Devil Days - REVIEW THIS STORY

Written by Missy Red and Kaleidopy
Last updated: 01/02/2007 02:01:11 AM

Chapter 5

The boy spent most of the next hour helping Therese clean the house. " Y' de only one who cleans dis place?" He asks her while sweeping the kitchen floor. " Dis place t' big for just y."

" You haven't meet the others," She tells him. " There's two full time maids, one is here at night and the other is on vacation."

" So y' jus' replacin' de one on vacation?"

" Yes, sort of I guess," Therese laughs as she finishes washing the last of the dishes. " You don't understand, Jean-Luc pays for my schooling up north, in return I help out around here for just a few weeks during the summer. I want to work more for him to repay his kindness but he refuses to even listen to me about the topic." Placing the dish cloth on the sink counter, she turns to the boy and takes the broom from his hands. " He doesn't like it that I clean the house, but I will not take charity from anyone. I do have my pride." She taps his nose playfully. " Mr. LeBeau is one of the nicest men I know. My father was one of his friends, when my parents were killed in a car crash eight years ago, he made sure that I was well taken care of. I'm sure you will come to find that out soon enough."

" Therese, is dat you in the Kitchen?"

" Yes, Tante." Therese answers as she takes the boy by the hand and leads him out of the kitchen, down the hall way and into the living room.

" Chile, I'm shocked to see you outta bed dis early in the mornin'." Tante hands her packages over to Therese, who leaves the room and takes them upstairs. " You couldn't have sleep any wit' all dose nightmares you kept havin' last night." She motions for him to follow her to the couch. After sitting down, she pulls the boy up and onto her lap. " You want to talk to Tante about your nightmares?"

" Nightmares?" The boy asks confusingly.

" Yes, chile." Tante allows the boy to sit beside her, and when he lowers his head on her lap she starts to play with his hair. " You woke up screaming Rouge Barbe in your sleep not once but three times, who is dis Rouge Barbe?"

The boy slivers as the sound of the name, something that didn't go unnoticed by Tante. She quickly pulls him up into her lap and when he refuses to look at her, she begins to hum a song. He waits until she finishes, before flashing a huge grin up at her. " Rouge Barbe? I don' know a Rouge Barbe, Tante."

" An' I say you be tellin' ol' Tante a big one, huh!" She looks down at him almost tempted to ask more questions about the subject, but she didn't want to push the boy anymore until he was more comfortable confiding in her. Changing the subject, she asks. " How would you like to go into town an' do some shoppin' wit' me?"

" But I promised M'sieu LeBeau dat I will wait here for him until he gets back."

" No, Jean-Luc wants me to buy you some clothes. Those old clothes of Henri's are jus' way too big for you." Tante explains as she and the boy get off the couch. " But first I am goin' to fix you some breakfast before we go anywhere." She notices the hungry look he has in his eyes. " You tell Tante what you want to eat."

" Bacon an' eggs!" The boy grins big again.

" Land's sake chile, I thought you had your fill of dem yesterday." Tante shakes her head in wonder as she heads for the kitchen. " As soon as we get finished eatin' we can go an' get you somethin' decent to wear."

It was the first time the boy had ever been inside a shopping mall. And if he had his way, it was going to be the last time he ever comes shopping for clothes with Tante. Not only have they visited every clothing store, but she was making him try on everything that wasn't nailed down.

" You go into dat dressin' room over there and try these jeans on." Tante gently guides him over to the dressing room. With him cleaned up, all the shopping clerks were ooing and ahing over him and it was only embarrassing him further. Slipping into the nearest dressing room, he strips off his pants and begins to slide the first of several pairs of jeans on, as soon as he gets one leg into the pants leg, the door flies open." Tante!!" He screams.

" Oh shush chile, you ain't got nothin' dat I ain't never seen before." She walks right in. Waiting until he gets the jeans on and zipped up, she begins her inspection. Tante begins to pull at the sit of the pants. " You got plenty of room to move around in an' it seems to fit in all the right places."

Twenty minutes later, the two emerge from the dressing room, the clerk standing by the desk leading into the dressing room. Smiles. " How many are you buying?"

" We are goin' to take all of dem but two." Tante hands the two pairs of jeans that she does not want to buy and takes the remaining pairs to the nearest cash resister. " Alright, next we goin' to buy you some underwear."

That did it, the boy's face turns bright red as he thinks everyone in the whole store just heard Tante. " Non, y' just let me buy dose, don' need nobody t' buy dat for me."

" An' how do you know what size to buy, chile." She puts the hand that was not holding her new purchases on her hip. " Now you can jus' forget about those notions of yours an' do as I tell you." Seizing the boy by the hand Tante pulls him out the store and down the walk way to another store.

" Mon Dieu!" The boy hisses as he is dragged into another dressing room from another clothing store. " How much longer do we gotta spend at dese places."

Tante turns him around and angrily slaps his bottom. " Don' you dare use the Lord's name in vain like dat." She spins him around to face her. " Chile, if Tante ever hears you do dat again I will paddle you good, do you understand me?"

" Oui, Tante." The boy lowers his head and would not look at her. " Navere!"

" I know you are sorry, Chile," Tante lifts his chin up with her hand and forces him to look at her. " Now dat you know better we can forget this happened." She swipes the hair out of his eyes. " As soon as we finish the shoppin' would you like to go get somethin' to eat at a restaurant?"

" Restrant, I never ate in a restaurant b'fore."

" Well then you got a treat comin' don' you?" Tante smiles as she allows the boy to try on the newest clothes. After trying on several more outfits, Tante gathers the clothes and waits until he finishes changing back into his own clothes. " You ready to go shoe shoppin'?"

" More shoppin'?"

" Yes, more shoppin' and after that we still have to buy you some under clothes." Tante has to stop herself from laughing as the boy rolls his eyes and looks up at the ceiling. " You might as well get use to it chile, you are stuck wit' me for the day."

Coming out of the dressing room, Tante gives the clothes to the lady. " We be takin' the three pants. Can you tell me which direction to your shoe department?"

" Yes 'em," The lady points her finger down the isle. " Just go pass the jewelry department take a left and go around the baby department and you will see the shoes, you cannot miss it."

" Thank you," Turning her attention back to the boy, Tante holds out her hand for him to take. " C'mon, chile, you can stop draggin' your feet right this minute, you are gettin' shoes."

" What's wrong wit' de ones I got on?" He sticks out his leg and shows her his shoes. " Dey look fine t' me."

" What's wrong wit'," Tante almost repeats his remark before sighing deeply. " Chile, you got holes in the bottom of your shoes, the toes are stickin' out an' you say you don' need shoes."

" Well I don',"

" Do you want me to pick you up and carry you?"

" I'm no baby!"

" After we get you some shoes and you can go to what ever store you want next, does dat make you feel better?" Tante asks him. " I think dat is your reward for all this sufferin' you think you have been put though."

" Really, any store?"

" Yes," Tante begins to pull out several box of shoes to try on the boy once they get to their location. After about thirty minutes and finding three pairs of dress shoes and a couple pairs of Hi-Tops, she finally allows him to wonder outside the store and into the main area of the mall. " All right, the candy store is directly across from the store I will be in, once you finish you meet me in there, understand?"

" Oui!"

Tante watches as he takes off towards the candy store, caring for the children of the Thieves Guild was her life and now that all of the council members children were well old enough to care for themselves with the exception of Jacques Benoit's son, Frances, who like the boy, ten years old, was making her feel useful again. Walking into the woman's clothing store, she turns around to make sure the boy was directly across from her in the candy store, since he was, she begins to shop for something for herself.

The boy was like a, well a kid in a candy store. He had enough money from Tante to buy enough candy to fill two small bags. Walking out of the store, popping a piece of peppermint into his mouth, he was about to head towards the clothing store that Tante was shopping in, when he sees one of his nightmares coming to life.

" Well, well, well, it looks like Devil boy has gotten up in the world." Jarod comes out of the Radio Shack, trying to zip up his jacket to hide what he had just stolen. His two friends, Wayne and Paul right behind his heels. " Come here you little mutie, I'm going to make your wish you were dead." He turns to his friends. " Grab him and take him out behind the mall so nobody will see what we going to do to him."

The boy retreats a few steps and realizes that most of the people in the mall were inside the stores and the ones who were even close by were not close enough to help him in time. Seeing a stairway leading down, he runs for it.

" After him," Jarod screams at his friends. As he takes off after the boy. He was extremely fast as he runs down the stairs two at a time, his friends not far behind him.

The boy reaches the bottom of the stairs and finds out that it is a dead end with the exception of a door. He quickly opens it and runs out. He was behind the mall, a place where the grass hasn't been cut in weeks and trash hasn't been picked up as well. He knew instantly he was in trouble.

The door swings open and the three come out. Jarod starts laughing as he too knows they have him trapped. " You're not as smart as you think you are, are you Mutie?" He takes a few steps towards the frighten boy. " Did you think you could get away from me, Devil Boy?"

" I wonder if his eyes will glow brighter if he feels pain?" Wayne picks up a board and starts gripping it tightly. " Bet ya that the Mutie freak doesn't even feel pain like us, heck I bettcha we beat him good he wouldn't even bleed."

"Probably doesn't even have a drop of blood in his body, he ain't human!" Paul, the third boy adds as he eyes the young boy trying to keep enough distance between them and himself. " My daddy said all muties should be hunted down and killed because they are freaks of nature and if something isn't done soon they will take over the world."

The boy's anger suddenly flairs. " Y' stupid like your daddy." He picks up a rock and throws it at Paul, who barely gets out of it's way.

Noticing that the boy was distracted by Paul, Jarod leaps at the boy and grabs him by the legs causing both to fall to the ground. " I got you now, Devil boy and this time you will not get away. We are going to teach you a lesson that you will not soon forget."

The boy begins to panic as the other two teenagers advance on him, he tries to free himself as Jarod grabs his left foot, fully intending to break it. Grabbing the closes thing he can get his hand on, a garbage can lid, he hits Jarod upside the head with it. He hits him three more times as hard as he can before the older boy falls down beside him. Getting to his feet, the boy picks up the garbage can and throws it towards the two other boys. Since all three were on the ground the boy runs for the door he had came out of. " Y' can' catch me 'cause y' don' have enough brains in your heads t' t'ink." He grins back at them. " Mebbe y' can get a job pickin' up blocks in a daycare center, no!" With those last remarks he runs back up the stairs.

Opening the door to the second level on the mall floor, he quickly goes in search for Tante. Turning back around to see if the three teens were still chasing him, he runs right into Tante. " Where have you been Chile, I told you to meet me in dat store over there." She points at the store she was referring to. " What took you so long? I was gettin' worried."

" Tante, I saw de pet store over dere," The boy points at the pet store close by. " I didn' t'ink I was gone so long. De doggies were cute an' I had t' pet dem b'fore I left." He lies as he flashes her a huge grin.

" Chile, wit' a grin like dat, Tante don' need fertilizer for her garden." Tante grabs him by his hand and the two begin to walk. " It's time we be gettin' home."

The boy suddenly sees the three teens. They stop dead and their tracks when they see the boy's hand being taken by Tante and leading him away from them. He grins a wide grin and sticks his tongue at them before turning back away and pretending they do not exist.