I didn’t think a forty-three-year-old geezer could be so gullible, but the fact that he brought me all the way here, this very moment, proved me wrong. They say being sixteen was one of the worst ages you could be. Too old to be babied, and yet you’re also too young to be treated like an adult or at least taken seriously. Now imagine being sixteen while also being a girl. All the sick fucks and weirdos in this world love the sound of that.

  Fortunately, there were still a few people left who weren't weird. The ones who saw someone like me and couldn’t help but feel pity in their hearts. The ones who would do everything in their power to “protect” and “take care” of me ‘cause they saw me as nothing more than a weak child.

  Jerome was one of them. He wasn’t a fake like those workers in the Slavelands, who ended up betraying me to score points with the overseers. I knew from the long hours I spent inside his body that a simple man like him had no ulterior motives. Lying about shit like that wasn’t in his nature.

  All he wanted to do… was love me.

  Stupid. Idiotic. Pathetic. Small-minded. Gullible. Soft.

  Soft, soft man.

  All it took was some good ol’ submissiveness and firing up the waterworks and I had him wrapped around my green finger. As for his daughter, it wasn’t hard to appear better than someone as emotionally unstable as her. Not to mention, I was way stronger too. Once he saw that level of power, I knew he’d bring me here.

  To him.

  Michael fucking Corleone. This was supposed to be my moment. My moment to show this asshole the rage of someone's who's been beaten, pushed around, and abused for far too fucking long.

  So why the hell wasn't he paying attention to me? Why was I sitting on my ass when I should've been turning Michael into mincemeat? And why the fuck was Jerome so powerful now?

  Just trying to stand up was an issue for me, and yet Michael was doing it so casually. The pressure, the atmosphere, the air itself–it felt terrifying being in this damn room. I wanted to leave. I wanted to go back home.

  I wanted my mo-

  “Don’t tell me you’re still frightened by this powerful transformation, kid?” My eyes widened as I looked up at the zombie. “If you can’t even withstand my presence, then how are you going to defeat this human who’s treated you like feces for so long. Get up and fight, or I will absorb you.”

  “What?” I smiled. Not a smile of happiness, but the type you do when you really wanna hit someone really, really annoying.

  “I’d rather not protect someone who’s fully capable of protecting themselves,” he added, cracking his neck.

  “Uh, ok?” Michael said in a confused tone. “I should add… while you and the girl are certainly fast enough to stop me from manually making Sunshine go kaboom, if my heart stops, she will explode. This is what we call contingency pla-”

  I blinked once, and Jerome had already left the room. That didn’t bother me. It gave me some much needed alone time with Michael, and the only one who was going to kill him was me.

  I slowly regained my bearings as the sound of walls breaking filled my ears. “Don’t act like you didn’t see this coming, you bastard. Today’s the day you die.”

  He didn’t even glance at me. That status board in his hand seemed more important.

  “I know you hear me, asshole.” I raised a variety of plant life from deep within the ground and battered the floor near his feet. Killing him quickly wouldn’t satisfy me. I needed some pain, some screams of horror first. “After all the shit you’ve done, now you don’t wanna speak? Or are you that terrified of-”

  “Yeah, uh, I'll take a number 8, I guess… And no ketchup or any other kind of sauce please. My taste buds have no sense of diversity… Just deliver it to Hallowsville. Wait by the entrance gate. I'll have someone pick it up.”

  The sheer audacity for this man to order food right in front of me threw all my previous plans out the window. The target of my aggression switched from the innocent floor to Michael. I aimed my hand at him, sending plants to skewer that dumb suit and that stupid fucking face. But the moment they got close, they disappeared, burned to bits by some unknown force.

  “Huh!?” I exclaimed, sweat running down my face. This wasn't from nervousness. No way it was. The heat in the room had increased somehow.

  The leader of the Slavelands sighed, still refusing to look at me. “Attacking someone without introducing yourself is very rude, kid. Manners are essential.”

  “You know exactly who I am! Don’t play dumb.” My fists began to shake. “You enslaved me and my mom and caused so much pain for us. She-She… She died because of you!”

  After a long pause, the man’s eyes widened for just a second. That one second of recognition nearly brought a smirk to my face.

  Then he spoke. “Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?”

  My teeth gritted so hard it felt like they were gonna crack. “I’m your daughter!”

  “Which one?”

  Has he done this so many times that I was so unimportant to him? Was I really just another victim?

  “Sunflower Ramirez!” I shouted, leaves swirling around me, ready to rip the fucker a new asshole.

  Michael’s lips slowly curled into a small smile, his pupils dilating. “Ooooh. You're Rosalina’s daughter. I didn’t recognize you at first because of this new look. You look like a Radion threw you up. Also, I remember renaming you Victoria.”

  “That is not my name!” I growled, sending a swarm of leaves towards his face. Unfortunately, those were incinerated as well. “What is this heat? Y-You don’t have any powers.”

  “I never understood why you hated that name so much. For starters, it’s an actual normal name unlike “Sunflower”, and isn’t the result of an attempt at making you more unique than you really are. It also rolls off the tongue better.”

  “You’re attempting to erase my identity!”

  Michael’s smile left his mouth. “No, I am attempting to name you after someone I loved very much. A very… nice woman.”

  The idea of this monster being in a genuine relationship almost made me puke, though that meant he was somehow capable of feeling emotion.

  I took a deep breath and smirked. “Loved, huh? So she died? Serves you right, dick. I’m a strong believer in karmic justice, after all.”

  “I’m the one who killed her.”

  “Wha-”

  “She was not cooperating with my plans for the future, so I had to remove her from the equation. Permanently.” Michael paused for a bit. “Do you know why I gave you that name over any of my other hellspawns? It’s because I love you.”

  Hearing those words made me feel like I was laying down on a hill filled with the prettiest flowers in the world. And I hated that so much.

  “You don’t mean th-”

  “Do you know what I saw the first time I met you? Potential. An infinite amount of potential.” Michael chuckled softly. “I know it sounds crazy to think that about an infant, but it’s true. You have the power to change the world with me, so why waste it playing for a losing team? I’ve studied your power extensively. You don’t just control plants. You have the potential to control all aspects of nature. You and I could do so much together…” He held his hand out. “As a family.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  My lips quivered as I struggled to come up with a response. His hand looked so enticing, like taking it would change everything in my life.

  “And not just family,” he continued, taking a step forward. “You’ll have power, status, and all the food and drinks you could ever want. No one would ever treat you like dirt ever again. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted? To be accepted?”

  Michael Corleone was the most cruel person I’ve ever met in my life, and yet that didn’t stop my legs from moving towards him. Even if that love was fake, if all this pain and these bad feelings went away, if all of these shitty memories were erased, then I’d take something fake over nothing at all.

  “Is this really what you want?”

  I stopped. My father didn’t speak. That didn’t come from me either. It looked like my brain decided to torment me some more with my mother’s voice. But things could be different now. All my mom wanted was for us to be free, right? Taking his hand was the first step to that. Even if I had to change my name.

  “Sunflowers are strong. You give them enough time to grow, and they’ll withstand any force that could be thrown at them. Wind, rain…getting stomped down—they can take on any of that. Why do you think I gave you that name? It’s because I know you’re going to be the strongest girl around. Mi girasolito.”

  “Mi girasolito…” I placed my hand on my chest. “Lo siento, mamá. Casi te olvido…”

  “Don't listen to that voice in your head, Victoria. Your mother’s trying to keep you in the same place that's caused you so much pain. Move past your traumas. That's what I want to help you-”

  “Shut up, Michael,” I said calmly. “Moving past my traumas doesn't mean forgetting them. It means accepting what happened and finding something better to think about.” I smiled softly. “A really gullible man told me that once.”

  “That gullible man killed your mother.”

  other.”

  “Absorbing my mother didn’t kill her. Jerome saved her. From being in a world where a manipulative asshole like you still exists. She’s still alive inside of him.” I first pointed to my head. “And in here.” Then to my chest. “And I can’t forget in here too.”

  Michael gave me a blank stare, and then sighed like someone who just sat through a boring lecture. “This outcome was very unfortunate. You know what your problem is, kid? Every opportunity to better your life is given to you on a silver platter, and yet you repeatedly slap the plate away. This is exactly why no one likes-”

  “You talk too much,” I interrupted, blasting another array of plants at my bastard father. That was when a beam of fire ripped through the floor and incinerated my attack with no effort. The mystery of who the attacker was didn’t last long as jumped up and landed in front of me, the entire room shaking from just his entrance.

  It was a miracle the guy could even fit in the room considering I was only the height of his leg. Hell, you could probably fit three of me from his left to right shoulder. He probably knew how much of a giant he was since he had to stand inside like a hunchback.

  Michael chuckled. “Are you really sweating before the fight has even begun?”

  An uncomfortable amount of sweat from my body dripped onto the floor. It was already hot before this big guy made his entrance, but now it was like the sun was shining directly on me. Could you blame me? It was hard not to sweat when a giant hunk of fire and molten rock was right in front of you.

  I’d never seen this kind of monster before, though his appearance was similar to Jerome’s. Although, instead of yucky ooze coating the enemy’s skeleton, it was fire, and it gave his thick bones a charred look.

  “Too afraid to fight me yourself, coward?” I asked Michael. “Just how many sickos from your fucked up family am I gonna see this week?”

  “I have this thing called “allies”, which I know is a foreign concept to you,” he replied, placing his hands behind his back. “I’d say you should use them, but you don’t have any, do you?”

  “I don’t need allies to kick your a-”

  A blast of fire nearly hit my face, but I jumped to the side at the last second. I scurried to the corner of the basement, the sight of the smoking hole in the wall grimly reminding me of the situation. The flamy dickhead’s condescending smile snapped me out of my fear, and I quickly regained my bearings.

  “It’s not me you need to worry about. It’s him. Let me introduce you to the Fire Type Two Radion Variant.” Michael began to walk out of the room. “Also, don’t kill her. Just, like, break her bones. Make her cry or something. I plan on taking her back with me, after all.”

  The leaves on the floor sharpened, and then followed my father. “Don’t lea-”

  The Radion smashed my head into the wall behind me, his hand searing through my skin. I wanted to scream. He didn’t let me. His fiery fingers pinched my mouth shut as he drove me through wall after wall. No, he didn’t throw me or punch me through them. He walked, dragging me along, forcing my face to feel every burst of heat.

  To conclude his fiery torture, the zombie brought me outside with a punch to my gut. I landed on a street. People in weird costumes holding pumpkin baskets watched me struggle to get up, though it didn’t take them long to run once the Flame Radion came walking.

  Somehow his presence made the cool night air irrelevant. My cheeks stung like hell, and I was afraid just touching them would bring the same fate to my fingers.

  “Rose-Alina.”

  After that whisper, a tiny rose sprouted in the middle of my chest. My powers were a bad matchup for his fire, but there were things fire produced that would help this plant grow. Heat and light. If this flower got enough of that—no matter how much it may hurt—then I’d be able to hit him with something really powerful.

  “How much… did he pay you… to beat up a teenager?” I asked, glaring at my enemy.

  He tilted his head, as if what I asked was idiotic. Honestly, it was. Michael Corleone could give you anything you wanted as long as you did what he wanted first. Money, fame, power, women—nothing was out of reach for him.

  But what the fuck could a fire monster even want? Money? That shit would burn at his fingertips. Women? Did he even have a dick? If he did, wouldn’t that hurt?

  It didn’t matter what the answers were. I just needed to buy time.

  “What? Cat got your tongue?” I chuckled. “Or in your case… a pebble?”

  My joke fell on deaf ears. That wasn’t the only thing to fall as the Radion jumped up into the sky and crashed down on my gut with the full force of his elbow. Pain detonated inside of me as a green liquid shot out of my mouth.

  It looked like blood.

  His hot breath tortured my nostrils while he stood back up. It smelled worse than the Shit Hole back in the Slavelands—a makeshift toilet workers used when the overseers locked the doors to the actual bathrooms so they could get a quick laugh. I coughed violently, gripping my belly. The rose was starting to grow, so I guess that elbow drop was worth it.

  “Wow, you’ve gotten more durable since the last time I saw you. Guess we’ll need more than a whip to put you in your place.” I looked to my left and noticed Michael sitting on top of a yellow car, chowing down on a strange looking meal.

  Michael flaunted what I assumed to be a sandwich, but the bread was round and a dark brown. “Oh, you don’t know what this is, right? Back in my day, we called this a burger. But they stopped making them since people were too scared to run their businesses in the apocalypse. Fortunately, tons of small businesses were able to get back up and running because of my funding, including a few fast food chains.”

  How the hell could food be fast if food didn’t have legs? There were bigger fish to fry than answering that question, like bracing myself for what the Radion was about to do next.

  The giant picked me up by my hair, drool like lava seeping through his teeth. He wanted to eat me. Not even his soulless eyes could hide that. But he couldn’t, and maybe that’s why he kept slamming me into the ground. To quell those disgusting urges.

  After what felt like a minute, the zombie stopped. However, that wasn’t the kind of pain I needed.

  “Is… that… all you got?” I snickered, crawling on the cracked concrete. “You’re gonna need… a lot more firepower to take me down.”

  And with that, the Radion gave me exactly what I asked for. The fire blasts were small and looked more like embers than anything deadly—activated by the simple snap of his fingers. Perhaps that was the point. Why take it seriously when these wisps were enough to expose how pathetic I truly was?

  Michael watched blankly as he chewed his food. Those dead eyes of his rarely changed in all the years I’ve seen him. It wasn’t like I wanted him to show a hint of regret. No, the complete opposite, actually. Just one laugh. One evil fucking laugh that would prove everything I thought about him right.

  Everything about my life was fucked up ‘cause he hated me, ‘cause he wanted me dead, ‘cause he wanted me to suffer. His words didn’t mean shit if he still had that deadpan expression behind it. If I didn’t mean a thing to my father, then what was the point of any of it?

  If he was treating this like just another Corleone Family mission, then what was the fucking point of any of it!?

  Sure, these two thought I was a weak and pathetic child, but my mom didn’t. Her words, love, and everything she stood for was in this rose that had grown big enough for them to notice.

  The Flame Radion stopped blasting and looked at his employer.

  Michael raised an eyebrow. “Is that a flower?”

  “It’s not just a flower,” I murmured coldly. “It’s a flower that’s gonna fucking kill you!”

  “Rose-Alina: Sunspot!”

  A beam of light erupted from the rose, showering the monster with its full power. The glow intensified until electricity crackled wildly in the air. Then, all at once, the energy detonated in a blinding explosion that hurled me backward.

  I hit the ground hard, rolling over dirt and debris until my back slammed against a broken wall. The impact knocked the air out of my lungs, but at least I stopped moving. Smoke and light filled the air where the beam had struck, swallowing everything in a white haze.

  For a moment, I just lay there, chest heaving, staring at the faint shimmer of the rose’s remains. The tension in my shoulders finally eased, a wave of relief washing over me.

  That was until a loud thud snapped me back to reality.

  Through the thinning smoke, a massive silhouette emerged, unbothered and still burning brighter than ever. The Flame Radion was stomping towards me with not a single lick of damage on him.

  “I-I don’t understand,” I said, my body shaking. “That should've done.. something.”

  “But it didn’t.” The Corleone Family boss sauntered onto the scene, yawning. “Also, can we talk about your name choice? ‘Rose-Alina: Sunspot’? Don’t tell me that was supposed to be the culmination of you and your mother’s relationship? The final attack that would conclude your arc? Let me give you a reality check, kid. That’s not how real life works.”

  “No… that’s not-”

  “Break her left arm.”

  Before I could even process his words, a scorching embrace wrapped around my arm. Then, there was the loud crack. My shrieks were even louder.

  “There are three things guaranteed in this world,” Michael continued, raising three fingers. “Life, Death, and your life being absolutely terrible. Break her right leg.”

  The Radion followed his orders. I screamed again, but I kept the tears locked away. If I cried now, then what would my mom think of me?

  “Everything Rosalina stood for, I snuffed out. And it will continue to be snuffed out not because I want to, but because you want them to.”

  My eyes widened. “What the hell do you mean by that!?”

  “You are an open book, kid. You avoid getting close with anyone because you don’t think you deserve any kind of relationship. You constantly get into fights because you want someone, anyone to punish you for what you did. You were unable to save your mother because you were too weak.”

  I didn’t say a word. The way my dad stood there and said all of that in such a casual, conversational tone left me stunned. How did he do it? What… kind of person was he?

  Michael paused for a second. “You know what Rosalina told me a year after you were born? She said she regretted having you.”

  “Bullshit!”

  “Kid, when have I ever lied to you…?”

  I didn’t respond, crawling away from the two with the only arm I had left. He had to be lying, but Michael was never wrong about anything. He had no reason to lie about anything. If perfection had a definition, it would just be a picture of him.

  Michael sighed. “Of course your silly flower wouldn’t do anything when the inspiration was a pathetic woman like her.”

  For the first time since he showed up, the zombie made a sound. It wasn’t a sentence or even a word. It sounded like he was holding back laughter. A couple seconds later, and the bastard couldn’t hold it any longer. But I wasn’t angry at that moment. Instead, I was shocked.

  Michael Corleone was laughing too.

  His eyes were judgmental, and even the zombie’s were the same. I knew I said a real sinister laugh from that man would satisfy me. I’d like to take that back. They weren’t laughing at me.

  They were laughing at my mother.

  Oh, I get it now. So these were what monsters looked like, huh?

  I’m sorry, Jerome.

  “Jerome…” I said under my breath, staring at the sky.

  “What was that?” Michael asked, leaning in and putting a hand behind his ear.

  “Jerooome, help meeee!” I cried out, the tears finally escaping their cage. The city was still silent. “There’s a monster here! I… I need you! Please! If you can hear me, I’m over here! Jerome, I need your help! I don’t want to go… Jerome.”

  “Oh, brother, you’re one of those,” Michael groaned. “No one can hear you. No one is going to save you. You’re coming with me.”

  My father was perfect in every way. I’ve seen many people try to stop him, and they all failed.

  But even so… I still need you, Jerome. I’ve been told so many times that when people are thrust into the deepest darkness, they try their hardest to seek a ray of light. It didn’t matter how small or faint it was. I always thought that was a waste of time, but Jerome, I want you to be that light.

  If you were serious about making me your daughter, then don’t just leave me here!

  “Now then… break her left leg.”

  The Flame Radion’s shadow loomed overhead. My vision was fading in and out, the world tilting as my body gave up on holding itself together.

  Then, just as his burning hand reached down for me, the ground beneath us trembled. A violent wind swept across the street, carrying embers and ash with it. In an instant, I felt my body lift off the ground, weightless for a moment before I was pressed against something solid.

  It wasn’t until we stopped that I was able to get a good look at the person carrying me. It was a zombie. But not that flamy bastard. It was…

  “Jerome…” I said weakly and on the verge of passing out.

  Jerome didn’t answer, but his grip tightened around me, steady yet trembling with fury. This time, he was back to what he usually looked like, and that scared the hell out of me.

  “W-Why are… you here?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” he replied, his voice oozing with an increasing rage. “It’s because you’re my daughter.” The zombie turned to the two monsters behind us. “And now I’m wondering what these assholes think they’re doing to my fucking daughter.”