh, I’ll kill you. We might wake up the whole house!”

“If you keep screaming like that, yes, we would. Just moan a little bit lower and keep your voice down,” he snapped. I couldn’t comprehend what I was hearing. Okay, I could but believing it was impossible.

Her mother’s life is in danger and she’s in the kitchen having sex? What in the world!

Unless she don’t know you are in Tokyo.

That made sense. That would explain why she didn’t attack or why Yvonne’s scent was faint. She was upstairs, they all were and asleep. Hezekiah didn’t tell them I was coming and Rosita was too much in love to care or remember that something bad is coming. I inhaled as my neck turned on it own to look at the foyer leading back to the sitting room.

The force compelled me to move and I was about to when she spoke again. “Zedekiah, I’m suppose to pick mom up in an hour, aren’t you…”

Pick her up?

I pulled out my phone from my jacket, switched it on to check Yvonne’s location. The tracker pointed to the hospital. She went back to the hospital. I inhaled and exhaled, forcing my body to remain still. After so many years she still used the same strong cologne that remained in an atmosphere three hours after the wearer leaves. And after twenty one years, I still had the scent stamp to my brain.

My father would be ashamed of me if he was alive.

Turning to the opposite direction of the place I was instructed to go, I pushed the kitchen door open and barge in with a wide smile. Her presence could tame the force for a few minutes. I also just had to remember that she would come to me anyways. Just in an hour.

“What the…!” Zed screamed while she screamed with fright, pushing him off her. I chuckled as he fell on the floor while she tried to cover herself.

“We weren’t doing anything!”

“Hmm, nice dick, son,” I laughed. My muscles tightened, causing me to inhale stealthily.

I’ve been bearing the pain for years, I can do it for an extra two hours.

“Wait a minute, dad?” Rosita gasped, “what are you doing… Zedekiah, stand up and cover yourself up. Nobody likes to see your ugly cock,” she whisper-yelled.

Zed snorted. “Says the bitch who can’t go a day without sucking it,”

“Shh, not in front of my dad,” she whispered, glancing at me. Her face turned red when she saw my smirk. I’d never seen her get embarrass over anything other than how bad she is at cooking when she was younger.

“You just had to come in when I was about to cum,” Zed complained as he stood up. I shrugged and forced my legs to walk over to the island. I rest my weight on it and smiled at my red face daughter and the annoyed boy I somehow raised.

“Dad, what are you doing here? I thought you were handling that prick head,” she said, stylishly trying to hide her panties at her feet.

“I have, beheaded him,”

“Good. So what are you doing here?”

“Rosita, what am I doing here?” I asked her with a bored look. She shrugged nonchalantly, something that took me by surprise. “Wait, you don’t care?”

“Of course I do,” she walked over to the refrigerator and opened it leisurely slow, “but I don’t think I have the strength to stop you and even you know that. I can’t fight you, father, I cannot stop you either because you are the father I love and you are still the head of the family.” She shut the door and walked back to the island with two glass cups and a plain black bottle.

“So, you are going to let me kill her?” I said with a painful laugh.

“Not exactly,” she smirked, dropping a glass for me, “I can’t let you hurt my mother and I can’t hurt you either, at least not to kill you. So, I’m going to do something else instead,” she said as she turned the content of the bottle into the two glasses.

Poison.

I shook my head, she would never do that to me. I watched her pick up the other glass and drank from it. “Relax, you know I can’t poison you. Poisoning is a sign of weakness. If I want you dead, I’ll kill you myself.” She giggled at the end while I smiled. She quote the words I used the first time I took her on a mission. She was five then.

The stupid woman thought I poisoned her drink because she thought she was dying, but I didn’t. The poison wasn’t to kill her but to infect her with a deadly virus which she would transfer to the real target, her lover. Her husband wasn’t happy about her cheating on him with his best friend, a much more powerful man than him.

“But poisoning is so much faster,” I smiled, picking up the glass.

“But no fun,” she turned and rest her back on the island, wrapping one hand around Zed’s neck, “I’m going to kiss my boyfriend now, dad, hope you don’t mind?”

“I literally brought you two kids together,” I rolled my eyes.

“Then enjoy the show, old man,”

“Before you start kissing, what do you plan to do?” I groaned, “just show me how to kiss? No offence, kids, but I’ve kissed a whole lot of women and even men–don’t think you are good.” I squeezed the glass from bearing the pain. I was certain my eyes were red already, but she wasn’t seeming to care.

“By the laws of the code, I challenge you, Rico Genesis Donahue, for the position of the supreme head of the clan,” my eyes widened. She said it with so much nonchalance, like she did not just challenge me. It was a sign of disrespect, a fight to the dead and she was aware that my body would pay more attention to that than the urge to find Yvonne. She knew what she was doing; buying time.

“Rosita! How could you! You know the fight won’t end until one of us is dead!” I shouted distraughtly, slamming the glass on the island.

She took another sip with a sly smile. “So you have the option to back down and surrender to me, or drink in acceptance to the challenge…”

“What use is it! What use is you being the head! Rosita, I can’t watch myself hurting you!” I screamed. “Take it back, take it back, now!” I stood up straight in absolute rage. She was toying with her life. She knew I would never turn myself to her, it was never heard of in our history to surrender and the force after the covenant made it so. She was placing me in a hot seat.

“Easy, the moment I become the head, I can command you by the code to seize your attack on Yvonne Sugimoto,” with that, she took one more sip and turned her head back to Zedekiah. It was the final straw.

The code force would never let me surrender knowing that it was to stop me from completing my mission. I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t fight my precious rose, but I wasn’t seeing a choice. And for the fact that she was disrespecting me by making out with her boyfriend after challenging me, the compulsion to accept the challenge was stronger than the one to go search for the reason I came to Japan.

I sank my teeth into my lip and inside cheek, drawing blood from both as tears pricked my eyes. My hands shook as I reached for the drink, my eyes fixed on the disrespectful act before me. She had her legs wrap around his waist and ass on the island as he sucked on her breast.

Why is she pushing me!

I grabbed the glass, hands still trembling as the tears made it way out. Dark spots covered my vision from the internal battle. Moist flowed down my nostrils, resting above my upper lip. I brought the glass to my lips and emptied the entire content into my mouth. The liquid tasted odd but it had the one flavour I adore; pineapple.

I swallowed it all and drop the glass, smacking my lips and scrunching my face from the weird after taste. “Challenge accepted, Altansarnai Rosita Donahue,” with lightning fast move, she and Zed separated from each other and rushed to the refrigerator. I watched them hastily both drink from a carton of milk before sighing with relief.

“So, he accepted the drink of challenge,” Zed chirped.

“I’m likely to get killed by my father but whatever.”

“I’ll throw the rest away, put on your shirt,” I watched them move around in confusion, my mind trying to analyse what was happening and what they were doing.

“Don’t sweat it, dad, we should set a date for the challenge,” she smoothened her top with her hands, “tomorrow evening, you and me,”

“18:00 hour,” my mouth forcefully uttered, “Rosita, please, back down,”

“Never.” She laughed like a maniac.

Well then, let’s fight.

Rosita’s standpoint

It worked! It freaking worked!

I was trying so hard to contain my joy so he wouldn’t suspect. We weren’t sure if he could do anything about it since we threw away the antidote, but dad was unpredictable. We just needed few more minutes for it to work out.

For the past one hour, dad had been trying to convince me to back down, but I refused. I was still fighting the urge to sleep because I took sips of the concoction too and Zed took it from my mouth. It had to be done or he would suspect. Zedekiah had already passed out, but he was smart to say he was retiring to bed.

Luckily, Zelda woke up and saw dad, she was unknowingly keeping him busy with her stories. It was a hear or die. Hezzy and I kept looking at the time with beating hearts. There was a chance he could run away or even fight the concoction because he was that strong. It wasn’t possible to fight what he didn’t know so we had to be careful. We weren’t sure if he could, but you can’t be too careful.

“And then he died,” Zelda sobbed on, “Matteo took the hit for his twin, Mavis, and died in his place. So, Mavis swore to avenge him,” she wiped her tears, “and since they were identical, all he had to do was take his identity and the real movie began. But of course, as Mavis had to take Matteo’s life, he had to continue dating his brother’s betrothed…”

“Zelda, please, I don’t care,” dad sighed tiredly, “tell your husband, I’m sure he cares,”

“He saw the series with me so…”

“I don’t care,” dad cried. Zelda growled and yanked his ear.

“Now listen here, Ricolo Gabby Donahue, you better listen to my story or I’ll chop off everything that makes you a man and feed it to my lions!”

“You don’t have any lions, dear,” Hezzy chuckled. She shot him a glare. He raised his hands up innocently. “Shut up, got it.”

“Wait, Gabby?” I asked.

“She meant Genesis,” dad said sharply. I grinned, “oh for fuck sake, my middle name is Genesis!”

“It’s Gabby, he changed his name,” Hezzy laughed.

“Ricolo Gabby? Dad, what the fuck,” I said between my laugh.

“His full name is actually Ricolo Gabriella Lizzy Donahue,” Zelda said with a mischievous smirk. Dad’s eyes widened with horror.

“No, it’s not! Lizzy was just the evil name my father gave me to humiliate me when I failed…” I didn’t care, I slid to the floor as I continued to laugh. “Stop laughing!”

“Lizzy baby!” I hailed.

“Don’t,” he threatened, “and Hezekiah’s middle name is Shicoro,” dad said, glaring at Hezzy. Hezzy muttered a curse while I laughed even harder.

“What kind of name is that?”

“Hey, that’s what I said!” Zelda squealed and we laughed more. “Shico!”

“Ro Ro!” I shouted.

“Rico!!!” Hezekiah shouted angrily. “Now they know!”

“You should have stopped your woman when she started!”

“You know I can’t control her!”

“Well, vroom vroom, bitch!” Zelda shouted.

Oh, so that’s where Alyssa learnt that rubbish from.

“Wait, what?” Dad asked quizzically.

“Don’t mind her, we are fighting!” Hezzy shouted, they were head to head now. “I thought you were my brother, how could you tell her of all people! Don’t you know that the moment she knows, the twins will know and then Alyssa? I would never be able to look at them again!”

“Oh, come off it, it’s just a stupid name.” Dad scoffed.

“Yeah, just like Rico is a stupid person!”

“So says the fool who thought vampires are real,” dad snorted. Hezzy threw his hands up in exasperation.

“She looked like a vampire!”

“If she really was, would you have felt better telling a vampire to go suck a mosquito?” Dad rolled his eyes.

“One more word from you and I’ll pluck out your ears,”

“You are suppose to pluck eyes, not ears, you doofus,”

“Okay, what were we originally arguing over?” Hezzy asked confusedly. Dad scratched his head and shrugged.

“Lizzy and Shicoro,” I reminded with a muffled laugh.

“Oh yeah,” dad chirped before he suddenly threw himself on Hezekiah. They were going to do their childish roll on the ground cat fight. This is usually the part Timothy would scream at them to act like responsible adults and make good example for their children. Then dad would call him a Brayleigh pussy-licker and Hezzy would call him a cum-sucker. Then Timothy would scream curses and throw himself into the fight.

The twins would cheer for their father, Zed–if he was present–would face palm himself, Alyssa would be laughing while I stare at them with amusement. At the end, I would always separate them and give them the ultimate glare. Then Brayleigh would scream them into washing dishes and laundry.

Tears formed in my eyes as the memories came to me. I would miss him, even if it wasn’t forever yet. Life would be quiet without my father and very lonely, but I knew with everyone, I could manage.

Brayleigh came down and started screaming at them. She pulled their ears while they whined, dad cursing instead. I wiped the tears away as I observe his body. His hands were starting to shake, his eyes were hollow and face pale. It was coming.

“Did you have to pull my ear so hard,” Hezzy whined, “I’m sure it would fall off,”

“What a baby,” dad mocked.

“Enough, you two, be adults,” they blew raspberry at each other instead. Brayleigh smacked the back of their heads. Hezzy screamed like a child while Dad whimpered.

“You hit me harder, you should have hit him more!” Dad shouted.

“She loves me, dickhead,” Hezzy said and stuck his tongue out childishly. Dad reached his hand forward swiftly and smacked his head. “Hey! Brayleigh, he smacked me!”

“You were being immature,”

“Get out of my way,” Hezzy huffed, pushing her to the chair. They began smacking each other’s head, throwing curses at each other. And the funny thing is that the curses never made sense. What the hell is peanut chewer?

I stood up wobbly and staggered to the stairs. My vision was blurry from fighting the medicine for too long. I managed to climb up to the second floor and rest my back on the wall. I slid down the wall, the tears I was holding finally letting go. I hugged my knees as I cried all the bottled up pain. Memories of me and my father, every single one I remembered kept coming.

“Whoa… Whoa!” I heard a heavy thud from downstairs. I smiled, letting the salty tears enter my mouth. “Why did you let him fall that hard!” Brayleigh shouted.

“Cause he’s a dick, that’s why.” I heard Hezzy laugh.

“Don’t just stand there, we need to get him to a hospital,” Zelda screamed in tears. I slowly let myself fall, eyes closing as I have in to the temporal darkness.

For now, it is over.