The Birth of Bane (28 page)

Eli nodded
gravely. “You’re gonna have to. You don’t have a car.” He was
nodding emphatically now. “Good thing you and my mom work so close
together.”

His young mind
hadn’t processed the fact that was how they’d met in the first
place. To my little brother, Scott had magically found our house
one day and our mother had befriended him.

I was smiling at
him, sitting next to his small body in the back seat.

“
Yeah, I guess
I’m a lucky man in that regard,” he said bravely in front of us
kids.

My
m
om actually did something
miraculous; she reached over and stroked his cheek. It was the most
intimate thing I’d ever witnessed her do with a man, including my
one-time father.

Scott smiled
back at her, nonplused. It must’ve been something she’d done on a
regular basis with him.

Eli had a huge
grin on his face.

I was glad for
it.

He was glad for
my m
om.

*****

It was the front
door I heard first. Or, at least it was the sound of something
massive hitting it. The entire house shook with the ferocity of the
impact.

I sat up in bed,
the covers tumbling off me, breathing heavily, heart pounding in my
chest, unsure if I’d heard thunder or an explosion.
It could’ve been thunder, right?
There’s nothing that could’ve hit the house
that
hard
unless…

…
Could it have
been an airplane?

It was the only
thing I could think of. Cars or trucks couldn’t get near the house,
because of the rugged terrain and the steep slope leading to it
from the street. Even a dirt bike would have a hard time
negotiating the incline, as well as the bushes and shrubs, the
retaining walls, and everything else growing in the front
yard.

I continued to
sit there, listening, half-poised to leap to my feet, but still
uncertain of what to do exactly. I was confused.
Could it have been -?

It came
again.

It was a great
crash. Only this time it was followed by the crackle of ripping
wood and a much smaller, secondary thud that came from within the
house.

I was on my
feet, somehow able to slide into my slippers, making to head
downstairs. I tripped on the bed sheet that had somehow wrapped
itself around the lower portion of my body. I stumbled, my shoulder
smacking into the back of the officer chair I had improperly shoved
back under my desk. “Mother Fu -!” I was about to yell in
frustration.

“
Get the fuck out of my house!
” she screamed.

I felt the
finger of death itself ride the length of my spine. Or, at least, I
thought it was death. It turned out to be something
else.

“
I told you I wasn’t done with you, Pillar!”
came the answering
voice.

Raw dismay made
me whimper pathetically, remembering the phone call, the
threat.
I had to get to my
mother!

“
Come on, let’s fuck up this bitch!
”

I could’ve sworn
I heard laughter from another male
inside the house.

I reached the
threshold to my room and shot forth into the hallway beyond within
seconds.

Then,
“Hey, it’s time for you guys to get out
of here! This is no place for you!”
It was Scott; only his tone was calmer, steadier. There were
no raging emotions coursing through his body. Even as he faced what
I was imagining was more than one attacker he was
level-headed.

I rounded the
corner and saw Eli peeping out of his room. “Go back inside,
Elijah! Wait for Valerie!” Even to my ears my voice sounded shrill,
frantic. I could see the fear deepen on his face. He was shaking,
visibly.

“
What the fuck
is he doing here?!”

I was at the top
of the stairs, my chest filling with ragged breaths.
Mom, stay away! Stay safe! Get away
from them!

“
How the hell
should I -?”

I placed my foot
atop the first step -.

I could sit here
and tell you it was a wail I heard next, but there isn’t a word
adequate to describe what suddenly assaulted my ears the next
moment. A scream was incorrect. A screech would depict something
high-pitched and sharp. An ululation would detail something long,
drawn-out, howl-ish. What I heard was nothing like any of those
words. Or, maybe the correct way to sit here and explain what
assailed my olfactory sense was to say it was all of them, put
together, spoken through a solitary throat, but done so a multitude
of voices.

It was so loud,
it was nearly as thunderous as the impact I’d heard less than a
minute prior.

As I pounded
down the steps toward the first floor a racket resounded underfoot
like a tussle of giants thrashing and rumbling the earth itself. I
stumbled for a second time, the stairs bouncing and bumping under
the soles of my feet. I reached out to steady myself against the
narrow confines of the stairwell, scraping the base of my palms in
the process. Though I was loath to do so, I had to slow in order
stop myself from a bad fall down the meandering passage. I knew if
I hadn’t I would’ve broken my neck.

Mom!
Mom!

Ahead, there was
abruptly no sound, as if everything – all movement, all noise – had
been cut off by a switch.

I couldn’t help
myself. “Mom! I’m coming! Mom!” I resumed running, terrified at
what the silence might mean. “Mom, I’m coming!”

I had to get to
her. I had to protect her. All of my life I had sat beside her
while she cried, while she nursed the unfair bruises dotting her
back or her neck, sometimes they trailed down to her breasts. They
had looked so painful. I couldn’t stand aside any longer. I
couldn’t let her get hurt again without a fight. I wouldn’t be able
to live with myself if anything happened to her and I had done
nothing to prevent it. I had stayed obedient son long
enough.
I had been the
supportive, first-born child for far too long. It was time for me
to step up and be the man my father could never be. I didn’t care
what happened to me. I wasn’t going to go down without a
struggle.

If I had to… I
would kill my own father. Tonight would mark the beginning of the
end, this would be the final act of the story Lenny had initiated
during the summer. It would end now. I would see it
through.

I rounded
through the back porch, used every handhold possible to fly through
the kitchen and into the dining room beyond. I came into the room
so fast I nearly tripped over Scott. He was facedown, his hands
over his eyes. It looked like he was writhing in pain. He kept
trying to get up with use of his knees, but they kept sliding upon
the smoothness of the hardwood floors. He seemed oblivious to my
presence, his entire focus on trying to get up from the
ground.

I peered around,
wild with fright, my heart thrashing against my ribcage.
“
MOM!”
I bellowed, stepping over the twisting form of her
boyfriend. He would have to sit tight for the time
being.

I heard crying
and turned to the right, gazing past the dining table, now askew.
Something heavy had moved it aside. My eyes darted passed the
chairs, each of them thrown asunder as if some hurricane wind had
blown them every which way.

I saw them,
huddle pathetically together, trembling in each other’s
arms.

“
Mom, Valerie -
are you ok?!?” I came to them in two giant steps, my arms around
both of them, holding them, loving them, so relieved they didn’t
appear hurt in any way. “What happened?”

Neither of them
answered. Neither of them so much as moved… other than quiver under
my embrace.

It was like I
wasn’t even there.

I was stupefied.
My head swiveled to and fro trying to ascertain what had occurred.
Darkness was everywhere. There’d been no moon that night. I scanned
the living room for clues and saw nothing out of the ordinary. I
looked back toward the front door… or where it should’ve
been.

It wasn’t there
any longer.

Rather, it hung
from a single hinge, half-lying, half-propped up, the upper corner
gouged into the plaster of the wall. Something had blasted it from
its’ moorings. It had been something gigantic.

I saw a body,
supine, upon the wood of the porch, unmoving. From here I knelt, I
couldn’t tell if the person was breathing.

I looked at my
mother and my sister for a second time. “Are you guys
alright?”

Nothing.

I realized,
deflated, I couldn’t help them. For some reason they were beyond
me.

I stood, and
then hunkered toward the body on the porch. As I approached I could
tell the person was in fact still alive. It was a male, gasping for
air, hands at his sides, tearing into the wood when they should’ve
been clawing for air. It took me a few seconds to realize, he
wasn’t struggling for breath. He was aspirating so fast, he was
nearly hyperventilating. I stared down to gaze into his wide-eyes,
searching. I felt my brow furl.

He was scared
shitless. I was looking at a man near mad with fear.

I was about to
ask what had happened when two things transpired simultaneously. I
recognized him and he spoke.

“…
G-g-got
hii-m-m-m…,” said my uncle Kory. I hadn’t seen him in over three
years, because he’d been locked up in County for drug
trafficking.

What the hell
was this nutsack doing at my house?

“
I-i-i-i-it
go-t-t-t-t h-h-h-h-iiiimmmm,” he tried for a second time, and then
he passed out.

I came
completely erect, my eyes gazing over the front yard on the other
side of the ledge surrounding the porch. I saw the portly form of
another man, running down the walk, dropping what looked like a
baseball bat onto the ground. He was whimpering like a child, one
of his hands clutching at the seat of his pants as though he’d
crapped in them.

The fog
surrounding my mind was clearing.

If my Uncle Kory
was sprawled at the front of the house, then the fat ass fumbling
down the walk had be his older brother, my Uncle Melvin. Both of
them were Lenny’s half-brothers, begat of his mother and one of her
many male suitors that came later in her life. Both of them were
jailbirds, long-time, petty criminals that would do anything to
score some quick money or a nice baggy of coke.

Now, I
understood why they were here. They – the two of them – were going
to give my mother a beating unlike anything she’d received in the
past. Maybe they’d come to rape her too, have a little fun before
they finished the job and killed her. I wouldn’t put it past them.
They’d been busted for doing just that years ago. Why would they
stop now?

I would never
know. I would never get the chance to ask.

I faint scraping
sounded to my left, from the other side of the small patio set
below the windows of the kitchen. Instinctively, my orbs moved, my
head followed with my body half-turning at the waist.

I was just in
time to see jeans and a pair of Earth Shoes slide out of view along
the side of the house. I was just in time to realize there’d been
yet another man within them. It was like a ton of bricks fell from
on high, directly into my shoulders.

Lenny was
the
only
person on the planet I knew who still had a decent
pair of Earth Shoes, who still had gall enough to wear them. My
father had come to exact his revenge after all.

Only… someone
was dragging my one-time father around the side of the
house!

But who…?
Bruce?

He was the only
person I could think of that would’ve been on the property this
time of night. Unless… Lenny had brought more people than Kory and
Melvin.
But who? Who would be
willing to beat up a defenseless woman in her own home? Who else
was there?
I couldn’t think of
anyone in the family, or anyone he’d know.
Who the fuck does he know anyhow? He’s a god damned,
glorified accountant!

The scraping
continued, growing all the more distant with every passing
second.

“
Bruce what are
you doing?” I called, stepping the remainder of the way across the
porch to the steps leading to the patio. “Where are you going?” He
was the only one strong enough the drag my one-time father way in
that fashion. It had to be him.

Only the sounds
of the night and the abrading of the back of Lenny’s shoes could be
heard.

I scurried
across the patio and around the side of the house.

I couldn’t
believe what I saw. Somehow, the side gate has been thrown
wide-open. And when I say wide-open, I mean it was hurtled open
with such force, it’s embedding into the fencing separating our
property from that of our neighbor’s. Yet, I hadn’t heard anything.
There had been no noise.