Elisa opened her eyes, struggling to breathe, and her eyes widened to show she was in her tiny room.

Elbowing behind her, once, twice and again, she felt the arm loosen slightly.

Rapidly she tossed her head back, feeling her skull contact something squishy, the assailant's arms fell away.

Scrambling away Elisa flopped and turned, finding a man of European origin wearing an outdated grey mob suit with the complimentary hat having fallen to the floor.

She screamed, holding her hands to face.

"Can it!" The man howled, clutching his ears painfully.

"Who are you?" Elisa scrambled away.

Grimace disappearing, instead of answering he stalked forward, while anticipation and greed became clear as day.

Running a small distance, Elisa crouched and held her bed.

"Please! I have a son! Don't do this!" Elisa screamed, tears streaming down her cheeks.

The man's face soured distastefully but threw himself forward at her.

Mind racing Elisa ducked beside the bed and felt the attacker's weight press atop her.

Screaming, she threw all her strength and weight shoulder-first at his direction.

Releasing a pained grunt, he fell clutching his face.

Slapping at him Elisa unleashed a fury of weakly attacks, the man's body retreated as he howled.

Finally, the man fell to the ground, staring at her, fear in his eyes.

Screaming incoherently she kicked randomly catching his arm, something gave and the arm fell away at a twisted angle.

"Stop!" The man begged.

Kicking again, Elisa caught her breath slowly, the questionable elements of the scene perplexed her as her mind calmed.

The body was mangled and broken yet oddly no blood leaked.

IT disintegrated and blew away...like smoke.

Her mind became fuzzy.

*****

Opening her eyes Elisa realized she was in the living room.

Palming her bruised face, then rising to her feet, she rubbed her face to wear away at her disorientation.

Recent events were a slow confusing sludge, but Eian was in front of her.

"Sweetheart!" Kneeling over him, Elisa saw him mumbling and sweating.

Shaking him, she screamed for her son.

"Wake up! Somebody help my baby! MY BABY!" Tear's leaked down as she cradled him.

Shooting upwards she ran to grab her phone, it was getting late being five thirty already.

Disregarding her sore-throat, she dialed the police.

The line was busy, she kept dialing, turning up nothing.

"Oh my god, oh my god. ohmygod-ohmygod~" Breathing unevenly she stared at her son's prone form.

He was still breathing, so he wasn't dead.

"Calm down, calm down. CALM DOWN!" Elisa stomped her feet to stop shaking.

'Okay. So he's still alive, so maybe he's sick.' Truthfully she knew that wasn't the case, but nothing was really making sense.

Unless he was slowly dying.

"NO! Noonononononoononono~.." The thought made her tremble.

Shaking like a leaf, Elisa cradled him, she placed fingers on his neck, a strong pulse.

She opened an eye, it was heavily dilated but stared away into the distance.

"Not my baby. Stay strong sweat-heart. Please, I need you." Elisa sobbed.

'I need help, I need to get him help.' Strangely that calmed her.

Taking one deep breathe she checked her phone, it was now ten past six, Elisa's eyes widened, her breakdown had lasted far too long.

Another deep breath, moving forward Elisa dragged Eian to the couch, persevering even as his legs dangled at the edge of the couch.

Accommodating him fully she let out a breath of exertion, her son was heavy.

'Who can help?' Elisa pondered, concern almost drove rational thought from her mind but she needed to stay strong.

Looking at the door Elisa sighed, it was blocked with an old shelf was in the way.

Moving it proved difficult and slightly time-consuming but possible.

Opening the door and closing it behind her, Elisa decided their downstairs apartment neighbor might help, if not perhaps he could give some ideas.

Anything was better than doing nothing in her mind, her son was depending on her.

They lived in a small semi-rundown apartment building, each floor a different apartment, the apartments were small giving the whole thing a tower-ish look being thin and three floors high.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Elisa and Eian lived on the top floor, there were two more floors and the apartment itself seemed ancient, the cement walls had become stained over the years and the owner had not re-painted in ages.

Still given their budget, this was some of the best they could afford, it was close to the restaurant Elisa worked, which meant Eian could drop her off early in the mornings before going to work.

The night had mostly set in already, the stairs were in-doors but Elisa could see it through a small window.

Descending by a run, Elisa reached her neighbor's door quickly and her knocking was akin to banging.

Sounds were mostly undiscernable through the door, but something crashed and broke from within, startling her.

'Ohmygod Ohmygod, is the same thing happening everywhere?!' Elisa jumped to conclusions, stepping away from the door.

Muffled yelling was taking place within but it sounded like it was coming from the other end of the house, along with what could be growling.

When the sound of struggle moved closer and got louder, Elisa decided she had enough.

She bolted another set of stairs to the bottom floor, where she began banging the door like a crazy person again.

"Help! Please, my son needs help!" Elisa cried, she was approaching her mental limit.

This time the door opened, Elisa let out a breath of relief.

A pair of dirty hands bursts forth towards her.

Falling on her ass, Elisa found herself screaming and scrambling away upstairs.

Looking back a particularly obese man screamed at her ferally, his eyes looked at her with savage glee, he stumbled forward unsteady.

The man looked almost drunk, almost unfamiliar with his own body as he climbed the stair following her.

Crawling and screaming up the stairs, Elisa turned to sit while screaming even louder.

Kicking at him hard and wild, her foot caught the thick shin of the man.

"AHHHHH!" The fat man jumped, slipped and fell side-ways before rolling down.

The insane fat man groaned and tried rolling off his back unsuccessfully.

"Nice move." A semi-familiar voice sounded behind her.

Elisa screamed, turning and almost fainting.

A bulky unfamiliar man stood before her, he was clutching his face which was dripping fresh blood.

His chest was bare and littered with scratch marks, he was bleeding in a way that must be painful.

He held out his other hand in surrender, a peace gesture.

"Miss El, I'm friendly. Honest." His voice clicked, identifying him as the middle-floor neighbor, Martin.

"What happened? Are you hurt?" Elisa's voice trembled, she was almost drawing blank.

"Jay's getting up. Come up." Martin pointed down below.

A quick look revealed him to be telling the truth.

"Ohmygod." Elisa scrambled up and ran behind Martin.

"Jay. This ain't cool. Go back." Martin's voice was almost completely steady, but Elisa could see a twinge of doubt pass his face.

The man screamed words in some foreign language, scaring Elisa further.

The man charged up the stairs as fast as he could on unsteady obese legs.

"JAY!!!" Martin yelled as he charged too.

The two met, but it was clear from the start Martin was the better of the two.

Unfortunately, he seemed to be unwilling to harm Jay overly.

Punching him in the face, throwing off Jay's attempts at grappling and kicking him squarely in the balls made Martin the winner.

Jay lay on the ground, mouth agape and sucking in air like the dead.

"Fuck Jay! What the hell?" Martin backed away again.

"My son needs help!" Elisa told Martin.

"Huh?" Martin looked at her.

Elisa winced as she got a clear look at his face, he had fresh talon marks that had to come off a woman's nails.

The deep scratches were still bleeding and gave him a menacing look, luckily they didn't seem to have caught his eyes.

The rest of his back and chest were in similar condition.

"Eian, my son, is sick!" Elisa didn't know how else to describe it, and she was also sure she was hysteric by now.

"Ah...Okay, let's check." Martin looked unsure and a bit confused.

Martin spared a quick look at Jay before leading Elisa up the stairs.

"Let's hurry. Jay will be up soon." Martin urged.

Martin took a quick second to lock his door on the way up.

Elisa got a quick look at Martin's apartment it was thrashed.

"Long story," Martin said after seeing the look on her face.

Incomprehensible yelling got Elisa's attention, that would be Jay.

She looked down just as she was fumbling with the lock on her door, it seemed to be jammed or something.

Jay looked more steady on his feet and a substantial notch angrier.

"Ah shit. Not again. Honestly?" Martin moaned.

*****

He was back in his room, Eian felt strange, his head throbbed a bit as though it was straining to focus.

Eian was huffing with exertion, fists up he growled at his assailant.

A particularly bulky-buff native-Indian in native clothing howled and charged, Eian being completely unaware of the differences could not identify which group his attacker belonged.

Grappling Eian tried to throw him to the ground unsuccessfully, Eian twisted an arm, blocked a stray fist aimed at his face, and shoved against his attacker's chest.

They had been fighting for a while, Eian wasn't truly paying attention how long.

He was sure his opponent was decently bruised, but Eian himself felt like shit.

This fuck definitely did not punch like a bitch.

A fist caught his chin, rattling his head, gritting his teeth Eian retreated.

His opponent pressed his advantage, Eian cursed there wasn't much space here in his room, his legs caught the edge of his bed.

His opponent laughed as he barreled forward, Eian swore.

Timing well, Eian extended his elbow forward catching the native in the chin.

The head jerked backward violently but shoved Eian to sit on his bed roughly.

Seizing advantage he launched heavy kicks, which were blocked expertly, the native rolled with them.

'What the fuck IS he made of?' Eian cursed his elbow felt a tad bruised, along with his fists and wherever he received hits.

The native laughed and spoke in some damned native language, Eian didn't understand a lick of it.

"Yeah? Right back at you, asshole." Eian spat at him.

As the native opened his mouth Eian attacked.

A jab caught him unexpected, Eian followed through with an insane upper-cut.

Wincing he felt something crack, without thought he punched the native's liver.

Again, he punched the liver, he felt strong arms hug him, growling Eian grabbed his opponents back and punched his liver HARDER.

Eian felt something impact his head, he ignored it and kept punching.

His next punch went straight through, his opponent had become smoke.

Eian blinked, he felt the strain on his head ease slightly, he woke.

*****

Opening his eyes Eian looked around, he was on the couch, sweaty and tired.

'How'd I get here?' Eian's head felt a bit numb like he hadn't gotten much sleep last night.

"Ma?" Eian scanned everywhere.

Where is she?

Eian frowned he spotted the entrance to their apartment, the shelf he put there had been moved.

'Shit, she went out.' Worry knawed at him.