"Mama's Boy"

Chapter 30: Full Family Christmas

He was running from something he couldn’t see. It was pitch black and he didn’t know what was chasing him, but he knew what it was. He jumped from one piece of fragmented metal debris to the next avoiding capture from the beast that chased him. Everyone was dead. Every corner he turned, another member of his family was dead. They all kept screaming at him.

“Why’d you let us die?! This is all your fault!”

He was terrified. He’d been running for ages, but it didn’t matter. No matter how far he ran, no matter how fast he ran, the monster was always right behind him.

“I found you.”

He spun around and faced empty space. Then a sharp pain shot through his back to his chest. As an invisible sharp thing was covered in his blood and bits of his shell. The monster that chased him turned his hanging body around to face it. But there was only a sinister grin full of bloodlust, anger, and sadistic gratification.

<~>

Leo bolted awake in his bed. Not the terrifying space he couldn’t remember. It was one of the nights where his brothers slept in their own rooms and not his. Leo got out of bed and ran through the lounge and down the hall until he got to his moms’s room.

Big Mama was stirred awake by the sudden light from her bedroom door opening and squinted at the shaking figure in her doorway.

“Leonardo? Are you alright Baby-shell?”

Tears came rushing down his face as he quickly shut the door and scurried his way into her bed. Abigail woke up quickly thanks to the sudden movement and looked at her wife with confusion. Big Mama returned the look and tried to comfort her crying child.

“Baby-shell, what’s wrong? Did you have a scary dream?”

She could feel him shrink into his shell and she sighed.

“Don’t be afraid, Leonardo. Mama’s here. We won’t let anything happen to you. Cheer up, in a few hours it’ll be Christmas time. You looked forward to this all month.”

Leo poked his head from his shell and hugged his mother close to him. He remembered how she looked in his nightmare. She was mutilated beyond recognition and he didn’t trust that this was a sick twist to his nightmare. He did not want to go back to sleep. He didn’t want to…

Big Mama and Abigail curled around their non-verbal son as he started dozing off. They were both worried, but unless Leonardo told him about his dream, they couldn;t do more than rub his back and tell him everything was okay.

<~<~>~>

Leo woke up a few hours later, thoughts still plagued by his nightmare. He was tentatively excited about the day in front of him. He’d planned out the best Christmas ever for his brothers to enjoy. He and Godrick picked out the best tree that would fit comfortably in the lounge; he and his brothers and Suzie decorated the tree with Mikey as their leader. He raced into the lounge and saw everyone waiting for him. Donnie was sipping from a mug as he patted the bean bag next to him. Leo belly flopped into the cushy seat and watched Jack and Daniel tear open their presents.

From Big Mama they got a deed to a nearby abandoned building to serve as their bar. The building was old and run down, but it was possible to fix it into the beautiful bar they envisioned. From Abigail they received matching uniforms for their bar. Crisp, mahogany colored shirts, smooth black pants, shiny dress shoes, matching bow ties with a cloaking broach in the center, clean mauve colored jackets, and name tags with their full names.

Godric gave them both matching pistols and a few magazines of ammo. The guns weren’t loaded, obviously. Suzie gave them both fifty dollar gift cards and tickets to see her next fight in the Battle Nexus. Raphael was excited to give them both stuffed bears he made at “Build a Friend Plushie Shop.” Mickey gave them both a big recipe book full of good, upscale bar food and classy cocktails.