The Pet

Prolouge

Damien stared dumbfounded at the two equally large and menacing men standing on his front porch. They had to be six foot four at least. Their heads were bald and shiny and skin just as pale. Their eyes were crimson red and boy did he want to squirm under their piercing gaze, but his pride would not allow that. He was not going to let these two guys intimidate him in his own home.

Damien stood straighter and rounded his shoulders. "Is there something I can help you with?" he was definitely not calling them gentlemen because he could feel the menace rolling off them in sickening waves.

"Where is Katie Vahn?" one said.

They hadnt introduced themselves so he didnt know their names and they looked too damn alike for his liking. So he just labeled them one and two so he knew who was speaking and who was trying to intimidate.

"Where is Katie Vahn?" number one asked again. His voice slightly heated. Guess he wasnt used to having people hesitate to answer him.

"What is it that you want her for?"

"We have a message that only she must read," number two spoke up.

"Well, I'm her son. She isnt in right now so if you want you can leave it with me."

Damien didnt like these guys one bit. He was going to pretend that his mom wasnt home so he could protect her a little more.

Number one slowly reached into his back pocket and handed over an envelope. There was no forwarding address, just his mothers name written in thick bold letters. Damien took it and was about to close the door when number two said,

"Make sure she reads it within two days. That is her limit." Then they turned around and sauntered away as if they weren't murderers.

Damien shook his head hoping it would get rid of his instinctive flight response. There was no way, he knew that he would be able to protect his mom if they decided to come back. They were three times the size of his body and their arms were nearly twice the size of his thighs. He could clearly imagine one of those large hands wrapping around his neck and stealing all his air to live. He shivered in fear.

He closed the door and peered through all the windows just to make sure those two guys didnt decide to hang around and jump them when they least expected it.

"Damien, what are you doing?" Katie Vahn's voice shot through the living room.

Damien jumped his heart going to live in his throat. It took him two tries to swallow the lump in his throat and be able to answer his mom.

"Two guys came by and gave me this to give to you." He handed over the envelope and his mother's delicate fingers wrapped around it. "One said that you were to read it within two days."

The color left his moms face as her eyes widened and her lips tightened in a straight line.

"Mom? What is it?"

Katie forced a smile as dread filled her stomach. Two days to read it. She had heard others getting that very same message then in two days they were out living on the street. She desperately wished that this wasnt going to be the case for her and her family.

She slowly slipped the white sheet of computer paper out the envelope and just stared at it a good two minutes before gaining the courage to flip it open so the whole front of the paper was exposed. In big bold black letters, it read:

Evicted

She let the paper fall out of her hands and flutter to the floor where her son picked it up. She watched as he read it.

Damien had to read it three times before the one-word message sunk in enough for him to understand. They were kicking them out of the house that they had lived in for twenty-five years. Before he and his sisters had been born their parents had lived in this house for three years.

Pain shot through his chest as a flash of his twins beaten and bloodied face flashed behind his eyelids. They had only been twelve years old when she had been taken by a pervert while she was on her way home from school. He had been home sick with the Flu that day. When two police officers dressed in the traditional blue uniform had knocked on their door he had known that something horrible had happened to his twin. He knew deep down that he would never see her alive again. He had been too young to understand or so everyone thought. He had understood exactly what death was. He had felt the life leave her body when the last hit was delivered. He had cried out for Holly. When she was found the day after she had been murdered he had already known what had happened to her. She had been brutally beaten and raped. The murderers had used a baseball bat they left at the scene to smash her small skull.

His mother had flat out refused to let him see his twin on the gurney in the morgue, but he had screamed for Holly and refused to be brought away from the door. Finally, he had gotten into the morgue and was standing on a stool next to his twin sisters beaten face. He had reached up and gently stroked her cut and bruised face. The blood and urine and sperm had been washed off her body after they had taken samples to compare to suspects. She still looked like a porcelain doll to him, just with black and blue splotches all over her face and chest. He had no doubt that the rest of her body was covered in bruises.

Damien shook his head and looked up at his mom. She had seen the pain in his eyes and knew right away that it wasnt from what the paper said. She knew he was remembering that day. The day his heart had finally started to grow cold.

Two days later before any of them had woken up smoke filled their rooms.

Damien coughed and hurried into his moms room. Elizabeth was already there and she and their mom were clinging together. Even though he was the youngest by two years he felt like he had to take control and get his family out of the house alive. He was the only male in the house and it was his duty to protect them.

He bent down and crawled over to the bed grabbing his mom and sisters hands and led them through the smoke filled rooms. Fire had been set at the back of the house and was slowly working its way to the front. Whoever had lit their house on fire wanted them out of it before it burned but if they couldnt make it Damien knew that they didnt care. Their lives were nothing but an inconvenience.

He picked up his pace and it seemed an eternity until they reached the door. It was unlocked and they burst through it and into the arms of firefighters and police. Damien stared empty hearted and lost as his home was burnt down. The fire had been so hot that the firefighters couldnt put it out. They had no choice but to let it burn. Everything they owned was in there. Pictures of them growing up and of their dad were burning into ash.