Last summer is when it happened. My son was finally over a year old and I was willing to leave him at my mom's house with her and go out with Lamar. We needed some time to get back together. He was an okay dad, spending time with me and his son. I only wish we hadn't broken up. We both wanted to get back together, we just needed some time to sort things out.

I had felt something awful after dinner and I had wanted to go home. It wasn't Lamar, he was being very good to me and paying for everything because he had a new job. I could really believe he was sorry and wanted me and his son back in his life. But something was terribly wrong, back at home.

When we got to the apartments, we were met by my mother's neighbor, Mrs. Peabody. She was standing outside her own apartment. She had Lamar Jr. at her apartment. She promised me he was asleep and that he was perfectly fine.

"Where's my mom?" I asked, a dreadful fear creeping up inside my throat. All the signs pointed to something being horribly and terribly wrong. Was she alive?

"Your mother." Mrs. Peabody said slowly. "Is at the hospital. I thought she called you."

"Nobody called. Jalara knew she had to come home. What's going on?" Lamar asked for me.

"Raven is the bravest and strongest woman I know." Mrs. Peabody proclaimed. "I don't know all of what happened, but she killed that monster and saved her grandson."

"What?" I felt tears in my eyes. "Where's my son?"

"He is fine, he is sleeping, like I said." Mrs. Peabody repeated herself. "The police and animal control just left, right after the ambulance."

"Ambulance?" I was distressed. I needed to see my son, but I needed to know my mother was alright. It didn't sound like she was.

"I'm sorry, baby-girl. I don't know how she is. That monster did some damage to her. I am praying for her, that's the best I can do." Mrs. Peabody led us into her apartment and to Lamar Jr.

I sat down with him and started to cry from confusion and fear. I lay down beside my napping child and held him. "I'm never leaving you alone, not ever again." I whispered.

"I'm going upstairs to get the diapers." Lamar put his strong hand on my hip and told me where he was going. "I'll be right back."

He left us momentarily and went upstairs to get the diaper bag. He came back with his eyes wide with disturbance at what he had seen. I sat up slowly with dreadful terror at the circumstances I was about to know. He set down the diaper bag and an eye bear. Then he just sat there for a long time staring soberly at his son. I could see something had just changed in my man. His eyes looked different, and that look never left him. He was changed by what he knew.

"Tell me what happened." I told him. He shook his head slowly, his own fear too strong for him to speak. After awhile he said:

"It's a mess." He began slowly. "Blood everywhere."

"What?" I gasped in horror. I looked at my little boy and trembled. What monster had come for him?

"Everything is knocked over." He continued in a quiet voice. "Window in your room is open. I think that's how."

"What?" I asked when he stopped talking. He sighed and picked up the eye bear. It had a nanny cam and recorded up to eight hours at a time. He unzipped its back and looked at me for approval at what he was doing. He knew about it because he was the one who bought it for me, back when he had started trying to get me back. He'd hoped it would help get me out of the house so he could spend time alone with me. When he had finally gotten me alone he had treated me perfectly, very sincere and determined to earn my forgiveness.

I nodded and he extracted the USB cable from it to plug into his phone. We had matching phones because he had bought a new one for me, too. He wasn't surprised I had spied on my mom by setting up the eye bear. The toy was really a video camera and microphone inside of a stuffed bear.

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He was watching it from the beginning and I could hear my mom singing to Lamar Jr. His dad was smiling as he watched that part, even though he knew it was going to get awful.

Things went quiet and he watched for a little while and commented: "He sleeps a lot."

"He is your son." I said on impulse and somehow it made us both laugh a little bit with some kind of comic relief. Anything to break the tension.

Lamar began to fast-forward the video until he got to the part where things got scary. I could only see his reaction. His eyes widened and darted from his phone to his son and back to reassure himself of the outcome. Then awful horror crept across his face and I could feel his fear, gnawing inside of me like the teeth of some primeval reptile.

He gasped and looked away and then looked back. Then I could hear my mother screaming in the video and Lamar turned down the volume so it was less intense to hear. As he was turning it down her screams grew more horrified and loud. Finally he nearly had it on mute. I could still hear her noises as she struggled with some unknown and monstrous intruder.

"Lamar?" I asked him with my eyes watering and my voice breaking. I kept covering my mouth like he was doing. I could see his eyes had become like orbs of tears, ready to spill across his cheeks and fingers while he covered his mouth and stared at the nightmare.

"I feel sick." He coughed after it was over. I could hear my mother moaning in pain and my baby crying. Whatever had happened was over, but the pain and terror lingered on, the part of the monster that could never be killed. Lamar retreated from the room to collect himself out on the porch.

I slowly got up and looked at his phone. The most frightening horror movie in my world was still playing. I couldn't look, at first. I am not someone who likes scary things, I certainly don't like horror movies. I got scared watching the third Ghostbusters and it was supposed to be funny.

My mother's beautiful singing. When she was just Raven, she used to be a female singer. She went up with Kool Moe Dee. She has a framed picture someone took of her on stage with him performing live. She just sings gospel music now, but her voice is still very beautiful.

While her grandson was asleep she left the room. I fast forwarded until I saw it. I stopped the video and gasped at the sight. In the open window it had appeared: a giant snake.

It moved inexorably towards my sleeping son where he slept and it was obviously going to eat him. Nothing scares me more than snakes. I couldn't watch. My whole body was tingling, my nerves were frayed, I was hyperventilating and sweating while I watched it crawl. It slithered up to him and tasted him with its tongue. Then it lifted itself and opened its mouth, unhinging its jaw. I knew it could wrap him up and crush his bones and then eat him. That is what it was going to do, I knew it would. I had to look to where Lamar Jr. was sleeping to know he would be fine. He was still sleeping soundly.

That is when Raven attacked it. She came out of nowhere screaming "No! No! No!" and grasping the snake's head in her hands, she pulled it away from him. She dug her nails into its eyes and pushed it against the dresser. The snake wasted no time using its strength to fight back. It began to writhe and coil itself, trying to wrap itself around my mom while she held its head in her blood covered fingers.

Lamar Jr. woke up and started crying from all the noise. Raven wrestled and dragged and rolled the serpent out of the room and I could not see everything that was happening. Then I saw that one of her arms was hanging limp at her side. She had a broken arm. She still had one good arm and she collected a piece of a broken wooden chair they had fallen onto.

The snake seemed to be done with her and was crawling away. Raven was on her knees, crossing the floor with the stake raised. I could hear the pinched, hissing noise from the snake the first time she stabbed it. With grunting effort she pulled the wooden shard free and raised it again. She had enough strength and fury to stab it five more times before she collapsed beside it. There she lay moaning in agony. She was covered in cuts and bruises and it had bitten her cheek and pulled a piece of her face off.

The incredible awfulness of it had somehow made me numb at that point. I felt strangely calm as I turned it off and looked at my son. I snuggled up next to him and waited for his father to come snuggle up next to me. After he was ready he came back in and comforted me.

"I will stay and guard him. He will be fine, you have to go see her." Lamar said quietly.

"I am in no condition to drive." My numbness wore off as soon as I felt safe and I was speaking. My voice broke up and I started sobbing.

"Mrs. Peabody can take you. She can drive my car. You gotta go see her." Lamar was adamant.

"Okay." I sniffled. Then I realized that he never let anyone drive his car. I had sometimes felt jealous that he was more territorial about his car than he was about me. I laughed that kind of laugh that comes from someone who was just crying and said: "You never let anyone drive your car."

"It's just a car." He said. Like he was a totally different person: that was my proof. I kissed him with all my loving and left him and his son so I could go see my mom. Before I left I heard him say for the first time since we were first together:

"I love you, be safe."