When Becca arrived at Don’s place, it was almost afternoon. He lived pretty far away from downtown, and his house was pretty modest. A building with only one floor, very well put wooden walls, painted white, a living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, everything over a completely non-suspicious basement. And to top it off, a humble yard all around the place, with trees, a garden, even a swing, yet he had no children.

He could not have children, to be more precise.

No fence, no guard dog, no nothing to show the least sign of security.

However, not a single living being ever dared to enter his propriety, except for Becca. But the girl had his special permission to do so.

And by using this permission, she stepped into the garden, feeling the soft skin-like membrane that separated the house from the outside world, falling apart to let her through, just for it to merge back together again, as if never disturbed.

“Uncle Don?” Becca shouted, approaching carefully the open door.

Donnovan’s door was always open, but it was never a smart move to get inside all of a sudden, because her uncle was always working with something dangerous, and one could never know what kind of boom would come out of that door.

“Oh, come in, come in little sister.” he answered, in an unconcerned tone, as if he never cared for safety in the first place. “I was just making lunch. Do you want some?”

Becca thought of the last time her uncle made pasta for lunch, and the sole thought made her stomach turn upside down.

“No, uncle. Thanks. You sure you don’t want me to cook?” she answered, without hiding her concern. “You know that no living being can eat your food, right?”

“Come on, sweetheart.” Don complained, a weird grin shining on his face. “You know your mom loves my burritos."

“She loves the sick leave your burritos give her, that’s for sure.” the girl mocked, the grin turning to her face, this time. “Come one, I’ll cook. You hate to admit, but you know that you love my food.”

Don was facing the sink while chopping vegetables, so Becca couldn’t see the bright smile on his face, when she assumed the cooking role. But at the same time, he rolled his eyes, moving his lips as to mimic Becca’s words, in a mocking way.

“Alright, alright. Who wouldn’t like food that tastes like heaven?” Don surrendered, leaving the sink to her niece. And as quickly as the humour in the atmosphere was bright and warm, it became tense and rock-solid.

The mood was so hard, it could be cut with a knife.

“So... What happened, little sister? I know you don’t come here without any problems that you need to vent about. Also, you don’t ever talk to me about jobs, unless it has to do with crude violence or blackmailing. And I know that that’s much probably the reason why you came to me this time, since you can't do any of these things, even if your life was at stake. Am I wrong?”

“No... You're not wrong, uncle.” Becca chopped the vegetables quickly, while speaking. “Do you remember the incident where I started to get my memories back? Pass me the onions, will you?”

“Of course I remember it, darling. I thought you’d cast me out after that. Still don’t get why you didn’t. Here, and take the carrots too. You know I love carrots.” Don answered her, while getting more vegetables from the fridge. He took the opportunity to grab a beer, giving a big chug right after opening the can.

“Yeah, yeah, carrots too, alright. So... Someone saw me...”

The uncle stopped right in the middle of the chugging, thought for a second, and spat the beer all over his coffee table.

“No...” Don gasped. “You’re not telling me...”

“Yes, I’m telling you.” Becca’s voice was filled with sadness and disgust. “And...”

“Keep going, but sit down first. Unless you wanna keep chopping these poor onions, who did you no harm.” he said, watching the girl turn the onions into a mushy jelly.

“Okay...” she said, as she put down the knife, sitting alongside her uncle.

Don was a man with long, curly hair, black with various streaks of gray running through the locks. It gave him a wild appearance, as if he was some kind of crazy beast or something. His body was slick, but very muscular, an aspect he made sure to always show up in some manner, and that was the reason he wore nothing but jeans at home. Brown skin, eyes each one of a colour.

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He was tall, almost as a basketball player, and his beastly complexion only made people cross the street every time he walked around town.

Although Becca never minded his looks.

For fuck’s sake, he looked after her when no one else did. Donnovan was the only one to take care of her when she lost her memory, and got almost literally forsaken by God! So how could she ever cast him away after all he’s done for her?

However, for a beast like him, there was no such thing as acknowledging emotions. Meaning that even if he knew what he did for her adoptive niece, he’d never really understand the depth of his actions.

That’s why she sat by his side, immediately shoving her arms around him, sobbing uncontrollably in his shoulder.

“There was a man, he saw me, and a few days ago, he succeeded in finding my address. He started blackmailing me...” Becca’s tears made her voice bubbly and hard to comprehend, but Don did his best not to make her repeat herself even once.

“And... He made me give him a flashdrive with... With pictures of me... In that state!!!” She started sounding angry sad, her tears burning Don’s skin. “I’m coming from a meeting with him... I just gave him the flashdrive! Because he told me that if I didn’t give it, he’d show the world what I am!”

Don felt her sadness and her anger through her embrace, which made him feel his own anger rising. The knife at the countertop trembling ever so slightly, with Don making a titanic effort not to explode in front of her.

“Alright, little sister. There, there.” he said, while patting her head. “First of all, what do you want me to do? And second of all, who do I need to kill? How much should I make him suffer?”

Don knew he hit home with what he said, because the sobbing Becca rose her head, looking at him in a criticizing manner.

“Okay, okay. I won’t.” he answered, grudgingly. “Baby sister, you know this good nature of yours will end up being the death of you, right?” she nodded in slight despair, tears silently welling up in her eyes. “What do you want me to do?”

His niece observed him for a while, trying to regain her composure, choosing the right words to say.

“There was a Lord accompanying that man...” she finally said, after a while of consideration.

“WHAT?” Don stood up as if struck by lightning.

Becca didn’t know who she was when he found her, ragged and lost in the streets of a town nearby. He welcomed her under his roof, introduced her to his sister, who immediately started treating her as if she was her actual daughter, and just like that, years had passed, she was named Becca, and became part of a loving family.

There were two problems with her, though.

The first was that she could see things that other people couldn’t, and that wasn’t seen as a problem because Don and Grace weren’t able to see what she saw. It was very much the opposite, actually.

It was a problem, because they saw the same things she could see. Which led to the second problem.

It was that she had such a good heart, that she never chose to stand up for herself. She never fought back, even the school’s bully and his goons.

The girl knew they were wicked, yet, chose to stand back, and let it be. Leading to many incidents where Don had to stand up for her. That was, before he started teaching her how to fight, because after that, even though she stayed good-natured, her presence made evil people cross the street if they ever saw her walking in their direction.

Therefore, it didn’t matter whatever she could see, if she saw an actual demon... No, an actual Lord, then it meant that it could see her too, and as she had recovered her memories of who she truly was, not too long ago, it meant that she wasn’t able to stand up against that creature from the darkness.

That was the reason that made Don so startled after she told him what was following the middle-aged man, as she explained bit by bit, the whole situation at the cafe, and the issue with the weather that morning.

“Fuck!” Don cursed to himself. “So, correct me if I’m wrong here... You want me to try and track that man... Through that Lord of his, so that you can...?”

“I don’t know yet.” Becca answered, speaking more fluently and breathing more easily, after the shock and desperation wore off. “But I’ll figure something out.”

Don glared at her, in the same criticizing manner she glared at him a while ago. The young girl could only give out a faint laugh, feeling the mood around them lighting up, little by little.

“And if I don’t, I’ll tell you right away. You happy now, uncle?”

Becca’s uncle smirked, a wicked gleam in his heterochromatic eyes.

“That’s more how I like it.” he hugged her lightly. “You know I have a soft spot for you, right? So there’s no way in this world, in the other, or even in hell, that I’ll let any filthy fucker from around here mess with you.” then, he released her from the beastly soft hug, and as if nothing of that talk had ever taken place, walked towards the countertop. “Are you going to cook or not? All that talk, and you giving me hopes about beating the living shit out of someone, made me hungry as a Leviathan!”

“Sure, sure.” Becca replied, her voice already back to the normal, warm and casual tone, and her eyes a bit swollen, but gleaming brightly with the feeling of safety that she would only ever get around that guy. “We’re having goulash today, just because you made me feel better. I owe you this one.” and a smile floated up on her lips.

“HOO-FUCKING-RAY!” Don celebrated, performing a lame victory dance.

***

On the other side of town, a middle-aged man with military short, grizzly hair, felt the ominous shadow of the thing that started accompanying him ever since he had the opportunity of witnessing that girl, performing something he always thought was impossible.

He started drooling all over his computer’s keyboard, as he clicked over file after file, checking all the analog pictures, carefully digitized, showing the forms underneath that massive pack of clothing she used that morning.

She had no sex, so it was particularly difficult to understand how she was, actually, a she. And the... Things she had on her back... It made him feel ecstatic.

If she stepped out of the line, those pictures would make him rich and famous beyond imagination, and she would become a lab rat forever.

Life was finally showing some signs of turning tides for him.

Only laughter would’ve been heard from the outside of the filthy room. The neighbours, coming and going, didn’t hear it though, because the shadow following that man, made sure to lock him in a place outside space itself.

Where it could keep feeding on him for as long as his life endured...