Chapter 2: Home in Someone Else’s Home

Leon’s Point of View

By the time the sun started setting, Kristy’s right arm had completely turned white. It wasn’t pale, just eggshell white. Her brown hair had half turned green and her left hand was the same shade of white as her arm.

“We should find some place to stay.” Kristy muttered, no longer trying to hide her white arm from him. “I don’t feel like sleeping in the car.”

“I agree.” Leon said, turning off the highway onto a side road. Some 15 minutes later they came upon a small lake about 50 yards across with a few houses next to it. None of them had cars in their drive way and one of the houses had collapsed entirely. Only one house had any lights on and that was just the street light outside. The lake was nearly completely surrounded by fields filled with alfalfa from nearby farms. 

“Something happened here.” Leon commented. “But it looks like both the people and whatever it was that drove them away is gone.” He said after scrutinizing the entire scene carefully.

“Are you sure?” Kristy asked nervously.

“Of course not but beggars can’t be choosers.” He turned around and looked at the Poochyena in the back. “You…” He pointed at the Pokémon. It cocked its head. “Come with me.” Leon popped open the trunk and hopped out of the car, the Poochyena leaping into the front seat and out after him.

“What are you planning?” Kristy asked, opening her door.

“Get in the driver’s seat. I want to be out of here fast if something is in that house.” Leon replied, ruffling around in the trunk. He could’ve sworn he put it in here somewhere. Kristy did as she was told, knowing that he had a point.

“I could kick butt, too. Just so you know.” She said, rolling down the window.

“Half transformed? Right now neither of us know your capabilities or weaknesses. I’d rather not take that chance.” Finally he found it. He took the knife out of the trunk. Its cast iron hilt was ornate just like the sheath. The shopkeeper’s words still rang in his ear. ‘We make knives that not only look good, but you can use. If you wanted to use this you could. If you wanted to go on a mass killing spree across the country side you could use this knife to do it, but please don’t because that’s never cool.’

“That thing. I used to think that it was a waste of money. But now…” Kristy trailed off.

“Best 300 bucks ever spent.”

“Can you really use that thing?”

“I suppose we’ll have to find out.” He removed the metal sheath and placed it in the trunk. The foot long knife gleamed in the faint light. “C’mon dog.” The poochyena came trotting after him as he headed for the house.

“His name is Dagon.” Kristy said defiantly.

Leon didn’t respond. He reached the door in no time. Surely the sound of an engine and all the talking that Leon and Kristy had done would have tipped off anything that might be in the house to their presence. “You go first dog.” He said, grabbing hold of the knob. At this point in its life, that dog was walking dead. It had some proving to do before Leon would accept it back into his family. 

He quickly twisted the knob and kicked the door open. The poochyena leapt into the house, growling menacingly while Leon brandished the knife. The door slammed the wall hard and bounced back into his face, but other than that, nothing moved. The front door opened to a living room connected to a kitchen. The two rooms were separated by a stone counter top with a few stools sitting around it.

They swept through the other rooms quickly. A dining room and a bathroom downstairs with the living room and kitchen and two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs made up the house. letting out a sigh of relief, Leon turned on the lights in the living room kitchen combo and motioned for Kristy to come in.

“Is everything okay?” she asked.

“Momentarily.” Leon said, setting his knife down on the counter top. “Check the kitchen for anything useful. I’ll check upstairs. Also see if there’s running water.”

Leon walked up the steps, this time noticing the photos on the wall. The people in them looked so happy. The house they had just occupied was in the background of several photos. Who were these people? Were they still alive? Why did they leave?

There was no way to know any of the answers to those questions. Instead, he continued on and searched to bedrooms, finding no money besides pocket change. He did find a jewelry box though that was full of rings and bands of precious metal. If he could get to a pawn shop he might be able to cash it in.

“What am I doing?” he asked himself, holding the box of jewelry in his hand. “I’m no thief. These people might come back.” Even so, he knew he’d need the money if he was going to do… whatever it was that he was going to do. He didn’t have a plan at all. 

He threw the box onto the dresser where he knew it would be and could decide what to do with later. Moving on to the bathroom he checked the medicine cabinet. Inside were a bottle of aspirin and a few other bottles of tablets and pills. He pocketed the aspirin and left the rest, not knowing what they were and not caring enough to find out.

“Hey!” Kristy yelled up the stairs. “We don’t have water, but we have gas and TV.”

“Be down in a minute.” Leon yelled back. Returning downstairs, he found Kristy at the counter eating a bag of chips watching a commercial for shampoo on the TV.

“The Kitchen’s stocked.” Kristy said happily. “Whoever lived here left in a hurry.”

“I hope they got away from whatever they were running from.” Leon responded, sitting down next to her. “What’s on?”

“The news. Hopefully it’s good.” She said sadly.

“We could all use some good news.”