Chapter 22

"Here, girl, take some more!" A large black man handed Leo's naked and inebriated mother more rum
for her to drink.

Leo, from the thin sliver in the door, watched with doleful eyes as his pitiful mother drank and slobbered
the alcohol before falling completely off of the bed in a heap and laughing about it. It was at that stage
that Leo pulled himself away from the door and staggered into the tiny kitchen to sit at the table. From
where he was he could hear both his mother and her friend laugh and carry on while the stench of
marijuana left the room making it look as though it were on fire. The young boy pressed his hands
against his ears as tight as he could while weeping ever so quietly. There was always his outside
refuge, but he was so sick and tired of retreating that listening to his mother night in and night out only
seemed therapeutic at that point. And the nights always seemed to drag on endlessly.

"Hey, boy," his mother's friend came into the kitchen with only a pair of boxers on his body. "Why ya in
here" he stumbled. "Why ya not outside where ya belong?"

The man reeked of rum from head to toe. It was so strong on him that it made him smell as if he had
been soaking in the liquid for hours.

Getting up from the table, Leo meekly remarked with his head down, "I was going outside."

The man halted Leo's progression out the doorway. He stood there with his bottle of rum while looking
lazily down at the frightened child.

"Ya never tell me your mama was such a great lay! I'd be over here sooner!" He laughed.

Leo never looked up at the man. He blushed before attempting to bypass him only to be caught by the
man and lifted up by his shirt collar to eye level.

"I be speakin' to ya, boy!" The man breathed into Leo's face.



Leo's tears only grew larger the longer his little body remained in the air. Soon, the man dropped him to
the floor before dragging his drunken body back to the room where Leo's mother was still giggling like a
fool.

Without hesitation Leo got up and ran outside onto the steps where he sat and cried without restraint.
The longer he sobbed the angrier he seemed to become, albeit, the anger was always there, just
tempered by his love for his mother. The more he heard the man inside the shack laugh and toss
bottles around, that was all the more Leo wanted to get up and run off. He sat on the steps and looked
out at the dark, far distance where the mountains rested. Although he couldn't see any of them in the
night Leo was always well aware that they were far from home, and that alone made him feel lighter
than a feather.

After so much crying, Leo eventually wiped his eyes as he stared down at the still busy street and
various people buzzing about before reaching up under one of the steps and pulling out a shoebox. He
removed the lid from off the box and took out a revolver. The boy opened the chamber and examined
all the bullets inside before taking a glance back at his shack's front door with a bitter glare on his wet
face. He then turned back around and looked even harder at the gun, which was a size too big for his
hand, before getting up and heading back for the door.

But just then, a presence halted his every motion. There was something creeping up the metal steps,
and that same something sounded heavy and brooding, like it were stalking after someone. Leo stood
in place at that instant, not exactly from fear but from sheer curiosity. The more he heard his mother
and her friend laugh and carouse inside, the more desperate he was to exact some sort of action.

Leo resumed his angered march towards the door only to be stopped by the sound of something
snarling nearby him. The boy looked down the stairs and into the busy street but couldn't seem to spot
anything that would resemble such a noise. He then went over to the other side of the stairs and
peered down only to hear the snarling racket grew even more intense. Leo jumped back, dropping his
gun to the ground in the process. The heavy plodding made the already fragile steps sound as if they



were about to collapse under the weight of whatever was creeping upon them. Out of fear, Leo knelt
down and wedged his little body underneath one of the steps with only a few inches separating both
him and the thing that was prowling about.

Leo waited with paused breath until the sight of fur could be seen. The fur seemed to linger on forever
before two shining beams appeared from out of nowhere. The snarling noise came face to face with
Leo who was by then shivering underneath the stairs. The two beams blinked off and on at him before
a set of slobbering, white fangs appeared right before his very eyes. The boy could smell the mustiness
of the animal's thick fur. Leo grunted while losing his breath. He knew that the animal had heard him,
and yet, just belting out a simple squeak for help was nearly impossible.

All of the sudden, Leo's mother and her friend shrieked out in laughter so loud that it must have startled
the beast. The thing spun around with the quickness of a cat and rampaged through the flimsy door.
Leo gritted his teeth and listened as the animal roared so loud before causing both his mother and her
friend to holler out in absolute terror. Leo slid out from underneath the steps and stood and watched as
the glow of the lamplight that was inside his home was flung to one corner to the other. All he could
hear was his mother and her friend being ripped apart by whatever had invaded his tenement.

"What's gwan on up here, boy?" An older man ran up behind Leo.

But Leo had no words for the old man. All he could do was stand in awe and listen as bodies were
being tossed about.

"What is dat up in dere?" The man screamed at Leo.

Right then, the boyfriend came limping out the door a bloody mess before being dragged right back
inside yelling and fighting for one last grasp of life. The old man immediately grabbed Leo and took him
back down the steps where others were standing and wondering just what on earth was taking place.

"What's happening?" A woman shouted from her dwelling.



"Dere's someting up dere!" The old man breathlessly cried out as he kept on running down the stairs.

Soon, the beast tore out of Leo's home and began ripping through one shelter after another. Either
people came running and screaming for their lives or were swallowed up in the demonic whirlwind; no
matter the case, the shanty was under a full blown assault.

The very moment Leo and the old man made it downstairs to the sidewalk a burst of fire exploded from
within one of the tenements. People came racing and falling down the stairs in reckless abandon with
their children and other important items.

"I hear it before!" An older lady came down screaming her head off. "It's happening all over again!"

The beast roared so loud that even a few cars and mopeds on the street came to screeching halts. The
top of the shanty was completely engulfed in flames, and the fire was descending and spreading
rapidly.

"I saw something up dere!" A young, naked man came tripping down the stairs. "It's big and it has
teeth!"

All young Leo could do was stand in the middle of the street along with some of the other residents and
helplessly watch as their homes caught on fire, all the while listening as the creature crashed and
roared through like a wrecking machine. By then, it was safe to assume that whoever was not gathered
along with everyone on the street was either eaten or burned alive.

"Dear God, it's happening all over again!" The old lady wailed as some of the others tried to console
her. "Don't let dis happen again, God! Not again!"

People ran away as a couple of the dwellings came crashing down to the street. A fire truck could be
heard blaring in the near distance behind everyone, but that sound was eclipsed by the shrill howling of



a brute that seemed to overwhelm the warm nighttime air

And then...the rain began.


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