#If she knew what he'd done tho she'd be pretty upset and probably tell Hector to throw him into the sun tho

[mwolf0epsilon]

For the first time in quite a while,Hector could remember. He could remember a lot of things he’d forgotten. Including why he was this...This THING. He could remember that tt was Ernesto’s fault.

Chasing him down was the easiest thing Hector had ever done. The second easiest being picking him up, since he’d backed himself into a corner. The damned rat had been trying to get into HIS house for protection against well deserved justice. How dare he. How DARE he, after what he’d DONE. Thanks to him, Imelda would have to raise a child without a husband. Thanks to him, Coco would grow up without a father. All for what? A few stupid songs? A pretty little guitar?! He’d taken EVERYTHING from him! All for his own selfish needs! And now? Now Hector would retribute the favor by taking his life.

He could feel Ernesto squirm like the worthless worm he was, and he could see twin trickles of blood begin to drip from his nose due to the sheer strain on his body. Ernesto was sweating and tearing up and trying to scream for help only to choke up when Hector’s grip was far too tight to do anything of the sort. Really, it wouldn’t be hard to snap his spine in half in one go, but Hector wanted it to be as slow as possible. Let the bastard feel every rib shatter and every bone turn to mush. He deserved the pain. He felt himself smile, teeth bared at the mariachi who’d stolen his life away, only for it to drop when he heard a terrified scream from down bellow.

Coco had come out onto the balcony to investigate the noise. The sight before her had made her knees buck from pure fright. From Hector’s perspective, he was justified in what he was doing. From her’s, a giant monster threatened the life of her father’s best friend. Hector stared down at his daughter in shock, at a loss for what to do until Ernesto began to kick and scream for help once more. That got a furious growl out of him as he tightened his grip once more, but the resulting scream of pain only seemed to further upset Coco.

“S-Señor Esqueleto stop! You’re hurting him!”

That was the idea, make him hurt. Make him hurt until he died. Ernesto wailed once more as he felt one of his ribs threaten to snap. “P-Please stop! Y-You’re hu-hurting....You’re h-hurting papá’s friend!”

Hector wanted so desperatly to tell her that, no, Ernesto de la Cruz was NOT his friend. But another part of him, the more rational part, knew that she didn’t know this and that he shouldn’t risk damaging her hearing just because he was upset.

“I-I don’t...I don’t know what h-happened to p-papá t-to keep him f-from coming b-back, but...But if t-tío Ernesto gets h-hurt bad he’ll....He’ll be really sad! A-and I don’t...I don’t want papá to be s-sad!” Too late for that. The longer he focused on his daughter, the less Hector paid Ernesto and his crimes any mind. In fact, his mind was wandering away from that topic completely to worry over something else. His Coco, out in the cold, on her knees, crying and begging for the life of someone she didn’t know was a bad man. That made him feel...Weird. Upset even. But not at her, rather, himself? He hadn’t been doing anything wrong...Had he?

“P-Please put h-him down...Pl-please Señor E-Esqueleto...Do-don’t be a bully..Don’t be a monster...”

A....Monster? He wasn’t...Was he? He... Hector’s mind went blank with horror as it downed on him what he’d nearly done. Correction...What he’d nearly done in front of his daughter! He wasn’t a monster! He hadn’t meant to be one! Ernesto had made him one! But...But he hadn’t. Ernesto wasn’t some witch, he couldn’t have made Hector the way he was now. That was all on him. Hector barely had the time to recover from this grim realization when the light in Coco’s room turned on and a terrified shriek rang out into the night. His own personal crisis was only the beginning of his problems.

I was inspired to draw and write PAIN. This will eventually be properly incorporated into one of the fics. I can garantee you one thing tho, Ernesto’s motives to be in Santa Cecilia at the moment aren’t...Very pure...So this is kind of well deserved in regards to what he was planning away. He just didn’t really count on Hector being around. Backgrounds continue to be a pain to draw.