Cry For The Strangers

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BOOK 3
A note from the author: I credit John Saul for the title; he used it first for his 1979 novel, and the credit also goes to Bill Haley and the Comets for Rock around the Clock, and the Platters for Only You. O Sole Mio belongs to Eduardo di Capua and Giovanni Capurro. Earth Angel belongs to the Penguins.
 
Prologue 
Leo Karnage, 13 years old, didn’t care about destiny or any of that crap the day he met Lauretta Viliers, he just wanted a soda! It was the day of August 18th, 1952 and Leo, who was visiting Karnageport with the rest of his family, had somehow gotten separated from his parents and sister but for some strange reason didn’t quite remember how. He was aware they probably were looking for him, and Leo didn’t know how to feel about that as he wandered Karnageport looking for a restaurant, for he had just enough money on him to buy some kind of snack, or at least a pharmacy with a soda fountain.
Eventually, he stumbled across a small park that seemed to be deserted at the moment, and the first thing Leo saw a solemn, curving slab of granite with a brass plaque nailed across it, that contained a list of names of military creatures from Karnageport who had lost their lives in the first World War from 1917-1918. Leo recognized it, having learned in school that Usland only joined the war April 6th, 1917. As he traced a claw down the engraved ridge of names, Leo almost jumped out of his fur as a creaky voice like sandpaper sounded from behind him:
“Wanting to learn about our boys, don’t you? Huh. I’d have thought children these days learn that in school.”
The voice chuckled hoarsely as Leo gasped and turned around. Another dog (he could say that loosely being part wolf himself) settled on the sloped wooden bench near the memorial, a female Jack Russell terrier with reddish-and-white fur who seemed to be in her 80’s. Her gnarled paw rested on an elegant brass-topped cane, wearing a delicate blue sweater with no neck, and a matching, mint-green satin skirt, and a gaudy pair of black high heels.
“I…I apologize ma’am. I didn’t know you were there.”
Leo stammered, still taken aback that he wasn’t alone.
Again, the terrier still seemed to be amused.
“Nonsense, boy, you don’t have to be sorry. Why don’t you stay and talk, give an older dog some happiness in her life, eh?”
Leo hesitated. When he thought about it, he really didn’t see why not. He shrugged.
“Okay.”
He leaned back against the cool brass of the plaque on the memorial.
“Now, what’s your name young man?”
“It’s Leo. Leo Karnage.”
The other dog looked momentarily aghast, but then she regained herself, and shakily polished off her spectacles as she studied Leo’s face and fur color once again.
“Karnage,”
She sighed.
“Now there’s a name this old dog has experience with, and I’m Lauretta, Lauretta Viliers. Say, Leo, who’s your father?”
Leo studied Lauretta oddly. He hadn’t expected this question, and the more he looked at it, the more bizarre it seemed, and for a moment he considered leaving the park but then decided against it. For some reason, Lauretta was beginning to intrigue him.
“Uh…Felipe Karnage.”
There was a sudden flare of recognition in Lauretta’s eyes.
“Is that so? Not quite seven years ago, Leo, I met your father.”
Lauretta recalled the incident clearly. . .
It had been late in the fall of 1945 and Karnage had gone alone on a visit, looking for information on his illegitimate half-brother and Lauretta’s own son, Floyd Viliers Karnage. Karnage had been depressed when he learned that Floyd had perished earlier that year, a volunteer in the air force during the war, but nonetheless quietly asked Lauretta’s permission for Floyd to be buried alongside his father’s family on the other side of town, it being the very least he could do.
Lauretta had agreed, and later that day Floyd had been exhumed by local officials and re-interred along a verdant knoll that was still in the family cemetery, but as remotely far from his father’s grave as possible, which had pleased Lauretta very much.
Leo, not knowing any of this information, was still very surprised.
“Oh.”
“Very interesting wolf, I’ll say that much.”
Leo paused before finally asking:
“Lauretta? Do you have any soda pop at your house? I couldn’t find any in this side of town.”
She shrugged.
“No I don’t have soda, but I do have lemonade, which is probably much better for you.”
Leo swished saliva around in his dry mouth and winced as he tried to keep himself from drooling.
“Can I come over and have a glass or two?”
He blurted.
“You may, but please don’t stay too long. These days, my health being what it is I seldom have time for company.”
“Okay.”
Lauretta picked up her purse and led Leo down the street to her house. It was built in the 1880’s and built in the old style called Federation Filigree, was painted a green not unlike the dog’s skirt, and had a curving latticework balcony on the second floor. Leo was, to say the least, impressed.
Humming a little, Lauretta let them both in.
“Now why don’t you go to the parlor and rest your footpaws, it’s off to the right.”
Before she went off to the kitchen to make more lemonade, Lauretta led Leo into a tiny but comfortable room off the right hall, it had pale pink, floral wallpaper, an old-fashioned, olive green carpet covered with darker burgundy flowers and plants, and a few plush armchairs, and a shelf containing several books.
After he was alone, the silence was eerily evident and Leo wondered how Lauretta could live alone like this and not be driven insane. The wolfdog jumped when a grandfather clock propped against the wall tolled twelve noon, and he eased nervously back into his seat as Lauretta entered, carrying two glasses of lemonade which she set on the nearby table.
“Thank you.”
Leo said graciously and eagerly sipped from the glass Lauretta offered him. The lemonade was pale, almost clear, and it tasted cool, sweet and homemade.
“What’s that?”
When he was done drinking, Leo pointed to a small, black object that seemed to be a photo album lying on the table, with the embossed title: OUR MEMORIES.
Lauretta sighed.
“Leo, do you really want to know?”
Leo was certain.
“Yes I do!”
“This album here contains a lot of photography, and a lot of drawings from when I wasn’t much older than you are now.”
Trembling, Lauretta set down her now-empty glass, opened the album and produced a yellowing sketch of herself at age 21 in 1893, an age at which Lauretta had been a VISION! The slightly-stooped, friendly dog who could have been anyone’s grandma was gone here, replaced by a slim, auburn-and-white furred goddess with long, reedy limbs and a haunting smile. 
But the strangest thing of all, as Leo noticed, was that Lauretta wasn’t naked, but nor was she really dressed; instead covered with a multitude of braided, pale blue, curving leather straps.
“Your….Your grandfather drew that picture of me.”
Lauretta gasped, as though it still pained her to say so.
“I…I’d been his mistress. It shames me, I know. Oh, but Leo it wasn’t as bad as you think! We weren’t slave and master, or captor and hostage, but a couple. A real couple. He took me to dinner, and to the beach, and I would always come over on Friday nights. We would do….What’s the term….Bondage.”
Here she sighed wistfully and slid the picture back into the album.
“I never did like my…Oh I wouldn’t say sister wife, there never was a marriage….Either way I didn’t like Elizabeth very much, she was so ornery… But then on April 16th in 1895 your uncle Floyd was born and I know I can’t not thank your grandfather for that, Leo.”
Lauretta’s eyes had taken on a youthful twinkle, and she smiled.
“Here, I want you to have this. It’s far too painful for me to look at this all the time, let alone every so often.”
She handed Leo the photograph album. His jaw practically dropped.
“Really?”
“Of course! We’ve only just met but I feel you’re my grandson all the same. Have a nice day.”
Leo departed then, and made sure nobody saw his photograph album. The entire walk out of Lauretta’s house and into the night beyond, his prize was safely tucked within his shirt. His prize. Those words would very appropriately sum up how Leo felt towards Pablo and Lauretta’s album…..
 
Chapter One 
It was Friday, June 17th, 1955 and Alice Karnage felt liberated. Today was the last day of her and her brother’s freshman year before summer vacation; and now, finally, the school year had ended and summer had officially began! Alice, however, had mixed feelings as she fled the school, trying to avoid getting squashed among the crowd of animals larger than she was.
At this age, a lot of creatures just wanted to go necking with their girlfriend/boyfriend, or kiss over a malted shake down at the drugstore. Alice, again, wasn’t sure how to feel about this. When she entered middle school, both her parents (but especially her father) had made it clear that she was NOT to date until she turned 18. While partially, she wanted to date at least ONCE simply to know if it was worth it, on the other hand, Alice was perennially afraid that dating would turn her into a mindless boy toy, one thing she feared significantly.
And Alice liked to make it clear she did NOT depend on anybody or anything. She knew how to ride a motorcycle since the age of 10, and hoped to possibly be able to graduate to a car now that her 16th birthday was fast approaching. 
Today, at age 15, on the last day of school, Alice had done what she’d yearned to the most: Walked past the all-female cheerleading squad while they were practicing, and said they were all sluts. That little remark had landed her in the principal’s and she’d had to stay after as well, but did Alice give a damn? Of course not.
Alice also didn’t care about physical beauty; which was yet another thing she left to the mindless, slutty females she sometimes encountered in the hallway. Although she considered herself too tough for love however, there was one male in school who could make Alice secretly sigh and wish she DIDN’T love him it was so embarrassing.
Jamie Duncan. Alice bit her tongue as she saw him walk by. Jamie was well-renowned for his ‘bad boy’ reputation in the neighborhood (but lesser so among his fellow leather-jacketed greasers) Not entirely lean with a small but still-embarrassing roll of fat around his middle, Jamie was a silver-colored German Shepherd with plain green eyes, and a jet black stripe that ran from the top of his head all the way down his back. There was something cocky and somewhat arrogant about that smile of his.
Sometimes Alice wasn’t sure why she had a crush on him; as cute as he was.
“Hi Jamie!”
She said briskly as she rushed past.
The German Shepherd gave no indication he’d seen her, and simply walked off to lean against the fence and smoke a cigarette, an activity Alice engaged in behind the school every afternoon, but one she could ill-afford today; it being the last day of school and her feeling more inclined to do something else.
Today was Friday, so that meant she had to babysit her semi-friend Eli Barnhart’s younger siblings, Charlene, aged nine, and Harold, aged seven, something Alice did Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Eli babysat them whenever Alice was sick or for some reason could not be there and constantly griped on how he never was paid like Alice was, though ironically enough he DID have profitable chores to be doing.
Seeing as there was still time however, before she had to pick Charlene and Harold up from school, Alice said a quick hello to Leo (who apparently was going to the park) and decided to go home for twenty minutes more to take a short break.
“Hello?”
When Alice got home and entered the kitchen, Grace didn’t seem to be home yet, but pacing somewhere near told her that possibly her father was. Indeed, for personal reasons Karnage had taken a day off from practicing law, and though he was upstairs; heard his daughter’s voice nonetheless. Alice discarded her backpack as she thought her father said her name.
“Dad?”
Karnage, meanwhile, was in his and Grace’s bedroom, staring at a black and white picture of his stillborn son Daniel, taken shortly before his burial. He flinched, not turning from where he sat on the side of the bed as he heard his daughter’s footpaws on the landing. He quickly put the photograph in the nightstand drawer.
 “Alicia, mi angelito.” 
Karnage still managed to smile at her as she stood in the doorway, shaking his head in wonder and unable to believe how much of an adult his daughter was fast becoming already.
“Dad what happened?” 
There was a note of worry in her voice.
“Eet’s just….I am meesing one of mi tesoros.”
 Karnage glanced back at the nightstand. He still didn’t know how and if he was going to tell Alice about the photograph lurking within the drawer. Nonetheless, he hugged his daughter.
“Are you all right?”
“Si!”
He smiled weakly, putting some effort now into believing what he said. Karnage felt more confident now and shrugged off his moment of dark reminiscing, feeling he’d soon be over it. This was nothing like what he’d suffered over Helena, and the wolf shuddered involuntarily remembering those dark days. Alice saw.
“Are you sure?”
“To eenfierna weeth what creatures say. I have three bambinos and always weel.”
Alice smiled winsomely. She knew about Daniel, and it still ached to talk about what had happened that brutal December day.
“Well, I have to get going. See you later dad!”
And with that, Alice left to go to Hal and Melina’s. Karnage watched her for a moment, but then looked at the photograph one more time, engrossed in memories of his child that wasn’t.
As Alice was leaving, she saw Leo jogging down the street. He tore past her and into the house yelling:
“Hi dad! Sorry I was gone so long!”
Before the door slammed behind him. Alice smiled curiously, wondering what would happen but not having much time to dwell on it. As she walked briskly along to pick up Harold and Charlene, someone’s radio was faintly playing Rock around the Clock by Max and the Lunatics, whose lyrics Alice knew well:
One, two, three o’ clock, four o’ clock rock. Five, six, seven o’ clock, eight o’ clock rock! Nine, ten, eleven o’ clock, twelve o’ clock rock! We’re gonna rock around the lock tonight! Put your glad rags on, join me hon, we’ll have some fun when the clock strikes one!
We’re gonna rock, around, the clock tonight, we’re gonna have some fun when the clock strikes one! We’re gonna rock, gonna rock around the clock tonight!
Footpaws slapping against the pavement as she jogged, Alice went off humming along.
Time passed. Alice picked up Harold and Charlene and watched them for an hour and a half as she always did and reluctantly let them watch twenty minutes of the ever-popular local dance show, The Virgil Victor Show on their parents’ new television set. The aforementioned show, its host being a young but charismatic sable ferret in a green bow-tie and matching suit, was a popular show to the moderate amount of creatures in Southshire with the ever-expanding fad of television.
When their parents, Hal and Melina got home from work, Alice accepted her weekly pay and slipped off home.
After Hal had been home for no more than ten minutes, he found himself smiling as Charlene and Harold bolted outside to play while Eli gravitated to his room to play the harmonica he’d gotten for 13th birthday months ago. Eli was turning out to be slim and reedy of figure like his mother, and he had her eyes as well; but his father’s tawny fur.
This was a trait Charlene shared, but her eyes were her father’s brown-black, and she was shorter and a little muscular, with a bright smile and good humor for her nine years. Harold, the baby of the family, had Melina’s jet-black fur, brown eyes, and was extremely shy; rarely saying a word, but whenever he was in the presence of his revered big brother Eli he opened up and wouldn’t stop talking. Hal knew that his and Melina’s children were perfect to them, as well as the picture of health, and they both were damn proud of it.
Hal, however, gave a sigh as he turned the TV set off and sank into the living room’s gaudy, plush orange couch. He’d be 39 on August 2nd this year, and the cat was finally starting to feel his age. In early 1946, he’d quietly slipped out of air piracy to get a job as a mechanic, and for the past three years now Melina had had a steady job as a nurse at one of the local hospitals, having gotten a degree in nursing in college before she’d dropped out after her 1938 school year.
“Hey, Melina.”
Hal smiled and kissed his wife as she entered the living room. She smiled shyly and hugged him back.
“So how was work, honey?”
Melina sat down.
“It was….”
She swallowed hard and gritted her teeth.
“We had a car accident come in and I used my paws to stop a patient’s bleeding. It worked, thank goodness.”
“Anythin’ else happen?”
Hal sat down next to her.
“The kid’s in the recovery room now with his parents. I’m a little late because I made sure he was safe and okay.”
“Uh, how old was he?”
“Eight….Thank goodness he’ll be okay.”
Hal shuddered involuntarily. Eight. Only one year older than his Harold. This was one hell of a crazy world they lived in. Sighing in relief nonetheless, he asked:
“Melina?”
Too late. Melina had disappeared into the kitchen. She emerged a minute later with a glass of brandy in her paws.
“Hmm?”
“What do you think of Alice babysitting Harold and Charlene? You know, the cap’n’s girl?”
Even after nine years Hal still addressed Karnage formerly, as did Melina.
“Alice….She’s a good girl. She’ll be a good mom someday if she wants to be. She’s told me she intends to take up her father’s title. I don’t know if becoming a mother’s in her future but if she ever is, she’ll be a good one.”
Hal nodded. (Neither of them were aware at the time that Alice had simply been sarcastic, and was joking about becoming a pirate)
“I think so too….About her being a mom that is, I mean!”
“I agree. Frankly, Harold, I’m scared.”
Harold. Crap, this was bad news…
“If she takes up that title….The family will be in danger again.”
Hal shuddered, knowing exactly what Melina meant. He sighed
“I know, Melina, I know….”
Melina took another gulp of brandy.
“I’ll tell her.”
They kissed.
A little later, after she got home from work, Grace and Karnage were sitting in the kitchen over wine (The only liquor Karnage allowed himself to drink, in extremely rare, tiny moderation)
“I can’t believe Alice and Leo are going to be sixteen.”
Grace shook her head wordlessly.
“Sixteen….. Eet’ll be great!”
“Yeah, I know Honestly, these days….. Sometimes I feel old. Times are changing.”
Grace sighed raggedly.
“You don’t look old to me.”
Grace smiled a bit.
“I know, but sometimes it’s just hard to keep up with well, Alice’s world. Teen idols, rock and roll…”
She shook her head.
“Eet’s…Confuzzling.”
Admittedly, having been born 47 years ago in 1908, Karnage found the culture of the 50’s difficult to grasp every bit as much as his wife did.
“I know.”
Grace got up and hugged him. He hugged her back. After a while, Grace paused uncertainly.
“By the way….What do you think of the fact that Leo’s been wandering off so much these days?”
Grace sighed. She wanted to blame the fact that she worried about her sons’ going off alone so much these days on the simple fact that she was a mother who just didn’t want to see her child grow up. On the other hand, the fact that Leo had been gloomy and withdrawn lately even more than usual was beginning to bother her, but she DID wonder if it was too discourteous for wanting to know why.
“I am not knowing.”
“All right. Just wondering.”
Leaning against the wall, Grace squeezed Karnage’s paw. She sighed happily.
“Even though we’ve been married seventeen years, Felipe Karnage, I still love you just as much since we started dating!”
“So do I, Grace Karnage.”
They kissed.
“Can I ask you something though?”
“Si, querida!”
“How do you think Alice and Leo are turning out? Especially in this day and age.”
Grace asked seriously.
Karnage paused.
“Alicia ees…. She weeshed she could assume my job someday. But eet was too dangerous. Mad Dog’s de only one I know who could take eet.”
 Even though now she simply spoke out of sarcasm, in the distant past Alice had expressed a brief (but nonetheless alarming) interest in piracy, although it had been short-lived. Though Karnage still winced remembering it.
“I….I am not needing to plunder anymore. I’ve gained my greatest tesoros.”
 By this, they both knew he meant their family. Grace smiled softly before continuing:
“Alice still really looks up to you, you know. But what do you think of how…Withdrawn Leo’s gotten lately?”
“Eet worries me. I was that weethdrawn though after…..”
Karnage fell silent. It still pained him greatly to talk about Helena.
“Are you going to talk to him about how he’s been acting?”
“How can I start?”
“I don’t know….Wait, you didn’t talk to him about Helena already did you?”
Grace’s voice took on a cautious edge.
“Si.”
Grace looked visibly hurt that he had broken one of their promises; not to tell Alice and Leo about Helena until high school. Karnage himself felt guilty about what he had said ten years ago now, but he felt he’d done it right; telling Leo about his aunt in vague detail but not necessarily sugarcoating it. It still ached though, and to be honest, he was hoping this was something he’d never have to talk to Grace about.
“Was it ten years ago when….?”
Karnage shuddered and nodded.
“Felipe, why?? I thought we agreed the kids weren’t going to know about Helena till they got to high school!”
Karnage sighed. It had felt very necessary at the time.
“I told heem because I deedn’t want to lie to heem. I told Leo de reason I attempted.”
Grace felt bad now, for her outburst. This definitely was justifiable.
“Did you ever tell Alice too?”
“Si. I took her aside and told her later dat day.”
Grace took a deep breath.
“I think you should go talk to Leo. Especially if that’s what you want.”
“I weel.”
Karnage took a deep breath, and was off to talk to his son.
Nonetheless, by the time Karnage went into the living room to speak with Leo, his son was already up and on his footpaws.
“I…I’m fine dad.”
He said in a bit of a tense, unstable voice.
“If you want to say something to me, do it later!”
And with that, he hurried up the stairs to his room leaving an even more puzzled Karnage pondering his son’s behavior. Leo didn’t care. Bounding up the stairs, Leo went into his bedroom and slammed the door behind him. Sitting down on the side of his bed, Leo stared at his paw a moment.
His fur was a rich, dark brown; but his ears were black, giving him the appearance of having a bicolored, blackish-at-a-distance coat even though he was brown except for his ears. It was the same with his mother.
His eyes were the same shade as hers as well. Though despite his brown-black coloring mentioned above, Leo’s tail, curving gently at a downward slope was a wolf’s. His paws were not particularly doglike either, and there was something decidedly lupine in his facial features.
“Damnit, what the hell am I?!”
Leo rasped aloud as he stared at his strange paw.
Clenching it into a fist, he exhaled slowly and went to his oaken dresser and pulled open the smallest drawer. One of his fourteenth birthday presents remained there; a red-encased, tiny pocketknife with a fine blade (Leo remembered Alice having wanted a small set of daggers that year, and having gotten them), his personal treasure. Sighing happily as he took the knife from the drawer, Leo sat back down on the bed, and with the blade, slowly engraving his initials, and the words
Blood and hellfire.
–LK, ‘55
Leo smiled, but he didn’t know why he did. Nobody understood him, and that certainly wasn’t something to be happy about. Sighing, he went into his closet and brought out what appeared to be an old, dusty shoebox. Within it was the photo album he’d gotten from Lauretta nearly three years ago now. Removing the album, Leo picked up the first picture of Lauretta before ripping it in half. He needed some time alone.
Returning the shoebox to the closet and stacking it against the darkened wall, Leo gently closed the door, sprawled across his bed, and slept. He felt strange about all this, and he didn’t know why…..But he was happy. And because he hadn’t been truly happy about anything in a while, Leo knew he wanted to find out.
Hours passed with little event, and eventually five-forty came around. Grace and Karnage lingered in the kitchen, talking about what they were going to do for dinner.
“Felipe….”
Grace leaned against the counter.
“How do you feel about going out to dinner?”
This was something Grace and Karnage didn’t do often, save their wedding anniversary every year.
“I’d be glad to, querida!”
Grace sat down, meekly dabbing a pinch of sugar into her coffee and idly mixing it in.
“Obviously our anniversary’s not for four months, but do you mind?”
“Not a beet!”
Laughing, they bantered for a little while and that was that.
Alice and Leo had been asked if they wanted to accompany their parents to dinner, but in typical adolescent fashion, both declined. Before they left, however, Karnage still wanted to have a word with his son, something he hadn’t gotten the chance to do that afternoon. He entered the living room to find Leo on the couch, his face in his paws, but he quickly got to his footpaws when he saw his father.
“Oh, hey dad.”
He said calmly.
“So, what do you want?”
Karnage frowned slightly. Leo almost seemed to be dismissing his behavior from earlier, but he decided not to bring up the subject at the moment.
“Ees something wrong?”
He said, simply.
Leo looked a little nervous.
“Uh….No. I’m fine dad, really!”
After the trembling stutter of his ‘Uh….No.’ Leo seemed to regain his composure and calmness as well. Karnage noted his son seemed all right, if a little jumpy and secretive, but he tried to make himself believe that everything was fine, and that Leo was just going through an uncertain period of his adolescence. Hopefully, that could very well be it. Turning to face his son once again, Karnage said:
“I love you, your mama, Alicia more than I’ve ever loved anyone.”
“Really?”
“Si, from de bottom of my heart.”
They hugged briefly.
“Have a good time, dad.”
As Karnage turned and walked out of the living room, he was truly able to believe that whatever had come over his son, he was just fine.
Grace and Karnage drove to an older part of town to eat a turn-of-the-century pseudo-diner called the Blue Nightingale, where they both had light meals but nothing TOO over-the-top. After the meal, a conversation soon ensued about why Leo was acting so bizarre lately (though he’d always been a shy child)
Both were caught off-guard when Lauretta (83 as of May), approached the table, clad in a delicate blue dress, a beige purse slung artfully over her left shoulder.
“Can I talk to you?”
She was speaking to Karnage.
Grace was somewhat puzzled, having never met Lauretta before. Karnage himself remembered her vaguely, not having seen her since 1945.
“Ma’am, do I know you?”
Grace turned to face Lauretta. The introductions then, were awkwardly made, and Grace sighed and resigned herself to impatiently wait. (Lauretta informing her this was strictly private)
Taking Karnage and standing beside him at the dining room’s westernmost wall, Lauretta sighed.
“So, Felipe…. Mr. Karnage, it’s been a while hasn’t it?”
A decade and she still wasn’t quite certain how to address her beloved son’s half-brother.
“Eet has.”
“I’m sorry if I appeared at a bad time, but I just wanted to say I met your son about three years ago and he seemed like a very nice young creature. How is he now?”
Karnage sighed.
“He’s been quietly lately. Weethdrawn…..I am not knowing why.”
A dark look briefly flashed across Lauretta’s face, but like a shooting star, it soon was gone. She confessed:
“When he visited my home, I gave your son…An old photograph album of mine. I don’t feel inclined to tell you what was in it but perhaps he will.”
“I’ll ask.”
Lauretta shouldered her purse and eyed the door, though not in an unkind way.
“Well, it was nice talking to you. I had better go, I’m only here for vacation.”
“I understand.”
Karnage bowed to her gallantly.
“Goodnight.”
“Buenas noches.”
Lauretta slipped out through the door and into the shadows of the summer nightfall. Back at the table, they paid, and in the car, Grace and Karnage were relatively silent until Grace asked
“Foul language aside, what in the hell was that about?”
Karnage sighed.
“I’ll tell you, querida, but just as soon as I have a word with our son….”
As they pulled into the driveway, Karnage briefly thought about the photograph album Lauretta had apparently given his son. He knew from the way she’d talked about it that whatever had been inside, it wasn’t going to be good. Especially when he went to Leo about it.
When Grace and Karnage got home; all was quiet. Alice was taking a shower, and Leo was sitting alone at the kitchen table, humming to himself. Grace had already gone into the living room to listen to the radio.
Karnage figured now was as good a time as any to talk to Leo.
“Hi dad.”
“Hola, Leo.”
“How was dinner?”
Karnage shrugged.
“Eet went good.”
Leo paused.
“Uh….Is there anything you want to talk to me about?”
Karnage was straightforward:
“You got a photograph album?”
“Yeah.”
Leo looked visibly nervous.
“Of who?”
“Somebody you don’t know. Her….Her name’s Lauretta!”
Leo blurted.
“Lauretta….”
Karnage shivered.
“I remember de name.”
Leo cursed himself mentally.
“You do?”
“Si! Lauretta Viliers. Eet was a long time ago…”
“Did you know her well?”
Karnage considered this.
“Si!”
“She was Floyd’s mama.”
“Who’s Floyd?”
Leo tried to act like he didn’t know.
“My…My half brother.”
“I didn’t know you had a brother, dad.”
“Si. Floyd…..”
He found himself unable to go on for a moment.
“Floyd died een de war.”
“I’m sorry.”
They hugged briefly before going their separate ways. Karnage was still curious about the journal; but he respected his son’s privacy. Perhaps it was not such a big deal after all.
 
Chapter Two 
It was little more than ten-thirty when Grace was sitting in bed, waiting for Karnage, humming ‘Rock around the Clock’ to herself. Rock was not her genre of music, but the tune was infectious; and Grace could certainly see why creatures Alice and Leo’s age liked the song so much even though it had originally been released a year ago in 1954.
Grace mostly read for a while until Karnage entered, and they chatted for a little while before finally kissing passionately. Karnage sighed.
“Mi tesoro….. De day we married was one of de best days een my life.”
“And mine too.”
Grace laid her head on his shoulder.
“I’ll do everything eet takes to keep mi familia safe.”
Karnage vowed, and Grace gently licked the side of his muzzle. Moments later, he did the same, grinning a bit.
“Gotcha."
She squealed happily, but after a while the look of playful happiness on Grace’s face faded as she suddenly recalled hearing snippets of Karnage and Leo’s conversation from earlier; and from what she’d been able to make out, Leo had been acting quite strangely. Pausing, Grace worded what she wanted to say carefully.
“Can I talk to you about something? Serious?”
She shifted around on the bed a little.
“Si.”
Grace swallowed; still puzzled by her son’s unusual behavior lately.
“I think I heard you and Leo talking earlier. What was that about? If it’s not private, of course!”
She added sincerely.
“He talked to me about de photo album he found.”
“Who’d he get it from?”
“Lauretta Viliers.”
The surname was familiar to Grace from 1945.
“Floyd’s mother, right?”
Grace guessed, also recalling the name of Karnage’s deceased half-brother.
The wolf nodded in confirmation.
“Si.”
“Excuse my foolishness…”
Grace blushed already, feeling so self-conscious.
“But what’s so bad about her giving Leo a photo album?”
Karnage winced.
“What might be een eet.”
Grace shrugged helplessly.
“I have no idea myself but….How secretive was Leo being?”
“Very.”
Grace sighed.
“Well, if Leo was being secretive…. Then…. It must be something more.”
She stopped to think.
“What do you think it could be?”
Karnage scowled.
“Lauretta was hees…..Meestress.”
He ran a paw over his temple.
“Eet makes me seeck!”
The wolf shuddered just thinking about it.
Grace, her head still spinning from all of this, quietly suggested:
“I don’t want to sound like a coward but maybe we should both get some sleep.”
She flicked off the lamp on the nightstand.
“You’re not a coward, querida.”
Karnage assured her.
They kissed one more time.
As she lay awake in the darkness for a few minutes, Grace lingered a few minutes more before finally fading off to sleep.
The following morning was a surprisingly clear Saturday with a darker blue sky dotted with frail clouds; and it was extremely cool out as well. Alice took advantage of this to go out for a while, to the park. She told her parents where she was going, they approved, and so Alice went down to the garage to get her bike.
But not before she went into her room, dropped to her knees and searched in the darkness under the bed for a few minutes before her paws grasped around a brightly-colored pack of Strikeout brand cigarettes, her own secret stash, which she occasionally bought for half a dollar’s worth of allowance when cheaper pickings were unavailable at the corner store.
This was her secret; neither of her parents knew Alice smoked, but she was definitely aware she wasn’t allowed to, so when she smoked in public, she made sure to do so when she was alone, or else in the company of friends who wouldn’t rat on her. Stuffing the red-and-orange cigarette pack under her shirt as she always did, Alice scampered down to the garage to get her bike.
Said bike, which was propped against the wall; was a true relic. Alice had bought it years ago at a yard sale for next to nothing, and she suspected that it was around her age if not slightly older. It had a dented black body, a leather banana seat full of rips and tears (some parts of it had been taped back into place), and a decaying wicker basket. Taking a slight breath, Alice adjusted her glasses so they wouldn’t fall off, and wheeled her bike out of the garage, down the driveway, but waited till she actually got on the sidewalk before mounting. And when she was certain no one would see, Alice took the pack of cigarettes and laid them carefully at the bottom of the basket.
The ride wasn’t long, but nor was it too short, and by the time Alice got to the nearest park, she quickly found a rack to put her bike, plucked a cigarette from the basket, and made sure her small, black lighter was within the depths of her shirt pocket. Thankfully, it was.
Now, Alice wandered around a bit, making sure none of those dreaded NO SMOKING signs were in the vicinity, and when she was certain that there weren’t, she quietly leaned against the scraping bark of a pecan tree, and yanked her lighter from her pocket, making sure the cigarette was lit. When that was done, she carefully blew out the fuse and inserted the now flameless lighter back into her pocket.
Alice had been taking a drag for a few minutes when she noticed a pale gray-ish shape in her midst. Squinting to see who it was, Alice almost instantly recognized it as being Jamie from school. Feeling awkward and embarrassed almost instantly, she finished her cigarette, tossed it in the nearest trash can, and started to walk off. However, neither creature was paying a lot of attention to where they were going (So frantic were they to escape each other) that they rushed past each other for a moment, before colliding.
Alice winced the second she hit the grass. Pulling herself up roughly, she glanced at Jamie. He looked just as sheepish as she did, if not more. His jeans were covered in grass stains, and his pale yellow shirt looked crooked and disheveled. Alice knew she looked about the same and didn’t care, but she couldn’t help but wonder if Jamie did as she managed to give him eye contact. Trembling, he did the same.
“Hi.”
Alice said, though her voice was little more than an embarrassed squeak.
“Hey.”
Jamie’s voice was a low whisper, and more or less the same tone. He shuffled his footpaws a little bit.
“Uh….What brings you here?”
Alice bit her tongue, and winced as she felt and tasted a spurt of blood.
Jamie took a ragged breath.
“Well, I just come here to hang out, y’know?”
Alice straightened.
“I come here to smoke every so often; my parents aren’t supposed to know. They’d probably smash me into next Thursday if they knew, especially my mom.”
Jamie laughed, but it was genuine.
“I smoke all the time; my old lady doesn’t give a damn.”
Alice sighed longingly.
“Well that must be a blast.”
Not wanting to rub it in, Jamie did his best to just shrug.
“It’s all right.”
Pausing, he added:
“Why don’t your parents let you smoke?”
Alice began to pace.
“What, do I look like I know? Hell, I don’t. But they’re strict about, well, a lot of things like that. I can’t even date till I’m eighteen either, but I don’t know if I was even gonna consider that anyway.”
She folded her arms.
“So…..What’s it like where you live?”
Alice asked, feeling that she actually COULD be casual around Jamie whereas she was always at her awkward best around both her parents.
“It’s all right, I just live with my mom. My old man died when I was born.”
Jamie knew there was something awkward as he said those words. That’s what his mother, Pearl Duncan had been telling him just as soon as he was old enough to understand; but for some eerie reason he almost felt his mother had something to hide from him on that matter.
“I’m sorry.”
Jamie jerked back to reality as he heard Alice’s words.
“Nah, it’s fine. Ain’t like I ever knew him.”
Alice paused before she spoke of her own family.
“My mom’s nice, but she’s a little….what’s the word….Eccentric. It really drives me up the wall, I’ll tell you that much! My dad’s pretty old-fashioned about a lot of things, and that annoys the crap out of me too.”
For a moment she paused and wondered if she’d mention Leo. Cringing and deciding that she wouldn’t, Alice continues:
“Ohh and my dad’s a lawyer, but that doesn’t mean anything. We’re not rich and I doubt we will be….But then again I think everybody here is middle class. And there’s my two cents.”
Jamie swallowed.
“Hey Alice?”
“Yeah?”
“Maybe we could meet up again sometime?”
Alice winced.
“Jamie if you’re REALLY suggesting….”
He held up his paws in a gesture of apology.
“I didn’t mean a date. I mean just another time where we could, you know, get together and talk.”
“Tomorrow?”
Jamie cursed.
“No. I got work tomorrow.”
“When are you free?”
Alice tapped a footpaw.
“Monday.”
She sighed.
“I got babysitting then. Look, I’ll try and meet you somewhere after work.”
“Well, I’ll be at the beach.”
Jamie shrugged.
Alice thought about this.
“Well maybe if the kids I’m watching think it’s a good idea, I’ll take them to the beach. We might not have much time, but I’ll see you there anyway. Bye.”
“Later, gator.”
And with that, the two young creatures went their separate ways.
Leo meanwhile, was at home, sitting cross-legged on the bed, flipping through the photo album with the blinds drawn. This was the first time he’d gotten a real taste of the perversion within. Towards the end; there were only a few scant innocent pictures of an adorably sweet-looking puppy who would grow up to be his uncle Floyd. But Leo found that the earlier he went into the album, the darker the pictures.
There were photographs of Pablo and Lauretta (though separately; as someone had to pose and someone had to take the picture) or charcoal sketches of their pelts and bodies intermingling with each other on a grand bed, Pablo’s face always bursting with a dominant, lupine scowl. Or was that a victory grin?
Leo, meanwhile, found himself unable to take his eyes off Lauretta’s naturally svelte body that was showcased here among the drawings, but eventually he grew bored when the sexual pictures lapsed into more mundane ones of Pablo and Lauretta (but never with Pablo’s other mistress, Elizabeth) going on various romantic outings.
Bored, Leo retrieved the phone from his parents’ bedroom and dialed the number of his personal lackey/whipping boy (aka, his so-called ‘friend’), Eli Barnhart; and their relationship was a brutally cruel caricature on the already-harsh association that their fathers had had back in the 30’s.
“Hello, Eli….”
Leo’s voice was slick and callous.
In the Barnhart household, Eli was alone in the living room, listening to the radio. He got the phone as it rang and casually answered:
“Hello?”
But his voice faded into a nervous squeak when he realized just who it was.
“Leo. What do you want?”
Eli gulped and tried to remain calm as he asked.
“Ohh, nothing, Eli…..Just that I’m getting awfully damn sick of you and your fucking whining!”
Deeply insulted, Eli struck back.
“Go to hell you cowardly bastard.”
It was the best insult he could muster, but this was it. From now on, he WOULD find a life outside Leo’s personal servant.
“Okay, cat. Nice words. But I’m just going to remind you: You had better stick with me, cat….Or else.”
Smiling happily; Leo hung up. In his own mind, he hadn’t done a single thing wrong, not at all.
Meanwhile, trying to take his mind off Leo’s call for a bit, Eli drifted into the living room, but had forgotten his mom was there, reading a book.
“Hey mom.”
He said smoothly, and sat down on the couch next to Melina. She hugged her son.
“Hey!”
“How are you?”
Melina’s smile faded.
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking….”
“About what?”
“I miss your grandfather.”
Eli frowned. Grandparents were not an oft-discussed subject in this household; he knew that Chauncey and Mae, his father’s parents apparently weren’t too friendly (hence why he’d never met them), but his mother’s parents was a topic that somehow seemed to emerge even lesser.
Clearing his throat a little, Eli said:
“I don’t think you’ve mentioned him, mom… What happened to him?”
Eli silently shut his mouth and hoped he hadn’t intruded; as his mother was now gazing at a black velvet-framed photograph of Leon Badgett, Melina’s father. (Who’d married when he was only eighteen years old)
Born to a deranged mother, Marla Badgett, who’d died when he was three, Leon’s paternal history was unknown, and unfortunately at the time of his birth; young females finding themselves pregnant at Blackvale was not an uncommon occurrence, and Leon looked unusual enough; having somewhat-pricked ears that made him resemble a domestic cat rather than a panther, and was born with just one eye. Following the closure of Blackvale, Leon was shuffled back and forth between various relatives until he turned eighteen; but after that, he was on his own.
A little later in the year, he had a chance meeting with another panther, Martina Davidson, and even though they were little more than teenagers; the two married, and Melina was born the following year in 1916. This was the story Melina had been told growing up, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the end. She sighed and said to Eli:
“I was ten years old when…”
She swallowed.
“The house caught on fire. Dad, he….He went in and got me and mom out.”
Melina’s voice was trembling.
Even though he was sure he already knew, Eli quietly asked:
“And…And then?” 
Melina rubbed at her dampened eyes.
“He suffered….Second and third-degree burns, I think…. He died that day.”
Eli grabbed his mother and hugged her tightly. They held each other for a moment there, in silence; seemingly a whole world away from the rest of the house beyond the living room.
“I love you, your brother and sister, your father, more than anything else in this world.”
She sighed happily.
“Thanks mom.”
Eli blushed a little anyway.
After it had been silent for a while he braced himself and figured it was time to talk about Leo’s call. Maybe at least his mother would understand…..Maybe.
“Can I ask you something?”
He started off.
“Sure!”
Eli swallowed hard.
“What do you think of Leo Karnage?”
“Leo….”
Melina shook her head.
“He’s changed somehow.”
Eli felt gradually more uncomfortable.
“How?”
“He’s been acting like he’s….”
Melina made a motion with her finger on the side of her head. Even after all these years she knew it was only polite not to use the C-word around the Karnages, even if the subject in question, in this case, was definitely mentally unstable.
Eli sighed raggedly.
“Yeah, he was talking to me like that on the phone earlier.”
“What exactly did he say?”
Eli’s voice turned into a menacing snarl that wasn’t a half-bad imitation of Leo:
“He said, ‘you’d better stick with me, cat!’ and then ‘or else’”
Melina muttered something dark that sounded a lot like
“The son of a bitch…!”
“The hell are we going to do now?”
Eli clamped a paw over his muzzle. He hadn’t exactly meant to cuss; but the word had slipped out anyway.
“I’m going to talk to his father about this, and then Leo….Maybe.”
Melina gritted her teeth. She was so angry she didn’t know if she could handle talking to Leo or not. And on the second thought, why talk to Leo’s father, or either of his parents? It wasn’t as though Leo was just a seven-year-old who’d slapped Eli across the face, no, she’d just get straight to business and talk to Leo by herself.
Melina shook her head.
“Never mind. I’ll just talk to Leo myself.”
“Mom, are you sure?”
Eli looked at her worriedly.
“I could always talk to ---“
“No, it’s fine, Eli….”
She neared the doorway.
“I need a drink, but nothing too strong; just enough to steady my nerves….and THEN I’ll talk.”
Breathing in and out nervously, Melina headed off towards the kitchen, leaving her son alone with an expression of doubt.
When Melina got to Karnage’s house; Grace got the door, and they chatted a bit, albeit nervously before Grace went back to the basement (her small, makeshift office adjoining it) to read through some manuscripts (her job specifically being copy-editor at the rather small Southshire Courier) The reason why the house was so silent is because Alice was still on her way home from the park at the moment, and Leo was holed up in his bedroom, and apart from a scant amount of papers left over from work, Karnage found himself with little to do.
When the wolf entered the kitchen, where Melina remained at the table, he was visibly surprised to see her there, and she smiled weakly.
“I….I want to talk to your son.”
Karnage sighed but managed to smile a bit himself.
“Of course, mi amiga.”
Melina began to pace nervously.
“I mean, you notice how he’s been acting, right?”
These days Karnage almost wished he hadn’t.
“Si. Eet’s confuzzling. Eet scares me, but….. I am not knowing what to do! I’ve failed heem as a father.”
The wolf looked a bit ashamed, finding only himself to pin the blame on.
“You haven’t!”
Melina assured him.
He shook his head.
“I am not knowing what ees happening weeth my own familia, Melina….I’m so confuzzled.”
She hugged him gently.
“What have you seen or heard?”
He asked Melina.
“He insulted my son over the telephone!”
Karnage’s eyes widened.
“WHAT?! Dat leetle….”
He growled and muttered some indistinct words under his breath.
“Eef he THEENKS he can eensult someone and walk under my watch….”
Gritting his teeth, the wolf turned to face Melina once again and said: 
“I thought I taught mi bambinos better dan dat, I know I taught Alice!”
Karnage looked like he was going to add something more, but didn’t. Instead, he concluded his small monologue with:
“Melina, I’m trying to theenk what would be de best solution; but I’m so angry I don’t know eef I can face heem…. Melina, eet’ll have more eempact coming from you. If you ever need me, I’ll back you.”
The wolf silently hoped Melina would not consider him a coward, which at present he felt like. Instead, she just tapped her footpaw a little and asked quietly:
“Where’s Leo?”
“Een hees room.”
Karnage motioned up the stairs.
“Please, go talk to heem.”
There was worry in his eyes as he said this.
“Okay.”
Melina took a deep breath and went upstairs.
Karnage was then alone for a while, until Grace emerged from the basement.
“What’d I miss now?”
She sighed and ran a paw across her temple.
Karnage stood and leaned against the wall.
“Leo eensulted Eli; Melina’s upstairs talking to heem. I tried talking to heem myself, he doesn’t seem to want to leesten.”
Grace was hesitant, immediately feeling bad for not having tried to talk to Leo herself. She made a mental note to do so later if there was any time.
“But you’re sure Melina can do it?”
She asked.
“I’ll do eet myself eef she can’t.”
Grace nodded.
“And then me.”
She thought for a moment, sitting down by the table.
“Felipe…What the hell is our son becoming?”
He trembled slightly.
“I weesh I knew….. Eet terrifies me….I’ve failed heem as a parent!”
“No more than I’ve failed him as a mother.”
Grace got up and held him gently.
“Querida, I am not knowing what caused any of dees.”
“I know. Neither do I.”
In the silence of the kitchen, they held each other, and stayed that way.
Meanwhile, Leo remained in his room, the photo album back in his closet. He practically jumped as he heard a steady rapping on his door. Melina’s voice was a low, angry snarl as it emanated in:
“Leo Karnage, this is Melina…I need to talk to you NOW!”
“WHY?!”
Melina forced herself to calm down.
“You insulted my son!”
Dirty little tattletale….
Leo thought, but did not dare say.
“Come in.”
He opened the door, and the panther entered. Leo glared at Melina but held his tongue.
“You insulted my son…. And now I want to know EXACTLY what you said!”
Melina hissed through grated teeth.
“I said, I was sick of Eli and his fucking whining!”
Leo snapped, teeth bared.
“And what exactly was he WHINING about??”
Leo winced.
“I….I don’t remember!”
“Then here, write down everything else you DID say.”
Melina fumbled in her pocket for a moment, but then produced a pencil stub and a scrap of paper. Leo zealously wrote a few lines, folded the paper, and handed it to her. He folded his arms and gave what looked like a sadistic grin.
“Thank you. I’ll go back and give this to them.”
She said, a bit curtly. Then, Melina turned on her heels and promptly left.
 
Chapter Three 
Melina came downstairs and deposited the folded note on the table, but Grace and Karnage did not look at it immeadietly. They had a brief, nervous chat with Melina for a few minutes before the panther left for home, and they were alone once again.
“Well, I suppose there’s no better time than now to look….”
Breathing hard, Grace unfolded the scrap of paper. Written on it was Leo’s confession of what he had told Eli; but beyond that there was line after line of foul profanity and incomprehensible, illegible gibberish, but some discernible phrases were: ‘Fuck me, fuck the world’ ‘I’m going to hell’ and ‘where am I? I don’t get this…’ But the one that dominated the tiny scrap were the words PK + LV forever and ever, scrawled repeatedly in the background. Karnage began to tremble as he instantly recognized the initals: Pablo Karnage and Lauretta Viliers.
“Pablo Karnage…. P.K.”
He murmured.
“WHERE DEED LEO FIND OUT?!”
The wolf thundered, even though he was pretty certain he already knew. (Even though he’d burned every existing photograph of Pablo he could find after Leo and Alice were born as well)
Grace swallowed. She was beginning to get extremely concerned about her son’s behavior lately.
“I…. I think Leo should maybe see a psychiatrist.”
She said, vowing that from now on she’d help her son no matter what. 
“So do I, querida.”
Grace continued:
“If he found photographs like in….”
“WHAT?!”
Grace cursed under her breath, embarrassed.
“I don’t know if he has them, but I really hope not.”
She said, blushing at what she’d said.
Leo, on the other hand, had been eavesdropping behind the wall. He did not like what he heard; and now he knew for certain his parents thought he was losing it. The solution? Become the son he knew they yearned for, even if it would take a lot of convincing. Trying his best to look visibly saddened and upset, he picked up the photo album from where he’d placed it, Leo ran into the kitchen, sobbing hysterically. Dropping the album on the table (Better now than later; Leo figured either of his parents would want to know eventually), he cried:
“I’m so sorry!”
Before running back upstairs to his room, crying.
Karnage looked through the tamer pictures of Pablo and Lauretta wordlessly, shaking his head in disbelief.
“I am not believing Lauretta would geeve him something like thees….”
“…M-m-me either….”
Grace’s dam finally broke, and she sobbed incessantly.
A few minutes later however, the door was slammed open, and Alice walked in; having returned.
“What the hell just happened?”
“Alicia….”
Karnage sighed raggedly.
“Your brother fucked up. Your mama and I theenk he may be going… De word.”
“What…?!”
Grace rubbed at damp eyes.
“I really wish it weren’t, Alice, but it’s true….”
All the brisk happiness that had filled Alice on the ride back from the park suddenly drained away. As she listened to what her parents had to say, none of them knew that Leo was eagerly tucked away in his room, plotting about how to make his parents think he was in fact, the perfect son.
About fifteen to twenty minutes later, the conversation ended awkwardly, and Alice disappeared up the stairs to talk to Leo. He HAD been acting extremely strangely lately, but she hadn’t thought he was going insane! She flinched, however, as she saw Leo emerge from his bedroom doorway and smile at her, but the smile was….Normal. Indeed, all in all Leo seemed the picture of normalcy.
“Uh….. Hi, Leo.”
Alice stuttered, suddenly not sure quite what to say.
Leo looked perfectly sane; so much so that it was eerie given the circumstances.
“I’m not crazy, if that’s what mom and dad said. Really Alice, I’m fine!”
Alice wanted to believe him, but there was just something a tiny bit…Off about Leo that she couldn’t quite put a finger on.
“Yeah, I believe you!”
And for the most part, she WANTED to, but just wasn’t quite sure.
“Good.”
He smiled.
“See you later Alice.”
“Well, bye….”
And with that, Leo went into his bedroom, slammed the door, and disappeared.
Meanwhile, in Cape Suzette, the main office at Khan Industries was mostly bathed in silence. Adhira Khan, the older sister of the deceased Shere Khan had come to power almost instantly after his mysterious death in 1946, and she ruled the corporation with an iron fist, along with her lesser brother Vijay, who although while not quite as intelligent as Adhira was very sly; and had quite the streak of cruelty on his own.
Today Adhira was alone in what had been her office for the past nine years, brooding in her dark thoughts as she often did. Adhira was tall and broad-shouldered, but disturbingly young-looking for her sixty-two years. Her curved eyes were a dull shade of blue-gray, her nose a fragile pink, Adhira’s otherwise pure white face was crisscrossed with an elaborate display of black stripes that were not unlike scar tracing in their semblances.
Clad in a lush red dress with a full skirt that showed off her narrow but muscular legs, Adhira Khan was a creature of wordless seduction, and but of evil as well. The tiger was alone now, sitting at her desk and with a paw grasping a ballpoint pen.
Though no one had been able to determine what had caused Khan’s death, Adhira had always fervently suspected that it was not natural; and that a certain wolf by the surname of Karnage was to blame, citing the search for the criminal and his wife during 1945. Vaugely recalling an aborted plan to manipulate the wolf’s then six-year-old son, Leo, a sly smile curled onto Adhira’s face.
“Perhaps Shere’s plan wasn’t quite so half-baked after all….”
She schemed aloud, and began writing a letter. Vaugely remembering that her younger sibling had had spies posted at the town of Southshire in ’45, Adhira was able to recall through some of their lengthy notes that Leo had liked to create poetry. Did he still? It was certainly worth the proverbial shot, so Adhira quickly and discretely penned a letter asking if Leo still enjoyed his hobby, and if so, would he write for three hundred dollars’ worth of award money?
As she folded the letter and discarded it in a drawer, Adhira smiled subtly. This was an interesting experiment; even if she might not get very far, indeed, the tigress was simply trying to see what made Leo tick just to see how far it would go. After all; it would certainly be interesting to see what would happen if Adhira so severely influenced the two of Karnage’s children who apparently was shier and more isolated.
An interesting plan indeed!
Adhira almost leapt out of her chair, however, as Vijay entered through the elevator. He smiled.
“Up to something, sister dearest?”
“Nothing much; just doing a little…Oh, what’s that term? Research into the creatures who may have killed Shere.”
“Excellent; but you won’t go TOO far, will you, Adhira?”
Adhira snorted.
“Of course not. You know that I won’t, Vijay! All we have to do now is simply wait and see, and if you’ll excuse me, I’ll have to mail this letter as soon as I can. But….Could you take this to the post office and not tell a soul?”
She handed Vijay the letter, and the male tiger examined it curiously.
“I will.”
He pronounced.
“Good day, Adhira.”
“The same to you.”
As he departed into the elevator, Adhira was alone once again, evil thoughts lurking in the core of her devious brain. Diving into Leo’s psyche….Could she do it? Of course she could!
When she woke up at roughly ten or so the following morning; Grace had a lot on her mind. She was in a vaguely nostalgic mood and was thinking of Cape Suzette; wondering how things were there at the time being, and also if the Envoy was still duking it out with the Tribune for the title of the city’s most-read newspaper, and if Max was still working the poor schnooks down at the Envoy building like slaves all day.
Eventually, Grace’s mind drifted to selling her Rolls Royce (which was specifically a 20/25 model) and buying a cheaper and probably more efficient car in its place. When she’d bought it back in 1931, Grace guiltily knew it was a huge impulse buy, and she hated the fact that it possibly made her look rich, which she certainly wasn’t. (Because it had tainted her parents to a severe degree, Grace had vowed at an early age to NEVER become wealthy)
After she was alone with her thoughts for a few more minutes, Grace rose from bed and decided to go hunt for Karnage. She went downstairs (treading softly so as not to wake Alice and Leo), and found the wolf downstairs in the living room, sitting on the couch, nervously fingering the keys to the Brough.
Grace noted his tense, nervous expression and posture and asked him:
“Are you okay?”
“Si, querida.”
“You’re sure?”
Grace was still uncertain. Karnage tried his best to reassure her, even though in actuality he had no idea what the hell he was doing.
“I want to go veesit de cemetery, alone. I deedn’t put flowers out for mama last time we went, and I should have.”
The lie left a bitter taste in Karnage’s mouth, but he forced himself to stay calm as he spoke, but felt inevitably guilty for deceiving Grace like this: More likely than not, he was going to initiate some form of self-harm at Daniel’s graveside, but simply out of the reason of not upsetting Grace; (to whom he’d promised such things would never again occur) he allowed himself to sink to the low of not mentioning it.
Grace, meanwhile, thought about it. After all; everything seemed fine to her!
“Sure, but are you sure I can trust you going all the way out there, alone?”
“Si, querida.”
“In that case, when will you be back?”
She tapped a footpaw.
Karnage was taken somewhat off-guard but managed to answer his wife’s question anyway.
“I’ll be back late. Her grave needs cleaning.”
“Okay.”
They hugged briefly.
Karnage studied her after a while, smiling.
“I love you, Grace, querida. Always. Remember eet, por favor.”
He smiled lovingly at her.
Grace was again, a little bit put-off by this, asked Karnage again if he was all right, and he dismissed her; but good-naturedly nonetheless. They kissed briefly before Grace finally stated how she felt:
“Felipe are you sure this isn’t like that time years ago when you attempted and we had to get Melina to come over?”
Karnage sighed.
“Eet eesn’t, I swear. I just want to go to her grave, tell her I love her and put down new flowers.”
If only that were the truth.
Karnage braved the three-hour drive to Karnageport, of course, in silence. Ironically; it was a gorgeous day outside, and there was practically nobody on the highway. By the time he got to Karnageport, it was a little more than one; and not surprisingly, little had changed. A few buildings seemed to be missing, and the cars along the road seemed to be a little newer, but other than that the eerie town was just the same as it always had been and most likely always would be; it was so self-sufficient.
The wolf ate a meager lunch at the Drunk Vixen, which had gotten its usual Sunday lunch crowd, and then departed to the remnants of the family’s estate. Apart from bits and pieces of scattered ash here and there, some remnants of a foundation; all traces of what had existed there were either stolen long ago by overconfident pickpockets or tossed away on a lonely wind.
The only thing that DID remain besides this was of course, the graveyard. It didn’t take Karnage long to find what he was looking for: Nestled on a grassy hillside, beneath a gnarled apple tree, (not too far from a gravestone honoring Theresa Karnage’s stillborn sons, Rubin and Garcia who were born in 1901 and 1898.) was a small grave already weathered from a decade of harsh conditions, but the inscription was still very legible:
Daniel Kane Karnage
December 13th, 1945
His presence we miss 
 His memory we treasure. Loving him always, Forgetting him never
Karnage took a moment to study the gravestone; it was completely untouched besides the weather’s cruel hand; indeed, local adolescents and all-purpose vandals knew better than deface anything within the Karnage graveyard; their castes forbade them to. In the harsh silence of the placid afternoon, in that perfect graveyard, Karnage went on his knees in front of his dead son’s grave, and sobbed wrenchingly, saying to the empty air:
“Daniel, mi angelo….I love you. I always weel. I weesh you were here!”
But he wasn’t. Gasping raggedly, Karnage withdrew his revolver; which he’d smuggled out of the bedroom before Grace had even been awake, and checked to make sure it was loaded. It was. There was no stalling or holding back now. Taking a deep breath, he said, once again, to no one:
“Please forgive me, Leo, Alicia….I love you and always weel. Never forget. Grace…I’m hurting so much, I am not knowing what to do, but I am knowing dat eet's time to leave.”
“I’m coming, mi hijo.”
Sobbing brokenly, the wolf stood. He cocked the weapon, set the chamber, and put the muzzle to his chest. His paw shook, then steadied over the trigger. He froze, however, as a small but barely audible voice seemed to emanate from nowhere:
“Alice, Leo and Mommy need you. Grandma Theresa and Aunt Helena are taking care of me.”
 Karnage knew that at the same time Daniel’s grandfather would be burning in the flames of hell, but kept listening intently.
“And… Uncle Garcia and Uncle Rubin are here too. I love you so much, please listen to what I said…” 
Karnage lingered at the gravestone for a minute, and sighed, dropping the gun. He really had better go now; before he changed his mind. His sweet, sweet dead son had more or less told him to leave, and what other option did he have? Wordlessly, like a shadow, he went back to civilization (if indeed one could call isolated, self-dependent Karnageport that), got in the car, and drove back to Southshire.
Meanwhile, in said town, an awkward silence had fallen over the kitchen in Grace and Karnage’s house. They’d had lunch half an hour ago; but nobody really had the motivation to go anywhere, and Grace was awkwardly attempting to make conversation, and Alice felt too genuinely lazy to go anywhere. Leo just stared at his footpaws, but looked eerily normal nonetheless.
“Leo are you sure you’re all right?”
Grace asked her son, staring him in the eye.
Leo narrowed his eyes, and looked suspicious.
“I mean; I’m just surprised since….Yesterday….”
“I’m fine mom, really.”
Leo stared at Grace with a look that suggested SHE was the one in need of mental help. Alice and Grace exchanged nervous glances.
“I’m going to my room. See you both later.”
And with that, Leo sulked out of the kitchen leaving Alice and Grace alone.
“Mom, I don’t want to sound like a gossip but I really hope Leo’s all right.”
Alice sighed.
“Yeah, me too, kid. He HAS been acting pretty strange, I’ll give him that. Anything you want to do?”
Alice shrugged.
“I was just going to hang out and listen to the radio and all that crap.”
“Well if you excuse me then, I’m going to just go down to the basement in read if the living room is under your command, miss Alpha Female.”
“You’re really old-fashioned, mom!”
Alice retorted, and started to walk off, but not before a battle of insults ensued:
“If that’s the best you can do Alice, that’s really, truly weak. That’s uh…. Pitiful!”
“Bitch.”
“Attitude problems!”
“Primeval.”
“Pain-in-the-ass!”
By the time Grace and Alice had finally stopped shouting at each other, Grace was enclosed within the safety of the basement, and Alice was sitting in front of the radio in the living room.
In his room, Leo stared at the letter he’d discarded in his nightstand drawer. He’d gotten it yesterday evening, and it DID have his name on it; so he saw no reason not to open it and see who had written. Ripping it open with his paws alone instead of bothering to hunt for a letter opener, Leo removed the thin sheet of paper from its dark brown envelope and read the letter enclosed:
My dear Leo Karnage,
It has come to my attention that you are a writer of some considerable prose and have been doing so for quite some time. I would like it very much if you would write a poem in my honor; though I would understand completely if you refused. But if you write the poem, please send it to me at the address that I will mention. Thank you very much.
-Miss Adhira Khan
Listed below her name was the name of a company, Khan Industries, and a street in the city of Cape Suzette. Leo studied the letter for some time. He had no idea who this Adhira Khan was; and found it somewhat unsettling that she knew he’d been writing for some time, but decided that out of boredom and nothing else alone, he would write her the poem and see what would become of it. So Leo sat down, pencil in paw, and began to write.
When Karnage got in, Alice was sitting in the living room, reduced to doing nothing. It was getting a little gray out; and so the reception on the radio was getting unreliable, and mostly static, so she’d simply turned it off and taken a nap on the couch. She was awake, however, by the time her father came in, sitting up and picking at a scab on her leg.
“Hey dad.”
She muttered.
“Hola, Alicia.”
They hugged briefly.
“Uh, I missed you.”
Alice said slightly awkwardly. (Which she had, Karnage having been gone while she was still knocked-out in bed)
“I meesed you too.”
“What were you doing all day, anyway?”
She asked a bit cautiously.
Karnage hesitated. He still didn’t trust himself, even if he WAS miles from Karnageport now.
“Alicia,” He said carefully. “Could you please get een touch weeth Senora Barnhardt? I need her help, I almost…”
He swallowed.
“Dad, what the hell happened?”
Alice looked nervous as she spoke, and Karnage knew he had no choice other than to confront her honestly.
“I took a gun and went to de graveyard to veesit….Your brother.”
Alice’s eyes went damp, and she struggled not to burst into broken sobs. She’d only been six years old at the time her mother miscarried but it still upset her terribly to think of it.
“I forgive you, dad!”
This was the truth.
“Alicia, I’ll remember eet for de rest of my life. If I have to wait for my time to come, I’ll wait. I won’t go at my own paw.”
Karnage said; feeling like he had more self-control, and feeling a bit foolish for having asked for Melina earlier.
He stared out the window for a moment, seeing what he thought was a small, wolf-shaped cloud. He muttered to himself, smiling:
“I love you Daniel.”
As Karnage went to the basement, Grace was still there sitting at her desk and reading a compilation of forgettable horror stories. She’d just finished her dissatisfied reading when she heard Karnage on the stairs.
“Felipe? Is that you up there?”
She glanced around and put the book aside.
“Si, querida.”
She went to the staircase where the wolf’s voice was coming from.
“You can come down, if you were going to.”
“Eet’s okay, I just wanted to check on you.”
Karnage admitted, but he found himself descending the stairs nonetheless.
“Are you okay yourself?”
Grace asked him, because she couldn’t help but feel concerned about the way had Karnage had just driven off this morning, and a bit guilty about something she just couldn’t put her finger on. 
The wolf in question looked her in the eye, and shook his head.
“I’m….confuzzled.”
“What happened?”
Silence. The dog just took a wild guess.
“You….you wanted to commit suicide again?”
Grace felt her eyes dampen with tears.
Karnage was honest:
“I thought about eet. I…. went to de cemetery, to…Our leetle angelo.”
“And?”
Grace hugged him tightly.
"He spoke to me!"
"Are you sure?"
Grace's belief in the supernatural was an uncertain one at best, though she tried to remain neutral.
"Si!"
"What did he say?"
Karnage took a moment to remember.
"Daniel said he loved me, he loved us, and that mama and Helena are taking care of heem."
He wept openly.
"Will you be all right?"
Grace gently laid a paw on his shoulder.
"Si, I just mees heem so much."
They held each other briefly, and when the embrace was over, Grace realized something.
"Can I tell you something else?"
"Si, querida!"
"Uh, Leo actually seemed fine today!"
Grace had no idea how much the incident earlier this afternoon counted; but she hoped not much.
"Really?"
"Yes!"
"Love you."
She whispered, playfully, twisting his ear.
Karnage winced a little, but managed a smile in return.
"Love you too."
And so for a while, it seemed like things were going to be just fine. For the moment, anyway.
 
Chapter Four 
Now, it was little past one in the morning, but Leo was wide-awake. Not long ago he’d crept downstairs and out of the house, still wearing pajamas. (Not that he cared!) He’d known his father had discarded the photo album in the trash, not wanting its vulgar presence in the house any longer; something that made Leo ache, though he’d had to wait until the exactly right moment to sneak out and collect his treasure.
In the two lonely trash cans on the left side of the garage, one of them had to contain the album. Leo haphazardly lifted the lid of the right, and found the album at the very top, a rotted piece of strawberry obscuring part of the title. Muttering in disgust as he wiped the decaying fruit away and put the lid back on the trash can, Leo slunk back into the house as quietly as he could.
He made it in through the basement window with little event and managed not to knock anything over whatsoever, and held his breath as he climbed the narrow stairs to the second floor. However, as soon as he got into the wide hallway to his bedroom, Leo’s tail almost unnoticeably swiped against a ceramic vase on a wooden stand, causing it to fall to the ground and shatter. Leo let out in an involuntary gasp of surprise.
Grace, who had been sleeping up until then; was awakened by the sound of the vase's breaking.
“What the hell?”
She thought, but didn’t say.
Careful not to wake the still-asleep Karnage as she tiptoed out of bed and into the hallway, Grace turned on the light and flinched as she saw Leo, who gave her a dark scowl.
“Leo?! What are you doing up?”
“Nothing.”
“Oh, don’t tell me it’s nothing young man! You can’t slip that past me! Leo, if you’ve been smoking I’ll….”
Grace’s voice trailed off as she noticed something hidden behind Leo’s back.
“You weren’t smoking, were you?”
“Mom it’s not your business!”
Leo’s voice was suddenly full of fear and desperation.
“Leo, is that the….?!”
No answer.
“Mom, I’m sorry!”
“Damnit, Leo!”
Grace thundered, knowing full well now that Leo had the photo album now that she’d seen the spine and part of the title font.
“What are you, some kind of pervert? That’s not the life your father and I wanted for you! If you keep reading and looking at this crap you’ll…..You’ll end up like….”
“End up like who?”
Leo retorted, grinning cruelly now. Grace gritted her teeth.
“Your son-of-a-bitch grandfather, that’s who!”
“I DON’T CARE!”
“Just give me the damn album so I can throw it out again, or better yet BURN IT!”
“I won’t.”
“Leo come on, please?”
Grace sighed.
“No.”
Alice had woken and come running out to see what was going on.
“Mom? Leo? The hell did I miss?”
Grace scowled, but turned to address her daughter.
“I think I found your brother’s little secret- again.”
“Alice, don’t let her take it!”
Leo hissed.
Alice just shook her head.
“Wow, both of you are acting like preschoolers. “
Alice snatched the album from Leo.
“Now if both of you toddlers excuse me; I’m putting this back where it belongs- the trash!”
“Goodnight mom.”
Leo glowered, disappearing into his own room.
Grace trudged back to her own bedroom. She briefly thought of waking up Karnage and telling him right away, but was simply so upset, worn-out, and just uncertain of how to feel overall that she fell asleep the instant she hit the mattress.
“So what do you guys want to do?”
Alice asked the following morning, at Hal and Melina’s house. She was sitting in the living room, along with her two charges. Charlene, in a knee-length, lavender-gingham cotton dress was sprawled on the couch, scribbling furiously away in a worn coloring book (Taking pride in the fact that she could color inside the lines now, unlike Harold, who still had trouble with that) , and Harold, dressed simply as well in jeans and a button-down shirt was sitting on the floor playing with a toy racecar that had been a hand-me-down from his older brother Eli. (Eli himself having gone with friends to get some sodas)
The two kittens were bored; they’d already had their half hour’s allotment of the Virgil Victor Show, and they didn’t have a vase expanse of toys to amuse themselves with.
“I can’t think of anything,”
Charlene said, concentrating.
But Harold had an idea.
“Uh…Could we go to the beach and then the park?”
Alice saw certainly no problem with this.
“Sure, let’s go; but I’d probably better get you home by lunchtime.”
Harold and Charlene couldn’t have cared less. They were just excited about going out for the day. So, they set out and went on the walk to West Shore.
When they got to the beach, Harold and Charlene wanted nothing more than to play tag and build sand castles, squealing and laughing. Alice couldn’t help but smile fondly as she set up her rented beach chair and watched the kittens from a distance to make sure they wouldn’t wander off.
Moments later, Alice craned her neck to look around for Jamie. She saw him in the distance, milling around by the seawall and reading a newspaper. Alice felt torn. She wanted to chat with Jamie of course, but it wasn’t like she could leave Charlene and Harold alone unsupervised either.
Deciding to compromise; just as soon as he got within hearing range (luckily) Alice called over the wind:
“Jamie, Jamie can you come here?”
He smiled shyly.
“Alice? Sure!”
“How’s it going?”
Alice asked, grinning when he came over.
“Pretty damn good.”
Jamie winced. Even though he was in the presence of children the d-word had slipped out anyway.
“Ha! He said a bad word!”
Harold squealed.
Charlene grabbed her brother’s ear and gave it a pinch. He yelped.
“Shut up, Harold.”
“That’s a bad word too!”
Charlene just smiled apologetically to Jamie.
“And who are these little anklebiters?”
This evoked a giggle from Harold, and an amused expression from Charlene.
“Jamie, these are the kids I babysit.”
The introductions were then made, and as children will, Harold and Charlene returned to building their sandcastles so Alice and Jamie could talk alone; their more private conversation meant little to the children.
Sitting down in the sand next to Alice’s chair, Jamie glanced around the beach and shook his head, amazed it was so packed.
“Well we certainly picked the wrong beach. Looks to me like we landed in antsville.”
In popular slang of the time, Alice just rolled her eyes and said
“Oh cool it; it looks like a lot of them are going home anyway.”
Chuckling wryly, Jamie rummaged around in the pockets of his faded jeans and produced a pack of cigarettes.
“Is smoking allowed?”
He whispered secretively to Alice; uncertain, since he’d seen no one else smoking since he’d arrived. Alice just shrugged.
“It must be. Go ahead and light up, I don’t see a sign.”
So Jamie did.
“So….”
He said at an attempt to make conversation.
“You come here often?”
Alice shrugged.
“Not much. A few times a year, when I’m bored as hell. You?”
Jamie took a drag on his cigarette.
“Sometimes, just to get some fresh air.”
Jamie hesitated a moment to scratch at a cream-covered mosquito bite on his wrist. (the ointment he’d bought was not helping)
“Say, Alice….You got any siblings?”
Alice swallowed hard. This was just the question she was hoping she’d never get asked anytime soon. While still uncertain how she felt around males in general, Alice felt for sure she and Jamie were definitely equals, and he was after all simply trying to be friendly. So she took a deep breath and said:
“A brother. Well, two brothers. One was born dead when I was six.”
“And the other one?”
“He’s kinda strange.”
If only that began to describe Leo’s mental state.
There was a brief silence apart from the background noise of chattering beachgoers and waves lapping quietly against the dampened shore.
“You got any gum?”
Alice asked after a while.
Jamie replied that he’d gotten a package this morning, and shared some with Alice. They talked for a while more until noon, when Alice figured she’d better take Harold and Charlene home, which she did (but not before a quick trip to the park).
When their parents came home at two, (Eli was already home when Alice, Harold and Charlene had returned from the beach) Alice headed off home. All in all, this was turning out to be quite a good day for her indeed.
Grace arrived home from work fifteen minutes after Karnage did, and was somewhat surprised not to find him sitting in the kitchen as he usually was if she came home after him.
So she wandered around the house a bit, calling his name for a while and eventually going upstairs. Karnage was once again in the bedroom, looking at the picture of Daniel. He put it away as Grace walked in, jumping up, startled.
“Querida!”
He smiled raggedly.
Grace wasted no time in getting straight down to business.
“Can I talk to you about something? Or is this a bad time?”
“Go ahead, querida.”
She took a deep breath.
“I had a fight with Leo yesterday.”
“What happened?!”
Grace winced.
“Leo got the photos out of the trash, but Alice stopped us from mauling each other and put them back.”
“That does eet….”
Karnage growled, visibly angered.
“Look, do you want me to talk to him?”
Grace offered.
“Si, por favor! I’ll burn de album.”
He then added:
“I REFUSE to let mi hijo become like hees abuelo….”
While Grace left the bedroom and went across the hallway, Karnage went downstairs. He went outside, retrieved the photograph album from the trash and burned it in the tiny fireplace in the living room, having started the fire hastily and quickly. (He’d done the exact same thing with what he’d THOUGHT had been every photograph of Pablo back in 1939) Instead of burning it whole; he let each individual photograph flutter into the orange-and-red flames like mortally wounded moths, but the very last photograph in the album gave him pause: It was dated 1896 in (presumably) Lauretta’s spidery script on the back, and was a baby picture of Floyd; the dog in question being clad in an overlong, white baby nightshirt and grinning angelically.
This was all he’d had of the brother he’d only met briefly so many years ago; not even having known that Floyd WAS his brother at the time. Sighing, Karnage knew he was unable to burn it.
Instead, he stuffed the yellowing photograph in his pocket and tossed the empty photograph album into the flames and watched until the hungry flames burned themselves out.
~
Meanwhile, Grace let out an exasperated curse as she’d left Leo’s room. She had no idea when he’d left; and had no idea how she hadn’t noticed (But it was probably when she’d gone into the bedroom), but it was as though he’d vanished into thin air. There was a note pinned to the wall with Leo’s pocketknife: It read
Gone to the post office to mail something. Will be back shortly.
-L
And Grace knew she had little to do now but wait.
When Leo returned, he immediately went back to his bedroom to simply relax. He was alarmed, however, with the absence of the album. He immediately came charging down the stairs and almost collided head-on with Karnage.
“Dad??”
He panted.
“Where the hell are my pictures?”
Karnage said nothing, but was visibly infuriated. He was well aware what his son had been reading. As irritated as he was, he didn’t want to start a fight, so he kept his swallowed words to himself.
“I’m sorry dad. I really am.”
Leo was the picture of sane but hurt guilt.
Karnage took a deep breath, his anger slowly fading away.
“I’m sorry…..And to theenk I was going to be yelling at you.”
He shook his head, but secretly was still extremely dubious and uncertain about Leo’s mental state: Sometimes he was the picture of a polite (if not withdrawn) model teenager, and other times, he seemed practically deranged. The optimistic part of Karnage that sometimes liked to grasp at straws wanted him to believe that it was just puberty, but he was starting to become aware that it was probably something else, but what; he was uncertain. He just hoped it wasn’t schizophrenia.
“It’s okay dad.”
Leo said calmly, smiling.
“I’m sorry I’ve been acting so nuts. Please forgive me.”
While his father’s anger was just beginning to ease off; Leo’s own was worsening every second. It was all he could do not to stab his father or himself with a fork or kitchen knife, and he craved to wound something, anything. Leo bit his tongue and took a breath. Karnage didn’t know he was mad. All Leo could do was continue to hide his mounting rage beneath the calm, friendly shell of the creature he desperately wanted friends and family to believe he was.
“I forgeeve you, mi hijo.”
They hugged briefly, and it truly did feel sincere.
Leo smiled a bit.
“Thanks dad. I don’t want to let you down.”
Karnage shook his head.
“I’m worried I let you and Alicia down.”
“You don’t. You shouldn’t worry.”
“I do though.”
“Well, I’m here for you dad, if you ever need anything.”
“And so am I.”
“Thanks.”
Karnage managed to smile at his son.
“I promise eet.”
A few minutes later, Alice came in. Leo and Karnage both greeted her; Alice looking visibly surprised, (if not shocked) at Leo’s new transformation. But Leo was able to make a quick escape anyway; he said he was going to the park, just to get some fresh air. But, just as Alice and Karnage went their separate ways, Leo opened a drawer and quietly slid a book of matches into his pants pocket before slipping out.
~
A few blocks down, Leo did not go to the park, instead going to an older, not-often-frequented store called Henderson’s Antiques. The shopkeeper and owner, a rat named George Henderson, was counting the money in his vintage cashier when Leo Karnage entered.
“Welcome to Henderson’s, how may I help you?”
Henderson grunted in his naturally gruff, low voice.
“Don’t mind me, I’m just browsing.”
Leo said, and for several minutes; that’s just what he did. The store was a lofty, wide room that had all sorts of knickknacks and junk: Old record players, fading, lacy doll dresses, rusting kitchenware, and even an antique school desk. But at last, propped on a shelf between two painted wooden clogs and a broken cuckoo clock, Leo found what he was looking for: A female rabbit doll, with a stitched-on smile, a pretty sky blue dress with yellowing, off-white petticoats, and brown button eyes.
The wolfdog was grinning as he picked up the soft, cloth body of the rag doll and went back to Henderson at his desk.
“How much would this be?”
He asked, and deposited the doll on the dented metal surface.
Henderson glanced briefly at the plaything.
“Half a dollar. Though if I may ask, why the purchase?”
“It’s a birthday gift for my little sister; she’s turning seven.”
The lie came out so smoothly and effortlessly, it would have taken a very well-trained observer to even guess that Leo was fibbing. It was more than enough to bag Henderson, who was in his mid-sixties and considering retirement.
“Well, tell her I said happy birthday!”
“I most certainly will.”
With a jubilant smile, Leo paid, had the doll bagged, and departed the shop.
Leo walked a few more streets down until he came to a narrow, brick alley. When he made certain nobody was coming, he slipped into the depths of the noon-shadowed alley, and removed the doll, discarding the bag.
He lit a match, striking it against the box. When it was ready, Leo callously caressed the match-head against the doll’s left shoulder, dropping it to the ground. He even risked a slight chuckle as the doll slowly caught alight, and soon the fragile cloth body was engulfed in clawing, advancing flames.
But all too soon, the fire burned itself out; and there was nothing more to look upon then a small pile of ash, along with some charred bits of fabric. Leo let out a growl, and kicked the ash, sending it flying every which way. He wished he had something better on hand to burn. Something real. But, on the bright side; he felt quite happy now, and his anger was completely gone with the fire.
Humming under his breath, Leo turned the corner and jogged home.
The rest of the day passed with little event; and as Grace and Karnage were getting ready for bed, the female in question was in the bathroom off the master bedroom, brushing her teeth. When she’d finished washing her mouth out, Grace’s voice emanated from behind the door:
“Felipe? Can I talk to you about something? Uh…Please?”
 Karnage sat up in bed, listening.
“Si, querida.”
Grace was blushing a little as she left the bathroom and threw her green bathrobe to the floor, revealing that she wore only her panties underneath. Feeling ashamed, she muttered
“You want to…Have some fun?”
Karnage smiled lovingly.
“Why are you ashamed, querida? I see de most beautiful theeng I’ve ever seen.”
She swallowed.
“It’s just because sometimes now that I’m getting older I’m….Depressed at times and I just keep thinking about Daniel.”
This indeed was true. Menopause really was hell.
They kissed briefly.
“You don’t mind kissing me while I’m…Almost naked?”
She blushed, not sure why she suddenly felt so awkward.
“No.”
Karnage cuddled her.
“What do you say we…Get it up another night, then?”
Grace was more than relieved to say it.
“Si, another night.”
She crawled into bed and motioned for him to join her. They held each other for a few minutes. After a while, Karnage opened the nightstand drawer and pulled out a sketchpad full of rough pencil drawings.
“I deed these of you, querida.”
Grace looked at them.
The picture Karnage showed her was a sketch of Grace wearing a long gown, and smiling. Karnage himself stood in the background, along with Alice and Leo during what seemed to be their preteen years; and Daniel was shown as a small child wearing footed pajamas. It was certainly not professional but the feeling was there nonetheless.
“It….It’s beautiful.”
She wasn’t lying.
Karnage smiled a bit.
“De subject’s de beautiful one.”
“You’re not flattering?”
“No, querida. I’m saying what I mean, from de Corazon.”
Eventually, Grace fell asleep in his arms, but not before thinking for a while about her family. Not just her parents, but rather a history of them; and how she’d come to learn it. Her father, Daniel Kane (who was born in 1874) and Sarah Reynolds (1878) had known each other briefly in high school in 1892, while he was a senior and she a freshman. They’d passed each other in the hallway and exchanged a few polite words, but nothing more than that. After high school and college for Daniel, (females going to college was considered a joke at that time) it seemed they encountered each other often in the more cramped part of Cape Suzette; back when the city was not quite the urban sprawl it was now.
Then Daniel started playing his odds on the stock market; something that would eventually make him wealthy by 1899. Young, rich, single; it seemed there was nothing he lacked, except for a wife, and Sarah was more than enthusiastic about marrying, though it took quite a lot of effort from her to convince Daniel she wasn’t just another of those pesky gold-diggers.
In December of 1901, they finally were married in Daniel’s house (he’d moved to the midwestern part of Usland the previous year), and Sarah’s mother, Amber Reynolds was in attendance (But her father, Mortimer was not, having died of a heart attack three years before), along with Sarah’s younger sisters Anna, Gretchen and Renee who were 18, 20, and 15 at the time.
The wedding was a blissful success, and the next six years for the German Shepherds were pure heaven, but even more so when Sarah learned she was pregnant with their first and only child, Grace. And then, they died quickly and suddenly in 1912, leaving behind a considerable estate, a more than moderate fortune, and a five-year-old daughter who needed shelter.
As Grace grew older and eventually entered high school, she found what she could about her parents’ backgrounds through medical records and birth certificates. Her father’s parents, David and Lillian Kane had died in 1896 and 1900 respectively, and Amber Reynolds died in 1914 at the age of sixty-three. Anna had died six years later in 1920 in a car accident, though her sisters were both still living, but neither had children, nor were married.
There ended up being little else to be discovered about Grace’s family, but she did find that she had plenty of cousins and other distant relatives scattered about Usland’s east coast (and even a few on the far-away west coast as well), and knowing that she still had family who cared was more than enough for her.
And as for Daniel and Sarah’s estate? Grace was more than happy to sell it; which she finally got around to doing in 1929. Soon after, it was demolished and turned into a large hotel. Grace was happy it was gone. On the other hand though……Family. What a very strange thing it was indeed.
As the month of June drew to a close and faded into a sunny July, Alice and Jamie began to spend more time together, as Alice was beginning to feel a need to distance herself from her family; especially now that Leo seemed, for all intents and purposes, normal again.
On Saturday, July 2nd , Alice finally got the guts to ask Jamie if she could come visit his house. Certainly not a date or anything of that matter; just a casual, informal visit.
“Hey Ma. I’m home.”
Jamie flung the door open as they went in, and Alice could easily see that Jamie’s house, like himself, had little by way of formality. The kitchen they walked into was clean, but had an air of offbeat casualty: A stainless steel toaster sat alone on a chipping green countertop, the table was fairly small, and an empty pizza box from presumably earlier that afternoon sat abandoned on the table where Jamie’s mother Pearl was relaxing idly.
“Hmmph. Who’s this, a friend of yours from school?”
Jamie and Alice exchanged awkward glances.
Jamie seemed to have no idea what to say, so Alice spoke for him:
“We go to the same school but we started hanging together this summer.”
“But we’re not dating!”
They said at the same time, in unison.
Jamie had assured Alice that his mother’s rules on dating were fairly lax, (which they were), but neither of them wanted to send the aloof, omnipotent Pearl the wrong message about their relationship. They were, after all, just friends. Thankfully.
“Okay Jamie, what are you trying to tell me?”
Pearl leaned forward across the table, an adult version of her son.
“Can Alice and I go to the movies?”
This was the deal Alice and Jamie had worked out; one film at the local movie house and then they would return to their separate homes.
“What time?”
“2:15.”
Jamie answered breathlessly.
Pearl glanced at the clock. It was 1:58.
“You can go, but Jamie, you’d better be back as soon as it’s over.”
“I will!”
He assured her, and went running out the door, following after Alice, who’d departed seconds before him.
And so they went to the local theater to see the movie. It was some mindless, ridiculous monster movie called Day of the Shadow Vultures about a group of mysterious avian beings that haunted a small southwestern town (Alice forgot the name). Some seemingly crazy old fox had gone around warning various residents about him, but nobody believed him, and so the shadow vultures had picked off the townscreatures one by one. Jamie laughed so hard about how cheesy the vulture costumes were that he would have choked on his popcorn had Alice not intervened
On the way out of the theater and into the sunlight, Alice felt very refreshed; but for some reason the title ‘shadow vultures’ was somehow familiar to her. Oh well. The sun was high and warm on Alice now, but she flinched as her paw almost brushed against Jamie’s.
As they neared Jamie’s house, Alice began thinking about the trip with Jamie to the movie house. It definitely wasn’t a date, but then again it didn’t feel like just another day spent with friends either. It was decidedly, something in between. And Alice found herself getting just a bit happy for herself and for Jamie as she walked home in the summer sunlight.
That night, Leo woke at about 4 am, restless. He could only put up a façade of sanity for so long (unfortunately) and could feel various impulses and instincts clawing at him from within. Breathing raggedly, he threw off the light sheet on the bed and wandered out into the hallway. There was a call he knew he had to make, but using the phone in his parents’ bedroom was far too risky.
Avoiding the creakiest floorboards beneath him as he inched towards the approaching landing, Leo veered off to the left and descended the narrow stairs to the first floor. He found the other phone in the living room and dialed Eli Barnhart’s phone number. It rang. Nobody picked up (obviously) so within moments, the line went dead.
“SHIT!”
An unintentionally squealed curse of rage left Leo’s mouth, and he waited. Silence.
“Oh well. There’s always tomorrow. Or the day after.”
Sooner or later, he’d have to call Eli Barnhart up again. Sometime when it was bright and sunny out.
 
Chapter Five 
Two days later, Leo got another letter from Adhira in the mail. He quietly took it to his room, closed the door and opened it. It read:
Dear Mr. Karnage,
I am very sorry for the delay in responding to my last letter, but I’ve been simply awash with things to do. Your poem was very satisfying and extremely beautiful; I hope to see more from you. Perhaps this could be the start of a beautiful friendship.
-Adhira Khan
Alice, downstairs meanwhile, had seen Leo run up the stairs with his letter and couldn’t help but be curious as to who he was writing. If the situation ever called for it, she’d find out.
The week passed by smoothly. Alice and Jamie saw each other when they were able (and Leo had not yet made another phone call) and soon, July 11th, the day Leo and Alice turned sixteen, had finally arrived at last. It was a golden Monday morning, and Alice was still asleep by 8:53; golden shafts of sunlight creeping in through her window and casting white-gold shadows onto her bedsheets.
Grace crept in, not being able to stifle a smile.
“Wake up, Princess Alice! Come on, it’s your sixteenth birthday, baby!”
She shook Alice gently.
“Hey mom….”
Alice blinked, yawning groggily but smiling at her mother, too groggy to berate Grace for bringing out that hated, embarrassing nickname. Smiling a bit, Grace lingered in the doorway.
“You can go back to sleep if you want; sorry if I gave you a rude awakening.”
And with that, she went down the stairs to the kitchen where Karnage was waiting. (Leo not being awake so far) Grace felt a little self-conscious around her husband this morning; what with him being fully dressed already and she still in her ancient pajamas (Her best pair, actually), moth-eaten bathrobe (the only one she had), and a frequently-worn pair of slippers. Nonetheless, she fixed herself a cup of coffee and sat down.
“I can’t believe Alice and Leo are sixteen today.”
She shook her head in wonder.
Karnage felt exactly the same.
“Neither can I, querida.”
Grace leaned across the table.
“So, anything you want to do today? I was thinking of going out to dinner.”
“Si, but I was theenking of getting Alicia something, getting her a plane of her own….”
Grace was reluctant. A plane of any sort; even a fixer-upper had to be extremely expensive, and she honestly wondered if they could afford it. That and the minimum legal age to drive and fly in Urbandale was 16 ½, so Alice would have to wait to fly it anyway.
“You sure we could afford it? And 16 IS a bit young….”
She said, stating her feelings.
Karnage thought about this.
“Would a motorcycle work?”
Grace thought so; after all, the Brough in the garage had not been obscenely expensive, especially in the beaten-up condition she’d bought it in. So getting an older, probably-used motorcycle for Alice didn’t seem like such a bad idea after all.
“Sure; but only if it’s in our budget. And besides, she must be getting sick of using ours by now anyway.”
Karnage laughed.
“Si.”
“And you don’t need to worry about what to get for Leo.”
Grace dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper.
“I got him that poetry book he was always asking for.”
Just then, their scheming was interrupted as Alice came in; dressed in her usual outfit of a tight-fitting white blouse, a pink poodle skirt, and a not too heavy pink leather jacket.
Leo came down a few minutes later; and the morning went as usual. Grace and Karnage went to work, Alice went to babysit, and Leo left the house to see if there were any odd jobs that needed doing around the neighborhood. When everyone was home; they all ate dinner at a local diner, and then returned so Alice and Leo could open presents. Neither of them had wanted very much this year; being older, but they loved the presents that they got.
After the cake had all been eaten and the presents opened, Alice, feeling as giddy as a small child; was going upstairs to her room to just relax and finish off the night by reading. However, the phone was ringing in her parents’ bedroom. Instinctively, she ran in and answered it.
“Hello?”
She whispered breathlessly.
“Alice? This is Jamie. Happy birthday.”
“Jamie?? I had no idea you were going to call.”
Alice was blushing; she and Jamie had gotten a lot closer over the last week.
“Yeah, well I did. I… I wanted to ask you something.”
“Well, fire away.”
“Alice….”
Jamie paused for a long time.
“Do you want to go out with me tonight? As in…..A date?”
Suddenly time seemed to stop. Alice swallowed hard; a lump suddenly having risen in her throat.
“Jamie, you know I can’t date till I’m eighteen! My parents will kill me if they find out!”
“Yeah, but sometimes you gotta take a risk. You DO want to go with me, right?”
Jamie’s voice was full of nervousness and anticipation.
“Of course I do! It’s just that my parents are going to give me hell if they ever know….”
“I’ll make sure they never do.”
“How?”
Alice was not going to believe this without some proof.
“Well…When do you, your parents and your brother usually go to bed on weeknights?”
Alice thought.
“I’d say about ten-thirty on average; usually.”
“Okay, then meet me in my front yard at eleven, but if Leo and your folks aren’t asleep yet, I can wait. See you.”
“WAIT!”
Alice blushed. There was one thing she’d forgotten to ask.
“Yeah?”
“Where do you want to go with me?”
“I….I was thinking West Shore. The boardwalk.”
Alice nodded.
“Sounds good to me. We’ll have a blast! I’ll see you then.”
“Later.”
They hung up.
Leo was alone in the kitchen shortly after his parents and sister had gone to bed; eating a sandwich he’d made himself. It contained herring, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise and it didn’t taste particularly good. He hadn’t expected much of anything to happen, so the wolfdog was surprised when he heard a faint, timid knocking at the door. Going to get it, he saw Eli was at the door, trembling in fear- the cat had figured it would be best to buy Leo a birthday gift out of fear of what would happen if he didn’t.
“Hello, Eli.”
“Yeah…Hi, L-Leo.”
“What’d you bring me?”
Leo examined the newspaper-wrapped cigar box that Eli was holding.
“Just open it; you’re gonna love it.”
“I’d better.”
And with that, Eli scampered off home.
Leo sat himself down at the table and removed the paper, layer by layer. Then, he opened the latch of the cigar box underneath. A small, brass-handled pocketknife lay at the bottom of the box. Bliss.
Smiling, Leo disposed of the newspaper-wrappings in the trash and headed up to his room. He hid the cigar box under his bed, and the pocketknife in a small, disguised hole in his mattress. Then, Leo changed into his pajamas and went to bed. It was 10:43.
Menawhile, Alice met Jamie on his front lawn as promise. They chatted a bit before immeadietly departing towards West Shore. Upon reaching the beach, Alice asked:
“I’ve never been here so late, especially on a Monday. You’re sure the boardwalk’s still open?”
Jamie grinned.
“Pretty sure they’re open till midnight in the summer; let’s enjoy this while we can.”
The boardwalk, to which Alice was a familiar sight (having gone their several times before; especially as a young child) suddenly transformed into a magical new world at night. Pushcart vendors were still hawking their fried dough and fresh-made popcorn, and many of the attractions were still open; including the shooting gallery, the haunted house, and even the ring toss. Neither Alice nor Jamie could win anything at the ring toss or shooting gallery; but they’d gone in with that expectation and had had fun anyway. And when they’d entered the haunted house; most of the time Alice had to cling to Jamie, who it turned out had a tendency to scare easily during rides like this.
By the time they’d played all the games as their five-dollars apiece would earn them, and eaten all the freebies they could scrounge up, the boardwalk’s lights were slowly dimming, and the fascinating night world was slowly dying.
Alice and Jamie both agreed that there was no better time then now to leave. However, they’d left the boardwalk and were sitting on the seawall, when Jamie whispered:
“Alice? There’s something I want to tell you…”
“Go ahead.”
“How would you like to….Hit a home run?”
Alice vaguely recognized the colorful euphemism from suspicious couples whispering it to each other in school hallways.
“You mean….give it up?”
Alice gave this a long thought, but then took a deep breath and looked at Jamie once again. Some rules were made to be broken, and she was simply feeling so free and rebellious tonight; suddenly there was nothing she wanted more.
“Yeah. I do.”
Then, in the background of the darkening jet sky (briefly illuminated by the fireworks that somebody had set off in preparation of July 18th next week), they kissed.
Then, after what seemed like an eternity; laughing as they went, Alice and Jamie ran north. There was nothing to the far north except for a tiny forest that overlooked West Shore and the boardwalk. The sloping cliff at the edge of the clearing was positioned just so that Jamie and Alice could see the beach, but nobody below would see them.
They sat down together beneath the shade of a gently swaying pine tree, and Alice shook her head slowly.
“You really have no idea what my parents would do if they saw us like this, especially my dad.”
“Well what’s the worst your old man could do? Sue me?”
Jamie grinned rebelliously.
Alice laughed, a sound of quiet delight at their having broken away from parental authority.
And with that, in the moonlight of the July evening, Alice Karnage and Jamie Duncan went necking, followed by something more….. Both of them lost their virginity that night.
The bar on the darker outskirts of Cape Suzette was a lonely place, but to Baloo von Bruinwald in particular it seemed even lonelier. It was a dark Monday evening, close to one, and the bar was due to close soon. Baloo sat in the humming darkness at a dented metal table draped with a fringed cream tablecloth fraying at the edges. The bar was empty except for him and a handful of employees; the last patrons having walked or staggered out hours ago.
A cup of sherry sat full in front of him, but Baloo didn’t even take a sip; afraid that one sip would soon lead to downing the whole bottle and then another, and another. The bear was not sulking. Sulking was for depressed, overly-emotional teenagers and the weak. He simply needed a break from the madhouse that was his life these days, and past memories were trying to drown him in their dark undertow. At least, that’s what it felt like. Haunted by a past that wasn’t going to go away. That would probably best sum it up.
The barroom had gone silent except for a lone bartender wiping down the counter. The radio was still on, and the lyrics to ‘Only You’ by the Dishes played in a muted, nearly-silent hum:
Only you, and you alone….Can thrill me like you do. And fill my heart with love for only you. Only you can make this change in me. For it’s true…. You are my destiny. When you hold my hand I understand, the magic that you do. You are my dream come true, my one, and only you……
The past seemed to be catching up to Baloo now. Forty-nine years old with no evidence of retirement in the future. Baloo had gotten enough money together to finally buy back the Sea Duck in 1947, and after Rebecca had left the business and gotten married two years ago in 1953, Baloo had gone back to his original banner of ‘Baloo’s Air Service’, and Wildcat was still his mechanic, but was considering retirement a few years down the road. Kit was Baloo’s copilot now, having applied for his license not long after the war was over and graduated at the top of his class in flight school.
Molly had moved out with her mother back in ’53, and Baloo didn’t even know if she was in college or not but at least hoped she was. As for Kit; Baloo had never formally filed for adoption or even legal guardianship. By the time the younger bear had returned from the war he wasn’t a minor anymore; and besides, there was no need for a piece of paper to declare a bond that had existed between the two since their meeting back in 1937.
But what Baloo REALLY couldn’t force himself to stop thinking about was what had caused Usland to declare war on Japen 14 years ago now: The bombing of Cape Suzette. It had been an ordinary, bitterly cold day in December of 1941. Baloo had gone down to Louie’s to get a float and possibly some ice cream after dinner, and was sitting around hamming it up as usual. Then, the bomb had dropped through the roof of the isolated night club and blew the roof clean off.
Suddenly everyone was in panic (Even though they got out safely before the whole place collapsed), but especially Baloo. He quickly learned via the radio that and several other places of interest throughout Cape Suzette (including Shere Khan’s main office building) had also been attacked, but none had been hit quite so badly as Louie’s. He also learned that the perpetrators had been members of the Japenese air force. (who it would later be revealed had been planning to bomb some islands in the distant Patrician ocean but later changed their plans instead) Being so enraged, Baloo had gotten into the Sea Duck and gone after them.
He was joined by some pilots who were acting as a standby militia (because official military assistance had still been arriving at the time) They pursued the infiltrators out of Cape Suzette; and Usland declared war the next day, also initiating the draft. This was the start of Usland’s foray into what would someday be known as the second world war. In the end, the wreckage of Louie’s was unsalvageable and he and a few of his former employees started a touring swing band that played in various nightclubs in and around the city, and life had gone on, even while the war was raging.
And then years and years had gone by, leading up to this. Having had enough with dwelling on the past, but feeling he’d confronted it well enough; Baloo figured it was time to go home.
“Thanks but no thanks for the drink, man,”
He said to the bartender. Baloo paid and silently exited into the night, paws in his pockets, filled with a content sense of peace.
Karnage did not sleep well that night. While Grace had been asleep beside him for how long he didn’t know, he lay awake, staring restlessly at the ceiling; fugues of a shadowed childhood creeping through the dark and forbidding stronghold that was the more private part of his mind. Suddenly now; he recalled a memory (previously forgotten until this day) when he was nine years old, a gently warm, spring day in April of 1917.
Rosa had been playing outside, and he could not recall where Helena had been. Though at the time, Karnage had been wandering down the hallway alone and glimpsed through Helena’s open bedroom door to spy nothing other than her DIARY, carelessly discarded upon her bedsheets and open at that. Because of course nobody was around to catch him, Karnage wasted no time in skimming through an entry from an earlier date. It read:
October 9th, 1916
Busy, busy, busy. When I’m not scrubbing floors, hanging laundry out, dusting furniture and sometimes cooking, I’m daddy’s little slut. And did I say that I was busy?? I miss Mother so much but sadly, I have little time to mourn. I have to keep up a brave face for Felipe and Rosa but I don’t know how much longer I can do this and it’s only been a month! Anyway, there’s not much to speak of going on here at present, so I suppose I shall dwell on the past instead.
I remember a time now, I must have been about five years old; and it was winter. I needed to use the washroom so I got out of bed and went to the hallway. I could hear Mother and daddy arguing in their room, even though I couldn’t see them. They were saying things like:
“Sleep with me, Theresa….Come on, you want to!”
“Pablo, you can’t force me to do anything. These days you’ve become a monster! You must control yourself! What happened to the creature I married fourteen years ago?”
“I’m still exactly as I am, Theresa, now strip and get in the bed!”
“Suppose I don’t want to tonight?”
“Too bad.”
“I don’t.”
“DAMN YOU!”
There was a quiet slap (I think to her face) and Mother let out a quick, high-pitched cry.
“Now do you want to go to bed, Theresa?”
A long pause. Silence. When it was over I heard:
“Yes. I do. But just tonight.”
“Good, good. Now come here, darling…..Do you want me to help you undress?”
I didn’t hear anything more. The door had only been open a crack; and now it closed entirely. I was shivering. I must have been terrified at the time, but I suppose I forgot rather quickly. Oh well.
Much regrettably, Helena 
Karnage recalled now, that reading her diary had been so disturbing for his nine-year-old mind that he’d bolted from the room and run crying outside to Rosa, who’d been playing in the cemetery. She’d asked her brother what was wrong, and he simply said that he’d tripped down the stairs and now his leg hurt. Rosa then offered that they go inside to the library, and spend the afternoon reading. Karnage accepted his sister’s offer and together they’d gone back into the house while she supported him. The next day; Karnage erased all memory of reading Helena’s diary from his mind, it was too disturbing. And of all the times for that damned memory to resurface than now.
Without meaning to, he let out a soft whimper. Grace heard him and blinked awake.
“Felipe?”
Karnage was alone in his anger towards Pablo, and began to drift off to a more private mental domain. (Though he had since learned to move on and let Helena rest in peace; there were still moments where he felt understandable outrage towards his deceased father)
“De culo….”
He muttered.
“Hmmhm?”
“Why didn’t you stop heem, mama….”
Karnage thought aloud, his eyes slightly glazed. Grace attempted, a bit roughly, to wake her husband; giving his back and shoulders and turning him a bit so that he faced her. In a few moments, Karnage slowly came back to reality; blinking and rubbing at his now-clearing eyes.
“Que-querida?”
Grace sighed a bit.
“Yes.”
They hugged.
“What happened?”
She asked him, sincerely.
Karnage swallowed, and took his time to answer. This genuinely was very hard to talk about; even with his wife.
“Mi mama….”
He said after a while.
“Pablo…..De culo deserved worse.”
Grace gently wrapped an arm around his shoulder.
“You want to go back to sleep, then?”
She asked softly.
He just shook his head.
“I don’t theenk I can. Not yet.”
“Well if you need anything at all…..I’m right here.”
Grace offered, speaking the truth with all her heart.
They both simultaneously went to sleep at roughly 5:34 am, after hours of holding each other and sobbing like children who’d had stinging disinfectant put on their playground bruises.
When Baloo woke up the following morning, he had a considerable headache; which was strange since he hadn’t drank any alcohol at all the previous evening. He’d been so exhausted last night for no physical reason that he could gauge; Baloo had just collapsed in the bed of his half-decent apartment moments after returning home from the barroom, and hadn’t bothered to change into pajamas either.
Groggily rubbing sleep out of his eyes, the bear changed into some decent clothing and wondered if he should just call in sick for work. After a few moments, he decided to bounce the idea off Kit (who lived in a similar apartment complex down the block) and then decide if he was going to show or not.
Yanking the telephone off his bedroom dresser, Baloo hastily dialed Kit’s number and moments later, the younger bear picked up.
“Morning, Papa Bear.”
“Hey Kit.”
Baloo smirked a bit, knowing that Kit sounded just as unfocused and groggy as he did.
“You have your coffee this morning yet?”
“No, but I’m gonna get it soon.”
Kit paused on the other line.
“Why so early?”
“Uh….I was thinkin’ about calling in sick today.”
“You all right?”
Kit’s voice was laced with concern now. Baloo attempted to shrug it off; he didn’t want anyone worrying about him unnecessarily.
“Oh I’m fine, I just had a really late night and didn’t get much sleep- I learned my lesson!”
A quick, almost imperceptible pause.
“Well if you want to come to work today it’s up to you, I think I can survive.”
Baloo sensed that Kit was on the verge of hanging up, so he added:
“Wait!”
“Yeah?”
“Kit…This may come off as a little what’s the word….Uh, spontaneous, but do you ever miss…The old days?”
“What, you mean the golden age of Higher for Hire?”
There was definite nostalgia in Kit’s voice.
“Yeah, that.”
Kit laughed a bit.
“That was one hell of a blast- Battling air pirates, delivering to foreign nations…..Having to put up with Becky from time to time!”
This made them explode in gales of laughter.
“Cheer up though, maybe we can have another…Golden age like that now.”
Baloo was aware his attempt to cheer Kit up probably wouldn’t work, but he’d tried nonetheless.
“Yeah, I hope we can too. I’ll see you in half an hour if you’re up to going to work. Later.”
“Bye.”
As he hung up, Baloo sighed raggedly and sat on the edge of the bed and decided that he was indeed going to work today. He’d felt that ever since they started working together after Kit graduated flight school, there had been a growing chasm between both bears. And if he’d ever been determined in his life, Baloo was going to try like hell to make them what they’d used to be: Father and son.
Alice awoke the following morning feeling refreshed, but also with mixed feelings that she was no longer a virgin. Trying to remain calm about the whole situation, she got out of bed and drew the blinds, changing into a simple tan and red plaid shirt and olive green slacks.
Alice glanced at the very back of the closet, nostalgically remembering where she’d once kept a slew of homemade fairy-tale style princess dresses, which she’d worn sometimes until the age of eight; when she thought she was too old for playing princesses and sold them at a thrift store. Then, she shut the closet door and descended down the stairs, thinking as she went.
Scars. How unusual they were. Alice was aware that her parents had some to their name- her mother she knew, had a scar from when she’d gotten her appendix out when she was twenty-seven, and her father had two barely-noticeable intercrossing scars across his muzzle from some kind of fight he’d gotten into in 1940.
Alice herself was riddled with a few cuts and markings from various childhood incidents; be it the time she’d fallen on some sharp rocks at age eight and sliced her leg open (It required quite a few stitches) and another time Leo had jabbed a pen into the surface of her paw so hard that it had bled, though the memory was hazy.
Neither sibling could remember why it had occurred, though they had only been about four or five years old at the time. Needless to say, Alice did have other scars; but none of them were very significant, so this was why her sexual experience with Jamie troubled her so badly. She wasn’t a virgin anymore, but would her emotions go entirely unscathed? As she reached the bottom steps, Alice was suddenly assailed with a hazy memory from the far reaches of her mind she was surprised she remembered.
It was mid-fall, and she was very, very young, probably about four at the oldest. All she could remember now was lying in the warm grass, giggling and making snow angels among the bright, flame-colored leaves that seemed to be everywhere, and she’d been wearing a fluffy white dress. She’d been innocent then, and suddenly; Alice was beginning to wish she could simply relive her early childhood again.
 
Chapter Six
 
That same day, in Cape Suzette, Adhira Khan had a lot of things on her mind. She’d gotten up hours ago and was already fully dressed; but still had some time remaining before going to work. She was dressed in a swarthy, dark purple housedress that showed off her naturally slim figure, and had a pattern of subtle black roses, as well as a matching necklace of expensive black pearls. Her plot to manipulate Karnage through his beloved son was still fresh in her mind; and at the moment she was thinking about how to continue through with it.
She figured there was no better time then now for them to meet. It seemed an innocent concept enough. Simply inquire about it and see where it went from there. After all, Adhira WAS one who learned through trial and error…After a while, she wrote the letter and then called her brother.
“Vijay, it’s me…… Yes…..Can I talk to you?”
Leo got the letter three days later. Alice wasn’t around at the time, so he hurried up to his room before she could catch sight of him. Upon opening it, he read the letter instantly. It went:
Dear Mr. Karnage,
Since we have been corresponding for some time now, would you perhaps like for us to meet, in private at some point in the near future? If you cannot, I understand, though it would be my pleasure to arrange for you if perhaps we can indeed meet. If possible, write back with your own terms. Thank you.
- Adhira Khan
Even after he’d read it, Leo thought carefully about his words before penning a response. It read:
Miss Khan:
To say the least, it’d be interesting if we could meet. Probably the best time would be early to mid September even though by then I’ll be back in school again. If possible; I’ll write back to you again in early September with more details.
Sincerely, Leo Karnage
And with that, he promptly mailed the letter that afternoon.
Time passed. July went through its glorious but oppressive, blazing cycle and faded into a golden-tinted August. The summer had concluded with little event; and Leo had become good at keeping mum about the various activities he had done over the summer- if his parents knew they’d probably send him to juvenile hall or worse….a mental hospital!
On September 4th, Alice and Leo went back to school for their sophomore year, along with the rest of the new tenth grade class, to begin the newborn 1955-1956 school year. Alice was so bored during the orientation that morning she felt like plugging her ears, but she had nothing to do it with. Orientation was led, as always, by Agatha Crosby (Known secretly by the students as ‘Old Ironsides’ due to her cold, disciplining nature and veritable temper.), a 64-year-old black rhinoceros had been principal of one of Southshire’s two high schools for just over twenty years; and by the looks of her she wasn’t going to be stepping down anytime soon much to the everlasting despair of the current students no matter what their grade.
However, at 9:14 the orientation ended and the students flooded out of the auditorium to go to their third period classes. Alice did not linger in the hallway like some of the others did; she did not belong to any of the typical cliques or girl gangs, perfectly happy and at peace as an outsider.
After the halls had mostly cleared and the commotion was over, she glanced at the schedule she’d picked up at the office earlier that morning. Alice's third period that day was geometry. What a joy that was sure to be. As her new teacher droned on, Alice sat, irritated but quiet at her desk; pausing every now and then to take notes but otherwise lost in her own world; her encounter with Jamie in July still bothered her.
Nonetheless, she chewed the eraser of her pencil out of habit and finished with the worksheet.
After school, Alice was on her way out when she saw a familiar face ahead of her: Jamie!
“Hey, Jamie!!”
She ran up to him and grabbed him in a tackle/hug.
“Alice!”
He hugged her.
“How was the rest of your summer?”
Jamie asked casually, even though they’d spent a lot of the summer together.
“Boring.”
Jamie feigned melodrama.
“Come on, am I really THAT dull?”
Alice laughed, and they chatted for a while about what classes they were in this year, or griped about obnoxious teachers. After everyone had mostly left to go home, Jamie casually asked:
“Hey uh, later….You want to come over to my house, for dinner?”
Alice lowered her voice cautiously.
“I wouldn’t mind at all but….Is it a date?”
Jamie looked around and shook his head.
“No. Just dinner.”
“I’ll ask my parents about it, then.”
They walked home from school together; and Alice dropped Jamie off at his house before heading home herself. It took some convincing, but she was able to get her parents to agree to let her eat dinner at Jamie’s, and shortly after this was agreed to Leo came home. After eating, Alice and Jamie did some of their small amount of homework together before Alice went home.
Feeling refreshed, Jamie sprawled on the living room couch and turned the volume dial of the radio up. Pearl scowled at him.
“Jamie what did I say about footpaws on the table?”
Indeed, Jamie’s footpaws were resting upon Pearl’s best antique coffee table. Jamie quietly withdrew them and lay down with his head resting on a throw pillow. After an unclear period of time went by, a phone rang from the kitchen.
“I’ll get it.”
Before Jamie even really had time to react, Pearl got up from her forest-green, beat-up armchair and went to see who was calling.
“Hello…..Hello, who is this?”
At first there was only silence.
“Pearl? Darling? Is that you?”
Pearl’s breath caught in her chest as a slick, obnoxious but still very suave voice sounded on the other line. Twelve years was a long time; but she was damned if she didn’t recognize that voice…. Clutching her chest instinctively with one paw, she took a deep breath and picked up the phone again on its cord.
“Martin?”
“That would be me.”
“Excuse me.”
Pearl dropped the phone on the table and leaned against the wall. She needed a moment to get her thoughts in order, no, MORE than a moment. Her mind suddenly plummeted back to late 1937; when she’d gone to a somewhat small university to hear a lecture done by a Professor Martin Torque; a dog (Specifically a German Shepherd like herself despite his somewhat doberman-like coloring) who had become a figure of slight public notoriety in 1937 when he’d created a state-of-the-art automaton called the Auto Aviator that nearly ran the aviation industry into the ground. The whole thing was a huge failure; and only after a few thousand models had been created, all the rest were quietly scrapped.
Briefly, Torque had taken a job as a traveling salesbeast and a bit of a charlatan in the icy Communist empire that was Thembria. He stayed there for little more than three months before finally scraping together enough money to immigrate back to Usland, and back to Cape Suzette. He was laughed out of St. Darren’s where he’d used to teach, and was thus forced to find another teaching position elsewhere, and had secured this job by the time he met Pearl.
Even though she was twenty-three at the time and out of college, Pearl was an intellectual and really had always been. Born in 1914 in the midwestern, dusty part of Usland; Pearl grew up in a small, friendly town with working-class parents and no siblings to speak of. She always seemed to be a tiny bit ahead of her peers in school, and her teachers always did say that Pearl was definitely a bright child. She graduated college in June of 1937 (just before her 23rd birthday) and moved to Cape Suzette that fall.
As for Torque? He was born in Old York City in 1902, to parents comfortably wedged in the middle class. If Pearl had been bright growing up; the young Martin’s parents considered him to be a genius, and bragged about him whenever an opportunity arose, and by far he was the child of their dreams. Torque started college in 1920 and eventually became a professor at St. Darren’s in Cape Suzette by 1934 before his unfortunate exile in December of 1937.
Torque was a full twelve years older than Pearl, and their initial thoughts on each other were unimpressive at most when they met. Pearl thought Torque was arrogant and obnoxious; and Torque thought she was simple and overly imaginative. Nonetheless, the two began to talk after the lecture, and by February of 1938 they were friends.
This relationship continued well into the fall of that same year when they started hesitantly dating, and Pearl had never felt so in love. In June of 1939 however, when Pearl casually enquired about engagement, Torque simply shook his head and said in a very regretful voice:
“Pearl, I’m very sorry but I just can’t marry you.”
And that was the end of their relationship. Pearl was dejected, cried for a few weeks; and moved on, thinking it was all over. But she was so wrong. A few weeks later at a routine doctor’s appointment she learned that she was pregnant. In the end, Pearl did not ask for an abortion because she figured that was what Torque would have wanted her to do; and in February of 1940 James Martin Duncan was born.
Pearl and Jamie moved to Southshire in 1943. She briefly called Torque, and that was the last they’d heard of each other since. Taking a shallow breath, Pearl returned to the phone.
“What…what do you want?”
“I’d like to talk to Jamie.”
Pearl took a shallow, nervous breath and opened the kitchen door, leaving the phone behind.
“Jamie? Your old man wants to talk to you.”
Jamie gave his mother a blank, puzzled look.
“Mom, you’ve always told me my old man was dead.”
“Well…..I lied.”
Pearl was close to tears.
“I’m sorry, but I did. It was the wrong thing to do and I’m sorry. But…..Your father, he was a bastard and he left me just as I was talking to him about marriage. I just wanted to forget!”
Jamie’s voice dropped to a hushed whisper as he tried to process all this. He couldn’t.
“I will.”
And with that, he shuffled into the kitchen and to the phone.
“Hello?”
Jamie was trembling.
“Hi, son.”
Jamie felt repulsed instantly. He’d just started talking to the father he didn’t know; and already this creature was trying to be buddy-buddy with him and call him son!
“Why do you want to talk to me?”
Jamie just wanted to get this whole surreal experience over with.
“I….”
Torque paused a bit.
“I just wanted to talk about maybe coming to visit you and your mother someday, and maybe talk about getting you into a good school. You’re what, fifteen now?”
Jamie had reached his breaking point.
“……Dad, I don’t even know you, but I KNOW I can’t be your little college boy. And if you think we can be instant friends now then get bent!”
He brutally slammed the phone into its cradle.
Breathless, Jamie ran to Pearl and hugged her tightly like he was a five-year-old boy who’d skinned his knee again.
“Mom I’m sorry, I couldn’t handle it….”
“I know, I should have hung up…..Jamie I’m so, so sorry…..”
They clung to each other, mother and son, while in the background the radio droned on mercilessly.
Hours later, Alice called Jamie.
“Jamie? Hi.”
“Hey.”
Jamie sighed. Pearl had told him the whole story about his father but still he felt numb. It was best to distract himself with something else.
“How’re you?”
“I’m good.”
A lie.
They talked for a while, but things soon got awkward when Alice mentioned her mixed feelings about their experience with sex, mentioning:
“Jamie, do you think we should have gotten it up? Do you think it was worth it? I don’t even know anymore…”
And began to cry quietly.
Little did she know, that through a crack in the barely-closed door, Leo had heard on his way to the bathroom and suddenly, he could think of nothing more than getting sweet, sweet revenge now that he’d heard his sister had indeed had sexual encounters.
He flew down the stairs and into the kitchen where Karnage was lingering at the table (Grace was in the basement doing something work-related), and Leo leaned in the doorframe, out of breath before yelling in a whiny, tattle-tale voice:
“Dad, Alice isn’t a virgin!!!!!”
“Alice! Alicia, I am needing to talk to you!”
Karnage turned on his heels and ran up the stairs to Alice’s bedroom while Leo sat, grinning smugly. Grace was downstairs in the basement working; but the door was closed because she liked to do so in privacy. Leo saw no need to tell her now and disappeared into the living room.
“Alice, did you really do eet?”
Karnage asked, as he stared unbelievably at his shamefaced daughter, whose eyes were damp already.
“Yes…I did it. With….A friend of mine from school. I’m sorry, dad! Are you going to punish me?”
Karnage did not answer yes or no. Instead he began to pace.
“Your aunt Helena…..She was deeshonored. She was raped and….Molested. REPEATEDLY!”
Alice sighed, struggling to grapple with her mixed, dark emotions. She was beginning to feel more and more like a spoiled brat who had acted out, and she hated herself for it.
“Well, I know you didn’t want that kind of life for me dad…But this isn’t the turn of the century anymore, and I need some time to myself. When you’re ready, then come to the 50’s!”
And with that, Alice slammed the bedroom door in Karnage’s face and sprawled upon the bed, crying and forced to confront what she had done.
Struggling to get a grip on himself and close to tears now himself, Karnage went to the basement to talk to Grace. Normally he would have respected her privacy and let her work in peace but this was something she had to know about; especially now that he’d had his little talk with Alice- and was still uncertain as to how to confront her further.
“Felipe? Did you want to talk to me?”
Grace asked, emerging from her chair as she saw Karnage on the basement steps.
“Si.”
He picked his words carefully.
“Dere’s a problem weeth…Our daughter.”
Grace was instantly concerned.
“What happened?”
She asked, urgently.
“She….Lost her virgeenity.”
Grace was instantly taken aback. Alice was rebellious, independent and very outgoing; all were vital parts of her personality, but Grace had never considered even for a moment that her daughter would go running off and having sex. But after a while Grace realized it was silly to think this: She WAS Alice’s mother after all, and in the fall of 1925 she’d craved sex so badly she’d gone to bed with her own cousin. Why shouldn’t her daughter have the same drive, after all? Perhaps some things simply ran in the family, as mixed feelings as Grace did have about it. She was interrupted as Karnage continued:
“I’m going to find a leest of every male at dat school, not just de dogs and wolves, and torture every damned one of dem unteel I find out what happened!”
Karnage was simply so angry and upset that he had no idea WHAT he was thinking, and the words simply burst from him.
Grace’s jaw dropped.
“You’re not serious.”
Karnage was not sure how to answer.
“Felipe?”
She asked after a while.
Karnage sighed raggedly.
“Que?”
“I…I can’t believe our little girl’s growing up so fast. Too fast.”
“Si. You’re right.”
Eventually, night came. Grace later found Karnage in the closet shrine, weeping. (he had hastily left the door open, suddenly not caring who might see him) It was the first time he had entered the room in ten whole years now. He was not necessarily seeking to grieve Helena; that process he had quietly finished in 1948, but rather to seek out her guidance spiritually. Grace found him not long after, and they went to bed, holding each other the entire night.
Alice eventually stopped crying but went to bed herself feeling depressed and bleak. That night Leo was the only one who went to sleep happy; completely smug at having created an instant rift between his family.
 
Chapter Seven 
Jamie lay awake in bed as night transitioned into dawn, staring at his bedroom ceiling, pretending to be in total awe of the small, jagged crack running across the center. It was a school night, so he really should have gone back to sleep, but Jamie knew he couldn’t. He just had too many things on his mind.
After the phone call with his father earlier that day, no matter how brief it had been; Jamie knew he didn’t want to disappoint Alice. But was it the right thing to continue with their relationship? Jamie didn’t know; perhaps it would be best to discuss that with her. And he himself was beginning to feel guilty about having sexual relations on that carefree July night…
That morning, at Karnage and Grace’s house, Leo was quite possibly the only one happy that morning, and it showed. A silent breakfast was consumed before Grace and Karnage went to work and Leo and Alice, to school. Alice felt numb the instant she got to homeroom, and then to first period- she felt as though someone had given her an emotional lobotomy.
By third period it became clear that Leo had clearly told Alice’s tiny, scattered group of friends that she had had sex; but Alice no longer cared, she was so numb. Surely there were others out there willing to accept her friendship. So Alice continued to go through the motions until fifth period. She was one of the group of students who ate lunch at the cafeteria instead of going home; and almost leapt up as a paw gently tapped her shoulder. It turned out to be Jamie, looking somber; and there was something about him that told Alice he probably hadn’t gotten much sleep.
“Hey, Alice. I eat lunch at home so I gotta head out right now but I just thought I’d give you this.”
He slipped her a wadded-up piece of lined paper crunched into a ball and hurried out.
By the time she was just about to call his name, Jamie was long gone. Alice sighed and read the note. It read:
Alice. I’m so sorry, for everything. You must be in real trouble with your parents if they know. Meet me on my front lawn- it doesn’t matter when- just whenever you have time. And if you don’t show, I guess that’s fine. I’ve gotten you into enough trouble these days, I’m sure.
-Jamie
Alice stuffed the note into her shirt pocket, ate her lunch, and shuffled back to the remainder of fifth period and out of the cafeteria.
When Grace came home from work that afternoon, Alice and Leo were not yet home, though she was sure they would be soon. Karnage, however, had managed to beat her. They talked briefly before Grace finally managed to get her act together and ask The Question, just to get it off her mind:
“But I just wanted to mention…..What are we going to do about Alice?”
Grace sighed. This was something that had been troubling her greatly. She knew Alice would have to be disciplined for doing what she had, and yet at the same time Grace just couldn’t punish her daughter too harshly, it hurt too badly. Karnage had the same divide as Grace; so it was a while before he spoke his thoughts.
“Sell her motorcycle.”
Grace still looked torn.
“….Are you sure?”
The wolf simply nodded.
“Fine. Look…..You want to talk to her about this when she gets home?”
“Sell de motorcycle first.”
Grace sighed.
“All right. And Felipe?”
“Que?”
“This will sound stupid but….Do you still love Alice?”
Karnage did not hesitate in answering.
“Si!”
“I feel the same, I just want the best for her.”
“So do I! I’m just so…..Confuzzled.”
“Well I guess that makes two of us then.”
Grace had just departed; and Karnage had gotten drunk by the time Alice walked in.
 
Chapter Eight 
“Hi dad.”
A morose, emotionless Alice returned home to find only her father at home, which was not always surprising- Grace often would go out and do things by herself. (Currently, unbeknownst to Alice, Grace had gone out not long ago to sell her daughter’s motorcycle)
Karnage sat at the kitchen table, a bottle of liquor in front of him, and every so often he would take a large sip from his coffee cup.
“Dad…?”
Alice’s voice trailed off.
She had rarely seen her father drink apart from the occasional glass of wine at special occasions, but this was something else entirely. But Alice’s mind was so numb from all the stress and depression she’d had to go through of late; that she would have accepted it without hesitation if someone told her her parents weren’t even her real parents and that she was actually a foreign being from another galaxy like in the ridiculous B movie she’d seen back in April, before having met Jamie.
“Eesh nothing.”
Karnage slurred in a pitiful attempt to reassure his daughter nothing was amiss.
“Don’t even try to lie to me, dad.”
Alice sighed.
“You’re drunk; even a five-year-old would know.”
“Eeesh not importhanth…..”
Karnage muttered, pushing his bottle aside.
“Tell me what happened, please? I’m just concerned. And I’m sorry I’ve been such a fresh bitch over the summer.”
She paused. An eerie silence filled the air.
“Where’s mom?”
“She went to sell…..A motorcycle……..”
Alice sighed. She did not even have to go into the garage to know that it was hers.
Alice found paper and scribbled a note, leaving it on the kitchen counter:
Dad, (and mom if you’re home by the time someone reads this)
I’m going out to see Jamie. Now before you both have heart attacks, please let me explain: I know our relationship is over. I just want to say goodbye. I shouldn’t be gone too long, and I hope you can forgive me. But if you don’t, I’ll live.
-Alice
And with that, she left the house; leaving a still-intoxicated Karnage coming out of the bathroom to read her note.
When Grace returned from selling Alice’s motorcycle; she entered the house and went into the kitchen to see Karnage sprawled on the floor, a broken wine bottle shattered on the floor beside him.
“She left us…..Mierda, where’s de broom….?”
He muttered, and sat up, glancing around the vicinity for a broom or dustpan.
“Felipe?! The hell happened?”
Grace’s face was rife with alarm; it WAS after all no secret that Karnage rarely drank, let alone enough to get this drunk.
“Alicia left us, querida….”
He slurred.
Grace glanced around, and went to examine the note Alice had left.
“How do you know?”
She asked as she read it; which indeed was written by Alice.
“…Excuse me for saying so but….I for one think she’ll be fine.”
“I hope.”
A moment of silence.
Grace glanced with concern towards her intoxicated husband.
“You need to lie down or anything?”
It was more than obvious he needed the rest, and so Grace was not surprised when Karnage said:
“Si.”
“Do you need help walking?”
Karnage clutched his temple, he felt like his skull was going to burst, and nodded- the room had suddenly began to spin erratically; and was filled with a dark, pulsing color scheme that was terrible on the eyes.
“Por favor? De room’s speening….”
Grace offered him her arm; and Karnage shakily got to his footpaws and followed his wife up the stairs and into their bedroom, where he was quick to crawl beneath the sheets.
“Gracias, querida.”
“Any time.”
And with that, Karnage was soon asleep. Grace didn’t blame him at all.
Meanwhile, Alice had just gotten to Jamie’s house. Jamie was sitting under the ancient peach tree on his front lawn, looking depressed- his mood matched hers well enough, it seemed.
“Hey.”
He muttered.
“Hi.”
Alice greeted him, sitting next to him under the tree.
“Alice…”
Jamie took a deep breath.
“I just found out the truth about my old man. He’s not dead; he’s some deadbeat who left my mom before I was even born, and she was really torn up about it. Now that we….Went all the way, I don’t want to disappoint you like that, Alice. You don’t deserve a guy like that, and I hope I don’t come off like that either. But for now….I feel like it’s time for both of us to move on.”
Alice nodded slowly. Lately, as much as she hated to admit it; she felt the same. She knew what she’d done was wrong now.
“I….I understand.”
She choked, and struggled not to cry.
“I think I’m ready to move on to other things, Jamie. I really don’t think I’m ready to date.”
“Me either.”
Alice rose.
“So….This is goodbye?”
“Yeah, I’d say.”
Jamie suddenly looked wistful.
“Anyway…”
He added.
“I’ll see you around. Have a good life.”
Alice smiled wanly.
“Yeah, you too.”
And with that, Alice walked home without a second glance and the two went their separate ways. Jamie lingered under the shade of the tree for a long time, before Pearl yelled at him to get inside and told him to clean his room.
Leo returned home while Alice was still visiting Jamie (But on her way back, and quietly made a phone call to Eli)
“Hello, Eli….”
He chuckled.
“Don’t hang up. You’d better not.”
Eli swallowed nervously. Neither of his parents were in the room.
“The hell do you want now?”
“….Come with me. It’s important.”
“To where??”
The cat was rightfully wary.
Leo paused.
“Uh….to the park. The Great War memorial one.”
“Fine.”
Eli sighed.
“But you better not pull anything funny!”
“Oh I won’t Eli, I won’t…. You may go now.”
Eli sighed raggedly and hung up. He was far from stupid and knew there would be big consequences if he said no to Leo. He flinched, however, as Melina entered the room.
“Who was that?”
She asked in her typical concerned-mother voice.
Eli tried to shrug it off.
“Oh, nobody. Just a friend from school.”
He smiled feebly and put on his sneakers, preparing to head out.
~
Unlike Eli; who had to sneak out of the house, Leo simply told his mother (Karnage sleeping off his alcohol and therefore unavailable for comment) he was going to the park, and very reluctantly she said yes. So now he sat in the front yard, impatiently waiting for Eli. He squinted as he saw a golden-colored, feline shape coming down the street, with a smaller, black form with him, his younger brother Harold. With a scowl, Leo approached them.
“Eli, why’d you bring your kid brother with you?!”
Eli sighed and wiped at his temple.
“It’s not my fault Leo, he REALLY wanted to come and I just couldn’t get him to stay home.”
Leo glared irately at Harold, who simply frowned in a pouty, seven-year-old way but said nothing.
When they reached the park; Eli and Leo sat down on a wooden bench while Harold wandered curiously over to a large, plant-infested pond nearby, dipping a paw cautiously into the water.
“Eli, you can’t be so rebellious!”
Leo hissed.
“You ARE my friend, aren’t you? Well, friends respect each other!”
“Friends? Leo, you treat me more like your personal slave.”
Eli folded his arms angrily but said nothing.
Turning back to Eli, Leo said:
“Eli you’re very hurtful, you know….”
“Hurtful?”
Harold was sitting on the grass; having since stopped pretending to shoot his toy pistol, which he had stuffed inside the pocket of his jeans.
“What do you know about hurtful, Leo? Your dad ain’t nothing but a dirty thief…a pirate! And you, you’re crazy!”
Enraged that someone could DARE insult his father AND himself, Leo charged forward like a mad bull and punched Harold in the jaw before Eli could intervene. He picked the young creature up by his shirt collar and dangled him in front of the pond.
“…Never…..Call my father…..Names…Again! And I’m not crazy! So don’t you dare say I am! You’ll pay for this, you little prick!”
And with that, he raked a claw viciously down Harold’s cheek and then put both paws around his neck, squeezing and squeezing with savage intensity until
“You sick bastard! You’ll pay for this! I swear you will!”
Eli savagely tackled Leo, pinning him to the ground, knocking Harold aside so that the younger cat lay sprawled on the ground, his breathing slowly returning to normal.
“You had better go home, and don’t you lay a finger on my brother EVER AGAIN!”
Leo just smirked and ran off, leaving Eli to attend to the crying Harold alone.
“Don’t worry, Harold, I’ll tell mom and dad…..Oh I will….”
Eli helped Harold up, and the two brothers left the eerily empty park and scrambled home as fast as their legs would carry them.
As soon as Leo returned home, Grace was lounged in the kitchen, sipping coffee. All was quiet; and Karnage was still asleep. After a while, Alice came in and asked if she could go to the corner store to buy some soda. Grace agreed, and off Alice went. She was startled however, when the phone rang. Picking it up, Grace muttered:
“Hello….?”
Casually.
What sounded like angry, ragged breathing could be heard on the other end.
“Grace Karnage….”
It was Melina.
“I KNOW what your son did to Harold! Keep the little bastard away from us because the next time I see him he’ll be six feet under!”
Grace was instantly baffled and alarmed, having no idea what had transpired.
“Excuse me…?!”
“Ask him yourself!”
Melina roared.
“My boys came home and Harold told me YOUR son tried to strangle him! I took pictures!”
Grace’s heart was pounding in her chest. She knew that Leo had picked up some extremely disturbing tendencies of late, but murder?! She sighed, knowing the more optimistic part of her had always prevented her from even thinking of such seemingly distant possibilities over the summer.
“Melina I’m so sorry! I had no idea! Leo had just told me he was going to the park!”
“Well, as soon as the pictures are developed I’ll show you all the evidence…..”
“Melina I promise I’ll talk to Leo right now!”
Grace fervently swore.
“Then DO IT!”
And with that, Melina hung up.
Grace sighed and rubbed at her temple. If handled incorrectly, the following times would quite obviously lead into a loss of friendship with the Barnharts. She would certainly miss their company; the two families having known each other for years now, and Grace vowed not to let something like her clearly juvenile delinquent son stop that.
And hopefully, hopefully (She thought, rationally now) there would be some form of reclamation for Leo, she didn’t care what so long as it got him back to the shy, affectionate and very sane son she loved and missed.
So, she took a deep breath and ran up the stairs to his room, calling:
“LEO KARNAGE! Young man, I need to talk to you, and now we BOTH know what you’ve done….”
After Grace had finished confronting a strangely cowardly Leo on what he had done, she steeled herself and told Karnage. He was extremely shocked (and privately outraged at his son’s actions); and wanted to talk to Leo about it straight away himself. When Alice returned with her soda, she was somberly informed as well. And so Alice was filled with an even larger feeling of alienation from her brother and found herself wondering if she truly hated him.
The next four days were a complete circus. Eventually, a trial was held at the local courthouse, where Leo was tried as a minor (Being only sixteen). Photographs of Harold’s bruised neck (part of the fur had been ripped away to reveal an ugly wound) were publicly displayed as exhibits; and Harold and Eli themselves both testified with their accounts of the incident. Even though she was not a direct witness to the crime; Alice found herself with several things to say about Leo’s increasingly disturbing behavior.
Grace and Karnage never said a word. They had plenty of anecdotes under their belts about how Leo had been acting, but neither could make themselves testify against their own son; he still was their family, and as parents neither could bear to see him rot in jail. It was indeed their most major weak spot.
Karnage mostly kept quiet during the proceedings. Yes, he had his moments of arrogance, but they had mostly been greatly over exaggerated during his days of piracy, and nowadays he found precious little purpose in life for an ego. Nonetheless, he was not quite certain how to feel when Leo pleaded insanity; and the judge sentenced him to one year of treatment in Karsimys Hospital for the Deranged, a mental institution thirty miles out of town.
On Monday, September 12th, Leo was scheduled to leave for Karsimys. He sat on the driveway, beaten leather suitcase beside him, containing a few changes of clothes and books, but nothing more. Grace, Karnage, and Alice were all nearby.
“Leo….Mi hijo….Do not turn out like your abuelo. Por favor.”
This was all Karnage could think of to tell his son before he left. He knew he should be mad at him; and Karnage honestly was, but he just couldn’t translate his thoughts into words, and then his words into actions right now. After speaking, he straightened his tie and leaned against a nearby tree.
After all the goodbyes had quietly and bitterly been said, an ugly, unmarked brown Buick from about the mid-1930’s came to pick up Leo. A few more words of confirmation were said, and Leo opened the passenger door, threw his suitcase onto the backseat, but waited just a moment before sitting down and closing it himself. He turned and gave a nondescript but somehow haunting look back at his parents and sister, waving feebly. Then, he slammed the door and the car pulled out.
For the longest time; there was silence. Grace sighed and said
“I just can’t make myself hate him no matter how hard I try.”
Alice glanced briefly at her mother before going into the house, calling
“Might as well do my goddamn chores while there’s time….”
Now Karnage himself was left alone outdoors. He decided to go inside, but not before lingering for a while. Lingering and just hoping, silently hoping that Leo’s institutional stay would be far better than Pablo’s.
~
Leo sat sprawled in the backseat of the Buick, silently thankful that he hadn’t been handcuffed. Yet. The driver was a stocky middle-aged otter who had not attempted to make conversation yet and Leo doubted he ever would. The car was going at about twenty miles an hour, if not a little more, and it’d definitely be less than two hours at most.
Leo did not pay any attention to the landscape as it rushed past him, and just to pass the time after a while he fell asleep with one paw protectively on his nearby suitcase handle. Eventually though, a gruff voice was ringing in his ears as the car slowly stopped.
“Hey, hey kid….Wake up back there! I ain’t got all night to chauffeur you damn crazies around…..”
Groggily, Leo blinked awake, grabbed his suitcase, and staggered out. The building that loomed before him was like the archetypal dark castle of a child’s fairy tale; gothic and intimidating with what seemed like endless amounts of jutting spires, oriel windows, and elaborate balconies of stone, and a rash of stubborn ivy leaves were slowly crawling up part of the left side. Leo was just so taken by its eerie beauty that it seemed he’d been awoken from a vague but pleasant dream when he was met by a scar-faced female ferret; in a white blouse and plaid skirt, smoking a cigarette and carrying a clipboard, who introduced herself as one of the nurses.
“Name?”
“Leo Karnage.”
“Ahh!”
Her eyes lit up.
“Yeah, you. A wolfdog ain’t you?”
Mutely, Leo nodded.
“Tried to strangle some poor schmuck? Yeah, the gossip’s been flyin’. Come on.”
The nurse finished smoking her cigarette and tossed it into a rusting trash can, and Leo couldn’t help but notice the sheer amount of trashed cigarettes all over the courtyard as he was led inside the institution.
Shortly after he was led inside, the snarky nurse told him to wait for a doctor to call his name, and so Leo did. He settled down in an ancient wicker chair and uneasily looked around the lobby. There were no patients in sight; and all the doors in the vicinity seemed to be closed, but Leo flinched as he thought he heard maniacal laughter. After several minutes however, he got used to it and began to take in his surroundings.
The lobby seemed to have been designed with a very dark theme in mind; its carpet was the color of dark blood, underscored by a pattern of delicate pink roses with darker green stems and thorns. The wallpaper was a nondescript, chalky dark pink; and near the foot of the stairs there was an intricately carved wooden statute of a gargoyle, and a gothic chandelier swung weakly from the extremely wide, vaulted ceiling.
After what felt like years instead of less than an hour, Leo’s name was called, and he was given a physical by a sable doctor whose name eluded him. As for the actual tests; they were just the standard ones anyone might receive at their doctor’s office, and it came as no surprise to Leo when he was sent off with a clean bill of health when the appointment was over. PHYSICAL health, anyway….
After that, Leo’s clothes were checked to make sure he wasn’t concealing any objects such as knives or guns, and an orderly escorted him down a twisting hallway to his room; which was number 306. It was a small, nondescript bedroom with an adjoining bathroom. The wallpaper was a peeling pale yellow with darker blue stripes; and really the only furniture was a tiny bed with a brass frame.
Leo sighed as he put his clothes in the closet and organized his books in a pile on the floor. Having nothing else to do, he sprawled on the uncomfortable mattress and decided he would take a nap until if and when someone barged in and told him to do something. After all; if he had time then, he could always read after he woke up. He pulled the thin blanket around his body and began to feel drowsy. When he woke up, Leo would judge whether or not he would stay put in this place for very long, or if he would flee. In the meantime, there was nothing to do but sleep.....
That night, Grace lay awake waiting for Karnage to join her in bed. She was not aware that he was downstairs in the living room (Alice having already gone to bed an hour ago; so no one might see him), loading his pistol.
“Felipe?”
Grace’s answer hung on empty air.
Figuring her husband’s pent-up depression and/or anger was coming loose after Leo’s departure, Grace looked around the second floor, and then the first. After searching the whole house, she was left with no choice but to search the basement. As soon as she descended the stairs, Grace’s ears pricked, hearing gunshots. Her pace quickened.
“Felipe?! Felipe the hell’s going on?”
Karnage, meanwhile, blew smoke from his gun and twirled it.
“What the hell are you doing in here??”
“Venting, querida. Look at de wall.”
Karnage turned Grace so that she faced the back of the room. The wall was now riddled with bullets that spelled out the initials D.K. Don Karnage.
The wolf let out a choked sob; a mixture of anger and grief.
“He almost keeled an eenocent…..”
Grace sighed.
“I know….I want to, but fuck: I can’t make myself hate Leo for it.”
“I know you don’t want to. I failed heem.”
Grace put a paw on his shoulder.
“Hey, you didn’t fail him. And if you failed Leo, then so did I.”
Karnage winced and wrung his paws.
“WHY would he do dat?!”
“I don’t know!!”
Grace threw her paws in the air and sobbed in anguish.
Both Grace and Karnage grimaced as Alice came down the stairs, no doubt awakened by the gunshots.
“Mom? Dad? What the hell’s with all the noise…?”
She gasped as she saw the bullets in the wall.
Karnage gave her his answer:
“I’m venting, Alicia.”
Alice sighed.
“Is all this going to work out? Just thought I’d ask.”
Karnage turned to face his daughter.
“I am not knowing but I hope….”
Alice hugged him.
“Dad, I feel like I’m beginning to hate Leo and I’m just not sure how to feel anymore But can I tell you something though?”
“Si.”
Alice took a deep breath.
“I’m sorry for what I did. Losing my virginity I mean. I know that was just so stupid and immature of me.”
Alice knew she felt what she said now.
“Dat should happen only after you’ve found someone you love and you want to be weeth dem de rest of your life.”
“And I know that. I’m going to try harder in the future. Dad, I can’t always do everything you and mom want me to exactly right all the time, and I may have….Questionable behavior from time to time but I’ll never do what I did with Jamie again. Not until I’m married. THAT you have my word on.”
Alice looked back at her parents before disappearing up the stairs.
Grace, who had been standing against the wall but hadn’t dared to say anything, now emerged from her enclave and said:
“I thought I’d stay quiet so you two could have your little moment. It seemed better you could just talk privately.”
“What weel we do?”
“About Alice or Leo?”
“Both of dem.”
Grace rubbed her temple.
“Alice….I think I can trust her word. But Leo….”
She shook her head.
Without another word, the two somberly returned to bed.
The following morning, when Leo awoke; he noticed, for the first time, some peculiar writing on the wall:
LUCIANO DIVENAZETTI WAS HERE; 9/5/99
Leo flinched, getting cold chills down his spine. Three years ago, (shortly after he’d first met Lauretta in Karnageport) Grace had told him and Alice all about Don Luciano diVenazetti; the deranged mob boss who’d attempted to rape her, until she had shot him. After a while, Leo could not help but get curious as to what Luciano had done to stay at Karsimys, but his thoughts were interrupted as the door was opened and he was told to go to the dining room to eat breakfast.
The dining room was a cramped room that smelled of mold and had wallpaper that looked like it had at least ten layers of ‘new’ paint caked onto it. The table was long, full of notches and dents, and covered by a ratty yellow tablecloth.
About a dozen or more other patients were eating there at the moment; and all of them stared at Leo as he got his meal and sat down. Upon removing the contents from their small paper bag, Leo was crestfallen to see that all he had to eat was some hard, stale-tasting cereal, a few flaky pancakes, and a bottle of orange juice whose liquid seemed to be frozen. Nonetheless, Leo quietly ate all of it (but was unable to drink the juice, seeing as it WAS frozen!) and disposed of his trash in a rusty barrel.
After that, Leo was told he could have an hour of free time before presumably getting treatment of some sort, so he asked a few patients for directions to the main office. They told him where it was, and so as Leo walked down the hallway, he quickly formulated a plan: He could look for Luciano’s old records (he was simply DYING to see them!) and slip into the office under the guise of a visiting medical student. The uniforms worn by the staff were very simple and ordinary from what he’d seen, but a college student from outside wouldn’t necessarily HAVE to adhere to a specific dress code, so really all there was to do was act the part.
And Leo was more than ready when he slipped through the squeaky door and into a room with mint-green shag carpeting covered with stains, and a pale pink wallpaper covered with newspaper headlines and old magazine clippings. Doors lead off to other rooms, which Leo was eager to explore.
A lone rat secretary sat at her desk, organizing some papers. She looked up when Leo entered. 
Leo cleared his throat and said as calmly as he could: “Hello, ma’am. I’m studying psychiatry at a local college and I’d like to see some patient records.”
The secretary sized him up with questionable suspicion.
“Son, you look a little young t’be in college…”
“Ohh I’m eighteen.”
Leo smiled placidly.
“I just look young for my age but I’m eighteen all right.”
She shrugged.
“Well if you want to see the records then….I can take you. Don’t stay too long though.”
“Oh I won’t.”
The secretary led Leo out of the office and into the adjoining small hallway; to a door marked PATIENT RECORDS.
“I’ll see you later, I have coffee break.”
She yawned and drifted towards another room up ahead. Cautiously, Leo tried the door. Luckily for him, it was unlocked. He quietly went inside and shut it behind him.
The room was completely empty save for a bare bulb dangling fragilely from the ceiling; everything else was taken up by row after row of steel filing cabinets. Leo found the D drawer in one of them and thumbed through the ratty files until he found one marked DiVenazetti. Upon briefly skimming through the attached papers and notes, Leo saw they were indeed about Luciano.
Heart pounding wildly, he folded up the decidedly thin sheaf of documents and then stuffed them under his shirt before calmly leaving the office and returning to his room, shutting the door behind him.
Leo estimated he had about forty (if not a little more) minutes of spare time left, so he used it wisely to read through the papers.
The first one was what seemed to be a detailed profile on a young Luciano:
Name: DiVenazetti, Luciano
Gender: Male
Species: Dog
Date of birth: 4/23/89
Reason for admission: Patient had gotten into an argument with a friend of his from school, a Matthew Wilson whose species was dog as well. It is not clear what exactly they had been fighting over; but it ended in which the patient killed Wilson by strangulation, and was found standing over the body and crying. It is possible the patient may have been molested at some point; but this is unclear as he will say little, always saying that he’s ‘not supposed to tell’
Leo felt the chills again. Luciano had been institutionalized for the same reason as he had! (except in Luciano’s case, the murder had been successful) He then set the profile aside and read through a few medical notes that had been written with a deviant paw:
7/31
Patient’s arrival.
8/2
First meeting with patient. Impressions: A rather odd, if confused young child who doesn’t seem to realize the circumstances of his crime and does not seem to particularly care either.
8/3
No change.
8/4
No change.
8/5
Patient was asked if anyone, especially an adult has touched him inappropriately. Seemed disturbed and violently shook his head, saying that he was ‘not supposed to tell’ Notes added to profile.
And it went on and on like this. Leo read ahead and found that Luciano was released shortly before his eleventh birthday in 1900; and it was unclear whether or not he had recovered.
That having been read, Leo briefly skimmed through the photos of Luciano. They were very typical- One showed Luciano sitting in the dining room with an irritated, child’s scowl, another showed him sitting in the courtyard during what seemed to be late summer or early fall, and a few others depicted him wandering around the institution. Interesting.
Leo slipped the contents of the file under the mattress and began to think. In 1938, Luciano had almost raped his mother. But what if that wasn’t true? What if she HAD been raped? And what if he and Alice were the children of Luciano….? The first thought that came to Leo’s mind was that if that were true, than Alice was a filthy traitor, and that if Luciano diVenazetti were indeed their father, well then he’d have to find a way to rejuvenate that family name…..
When Grace woke the next morning, she was sprawled in Karnage’s arms in bed. He smiled at her as she woke.
“Hey…..”
She muttered groggily.
“You all right?”
Grace whispered when she was fully awake.
Karnage forced a smile.
“I am not knowing.”
“It’s Leo again, isn’t it?”
“Si.”
Grace sighed.
“What do you want me to do now, then?”
Karnage hesitated. He knew what he wanted to do.
“I need to talk to Mama, querida.”
Grace fell silent.
“….What about? Leo?”
“Si.”
Grace was not a fool. She was not quite willing to let Karnage go back to the cemetery given what he’d done there last time and said:
“Are you sure I can trust you? I mean, the last time you went you tried to kill yourself.”
“I’ll go dere and back. Eet’s de only place I’m going.”
Grace was still reluctant.
“I have your word?”
“Si, mi Corazon.”
“You’re sure I can trust you?”
“Si! I’ll be back!”
Grace was convinced now. She was more than certain she could let Karnage go and not have second thoughts. She heard the sincerity in his words and voice and it was enough.
“Be safe out there.”
“I’ll be back querida.”
They hugged.
When Karnage left the bedroom to get changed, Grace was convinced he was telling the truth. And she was right. He was.
And so Karnage took the Rolls Royce again (this time not putting any form of weaponry in the trunk, or anywhere for that matter) and drove off to Karnageport. Unlike their vicious summers, fall in Karnageport is a spectacular affair as the weather gets placidly cool and mild, and the trees begin to lose their leaves.
Now that autumn was slowly embracing the small town, it was significantly cooler than over the summer and Karnage was glad of that. He did not make any stops in between, this time going straight to the graveyard.
Kneeling in front of Daniel’s grave, Karnage slowly traced his son’s name, as well as that single, piercing date: 1945. His eyes were dampening already.
“I am meesing you so much mi hijo, mi angelo, mi pequeno tesoro. I weesh you were here….”
Within moments he was sobbing, and so the wolf forced himself to move on to the next grave: his mother’s.
“Mamacita, I mees you too. I weesh you were here, I need your guidance more dan ever now….”
He stood up and was silent.
There was something different now about the grayish, late-morning horizon. Karnage lingered in the cemetery, pacing and trying to figure out just what it was. And then he realized, it was the presence of his mother and dead son, even though they were not there physically.
With this in mind, Karnage decided to spend several more minutes among the graves, even visiting Helena’s. (which had been cleaned up years ago once a caretaker had been hired after Pablo’s demise) He lingered for the longest time before leaving the cemetery; suddenly feeling a lot more confident in dealing with Leo.
And with that, the wolf got back onto the highway and returned to Southshire in time for lunch. And so for that day in Southshire…..Life was good.
It was afternoon at Karsimys, and Leo was feeling rather perplexed. He had eaten lunch in the dining room, and the food was bland (again). However during the meal he had been interrupted by a nurse; actually the same one who’d admitted him, who approached him now with a glass of water and a chalky white pill.
“What’s that?”
He had asked, staring suspiciously at the pill.
The ferret had just shrugged.
“Thorazine. I dunno; doctor’s orders. They’re just wild about drug therapy here these days.”
So Leo had swallowed the pill, only to learn moments later that unless something happened otherwise, this is what his treatment would consist of: One pill, every three hours. At first he had walked away thinking that wasn’t so bad; but Leo was wrong.
As he started to leave the dining hall, a certain sluggishness began to settle over him. It became increasingly hard to think, and it was like a fog had suddenly blanketed his mind. It was suddenly as if he had no emotion, no sense of being.
And then, after a little while it came to Leo: He HAD heard from patients in the dining hall that psychotherapy was never practiced at Karsimys. With the past few years bringing an advent of antipsychotics; the thought of simply zombifying a patient with a seemingly harmless drug tablet rather than go through all the work of physically ‘reforming’ them via a lobotomy certainly seemed like a consecration, if only because it was easier. In short, these drugs were suddenly the new lobotomy.
So that was why so many patients had struck Leo as being fairly innocuous (minus their odd sense of detachment from their environment); chances are they were too drugged to care much about anything.
And so, upon reaching his room, Leo was alone. Faintly, from the hallway, he could hear someone playing a record, and the singer’s voice was a rasping baritone, but full of ironic beauty:
Che bella cosa e na jurnata e sole, n’aria serena doppo na tempest! Pe ll’aria fresca para gia’ na festa…. Che bella cosa na jurnata e sole….
Little did Leo know; that the voice was that of his grandfather, Pablo. In around 1901, Pablo (a lover of music) had taken it upon himself to cover O Sole Mio, which was originally written in Italja in 1898. Shortly after, his cover fell into obscurity because it was not widely distributed, and very few creatures who have the record even know who they’re listening to. (And those who do know were never fully aware of Pablo’s…..Problems.)
Interestingly enough, Pablo had also sang this song around his three children while they were all very young (Long before Theresa’s death), and at the time they’d all been fascinated by his singing voice. But none of this Leo knew.
Bored beyond description, he ripped out one of the blank pages at the end of one of his books and rummaged through the closet until he found the pencil he’d had in his pocket the day of his admission.
Sitting on the bed, Leo figured there was no better time than now to write to Adhira. So he did, and wrote:
Dear Miss Khan,
I’m sorry I haven’t been writing much lately, but things have gotten…Busy. If you would see me somewhere within the next three days, that would be excellent. As you may notice from the address on this letter; I am incarcerated in a mental institution, but I hope that won’t repel you.
-Leo Karnage
He folded the paper in half, scribbled the return address and appropriate to and from’s on the blank side and quietly departed to see if there was a way to mail it.
 
Chapter Nine 
At Southshire, evidently, silence was king in the Barnhart household today. Alice came and did her babysitting as usual; and then Melina and Hal came home from work. It was evening now.
Dinner had just been finished and all the plates and silverware put away, but nobody made any effort to walk away. Charlene leaned forward at the table, smiling weakly at her father as she picked at a scab on her right arm. Hal’s parental instincts kicked in; and normally he would have cautioned Charlene not to do so unless she wanted a scar, but today he just saw no point in even attempting to discipline his daughter.
It was hard enough for Hal to believe that his daughter had just turned 9 back in May; and would be ten in another eight months now. She was growing up so fast, all of them were. However, Hal was jolted slightly as Eli got up from his chair.
“I’m going to my room.”
Harold wiped a strangely damp eye on the back of his sleeve.
“Yeah, me too.”
Obviously idolizing Eli as younger siblings often did their elders; he followed after his brother up the stairs and disappeared.
Shortly after, Charlene exited for her own room, saying:
“I still have homework to do.”
Before leaving, she lingered in the kitchen and asked Melina:
“Mommy can I watch television too?”
Melina managed a smile. Charlene was the kind of daughter who’d ALWAYS call her mother ‘mommy’, no matter if she was nine or ninety-nine.
“Yes, you can, but make sure you finish your homework first. All of it. And if Harold or Eli want to watch with you, share!”
Charlene muttered under her breath in a typical childish fashion, but then was gone.
Melina and Hal were alone.
After a while, Melina wordlessly went to a cigar box nearby with a hefty steel padlock on it. She produced a key from within her pocket and opened it. Still silent, she placed the box on the table and dumped out some bullets and empty casings. Hal glanced at the leaden shells resentfully.
“The hell are these for?”
His voice was radiating the smug impatience he’d had during his brief stint in Old York as a taxi driver.
“I need more of these.”
Melina muttered under her breath.
“Why?”
“The kids are training with my gun.”
“….What for?”
Hal was not particularly fond of the idea of his children using weapons, even if it was self-defense.
“Target practice.”
“Melina….”
Hal’s voice trailed off.
“Just target practice. They asked me if they could learn.”
“Even Harold?”
“Yes.”
Hal blinked in quick surprise.
“You’ve been careful with them?”
“Yes.”
Reluctantly, he backed off.
“All right…. But I want t’talk to you about something.”
“Of course.”
Hal glanced around, as though to make sure no imaginary spies were eavesdropping.
“How do you feel now that Leo Karnage is…. Locked up? I say the sorry bastard deserves it.”
“I’ll do more than lock that little fucker up….”
Melina’s voice was slick and low; the epitome of raw hate.
Hal sighed exasperatedly.
“Melina… Do you even KNOW how lucky we are that Harold wasn’t killed?”
“YES! And I know the address to that nuthouse. I’ll kill him and make it look like he did it himself.”
Hal studied her a bit coldly.
“Don’t you even think about it…..As much as I hate that fucking kid the last thing I want is a wife in jail.”
But Hal’s words had fallen on deaf ears.
I can't even protect my own children. . . Melina had taken her slim pistol from where it was mounted above the mantle, loaded it, and ran out into the front hallway. "I don't have a choice. . . "
“MELINA!” He ran after her, frantic.
"Hal, take care of the kids for me, I have to do this. . . " Melina was backed against the wall now, crying, rays of dark peach streaking in from the narrow window and spilling onto the carpet. “Hal, Hal I’m sorry. . ."
The panther was sobbing brokenly. She fell to her knees.
“Don’t do it.” Hal whispered.
Melina didn’t seem to hear and rose, pointing the gun at her mouth. Hal’s heart was throbbing in his chest. He dared to risk a backward glance at the stairs. The children were just above them….
While Hal's attention was elsewhere, Melina put the muzzle of her gun in her mouth and closed her eyes, one claw resting on the trigger.
The cat turned to his wife. . . his heart stopped from terror! “Melina, I said DON’T DO IT!” He dared to raise his voice.
Melina shakily lowered the gun and whispered hoarsely:
“What am I supposed to do now?? I can’t even protect my own family!”
“Yes you can, Melina!”
She dropped the gun. It hit the carpeting with a dull thud.
Hal grabbed it, unloading it with shaking paws.
Melina began to cry now. “Am I insane? That little prick deserves more than being put away….”
“No. You’re not crazy. No more than I am.”
They embraced tightly, neither feline seeing that Eli was on the stairs and watching. Fighting back tears himself, he wordlessly shook his head at Charlene and Harold, holding a finger to his lips to indicate they be quiet.
“What happened?!”
Charlene’s voice was a frightened whisper.
“Mom and dad just had…An argument. It’ll be okay. Come on.”
And with that, Eli herded his younger siblings towards the safety of their rooms.
By the time Hal and Melina went to bed, Melina had calmed down significantly, however understandably; she seemed to hate herself for what she’d done. And so the two sat there in the dark, neither saying a word until Melina spoke at last:
“Hal I’m so sorry I acted out….”
“Honey, it’s okay, you weren’t thinking.”
Without a second thought, Hal searched for her paw in the shadows and gave it a reassuring stroke.
Melina sighed.
“I think we need a vacation. There’s too many crazies here.”
Boy, did Hal ever agree. Apart from the Karnages, they did not have very many friends in Southshire, but for good reason: For every group of normal creatures in the town, there always seemed to be an adverse crowd who most certainly were not.
“I agree….Especially after today. We could all use some rest. But where?”
“Cape Suzette?”
Hal snorted.
“Cape Suzette? You crazy? Melina, we BOTH used to be Air Pirates and there’s no tellin’ if anyone’s still lookin’ for us out there. Better safe than sorry.”
Melina considered other options.
“Your parents’ house?”
Hal cringed. As much as he disliked his dysfunctional and emotionally disconnected parents, there were few other options for them to go.
“Sure….I guess. We got noplace else. When do we leave?”
“Tomorrow. Let’s pack tonight.”
Hal paused, thinking.
“Well, we’d better get the kids up early then and make sure they’re all ready to hit the road. And you’d better call Alice and tell her how long we’ll be gone. By the way, that is…..?”
“A week and a half?”
Hal shrugged.
“Sounds good to me. Goodnight, honey.”
He kissed her.
“You KNOW how much I care.”
Wordlessly, they soon were asleep; side by side.
The next morning, Grace awoke early; at around 6 am. Dawn had not fully arrived. However, she was greeted by the fact that Karnage was also awake and sitting up in bed as well.
“Huh, we’re both up early today….”
She muttered, but after seeing Karnage’s lonely stare asked:
“You all right?”
Karnage shook his head.
“I am…..Confuzzled.”
“I know…and I’ve been wanting to talk to you about something.”
Grace took a breath. It was better now than never.
“Okay, mi tesoro.”
Grace asked:
“How are we going to get back together; as a family?”
“You mean you, me and Alicia.”
Grace thought.
“Yes, and…. I mean Leo too. How are we going to get over this??”
Karnage was silent for a moment. These days he really hated having to choose between being the persistent, aggressive lawyer (as he was in the courtroom) and the somewhat-strict but loving and concerned father he legitimately tried to be.
“Eef he tried to keel someone else dere’s a chance he could keel one of us….”
Even now Grace was haunted by the fact that her only son could be a murderer. She and Karnage hadn’t raised him that way so what the hell had gone wrong??
“In case you’ve forgotten, Leo’s locked up.”
Was the best response Grace could think of.
Karnage slapped his forehead.
“I’m sorry querida. I’m acting… De word.”
“You’re not!”
She sighed.
“I’m just in need of some advice right now.”
“What can I do?”
“How are we going to get us and Alice to be more like a family again?”
Karnage spoke honestly:
“I am not knowing. I weesh I knew.”
Grace quietly rested her paw on top of his. They hugged.
“No matter what happens, I’ll always be right here for you. I’ll try my best to be.”
“As I weel you, querida.”
“Always?”
Grace teased.
“Always.”
After a few minutes, both of them went back to sleep; around simultaneously. Today was a work day anyway.
Later that morning, before Grace and Karnage were due at their respective jobs and before Alice had to leave for school, there was one thing Grace needed to inform her daughter of.
“Alice? Alice can I talk to you?”
Alice was standing by the screen door, shouldering her leather bookbag.
“Yeah mom?”
She hesitated to rub crust out of her eyes.
“I got a call from Melina earlier; she and Hal are going on vacation and so you’ll be out of work until they get back.”
Alice could handle this. It was just a simple trip and then she’d be back to work as usual. And goodness knows she needed more free time with all the stress she’d been under lately.
“Okay mom. Thanks for letting me know.”
Mother and daughter exchanged weak smiles before Alice was out the door to begin her walk to school. For some reason, Grace got the feeling that things were beginning to return to normal. At least, slowly.
Less than an hour, Hal and Melina were on the road to Hal’s sleepy hometown of Glenstead, Old York; which was sandwiched somewhere between the life and excitement of Cape Suzette and the eerie self-sufficiency of Karnageport.
A thriving agricultural community before the turn of the century; Glenstead became little more than a near-deserted hamlet when more and more creatures began buying Glenstead produce from various corporations based in urban areas. At the time Hal, Melina and their children were visiting that day the population was roughly 800.
Better than what it had been during the 1920’s and 30’s but still just not enough. Eli, Harold, and Charlene sat in the backseat, in utter silence save Harold’s chattering. Harold seemed pleased and excited to be on the trip; Charlene was rather neutral, and Eli was less than thrilled, occasionally playing with the switchblade it felt like he’d had forever now.
“Mom, are Grandma and Grandpa nice?”
Harold was asking, leaning forward in his seat.
Hal shrugged.
“They’re decent. You’ll meet ‘em soon.”
Eli on the other hand, had more on his mind. Apart from one time as a kitten that didn’t count (he wasn’t even one at the time!), he had not met his paternal grandparents (his mother’s parents being of course, dead) and didn’t want to. He had no contact whatsoever other than brief cards (often with signed photographs) that got sent out every occasional holiday or someone’s birthday. Chauncey and Mae Barnhart did not seem to be particularly friendly cats, and Eli had validated this via many an eavesdropped conversation.
Sadly, everything Hal had said about his parents indeed was true; especially his father. Contrary to a short-lived rumor, the Barnharts were absolutely not rich by anyone’s standards, but because of Chauncey’s career as one of Glenstead’s three local doctors, his family had more comfortable living standards than most of the town’s motley residents could claim. So in Glenstead, they were rich. Everywhere else in the world? Sadly no.
Chauncey Lewis Barnhart was born in 1891, in Glenstead. He had always been an intelligent and ambitious child, and in truth it surprised no one when he announced he wanted to become a doctor. He met Mae Devon in 1914 (after medical school) and they married the next year.
Harold Marvin (Hal), their first and only child was born on August 2nd, 1916. He was just as intelligent and naturally curious as his father had been, but significantly more modest and a little awkward with his peers. Chauncey especially had always had big expectations for his boy; and it shattered him to the core when Hal ran himself into the ground academically and dropped out before he even started high school.
His pride was ruined further when Hal left home shortly after his eighteenth birthday, briefly got a job driving cabs, and then, even worse: Turned to a life of crime. Chauncey and Mae learned of this after Hal’s unfortunate arrest in 1937 (he had just learned to fly a plane then and had only recently become an air pirate at the time and had not yet joined up with Karnage), and Chauncey bitterly had Hal’s name removed from his will. The estate now would be divided among scattered distant relatives.
Now, the car had pulled to a stop at Chancey and Mae’s house. It was a rather modest, two-story residence (not counting the large attic above the second floor) that was just barely located on the Glenstead town line. Eli, Hal and Melina were all ill at ease as they departed the car, baggage in paws with Harold and Charlene in tow.
“Dad? Dad it’s me, Hal! Your boy!”
Hal had jogged up the rotting front steps and banged on the door. Chauncey flung it open and stared coldly at his son. Chauncey was not an outwardly intimidating cat; his fur was a golden tan like Hal’s, and he was dressed in a casual olive green suit with a petunia corsage. His brown eyes glistened coldly.
“Welcome home, Hal.”
He rasped.
“It’s been a while. What do you want?”
“Er…Melina and our kids would like to stay for a week and a half.”
Chauncey looked obviously surprised.
“Any reason why?”
“Yeah.”
Hal sighed.
“It’s tough out there in the suburbs; and we…We needed a break.”
Chauncey nodded after a long while.
“All right, we’ll have you. But only for a week and a half.”
Taking a few steps back, Chauncey called into the background:
“Mae! Mae get down here. Hal’s back, and his kids and his dame are here too.”
Chauncey returned to his son and muttered
“Good to have you back for now.”
They shook paws, but it was devoid of any father-son affection that there should have been. But any true emotion between Chauncey and Hal was long gone.
“Yeah…”
Melina, Harold, Eli, and Charlene had all come up now. Hasty introductions were made, and sleeping arrangements were pre-organized even though there was a whole day ahead of them: Hal and Melina would sleep in his old room. Eli and Charlene initially were going to sleep together in the guest bedroom (which had two beds) but Harold made such a fuss about having to sleep in the attic that Charlene volunteered to take his place; and so that was all in order for when they would go to bed that night.
But in the meantime, it was still late morning, and it wouldn’t be lunch for a while yet. Eli begrudgingly went off to make sure his younger siblings were entertained, while Hal preferred to spend time alone in his mother’s parlor. It was a soft, pale yellow, bedecked with soft, medium-brown carpeting and had a formidable clock upon the mantle.
Hal could remember spending many hours happily playing here as a child, and as he sprawled on the couch attempting to read a book, he knew that this was going to be an extremely long day indeed.
~
Meanwhile, in Cape Suzette, Adhira Khan was restless. Earlier this morning she had received and read the letter sent to her by Leo Karnage and was most intrigued by what she’d found. She did not know what he’d done to land himself in Karsimys, but she intended to find out.
That being said; now that his instabilities were very obvious to her, Adhira was suddenly significantly more interested in playing with and manipulating Leo than she was his father. In fact, that became her plan of action now. Shere’s death had happened nine years ago, and after a while it would no longer be her concern. Perhaps he had been poisoned by a jealous business rival, or maybe simply expired of natural causes. It was not her information to know.
Adhira had always been cold, calculating and self-sufficient, even from her murky childhood days. Born in 1893 in the distant foreign country of Intia, Adhira spent the first four years of her life in the country until shortly after her brother Vijay was born in 1897. (their middle brother Shere having been born in 1895) That year; the family moved to Usland, where a distant branch of the Khan family had had roots in Cape Suzette, where they would come to settle. Adhira had an education at all the best boarding schools Old York state could offer, and her debut was dubbed ‘THE event of 1911’ by all who attended.
Starting in the 1920’s, Adhira had started to become independently wealthy with only a little assistance from her doting parents, and got a decent share of money by helping Shere run Khan Industries; but only from the background. But after taking charge of the company in 1946, everything changed. Adhira was determined to be far more ruthless than her brother; and to a degree even Vijay feared her for this. He knew far better than to cross her, even if they did enjoy in typical sibling banter every once in a while.
Smiling, Adhira picked up a ballpoint pen and began to draft a proper response to Leo Karnage.
 
Chapter Ten 
Fifteen minutes later; Adhira glanced at the draft of her letter, uncertain if this would be the version she would send, so she quietly reread it. It read:
Dear Leo,
If only for lack of better terms; it is…Unfortunate that you are institutionalized. Nonetheless, I am a creature of my word and will be visiting you on Saturday, September 17th. A bodyguard and personal friend will be accompanying me.
PS: Response not mandatory.
Yours, Adhira Khan
And Adhira stuck to her word. Sure enough; when Saturday came around, Adhira pulled up in front of Karsimys’ decaying façade in a suitably classy navy blue Cadillac. She was not alone. Sitting beside her in the front seat was her semi-friend, bodyguard, and general lackey, 45-year-old Armando Amintore. An Italian greyhound, Amintore was dressed affably enough in a brown, lapelled jacket, a pale blue shirt, and a green tie. His eyes were a murky dark brown, which matched his brindle; almost black fur.
He was subtle and rather thin in appearance, if not a little frail. He was actually a gangster; but you wouldn’t know it by looking at him. He was twenty-eight, same as his little buddy Vincent Collieone at the time of Luciano Divenazetti’s death in 1938; and had spent four years in jail for inciting violence, one count of attempted murder and disturbing the peace.
Having nowhere else to turn to; Amintore was one of the few last stragglers remaining of Luciano’s mob by 1945, until Luciano’s snobbish little upstart of a son; Francisco diVenazetti had briefly come onto the scene. Amintore did a brief stint for Francisco; they all did, and after Francisco himself was killed, everyone went their separate ways. In early 1946, Adhira had hunted Amintore down and shot him in the stomach; as revenge for the time he (under the then-living Luciano’s orders) he had attempted to assassinate her in 1937.
When Amintore did not die, Adhira bribed the dog into working for her. And they had stayed together ever since. There was a very odd chemistry between the two; some odd unspoken bond, and as the two got out of the car, Amintore studied Adhira oddly, overdressed per usual in a black and gold cocktail dress.
“Tell me again why we’re visiting this poor kid. You just like to see what makes him tick don’t you?”
Adhira smiled subtly.
“Actually yes.”
Amintore shook his head in pity.
“You’re cruel.”
“That’s not my intention.”
Amintore snorted and rolled his eyes, but said nothing as they entered. Inside, Adhira was warmly received; and all staff members present just barely stopped short of kissing the ground around her footpaws. It was obvious that when a creature of Adhira’s status entered Karsimys; it wouldn’t be too big of a sacrifice to make a desperate grab for more funding.
Adhira briefly and hastily explained the reason of her visit (with some input from Amintore) and they were brought down to what was termed the dayroom; where Leo was waiting.
Adhira and Amintore entered into a room with slick-looking walls painted a nauseating shade of mint green. It was devoid of furniture save for a few ratty brown-red couches and some chairs. Leo was sitting in an armchair, looking terribly bored and staring out the window.
Upon seeing him, Amintore let out a low growl. He hated the kid already. Ever since finding out that Felipe Karnage’s wife had killed Luciano, his boss, he’d had a festering hatred for Karnage and all his family members. While some members of Luciano’s ragtag former gang had diluted rumors of Karnage himself committing the murder, Amintore knew the truth.
He had known of Luciano’s fervent desire to have sexual intercourse with Grace Karnage (then Grace Kane) and was thoroughly repulsed by such things. Nonetheless, Amintore had hidden himself behind a framed painting of a wolf in Luciano’s office; with a tiny peephole carved to imitate the wolf’s eye. Only a trained observer could notice if they studied the picture for quite some time, and Amintore had stationed himself there in case Grace tried to pull a gun on Luciano at any point.
After it was all over, Amintore fled to his fellow associates and tried to tell as many creatures as he could, but eventually the police arrived and they were all separated. 
Now, standing in the dayroom, Amintore was reaching for his pocket, where he had concealed a small pistol, but Adhira slapped his paw.
“Stay calm,”
She hissed; her voice oral velvet.
“All right. Talk to him all you want but I tell you Adhira, the little son of a bitch is MINE!”
Amintore staked out a solitary corner of the room and slumped down in a chair to wait while Adhira and Leo had their little chat.
“So…..Hello, Leo.”
Adhira’s voice was a smooth, almost metallic purr. Leo looked up.
“Hi.”
He said, blandly and somewhat meekly.
“It is…..Intriguing to get to meet you, at last. I’ve been quite impressed with your work.”
Leo was very modest:
“I don’t think I’m very good, but thank you.”
Adhira smiled politely.
“Well, it’s my belief that you have considerable talent. But no matter.”
Leo still had questions.
“Is there anything in particular you want to talk about?”
Adhira finally proposed the question:
“Leo…..How would you like to be released early?”
Leo’s eyes widened.
“Yes but…You can do that?”
“Of course I can.”
She shook her head mysteriously.
“I have more creatures eating out of my paw than you will ever know.”
Leo could not hide his amazement. He wanted to know more instantly.
“But still…..What’s your plan?”
Adhira shrugged as though she could do things like this in her sleep.
“There’s nothing quite like a little bribery.”
She chuckled.
“This institution is in sore need of more funding if it is to stay open; and spending a little….Dough for once isn’t going to harm anybody. Especially you, Leo.”
“But where am I going to stay?”
His family would just as soon throw him onto the street. That much was obvious.
“Would an apartment of my provision be to your liking?”
Leo hesitated. The thought of living alone always HAD enthralled him but still….
“Provided I can come and go when I want?”
“Of course.”
Adhira’s smile was thin and cunning.
“The apartment will be in Cape Suzette; not too far from my offices.”
Leo stiffened.
“Cape Suzette….?”
“I know what you’re thinking. Your father had quite the history. You’ll almost certainly have to adopt a false name, and if anyone asks you’re my legal ward.”
“I understand.”
Leo smiled quietly.
“Maybe I’ll keep writing for you while I’m in Cape Suzette. Maybe.”
Adhira thought for a moment before speaking again; choosing instead to analyze her situation.
Leo had accepted her offer, and that was excellent, but she was well aware that despite his young age; the wolfdog was just as smart as she was. Adhira knew she would have to watch what she said, especially when dealing with a risky partnership with someone of this mental and emotional state.
After her little moment was over, Leo and Adhira talked some more; but there was little meaning behind the conversation. A glaring Amintore watched them from where he sat, scathingly watching the time on the wall clock. When it was time to leave, later that morning, Adhira smiled quietly and said:
“We’ll be off. I’ll be making arrangements for you to leave the hospital and be in Cape Suzette by this evening. Good day.”
Even after Adhira left, Amintore lingered in the room for a minute, shaking his head.
“Kid, I don’t care if you’re Adhira’s little pet. I have my eye on you.”
And with that, the greyhound strode out. And Leo was alone.
Morning turned to early afternoon. In Glenstead, Hal was alone in the parlor. Charlene and Eli were playing outside and Harold was in his room. Where his parents were was no concern of his, but for the moment; Hal was alone. However, the cat looked up in slight surprise as Melina came in the doorway.
“Hey, Melina.”
He greeted his wife.
She smiled and entered, and they hugged.
“How’re you?”
Hal inquired, casually.
“I’m doing okay, Hal.”
Hal was uncertain of this, judging by his wife’s nervous tone.
“You sure?”
“I’m just upset.”
“What happened?”
He put a consoling arm around her.
“I don’t know how to explain it.”
“Just try. Come on, you can talk to me!”
Hal coaxed her.
“I’ll tell you in just a minute, but first I wanted to say….I love you, Harold Barnhart.”
They kissed.
“For a long time I thought the air pirates were the best thing that ever happened to me. They’re the second best thing, because through them I met the first best thing in my life.”
She was smiling now.
“You flatter me.”
“I mean it!”
Hal stroked her paw.
“Melina you have no idea how much this poor cat loves you.”
He grinned.
“You’re the best cat ever, Hal. I love you more than anything.”
“And I love you too.”
A small pause. Hal figured there was no better time to bring up the subject than now:
“Melina… Are you worryin’ about our kids now?”
“Not as much.”
She answered.
“All right, but I’m sorry my folks are such assholes. Really I am.”
“I understand. I agree with you.”
Hal was visibly surprised.
“I thought your parents loved you.”
He murmured.
Melina stroked her temple nervously.
“Mom could be a real asshole to Dad sometimes. It hurt him.”
“What happened?”
Hal placed a paw on top of hers.
“He was drinking one night and set the house on fire, he dropped his cigarette lighter on the sofa while the flame was on. He didn’t just catch the sofa on fire, the whole house went up!”
Hal knew where this story was going. Melina had told him before.
“You don’t have t’keep goin’. He died that day.”
Melina wept.
“Yes. I’m sorry I’m losing it like this….”
“I forgive you.”
Melina looked around.
“If we ever have another child and it’s a boy….I want to name him Leon, after Dad.”
“You can.”
And suddenly, Hal and Melina did not feel quite so alone. After all, they had each other.
Later that afternoon; everything had been arranged at Karsimys. Adhira remained true to her word and bribed the institutional heads (a hefty sum at that) into not only releasing Leo, but to tell Grace and Karnage a cover story that Leo had run away. Wordlessly, Leo had gotten into the backseat of Adhira’s Cadillac (his possessions being in the trunk) and turned to the window, watching the scenery as it gradually changed.
The ride was relatively quiet and fairly ordinary as well; except for the occasional mumbled cursing of Amintore (who doubled as Adhira’s driver in addition to her personal bodyguard) as he noisily sucked on chewing tobacco. When eventually they got to Cape Suzette, Leo felt pleasantly overwhelmed. He hadn’t been to the city in ten years; and if anything it seemed slightly larger now.
As they drove in, Leo took extra time to glance at the office buildings, the cabs, and the restaurants. The streets were full of ordinary pedestrians and children heading home from school.
They also passed a small building whose red neon sign read BRENDA’S DRUGSTORE; and Leo felt slightly envious at the sight of two young creatures laughing together and sharing a malt through the shop window. Along the way, the Cadillac also passed various hotels, banks and department stores and Leo was seriously beginning to wonder if there was anything this city DIDN’T have!
Nonetheless, after what seemed like an eternity Amintore brought the Cadillac to a halt at what seemed to be one of the high-end parts of town.
“THIS is where I’ll be staying…?”
Leo took a moment to quietly marvel at the brownstone apartment complex and shook his head in awed disbelief.
Adhira just smiled knowingly.
“Yes it is. You can get unpacked now, if you want, and remember: If anyone asks, you’re my ward. Your room’s 202; it’s on the second floor. Here.”
She pressed a cold, brass key into Leo’s paw, which he stuffed into his pocket.
Leo went inside, suitcase in all as Adhira and a glowering Amintore returned to the car and drove off in direction of Adhira’s office.
Upon entering the lobby, Leo found it was very well-furnished, and surprisingly modern: The carpet was a gentle green, and the walls a brownish color. The room was furnished with several medium-blue settees and a few more plush-looking green couches. Leo nervously approached the desk and told the receptionist the story Adhira had given him in the car: That Adhira was indeed his legal guardian and he would be staying near her residency for an extended period of time.
“I’m just going to my room now, if you wouldn’t mind me.”
The receptionist, a leopard, studied Leo curiously.
“You sure, kid? Miss Khan is extremely wealthy, and I’m sure plenty of runts your age would claim t’have connection just to get into a place like this.”
Leo swallowed hard. He had to stay calm or else this whole plan would backfire.
“Yes. I… I write things for her too. You want proof? Then just call! She’ll tell you!”
And with that, Leo hurried upstairs to his room, remembering the directions Adhira had given him. As soon as he was out of sight, the leopard behind the desk worked up the nerve to call Khan Industries on this most dubious matter.
It took several minutes (more than a few of which were spent on arguing with Adhira’s pawns) to get the tigress’s office, but the leopard was rewarded when a silken voice growled:
“Yes, this is Adhira Khan. What do you want?”
“Ohh…I’m very sorry if I disturbed you Miss Khan, but I just wanted to consult you on something very briefly.”
In her office, Adhira looked amused.
“That being?”
“Oh…A dog came in here a few minutes ago; looked like he probably had some wolf in him, claiming to know you. Is that the truth? He said you were his legal guardian or something.”
“That would be Leo. Yes, he’s telling the truth.”
“Again; I apologize if I wasted any of your time Miss Khan.”
“No, you didn’t. Good day.”
She hung up.
The receptionist stared at the telephone for a few minutes before going back to work. Some days were simply a little strange, after all.
Upstairs, Leo was very pleased to see his new apartment. The squared carpet was purple; but it was nonetheless done in a very dark color so that it was easy on the eyes. An art-deco clock designed to look like a moon hung beside the door. Nearby there was a small kitchen with a refrigerator, a stove, as well as a kitchen table that was oval-shaped and featured a tan and blue design; as well as matching turquoise chairs.
In the living room there were pale green walls, as well as a stick-legged coffee table and several white lounge chairs. Venturing into the guest bedroom, Leo saw it was disappointingly bland and lacked furniture save a single bed, a nightstand, and a dresser.
In the master bedroom Leo found plush tan carpeting, matching walls, and a luxurious-looking bed with an oak headboard and footboard, with the blankets tucked in around it. Settled atop a small wooden table (much to Leo’s secret delight) was a television! His own family didn’t have one at home, and as such Leo’s contact with the new must-have media interface was limited at best.
Leo turned the dials absentmindedly and discovered a few children’s programs, as well as westerns and sitcoms. After several minutes of more surfing he found channel options were limited; so Leo eventually settled on one of the westerns. When he grew bored of ceaseless saloon brawls and gunfighting he turned the television off and began to think of something else to do.
Eventually; he explored the rest of the apartment, which consisted of a small office, two bathrooms, and several closets. Suddenly feeling a need to get some sightseeing AND exercise, Leo left the apartment, locked his door behind him and returned to the lobby; quietly snatching a free tourist map on the way out.
It was pleasantly mild on the street; and there was a slight breeze in the air. Leo felt extremely independent and carefree as he walked the streets, by himself. The street of his apartment was marked in bold on the map so Leo felt he’d be able to get back relatively easily in the event he got himself lost somehow.
As he walked down a secluded avenue, feeling on top of the world, Leo was not aware that two particular bears were about to cross his path….
Kit and Baloo, meanwhile, were driving down the street in Kit’s car, a 1950 Chevrolet, to buy some much-needed spare parts for the Sea Duck. Baloo had insisted they drive together; just to boost the morale a bit. These days he tended to seize every opportunity he got just to talk with Kit like family and not alienated strangers.
As they cruised past Leo, Kit did a double take.
“Did you see that….?”
Baloo was confused.
“Huh? See what?”
He scratched his head idly.
Kit just shook his head.
“I swear I saw a dog on the street a minute ago… Looked wolfish but probably a dog…. I think that was Karnage’s kid! Leo.”
“Leo Karnage?? Here in Cape Suzette?”
Baloo’s voice was riddled with disbelief.
“Apparently. Can’t see why he’d be here though.”
“Well that’s odd.”
“No kidding.”
As the Chevrolet disappeared down an avenue, Leo was still on the street. He too, had experienced a rather odd feeling of déjà vu. Nonetheless, he shrugged it off, bought a soda at the nearest fountain, and headed back to the apartment.
 
Chapter Eleven 
In Southshire, Alice went into the front yard shortly after dinner to have a cigarette. (her parents still didn’t know about her secret smoking habit and she wanted to keep it that way) Grace and Karnage were alone in the living room, wordlessly listening to the radio. When the telephone suddenly rang, Karnage got it before Grace did.
“Hola? Karnage residence.”
Absentmindedly, Grace listened in.
There was a slight pause.
“What…..? NO! No, dat can’t be true!!”
Karnage slammed the phone down and started to flee the room. A bit alarmed, Grace leapt from the couch and caught up with him.
“Felipe?!”
“Puta de madre….”
Karnage cursed dryly, eyes blazing with anger.
“What happened…..?”
“Dat was Karsimys. Dere was an escape.”
Grace’s breath caught.
“You mean Leo……????”
She shook her head slowly, a mix of emotions burning within her already.
“Si!”
Karnage quickly confirmed.
Grace closed her eyes and took a brief moment to get herself under control. Right now she was feeling a mix of worry, anger, and slight depression. A hidden, subconscious part of her had suspected for some time that something like this might happen but the rest of Grace just hadn’t wanted to believe it. Bracing herself for an answer, Grace opened her eyes, took a deep breath and asked:
“Do they know where he might be?”
“Cape Suzette! Eef he’s there, I’m going to need help from an old friend.”
Grace couldn’t conceal her surprise.
“You mean Baloo?”
“Si!”
Grace had a realization: If only to get away from the stress of recent times (in light of Hal and Melina’s similar trip), a brief visit had been planned to Cape Suzette…
“Could we by any chance make this coincide by the time we were going to go to Cape Suzette next weekend?”
“Si.”
Grace considered this further: She supposed that while they were in the city, they COULD devote part of their time to relaxing and part of it to looking for Leo. . . All in all, a fair compromise.
“And there’s something I want to tell you.”
“Que?”
“Look, no matter what happens, I’ll find a way to make this all right. We both will.”
They hugged.
“Si, querida.”
Just then, Alice entered.
“Everything all right?”
Karnage shook his head honestly.
“I am not knowing yet.”
Alice was well aware of the tension in the room, so she asked: “Dad, what happened?”
“Puta madre….Leo escaped.”
Alice was instantly taken aback.
“WHAT?!”
“Alice, your father and I were just…”
Alice just shook her head at Grace.
“That filthy bastard.”
She muttered under her breath, and went back outside to smoke another Strikeout.
Alice sat alone on the front yard, stuffing the charred remnants of her cigarette into the front pocket of her shirt, as well as the lighter. When Karnage emerged from the house, he smelled the tobacco in the air and suppressed a sigh. He’d harbored suspicions for a while now that his daughter was possibly smoking (having quit four years previously himself); but with no evidence beyond parental intuition to guide him, he’d gradually forgotten. He really had to address that sometime, but not tonight. The wolf had other things on his mind.
Turning, Alice grimaced a bit; nervous about being confronted.
“Hi dad.”
“Hola, Alicia.”
Instead of talking about the smoking, (which neither of them really had the heart to) they instead discussed Leo, which Alice was still angrily smoldering over.
“I’m still so pissed at Leo….” she muttered dryly, with a biting edge Karnage recognized from his own teenage years.
“Me too.”
Alice shook her head, and glanced up at the sky.
“What are we going to do about it, though?”
“I need help.”
“From who?”
“Higher for Hire.”
Alice remembered the name from her family’s rushed escape to Cape Suzette ten years ago.
“So, Kit and Baloo?”
The names flowed from Alice’s mouth easily. She was well aware that the creatures at Higher for Hire had formerly been her fathers’ adversaries, but that was in the past; and she never would forget them for their kindness.
“Si, querida, eet has to be done. Dese days I am not knowing who else we can trust.”
This was true; especially with the Barnharts still rendezvousing in Glenstead.
Alice went quiet for a long time.
“I may not always act that way, and sometimes I don’t feel like it….But dad, I love you. But how do you feel about me?”
Karnage hugged his daughter.
“I love you too.”
And together, the two of them went back inside the house.
Sunday was Kit and Baloo’s day off. As soon as he was fully awake and ate a breakfast that only a bear of his considerable size could stomach; he called Kit. Sure enough, Kit didn’t have much to do on Sundays either but was still clearly off-guard when he heard Baloo’s voice.
“Well, morning.”
Kit greeted his adopted father.
“Yeah, good morning to you too.”
Baloo tried to suppress a lingering yawn, but couldn’t, and smacked his teeth while he was at it.
“Somethin’ on your mind?”
Baloo prompted, noting that that offbeat tone still hadn’t left Kit’s voice.
“I’m fine. It’s just that… That kid we saw the other day. . . I’m positive now it was Leo.”
“So?”
“What would he be doing here?”
“I dunno, maybe a school trip?”
Kit was well aware Baloo was grasping at straws, and the defeat in his voice was a giveaway anyway.
“He was alone; wouldn’t his classmates have been with him? And besides, I don’t think he’d just be wandering around aimlessly.”
On his end of the line, the radio in Kit’s living room switched from an ad for some kind of female’s perfume to a song, Earth Angel:
Earth angel, earth angel, will you be mine? My darling dear, love you all the time…. I’m just a fool, a fool in love with you…..Earth angel, earth angel, the one I adore; love you forever, and evermore. I’m just a fool, a fool in love with you.
Before the next part of the song occurred however, there was a bizarre noise in the background like a cat being electrocuted.
“Hang on a second,”
Kit said to Baloo and laid the phone aside.
As he walked to the radio, the announcer’s clarion voice took over the airwaves:
“Sorry, we’re experiencing some technical difficulties. Please tune in later.”
It cut to static, and Kit turned the radio off.
“Kit, what are you so worried about?”
There was slight exasperation in Baloo’s voice as he struggled to understand Kit’s feelings.
“He’s just a kid in the city, and maybe he got lost. Leo Karnage or no, he seemed harmless enough.”
Some odd kind of doubt was playing at the back of Kit’s mind. He couldn’t shake it no matter how hard he tried; it was indeed in vain. There was something chilling about the stare Leo had given him when he and Baloo had driven past. Sure, their eyes had met for only a brief second, but it had happened and damn had it been disturbing.
“Look, I’m gonna go. Maybe I’ll call you later.”
“Adios.”
“Bye.”
They both hung up.
Kit went to the kitchen, poured himself a shot of whiskey and turned the radio back on another channel. Lucky for him, a soap opera was on. Kit would spend the next half hour sitting in front of the radio snickering at the poorly-developed characters and obvious clichés until he fell asleep, a bit groggy but otherwise sober.
At around the same time, a nervous Leo was walking down the street, just to get some more exercise. He wasn’t enrolled in school for obvious reasons, and for now he was just sticking to the more isolated streets and avenues with his tourist map in paw. Humming quietly, Leo rounded a corner and found himself walking past a group of poorer-looking apartments.
There was a shady air to this part of town, and Leo didn’t like it. He got the feeling that he was being watched. He kept his paws at his sides and tried to remain calm, and started to turn around, walking back through the alley from which he’d came. A putrid stench of old food and cooking grease from the trash heaps lingered in the air, and again Leo kept his guard up.
His heart began to pound steadily as he thought he heard footpaws behind him, and whirled around, gasping when a switchblade clicked and was shoved at his throat. Breathing raggedly from the sudden shock, Leo willed himself to look up at the creature holding the weapon.
It turned out to be a male raccoon somewhere in his late 20’s. Within the natural mask of black fur; his eyes were beady and unstable. He was dressed in a creased white shirt, jeans, and a khaki tie that was crooked and appeared to be cheaply made. An obvious street mugger.
“All right kid,”
He rasped, lowering the blade almost unnoticeably.
“Just fork over the dough, fancy goods, whatever ya got and I’ll let you go easy.”
“I don’t have anything.”
Leo whispered.
“Oh yeah? That little smirk on your face says I just bet you do!”
“I DON’T HAVE ANY MONEY! I don’t even have anything valuable!”
“Bullshit!”
Leo sank his teeth into the raccoon’s wrist. Unfortunately, it was the one holding the knife. It hit the ground.
Leo scrambled to get it, and just barely managed to yank it up. He studied his new weapon fondly, smiling. He could see his grinning reflection in the blade.
“Kid….Kid you better put that down. Or better yet fork it over.”
Leo’s smile was terrifying to behold.
“No.”
His voice was barely audible, and when this evoked no response he said in a louder tone:
“No, I won’t do it.”
Snarling ferociously, Leo jammed the blade deep into the petty thief’s throat, specifically the jugular. A lucky wound. Gasping and choking on his own blood, the raccoon fell to his knees, looking utterly terrified before collapsing on one side; totally dead.
Like the coward he was, Leo wiped his new switchblade on the dead creature’s shirt and ran back to his apartment as fast as possible. By the time Leo got back, Adhira was standing outside the apartment steps.
“Well, Leo, I see you’ve caught me just as I was about to leave for work.”
Adhira smiled coyly.
Leo grinned as well, though it was eerily cheerful. He’d folded up the knife and hidden it in the pocket of his jeans by this point.
“I hope you have a good day!”
He beamed.
“Thank you, Leo….”
Adhira was visibly surprised.
“Why so cheerful?”
He shrugged.
“Why so serious?”
Humming under his breath, Leo waltzed up the apartment steps and disappeared. Adhira lingered a moment before entering her waiting Cadillac, which had the hood up.
“That was damn scary,” Amintore muttered as they took off.
“It was odd.”
Adhira shrugged and attempted to brush Leo’s bizarre behavior off as the Cadillac headed off for her office.
 
Chapter Twelve 
Friday afternoon, September 23rd, as soon as Alice got home from school and finished what little homework she’d been sent home with; everyone threw some of their various belongings into the back of the Rolls Royce. Grace drove, Karnage sat in the backseat, and Alice rode shotgun. There was some chat on the way to Cape Suzette, and everything was fairly placid until a slightly-intoxicated looking rabbit flipped Grace the bird.
Grace glared at him and yelled to the right:
“That’s real nice of you buddy!”
She honked the horn, pressed her footpaw against the pedal and roared off, thankfully managing to stay within the speed limit.
“Creatures these days have no fuckin’ manners…”
Grace muttered dryly.
Nonetheless, the drive continued with relative ease.
When the three got to Cape Suzette, it was six-ish, and they’d eaten dinner at a small mom and pop style restaurant on the way. There was visible tension in the car as they entered the city at first; but it soon became very clear that the city of Cape Suzette had long forgotten Karnage. Nowadays there were much bigger-name criminals running about the urban streets, and still not apprehended!
Karnage and Grace still remembered how to get to Higher for Hire from their last visit ten years ago; and when they arrived they were surprised to see the sign had been repainted and now read: BALOO’S AIR SERVICE.
As soon as everyone got out of the car, Alice glanced up at the autumn sky and turned to her father.
“Dad, are you positive this will work?”
Karnage laid a paw on his daughter’s shoulder.
“I’m sure of eet, querida. We are not having any other choice…”
“Especially since the Barnharts are away until the 25th.”
Grace added, coming over.
“All right….”
Alice took a breath.
“Let’s do this then.”
And with that, Grace stepped forward and knocked on the door of the main- and only building on the property.
Inside Higher for Hire, Kit and Baloo had been taking a dinner break between cargo flights. Kit lowered his newspaper at the knocking.
“Come in!”
Grace entered.
“Mrs. Karnage?!”
Kit and Baloo gasped in unison.
Grace smiled weakly.
“That’d be me, I’m afraid. And…Look who I brought along.”
As if on cue, Karnage and Alice entered.
Karnage though, took a moment to glance at Kit and Baloo. The last time they’d met; Kit had been nearly twenty and barely past adolescence. Now he’d obviously gotten taller, his sense of dress was more refined; and he carried an air of leadership around him, as did Baloo. Karnage could scarcely believe that the thirty-year-old in front of him had once been his very own protégé.
“So grown up….. Surely I must be dreaming, yes-no?”
Karnage shook his head, lost in bitter memories.
Baloo put a paw on his hip and commented wryly:
“Well I don’t see any green gorilla birds hula dancin’ right now so I’d say you’re awake, Karnie.”
Pausing, he turned to address Alice:
“And speakin’ of growing up you certainly look like a decent young lady, Miss Alice.”
Alice looked a little embarrassed but answered:
“Thanks, I turned sixteen in July.”
Some hasty re-introductions were made, before everyone got straight to business. It was Grace who asked the question:
“Part of the reason why we’re here is to take a short vacation, but the more important reason is we’re looking for our son, Leo…”
Grace swallowed.
“You see, he ran away from where he was institutionalized.”
For a moment Kit was tempted to say something like:
“With a stare like that I can see why your kid was locked up,”
But out of maturity said nothing.
“Would you by any chance have seen him around the city?”
“Si, si, please be telling us eef you know.”
Kit and Baloo exchanged hesitant glances.
Then Baloo cleared his throat and said:
“Well, we DID see him hangin’ around not too far from the Khan towers last weekend and a few other random places in town since, pure chance, I tell you. If I could give you any kind of fair guess though, I’d say near the Khan building. That’s near where he was most.”
“Can you tell us what street?”
Grace inquired.
Baloo told her, and Grace made a quick mental note of it. She would write it down later when she had time.
After that, Karnage cleared his throat and said:
“Well, Baloo. Mr. Cloudkeecker, I am theenking mi familia and I weel be heading off now. Farewell and good evening-type time to you both.”
Grace too, felt it was time to leave.
“See you around. We’ll be staying in town for the weekend.”
Even after her parents went back to the car, Alice lingered.
“It was nice meeting you both- again.”
She said sincerely and with a bit of a smile before departing to join her parents on the way to whatever hotel would best suit them.
As time went by, a light rain started to fall. Alice, Grace and Karnage drove off and checked into a modest but affordable hotel under false names, just to be careful (Karnage changed his name entirely; Grace and Alice shed only their last) They booked two rooms; one for Karnage and Grace, and one across the hall for Alice. They all ordered dinner from a take-out restaurant, and were now eating the food as autumn rain battered against the windows.
Grace and Karnage sat in patterned fabric chairs by the window, a flimsy wooden table dividing them. Alice was in her own room, reading a pulp science-fiction magazine she’d brought along. Drinking a bit of bottled water, Grace looked up inquiringly.
“Felipe? Do you still think I’m intimidating?”
She sincerely hoped the woes of her midlife crisis had not dulled her ability to deal with such slime as the long-dead Luciano.
“Si, querida!”
“Then take a look at THIS!”
Grace’s ears pinned back against her skull, and she let out a vicious, throaty growl.
Karnage looked visibly startled, but then grinned.
They talked casually for a few more minutes before Grace got to business:
“So, when are we gonna start looking for Leo?”
Karnage glanced outside. The rain was visibly slowing down.
“When de rain stops.”
“What do you want to do in the meantime?”
“Where do you theenk he could have gone? Eef we make a leest of de places he could have gone, we could narrow de field…?”
Grace considered this.
“Well at Higher for Hire- or should I say, Baloo’s Air Service- they mentioned Leo was seen around the Khan towers.”
Karnage continued to keep an eye on the window. The rain had stopped now.
“Let’s go!”
“Couldn’t have picked a better time,”
“Alice,”
Grace walked into the hallway, calling towards Alice’s half-open door.
“Your father and I are ready to look for Leo!”
“Coming, mom!”
There was some noise before Alice emerged, a bit disheveled but ready to go.
And with that, the canines left the hotel and went back onto the street.
At the same time Karnage, Grace, and Alice were leaving the hotel; Adhira Khan was smoking a cigarette through a filter and doing some paperwork at her office in the Khan towers. She looked up, however as the elevator clanged and a very-irate looking Amintore stepped in, his light suit dampened by rain, his fur itself slightly saturated from the recently-desisted rainfall.
“Adhira, I need to talk to you about something. Now.”
Adhira glanced at him coolly.
“Can it wait? As you can see; my work day isn’t over yet.”
“Uh-huh, and do you think I care?”
Amintore leaned across the table.
“I’m beginning to get a bad feeling about….Leo. I already have this whole week!”
“And why’s that?”
Amintore shook his head.
“He’s too cheerful. Too happy. Doesn’t make sense. When I first met him at Karsimys he barely said two words to me!”
Adhira did not back down from her standpoint.
“Perhaps it’s just a coincidence.”
“Coincidence my ass.”
Adhira was struggling to control her mounting anger. She exhaled slowly and said in a voice like the slanting, scraping edge of a knife blade:
“Then why don’t you just go to Leo’s apartment and talk to him yourself? You DO know where that is.”
“Fine. But this won’t be the last of me, Adhira. I’ll be back later.”
Amintore shook a trembling finger at her before returning to the elevator. He stuffed his paws in his pockets and walked to Leo’s apartment, in the damp, still-warm streets. He slunk into the lobby and explained to the receptionist in his most convincing voice possible he was here to see Leo.
She seemed a bit suspicious, but didn’t comment and let him go up. Upon finding Leo’s room and number, Amintore stood outside the door and rapped on it twice.
Within the apartment, at first, Leo did not hear. He was sprawled in the master bedroom and watching a new episode of I Love Lacey. When the knocking persisted and got steadily louder, Leo exited the bedroom by the open door and crossed into the living room, to the main door. Leo flung it open and gasped at the sight of a glaring, wild-eyed Amintore, who was breathing raggedly.
“I didn’t have to knock, you know," the greyhound rasped. “I could have just flung this door open wide, but I had the decency to wait for you to come and answer it, you little cabron! You. . . You little figlio di puttana!”
“I’m not afraid of you. So you just go ahead and keep trying to scare me.”
Leo’s voice was a harsh, icy whisper.
Amintore pretended to adopt a look of surprise.
“So perhaps the little boy is braver than I thought!”
Amintore slowly pulled out his pistol, black-gloved paws caressing the weapon fondly. He pointed the gun directly at Leo’s throat and cocked it. After a moment though, the greyhound clicked the hammer back into place, lowered the gun and forcibly dragged Leo within the apartment, slamming the door behind them both. Amintore was confident he could get away with all this- there had been nobody in the hallway, and that gave him the strength to continue.
Leo, tense, began to wander the room, but Amintore kept a hardened eye on him.
“The hell do you want with me?" Leo rasped, glaring daggers at the older dog.
Amintore just smirked.
“Only to see that you respect your elders. I’ll have you know, Leo Karnage, that your WHORE OF A MOTHER shot my own boss, Don Luciano!” Here Amintore’s voice dropped slightly. “Ahh, may he rest in peace.”
But seconds later, it was over and the greyhound snapped back to reality. “But enough of that sentimentality. I HOPE YOU ROT IN HELL!” Amintore was cunning in that he indeed was shouting, but not loud enough to be heard beyond the door.
Leo pulled his switchblade from his pocket, clicked it, and attempted to lunge at Amintore. But the greyhound was faster and shot the weapon right out of Leo’s paws.
Leo was glaring coldly at Amintore, but was visibly unfazed. His sides were heaving slightly. Amintore narrowed his eyes.
“Kid, I don’t know what the hell you are, but I’m not afraid of you either. And I’ve got my eye on you. You remember that.”
Leo grinned slyly.
“I will.”
He folded his paws and watched as Amintore slunk out the back door, going back to Khan Industries to guard Adhira if she wanted him.
The greyhound would never admit this aloud; but he was terrified and frazzled. But he could not admit, DID not want to admit that Leo had beaten him. After all; Amintore knew he could simply stage a vendetta and get his payback from that. It WAS the Family way, after all.
Meanwhile, Leo watched a few more minutes of the I Love Lacey episode, but found he could not focus on the show. Dissatisfied, he left the apartment, locked the door behind him; and went to the Khan Towers. Perhaps Adhira would offer him some protection- if only Leo knew Amintore had gotten there first…..
In the end, Leo wasted no time in getting to Khan Towers. He ran and ran until he was out of breath until finally, he staggered into the lobby. He didn’t need to explain who he was here to see; it was common knowledge among Adhira’s various lackeys (no matter how low they were on the corporate ladder) that Leo was her ward.
Leo ran to the nearest elevator and once inside, glanced at the buttons on the wall. He just barely remembered what floor Adhira’s office was on; but managed to get the correct number, and waited quietly until the elevator clanged to a halt and he could get out. Emerging into the hallway, Leo froze. His paws began twitching. Time seemed to stop. Because there; standing near the end of the hallway with bloody murder in his eyes was Armando Amintore.
“It’s not what you think.”
Leo murmured, trying to stay calm.
“Ohh, like HELL it’s what I think!”
Amintore roared, and charged at Leo, dragging him by the shirt collar into a dusty little room labeled JANITOR’S CLOSET. Well if this was a janitor’s closet; it’d have to be long abandoned: It was windowless and completely empty save for some cardboard boxes on the floor, some scattered piles of car magazines and an old poster on the wall with BUY WAR BONDS! Emblazoned on it; and dated 1943.
Other than that, the room was completely empty, and the two canines were by themselves. Again.
“Kid, I have had ENOUGH of you and all your fucking scheming! But if you think you can outfox Armando Amintore, then you’re wrong. Dead. Wrong.”
“What makes you so sure of that?”
“This.”
Trembling, Amintore removed his pistol. Leo kept a close eye on him, and after a few minutes tried to lunge at the greyhound, intending to bite down on his paw that was holding the gun and make him drop it. But Amintore had seen this coming and grabbed Leo by the wrist, slamming him against the wall.
“Any last words, son of SCUM?”
Amintore’s voice was a wet, dangerous rasp.
“No…..But were you expecting THIS?”
With his free arm (his left), Leo tried to grab at the gun but Amintore recoiled, drawing his arm back. Leo raked his claws into the greyhound’s shoulder and he let out a bit of a yowl. Then, he forcefully pried the weapon from the gangster’s grasp and leveled it, grinning a bit.
“This thing is loaded, isn’t it?”
Leo’s question was rhetorical. Amintore knew he would not need to answer, but the blazing hate never left his eyes as Leo leveled the gun at Amintore’s chest and pulled the trigger. With a seemingly deafening BANG! He was struck, the bullet striking him in the heart.
Leo lingered for a moment, gazing down at his bleeding foe, before throwing back his head and giving a quirky laugh; not unlike his father’s. He felt nothing. No remorse, nothing at all. Indeed; he felt a bizarre, warm kind of euphoria! Briefly, he kneeled on the floor and searched his fallen adversary for weapons, but found nothing other than the pistol, and all this did was award Leo with bloodstained paws and wrists.
A few more minutes passed, and as Amintore lay in a bleeding, whimpering pool on the floor Leo knew his time was scarce. He was starting to hear a lot of commotion in the hallway. Better get out now. Leo stuffed the pistol in his pocket (it was not a revolver but still tiny enough to fit), and fled down the nearest staircase, and into the urban, autumn night.
Meanwhile, within the building, Adhira had heard the gunshots from her office and had instantly developed a negative feeling about this. Upon questioning a few terrified pedestrians roaming the hallway she learned that Amintore(!) had been shot in the unused janitor’s closet, and an ambulance was being called.
“Damn, damn, damn….”
Adhira muttered dryly as she ran to the ajar door and knelt beside Amintore, who was covered in blood.
“So, Armando, I see you’re on your last legs now.”
Adhira surveyed him grimly and folded her arms.
Amintore turned his head weakly and glanced up at her. His breath was coming in quick little gasps, and it was obvious he didn’t have much time. His eyes were glazed over, and Adhira knew for certain he was delirious when he whispered:
“Help me……Mama…..”
He let out a choked cough, shuddered, and expired moments later. Adhira shook her head, feeling a pang of sadness as she took one last glance at the body of the dog who had been her loyal bodyguard.
“Goodnight, Armando. I’ll miss you, that’s for certain….”
Releasing a deflated sigh, Adhira emerged from the closet and imperiously (but bitterly) told the onlookers than an ambulance was no longer necessary. Drifting back to her office, Adhira knew with a steely certainty that the deal with Leo Karnage was now off. If she ever saw him again, she would make sure he knew this. In the mean time, she’d do something about the apartment she’d been kind enough to arrange the purchase of, but now there was little time remaining until she could finally go home for the night. But not now. With a slight smile of bittersweet refinement, Adhira decided she would call Vijay. At least her younger brother was someone she could still count on.
On the street, Leo did not stop running. He had no idea how many creatures had found out about Amintore’s murder yet, but all he knew was he had to keep running. It was an instinct and it propelled him further as he struggled to navigate the urban sprawl of street after street following the Khan building. Was he getting closer or farther to his apartment? Leo no longer knew; he’d left his tourist map in the master bedroom before going to the Khan Towers!
Gasping and out of breath, Leo’s footpaws dragged behind him now, as he walked down a quiet, practically-vacant street. He grimaced as he heard voices. The young wolfdog froze and hid himself in the shadows of a doorframe, listening.
“Are we getting any closer?”
“Si, Alicia. I am theenking so.”
Leo’s heart skipped a beat. He hugged himself tightly, whimpering. No, no, no, NO! He instantly recognized the voices of Alice and their father, and Leo further sank into the shadows as he saw his mother, father and sister’s distant forms approaching him.
Struggling to calm himself, Leo focused his thoughts on Alice. She was his twin sister; but they were fraternal and unalike in every imaginable way. And let in Leo’s twisted mind, they were both bastard children of the great Don Luciano diVenazetti, and theoretically destined for lives of power. Alice was a fool to not have such a mindset; but Leo knew that he was better. Leo KNEW he would rise to success. Grinning eerily like the madbeast he was, Leo darted forward and revealed himself to his parents and sister.
“Hello…..Alice. Hello, mama. HELLO THE CREATURE I THOUGHT WAS MY FATHER!”
“You sick son of a bitch…”
Alice muttered, lunging forward, only to be restrained by a somewhat-nervous looking Karnage who whispered something in her ear.
Grace stepped forward a little.
“At-hem, what do you mean by THOUGHT?”
Leo grinned manically.
“You-you see, Grace Karnage, you’re my mother. You gave birth to me and Alice. But….Luciano, Luciano diVenazetti is my father.”
He turned to Alice.
“OUR father, Alice.”
“You’re fucking crazy, Leo.”
She retorted.
There was a brief moment of silence. Though this was not exactly the best time for expressing one’s emotions; Grace felt disappointed and hurt that the son she’d raised had turned into this; Alice, hurt and betrayal that her only living brother was now a monster though it was obvious for a while now what Leo had been becoming. But it was Karnage who was definitely the angriest of all three.
Before Leo could say more, Karnage pulled out his revolver. He bared his teeth at his son. They were all extremely angry beneath the shock and disorientation, but Karnage was the angriest by far.
“You little motherfucker! I raised you as my SON! And THIS is what you do to me, to all of us?”
Having been raised bilingual (as following family tradition), Leo knew what his father had said and responded with:
“You were never my father. My father is Don Luciano diVenazetti, and today I killed a creatures, that’s where…. This blood is from. I’ve carried out what he wanted me to do……”
He laughed.
“But….But we’ll meet again. I fucking swear we will!!”
Continuing to laugh, as though he didn’t have a care in the world; Leo ran off into the moonlight, until at last, he was gone. It was obvious he could not go back to the apartment, but suddenly he did not care where he went. He was free.
As soon as he was gone, Grace straightened.
“The cops’ll find him.”
A long quiet.
“I’m not that bastard’s daughter.”
Alice assured her parents, continuing:
"I'm the daughter of Grace and Felipe Karnage and as sure as hell THAT was not my brother."
Alice took a moment to quietly hug both her parents; who were relieved and felt blessed their daughter was someone they could trust and rely upon. The three lingered in the streets for what seemed like an eternity, emotions mixing and playing out against each other like different colors of paint being mixed on an artist’s palate. Alice, Grace and Karnage eventually left Cape Suzette (rather than staying until Sunday) later that night, but when they did, they went home as a family.
 
Epilogue 
Time passed. News of Amintore’s murder spread through the tabloids like a sluggish, unintentional fire. Leo (who had been using the last name diVenazetti due to the fact he legitimately believed he was Luciano’s son) was pursued by the police; but bizarrely, was never found. It was almost like he had disappeared off the face of the earth. In actuality; he was living all the way on the other side of town under the alias Landino diVenazetti; in a poorer part of the city where nobody had heard of him and he bought a crappy apartment that he rarely left except to buy food. Grace and Karnage never contacted Karsimys about Leo- they no longer considered the institution reliable, and by now Leo had become a creature of pure evil rather than someone simply insane.
Meanwhile though, the rest of the city began to slowly forget as the craze from Amintore’s murder eventually began to die down. Kit and Baloo, meanwhile, eventually sorted out their malfunctioning work ethic and started becoming close again.
In Southshire however, things were different. Grace, Karnage and Alice took the time to forget about Leo. (And on the positive side; their relationship with the Barnharts was now mending) It was for the best. He had become a monster now; though there were some days Alice would get out of bed in the morning and silently wondered why it was Leo who had turned out that way and not her. Nonetheless, they began to recover as a family, all of them. Leo became a distant, unpleasant memory and one to be forgotten. In February of 1958 Karnage first wrote his will. Leo was never mentioned.
In June of that year Alice graduated high school. As far as college went, she had never been considering St. Darren’s in Cape Suzette- that was out of the family budget anyway; and to be honest it had always looked like a snobby school to her. In the end, she graduated in 1962 with intent of becoming a writer. But not before in December of 1960, when she had an encounter with a very surprising someone……
At the time; Alice had been on a public bus bound for Southshire for Christmas. She had finished her last cigarette that day on campus (in a smoking area; thankfully), and was sitting with her paws in her lap. She looked around, puzzled, however, when a familiar voice enquired:
“Alice? Is that you….?”
Was that voice really…?
Struggling not to suppress a grin; Alice looked in the direction of the voice. Sitting a few seats in front of her was Jamie!
“Jamie!”
She exclaimed.
“I….I had no idea you were going to school in this area.”
Her voice was overcome by a sudden awkwardness.
“Well, I am.”
“Which one?”
Jamie rattled off the name of the college he was going to; and Alice told him hers. They ended up talking all the way back to Southshire until departing to their separate homes for the holidays.
Starting in mid-1961 Alice and Jamie began to call and talk whenever each of them were free; and it was a world of difference from the talks they’d had as teenagers. Over the summer; they began dating, and the affection between them was indeed legitimate. Both were far more emotionally mature now, and could handle the responsibilities involved. In the end, Alice and Jamie both graduated college in 1962.
It was on a crisp day in mid-October in which nervously, tearfully, Jamie asked Alice if she would marry him. Alice just wasn’t sure how to react; and told Jamie she would think about it. It took Alice one entire sleepless night of decisions until she could finally prompt a
“Yes…..I….Jamie, I’ll marry you!”
Before crying quietly, hugging him.
Now, the day after, standing in the living room of the house he’d bought in a town outside Southshire, Jamie took a deep breath as he spoke with Alice on the telephone. He was ready for this.
“Alice….”
He began.
“Can you do me a favor and put your old man on the phone?”
Category:Dogfather