Chapter Text
The humidity was probably suffocating for anyone who wasn't used to Louisiana and its weather, especially when the swamp was the little backyard for the cabin that stood above the foggy waters. The croaking of frogs and the buzzing sound of mosquitos were accompanied by the fireflies that were flying above the dark waters. It was near the end of dusk and the colors in the sky were fading adding to the already dark waters and deep greens in the swamp.
It was the time he was allowed outside.
The animal traps set around the house needed to be checked and they also had to be set up again. It wasn't just for protection but also hunting purposes. The old boat swung around as the person inside quickly hauled in another small fish cage. The two fish in the cage were flapping around, their wide eyes never blinking as the lack of oxygen became evident. They were dumped on the boat's floor before a knife quickly cut them open and their insides were spilled. The guts were easily dumped back into the small cage before it was dropped back into the water and the gutted fish were set inside a basket.
One by one the cages were checked and more guts were spilled for lure before the clean fish were set aside.
“Heeey! Boy! Alastor! Checking your catch so late again?”
The boy who had been busy gutting another fish looked up to meet the man that was a few yards away from him on another boat. The boy was hardly twelve and was a scrawny kid with long limbs and a long neck. He had a round face with a straight nose and big eyes. The amber eyes that were looking at the man creased as he smiled and waved. The messy auburn hair went perfectly with the tan cool undertone and olive skin that had a few freckles across the cheeks.
“Hello, mister Stewart!” Alastor said with a smile as the man on the boat laughed. He was a big fellow with a round belly and a long beard. He wore an old shirt with torn overalls and a hat that covered his messy hair.
“Ya need to stop checking your traps so late, don't ya know the swamp is the most dangerous at night? That's when you can't see what's around ya and the gators can get ya.”
It was the same lecture Alastor heard every time he met the old man, by now he had it memorized without doubt.
“I would love to, sir but I can't leave my mother alone during the day! This is the only time I can go out.”
“I heard ya, you really take care of that mom of yours.”
“Of course! She’s all I have.”
The old man went silent for a minute before rowing his boat closer to Alastor. “Ya a good kid, tell ya what. Wait here for a few, alright? I’ll be right back, don’t worry it’ll be worth it!”
Alastor nodded in response and watched as the old man started rowing away. It was a few minutes later that he disappeared from sight. Alastor stayed around the same area but kept checking the fishing cages. Some cages didn’t have fish but instead had a few frogs that he quickly gutted and threw in the same basket as the fish, by the time he was done checking his last cage the old man was back. He moved his boat next to Alastor’s and smiled at him.
“Here ya go, my wife and I are old so we don’t really need this much stuff but our sons and daughters keep sending us things non-stop, I don’t know what to do with it anymore, better give it to someone else than let it rot.”
Alastor quickly caught the first bag the old man threw towards him. It was a heavy bag of rice that he quickly placed on the floor before catching the next bag that was thrown in his direction. This time it was a bag of beans before it was followed by a sack filled with dry fruit and chilies. By the time the old man was done handing him things, Alastor was almost positive that his boat was going to sink. The last thing he was given was a large jar filled with crawfish and shrimp.
“Mister Stewart, this is a lot!” Alastor said but still gave him a grateful smile.
“It’s no problem, take it. Have that servant girl of yours make good food for ya mum, okay?”
Alastor’s smile became strained but nodded at the man. “Yes, of course, I will. Thank you again!”
“Don’t mention it, tomorrow if ya have time, come by our house, I’ll teach ya how to hunt other stuff besides fish. Your mum could use some variety y’know? Now get out of here, it's getting too dark and I don’t want ya getting lost. ”
The man left first and only after he was gone did Alastor start rowing his boat in the opposite direction. He wouldn’t get lost, of course not, he knew this side of the swamp like the palm of his hand. He was the one that took care of the cages since he was able to row a boat on his own, before that it used to be his mom and himself, but she always checked the cages at night so no one would see them together.
A few minutes later, the boat hit a small deck and Alastor jumped out of the boat to tie a rope around one of the large logs near the edge of the deck. He tied the other end of the rope to his boat and then started to get the food out and near the end of the deck. The small cabin was glowing from the light coming from the windows, and in the distance, Alastor could hear music. The radio was playing loud and clear in the distance and Alastor started to hum along with the song. He went inside a small shack near the cabin and grabbed a wooden dolly with wooden wheels and a thick rope attached to it. He put all the food on the dolly and began pulling. He pulled harder as the ramp on the side of the cabin made it harder, especially with how much food he was able to get this time. It wasn’t a second after he opened the door that a voice was already calling for him.
“Alastor, is that you honey?” The voice came from the kitchen.
“Yes, I’m back mum. Mister Stewart gave us some food,” Alastor said and rolled the dolly inside the kitchen.
“You didn’t talk to them much, right?” The woman who turned around to face Alastor was tall. She had long limbs like Alastor but her body was naturally shaped with more curves. She also had large eyes like him. It was obvious that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, she looked a lot like Alastor, down to the bright smile on her lips, but her eyes were light brown and her skin was also a darker shade with a warm undertone that made her face look brighter. Her nose was straight but also rounder at the tip while her lips were fuller and were painted a deep red. She wore her curly hair in a bun with a headscarf around the edges that went alongside her bun.
“I didn’t, I kept it short like you always tell me, but he asked me to come to his house tomorrow. He said he wanted to teach me how to hunt.”
“That isn’t necessary, that’s what your mum is for,” She smiled again and tapped the wooden spoon she was holding against the table next to her. “I can assure you that I can shoot a gun just as good as that old man can.”
“I know you can,” Alastor chuckled and picked up the bags to set them on the table.
“Good God, he gave you so much food.”
“Yeah, everyone thinks that you’re sick so…they try to help out,” Alastor said and picked up the last bag of rice. “He also called you a servant girl.”
The frown on Alastor’s face wasn’t missed by his mother.
“And what did you tell him?”
“I…I said nothing.”
“Good! Now let me see what we got, I’m gonna have to cook that old man something to show our gratitude, else he might get offended and won’t give us anything again!”
“Not like he deserved it,” Alastor mumbled but his mumbling didn’t go unnoticed.
“Alastor!”
Alastor winced when his mother slammed her hand against the table and gave him a pointed look. He could feel his shoulders sagging as he stared at the floor and his mother’s feet.
“That man just gave us a bunch of free stuff, so I say he has at least earned that much out of us!”
“I know, I know, I just don’t like it when he calls you servant girl…that’s all.”
The silence that followed was only interrupted by the radio that was playing in the background. The smooth blues playing through the radio was accompanied by a piano and guitar; it was a slow piece, with a quiet melody that was fitting for the end of the day. Alastor sighed when his mother’s hand reached for his face. She gently rubbed her thumbs against his cheeks and then leaned down to kiss his forehead with a warm smile.
“I know baby, I know that well, but this is for the best, alright?”
Alastor said nothing and it was his mother’s turn to sigh. She sat down on a chair near the table and pulled Alastor with her so he was standing in front of her. He was growing again, soon enough he was going to be as tall as her or maybe taller. She ran her fingers through his hair, and couldn’t stop herself from thanking her grandmother’s side that her son’s hair wasn’t as textured as hers. Her family was what many would call mutt ancestry, and she resented that name for years. She resented and hated it because that’s all she was reduced to, and now she couldn’t believe that she was actually thankful for that. It was something she never imagined as good until she moved here and had her son.
“Alastor,” She said quietly and pulled her son closer. She gently held his hands and kissed them with a smile. “If they find out this house is mine, if they find out the mother they think is yours isn’t here but is instead me, we are going to be in danger, you understand that, right?”
Alastor looked away.
“You understand, right? Baby, I need you to tell me that you understand this.”
“...I do,” The quiet reply was hardly audible.
“Good, good,” She rubbed Alastor’s arms and gently brushed his hair behind his ear. “Now, who am I, Alstor?”
“My mum,” Alastor said with almost a hint of desperation in his voice.
“That’s right, I am, but who am I to them?”
“...Gabriela.” He mumbled again, not liking how he had to use his mother’s name.
Gabriela smiled again and pulled her son into a hug. She let him lean against him as she tried to pull him into her lap just to laugh when she realized how awkward the two looked. “You’re too big for me to be letting you sit on my lap like this.”
“I grew another inch.”
“That you did, you did,” Gabriela said and kissed his forehead. “Soon, you’ll be as tall as your mum.”
“That’s the goal.” He just needed to grow older faster, so he could take good care of his mother.
“Don’t let that old man get to you, okay?” Gabriela patted Alastor’s back. “He’s an old man and has one foot in the grave. Soon you won’t have to see him again, he’ll be gone! Then he’ll have to face the one and only judge that matters, God.”
“You always say that.”
“That’s because it is the truth,” Gabriela said and looked at her son’s face. “At the end of the day, we all have to face God, and he’s the one that gives our final judgment, so don’t worry baby.”
“What if he finds out? What if he wants to come over? Your friend isn’t here anymore, so there’s no one to pose as my fake mum,” Alastor asked. The paranoia was just something that could never go away, not with how they constantly had to hide.
“We’ll be fine, okay? No one would believe that you’re my son, if anything we can lie and tell them your mother had to leave for a doctor’s visit and so her family members came to get her. Alright? We can lie about a lot of things, Alastor, because no one would think that you are my child.”
“But I am, I am your son!”
“Yes, honey, yes, you are, baby, you are. But they can’t know that, okay?”
“Why can’t we just leave?” Alastor’s voice cracked as he asked this and his mother hugged him closer.
“We will honey, I promise we will but when you are older. Then we can leave this place and go back to my home, okay? But I can’t leave this country without someone that looks like…” Gabriela’s words were cut short then.
She looked at Alastor and he knew the answer already. His mother couldn’t leave on a boat, or leave the border without someone that looked like him because he looked like them. In the future Alastor was going to be able to blend in with them, and once he was grown he was going to be able to have the benefits that came with that. The only way his mother could leave this country and go back to hers, was if Alastor came with her and claimed to be with her. The idea made him sick to his stomach but he didn’t voice it out.
“Okay,” Alastor said, not wanting to force his mother to continue what she was trying to say. “I’ll be good, and continue to lie to them but you have to promise that when I get older, the two of us are going to leave, okay? We’ll leave.”
“Of course, baby. We’ll leave together, I promise.”
Alastor could lie to everyone else, but he wasn’t allowed to lie to his mother, in the end, it was his mother who lied to him.
The wind outside was growing stronger and the cabin was starting to shake a lot more with every passing minute. The chimney was making loud whistling noises that sounded almost demonic. The radio was playing but the signal was getting lost here and there, as the wind outside became faster. Alastor finished boarding up the windows and made sure to lock the shack outside before adding a few more wooden planks to make it stronger. He used whatever scrap of wood he could find to fortify their home, but there was little he could do against the force of nature.
“Mum, it’s getting worse,” Alastor said as he locked the door and squeezed his shirt to get rid of the excess water.
“The last thing I heard on the radio was that it isn’t a storm anymore but maybe a hurricane. I don’t think we can do anything else but pray and wait it out,” Gabriela said and placed a wooden bucket under another leak on their roof. She worriedly tried to grab whatever could fall from how the house kept shaking and put it in boxes. If they were lucky then maybe they would only lose part of the roof or a few windows, nothing that couldn’t be fixed in a few weeks.
The worst part of it all was that, even if they wanted to leave to find a safe place, they just couldn’t. The wind outside was too strong and the rain was so heavy that it was impossible to see anything. The swamp was already a harsh environment but add a hurricane on top of that and it was almost impossible to navigate. Weather like this was hard to predict and there was little they could do about it once it landed on their coast. Living outside a city had its advantages for sure, they could hide better and live outside prying eyes but in times like this, Gabriela wished they lived closer to the city border, then maybe there they could find a safer place to stay.
“Mum!”
Alastor’s alarmed shouting was what broke Gabriela out of her train of thought. She turned around and watched her son trying to rush towards her but she wasn’t sure why. The wind was so loud outside, there was so much noise that she didn’t hear the whining wood of the roof and walls around her. She didn’t know what was happening until pain blinded her vision and everything went dark.
The next time Gabriela opened her eyes, she was wet and she couldn’t see well. The heavy rain was falling on top of her face, but she could feel movement around her. She turned her head and watched as her son desperately tried to remove the collapsed roof that had fallen on top of her. She tried to move but pain quickly shot through her whole body. A scream tried to leave her throat but she quickly pressed her lips together and stopped it. She didn’t want to alarm her son, she didn’t want to make the situation worse.
Alastor couldn’t see well in front of him, his vision had never been the best but it was now worse. The rain was too strong and the wind was so fast it felt as if the raindrops were made out of wood instead of water. His vision was getting blurrier as he fought back tears that were welling up in his eyes. He needed to focus, crying wasn’t going to fix anything. He needed to hurry up and help his mother. The wood was heavy, and the wind that was blowing against him made it feel as if he was picking up concrete instead of wood. He shoved at it with his shoulders and arms, not caring as pieces of wood stabbed into his skin. He just needed to remove another piece, and then, he could free his mother.
By the time Alastor was done he was ready to collapse from how exhausted he was. He turned to look at his mother and instantly turned pale. His mother lay on her stomach with a thick piece of wood piercing her stomach. She wasn’t bleeding too much, but it was probably due to the piece of wood not piercing all the way through, still that didn’t make it any better. If anything he wasn’t sure of what to do anymore. He was panicking, his breathing was short and he couldn’t think. He couldn’t think at all but he needed to force his brain to function.
Alastor was desperate. It was as if his body moved on its own, his brain was blank but his body knew what to do. He knelt near his mother and pulled her onto his back until his arms were secured around her legs and she could hold onto him. He ran then, he ran as fast as he could, ignoring the sharp wind and the rain that was making it almost impossible to see what was in front of him. He knew this swamp like the palm of his hand, he didn’t need to be able to see ahead of him, his feet were taking him exactly where he needed to go. He wasn’t fully grown, he was still a kid, yet at that moment he felt like he could do anything because nothing else was going to matter if his mother died.
The lights of a house became visible soon enough. Alastor felt as if his feet were going to give up on him but he still kept going. He could hardly breathe, his lungs were on fire and it felt as if he was going to throw up any second. His throat was dry and coarse, and he wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to speak, still, he reached out and knocked on the wooden door in front of him. He knocked so loud that the door started shaking. It wasn’t long before someone angrily opened the door but their expression quickly changed when they noticed who was knocking.
“Boy, what are you doing out there with this weather?”
“M-mister…Mister Stewart, please, o-our cabin…the roof, it collapsed,” Alastor said while trying to gasp for air. “She’s hurt, p-please. We need help.”
There was a short silence and the old man spoke again. “What about your mum, where is she? You got that girl on your back but where’s your mum?”
“S-she isn’t home…left for the hospital with family. I-it was just us, please.”
“She got lucky uh?” The man said and then pointed at Gabriela with his chin. “You can come in boy, but you’ll have to leave your servant girl outside, I don’t want none of them in my home, you understand?”
“W-what?” Alastor said, his eyes wide as he stared at the man in front of him. “S-she’s hurt, I’m fine! I can stay outside instead! But she needs help.”
“Like I said, you can come in boy, but her? She can get eaten by the gators for all I care.”
Alastor’s mouth went dry, his legs were trembling and he couldn’t stop the tears from falling anymore. “Please…sir, she’s all I got.”
“Nonsense, ya can find another one like her in the market tomorrow, that ain’t an issue.”
Alastor kept staring at the man in front of him, he couldn’t believe his words. He couldn’t believe what he was saying, but deep inside he knew that what this man was saying truly came from the bottom of his heart. What his mother told him before, the many tales of caution and the many times she warned him to be careful, everything she said was genuinely true, and Alastor, who was always only with his mother and was sheltered by him, was finally able to see the world for what it truly was…It was a swamp filled with rotten animals that called themselves humans.
It almost felt like a fairy tale lesson. A story that was told to children before bed to warn them about the evils in the world. A kid dressed in red leaves home, and willingly knocks on the door of an awaiting wolf, ignorant of what was in front of him.
The wind had settled down and the rain wasn’t as strong as before, Alastor wasn’t sure of what happened after he left Mister Stewart’s home. He could remember the old man shouting something at him, but all that Alastor could do was walk. He kept walking, with his eyes wide and a fake smile that was there to reassure him that everything was going to be fine. Everything was going to be fine, no, everything needed to be fine. He made it to the city, and even there, he was told to leave multiple times. Every hospital he tried to visit, he was told to leave. By the time he found a hospital that was willing to take him, the rain wasn’t that strong anymore.
The hospital was old, with many patients and only a few beds. His mother was rushed to a different room and Alastor followed behind them. He was able to sit on a chair as a doctor and a few nurses quickly tried to help his mother. How long ago did the accident happen? He couldn’t remember. The sky was still dark outside but he wasn’t sure if it was due to the hurricane or because it was still nighttime. He was so tired, so exhausted. He was struggling to stay awake. He did what he could, and now that his body was finally relaxing, he couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore.
Alastor closed his eyes.
The morning sun and the sound of a busy street woke him up. Alastor slowly sat up on his bed, he squinted his eyes, not used to the bright sun outside. It had been ages since the last time he saw the sun in the sky. His mother always told him to stay inside during the day, not wanting to risk his skin turning any darker if that was even possible. It was the main reason why he was only active at night and slept throughout the day. He frowned and reached out to close the window blinds to block out the sun.
Where was he? His brain was lost and he couldn’t tell what was happening. Why was he in the city? Why would his mother let him out during the day when she was always so worried about him tanning?
Wait, his mother! What happened during the hurricane came rushing through his memory and Alastor jumped to his feet. He was just about to leave the room when a nurse opened the door and looked at him in surprise.
“You’re awake!”
“Y-yes! I’m awake,” Alastor said and looked around. He needed to find his mother, he needed to find her right now.
“I’m so sorry, honey. You were out for a couple of days and we were worried for you.”
“Right, yes, w-what about…” What about my mom? Alastor wanted to ask but his throat went dry. He remembered what his mother told him and he swallowed the knot in his throat. “What about, Gabriela? Is she fine?”
“Oh…honey.” The tone the nurse took and the way she was looking at him was all Alastor needed to know.
It was as if the world around him went mute. The nurse kept talking but he couldn’t hear her, no, he could but his brain couldn’t register her words. He was nodding at what she was saying, and he could hear himself replying but what was he saying? The nurse was smiling and giving him a pitiful look, saying something about his mother leaving him a letter and talking about how she was still going to take care of him. Everything was too much, everything was happening all at once.
Alastor was on auto-pilot, the way he was talking felt fake, and the way he was smiling was an act. Everything was a performance he was reinforced to play. Every word he spoke was a lie and his true feelings were buried behind a smile of compliance. He felt like crying and yet, crying felt wrong at the moment. What if they found out? What if they knew the truth? If everything unraveled then his mother’s efforts would be in vain. He couldn’t allow for that to happen, not now and not ever.
Alastor left the hospital with a paper in his hand that had a date and time for a burial.
The city around him was almost in ruins, with collapsed buildings from the hurricane and hundreds of wounded people. Half of the city was flooded while the other half was trying to set up stations to help those in need. It was a complete disaster and it was a miracle that Alastor was able to make it to the hospital during the middle of the night. He didn’t want to stay in the city though, not yet, he felt like he still had something to do back home.
It was how he found himself walking through the swamp again. It had been so long since he saw it during the middle of the day that he forgot how it was supposed to look. The empty feeling in his chest was draining him, it was making him tired again. He was burning, his chest was burning, his throat was burning yet, his expression remained calm. It remained the same. His feet still hurt but he kept walking, and as he moved through the swamp he arrived at the edge of a familiar home. The house was for the most part fine, with only a few broken windows and the aftermath of some flooding.
What was it that his mother always said? Alastor could hardly remember. Oh, that’s right, she always talked about how God would punish those that deserved it. She was devoted and prayed every night. She would talk to him about God and his son. She would tell him every verse and would tell him to have faith because, at the end of the day, God was going to punish those who deserved it.
Alastor thought about his mother’s words and then he thought about her. She was kind and faithful. She didn’t dare harm anyone even if she didn’t allow people to take advantage of her. She helped when she could and she taught Alastor everything he knew. Her only sin was to lie about him, that was it and yet that sin felt so insignificant to what happened to her.
Did God believe his mother’s lies were worth punishing but not the animals Alastor saw in front of him…if so, maybe God wasn’t worthy of all the praises that were constantly thrown his way. Maybe God wasn’t worth anything.
Alastor allowed his feet to move on their own, and as he set foot near the house in front of him, he grabbed the small ax that was stabbed on a log near the firewood. He kept walking and as he did he slipped the ax behind him and underneath his shirt. He hid the weapon and with a smile on his face he knocked on the door, this time he did it politely. He knocked once, twice and then the door opened.
The old man in front of him was surprised to see him but he thankfully didn’t close the door in front of him.
“Boy, holy…you had us worried boy, me and my wife were so worried we went to check on your home but we couldn’t find you. Are you alright?”
“Ah, yes, I’m quite alright as you can see!” Alastor said with the same smile on his lips. “My mother gave me an earful after I told her what happened, so she sent me all the way here to apologize. May I come in?”
“Ah, your mum did good. You were just scared, but ya, come in,” The old man moved to the side and then shouted. “Susan! We have company!”
Alastor stepped in and the door slowly closed behind him, the smile never left his lips as he stared at the two animals in front of him. It was a good thing one of the first things his mother taught him how to do was how to gut prey after the catch.
The lies came to him easily, as he was used to lying his whole life. The kid in red came back to knock on the same door, the sheep’s clothing fit him nicely, and made it impossible for the wolves to see the monster underneath.
It was getting dark outside. The sky was looking red, or maybe that was the only color Alastor was able to see. He was covered in blood, but he didn’t care. All he wanted to do was get home. He walked slowly, the ax that he used not too long ago was still in his hand. The swamp was a mess with fallen trees everywhere but he jumped over them or tried to climb them to reach his destination.
The small cabin was a mess, with most of the furniture everywhere and half of the roof gone. The rain, mud, and high wind ruined almost everything but Alastor was able to salvage a few things. He found a few pictures of his mother and carefully put them away in a small wooden box. He needed to take care of them, it was all he had left. He also found their radio, hidden away in a cabinet. His mother probably put it there to try to keep it safe.
Alastor flipped the switch on and was surprised when it actually worked. Who would have thought? His house was half gone and yet, the radio still worked. He chuckled and put the radio on a table, letting the long cord drag along with it. The blues were playing again, but the song was faster this time, and the guitar along with the piano were giving it their all. It was a good song, a happy, and loud song. It made Alastor hum as he sat by the door of his home and stared at the dark swamp.
The blood clinging to his face and hands was starting to dry but once again he didn’t bother to clean it up. He just sat there, listening to the radio and humming along with the songs.
It was a nice melody.