Dante

I felt my heart drop to my stomach.

Every part of myself was screaming to run. To get the fuck out of this apartment building. The fuck out of NYC. Maybe this fucking country... but as more moon light was emptied into the room, I saw that Shaun was holding something.

It was the picture of my mother. The one I had come here to get.

I hesitantly took some steps into the apartment.

"What the hell are you doing in here, Shaun?" I asked him. It was almost impossible to remain calm, but my voice did a good job of hiding the fear that was coursing through me right now. Shaun slowly turned to face me.

Regardless of how much time had passed since we last saw each other, the injuries on his face were still fresh. There was the deep gash right under his eye from where I had pistol whipped him. He clearly hadn't done much to take care of it since then, from the way it had swollen up.

Even with the bruises, Shaun still managed to clean up well. Just the smell of his cologne made me sick. It lingered through the apartment.

I could tell by his eyes that he was in his better mood, but with Shaun, I knew to never trust it.

"What do you mean why am I here? I'm here to take you home of course."

The word home coming from his mouth, made me shiver.

"You know that's not going to happen. That's never going to happen." For a second I saw something flash through him. I knew it was his rage, the same type of rage my father had.

But just as quickly as it came, it went.

"I understand we didn't really leave things right-"

I let out a dry chuckle that honestly surprised the both of us. "You pulled a fucking gun on me, Shaun."

That made Shaun flinch. I couldn't tell whether this was the part where he'd apologize, or lunge at me. Even with my hands visibly trembling at my side, I stayed put.

"I- I didn't mean to do that. You just- you know how my anger is sometimes baby." Shaun took a step towards me, but I took one large one back. My mind immediately thought about my surroundings. From where I stood, I close to the kitchen. It was hard to remember, but I was sure I briefly glanced at an old knife in one of the drawers there a few weeks ago.

Right now, it was sort of my only option.

"Stay the fuck away from me." I spat at him menacingly. Shaun immediately stopped his advances, but there was a smile starting to play on those lips.

"You're... different." He settled on. "New York City has made you quite the disobedient one. But that's okay, Dante. I'm here now to remind you of who you are. Where you're from. You're just some sad pitiful excuse of a fighter with no strong father to strictly guide you, and no cunt of a mother to throttle your pathetic existence. You are nothing without me, Dante. You never were."

It was impossible to describe what I was feeling right now. It felt like my heart had been ripped from my chest, but there was another part of me... this part was brewing anger.

Shaun had a way with words like that. If he wanted to hurt you, he often didn't need to lay a hand on you to do so.

Violence was just the cherry on top for him.

"Get the fuck out of my apartment." I said as cold and collected as I could possibly be. The truth was, my entire body was shaking.

When Shaun took another step forward, my hand reached across to yank open one of the kitchen drawers. I didn't allow my eyes to leave his, not for one moment, but my hand emerged with one of the rustiest knifes I had possibly ever seen.

Shaun's gaze went from mine, to the object in my hand. His hands shot up defensively.

"I'm going I'm going. No need to get physical, I was just leaving- I thought I'd let you know I'll be around though. I plan to stay here as long as I need to, to fix whatever nonsense these New Yorkers have put in your head." He moved closer towards the door. "I also just secured a spot at a new gym. I didn't know the fighting scene was so prominent here. I went for the best money could buy..."

When I heard those words, I forgot how to breathe entirely.

"It's called Serenity, just a few miles from here. You should stop by. I think they're already entering the competing season these next few weeks."

As soon as Shaun said the words Serenity, I let out the breath I was holding in. Everything in me thought he was going to mention Fight Club. I wasn't sure what I would have done at that point.

I didn't say anything in response to that. As soon as Shaun realized that this conversation was most definitely over, he turned to leave. Before he could, something quickly registered, and the word "wait" left my lips.

That stopped him dead in his tracks. "What is it, baby?"

I flinched in disgust.

"Leave the photo of my mother."

Shaun glanced down at his hand to see that he was still holding the photo between his fingers. It didn't take him a second thought to crumple it into the smallest ball. He tossed it onto the floor.

"See you around, Dante." Those were the last words spoken between Shaun and I before he helped himself out of the apartment he had broken into.

As soon as I was able to get the chain lock on the door, I leant back against the nearest wall to gather my bearings. My head was spinning at this point. I wasn't sure if all that had actually really happened or not, but the goosebumps that spread through my entire body said otherwise.

Shaun had been here.

In this apartment.

He had found me.

I thought back to that night. How he looked when he had that gun cocked and pointed at me. It was a crack of thunder and a roundhouse kick that got the heavy metal out of his hand before he could pull the trigger. I wasn't sure how I had even mustered the strength, after his open palm strike had knocked me off my feet. When I managed to get to the gun, I used it to strike Shaun hard. That had made him fall back on top of our glass coffee table.

The sound it made was almost deafening, but it definitely wasn't the first fragile thing to break during this fight.

I expected Shaun to try getting up again, yet when I saw his drunk self struggling to, that's when I knew I needed to get the fuck out of there. I grabbed as much as I could in what little time I could, and took off towards the station.

That was the last night we had seen each other, until tonight.

I wasn't sure how to process this.

The words he said stayed with me like they always did. I knew they were nowhere near true, but it still made my eyes sting with the possibility of tears.

I forced myself to push those tears down. Instead, something else started to stir up. It was that anger I had felt earlier. Anger I knew I had, but never thought I had the balls to act on until now.

My body jumped at the sound of a knock at my door.

Immediately, I was on high alert.

It was the voice I heard on the other end, that calmed my pounding heart.

"Dante? Are you there?" Sammy asked.

I pulled back the chain almost immediately to open up for him. Sure enough, he was stand at my door in the same post shower outfit, holding my cell phone.

"Hey, sorry. I saw you left your cell and thought just in case of an emergency or something, you might need it-" Sammy stopped himself short as his eyes found mine. "Are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."

I was going to start saying something, but I stopped myself short. Instead, I gave Sammy a nod.

"I-I'm okay. I was just wondering- is it... is it too late to start fighting?"

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