It was a cold and rainy day out and a young teenage boy was busy spending his time in a greenhouse in his family's backyard. Dominic, a 17 year old boy, was looking after and taking care of beautiful plants and flowers: hoping they’ll survive through winter. Although the young gardener is part of a very dangerous family he’s nothing like them. He always liked simpelier things and loved to do good deeds for his family and friends. 

Dominic is the son of a mafia boss and his mother and sister are very much involved in that dangerous lifestyle. His family loves the feeling of being powerful and having the most expensive clothes, jewelry, cars, and shoes. Xic, his sister, loves this type of life especially. Him and his sister have always been at each other's throats about who should be their fathers successor and today was about to be one of those days.

“Dom! Where the hell are you? Dad wants you to start training today!” Xic yelled as she came outside looking for her brother. Dominic sighed in annoyance and frustration then started to put all the gardening tools away. He put his sweatshirt on and left the greenhouse to see his sister standing at the backdoor with her arms crossed. He walks over to her just knowing she’s gonna be pissed off at him. 

“What do you want, mi reina ?” He asked sarcastically to her.  

Xic scoffed and hit him in the head. “Tú pendeja. And father wants you to do training and practice shooting today.” 

“First of all ow that hurt, and second of all I am not doing any of that. Thank you very much,” He said as he walked past her and went inside their huge mansion. Xic then goes up behind him and kicks him behind his knees causing him to fall. 

“You know, I think it’s funny how you think you have a choice in this. But guess what, you don’t. You’re the only son in this family which means you have to be fathers successor when he's gone. So why don’t you take the goddamn knife and do what you were made to do,” she said with a frustrated and angry expression. As she walked away and left his knife in front of him. It’s the knife their dad gave them when they were younger. 

Dominic got back up on his feet and grabbed the knife as he walked to his room. “I hate this damn family.” 

As he was walking to his room he bumped into his dad. He was a very intimidating man. He had dark eyes,  dark brown hair and a strong build. His face is always very stern and serious. Dominic always gets scared of him whenever his dad talks to him. “Oh there you are. I sent Xic to find you and she came back without you.”

“Yeah she found me. I’m not training though and I never will,” Dominic said as he walked past his father. Although he might’ve seemed confident he was very much afraid of what his father might say or do in response. His father then grabbed his wrist and made him took towards him. 

“I don’t care if you don’t want to. You will train and you will be part of this mafia. Try being more like your sister and I better see you walk in that room in 10 minutes,” he said as he got close to his son's face. 

“Y-yes father.” His father then walked away as Dominic just stood there.  Domic never understood why his parents wouldn’t just listen to him and let him do what he wants. Why should he be involved? It’s his own life after all, he's the one who controls it. 

The only thing that stops him from leaving the family is that he does still love them. Even though he says he hates them he doesn’t mean it deep down. And he knows they still love them too, at least he thinks that. 

Hours went by and Dominic spent most of the day going through brutal training with his father. Thankfully he was done for today but his body feels sore and weak. Because of him constantly disregarding what his father says about training he hasn’t done it in awhile and is a bit out of shape. 

Dominic then went back outside to the greenhouse to grab some plants. He promised one of his old friends that he’d deliver them to their house. He has to be quick though because if his father finds out what he’s doing he’s gonna be punished. Once he grabbed the 3 small plants he headed out to his car, but as he was about to get in his car Xic came up behind him. She grabbed his hair and pinned him against the car. “Where the hell do you think you're going? You know it’s dangerous to go out solo.”

“I’m just delivering something to a friend and yes I know it'd be dangerous, but I'll be fine. And was this really fucking nessacary!?” He yelled at his strong older sister. She scoffed and let him go. 

“As a matter of fact, yes, yes it was. Also you need this if you’re going out,” Xic then took out a gun and handed it to him. Dominic was now annoyed and rolled his eyes. He pushed his sister's hand back. 

“For the last time I’m not carrying a gun around with me.”  Xic then took a knife out of her thigh holster and pointed it at his neck. 

“And for the last time you're a little bitch. I seriously can’t believe I call you my brother and I definitely can’t believe you’re supposed to be fathers successor. You know father was trying to raise soldiers not a bitch like you. Someone who's strong, fearless, loyal, smart, and brave. You’re none of those things.”

Dominic then carefully pushed her hand away to move the knife. He looked into his sister's strong and bright blue eyes and said, “That’s where you’re wrong. I believe everyone is capable of meeting those points. Just depends on how you show it.” 

Xic backed up and scoffed at his response. “Whatever, just go do whatever stupid thing you where about to do,” She said as she then turned and went back inside the house.  Dominic watched her go inside and then got in his car and drove off to his friend's house. 

As he was driving to his friend's house, he started to wonder if Xic actually knew what he said was correct. Normally whenever he points something out like that she seems annoyed and frustrated. This being because half of the time he’s correct causing her to have a reaction like she just did. 

There was this one time when Dominic told Xic to not say gods name in vain and she got pissed off. She got so mad that she went off on this major tangent on how God isn’t real and doesn’t help or care about us: How it's basically everyone for themselves.  He told her that she’s wrong and that God is always there helping, you just never notice. This caused her to flip out and say “If your ‘Oh so helpful God’ is real then prove it.” 

That sentence made Dominic speechless because he couldn’t exactly prove anything physically. Unfortunately Dominic was stuck in a family of atheists but this didn’t stop him from believing in God. Although his sister made it hard for him. 

After a while Dominic went to his friend's house. He got out of his car and grabbed his plants but as he was grabbing them he saw the gun Xic tried to give him in the back seat. “She must’ve thrown it in when I didn’t notice.” 

He stood there for a minute wondering if he should take it with him. Dominic took a deep breath and shut the car door while holding his plants. He went up to the door and knocked. He saw that the lights were off but tried to knock again. “I guess they’re not home. I’ll just leave them here then.”

He bent down and put the small plants down in front of the door and texted his friend to let them know they were here. But as he was texting someone was watching him from afar. Dominic sent his text to his friend and turned around to walk back to his car, but as he turned around he was met with the barrel of a gun. 

In that moment fear and sadness came rushing over him. He doesn’t understand why they were doing this. Did he even do anything? “W-What do you want from me?” 

“Tu vida obviamente. Conocemos a tu padre y también sabemos que se supone que eres su sucesor,” said the man holding the gun. (Translation: Your life obviously. We know your father and we also know you're supposed to be his successor) 

“A-And?” Dominic was shaking and he felt as if his heart was about to explode out of his chest. He was starting to regret not listening to his sister and father about training and being more involved. He was starting to think that if he actually listened would he have gotten out of this situation? Or avoided it in any way? 

“Y si ambos están muertos, el poder cambia y ganamos todo.” (Translation: And if both of you are dead the power shifts and we gain everything) 

“Please don’t do this. I don’t even want to be part of my fathers business,” Dominic pleaded as his eyes got teary. Why are people like this? Why are they so driven by greed and power? It's not like they'll ever be as powerful as God so what's the point? 

“Sorry kid but you were born into the wrong family then,” the man said as his finger pulled back on the trigger. In that moment his life was just taken in an instant but there was no pain felt by Dominic. It was strange since he always thought something like this would be painful. Not just physical but emotionally. Guess death wasn't always what he thought it was, at least not for him. 

It didn't fully register that all he ever wanted in life was now gone. The hopes for his family to understand him a bit better and to live a good life, one led by God, was just taken. He was only surrounded by darkness and cold but now for long. 

Guess death isn't so scary after all. But even so it was a short life he once lived.