Guardian

Chapter 1

Randall Boggs had been living down in the swamps in Louisiana for over five months. It wasn't easy scraping a living down in the filthy swamps. He had barely managed to escape the trailer house where he been beaten nearly to death. He had some scars from the shovel all over his face and on a leg. Nothing crippling though.

The lizard monster felt so alone to be out here like this, but he trusted no one. He tried to remain unseen by the humans. Every human he came across who did see him tried to shoot him or just chased him off.

Randall mostly survived by stealing from the trash, chicken coops, and getting tools from the trash so he could catch wild animals. He had even managed to find a kid's slingshot and backpack in the trash too, which he used rocks as his ammo to get birds out of the air and even some animals from up in trees, though Randall could climb trees too. He really had to focus on squinting hard to catch his targets with the slingshot. What he wouldn't give for a pair of glasses.

The injury to his head had weakened his ability to go invisible, but if he tried hard enough, he could still change colors. But it gave him awful headaches. He figured with some more time he might be able to turn invisible again when his injuries healed some more.

He usually came to the trailer park at night when most of the humans were asleep. He was wary. He watched out for humans' dogs to not give him away.

All Randall knew was that he was here because of two idiots back in his world, who had only tossed him through a door to get rid of him. He was just trying to do a job, one that he was sure was going to benefit their world better than just the old ways. They had had to ruin his plans and protect that child. He hadn't intended to harm her, just have her long enough to get what he needed and would have returned her to her home. But they had to interfere and got him tossed out here where he now had to struggle to survive.

Once he had gotten away, he had been sick and real sore for awhile, but most of his injuries healed, his physical ones anyway. He was still hurting on the inside though. His two rivals were obviously just two more beings that hated him. And he had been friends with Mike once upon a time. And he hadn't thought Sullivan would have done that to anyone. He had always been the big 'nice guy' that everyone loved, while Randall had been the guy everyone hated.

Randall had been doing the scream extractor for both trying to help his world, and what his boss promised him for doing it when it was final if it worked would have been some fame and fortune. He had longed all his life to get some respect from others, to be noticed for doing something good, and the money would have been good too. But he longed to just be noticed for achieving something. Something reptilians were just not recognized for.

For all his trying, everything turned into a failure. He had tried his hardest, to get into the best college, a good reputation and that failed. To have a good job, and that failed him. To have friends that were proud of him and that had failed too. He remembered what he had told Sullivan before the child had jumped on him and got him caught and subdued for Sullivan to toss him into this world.

"Stupid, pathetic waste!" Randall was realizing that's how his whole life felt it was. He had tried to get back to his world through other doors for a month and there had been no luck. He might try again one day, but he had reserved himself to living here for the time being.

One night, while he was in the trailer park scrounging for some more tools or food, he did see a house with its lights still on, and he kept quiet and further away from that house. He saw some human shaped shadows in the windows.

How he envied these humans. They hardly respected any life on their planet. All they seemed to do was live to destroy everything different to them. But here, these humans had nice homes. Or even if they lived poorly, at least they had a roof over their heads while he, Randall, a once nearly top scarer, was now at the bottom of the food chain. He had to struggle just to find food and places to get out of the elements when it rained.

A few nights ago, Randall had found a brand new canteen that had been left outside, which the humans were probably going to be going camping soon. But now it was his. He had found where the park's water system was as some of them had to use it for their water, saying how poor this community was. He filled up the canteen and knew he had to ration his drinking during the next 24 hours. He snuck into fill it every night now that he had it.

He carried the canteen's harness over a shoulder when he was on his way back to look for some food and he passed by the house with the lights on. He was well enough away from it to not be seen or heard, but it startled him when he heard a loud scream.

He turned his head to his left and saw the shadows in the house. He heard shouting and more screaming. He went to check it out. He stayed by a house's steps across from it and stayed on all eights.

"NO! NO! AHHH! I didn't mean to! It won't happen again!" A little kid screamed in terror. It sounded like a little girl.

"I don't care! You're going to get punished, you little brat!" A woman yelled at the kid.

The woman's shadow charged and grabbed the kid by the arm and Randall didn't see what happened, but he knew what was happening when he heard some skin slapping and kid screaming sounds.

It made him cringe. Sure, he was all for scaring kids for their screams back in the day, but this kind was totally different. He had been beaten as a kid too and this scared him. He had had some mean guardians who had caused him several injuries growing up.

"Hope you make it out of that, Kid." He said in a low voice. He walked away from the scene and continued hearing the screaming and crying. It would haunt him the rest of the night, but he did find some food too.

It continued to happen the next few nights he was in the park. He would go to fill up his canteen first and go back to look for food, but he couldn't help but be drawn to that one trailer.

There were screams of terror every night. Randall seemed to be the only one who heard them. After more than five nights of it, he got courage enough to get by the house and try to peek in a window.

There was a blind that was cracked up a bit. He looked inside and he saw a big woman leaning over a crying child. She had just beat her again.

Randall squinted and he could make out a girl with shoulder length black hair, brown eyes, and dirty looks and clothes. She was about seven.

"You take out that trash, now!" The woman ordered in a mean tone.

"Yes, Ma'am."

The girl got up and as Randall saw her, she did look awfully thin too. He saw her grab a garbage bag and was coming to the door. He took off two houses down.

He watched her from a distance. He saw her drag the obviously heavy bag to a trashcan outside. She heaved it over her shoulder and it missed the first time, dumping the can over, making a racket.

"What's going on out there?!" The woman yelled.

"Nothing! Just putting the trash in the can." The girl called back.

"Get it done and get back in here!"

"Coming."

She heaved it into the can and lifted it up. Then she went back inside, nervous and fearing another beating if she didn't do what she was told.

Randall had heard those harsh words too. This reminded himself of the orphanage he had grown up in. He had faced similar words and beatings.

Normally he cared nothing for humans after what they had done to him, and caring about anyone else had just always eluded him because he had never felt love before. He was lucky to experience any friendships at all. But the sounds coming from this child and the harsh words of the mother were pulling at his heart.

As he sat there for a few moments, he soon heard screaming again. Not again! It made tears come to his eyes. It made him realize too that humans could even be abusive to their own kind too.

As bad as that kid had looked, he knew she probably wouldn't last much longer.