“It’s okay to be scared… we understand, love. It’s one of the reasons we kept it from you. Be scared if you have to, but don’t run from us,” Enzo howls. “Please know we willneverhurt you.”
“I’m not worried about you hurting me,” I tell them, pulling away. “I’m worried about whatever the fuck that thing was.” I shake, and they all stand and surround me, hugging me tight.
“We will protect you, Mama. We will do any and everything it takes to keep you safe,” Yamir grits out, and I snort his words.
“You say that b-but that thing… that thing said it would come back and find you and make you go b-back to hell and…” I don’teven want to say what it implied while staring at me. Just the memory makes me shudder in fear.
“We will make this work.” Enzo nuzzles my shoulder.
“Yes, we have ways to hide our presence,” Slater lets me know.
“And what does that even mean?” I ask, and they pull away, staring down at me.
“It means we’re going to run away.” Yamir levels me with a look and I balk at that.
“Excuse me? R-run away?” I stammer. “As in run away from hell?!” I raise my voice, and they shrug.
“It might be a bit difficult for us because we feed on hellfire, and with the gates closing…” Slater trails off for a second. “But there are ways to substitute what we get from hellfire. We can simply feed on Miasma… there’s a low amount on Earth, but we have ways to get more.”
The shit they are saying makes no sense to me, but they look confident, and I can’t help but wonder.
“And there is no way for you to just go there, do the job, and just come back?” I ask even though the mere thought is like a punch in the gut, but they vehemently shake their heads.
“It’s impossible for more than one reason. One, locking any of the Kings of Hell down is a death sentence… I don’t know why or who would come up with such a shitty plan, but even more than that, if they are locking the gates, it means we won’t be able to see you. While we were able to rotate out weekly and have a fraction of our power here on Earth, for this job in particular, we would all need to be there. And that’s where things would be unbearable. We are Cerberus, we can feel each other and link as one, so when one of us was here, it was as if we were near you, even though the time away from you was fucking hellish,” Slater grunts.
“It’s only one week. You’re being dramatic,” I groan, and they shake their heads.
“No, toyouit was one week, but in Hell, time moves differently. For every one day here is one week in Hell,” Yamir states with a sneer.
“Wait.” I reel back… “S-so you were away from me for…”
“Yes, nearly two months every time,” Enzo grits out. “And remember that was on purpose. When those gates close, we have no idea when they will be unlocked or if we will survive… each reincarnation of Sin is always stronger and more vile than the last. We have no idea what we’re up against. They could wait days, weeks, years, or centuries to reopen the gates. You might not even be alive, and we cannot risk that. We’d rather die,” Enzo finishes, and my stomach drops.
Yes, I ran out of fear, but the thought of not being with them… the thought of something happening to them… I sink to the couch, tears welling in my eyes, because what the fuck do I do? How can I even fix this?I’m up against mythical and biblical beings!
But my tears don’t even get a chance to fall because they are on their knees pulling me to them, kissing them away.
“Don’t cry, sweetness. We will protect you, and we won’t be leaving,” Slater hums. “We can promise you that.”
“Please believe us,” Yamir whispers, and though I’m scared, I want to be strong for them and this relationship.
“Do you mean that?” I sigh.
“From the bottom of our hearts,” Enzo whispers, and I groan because this is definitely going to fuck me over later.
“F-fine,” I mutter and stand, peeling off my cold sticky robe and throwing it on their faces, wanting to shower and honestly get put through the mattress to de-fucking-stress. The moment they see me naked, they sit up alert, and I click my tongue twice. I crook my finger, and they try to stand, but I cock my head to the side, and they all fall back down to their knees.
“What can we do for you, Mama?” they say in unison, and suddenly my fear flickers and dies, replaced by a heat that starts in my chest and pools low in my belly.
“Stay.” I give them a pointed look and walk away, ass jiggling and slamming the door in their face, smiling when I hear them howl like dogs in pain. I take my ass to the tub and run myself a hot bath, using all the bells and whistles before I sink in, sighing, wanting to clear my head, but that’s the last thing that I end up doing.
All I can think about is Sye, how I got with him, and how I let all of this shit fly under my nose. These last few days have been just one thing after another. Most people would assume that I was just some insecure fat bitch who was goo-goo-eyed over a sexy man with money who was checking for me, but I was never that girl who was ashamed of being a little bigger than the next bitch.
I have always been painfully aware that to some guys, I wasonlythe pretty fat friend, especially standing next to some straight fye looking women like Constance, Pyper, and some of my other home girls.I was always overlooked.
I tried to not let it bother me. I knew I was beautiful. Body confidence was all around, and while I teetered more towards fat than thick, I kept myself a man, and I stayed with a dick to hop or rotated niggas when they weren’t acting right. So confident was I until I dropped all my men to be with one.
He was fine as hell, and for a white boy, he had a lil swag. He was a vet, and a man who loves animals will always have a place in my heart. I can’t lie, I fell for him hard and fast, and I thought I would be with him forever. That was until I heard him talking to his co-workers about wanting me to get on Ozempic.
